Our Summer... So Far

Our summer in pictures...

Jacob's played A LOT of baseball

He normally plays shortstop, but here he is playing pitcher

Kaylee up to bat in softball

We celebrated Anden's Birthday at the end of May.  Here he is with his Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma.

Great-Grandma hand-stitched this quilt for him.  When he opend it, he shouted, "My bed!"  He was a tad bit excited.

Kaylee at 4-H Camp with her friend Emma.

Trying bow & arrow at 4-H Camp

Vacation Bible School Closing Program.  Almost 200 kids participated this year!  WOW!

Jacob's 7 & Under All-Star Team won their tournament!  So proud of those boys!  Jacob hit THREE homeruns in this tourney.  He was in the zone!

Jesse & Jacob

Kaylee's spent a lot of time caring for her two calves that she'll be showing in the 4-H Fair.  Love this picture of her calling her calves in.

Kaylee attended a week-long Basketball camp. 

Getting one of the calves ready for the 4-H Fair.

We've also done some boating with family this summer, but someone has misplaced the memory card those pictures were on... Good thing I uploaded the pictures to the CVS website.  A CD has already been ordered so just as soon as that comes in, I'll be uploading a few more pictures here!

Basketball Stars

Kaylee & Jacob both finished up there basketball season today.  They had a blast today during there last game.  Parents were allowed to come out and play.  Jesse had helped coach both their teams, so I let him do the honor...  Sucker!!  No actually, he wanted no part in trying to keep this little fellow off the floor!!

Kaylee warming up.

Kaylee guarding her Dad.  She did manage steeling the ball from him once.  And the dads were not taking it easy on the kids.  There were several blocked shots, alley-oops, and some slam dunks.  I think the dads were enjoying giving it all they had to the kids.

Another shot of Anden being cute as ever, as always!

Jacob warming up.

Here's the boy's game against the dad's.  Again, more show-boating.

And finally, after all the games, the kids finish with the Lord's Prayer.  Here's Anden praying.  So sweet!

Merry Christmas

Christmas was like a whirlwind of wrapping paper, ribbon, and tissue paper here at our house.  I'm still picking up scraps of such from every corner and crevace of the house... probably will be until next Christmas!

We had a fun-filled Christmas this year, as always... full of celebrations with family.  So blessed to have spent Christmas morning with my Mom and Dad and then Christmas evening with Jesse's Mom, Dad, & family.  That was sandwiched between Christmas parties with each of Jesse's Grandparents.  Whew!  Cousins, cousins, and more cousins... and as if they haven't seen enough of each other already, I was hit with, "Please Mom!  Please can they come home with us and spend the night!!!"  So we had 3 extra kids here last night.  I think they all transformed into wild animals... the whole house shook at times!  I'm amazed it's still standing!

The kids also took part in our church's Christmas pageant on Christmas Eve.  Here's a few pictures from it...

And finally, some shots from Christmas Day...

Kaylee with her new iPod... she was so excited!

Jacob with his new Wii.

Anden with his new pedal tractor.

The kids playing Wii.

Our first attempt at a Gingerbread House... hoping to make this a tradition!

Compassion International

This fall, I started teaching the Kindergarten and Third Grade Religion Classes on Friday afternoons.  Until the check arrived in the mail the other day, I had no idea I would be getting paid to teach these classes.  Jesse and I talked about just donating it back to the church, but with Christmas coming up, greed took over and I decided we would use the money to pay for part of our Christmas presents for the kids.  So last week, Anden and I ran a few errands and then were headed for the bank, where I was depositing several checks, including the one for teaching Religion.  I reached over, pulled out all the checks I had to deposit, flipped through them, and realized I was missing the one for Religion.  I searched everywhere... even went back to dreaded Walmart because I remembered Anden pulling a paper out of my purse while I was in the vacuum aisle.  No luck though, I couldn't find it anywhere.  Finally, I gave up and told myself, "Well, that's what you get for being greedy!"  As I was buckling Anden back into his car seat, my phone rings.  It was the clerk that checked me out at Maurices earlier that day.  She says to me, "I think you may have dropped something.  You can swing by and pick it up."  She had found the check on the floor and looked me up using my Rewards Card information I had used while checking out.  I picked up the check, thanked her ten times over again, and then prayed the whole way home, asking for guidance on helping me to do something good with that money. 

That's when it hit me... Compassion International! 

Meet Fatas Abdoul...

Isn't he the most adorable little guy!  I'm so excited about this...

Fatas is from Burkina Faso, Africa.  He's five years old and he loves to play soccer.  I swear, every time I look at his picture, I fall more in love with him!

Our family is sponsoring Fatas through Compassion International.  Kaylee and Jacob picked him out.  I think what stood out to them is when I told them that Fatus doesn't go to school.  Several of the other kids we looked at actually did attend school.  Jacob came home from school this afternoon and asked me if Fatas got to go to school today since we sent him some money.  How sweet is that!!!  Kaylee & Jacob are both excited about writing Fatas a letter and sending him some of their coloring pages.  I told them that we would get letters back from Fatas as well.  They both thought that was pretty amazing. 

Obviously $38 a month isn't going to change Fatas's life forever.  But I do pray that it will bring him a sense of hope.  I will be praying for his health and safety each day just as I do for my own children.  I also pray that Kaylee, Jacob, and Anden will be forever impacted by this.  I hope this encourages them to do kind things for others and to give back when they are able.  

First Communion Celebration

We celebrated Kaylee's First Communion this weekend.  The service was beautiful.  We had so many friends and family here to celebrate Kaylee's special day with her.

Here she is after Mass.  Doesn't she look beautiful!  So precious!

Here she is during Mass.  All of the children making their First Communion sat up front next to the alter throughout the entire Mass.

Here's the 2011 First Communion Class.  Kaylee is in the 2nd row, 3rd from the left.

And here is what happens after a morning full of too much excitement and nerves. 

 She was tired of being all dressed up, her back hurt, and she wanted nothing to do with having her picture taken anymore. I told her that I wasn't going to look back in 20 years and wonder why I didn't have any pictures of her, so we could either take some nice pictures with everyone, or I'd just take pictures of her and her meltdown in the bathroom... and being the overly sympathetic mother that I am I started snapping away.

Finally, she was up for a few pictures...

not exactly what I had hoped for, but at least she's smiling.

She loved the jewelry box that Grandma Mary Lee & Grandpa Denis gave her.

Here she is with Nana & Pa.  Great picture of them, just wish she was smiling.

 Here is the gift we gave her.  It's a rosary made from the rose petals from our wedding day.  (I got one made for each of the boys too for when they make their First Communion.)  They are absolutely beautiful!  Kaylee's is mostly lavendar with white 'Our Father' beads.

I also wanted to include a picture of her with the blanket she made and prayed over.  As part of the preparation for First Communion, all of the kids were asked to make a blanket that will be given to a baby upon their baptism.  As you can see, it's one of those fleece blankets where the ends are all snipped and then tied into knots.  Each time they tied a knot, the kids were to say the Angel of Mercy Prayer...

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's love entrusts me here,

ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen."

She was so proud of her blanket!

Easter Celebration

Four Easter egg hunts later and my cabinets are FULL of chocolate!  We started our Easter celebration with a get-together at Great-Grandma Betty's on Palm Sunday.

Here's Anden enjoying Great-Grandma Betty's tireswing.

This just spells S-W-E-E-T-N-E-S-S.

Easter Sunday right after church, at our house.

Just before the egg hunt at Grandma Mary Lee's.

Jacob, Sam, & Anden.  Grace, Kaylee, Isaac, Anthony, and Emma holding Lily.

Gotta love mud boots. 

(Trust me... he needed them after all the rain we've had!)

Kaylee with her new purse she got for Easter.  So Sweet!

Jacob didn't want to stop for long.  He was in a hurry to find more eggs!

Anden with his basket full of goodies.

I hope everyone had a great Easter!  God Bless!!!!!!! 

Thanksgiving

This blog cannot contain all that I am thankful for. Faith, family, friends, good health, a warm home filled with love... the list goes on and on. Rather than listing out all the things I am thankful for this year, I want to make it clear Who I will be thanking...

Psalm 69:30
I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with Thanksgiving.

May God bless you all in a beautiful, unique way that you would know God's love and peace in the deepest part of your heart.  May you be so overwhelmed by God's love that you would not be able to contain it, since it's meant to be paid forward.

And finally, speaking of paying it forward, here's a gift for you for the holidays...it's my sister-in-law Jennifer's Dutch Apple Pie recipe and it ROCKS! It's the kind of recipe that when it's pulled out of the box it has baking splatters all over it... you know its a good one when that happens!  It's UH-MAZ-ING.  Here goes:

Preheat oven to 375.

Brush sides and bottom of pie crust with egg yolk and bake till golden brown.

Mix: 4-5 C. peeled & sliced apples (I like Granny Smith the best)
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice
1/2 C. Sugar
1/4 C. Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp. Flour
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Cinnamon

Put mix in pie crust then take the following ingredients and crumble and put on top of pie:
3/4 C. Flour
1/4 C. Brown Sugar
1/4 C. Sugar
1/3 C. Butter

Bake at 375 until golden brown and bubble (approximately 50 minutes.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bible School & Heimatfest

We've had a very busy week this past week. The kids had Bible School and also participated in the Heimatfest Little Miss & Mister Competition last night.

Crazy Hair Day at VBS

VBS Closing Program Wed. evening  This is Jacob with his friend Alexa.

Kaylee at the Closing Program

Heimatfest Little Miss & Mister 2010

I think they both had a good time.  They especially loved the goodie bags they received afterwards.

Kaylee loved watching the Big Girls with their fancy princess gowns.

They were both a little nervous, but they did so well!  I am so proud of both of them!

Jacob is the first one on the left in the front row.

Kaylee is the second one on the left in the third row.

Kaylee performing, "I Can Sing a Rainbow."  So pretty!

Jacob playing the banjo during one of the musical routines.

Jacob was awe-struck by the Queen Contestants as well. 

This picture cracked me up.