Our Students

Kristen, senior in college:

 Brandon, 9th grade:

 Nicholas, 5th grade:

 Megan, 2nd grade:

 My three "students" on our first field trip of the school year...an afternoon at the park with friends!

 We officially started school last week and we're off to a great start! Everyone seems to like getting back into a routine and my choices for their studies this year are a hit! The crazy part is only beginning as last week we added not only school but flag football to the schedule. This week we add tap class. Next week we add co-op. Two weeks later we add cubscouts. Our calendar is filling up! I'm so grateful that our kids have these wonderful opportunities though, and I'm so blessed to have these years with our kids :)

Another Day in the Pool

Yesterday we went to the pool at my uncle's again! I was hoping to get in a few more visits before the nights started cooling off but I'm too late. The pool was cold! Fortunately, I don't have to be in the water the whole time any more!

This time we were joined by Brandon, Kristen, and Jon. It was a pool party!

 Sweetest picture of the day :)

 There was relaxing:

 and races:

 racing backward:

 Nick joined this one:

 The obligatory jumping picture ;)

 Funny thing about that picture: Brandon didn't jump into the water ;) He is like me when it comes to an aversion to cold water. He had already been in long enough to suit himself and wasn't about to get back in to be included in the picture ;)

This guy doesn't care how cold it is and he loves those goggles!

 These two stayed in way after everyone else was done. Kristen and Jon had to go to work so she took Brandon home with her so glad I could stay and let them play!

 These were taken on a different day but they are such good shots I wanted to include them :)

21

Earlier this month, my baby, my first-born, turned 21. Unbelievable! Or should I say, inconceivable! (I love that movie!) Anyway, it was during cub scout day camp and even though we were so very busy and supper tired, we would never let a birthday go by uncelebrated! So we planned a little dinner and party that evening for my sweet girl who 21 years ago, made me a mom :)

In our house, dinner is chosen by the birthday girl or boy and Kristen chose grilled steak and asparagus! Yum!! Todd is the very best griller ever! She decided against cake since most all grains make her feel badly so as a sweet treat we did chocolate fondue with berries, bananas, and marshmallows! Perfect!

After desert came the gifts.

 Lots of smiles and sweet looks shared :)

 Then Jon's gift:

Yep, he got her an Apple computer! Let's just say she might be a bit spoiled ;)

It was so fun to celebrate our sweet girl's big day! Kristen, you are so loved! I'm so grateful for 21 years of being your mom :)

Easter 2012

So I unintentionally took a blogging break. Several times I wanted to hop on and update this "family scrapbook" of mine and didn't even know where to start. The more I procrastinated, the harder it was to jump in. So I'm jumping with yesterday :) What better time to pick this back up than the best holiday we celebrate!

Our Easter always begins with church. I love that we start our day with the reminder of how lost we would be if God had left us in our sinfulness. But he loves us! More than we may ever know. And that is the best gift of all.

I took a few pictures before we left because I knew the shape their nice clothes would be in by the time we got home ;)

Then we came home to find that our ornery dog, Bingo (who is actually a stuffed animal ;)), had kidnapped the Easter bunny and the treasure hunt began!

 Each clue leads to the next clue with a riddle to solve. The kids end up running all over the house and it ends at their Easter baskets :) This is their favorite tradition!

After all that fun, the egg hunt begins:

 My favorite:

 The kids with Russ and Judy:

 Our little family:

 All of us together:

It was a great day! Good service, good food, good company, lots of candy and gifts! Not to mention the sun was out all day long!

He is Risen. He is risen, indeed!

Our New Year's Eve

Wow, I can't believe it was over two weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it!

New Year's Eve has never been my favorite. I can't tell you how many I've slept through only to wake up the next day and it was a new year even though I didn't stay awake to greet it. But...

it's important to all the other people in my house!


So a few years ago, I set out to make a bigger deal of it than I had been...which was nothing at all ;)

And you know what? It's become a favorite night for all of us! We start the evening with Todd's family recipe of paella. It was/is the meal his parents serve every New Year's Eve and he wanted to continue the tradition which is a win-win for me since I LOVE paella and I also LOVE when someone else cooks dinner! (The recipe I linked is not the one he uses but it's the closest I found. The nice thing about paella is you can toss in whatever meat you wish so our meat choices are different than the ones in this recipe).

Saffron is the key! It makes it that nice yellow color and tastes amazing!

After we eat, we play some board games. Santa added several new games to our stash this year and we couldn't wait to play them! Uno Attack and Scene It Harry Potter were the games of the evening and they were tons of fun!

Brandon kept getting the attack card that says you can't talk. He got it so often it was almost like a running joke!

Our desert for the evening is fondue. That has now become a tradition as well :) This year, because we are gluten-free, we made our own homemade angel food cake to serve with our chocolate. I was worried about how it would turn out using gluten-free flour but it was perfect!

Doesn't it look yummy?? It was perfect angel food cake! This is the recipe I used and just substituted my gluten-free flour blend in place of regular flour. We love Alton Brown! If you don't watch his cooking shows, you should :)


Fondue yumminess:

Kristen goes to a party thrown by a family we know well. I hate the thought of her out on New Year's Eve but it isn't far and she doesn't have to go on any main roads to get there so it works out nicely. They have a theme every year for fun and this year was "Bling in the New Year":

Doesn't she look blingy? Jon added his bling later...

I'm so proud of my gansta daughter and her gansta boyfriend! ;) Wait, that arm looks awfully bare...maybe I'll get her a tattoo for her birthday! ;) hehe They had a really good time :)

Meanwhile, here at home, everyone made it to ring in the New Year!

Megan could not take her eyes off the screen. She was watching that ball drop for the first time in her life and was so afraid she'd miss it! I love that I caught that moment.

It was great fun and a great way to start a brand new year!

A Favorite

This year, we made a Christmas "to-do" list in the form of our Advent calendar. It was really a great way to be more intentional with our month! Now that I've gotten my feet wet with it, next year, I'll be ready with even more fun things!

One of the favorites this year was sleeping under the tree. Kristen really wanted in on this one so I scheduled it for a night when she didn't have plans. The kids were surprised when they opened the Advent calender that morning! They looked forward to it all day long! Once night finally came:

Kristen grabbed her laptop and put in "A Charlie Brown Christmas". Then they all went to sleep. It was so sweet to hear all the whispering and giggling. Good, sweet memories :)