Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish all our loved ones, family, and friends a very Merry Christmas. In all the busyness of the holidays, let's remember the TRUE meaning of Christmas! We are enjoying a vacation visiting my family in PA and will be heading to MI Sunday evening. We are making every moment count! Making memories! Blessings to each one of you!

Mother's Day

Me and my 4 blessings on Mother's Day!

We took this picture especially for a frame Missy gave me for Mothers day. It's part of a lavendar gift set in a heart shaped box.

Wednesday before Mother's Day, Wes and I drove 2 minivans to PA. Penn View's campus days was Thursday through Saturday and there were 3 high schoolers from our school that wanted to go. Of course I wasn't going to miss a chance to go see my parents. After checking in to renting a 15 passenger van, we decide that we would have to drive our van and Wes' Mom's instead. It was going to cost 500.00 plus gas to rent one!!!! So, about 11:00am Wednesday morning, we headed out. We also invited Dawn and her 3 children along because her parents live just off the campus of Penn View. Wes had the 3 students and Darren and Missy in Mom's van and Dawn and her 3 children (Kaylee, Matthew, and Erin) were in our van with me, Ethan, and Samuel. There wasn't a dull moment in our van, as you can imagine, with 5 children under the age of 5. It was a long and tiring trip, but God helped keep the drivers alert. (Dawn spotted me for a few hours, which helped tremendously and I was able to get a little shut-eye, with the help of my earplugs, lol!) We got in to my parent's house soon after 2am PA time (we had met Dawn's brother earlier) and fell into bed for a few hours. Mom cooked us a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage gravy, and biscuits. Wes, Darren, Daniel, James, and Jessica headed to Penn View sometime early afternoon. I was privileged to attend the Mother/Daughter Banquet at my parent's church (Big Valley BIC) Friday night with Melissa and my Mom. Somehow we were roped into singing 2 songs as well. We had a special evening! Saturday morning Mom and Dad took us to their favorite local restaurant, Sticky Bun, for breakfast. Yummy! Then we went to Goodwill and got some great deals! We managed to squeeze in some games over the few days we were there and we made some great memories just sitting around and talking. Mom and I also went to a local greenhouse and we got some beautiful hanging baskets for her front porch, one from me and one from Dad for her for Mother's day. It was a whirlwind weekend since we had to leave Saturday afternoon to head back to TN, but I'm so glad we could make the trip. It had been years since I had been able to go to the M/D banquet and the Lord just worked it all out that it was the same weekend as campus days. God is so good to us and just gives us extra blessings sometimes just because He loves us! Now we are looking forward to Mom and Dad coming for almost a week the first week in June. I can hardly wait! We did take a picture of Mom, me, and Missy, but it was with Mom's camera. I will try to post it as soon as she emails it to me.

After getting in around 3am TN time, we fell into bed once again tired, but thanking the Lord for his tender mercies in giving us a safe trip up and back. I have never driven that many hours in a row before and I know it was God who helped me do it. We felt renewed and refreshed when we got up for church the next morning, I know God multiplied the few hours we were able to sleep. We had a nice Mother's Day service. All of Wes' side of the family (except for Karl- "We missed you!") went to Mom's house for a delicious dinner cooked by Dan and Tim. Thanks, guys for your thoughtfulness! We are truly blessed with such a wonderful family!

Mema and her great grandchildren.

Mom and the grandkids. The first picture with the newest addition, Trevor. He's such a cutie!

Couldn't get a perfect picture of all of them. Any of you who have tried to take a picture of more

than 2 children at a time know what I mean. Lol!

I am so thankful for my 2 Moms, one that God chose for me when he allowed me to be born to her and the other (who is more a Mom than a Mother-in-law) that became my Mom when I married her son. I love you both!

Winter fun!

The kids (and Uncle Tim) have really enjoyed the sleds Grandma bought for them. They have had fun sliding down a small hill near the house. Even Short Dog got in on the action.

Look out, here I come!
Karl's dog Short Dog. She's a nice dog.

Let's race!

Tim giving Darren a push.

The beautiful frozen lake. This is the view from Mom and Karl's living room. It has big windows on 3 sides. It was so relaxing to sit and look out on the beautiful snow coming down. That's Darren walking on the bottom right.

Beautiful winter scenery!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

Passing out presents.
Opening Uncle Dan's gift.
"Wow!" Samuel's new favorite word.
A new toy from Grandma and Grandpa. We are all tired of hearing "Do you know the muffin man" and "Twinkle, twinkle little star" and have threatened to take the batteries out, but no one has yet. LOL!

Christmas '09

3D glasses to go with a Crayola set each of the 3 older children got. Missy loves monkeys.

Samuel's new horsey from Missy.

Ethan's new coat in his favorite color.

New jammies!

Our pets

Buddy's favorite spot. He's always laying on the rug at the front door when we get home. Such a good guard dog!
Missy took this picture for student convention. Unfortunately it didn't even get judged so she didn't win anything from it. There were so many there, they just had to pick the ones that jumped out at them, so to speak.
Our cat, Maya. She's such a funny cat with a unique personality. We love her.

Missy's new baby doll

Missy has been wanting one of those reborn baby dolls, so she used her birthday money and some she had saved to buy one she found on Ebay. She is so happy with her and has named her Hanna Faithe.