Snow Days, Snow Days....

Keith has not had school all week because of the snow and ice we have gotten. Here's some pictures for you to enjoy! :)

Making a snow angel and taking it very seriously, it looks like. :)
Owen giving Kristyn a push in the parking lot.

Getting ready to go down the hill backwards.

Kristyn and Owen had a race down the hill....I think it was a tie.

Owen hauling his sled back up the hill.

I really wanted a family picture, but there wasn't anyone to take one, so I hung the camera on a tree branch and set the 10 second timer.....not too bad, huh? :)

Look at his face....pure delight!!!
Megan went on her first sled ride and enjoyed it very much. Recognize the snow suit, Mary Ellen? All of our kids have worn it now. :)

Well, that about wraps it up for now. I hope you're having a blessed Christmas Season!

There are two more new posts down below this one. I decided to break them up.

Living In A Tornado....

Do you ever feel like you're living in a tornado? That's kind of how I've felt the last week. :)

We were at the school every evening last week getting ready for the Christmas program, which went very well.

Saturday Elise came home!!!!! We were so happy to see her.

Sunday was Elise's BIRTHDAY.....19 years old!!! We also had the Christmas Cantata at church that morning that was beautiful. Keith sang in it this year and overall it was just a beautiful service. Then we had a carry-in-dinner. That afternoon, we went Christmas Caroling and had snacks afterwards.

That is just the "main things", there were a lot of things in between, but I won't bore you with all the details. But we're all still living and kicking and doing great!!! :)

Here are some random pictures from last week.

I thought Megan was so cute looking at the tree.


This picture's for Uncle Kyle....don't you love his pink glasses? :)

Elise is home!!!!!

Watching out the door for Elise to pull in the drive...can you tell they were excited?

Christmas Pictures...

Last week, we decided to take Christmas pictures. We all prayed before we started, first of all, for the batteries that they would stay charged, (we didn't have our charger at the moment), secondly, that we would ALL have good attitudes and thirdly that we would at least get one good picture. :)

Our prayers were answered all we did get one good picture and the batteries stayed charged and there was no bloodshed, or even tears through the whole experience.

Keith got me a computer scrapbook program last year for Christmas, so I made a Christmas card with the best picture we had. I thought it turned out very cute. So lest I bore you any longer with details.....here are some of the pictures we took....

I think this one turned out to be the best one.

Quite a few turned out like this...... :)

Or this....check out Kristyn's "smile"

Nice gums, Megan!!!

I could write a whole other post about the girls dresses, but I think I've said enough in this blog. :) I will just say that God is SO good to us, more than we ever deserve!

A Christmas Blessing.....

Our family had been blessed this Christmas! We got an envelope from Walmart yesterday and inside was a gift card for each of us! Needless to say, we were quite surprised and humbled! They had picked out a special card for each of us. Keith's had snoopy on it. :) Crystal's was Thomas Kinkade, Kristyn's had a rub and sniff gingerbread house on it, Owen's had dogs and Megan's had Santa on hers. That was such a thoughtful and generous thing to do and we feel very grateful!

Last night at devotions, Keith was telling the kids that we need to pray and ask Jesus to bless the family that sent us the cards and later he asked what they wanted to buy with their money. Owen said he wanted a fishing pole (he might need a saw, too, to cut through the ice) and Kristyn wanted a "change pouch". (I have NO idea what she has in mind with that, but she knew exactly what she wanted.) Megan just wrinkled up her nose and smiled. :)

So if you read this blog and you are part of this kind family, please accept our heart-felt thank you. I wish I could tell you how our heart feels, but words fail me. (can you believe it???) We are truly grateful to you and pray that God will richly bless you this Christmas season.

All our love and graditude,
Keith, Crystal, Kristyn, Owen and Megan.

A little update...

I thought I'd share some funnies from our kids.

I called Kristyn and Owen to breakfast this morning and they both came running with little blankets over their heads. I asked Kristyn to pray for the food and she said,

"Dear Jesus, thank You for the food. Please help me and Joseph to have a safe trip to Bethlehem. Amen."

Then talking to Owen she said,"

"Joseph, I have gone all over town and the only place that we can stay at is Bethlehem, because everywhere else if too full."

Later she told me, "We had to sell our donkey, because he was walking too fast and Baby Jesus kept falling off, so we just sold the donkey."

I heard them talking the other day and Kristyn was trying to convince Owen of something and he said. "Stop arguing...." and then proceded to tell her what he thought about the situation.

It's been a few weeks ago that Kristyn came to me and said, "I went into my Sunday School room and the teacher wasn't in there. My heart wanted me to look into the treasure chest, but (very dramatically) THE ANGEL OF THE LORD came down and said, Kristyn, you better not do that."

I could go on for a few more pages, but lest I bore you, I'll stop. :)

Here's a few pictures I took of Megan yesterday. She is growing SO fast. She's taken a couple of steps several weeks ago, but hasn't been interested in taking any more since then. I'm sure one of these days, she'll take off. :)

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!!

It's beginnin to look a lot like Christmas...

We put our Christmas tree up last night and the kids thought it was the greatest thing. Here's some pictures for you to enjoy!

Can you tell they're excited??

Owen helping Daddy with the Christmas tree tote!

Kristyn got the VERY important job of putting the angel on the top!

Kristyn got a hold of the camera. :)

Owen putting an ornament on.

Owen really liked this little truck ornament. It was Keith's when he was little.

Our Wonderful Weekend...

We had a great weekend! Kyle and Mandy and their girls came up on Wednesday and stayed until Sunday. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and day on Thursday and ate WAY too much (speaking for myself). On Friday, we went to a nearby park and all the kids had a grand time. Jeremy and Tori went with us which was a lot of fun, too.

Here's some pictures of our time at the park.

Abbie, Hailey and Kristyn.

Owen, Tori and Rachel on the tire swing.

Two peas in a pod right here.....this one's for Grandma. :)

I can't remember if Hailey was being held prisoner, or if she was "sick" and Abbie was helping her. They all had SO much fun pretending all weekend. At one time, I heard Rachel and Kristyn talking and their names were "Maude" and "Lola". :)

Our little camo-girl, Hailey.

The only little guy with a house full of girls.

Ava as snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug.

Owen and Tori.

Unfortunately, I didn't have may camera for the last couple of days, but Mandy took lots of pictures, so you can check her blog later this week to see more.

Thank you, Kyle and Mandy, or making the trip up here to be with us. We enjoyed it VERY much.

Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Today is Keith's Mom's birthday (Momma D as she signs on here). We are ALL blessed to have her as part of our family! She loves us all and treats all of us the same whether we were born into her family, or married in. Most of all, she loves God and wants all of us to go to Heaven.

Her grandkids LOVE for her to read to them and you can usually find her with a kid, or two on her lap and a book in her hand!
Here is her whole gang of grandkids at the park last summer. (Aren't you glad you don't have to raise all these like the old lady in the shoe??)

We hope you have a VERY happy birthday, Mom! We love you LOTS and LOTS!!!

Pictures...

Megan rarely lets anyone rock her to sleep here at home. She likes to be put in her crib, have her pacifier and off to sleep she goes. This week she has been cutting a tooth and not feeling well and wanting to be held. Keith was thrilled to get to rock her to sleep. :) Perfect ending to the day!
Here's Keith giving the details about the entire hunt. Arthur and Jeremy were all ears and smiles. :)

As I posted yesterday was Keith's birthday. I was planning on (cheating) getting him an ice cream cake from the store, but Kristyn was quite distressed when she found that out and said (all teary eyed, as only she can do) that she wanted us to MAKE Daddy a "deer cake". So we got up early that morning and as soon as Daddy was out the door to work, we started in on the cake! After it baked, we visited 5 stores in search of a "deer" to put on his cake. FINALLY, we found a Christmas ornament that would work, paid for it, rushed back home, iced the cake and was able so surprise Daddy! Whew...what a morning! Can you tell Kristyn is just proud as peaches of "her" hard work?

I used some trees from my Christmas village to help it out. Don't you love all the little finger marks on the cake? Definately made with lots of love! (I had a close up of the cake, but for some reason, it's not showing up and I tried to add it again, but haven't been able to, so if you click on the picture you can see it larger.)

These are backwards, but they were licking the spoons after we put the cake in the oven.

Hard at work!

Blog Spot taking a vacation....

Because today is SUCH a special day in this family's life....blog spot must be taking a vacation day, too. :)

Today is Keith's birthday and I haven't been able to get on here and post anything. I still can't post pictures, but hopefully I can tomorrow!

I am married to the most wonderful man God ever created.....heehee, I know I'm a little prejudiced though. ;) I never thought when we were in the 4th grade, or the 8th grade together that I would be married to him. (stop laughing Misty and Lizzy. :) ) Our grandparents grew up together and Keith's grandpa often says, my grandpa would have been so proud to know that his grandaughter married Gene's grandson.

I feel blessed today to be married to Keith and I'm so proud of him and what he stands for and how he is leading our little family.

He is a wonderful Daddy to our kids. They look out the window each day when it's almost time for him to come home. You'd think the president was coming to visit when he walks in the door. There's shouts and screams "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" Hugs and kisses flying and plenty of love going around.

We love you, Keith. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

A little side note: Keith shot a VERY nice doe yesterday. He was very happy and the kids were beyond excited!! He's out there in the big woods again this afternoon hoping for another one. :) So if any of you would like to hop on over, we could grill up some fresh deer meat. :)



Pictures coming tomorrow, I hope!!

Sniff, Sniff....

Life has slowed down some around here, for which we are thankful. Last week we had IHC here at our church and the services were very good. We enjoyed the messages and songs very much.

This week has been sniff, sniff, blowing noses, coughing, cleaning up tummy upsets, washing sheets, changing dirty diapers, suctioning little noses, (ewwwww) forcing Vitamin C down little throats, giving baths, warm snuggly jammies...need I go on?

Yesterday Owen sneezes and pretty much emptied the entire contents of his sinus cavities. I told Keith, I didn't realize your sinuses reached clear down to your toe nails. So he has been doing much better and I think as a whole, the family, or kids, I should say, are on the road to recovery!!

Keith has been hunting, but the only deer he's seen, has been too small to shoot. So he's still on the look out for a nice one to bring home. :)

That about sums up our life lately. I haven't even taken a picture in the last week. Not so good for a picture blog, huh? I'm sure I'll take plenty next week.

Have a great afternoon!

Megan's Dedication...

We tried to "kill as many birds with one stone" as we could while we were in Kansas/Oklahoma. Since we don't make it down there very often and since all of our family couldn't come up here, we decided to have Megan's dedication while we were there.

Keith's grandparents celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary that weekend (that's the reason we were down there) and it was a beautiful tribute to their life together.

Grandma and Grandpa with almost all of their great-grandchildren. We took a family picture, too, but I didn't get one on our camera, so I'll have to bribe one off of someone.

Our little family at Megan's dedication. Again, we got extended family pictures, but none on our camera. :( Hint, hint, please send me one if you got one... :)

My dad preached, Keith's dad prayed the decication prayer, Keith and I sang a dedication song and Kristyn and Owen sang "Jesus Loves Me". I thought it was a precious service for Megan and we appreciate all of you that took the time to come and help us dedicate our "baby" to God.

Kristyn and Owen singing their song----you couldn't really hear Owen---I wonder why??

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After the service we had a wonderful dinner. Thank you to ALL of you that brought in the yummy food and to both of our mothers for working so hard in making extra food and helping Megan's day special.

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We had a wonderful weekend and exjoyed being with our family. Of course, it's never long enough and it seems like when we try to do so many things in such a short time, we kind of have "sensory overload" and sometimes feel like we're just "floating" from one thing to another, but it's always a nice time. :)