Megan's Birthday...

These pictures are backwards, but I've tried to fix it and have spent way too much time with it, so I'm just leaving them. :)

Megan's birthday was Friday. I can't believe she's one year old already! She is growing SO fast and is such a joy to have in our family. We were in Kansas for her birthday. Tori and Megan almost have the same birthday, so we had one big party for both of them.

This was after it was all over and she was nice and cleaned up! :)

Squeaky clean!!!

Can you tell she hasn't had very much sugar in her short little life? She looks a little spaced out!

All of her cousins were there except for the one's in FL. :( It was so nice to be with everyone!

The big cake (actually it was cupcakes).

Megan's own little cake.

Yummm.....

There are SO many more pictures I could put on here, but for the sake of time (and your time), I'll stop.

Thank you to everyone for all of her beautiful gifts and for making an effort to be there. We enjoyed being with all of you!

Catching up....

This was a beautiful sunset we saw the other evening. What a wonderful God we serve!!

The kids had fun playing in the leaves last week. It's a good thing, because it's freezing cold now and the leaves are all wet and yucky!

Kristyn and Owen helped me make bread last week. They really thought they were big stuff. We made 4 loaves.

Yes, their hands were clean. :) Kristyn told Grandma on the phone, "Owen and I punched and punched the bread down."

Happy (Late) Birthday, Tori!

It slipped my mind yesterday when I was posting to wish our precious niece, Tori, a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I thought of it later but wasn't able to get back on the computer. :(


We love you, Tori, and hope you had a very fun day yesterday. We'll see you in a few days!!!

Tis the Season...

This is a beautiful tree in our front yard. It's windy today, so I don't know how long the leaves will stay on, but it sure is beautiful!
Owen had his turn with helping in the kitchen and I thought he looked so cute. He insisted on wearing Kristyn's apron.....I bought him some tractor fabric to make him a "boy" apron. :)

Keith is SO excited that it's almost deer season. Last Saturday, the whole family was involved in making the deer blind. One of Keith's friend's helped, too.

I hope all of you got out and voted today. We stood in line for 1 1/2 hours this morning to get in. :) The kids did great, but we did get several "looks" with a double stroller and a baby in the sling. :) Several people complimented on how well behaved the kids were, though, so that made me happy. Towards the end (when I was actually filling out the ballot) Owen kept asking to go outside, but overall, they did great.

Answered Prayers...

I know we all have answered prayers and I love to hear about them, so I thought I'd share a couple of our recent answers to prayer. Of course there are many, many more and maybe I'll share more some other day, but for today, I'll just share these two.

The other night during our family devotions, Kristyn said that she wanted to pray that Jesus would give her some new shoes. I didn't think that much about it, because she still had her Easter shoes and I hadn't started looking for bigger shoes for her, yet. So she prayed and I heard her asking Jesus for some new shoes. The very next morning, we were going through a box of clothes for Owen, that our dear and gracious friend, Mary Ellen, sent to us from her boys and guess what was in the box? That's right!!! A pair of beautiful, black shoes. It was the only "girly" thing in the box. Kristyn just grabbed them up and said, "Praise the Lord." She was SO excited and they fit her perfectly! So now when she wears them, she says they are the shoes that Jesus gave her.

A few weeks ago, I had to have some medical stuff done and when I got the doctor and hospital bill it was almost $4,000.00. When I went for my follow up, Keith was with me and he talked to the doctor and showed him the bill (the Dr. bill alone was almost $2,500.00). Keith said he didn't want to take advantage of him in any way, but if he felt like he could reduce it any, we would greatly appreciate it. My doctor was shocked that it was that much, he said he never looks at the bills. He promised that he would look into it and if he could reduce it, he would. Last week, the nurse manager called me and said that my doctor had talked to her and at first he said, "Just see what an insurance company would have paid us and charge them that amount." Then he stopped and said, "No, wait, just charge them $250.00 and I'll pay for the rest." I don't need to tell you, I was speechless!! That was an almost 90% reduction!!! I told her I didn't know what to say. She said, "you just have an extra special doctor."

I gathered the kids up and we prayed right then and thanked the Lord for answering our prayer and prayed that God would bless my doctor.

He really is a great man and doctor. By far the best doctor I have ever had, who loves families and has a nice family of his own. He always asks about Kristyn and Owen if they're not with me. We have truely been blessed by him.

I don't see how people make it in life without God. Why wouldn't you want to serve God? He is for sure our everything and I can't thank Him enough for all of His blessings in our life!!!

I'd love to hear your answers to prayer, if you care to share. :)

(I think I'm on the border of having a wordy blog. :/ )

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

I know every girl thinks they have the best dad in the world, but I am most certain that I really do, have the absolute, best dad in the entire universe!!! :)

He loves his family and more than anything else, wants them all to go to Heaven. He takes time for ALL of us and is never too busy to lend a listen ear, a word of advise when asked for it, always ready with a word of encouragement and a hand for playing catch with the little ones...or big one's, too for that matter. :)

All the grandkids like him to read to them. It will forever be etched in my memory hearing my dad read from the Bible every night before we went to bed, when we were all growing up....what a beautiful sound!!

He's always happy to welcome new little ones into his "ever growing" family. He has 3 kids and 9 grandkids (all 5 yrs and under) and one beautiful wife.

He LOVES to have any of us sing, or participate in church service when we are there visiting. Doesn't he look like one proud Grandpa??

He has a great sense of humor and doesn't mind slipping it in, every chance he gets. :)

Most importantly, he is a Godly man! He has set an example that we are proud to follow. I often remember his words that I would hear every day when he was praying for us kids growing up. I never want to forget those words and now I pray the same prayer for my children.

I feel very blessed today to have such a great dad, who has loved me, supported me, encouraged me and loved Keith just the same as me.

We love you, Dad! Happy Birthday!!!