First Day of School Pics

Yes, this is last year's 1st day of school picture. I just wanted everyone to see how much my beloved children have grown right before my very eyes. My wonderful son is now a young man, taller than me, with a deep voice. My little girl has grown, lost some teeth but yet continues to be my baby. It happens much too quickly. I am so thankful I can be with them each day watching them learn and grow. This year. A year of pre-algebra(YIKES!!) with Colby and learning about the 50 states with Dalayna. So far so good. We are trying a different math this year and they both love it. It is hard for me to get used to since I taught another curriculum for so many years, but if they enjoy it, I will deal with it, gladly. Dalayna's study was all about Texas where we learned about the Alamo, that Fritos and Dr. Pepper originated in Texas, 2 things my mother could live on!! On to Montana next week.

What a difference a year can make!! The more he grows and matures, he becomes more of a helper around here. We are thankful for his servant heart.

Dalayna is pictured here with her very favorite object in the whole world: her baby doll who she named "Caillou." Caillou was a gift to Dalayna at our baby shower from dear friends, and she goes everywhere with us. She goes to church on Sunday night, the grocery store and waits in the van, even on vacation. She and Dalayna have many matching outfits and someday I will do a blog about it. Caillou even comes to school every day. What fun to be a little girl!! Even more fun for mom and Grandma Judy to shop for matching outfits for these two!!

100th post

Hurray for the 100th post!! I feel like I have done something...not sure what, but 100 posts shows perserverance, determination, sticking with something, or maybe just that I should have more than that by now. In 100 posts we have:
1. Found a job by God's grace
2. Started 2 new school years.
3. Moved 2 times.
4. Had 3 different addresses.
5. Sold a house and bought a new one.
6. Had to learn yet another new phone #. Just don't ask me what it is because I will freeze up and not remember!!
7. Unpacked and packed over 100+ boxes.
8. Seen God work in our lives.
9. Had lots of visitors to post about, but can always use more!!
10. Cried at leaving old friends, yet rejoicing God has provided new friends.
11. Learned the meaning of lake-effect snow.. it's no joke!!
12. Shoveled so much snow I feel professional about it!!
13. Learned that I am no good at taking pictures.
14. driven my children crazy with my need to blog about stuff, therefore needing to take lots of pictures.
15. joined a homeschool group.
16. learned that though we don't always understand God's plan for our lives, He is always faithful. He will provide for us in situations we have such a hard time understanding.
17. been provided with yet another wonderful church family.
18. Started this school year with no plans for any moves... what a stress reliever that is!!
I guess I could go on and on, but the point is that almost a year has gone by since my 1st post. God has grown our family in ways that have brought us much closer together. I hope that in 100 posts, our family has brought Him much glory!!

Toothless Wonder

Dalayna's top teeth have been loose for quite a while. One of them finally loosened up enough to come out. She worked worked for that tooth to come out. She requested I take a picture of her trying to pull it and post it on my blog. So here it is. With a little help from her daddy, it came right out. Little is the key word, because she was determined to do it herself. Then she came into the living room and told me she decided to give up for the night because it just wasn't going to come out. Then she smiled and laughed and there was the hole in the mouth.

We can't get over how different it makes her look with one tooth missing. She also had to adjust to talking with her tooth missing. She had a little trouble for a day or two, and she said it took longer to read books!! Now she is fine and talking normally again. Too cute!!

I am always coming up with nicknames for my kids. So we thought we could call Dalayna "Toothless Wonder" until it grows back. The new tooth is nowhere in sight, so that could be her nickname for awhile!!

Night at the Beach-Part 1

The 2nd weekend of July, there is a fireworks display along the beach. The couple from our church who has the home on the lake invites the youth to come for a cookout and to watch the fireworks. Colby wasn't too terribly dismayed that we decided to tag along, so we tagged along!! It was fun. As the fireworks display was winding down it started to rain. Hearing the thunder roll across the lake was a great display of God's power, that's all I can say. It was the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life. Here is Dalayna in the lake before it started lightning. It looks like it was completely dark when she was in the water, but it wasn't.

By the time we ate, it was completely dark. It was good food!!
One of our recent high school graduates, Matt. Matt has been a good friend to Colby. We pray he will do well as he goes away to college.

One halfway decent picture of the fireworks.

Dalayna loves playing in the sand.

Abby and Zac digging a hole.

Jadon and one of the youth girls, Hannah. She is so good with the kids!!

Colby and some of the other youth playing football. How you can see the ball in the dark I am not sure, but they managed. My friend Lisa took these pictures for me. I knew if I got anywhere near my son with the camera I would embarass him to pieces, so I sent someone else instead!! He had no idea Lisa had taken pictures for me until we got home.

Blueberry Picking

In early July, we did something we had never done before; we went blueberry picking. Blueberries have never been my favorite fruit to eat, but after this, they are in my top 5. The bad part is, when I have eaten them, they were from the store. Picking fresh blueberries just ruins the thought of store-bought ones. I was in the store on Monday and saw some blueberries. I thought blueberries sounded awfully good, but just couldn't bring myself to buy them because the thought of fresh, sweet blueberries right from the bush was in my mind. If you ever get the chance to go blueberry picking, do it!! It will be on my calendar for next summer for sure. In the meantime, I have 2 large bags sitting in my freezer to give me a taste of summer when the lake-effect snows begin to fall. Here is Dalayna with some of her friends.

Colby was a great helper. He is not one for eating fruits and vegetables, but I think he had as many handfuls of blueberries as I did. Good news: we DIDN'T eat so many we made ourselves sick.
Can you tell how big those blueberries are? We picked 6 pounds of them.

They give these little cups with strings to the kids so they don't have to carr around large buckets. I thought that was a great idea.

4th of July Fun-Part 2

In must be ingrained in me that on the 4th of July you have to be surrounded by people. In my family, that's the way it's always been , and I enjoy every minute of it. Last year we spent the day surrounded by friends in F.W.. This year it was no different. We were very thankful to have not only my parents with us, but friends from church and Terry's work. We were supposed to be able to see the fireworks from the local fairgrounds, but the view wasn't quite what we thought it would be. So, we enjoyed the view we had, and most importantly , the fellowship. Here is our new favorite game:Ladderball. We went and bought one(on sale at a local store) for this day.

Our friend, Frank,competing against Colby, who is really good at this game. I came close to beating Colby once, and coming close was something to be proud of!!

Terry with our friends from church, Jillian and Nate. Jillian is the friend who had the pedicure party that Dalayna and I enjoyed attending.

My wonderful parents.

Jadon, who is a huge Spiderman fan.




In the middle is Ryon, our assistant pastor, guitar teacher and dedicated youth leader, and his wife Lisa. We are extremely thankful for their work with the youth, as well as their friendship.

Frank and Diane, who came over a few nights ago and participated in catching lightning bugs. I took a few pictures, but they didn't come out so good. Instead, I wound up blinding everyone with the flash on my camera. I do have to tell this: At one point( it was very dark), I took a picture and Terry came rushing my way, thinking it was a lightning bug, then discovered it was just my camera flash. Now that was funny!!

Lisa and Ryon playing bean bag toss, their game she was kind enough to let us use.