Happy, Happy Birthday!!!

Guess who has a birthday today? 

An ELEVENTH birthday!

At 8:31 (ish…I know…bad mom….) on November 19, 1998, Ethan Andrew was brought into our family.  He completed us.  We were so thrilled to have him be a part of our lives.

In 11 years, a great deal has changed for all of us.  We still live in the same home, which is awesome!  We have many of the same friends. ..  But lots of changes.  School colors/song/mascot have changed.  We now whole grade share with our neighbors from grades 6-12 (big move for Eman next year!) We’ve traveled to different parts of the country.  A grandma has died.  Mom has gone to work at the school…Ethan has 3 older siblings that can DRIVE (and one that has left home for college!  (blessed child…Caleb caled his little brother tonight to wish him a happy birthday…what a kid!)

Ethan is greatly loved.  He’s loved by his siblings (even though they might disagree at times…they really are good big brothers and a sister!)  He is loved by his school and church classmates and friends.  He’s loved by his cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents (and we can’t wait to see some of them next week and the rest of them next month!)  And of course, he’s dearly loved by his old mom and dad!  He is one of the joys of our lives!

Ethan has a personality that just makes you grin.  He almost always has a grin on his face.  He’s a jokester and enjoys being the life of the party.  He has a helpful spirit (when he isn’t being pulled away from video games, LOL) and he likes to have a bit of friendly competition in the sports field.

I can’t begin to express how blessed we are to call this boy “son”.  He jut makes me smile!

I baked and frosted the brownies…big sister, Rachel decorated with icing and sprinkles!

 

HAPPY 11th BIRTHDAY, Ethan Andrew!

You are LOVED!

Go Hawks!

Last weekend was family weekend at Iowa. We all went down on Friday night and ate ate Buffalo Wild Wings…a family favorite!  Cameron spent Friday and Saturday night with Caleb in his dorm room, and then Caleb got him a ticket to the big game on Saturday.  It was a sad day for the Hawkeyes as they lost their first game all season (AND their quarterback…ack!)  But the two boys had a great time together at the game.

oh the MASS of people in black and gold!  Cameron thought it was cool on the walk back to the dorm that it was just one continuous moving mass of black and gold.

Rachel

Rachel often doesn’t care for her school pictures and usually wants me to take some for her.  We had a few minutes of “mostly” daylight left on Thursday after school, and here are some of the better shots of the day.

I think this is my favorite.

of course…I love her giggle/grin in this one…

but then there’s this one…

oh and I love this one!

ok…so maybe I don’t have a favorite…I can’t just choose one!

THEN, after I got them all uploaded…I started playing . I love the B&W look…(It’s difficult to see, but I left the blue sparkles on her necklace blue.)

And I really like  the way this one looks with just her shirt in color…

Then I started in with my Virtual Photographer.  It’s a great little toy to play with.  It puts filters on your pictures.  And…the program is FREE!

Oh, and then there is this next one.  But don’t tell Rachel I showed you this one.  It isn’t her favorite picture :)

but this one is!

I just love this girl and her enthusiasm for life!

A Little Fun of My Own!

I found time to scrap my favorite picture of the day!  It felt good to get a page done!

The kit I used was a freebie from Pineapple Plantation Designs, called “Autumn Whisper”

Fall Fun (For REAL!)

The kids don’t agree with the title of the last post…they don’t like the words “raking” and “fun” in the same sentence!  Rachel and Ethan did get a little down time today, while Cameron and neighbor Jim hauled the leaves away.

The pogo stick provides a great deal of enjoyment!  He went for a LONG time on that thing!

The scooter came out for a while, too.

of course, a few leaves had to be raked up again after all this!

It’s fun to watch them have fun together!

Fall Fun

It’s that time of year again!  The leaves are down, which means we get to spend a sunny Saturday getting rid of them!  Of course, we couldn’t get started until after that ROCKIN’ awesome Iowa game!

I’m sure that when Caleb sees these pictures he will be SO homesick and just really wish that he were here to pitch in and lend a hand!

We are so very thankful for good neighbors with a pick up!  They let us use the pick up and toss all the leaves in the back to haul away, rather than having to bag them all up!  Much quicker this way!

 

The last job of the day was for Ron to cut down the branch of our tree in the front yard that had this lovely hornets nest in it!  It was sure a big thing!  Thankfully, nothing stirred inside it when he cut it down!

Happy Reformation!

Today is the celebration of an historic occasion in the Lutheran Church! It’s Reformation Day!

Of course, it is also Halloween!  Here in town, trick or treating was last night, so we got that all out of the way to make room for OTHER fun today!  (see the next post for more on THAT fun!) awww…isn’t Ethan CUTE?  (Ick!)

Ethan and his buddy Jayden…all ready to go out and nab some yummy chocolate to bring home to their mothers :)

It was chilly by the end of the evening, but we had around 87 kids stop here last night.  That was one of our highest numbers.  It was cute to see the little ones from the preschool run down the steps and say “Mommy!  That’s PASTOR!”

The End of the Season

For most of the sports my kids participate in, I enjoy watching them, but I’m usually glad when the season ends.  But I am always sad when Cross Country season ends.  I just love watching those kids run!  Here are a few pictures from the district meet last night.  Both Cameron and Rachel set personal best times last night!  Way to GO!

 

LOOK at her expression….that water was COLD!!

Look at that pack of COUGARS!!! Luke and Josh and Cameron…go get ‘em guys!

Cameron didn’t mind the water!!

What a great season it was!  It was really fun for me to watch Cameron and Rachel improve their performance, and have fun with their friends.  Can’t wait til next Cross Country season starts! 

XC Football Run update

Wow…my kids ROCK!  On the 13.6 mile Cross Country run of the game ball from the Middle School to the High School tonight, Rachel ran 9 miles, and Cameron ran THE WHOLE WAY!  They just amaze me!  I just don’t get why they LIKE to do this, but I’m so glad they do! 

Homecoming Activities

It is homecoming week here in our little corner of the world.  Today, the elementary and middle school kids traveled to the high school for a pep assembly, skits and crowning of the king and queen.  Oh, and we can’t forget the parade!

Trouble at its best!  Josh, Justin, Tony and Cameron

Bridget, Rachel and Karli

Rachel is just under the stop sign.  Cameron, of course, was on the opposite side and I couldn’t get a picture of him.  I’m counting on my friend Julie or my friend Christi to get me a picture of him!

At 4:30 the Cross Country team met at the middle school.  The MS Principal, Mrs. Glenn handed off the game football, and the XC team will run the ball all the way to the football field, which is about 13 miles away!  Cameron SAYS he’s running the whole way.  We’ll see.  They also have XC Parent’s night tonight (yeah…I get to hold onto their hot, sweaty smelly bodies and walk across the football field with them…ewwww….) and then they perform their full contest program for marching band at half time.  THEN…they come home and get a few hours sleep and catch a 6 am bus for Dubuque where they have State Marching Band Contest tomorrow.  Whew…what a weekend!

 

They decorate the school bus with their names.  The bus follows the XC runners to help keep them safe.

The team gets lectured by Mrs. Wright about how to run safely!

yeah…that’s my daughter with the blue, green and gold XC uniform with PURPLE leggings…

SFXC 2009

The handoff of the game ball!

And they are off! (Cameron is wearing the white shorts)

Running along the highway…trying to stay safe!  Watch out for the semi trucks!

See ya later!

Thanks Mark, Mark and Mark!

We are blessed with an lot of men named Mark on our church council!  Mark, Mark and Mark showed up this evening after work to til up the back yard and seed it for us, after the removal of the tree this spring.  They worked for just a couple of hours, but got it all done!  (and then, Mark went home and brought us a bunch of tomatoes, habanero peppers and banana peppers!  YUM!!!)

Ron worked to dig out a few things that I wanted to save.  I saved a few of the black eyed susan seeds to try to get them to grow on the south side of the house next year.  We will see how they grow..I hope they do, ‘cause I really like them!

Mark and Mark dig out another one of my favorite plants.  I don’t know what it is called, but it’s pretty :)

Mark had a COOL tiller!  Mark and Mark were coveting it while they raked and shoveled.

Can’t wait to see what it looks like next year at this time!

Thanks, guys!

Ethan and KT Play

Ethan just loves the daylights out of his dog.  He hugs her good morning each day, and he lays on her, plays fetch with her, feeds and waters her, uses her for a pillow, feeds her treats then  his last act of every day is to hug her good night. 

The trick is sometimes to get the silly dog to drop the ball!

Marching Band Photos

OK, so I have the videos posted, but I have to share some pictures from the Marching Band performance on Friday night at the football game and the contest on Saturday.

Starting the evening with our school fight song.  We got to watch a beautiful sunset while listening to a great band!

Rachel (2nd in line)

Rachel rocks on her clarinet!  She’s having a great first year in marching band!

Cameron and  his trumpet.

They are both in a quartet! 

And then there was Saturday’s performance.  Great job, band!

awesome quartet!

Don’t they look great?  And they sounded super, too!

Marching Band Videos

For those of you who are interested, here are the videos from the Marching Band contest. There are two of them, ‘cause I had to split the one long video in half since you tube will only allow 10 minute or less videos.

In the first song of the second video, Rachel and Cameron are the first two people in the quartet. They did GREAT!

The first two songs…

and the second two…

What do you get

when a bunch of high school boys (and a girl) get together on a no-school day in mid-September with a roll of plastic, a water hose and some dish soap?