Birthday Girl

Eight years ago I held this beautiful bundle of joy in my arms.
Abigail Leanne.
Abigail means "joy of her father" and her middle name Leanne is a combination of both of her grandmother's middle names, Lee and Ann.
She loves to sing, read, write, draw, and she loves to learn. She is an excellent big sister and a huge helper. She loves Jesus and has a tender heart. She is sweet and thoughtful and always ready to help. She is also our "drama queen." She has her Daddy's good looks and her Mommy's eyes.
Happy Birthday, Abby! We love you!

Christmas 09

Christmas Eve with my family at Julie's home in Indiana

Uncle Ricky & Lisa with Abby & Brooklyn

Kerri & John Mark get along so well :)

Naughty or nice?? Hmmmmm... they both got coal from Uncle Robbie

Mom & Lisa opening gifts

Kerri so thoughtfully chose Dad's wrapping paper because she knows he LOVES Santa!

The cousins

Carl and me :)

Christmas morning at home

Caleb and Abby opening their new BB guns

Annie Oakley

The girls love their playhouse (have I mentioned I LOVE craigslist) and have already spent the night in it.

Christmas afternoon at Pappy and Grammy's
Caleb & Nate looking through Nate's new Guinness Record Book

What is it, Ella?

Uncle Randy helping Isaac with his gifts

Oh Yeah!

Grammy's beautiful Christmas Dinner

Hope your Christmas was wonderful too! Happy New Year!

Fa-lalalala-lala-la-la

Carl & I at our church Christmas dinner

The kids at Grammy's for Sunday dinner

Our church Christmas program

Caleb's class has been studying different cultures and researching their heritage. He chose to do his research paper on Papua New Guinea. Each student had a clothespin to dress up as a national from the country they were researching. Caleb used a marker to color his clothespin and we used items from around the house to dress it up. Abby made the bead necklaces with pipecleaners. Caleb made the arms out of pipecleaners and beads. He found some small leaves outside for "tanket leaves" and a scrap of fabric for a loin cloth. I gave a presentation this week in his class on PNG and took in several artifacts for the kids to see. The kids loved it and Caleb told me I was "awesome" which made my day!!


I had the privilege this week to tell the Christmas story in Abby's classroom. It was a blessing to share the beautiful story of Christmas with her 2nd grade class.

I love this time of year! I love the excitement and the anticipation! I love the lights and the Christmas music. I love the snow that is falling RIGHT now! I even love the hustle and bustle. But most of all I love the Saviour who came to earth as a baby in manger. What an awesome story!

A Long Post...

The girls getting ready to decorate our Christmas tree.

We turned up the Christmas music and got busy

We love pulling each ornament out of the box and remembering where it came from.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Ta-Dah!

The boys (minus Isaac) were packing up venison for our freezer, but we saved a few for them.

Carl and Caleb finishing it up

A Christmas tradition--camping out in the living room under the Christmas Tree.
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.


A visit from Grandpa & Grandma
Grandpa brought his train

making cookies with grandma

I'll show you how to do it, Grandma


Caleb chose to play trains with Grandpa instead


Will these cookies EVER be done??!

Thanksgiving 09

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. The Saturday before Thanksgiving, my family all had our turkey dinner at my brother, Robbie's home. He has a beautiful home with lots of woods for riding 4-wheelers. It was great to spend time with my family. I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for. On Thanksgiving morning, Carl shot a doe and then we went over to spend the day at his sister, Michele's home. We had the most delicious meal and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. I didn't have my camera with me, but managed to swipe these pics from my Mom.
The cousins patiently waiting to eat

Abby & Katelyn made these leaves with fill in the blanks for us to write what we are thankful for.

Rick & Kerri ??? (is this the Christmas card pic?)

I'm so thankful for my husband

My Dad brought a bin of old photo albums. We came across some very funny pics!

Why do I get the feeling that I am the reason they are laughing!!