Summer 2015

 Hello! Once again, I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted...The girls got to go to two VBSs this year - Here's Anna making a craft at my parent's church.

 Esther during craft time -

 Lunch time! It's funny to see the difference in the two girls - Esther loves making friends, but Anna told me she likes to play with her cousins, but not other children :)

 The pirates! Anna was running around the other day saying " I'm Captain Blackwhiskers!"

 Anna and Esther during program practice ;)

 Lots of kids!

 Esther was so excited to get a water balloon to throw :)

 One of the big things this summer has been Aaron taking over a lawn-mowing business. It's definitely keeping him busy :) We try to go once and a while to have a picnic lunch with him and this is up by Rocky Point.

 We met him once at the park in town - Aaron Joseph was really enjoying the swing....

 He also was pretty excited about the water - I don't think he understands the difference between a lake and a bathtub.

Aaron Joseph has been saying a few words, running, and he's figured out how to walk to the garden and pick pea pods off the vines all by himself :) Also, he gives big, slobbery kisses to his Mommy and hugs to his sisters!

 Esther and Anna

 This is at our Vacation Bible School - I kept too busy to take a lot of pictures, but everything went smoothly.

 Anna at snack time -

 4th of July! Miriam helped watch the kids playing in the hayshed -

 Esther and Kaleigh -

 Libby holding Anna -

 Dad was getting the tractor ready for the parade and Aaron and the baby hopped on -

 All the little girls eating at the little picnic table :)

 Aaron helped make sure no one got run over! I think collecting candy at the parade is one of the highlights of the whole year for the girls!

Ice cream cones back at Grandma's :)

Otherwise, make sure you keep scrolling down to see the spring and winter updates.

Oh, and in case you hadn't heard, we're expecting baby number four :) October 30th is the due date -

Spring 2015

 Aaron Joseph was pretty excited about the slide when we first got it out this spring :)

 Trying on Daddy's hat :)

 Esther had to get a filling at the dentist :( She didn't want to cooperate for the check-up, but when it came to the actual filling, she did really well!

 Sitting on a rock enjoying the sun :)

 Four people helped make the cakes for Matt and Alyssa's wedding! Miriam spent one day helping me, and Hosanna spent a day helping me -

 We make five sheet cakes in addition to the big cake -

 - then Alyssa's florist put the flower and topper on.

Cutting the cake!

 
 Aaron was using the vacuum and Aaron Joseph made a straight line for the bedroom to get his "vacuum" :)

 We drove down to central MN for a meeting and the retirement of Bob and Faye, some friends of ours that we've worked with a lot.

 I made this cake too, and didn't realize till later that I got the verse on it wrong!

 I love this picture! Lilacs are my favorite flowers and there's a big hedge of them in our yard :)

 Us "grown-ups" were having a meeting and so the kids were playing around...

 Nathan and Aaron -

 Aaron and Nathan - there's so much paper work and official type stuff involved with starting a church :)

We wanted to get a picture of us in front of the lilacs, but I think it was a little too sunny.

Winter 2015

 We held our very first church service in our new home on the first Sunday in January and the second Sunday the kids got a new cousin :)  Aaron Joseph likes baby Lily a lot!

 I keep meaning to pack this toy away because it's so noisy, but Aaron Joseph loves it!

 The last Sunday in January we held a dedication service for the new church and had a potluck - we were very happy with how the Lord blessed the day.

 OK, this may not seem too exciting to you, but after over 3 months of taking showers other places, we were pretty excited and grateful to have a shower installed and running :)

 The same day we got the shower going, a big truck came to deliver the chairs for the church!

 The black chairs really seem to help the red carpet not feel so red :) The fun thing about setting up a home and church is it seems like there's something new all the time...

 Since the downstairs was designed to be a fellowship hall, it does work well for parties :) We had a baby shower for Cassie and Lily.

 The church that was here before paid for us to reletter the church sign.

 Not far from us is a community center with a sledding hill and ice rink - we took the girls a couple times (the picture is of Aaron though!)

 My parents got a new dining room table and let me use the china cabinet that came with it - it was so much fun to finally put out a lot of the things I've had packed away since I was a teenager :)

 Anna's 3rd birthday! I'd told the girls that we would have a tea party that day and when they woke up that morning, they wanted it right away, so we had a tea party for breakfast :)

 Anna opening a gift -

 It's so fun watching the girls play with each other! Since it was breakfast, we had toast with cream cheese and jam and muffins instead of cookies :)

 My sisters at Alyssa's bridal shower...

We held a Good Friday service, an Easter service and Easter breakfast, then an open house all within a couple weeks - I try to always take a picture of the food so I'll remember the next year what I served last year, but this picture doesn't' quite show everything. In case you're curious, the menu was: turkey and ham sandwiches, spinach dip with bread, chips and salsa, deviled eggs, vegetables with ranch dip, pickles and olives, pasta salad, cheesy coleslaw, pink fluff salad, assorted bars, punch, coffee, water