Flying and a flying horse?

We got to go visit some friends this past weekend.  We'd been trying to get this visit worked out for a long time, and we were so glad it finally happened.  They live a ways away from us in farm country.  He's a pilot.  They have a runway in their front yard.  Kids played all evening and the next morning while they waited for their turns to fly.

Right away Miss F noticed the airplane and was quite excited.  She started signing "horse" or "cow"  (it's the same sign for her since her fingers can't do the details of each one) every time she saw the plane.  We showed her the sign for airplane, but she insisted on excitedly signing "horse" every time the airplane appeared.  What a fun, big, yellow horse. :)

Most of the kids went up.  Mr. R and Mr. S decided they didn't want to go up.  I think Mr. S was just having too much fun playing with his friends.   Miss F seemed content enough to just watch.  Mr. M got to go on the last flight of the morning and help put the airplane away in the hanger.

What a fun adventure!  We're thankful for sweet friends to share adventures and fellowship with.

Happy Easter!

What a joy to celebrate our risen Savior on this day (and every day!).   The night before we tried a new method for decorating eggs.  Shaving cream and food coloring.  It was fun and went well enough.  Not sure we will use that method again though.

Before heading out we snapped a few pictures of some of the little ones.

When we got to church we snapped a quick family picture.

We enjoyed an afternoon of sweet fellowship with a dear family.

Spring Break

We were all excited about spring break this year.  No big plans, but with the mild winter we'd been having we figured we'd get out and about more this year than last.  True to Colorado spring break tradition we got to enjoy some snow....We started spring break with an extra day off.  We got a blizzard on Friday.  The kids had a blast playing in the snow on Saturday while a friend's tractor dug us out.

On Monday we went up to the zoo.  It was a beautiful day and the animals were all out enjoying the sun too.

Tuesday was our co-op day.  Since we're on Daddy's spring break he got to go with the kids while I had a quiet morning at home with Miss F and then went to coffee with a friend.  As the day went on our next storm started rolling in.

By morning the roads were all clear enough for most of the family to head over to the mining museum.  A few of us stayed behind for the morning and met up with the rest of the clan at Bass Pro for lunch and bowling.

By Thursday morning Mr. S and I where sick.  A stomach bug.  By Friday night others had it.  We finished out spring break resting and recovering.

A whole lot o' nothin'

We've been busy....doing nothing.  Well, not actually nothing.  Just nothing big going on.  School, cold and flu season, serving....just life keeping us busy and quiet "on line."  I thought I'd pop in here quickly and post a few pictures of what we've been up to.

Miss A loves playing in the sensory bin.

Miss J has developed a love for math.  She also loves taking care of Miss F.  She's managed to bring two of her loves together here. :) 

The older boys got to go to a UAV conference with Daddy.

Field trip to the Viking exhibit at a museum.

Working at SpaceX?

Well, not yet.  ;)  But when your uncle works at SpaceX....

Gingerbread day

Today was our gingerbread day.  Miss E spent the day mixing up, rolling out, cutting out, and baking gingerbread men.  I did most of the icing, but I had plenty of little helpers too.

Mr. R and Mr. S spent the morning building gingerbread houses for everyone as well as themselves.  Miss E took a bit of a break from her gingerbread men to build her own "house."

Mr. M had a blacksmithing class to go to in the morning.

In the late afternoon everyone got to decorate their houses.

We even kept the gingerbread theme with gingersnap chicken for dinner.  YUM!

*We know that God is sovereign and that He directs our paths each day, but today He showed us that very clearly in the course he set for us.  We had dinner plans to go to friends' home for this evening.  In the morning they let me know that something came up and needed to reschedule.  We easily adjusted our plans and went about our day.  Around the time we would have been getting ready to go I got a call.  It was my neighbor.  Her husband had fell from a ladder and was injured, he needed help and she wasn't home.  Rob was out the door in a minute followed quickly by Miss E.  I quickly gave instructions, here at home to the older boys, and then ran over there too.  His wife was home shortly and took him to the ER while we took their boys to our house to play for the evening.  The boys had made extra gingerbread houses, so we had plenty to go around.  These little boys that had just seen their daddy get hurt got to spend a happy evening playing with their friends and decorating gingerbread houses reassured that their daddy was in good hands and being well cared for.

I'm super proud of my kids.  Everyone did just what they needed to in this emergency.  Miss E didn't bat an eye at being sent over to help daddy with the situation.  She helped with the little kids over there and also helped me get things cleaned up.  At home Mr. R did great taking over watching little ones (who also did great by staying calm and playing nicely), Mr. M and Mr. S took over my dinner prep and got it all in the oven.  We were thankful that God gave us this opportunity to serve our sweet friends and neighbors.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

December 1st and 2nd we got the house all decorated for Christmas so we'd be all ready for our guest.  Uncle C was coming for a Saint Nickolas feast!

The kids had a great time playing with Uncle C.

Rob and the bigger kids took him up to check out The Academy.

After a quick, fun week-end together we enjoyed a German feast before Uncle C needed to take off.  It was a nice visit and we're thankful he took the time to get out here.

Happy Thanksgiving (and a road trip)

It had been several years since the whole family had been together...to put it in context, I think we've had 3 kids since the last extended family get together.  Thanksgiving happened to work out for us and we trusted/hoped that weather would not interfere with an eastward bound trip.  The trip was broken up into two days (each way).  Several kids were VERY excited at the thought of getting to stay in a hotel.  Miss F was just happy to be free of the carseat and able to crawl around.

Loads of fun was had by all.

All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth!  Due to an unfortunate run in with a bannister she lost one of those front teeth just a bit earlier than expected. 

Saying "goodbye" to aunt, uncles, cousins, and grandparents.  Is Mr. R taller than grandad?  Maybe not quite. :) 

Miss E has been studying cathedrals and stained glass in her art class.  Her tudor suggested that a cathedral that was along our way may be a fun stop.  We all enjoyed the stop and getting to enjoy not only the art, but the stories of Christ's life that the pieces told.

Support the Pizza Party!

My kids saw these shirts (if you can't read them, they say "Proud Supporter of the Pizza Party") a couple of months ago and asked for them, and then wanted to have a Pizza Party on election day.  That seemed like a good party to get behind this year. :0

Miss E put together the invitations.  We're in a co-op that meets every Tuesday.  We made it easy and just let each kid invite one family.  We've got a lot of kids. Some of our friends have lots of kids.  It looks like there will be a good turn out.

The kids did all of the clean-up, set-up, and prep work/decorating.  We're buying the pizza and soda.  Now, don't go thinking we took this election lightly or skipped out on the real voting.  Nope, we just thought we'd also try to make some lemonade out of the lemons we were given. ;)

No matter how things turn out, The King of Kings is on His throne.  Our trust is in HIM as His children.

For kingship belongs to the LORD, and He rules over the nations. Psalm 22;28