Nathan and Levi

It is so much fun watching these two cousins grow up together. Nathan's on the left, Levi's on the right. They are just over 2 weeks apart and Jenny and I are able to share many things with them being so close in age... Sleepless nights, fussy feedings, dirty diaper stories and of course the good things like first smiles and coos. I am enjoying it very much.

Giving Thanks

I love Thanksgiving. I enjoy the time we spend preparing for Thanksgiving day. For the last couple years we have read the Pilgrim's stories in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, and each time we read about their hardships, it makes me so grateful for their sacrifice. I really don't remember hearing too much about the real pilgrim story in school, so Paul and I have been learning right along with our kids. The part that I find interesting is that the pilgrims left England (because of the religious persecution) and went to Holland. In Holland, they had their freedom to worship the way they pleased, but they were concerned about the influence that the Dutch culture was having on their children. Thus, they decided to come to the Americas. It's amazing to me that: A. they realized that culture plays a great deal raising children and B: they left all they knew and all their comforts to make sure the next generation would carry on their ideals. Wow. I think that's really cool.

That's what Grandma's are made of

Trips to the pumpkin patch,

Board games and puzzles,

Hugs, kisses and bubble gum,

Tea parties and slumber parties,

Babysitting at a moments notice,

Making yummy cookies together,

Holding baby to give mommy free hands,

Stories and songs and stroller rides...

1st smile caught on film...(or digital memory?)

Nathan has been smiling for almost a month now, but it took a couple weeks to be able to get a photo of it. Now his smile has gotten bigger and lasts longer and he's cooing and "talking" too. What fun!

Who knew feet could be this cute?

My sister recommended taking pictures of the kids feet before Nathan's got too big... Good idea!

I voted

If a picture can say a thousand words...

It's a girl's weekend!

We're off to a tea party!


This last weekend was both fun and trying. We didn't have any water running into the house from last Wednesday morning until Sunday afternoon. We had to haul water from our parent's house to fill the tanks on our toilets in order to flush them. We heated up water on the stove to wash any dirty dishes and Les and Connie offered to do some of our laundry at their house. It was a definately a test of our character, attitude and creativity. It is now Tuesday and $2000 later, our water problem is worse than before they started and we have a bonus pile of muck in our front yard that was pumped out of our well. Oh, well...

The "fun" part of the weekend was that it was just us girls (and Nathan) because the boys went on a camping trip from Friday morning until Sunday evening. Other than the problems with the water, I tried to make it a treat for the girls. We watched "girly" princess movies with popcorn every night. We also had a dress-up tea party to go to. This was our second year going and it was lots of fun. We join a bunch of other little girls and moms for tea and fancy cookies and snacks. Many of the moms and daughters dressed up in old fashioned "tea party" dresses and hats. Maybe next year for us...

Gracie and Nathan (our little prince)

Some of the moms and daughters that dressed up.

The post party: