Stockings

Christopher makes me laugh as he got so excited over everything in his stocking!

This is the first morning in a long time that the kids woke me up, so if I don't look awake that's why. The chocolate helps!

Christmas with the Newmans

Opening presents gets a little long so Tim decided to take a nap.
My parents got be an MP3 player. I've enjoyed listening to music as I clean.
Here's Keith's new blanket. It was made by my sister and so much like Keith trying to keep everyone happy. ISU on one side and the Hawkeyes on one side. My kids have both decided to be Hawk fans so they really don't like the ISU side. The best was when Sherry my brother Jeff's wife had the ISU side facing out and someone said wrong side. She said,"No she was just trying to keep the Hawks close to her."

Here is Baby Jael! She liked the taste of this bow the best!
Trevon turns two in March so this was practice for his birthday.
Eli did good watching Treven open his presents even though he wanted a few of them. He did like his presents.
Chris gets so excited about his presents!
Along with this coat for her doll, Beth got her last two "Trixie Beldon" books that she needed to complete the set. She was so excited that she was crying! For those of you haven't heard of "Trixie Beldon" they are books written about a 14 year old girl who solves mysteries.

Christmas Update

We have had a great Christmas Season! God has been so very good to us! Not because we got a great expensive Christmas Present, or we got to see all of our family but because these things remind us that He is with us always and it helping us to grow and become more like him. This year we have had numerous car troubles finally we were down to one car again. A couple in our church allowed us to borrow one of their cars. On Wednesday night Dec. 12 I was sick. Keith called be from church and said I needed to bring that car back to them. When I got to church I was handed keys to a new mini van ! Several people at the church made this possible but mainly a couple who lost their adult son last Christmas time. That truly touched my heart and reminded me that what we may consider tragic God can use for good.
We were able to spend time with my family on the 15th and we will be actually doing Christmas with Keith's family on the 29th. We did get together for my nephew Ben's birthday on the 8th. Also Kevin has been at our house since Saturday and Kent has come for supper and played games a couple of nights!
God has blessed us in our jobs this year. While I really don't want to work outside the home, cleaning house has its upsides. Like I can clean my own house quicker, I have a very understanding boss and really don't have to deal with people. Some of the home owners are home and I enjoy talking with them. I thankful recieved a bonus this Christmas! Keith received his normal bonus, but he also recieved an extra bonus for working hard and one for not calling in sick this year.
We are taking a break from school right now. The kids have been helpful with wrapping and baking!
Well its time for lunch and then we are going to go sledding!

Christmas Angels HA HAA!

Here are my darling Christmas Angels! Our Children's program at church was "Hark the Herald Angel" It is a story of what may have happend in heaven before the birth of Jesus. Since they had the robes for the kids the Children's Choir wore them when they sang as part of our Christmas Celebration.

Christmas Program

For our church Christmas program my kids were angels. Christopher got to change and be a shepherd for this part of the program. Beth got to be a special angel and guard baby Jesus.
Here is Beth with her small singing group.
Here is the whole group Chris is in the second row 4th from the right. Beth is in the back row second from the left. They worked on the program since the end of August during Children's Church. Christopher had really enjoys preforming and singing. He would read the program over at least every other day. It really showed that the kids liked the program and that they had practiced hard.

I'm back!

Ok so I've been too busy to blog, but I've decided to change that. At lease once a week I promise to publish something.
We had a good Thanksgiving. I had the flu from the Saturday before until the Monday before. It made it so I really didn't have to watch what I ate. I have offically gone down a size in my clothes. The pants I wore tonight to youth group were way too baggy. Thankfully I had a belt.

BKB Golf Tournament

This is Beth with Ben at the 4th Annual BKB golf outing. It was held on Saturday Sept. 22. Beth helped watch Ben most of the day. Keith, Chris and I sat at the hole where if you got a hole in one you won a free 2year lease. No one won! It was a great day. Altogether they raised $11,383.77 dollars which goes to buy carseats for babies under 5 pounds that get dismissed from the NICU at Mercy Hospitial in Des Moines. This is where my neice Bailey Katherine Bryant was for her short life before she went to heaven becasue of complications of Downs. Also our son Nicholas was there for 2 weeks.

Throw the computer out the window!!!

Ok so we have been having computer problems again. Anyway I have pictures from Beth's birthday which she enjoyed and the Fun Fair at church. My plan is to post them Monday. Sorry.

The weekend

Last night we went to the Homecoming Dinner at Faith. We sat with my brother, wife and daughter, Johanna. We also had one of our past teens,Andy Mungons, with us at the table and another freshman and professor. It was exciting to see what students did for the summer. Also the kids enjoy the time with other kids. This was also the first time we heard the new president, Dr. Maxwell speak. I thought he did a good job at challenging us.
Today Chris got caught up on all his school work. Next week we hope it is better so we don't have to do school on Saturday. We also went to an open house for a couple in our church. It was their 25 year anniversary and their daughter was able to surprise them!!! Then I had to go to the grocery store. Keith and the kids really didn't want to go, but we are trying to save gas so they went. Keith was amazed at what you could buy at ALDI's. I told him he should come more often as it changes. On the way home we did get into the game traffic. The once a year traffic jam in Huxley Iowa.
This next week seems busy as I have to finish up Beth's birthday shopping. She turns 11 one week from tomorrow! Thankfully we are not having a friend party this year. I enjoy them, but they are a lot of work.

Monopoly

Saturday the Hatfields weren't able to come over so we decided to play Monopoly. It was alot of fun! Christopher won! This is the second time we have done this as a family and the second time Christopher won.

Beth and her gum

While I was working today, Beth calls me and says, "I chewed Christopher's gum." I ask if he is mad was it special gum. She says no. So I'm like what's the problem. She says, "He had already chewed it." She took it off his plate after lunch. I reassured her that it wasn't that big of deal. He isn't sick right now. The college girls that was cleaning with me just laughed. She thinks I get some of the most interesting phone calls from my kids.
We are working on cleaning this afternoon. Tomorrow night we are having Pastor Will, Amy and family over for supper. God has blessed us with such a nice house that we need to share it more often. My plan is not to leave home at all tomorrow. We'll have to see. I'm not sure what I'm having for supper so I may have to run to the store.

Labor Day and Starting School!

This weekend was the weekend that Keith decided to help paint the up stairs at my parents' house. It didn't go as well as he expected so we stayed an extra day. We did get home on Tuesday afternoon with enough time to start school. The first two days have been traumatic for Chris, but today was better. Beth has done great! She finishes and then offers to help him. One of the other cleaning ladies quit so I've had my schedule changed alittle. It hasn't been too bad. I just like to be in a routine.

Hershey Factoy

This show was cool. It included these animals,their trainer and 3 divers. The divers were the crooks and the sea lions and their trainer were the detectives. Actually the trainer was their secretary.

Look at the lights on the light poles. They are shaped like Hershey Kisses. Some are wrapped and some are unwrapped. These are on Chocolate Avenue.

This part of the factory as seen from the mono rail. I ended up riding the mono rail 3 times. The first one was Friday night. I wanted to see the park at night. Only Beth didn't want to ride it with me. Kieth and her didn't ride it. So then on Saturday , we convinced her to ride with us and she liked it. Then the kids had to have Keith ride the mono rail with them, so we did.
Below are the singing cows that we saw on the tour of the factory. Actually it is not of the factory, but a tour they have set up.

Hershey Park

When we came into the park on Saturday morning. This guy was showing the skunk. Hershey Park is connected to Zoo America, which you can enter for free from Hershey Park.

Beth and Chris were not quite as daring at Hershey Park to try new rides. This one was O.K. since it was like a ride at Adventureland. They said their favorite ride was the Frog Hopper which they also have at Adventureland. I thought Hershey Park was a great place for all ages. There was a ton of kiddie rides, but also great roller coasters. We went in Friday night for the "Preview". Youn can go from 7:30 pm -10:00 and then we went all day on Saturday and there were still rides most of us didn't ride.

This year was the first year for the new Boardwalk part of Hershey. It is a water park. My kids had looked up pictures on line and were so excited to be there.

This was an interesting ride. It is suppose to be like you are riding waves in the ocean. Chris waited in line, but decided not to do it as you have to jump off the top.

It was very busy so we didn't get to spend a lot of time doing the water slides.

Lancaster Trip

Here is Keith catching a nap between the competition and the youth rally.

One night after the sessions it had rained so the teens decided to play in the puddles.

Beth and Chris thought I should put this picture in the blog.

This is BEth in the pool at the hotel we stayed at in Lancaster.

The youth rally was suppose to be outside . However it was too hot. They held it instead in a ball room in the hotel. They used the good dishes and cloth napkins. I personally found it humorous as it was for teens and they served hamburgers.

Tirp to Lancaster #2

Here is most of our stuff. It was kind of amazing that we fit 30 people's stuff in 1 trailer! This was taken at Cedarville Univeristy.

Here is Carla, she did a great job with the dramas.

Here is the first drama getting ready to preform.

Here is the second drama preforming.

This is the large vocal group. Don't they look great in their robes!

Tip to Lancaster

I know it has been awhile since our trip, but I thought you still might want to see some pictures. Here are the teens at the church the first night. The church was great! They even bought us Pizza for lunch on Sunday.
Our tire on the trailer blew out! We were following and it was kind of wild how they didn't realize it right away. We also lost the fender, but no one was hurt!

The teens decided to play a huge game of spoons. That is the group of spoons in the right corner. They played in one spot and the spoons were over there you actually had to get up to get the spoons.
We decided we should look at a map before we took off the next day. We had a route from map quest, but it always better for everyone to know where we are going. On the lift is Earl and in the middle is Arvin it was nice of them to go with us.

Keith's Funny!

So Keith calls me on my cell phone shortly after he left for work. He said he picked up our cordless phone instead of his drink bottle. He was in too big of a hurry leaving for work! He seems to do that every night, he reads one more chapter to the kids which takes more time then he expects. Then he has to hurry to get to work on time. The kids thought that it was very funny that the phone was in the back seat of the car.
Last night I went to a meeting for home schoolers. It was a good meeting. Even the new superintendent was there in support of home schooling. They also gave out a list of Field Trips. Beth and Chris are both excited to go to Living History Farms. They will actually get to work on a farm and make a snack to eat.

Parade, Wedding and a Race

We started the weekend with a trip to Pella to get my parents. My mom had to go to the special shoe place in West Des Moines, so the kids and I went to Michaels. They were having a great sale and I bought a pretty shell, candle thing for my bathroom. I'm going to hang it and see how long it takes Keith to notice it. Then we were able to go to my brother Jeff and Sister in law Sherry house. Their daughter Johanna was there. She is always good about playing with the kids. We had a great supper and then we sat around and talked. Jeff also "fixed" my computer. It was a great night! Keith went to Men's retreat for the night and returned home at about 12:30 am.
On Saturday we went to Nevada for the Lincoln Highway Days Parade. Keith's brother was in teh parade. Kim and Steve and Ben came for the parade. This was the first parade Ben really got to watch as he was in parades on the 4th of July. It was fun to watch him. The kids got way too much candy! We went out to lunch and then headed to our church for a wedding. Stephanie my sister in laws Sister married a good friend of Kieth. It was funny as we didn't not realize until the groom started dating Amy(the bride )that he lived that close to us. Joe(the groom)younger brother Jordan was the ring bearer in our wedding. What a small world. It was fun to see my nephew Eli go down the aisle as a the ring bearer. He is only 23 months, but they bribed him with a sucker. It worked! I got to hold my niece, Jael for a while. She wasn't very happy as Stephanie had been busy as Matron of Honor and hadn't spent much time with her. She is growing and getting cuter everyday. Eli even let me hold him for awhile.
After the wedding we went back to Pella. Keith, Christopher, my dad and Joel went to the races in Knoxville. Chris loved it!!! He was so excited he couldn't hardly get to sleep. He also woke up in a good mood this morning. My mom, Beth and I canned 10 quarts of tomato juice. It was a fun time working together.
Today we stayed in Pella for church. Keith had a meeting at our church this afternoon so we all went up to Ames. The meeting went longer than planned, but the kids helped me make some copies and got to play with the Hatfield kids. I was so tired I order pizza from Casey's . Now I"m looking forward to working my last Monday until after school is out. I decided I really couldn't work that many days and school my kids.

Family Camp

This is Beth and her friends Jenny "surfing". They are two peas in a pod. Which means they are two very very silly girls!
Here is Chris at the bottom of his slide. He really still likes the playground. Also notice that he has on no shoes.
We had a great time at Family Camp, however Beth came back sick. I felt bad for her last Friday as she just felt worse and worse as the day went on. We took my parents back to Pella and they took us out to Pizza Ranch. It was good and Beth enjoyed mashed potatoes and ice cream. She didn't really begin to feel better until Tuesday. Then I got it only I didn't get a sore throat.Chris woke up on Thursday night with an ear ache. He doesn't seem as sick and has just kind of laid around.
I'm in the process of getting things lines up for the fall. We had a planing meeting with the teens this weekend and will have a parent kick off on Wednesday so we need to get everything line up.
I still have one more curriculum to order for Beth. Our goal is to start school next week.