Thanksgiving 2011

OUR TABLE

{we wrote with fabric marker on the table clothe a tradition all loved and we will continue to do}

 

 

PLACE CARDS

 

CUPS

 

FOOD

{love the little "turkeys"}

 

MANTLE

 

TURKEY POPS

{to give to friends}

 

PILGRIM CHOCOLATE BARS

Santa Parade 2011

 

 

A lot of catching up to do so here we go.

 

Here are Jensen and Julianna waiting for the parade to start...Where's David you ask?

 

 

Here he is dressed as a wiseman for our church float in the parade.

Pumpkin Patch 2011

Soccer Boys Just Want to Have FUN

Here is the team with their Conference Trophy

These 6 boys crack me up and they are the best young men around.

They titled themselves, wait for it, wait for it....

Team Good Looking!!!!!

Christian's shirt says it all!!!!

Coach Ripke and the 2 captains: Christian and Spencer

Now these 2 as you can see are the best and I am absolutely 100% partial but these 2 are great and I love them both. 

*with the announcer voice from Space Jam

They are goofy, they are hams, they are best friends,

They are

Travis and Christian

The Last Touch

Christian is a senior which is hard to believe but I am so happy for all the new adventures that lie before him. 

This fall he had decided after 14 years of playing soccer it was time to hang up his soccer cleats his senior year and run cross country instead... he LOVES LOVES to run and after having a rough couple of seasons on the varsity team this seemed like a good option for him..  This posed some complications he was already named captain of the soccer team and was a very hard decision for him but it was his decision and after much dialogue did I say MUCH he went to the soccer coach and let him know he was not going to play this season and thanked him for the opportunity.  His stance was he would be one of only 3 other seniors on the team and the team was going to be young and wasn't going to do well, plus he is a runner and he didn't want to risk getting hurt and ruining his track season. It was going to be a rebuilding year for the soccer team and it was not something he was geared up for again being a bit tainted from the previous 2 years and not wanting to be injured. I felt like he could make a change in the soccer team and he is a great leader and if he could get them to play like a team they could do wonders. One of his track coaches and teachers talked with him as well stating the soccer team needed him and after much thought and more conversations he had a change of heart.

We were right he made an immense change in the soccer team and they certainly needed him.  The coach said in all of his years of coaching soccer this was the most fun year of coaching.  They started off doing all kinds of team building actvities and they played as a team and their record showed. They were not the most talented team they didn't have the best and biggest players but they were a team and they won their conference with a 9-0 record and their season record was 19-2-1.  I could not be more proud of the team and Christian. 

There was such a sweet spirit about the team and you could feel it at every game and it all started with this:

they would pray before every game.  This is a rare rare moment in sports to have a team so united, so brave to be willing to all kneel in prayer in front of their peers, opponents, and spectators and ask God the Eternal Father to bless their efforts.  See the pink around their shin guards it was for breast cancer.  It was such a fabulous group of young men and I miss having them hanging around and the pile of 22 pairs of teenage boys shoes by the front door, track starts soon so I am sure I will have a new pile of shoes soon!!!

The team aside Christian played almost every minute of every game(as the coach said he was the work horse of the team), made the Dream Team, the Saginaw Valley Team(voted by all the coaches in the league) and by his team mates best mid fielder. 

 I know he was very leary of playing this season but he has not regretted playing having his last touch on a soccer ball with a great group of young men.

Update 2

Yes we bought a new home, sold our old home in record time of 3 hours on the market.

 Went to Mackinaw Island with my dad and stepmom(remember camera being stolen no pictures from there either) had a fabulous 2 days with them,

Labor day at the lake

The kids started  a new school year(no pics again).  I have a Senior(AHHHH) can you believe it, a 3rd grader, 2nd grader and kindergartner. 

I had Super Heroes for Halloween(super girl, spiderman, captian america)

Great Grandma and Granpa Kepler came to visit from California around Thanksgiving.  We had fun spending time with them and we even were able to spend extra time with them due to the fact that Granny broke her ankle(boo hiss)

Kids Say

Jensen is my talker and so when it comes to kids say they are usually something he says becausee he is a ham too!

The other say we are walking and talking about his day at school and he starts squawking like parrot before and after each of his sentences at this of course we got some chuckles from the surrounding aisles and I say to him, "Jensen you are silly you know?" and he replies, "squawk silly is what I do best squawk"  He cracks me up that little guy!!

Kids Say

My Jensen Marc is a shy guy but when he is with me he chats it up.  I can't tell you how many times a women will come up to me and tell me how he made their day with one of his ramblings.  One day we were in Target Christmas shopping and here is an exerpt from one of his observations as we walked through the toy section:

 " Brainy smurf is so smart like my brother David because he reads and that is why he is so smart because mom you know when you read you learn knowledge and that makes your brain so smart like brainy smurf  and the more you read the more you know and jsut get smarter and smarter like brainy smurf, and see Belle she must be smart because she loves to read too" and he went on about Belle until the next thing  nd this is about when I tune him out.  He is so observant and talks a mile a minute and he is smarter than Brainy Smurf thats for sure!!!

The Story of Our House

     We loved our old home and we always said if it just had a garage and a basement we would be all set. We made it work for us and we loved our little home our friend. I would occasionally look for houses for sale and then readily come to the conclusion we are happy where we are and life would go on.  One day David and I were driving Jensen to preschool and we were looking a the outside of houses becausee we knew we wanted to change the outside of the house.  I talked about the houses I love.  Brick front, white pillars, black shutters, with rocking chairs on the front porch.  Also recognizing this would never happen with our little home and on with our looking we went.  A few days or so later I dropped the children off at school and turned the wrong way out of the school parking lot and to be honest I was thinking about other things(primary) and soon enough I realized I had no idea exactly where I was at.  Did I take the 1st or 2nd turn?  I had no idea so I stopped on the side of the road got my barrings and decided if I turned right left right left I would get out of the twisting turning mess and I drove straight into a home I never had seen before brick front, white pillars,black shutters, rocking chairs on the front porch and it was for sale.  I honestly could not believe I was staring at the house I had described days before.  I went online took a look at it and decided it was out of our price range and the layout was less than desirable and didn't think much of it, I did however show David it and he was stunned as well but we were happy where we were and pinning over something that couldn't be, is not us.  A week or so had passed and through a series of events our circumstances changed and the house was setting right on our price range.  We went online and looked at the house again and we talked it through and decided we really are happy where we are and making a big change like that right now was not on the docket and off to bed we went at peace with our decision. 

      At roughly 3am I woke up like a shot and all that was on my mind was that house.  I got out of bed and went online again looking at the house.  I knew right then we need to try to buy that house.  We got the name of a realtor on Sunday and called him the next day to set up an appointment to look at the house. That Monday morning a contract was put on the house.  I was bummed.  I couldn't believe it.  We decided to meet with the realtor anyways to have him appraise our house and I told him we really wanted that house and if it didn't work out were we could buy it then we would just keep our eyes open and call him if we saw something we were interested in but we weren't going to be house hunting so to speak. 

     I spent the next few days mourning the loss of the house I loved(well at least I know I loved the outside).  David and I had a heart to heart and I was so certain we should buy that house and my oh so wise husband said did you ever think that you saw that house to get you prepped to actually start looking for a house?  I had never thought about it that way and so the hunt began but what kind of house did I want, I had no idea. It was decided the next day was Saturday and I would go to all of the open houses that day to see what I liked about houses, what I didn't like etc, I will tell you I was very critical of evey single house we went to see that day.  I learned I don't like saunas in the basement, cramped spaces, flowery wallpaper in almost every room, basements that were cut up into so many rooms it seeemd like a dungeon, yellow oak cabinets and trim everywhere, houses near busy roads or on curvy roads with no street lights. We spent Saturday evening researching new builds and quickly realized this was not for us and called the realtor and had him set up visits to 3 houses and then we added one we saw on Saturday it was a busy open house and David really wanted us to go back to it.  It was our favorite from Saturday but I felt like it was too big and we would not use all of the space and it felt like it would be indulgent of us to get such a large home for our family but it happend to be on the same street as another house we were going to see so why not check it out again. 

     I did my research of the houses we were going to see on Monday and also read about not using spaces in homes as they were originally intended.  When we went to look at houses again I looked at them differently.  How would we use each room?  Would it go to waste?  With this new found ideaology I looked a the houses differently.  It was more about how we would live in the houses.  I asked myself if the kids are outside playing how accesible is the bathroom so they wouldn't need to trapse through the whole house, can we cook together in the kitchen, is there a room for us to have be a peaceful retreat, is there a playroom, is there a place were we can do art projects and science experiments and not care if it gets a mess, is there room for food storage, is there a place for them to read and do homework, is there a place to be able to play games,  is there a place for me to do my projects?  It seemed like a tall order for our budget but all of those things were and are important to me and so  off we went.  The first house we saw we didn't even look at the whole thing and the same with the 3rd.  The second house was great until we went into the basement and I went into the laundryroom and started gasping for air(can I say I was sick for a week after that) David rapidly ushered me right out of the house.  There had to be black mold and cats in that room.  We then went to the house we had already seen but mind you I was being quite cynical and there we no less than 5 other couples in the house the last time we toured it and I was looking at it very differently.  When we walked in I saw all of its possiblities.  I actually could see our family living there.  I went through every room and stood and looked and knew what it would be. 

     The realtor seeing we liked this house said there is a house comparable to it and we shoudl go see it so he set up an appt with me the next day to go look at a comparable house to that one and then David went and saw the comparable the next morning, honestly they compared in price and I loved the master bath of the comparable but the layout was eh and really there was no comparison.  We knew which house we should buy and so we put in a offer and the next day, the last day of school we had ourselves a house!!! 

     In the previous post you heard of the craziness surrounding the closing and move to our new houme and by the time we put our old friend on the market there was an offer in under 3 hours(we didn't even have a for sale sign in front of  it yet) $500 less than what we wanted but it was SOLD lickety split!

     I look back at this whole experience and am see how Heavenly Father jsut guided us through the whole thing and am so grateful for all he ahs blessed us with over the last year!!!

Update 1

    I left of with California Adventures...we had so much fun in CA..Disneyland, California Adventure, Legoland, and San Diego Safari Park.  We came back from good ole California and 4 days later left to go camping for the week again we had so much fun.  I love spending a week at the beach.  We came back from our camping trip and readily got David ready for a week long business trip.  We had so much fun on our vacations and enjoyed our time together but it certainly was a crazy time because in the midst of it all we bought a NEW HOUSE!!!  (sorry there are no pictures our camera was stolen soon after school started grrr take the camera leave the memory card next time).
     
      When I say in the midst I do mean in the midst.  When we came back from CA I met with a floor guy and painters and carpet cleaners and vent cleaners at the new house and the day before we left for camping they had the keys to get the work done before we came back.  When we returned home from camping the floor guys had 30 minutes left of work.  We were packing for trips, packing to move, unpacking from trips, and repacking and unpacking and repacking. Did I say it was ca crazy time???  Then we had the carpet cleaners and vent cleaners come so we were ready three days after we were back from camping we closed on our new home and the move began.  I had not moved since I was pregnant with Christian and let me tell you the amount of items you have at age of 19 is much different than the amount you have at the age I am now.  I was beyond overwhelmed and all the while David was working so myself and the 4 children loaded and unloaded numerous van and truck loads of stuff.  All the while getting David ready to leave us in 2 days.  It was a whirlwind of a time.  And we are loving our new home!!!

    

Hearts Hearts Everywhere

     Today was one of those days that never ends. Let me explain. The upside of the day is that it is Thursday because that is my night off from cooking dinner..woohoo. I ran all day because it is someones birthday this week and I wanted to have everything ready so when the kids came home from school we could work on Dads birthday surprises.  We worked quickly and then got ourselves all presentable for dinner and then ran to pack meeting.  From there we divided I took Julianna and Jensen home to bed while David and David went to the ShelterHouse to finish up a project that was left unfinished on Saturday(David was so excited to go back to the ShelterHouse to work I couldn't very well stop him from going to give his time to the community).  They returned home sometime around 9:45ish and then it was off again to drive to Sanford to drop off a truck we had been borrowing and then back home again.  By the time we returned home it was 11:15 and I was exhausted and I am sure David was too.  I explain this day because I am finding them very typical around here lately but something was different this day.  As we drug our exhausted bodies up the stairs and turned on the lights in our bedroom we were welcomed with a fabulous surprise...Hearts Hearts Everywhere!!!!  While we were away our children cut out hearts and put them all over our room.  Some were plain, some had writing on them, or pictures colored on them, but one wall was the best.  It had 2 big hearts on each side.  One said I love that you... and the other side said Love with all the kids names signed.  All the hearts in the middle had all the things we do or who we are.  It was one of  those days when the exhaustion was all worth it or efforts were recognized.  We love you our children, you are all wonderful..Christian, Kendra, David, Julianna, and Jensen!!!

End Of School Year 2011

Last Day of 2nd grade

They had fun at the fun zone just playing, eating pizza, and playing some fun group games.  Here I interrupted a fleeing of some sort of sea creature..I love boys and the adventures they take themselves on!!!

Last Day of 1st grade

They played too at on of their classmates homes.  They had sundaes to eat, played some fun games and had crafts and face painting too!!!

Teenagers are hard to run down for these types of things..he did have a last day of 11th grade and went to BDUBSs(Buffalo Wild Wings for those of you that don't have teens yet) and hung with his friends!!!

Articles of Faith

     We are currently working on memorizing the Articles of Faith and have a little chart set up for the kiddos to encourage them along the way.  This has been quite a motivator for my children, they are pulling out their scriptures all the time trying to memorize the next one.  The other afternnon I was working one on one with Julianna because she was stuck but Jensen also wanted my attention too.  I asked David if he could work with Jensen on his next one since he knew that Article of Faith so well  and they gladly worked together, so I could give Julianna the time she needed.

      Every morning we gather in our living room and we read the scriptures, or read a story, or sing a song and this morning was a bit different I gathered them around but I was not quite ready to go so I had asked them to grab their book and read quietly while I finished getting ready for the day and then from upstairs I started to  hear singing.  I quietly snuck down the stairs to see what was going on and I wish my camera was in my hand becasue what I saw next was inspiring.  David was sitting on the ottoman with Jensen and Julianna in front of him and he was teaching them a song to one of the Articles of Faith.  It is one of those moments as a parent that you treasure.

Mommmmmyyy!!!!

Even though I am not caught up on adding our summer adventures to my blog, I am also realizing I don't want to forget to add our moments that make our life sooo precious, the little things that we will want to remember when our children are gone creating their own lives and our memories are not what they used to be,  thanks for the reminder my friend. 

My youngest has started Kindergarten.  At the school he attends the Kindergartners have there own entrance and exit you pick them up from and you wait for them outside near the playground.  They have been back at school for roughly 3 weeks now and everyday as I stand waiting for him, I can't wait to see his smiling face make it to the front of the line. I have always felt that way with all my children but with him it is different because I can see him 3 or 4 children back in line and he is already scanning for me and after he gives his teacher the password for the day, the next thing you hear from his sweet little lips is, "Mooommmmyyyy!" and he runs to me with his arms wide open as open as they can be while trying to keep a backpack on your back and gives me a huge hug. 

I often reflect how overwhelmed I was when I felt like we should have another baby and even more when David confirmed that feeling and I still remember his words to me at that time, "This baby is going to change our lives!" and he was right!  Because his simple exclamation of Moooommmmyyyy has changed my life, a constant reminder of who I am....Mommy!

Our California Adventures #1

We had a true CA adventure and here is the 1st adventure I am going to share going to Disneyland and California Adventure:

Meeting the princesses and eating at Ariels Grotto.

Breakfast at Story Tellers Cafe with Chip and Dale and some other fun friends.

If you know Jensen then you know when we saw these green army men we were stopping every time we saw them!!!

Another funf riend from Story Tellers Cafe Terk from Tarzan!

Doing a fun dance at Story Tellers Cafe wrapping up a parade through the resturaunt...the kids loved this and we stayed long enough they did it twice!

I LOVE toontown and we were special guests one day and the kids loved going into Toontown early with out a lot of people around.

They even got to go on the rollercoaster several times in a row with out waiting in line!!!

They loved the teacups!!!

And look who we found while we were waiting for the parade to start!

It's a Bug Life!

We were waiting for Monsters Inc to come and snapped this quick pic.

Here we are in Pixie Hollow!

and in Mickeys House after we got to say hi to the mouse himself!!!

We have a ton of other pictures too these are some of the highlights!

There faves were D4 and D3 Tower of Terror they went of that while the rest of toured a Bugs Life and all their rides!

The New Star Tours was loved by all!!!

They loved the Aladdian show and any other Parade or show that were in the streets!

We had a fabulous time and they were just the right ages for it!