I love kindergarten...

Teaching my children when they are kindergartners that is.  They are so excited to learn new things, and they think I am so smart!  As the years go by that fades away, but...Today was so fun.  All I had to do is a leaf rubbing, you know with the side of a crayon on paper set on top of  a leaf, anyhow, we did that today and you should have seen Easton's little face!  He was so impressed!  He had a HUGE grin on his face and said, "Wow, that's so cool, I didn't know you know how to do dat!"  Then he had to run and show his brothers who were, less than impressed since they too did that in kindergarten, but when they saw how excited he was they played along and let him show them how it is done!  Too fun! 

Today Easton told me he was jk.  Then he said "That means just kidding!"  Oh my, having little ones who hear things from big ones is quite funny! I also find it funny to teach him when he is "The Incredible Hulk!"

I also have to share a couple of Anaya's latest funnies.
*The other day when I was cleaning out her ears she took a look of the Q-tip and said, "Ewww, boogies!"
*While trying to learn her Bible verse for church she said, "God loved us and sent us guns!"  Oh my how we laughed.  She was supposed to say, God loved us and sent His son!  Oops!  Ryan liked it!


No word on the adoption front, still waiting.......

Dylan's first post about his first deer...

This was my third youth hunt and my first deer.  On Sunday morning, me, my dad, and my brother Jayden went hunting on a corn field and in the middle of the corn field was a food plot (for deer). We woke up at 5:30am and got in the hut at about 6:30 am, we sat till 8:00am but we did not see anything.  We left early because we had to go to church.
At night, a friend of ours, Steve Riley, took me hunting in the same food plot.  When my mom dropped me off at his house I walked over to were he had his rifle set up.  I shot the rifle and hit the bulls eye right in the center!  If I wasn't on with the rifle, I would have had to use a muzzeloader that was sited in for 75 yards, but since I used the riffle, I could shoot further.
So, we went out to the blind at about 5:30pm and sat until about 7:00pm.  Then we saw a buck walk out of the woods at about 180 yards, from there, the buck walked behind a tree and into the corn, he stayed in the corn for about 20 minutes. Then finally, he stepped out, went up on his hind legs, and started licking branches, right when he came back down on to four feet, I shot him.  He was about 170 yards away when I shot him, then, we heard him crash about five seconds after the shot. I was shaking so bad, even Mr. Steve was shaking and he didn't even shoot.
  We left the blind and went back to his house and watched the video just to make sure I got it.  I called my dad ( who was at youth group ) and my mom and told them to come and help me find it.  We got out there and there was not a drop of blood on the ground, but we walked right up to it.  He only ran about 20 yards, if that.  He had an 11 1/2 inch spread and was supposed to be a ten point but the brow tines were cracked off, so he was an eight point buck.

                                                                  Me and Mr. Steve.

                                                                Me and my buck.

                                       My Dad and My brothers, came out to help me drag it out.

                                             Me and my brothers dragging out the deer.

                                                               Thank you Mr. Steve!

smarty pants...

I wish I could take credit for her intelligence, but alas, I must give credit where credit is due...Leap Frog toys and videos are to thank for getting my 3 year old up to where I was when I entered first grade!  I clearly remember learning all of the letter sounds with those blow up plastic letters my teacher had in kindergarten!

God's garage sale part II...

We had a few items left in storage (from our move) that we needed to get rid of so we decided to have another garage sale {read about part I HERE} down in Zeeland.  We put the word out on facebook and were, once again, blown away by friends and family who donated so much stuff to help us bring Luisa home.A special thanks to Tonia, who jumped right in and helped us so much, you are such a blessing!  Through this sale we raised $1,722.00!  WOW!  We were praying for $1,000 to cover most of our lawyer fees while in Colombia, which needs to be paid in cash.  We are just so excited to see how God is supplying our need.  I can't wait to tell Luisa about the amazing ways God worked on our behalf to bring her into our family!

One of the things we had to get rid of was our antique tin ceiling tiles.  We bought about 70 of these beautiful tiles to put in our dream home.  The home we were going to build before God changed our plans!  I must say that I almost cried today when I had to give them up.  It was the last piece of that dream we had left.  We sold our land, and gave God our future and we are excited to see what all He has in store for us, but, there are times when my mind wanders back to what could have been...I can visualize my kitchen with this ceiling and all of the things we had planned and sometimes it just makes me sad!  But, I know that God's plan is greater than mine and I choose to not care so much about "stuff" any more.  I don't know what our future will look like, no one really does, so I am just going to rejoice in the fact that God is amazing and all of the marvelous things that have taken place in our lives since He changed our plans makes me want to serve him more!

Labor Day fun...

This is no easy task, but they are all there, and most of them are even smiling{poor livi!}

We had to check out the huge waves on Lake Michigan!  Man was it windy!

We celebrated several fall birthdays.

My family came up and 'camped' again this Labor Day weekend.  It was great to spend time together!  Now it is back to the grind.  We started school 2 weeks ago, so we are well on our way.  So far so good!  Friday, the kids start Friday Addition, {one day a week school for home schooled kids.}  Dylan is now a 7th grader, Jayden is in 4th, Spencer 2nd, and Easton is a big Kindergartner!!