Flash Lily

Grant left yesterday to attend a four day three night FCA sports camp. It is the first time he has been gone this long without Jeff or myself. I miss him very much.


An interesting thought that I have been thinking of is even though we have a house brim full of children. We have a home with lots of loud craziness almost all the time, my heart is unsettled in knowing when one less child is home.With all the distraction I would think I would not notice but for this old mom Grant being gone for just four days seems like a year. How will I ever make it through the years when the kids are grown and leave the house to start their adult lives! I could not think of even one of the fourteen not being here under our roof. Why does time have to go SO fast?

Speaking of fast...I was trying to get a cute picture of Lily today and this is all I could get! She was moving from one thing to another faster than I could take a picture!

Hand-Me-Downs

I was hunting in our clothing boxes to find Lily a few summer things and I came across this dress. I made this dress and two similar dresses for Anya when she was a baby. I just think they are SO cute. It is a little on the small side for Lily who is 18 months. Anya was around 9-12 months when she wore them but she was a little chubby baby.

Lily in Anya's baby dress.




I could not find a picture of Anya wearing the exact dress Lily is wearing in the pictures above but the below picture is Anya wearing one of the other dresses I made in a different fabric. Summer 2003.





As long as I was digging up baby pictures of Anya I thought these would be fun to show. I can hardly remember when our family was this size. This was in 2002. We had six children eight and under. Pretty cute group!



This is just a sweet picture of Elena,Grant,and Anya. Elena was so exited to have a sister.

Sprinkler Action

Elena took these great pictures of the kids playing in the sprinkler.

Aren't they great!

Sad Day

Yes, I was a HUGE Micheal Jackson fan in high school. Once I entered college my music tastes changed (I was into the Monkeys. TOTALLY great!) but my ears always perk up when I hear a Micheal Jackson song.

The news of Micheal Jackson's death has affected me in many different ways. Is it selfish to say the biggest way his death affected me was it reminded me of how time passes so quickly? It seems it was just a few days ago I was sitting in Mrs. Goldberg's 10Th grade English class not paying attention to the days lessons at all but looking at the clock figuring out what time it would be in California where Micheal Jackson lived. Or panicked when I heard his hair caught fire (don't laugh I was really worried). Or waiting to see if Friday Night Videos would play a Micheal video. How could that much time have passed so quickly?

I heard from the kids that Naomi said Micheal Jackson came to her home in Liberia and gave her family money. Interesting story. I'm not totally convinced that it really happened. Naomi was quite young when she entered the orphanage which meant she would have been too young to understand or remember such a visit, but maybe he did. Who am I to say it didn't really happen!

Here are a few of the kids watching a few Micheal videos on YouTube.They thought they were pretty neat. By Sunday we were watching Weird Al videos (I am sure you can draw the connection...you remember Eat It, don't you?) which they thought were even better.

A Few Quick Projects

I made these three blankets as tie blankets a while back but just did not really like how they turned out. Today I took out the yarn ties and machine quilted them. Now they are much better! Now that I look at them quilted I realised that the yarn ties I had on them before were distracting from the cute fabric. I think that was why the blankets looked a little awkward. Now they do not look odd or awkward at all.



As an impulse I added a cute applique heart to this one. I think it is just adorable!

Mankato FCA Day Camp

Elena and Grant have been a part of Mankato's FCA day camp staff this week and Alan was able to go as a camp attender. They had a LOT of fun! Grant and Elena were able to participate as Huddle leaders which involved many fun things like Bible studies,a skit,and encouraging the kids in their groups. Alan said tonight that he wished the day camp did not end.

Here are a few of the kids in the group Elena helped lead.

HeavenWord Handlers Are At It Again!!!

Here is another great performance from the Waseca HeavenWord Handlers!

Austin Hinton, Shane Streich, Jacob Dooley, Grant, Alan, Joyce,and Cryus are the kids that make up the HeavenWord Handlers A Team.

Today they performed at the Mankato FCA sports day camp. They did a great job!!!

Time Goes By Too Fast!

I thought a few pictures of my June birthday children would be fun to share.

Our first, sweet Elena enters the world via C-section (breach) way back June 20,1994.



Elena was crazy for Little House on the Prairie books so off we went to Lake Pepin, Wisconsin for Laura Ingalls Wilder Days one year.



Elena and dad going on a date.



A visit to Embers for Elena's birthday



Elena has always loved to read.





One year and two days after Elena entered the world here came Grant on June 22, 1995 (not via c-section which was great).



Grant after heart surgery at three months old. Poor little guy. His heart is all fine now.





Grant and Grandpa Bob



Grant and my Halloween costume collaboration. He was a big Revolutionary War fan back then.



These years just flew by. Elena, Grant, and Alan taking a bath.

Now Elena's Birthday Cake!

and a few random weekend photos

Elena is not wanting her picture taken.Notice her cool staff t-shirt for the FCA camp).





Lily runs away with a coffee drink



Odell and Lily whispering to each other



Beautiful Naomi



Cute as a button Joel



The constant state of Anya's hair. I can never find that brush...



Cyrus usually hides from the camera so I took this picture when he was not paying attention to the camera.

Happy 14th birthday Grant!!!

Today, my second oldest is 14!!!!!!

I just can not believe it. It seems like it was just yesterday that Grant was born and now here he is.

Grant, I love you VERY much!!!





After gift opening and cake with ice cream Jeff and Grant were off to have a special birthday dinner at Subway and catch a late show of Star Trek at the movie theater. Lucky ducks. I am crazy about Star Trek.

She Can't Be 15 Already!

This has been a crazy weekend!

Elena's official birthday is Saturday June 20th but with her slumber party activities, Saturday paper routes, and a Saturday night camping time with dad and her other bigger siblings we postponed Elena's gift opening until today.

Right after opening her gifts Elena and Grant are off to Mankato to be trained as staff members for a 3 day Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp they are involved in this coming week. We are going to have her special birthday meal and cake for Elena on Tuesday. We needed to move Father's Day celebrations to next Sunday. Wow! This is about the busiest month out of the year for us!

HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY ELENA!!!!!!


I can not believe my oldest is already 15!



This is the greatest picture...Elena is opening her girly gifts but the boys are just as interested. Cyrus is talking with Elena about a bath set she just opened, Alan is smelling some great Vanilla Mango lip butter from Apple Valley Natural Soap. Grant is looking at a Building 429 CD Elena got as a gift. Who said girl gifts are boring?Hm...I think it was Grant,Alan, and Cyrus not long before she started opening her gifts.



Now here is the scene from the rest of the kids. Could they look any more bored?






Stay tuned...more birthday fun coming up!

Friday Night Sleep-Over

Elena has been waiting for this since her tenth birthday...

Her 15th birthday sleep-over!

Elena and 8 of her friends camped out in our fireplace room and had a lot of fun.




Lily trying to sneak in thinking no one would notice her small size. It could work...sometimes Lily acts 15 and sometimes Elena acts 1...did I really say that?



Girl talk around the fire



HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELENA!!!!!