let's catch up

I don't know how this happened!

I always said "NEVER will we have a dog, and especially NOT in the house!"

Now we have this little guy...and he's with me 80% of the time!

And guess what?

I love him.

Hershel is the perfect little guy for our family!

He loves to lounge around and nap and snuggle...he fits right in!

We had so much time with family!

Even Mom and Dad were here for a while and we had our first Broyles family Christmas

in so long none of us could remember the last one!

We have a new baby girl, another on the way, and Kyle and Yuki got engaged!!

We are growing in size and in blessings.

Did I mention we have a new baby girl?!

Harlow Mae Lance was born on December 27, just after midnight!

She's sweet and precious and beautiful and we're all in love.

Harlow is Grandpa John's 8th great grandchild!!

We've had some snow...

but not nearly enough!!

We're still waiting for "the big one".

(please please please!!!)

We hope you had a very merry Christmas and a celebratory New Year's Eve!

Maybe I'll get back on the blogging train...

...maybe.

{summer in a nutshell}

Whew...that went by too fast!

is anybody out there?

This past weekend, we got to visit with David & Misti and their girls for an afternoon.
David sweetly encouraged CHASTISED me for not updating the blog often anymore.
I wish I could tell you my reasons were virtuous...
...because I'm too busy volunteering all my time in my kids' classrooms...
...because I decided to go to college...
...because I've been traveling around the world, serving the needy...
Ahem.
No.
None of those things.
I have no reason! Except perhaps laziness!!
So please forgive me, and enjoy these excerpts from the past few months:

Spring decided to show up!!

Easter came and went...
Thank you Grandpa and Robin for the treats!!! The kids LOVED IT ALL!!!!
That last picture is a cookie Piper decorated to look like our babysitter, Elizabeth. hahaha!

This year, Piper's big ballet performance was the CAC School of Ballet's rendition of
"The Nutcracker", called "Clara's Magical Dream".
Piper was a peppermint.
The sweetest of all!
Yes, I am biased.

Mother's Day!
The top picture is the bag Piper decorated that held my Mother's Day present.
Notice she loves me...awww...
...but also that she is FARTING. Ahem.
On Mother's Day, we made the trek to Michigan to hunt for mushrooms.
While this was NOT my idea of the perfect Mother's Day,
(we just HAD to go THAT DAY or ALL the mushrooms would be GONE)
we all had fun and I enjoyed hiking through the woods with my little fam.

Randoms, from top to bottom:
1. Self-explanatory!
2. The last Friday of the school year.
3. Piper's class made a different recipe every Friday, then compiled them all into an adorable cookbook!
4. The first fire and s'mores night of the season.

Today is their LAST DAY of school!
We are very proud of them...they both worked hard this year.
They both made improvements.
They both learned new things.
But most importantly, we saw real spiritual growth in both of them.
THAT is a gift and blessing from above that this mama treasures in her heart forever.

oh, hey!

Soooo it's been a while.
We've had a lot of this going on:

#snowmageddon
Indiana NEVER sees this much snow!
We have loved every single flake.
The kids got to have a bunch of extra days at home...



...and we've had some of this going on:

We shared the Super Bowl with our dear friends, the Gerbers.
We all refer to each other endearingly as "The Stoops" (it's a long story that would bore you...)
so we dubbed it "The Stooperbowl".
Yummy snacks, lots of laughs, and frankly...not that much football!

The Forgotten Children Worldwide Benefit Dinner & Concert Night(s) happened...
at the beginning of February...success!
God continues to bless this ministry beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
And while we've had our share of storms and dark days,
He's never forsaken us nor allowed us to fall.
We'll soon have FIVE HUNDRED sponsored children!
500!! When I began volunteering for FCW 5 years ago, we had less than 100!
God is amazing.



Someone had a birthday....

...and sadly these are the only pictures we took!
He was pretty pleased that school was CLOSED just for him on his birthday.
Ok, maybe it was the foot of snow and 25 below zero wind chill but shhh....don't tell Mack!
It's hard to believe this boy is 8!
He is the most compassionate, kind, funny, sweet, ornery kid on the planet
and there's no way we could be any prouder of our boy.
The girls are beginning to notice...
but thankfully he's still more interested in Minecraft than silly girls. :)



Last but not least...we know a sweet little girl who had a mid-winter ballet performance last weekend:

Our little ballerina was the best baby crow and baby spider IN THE WORLD!
Yes, we're biased.
We're allowed to be biased from time to time!

fresh and new

We have been sprucing-up around here!

I LOVE IT.

Everything feels so fresh and new and OURS.

Jason's family blessed us tremendously by helping him furnish the house when he bought it.

We are extremely grateful for that!!!!

Over the 10 years that we've lived here, we've been slowly adding our own personalities.

We're in love with our new bathroom!

This towel came all the way from France to hang from the empty towel rack you see in the picture above.

After painting the bathroom, we had a ton of paint left so I decided to paint the kitchen too!

It's amazing how the same color looks so different in each room.

The blues in the kitchen make the paint appear to be blue 

but I assure you it is the same gray from the bathroom!

See that basket? It's over 70 years old!

My Grandpa Heavilin gave it to me and said that his Aunt Elsie brought it to his family

for Christmas during the depression. It was filled with apples

and that was their one Christmas gift that year and they cherished it.

be {merry}

Merry Christmas!!!

what's up

We've been having abnormally cold temperatures for Indiana in December.

One day it was about 0 and the wind was blowing about 50 mph.

This weirdo husband of mine went out to JOG in it.

I stayed in with my blanket and my coffee.

I got to go out with some friends for shopping, food, and "Catching Fire".

Lots of laughs and lots of fun!

This little one has been a bit under the weather this week.

That means Mama got LOTS of snuggles!

Last night was the Kindergarten Christmas program at school.

So cute was our little Christmas elf!

two things

It's that time of year again!

I'm so thankful I have a husband.

I'm so thankful my husband does the yard work!

Remember the Ninja Turkey?

Now it's Piper's turn to disguise Tom Turkey so he doesn't get gobbled up for Thanksgiving dinner.

This was ALL HER IDEA. Hilarious!

He's hiding in plain sight!

Uncle Kelly must be so proud...