Let's Catch Up!

Christmas morning! We had a wonderful Christmas!

Kaeleigh Jay will be 12 in April. TWELVE! She is such a beautiful young lady. She's in the 6th grade, she works hard and has straight A's! She enjoys singing and is in choir at school. She dreams of opening a salon with her friend where she will specialize in makeup and her friend will specialize in hair. (Just like Aunt Korie!!) She may or may not be having interest in boys. ;)

Mackinley James just turned 10! Double digits! I can hardly believe this. He enjoys video games, video games, video games. :) He recently discovered Calvin and Hobbes and reads as many as he can. (YAY) He dreams of having his own YouTube channel. He also wants to be a policeman like Daddy, and/or have a "techy" job.

Piper Renae is 7 going on 17. She is all spunk and fire and she's hot or she's cold...no in-between! She loves to read. Right now her love is Junie B. Jones. She still gets lost in her imagination and loves to pretend and play with dolls and Barbies. She dreams of being a vet, a good mama, and a baker. (Seen here about to make cookies with Sissy and Daddy in her chef hat from Robin)

Hershel is 1 and the joy of our lives! We don't know how we were a family before we had him. He enjoys tackling with Daddy and Mack, eating treats of all kinds but especially cheese, and he is sure to get in a good solid 18 hours of sleep each day. He dreams of finally removing each and every squirrel from the backyard for good.

For Christmas the kids and I gave Jason a Kindle Fire 10. I researched art apps and gave him a list of the best 10. He has been dabbling in it, learning to draw and paint digitally. He's such a wonderful artist, I'm excited to see where this new medium takes him. He works two jobs to provide for us. He is an amazing daddy. He is the love of my life and my best friend. He is a picture of God's grace for me, because I certainly don't deserve him.

I recently discovered there's a tiny artist living inside me. :) While I cannot draw...I do enjoy digitally enhancing and manipulating artwork. I've started a little hobby creating social media banners and other pieces, mostly people ask me to use characters from the game World of Warcraft. I still have so much to learn, but I am having fun and it's a wonderful creative outlet for me. Some of you may be surprised to learn of this "other life" I lead, while others of you have always known my geek at heart.

with a heavy heart...

This past Friday was my official last day as the Child Sponsorship Coordinator at Forgotten Children Worldwide. I have grown, learned, loved, become broken, healed, and experienced tremendous joy in the 5 years I had this position. I leave with a heavy heart while still being excited and expectant for what God has for me next. FCW will always be near and dear to me, I will miss all the people I've worked with all over the world. :( If you're looking for a way to give back, check out FCW, there are tons of options and it's the real deal.

hey look! a new post!

No...I'm not a fail wife! He WANTED peanut butter chocolate chip cookies instead of a cake.

We had a great time celebrating our amazing daddy and husband.

He's a gift!!

An enderman and Steve...if you have no clue what I'm talking about,

click here. All three of our kids looooove Minecraft!

Halloween was freezing and raining but that didn't stop these two from filling their buckets!

I forced them all to dress nicely then I dragged them out for pictures.

They'll thank me when they're adults.

That's what I kept telling them as we tried to find the perfect spot in the freezing wind.

We REALLY wanted to use the beautiful area with the railroad track, but it was just too

windy and cold and the sun was too bright. I do love this picture I got of 

our handsome little man, though. :)

Stay tuned for more from this photo session...closer to Christmas!

These three though...

I rode down with Ashley for her hair appointment and some girl time with my BFF and sister.

Baby Lance is so close to her arrival!!!

We had Korie's first shower last Sunday, hosted by one of her clients in

her beautiful home. Korie and Baby were showered with love and gifts!

And Misti made the trek all the way from North Carolina, so fun!

{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!