It’s the 1st day of the 1st grade, 5th grade, & 6th grade

Griffin – age 6 – 1st Grade, Mrs. Nowaskie

Natalie – age 10 – 5th Grade,  Mr. Graber

  Megan – age 11 – 6th Grade, Mrs. Craney

So we are back in  school once again.  We’ve had an incredibly busy summer which I didn’t blog one thing about but will get a chance to at a later date.   The kids jumped out of bed ready to start their day.  I think they were pretty excited to get back and see their friends.  We had time to snap pictures with their trees, minus Natalie’s tree, which got blow over in a storm this summer, (yes it was heart breaking blog on that to come)…so she got her back to school picture with her tree stump.  And they all were glad to see Grandpa Keith and give hugs and kisses before they got on the bus

Griffin had asked Kaelyn to ride the school bus with them this morning.  So Lisa arrived with little Miss cutie putie, Kaelyn and Bus #9 came and took them away to start their 1st day adventure at school!

Which left little Mr. Alton, wondering where’d they go??

So we are back to our school year routine, so Alton is back hanging out with me on the farm…of course we had to go see cows and kitties and have a little tractor riding time before going in to eat breakfast.  He’s grown up so much since May and is really talking and just a happy little boy.  He’s even mastered singing Elmo’s theme song…he’s such a little sweetie. 

Happy 10th Birthday to our Natalie!

WOW a whole decade has past since God blessed us with our smiling, twirling, chocolate munchin, number crunchin, speed runner, flip floppin, back flippin, baby lovin, scrapbookin, lawn mowin, Bible Believing, beautiful blonde haired  little girl into our lives…little did we know when she was born that we’d get to see all her different personality traits develop over the years.  It has been pure JOY to have her in our family and we have enjoyed every minute,  even the far and few between pouting episodes. 

We’ve had a great day celebrating her birthday with friends and family over for lunch today.   I made manicotti, per Natalie’s request and her cake was AMAZING!!  My BFF, Kiersten, made the celebration extra special with Natalie’s cross country themed birthday cake!  Natalie loves to run and loves cross country and asked if she could have a cross country cake????  I was thinking how in the world do we do that…I gave Kiersten the idea and she blew me away with the end results!!!

The cake looked so much like the finish line of the course that she runs at the Gasthof and the little girl she made……. looked just like Natalie!  It was just PERFECT for her!!!  We decided to put the number 10 on her shirt for the racing number since she turned 10 today and the time on the clock is a goal for Natalie to shoot towards this year… she wants to break 12 minutes for her 3k race this year!

Words cannot express my gratitude to Kiersten for putting all the special detail and time into making the cake for Natalie!  This is her with Natalie when we were picking up the cake on Saturday, you can tell by Natalie’s look on her face how happy she was to see the cake!

We also made a few stops while we were in Evansville…it was just me and Natalie….Megan went to Holiday World with a friend and Griffin spent the day at Grandma Gwen’s.    I told Natalie she could choose where she wanted to eat….She chose IHOP because she LOVES pancakes! 

We also made a stop past Natalie’s favorite girly store and landed a cute little outfit off the clearance rack along with a 40% coupon!!  Wooo Hooo Momma was happy about that and so was  Natalie….Here is a picture of her from this morning……

She’s looking quite snazzy with a touch of sass in this picture….She had a wonderful day and informed before she went to bed that now there were only 365 days until her next birthday! (see I told she was a number cruncher!)

Happy Birthday Nattie-Bug!  We Love to pieces!

Life with a Boy - My little farmer

I LOVE tucking my kids to bed, it is a time when special heart talks take place and the rowdy, spunky, bouncing off the wall personalities settle down into quiet, calm, and peaceful sweetness.  AND you never know where there little minds drift off too and what questions and statements are going to come out of their mouths!   That being said below is a conversation between Griffin and I that took place after we were discussing his Mini-4H project "Farm Animals".

Little Farmer Tale #1

Griffin:  You are a cow.
Mommy:  Oh I am?  So does that make you the little bull?
Griffin:  No, I'm the little longhorn.  You are the cow and you get bred! Just teasing!

***So if I wasn't married to the farmer and totally understand that my son is my husband's little clone...I might be a little offended being called a cow and shocked that he threw in that last part about being bred!  But the fact that he is 5 AND he was putting that all together AND that one, of the farmer's jobs on this farm is breeding cows...I think he's a pretty smart whippersnapper to be correlating the animal family lines to the human family lines.  Of note---we don't have any longhorns on this farm,  that's just Griffin's favorite cow.  He saw lots of them when we were in Texas and thinks they are the coolest animal.

Littler Farmer Tale #2 
(Griffin and cousin, Connor, out in the cornfield this past Sunday)

Les:  Griffin what are you doing out in the field?
Griffin:  Checking on the corn!
Les:  Well what do you think?
Griffin:  It looks like it's got a good stand.

***He's just to big for his own britches I think!  He's going to be pushing the farmers out of the planter seat before you know it!

And lastly I will end the post with his prayer for his sister, Natalie.  While I was tucking Griffin to bed last night and doing his nightly devotion it was talking about praying and believing it will happen.  Natalie came into the room and was not feeling well and said her "stomach hurt".  So I asked Griffin if he'd like to pray for Natalie and he said sure...So I had Natalie come stand beside his bed and he reached out and put his hand on her tummy and started saying the below prayer:

Griffin:  Dear Jesus,
Thank you for this beautiful day.  Please help Natalie's stomach to feel better and please help her to be healthy and please Don't leat Natalie puke on me and please don't let Natalie puke on Mommy, and please don't let Natalie puke on Megan, and please don't let Natalie puke on Daddy.  Amen.

***I asked if he believed God will heal her and he said Yes!  And guess what Natalie went to sleep and felt better and she didn't puke, especially didn't puke on anyone...I'm glad Griffin added that in there! LOL. 

Bible Memory Fundraiser, Sunday, April 25, 2010, 10:00 a.m.-???

If you are hungry and looking for some lunch tomorrow come by Stop & Sea in Montgomery, where there will be delicious Grilled Chicken Sandwiches, Chips, and Pop with all proceeds going towards our Bible Memory Campers to help them attend summer camp!!  Any donations are GREATLY appreciated!  Bible Memory Camp is a wonderful way for kids to experience God and have an impact that will stay with them the rest of their lives!!   Remember it's tomorrow, Sunday, April 25, 2010, at Stop & Sea in Montgomery from 10:00 a.m. to ??????  Just a big thank you ahead of time for those who come out and show their support!

Women of JOY!

OK sitting here at the hotel using the free WI-FI on my laptop!  YAY ME!!  Lisa and I made the road trip down to KY for the Women of Joy conference that started this evening with featured speaker......SARAH PALIN!!  The best part is she was there to share her testimony of her love and faith in Christ, not politics, and no news media was allowed in!  She was awesome, I was so stoked and of all things I left my camera in the hotel room...and I had to think God allows everything for a purpose...and I thought I will have no keepsake pictures of Sarah Palin...because the real reason for the weeekend isn't to see Sarah Palin or the other great speakers/artist but to glorify God! (which by the way she did!) And that's just what this evenings session did...Sarah gave God all the credit for her big FAITH and she does cling to her faith because truly thats all we have and it's worth it!  The praise and worship team lead by Charles Billingsley was Completely OUTSTANDING!!  Lisa and I are having a great time and looking forward to tomorrow....Now off to bed...Lisa and I are sharing a bed...I hope she doesn't steal the covers or something! LOL!

New Background.

So I had to try out this new background for the blog...it's a bit...what shall I say...."flowery"....but the name of it was "Megan" so I couldn't hardly pass up on at least giving it a try for awhile...and it reminds me of all the flowers that are coming  up and blooming right now!  I just Love Spring and God's handy work that he brings life to all that is dormant just the same as he does for people!  I'm so thankful I have God in my life. 

And the Winner is.......................

The Women's winner in Sunday's Southern Indiana Classic Half Marathon race at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Center Courtney Heller of Montgomery, Ind. with a time of 1:30:18.

I'm so proud of my niece, Courtney!!!  She's awesome along with her Dad, my big brother, Kevin,  he ran the Marathon yesterday and was 7th overall but 1st place in his age division with a time of 3:15:09!  I wasn't able to go watch but was on the cell quite a bit getting updates!  I found the above picture and headline from the Evansville Courier Press' website!  Courtney's friend, Katelyn, also ran very well, and placed 1st in her age division in the Mini-Marathon!! 

Just had to share...b/c I'm so excited about all their Wins!!