Birthday Dinner Party

On Sunday, November 13 - Virg and Fay hosted a Birthday Dinner Party for all our November birthdays. Fay made a wonderful meal that was sooo delicious - melt in your mouth wonderful! My parents, uncle Dave and aunt Phyl, and Grandma Great were also there to celebrate with us. It was great to be surrounded by so much family!

Who knew that a few birthday noise-makers (that didn't make any noise) could be sooo much fun. I don't know when I've laughed so hard!

Two grandpas together....having fun surrounded

by all those grandkids....I just love this photo!

Someone is definately having some fun!

Shelby with grandpa - she had just woke up from a nap and wasn't sure about all the craziness going on in the dinning room!

My mom and aunt Phyl - great friends
sharing lots of laughs!

Silas and Shelby having fun with those noiseless noise-makers....Shelby warmed up to the fun!

I love capturing the smiles....we were singing Happy Birthday....see Jer in the mirror???

Now these two (are they really my parents) were just too hilarious....oh I really should have captured it on video!

Can't you tell how hard mom's laughing.....

I think Grandma Great was thinking we were all a bit crazy! What to do with us!

Here is that other birthday gal....with her wonderful hubby!

Thanks Virg and Fay for opening up your home, cooking a wonderful dinner and hosting an even more wonderful party! It was a great way to celebrate a birthday - and so much fun having everyone together - and most of all sharing so much LAUGHTER! We are truly blessed beyond measure!

Ears Pierced!!!!

Both Sydney and Shaylee have birthdays in November. So for their birthdays this year I took them down to see my sister and the girls got their ears pierced! Almost two years ago we started talking about it, but decided that we'd wait until their 7th and 9th Birthdays to make it a special occassion. Needless to say they have been patiently and anxiously awaiting this for a long time.

Sydney got to go first....she looks a bit nervous.....

All done...but she's not sure if it still hurts or not...there comes the smile - and look at those pretty ears with sparkling earings!

Shaylee is up next...

She hardly even flinched...

Another smiling face with another pair of sparkling earings!

Thanks aunt Kerri for making our day so special!

Shaylee is SEVEN!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SHAYLEE!!!!

Oh how the years have flown by! I can't believe you are SEVEN!

You bring so much joy, laughter, excitment, and energy into our family. We love you soooo much! God gave you an amazing spirit - and we love watching you change each year as you grow into a wonderful little lady.

Happy 7th Birthday ShayJ!

Good Morning Lord

What a beautiful sunrise - seeing this while getting the kids breakfast makes a good start to any day. Thank you Lord for sharing your beauty.

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us REJOICE and be glad in it.

Too Cute

Shelby was just too cute this morning. I had pulled out her little hat for her to wear when we went outside - but she found it and put it on all by herself. Then she was walking about the house with her little doll stroller (empty, no doll). She was just too cute....I couldn't help but grab the camera.

Riding Bike WITH pedals

On October 14, 2011 Silas figured out how to ride a bike WITH pedals....you may think this sounds weird because most little kids in the US learn how to ride a bike with training wheels - then eventually take them off and say they learned how to ride bike WITHOUT training wheels. Well for Silas - he's been riding on his lauftrad (running bike which has no pedals) from Germany all summer. Let me tell you he's fast and crazy on that thing. But he was unable to ride his other bike (the bike with pedals) because he needed to figure out how to use pedals to keep his momentum going- instead of using his feet to give him momentum and speed.

Well one afternoon this past week I was cleaning in the garage and saw his little bike. So I asked him if he'd like to give it a try again (he had tried earlier this fall, but just wasn't ready). This time he said okay - and after a few little tries to get going - he was off! Now he's so proud of his accomplishment. And he can get on and get going all by himself too - no further help needed. He still loves his lauftrad - but is excited to ride his other bike now too. We're proud of you too Silas!!!

Corn Harvest

One afternoon I went along with Jer. The kids enjoyed being with daddy. Shelby even got to drive the combine.

Resetting the Rocks

On Wednesday evening Grandpa and Jer took a break from combining corn. It was very windy - but otherwise a beautiful evening for resetting the JVE rocks. It is terribly dry here and the grass (and a few prickery weeds) were a bit rough on our hands (why didn't we wear gloves???) but we got the job done!

For more on the history of the JVE rocks follow this link to a previous post.

A photo before we got started....the rocks were pretty much hidden by the grass.

Sweet Hannah - she wasn't a huge fan of the wind....but did great supervising our work.


Getting started - we basically pick up each rock and move it over, pulling or laying down the grass underneath, so that it is once again visable.


A view back on the farm

Cousins Isaac and Levi (and Shaylee) with Grandpa






Shaylee, are you helping or just dancing around with a rock???









Looking good - great work from the crew




Nice photo of my sweet hubby and me






Once again you can see those letters

Outside with Shelby

Here are a few pictures of Shelby (and Silas) outside the past two days. She loves to head for the gravel and eat rocks. Silas is pretty protective of her and lets me know if she's got another one in her mouth. She is such a little stinker! She is watching her big bro and learning to throw rocks now too....fortunately she can't throw them too hard or too far yet...

Here Shelby is right before standing up...she goes from her butt, to one knee, up to standing and off walking as quick as can be. Its pretty amazing how she gets up - never using her hands to help her.

Here is little Miss Happy - she's pushing around her red car (which Shane actually got as a gift almost 11 years ago!) The little red car finally took a beating right before we moved back from Germany (the bigger kids where playing a little rough with it and broke off the back piece). So Shelby pushes it around backwards - but it still works - and she's a speedy little thing with it too.

oh and yes -notice the big white box....we've got a few too many of those around here yet....sigh.

Walking, Walking, Walking

In the past two weeks Shelby has started walking - at first it was just a step here and a step there - but recently it finally clicked with her and she is off and practically running! She is very steady on her feet and she just goes and goes. It is sort of sad to say good-bye to "little miss butt-scoot", but we are thrilled with her new found ability to walk, walk, walk. As seen in the picture - she loves to push around her baby doll. But her favorite place to walk is (take a guess) OUTSIDE! This little girl just LOVES to be outdoors...maybe I should get some photos of her out there.

All of a sudden she seems to be growing up way too fast!

Afternoon Drive

This afternoon we took a family drive -

There is just something about an afternoon drive with the family on a beautiful day...and these are Shelby's new favorite...can anyone guess why???

Moooo

Apple Tree

We finished picking all the apples on our trees today - kids had fun climbing the trees to get to the apples. Now to enjoy all those yummy apples...in pies, crisps, and just for everyday eating...you know what they say about an apple a day...

Good Morning Daddy