Happy Birthday Jill!!

Happy 24th birthday, Jill!  You are a fantastic sis and aunt.  We all love you tons!

Love always,

Nathan, Rache, Kaine and Halle

My Amazing Parents

The title says it all--my parents are amazing.  They love to ride bikes, as you can see from the picture.  But this time, they decided to go the extra mile--or should I say, miles.  This time, they decided to ride their bikes from Bluffton to LEO!  That is a long way!  For anyone reading this who doesn't live close by, that is about a 45 mile (or 5 hour) trip!  If I am doing that good when I am my parents' age, I will be very happy:)  Not that my parents are old or anything!  But that is a LONG bike ride for people of any age.  Sadly, they got caught in a downpour and didn't make it quite all the way.  But they did an awesome job.  We love you guys!

Hanging out with Aunt Jenna:)

This past weekend Nathan and I and our kids met up with Jenna at a hotel near the Indy airport.  Jenna was passing through, on her way to the Mueller family vacation (which we didn't go on), so we drove to Indy to spend all day Friday and Friday night with her.  It was fun!  We swam at the hotel, and went to downtown Indy in the evening.  We went bowling at a place called Jillian's--it was both Kaine and Halle's first time bowling :)  They loved being with their Aunt Jenna!

Jenna with a dazed-looking Halle :)

The bowling alley had a chute-thing for little kids.  We just lined it up, pointing down the center of the lane, and Kaine pushed the ball down it.  He did pretty good!  A lot of the times he hit down more pins than I did!

Halle tried her turn at bowling.  I must say, she is a natural:)

We ate supper at Jillian's, too

What a great time!  Jenna, that was a great idea:)  Hope you had fun at Cumberland with the fam!

A Family Golf Outing

On Monday night, Nathan's parents came up to hang out with us.  We all went to Applebee's and then Shoaff Park to golf.  It was really fun!  Kaine did amazingly good walking the golf course, and he was so cute with his little golf club!  Halle was a good little baby--we weren't able to take a golf cart, so we stuck her carseat in a pull cart.  It wedged in there perfectly!  She was good until about the 6th hole, that is--we had to leave a little early.  We kind of felt bad for the people behind us, though.  I can't imagine what they must have thought when they saw us--4 people golfing (but sharing just 2 sets of clubs), a little 2-year-old running around hitting his own ball, and a little baby being pulled around.  Not the usual golfing group!  After a few holes, the people ended up going around us. :)  

Kaine and "Paw-paw"

Halle in her pullcart

the cuties

such a serious little golfer:)

Thanks for coming up to hang out with us, dad and mom!  It was very fun:)

Weekend at Brown County!

This past weekend my grandparents took our family down to Brown County.  It was really fun!  It was nice to get away for a few days, and especially because I don't see my cousins (Amber and Amy) too much.  When we were younger we used to be pretty close, but now we all live far from each other and we don't see each other very often.  Amber (and Ben) have a little boy named Avery (almost 2 years old), so it was cute to have Kaine and Avery play together.  We spent Saturday at Brown County State Park, but we actually stayed in a hotel the next town over.  

Nathan and Kaine cuddling after swimming in the park.

Jill taught Kaine how to do a "toast"

Avery and Kaine hugging--they are so cute!

Nathan and his little boy:)

On a hike in the park

The faithful babysitters!  During our hike, my grandparents and Joyce stayed at the picnic tables with Halle.  When we got back, Halle was peacefully sleeping and Joyce was fanning her with a frisbee.  Isn't that great?  What good babysitters!

Our little family (minus Halle) in the little log playhouse

Grandpa and Grandma with the great-grandsons.

Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma, for a wonderful weekend!  We love you so much!

The big 2-6!

Well, I turned 26 on Tuesday!  Nathan and I were able to go out for the evening--we went golfing!  It was lots of fun.  We went to Shoaff Park in Fort Wayne and ate at Applebee's.  

Natie and me at Shoaff Park

My studly husband--just look at that golf swing!

When we got home, we found that the residents had made me a big poster and decorated our door!  It was really sweet of them.

What a fun way to spend my birthday!  Thanks to mom, Susie, and Grandma for coming to babysit!! 

Swimming!

Yesterday we took a trip to Bluffton for the afternoon.  My parents invited the Maple House to come swimming in their pool and to eat supper at their house.  We had a really good time!  It was great weather, and the pool water felt great.  Thanks, dad and mom!  We love you!

These are the 2 girls in our house that act CRAZY!  They were constantly splashing, squirting, and ambushing Nathan with a water gun.  

These 2 girls are much more reserved.  They didn't appreciate being splashed--they just wanted to hang out.

Kaine was having fun, too!

Sliding to daddy:)

Kaine also liked squirting everyone with a water gun!  Grandpa was his partner in crime.

Thanks, mom and dad!  I'm sure we'll be back:)  

One of my favorite times of day

I love mornings with Kaine!  He is such a sweetie when he first wakes up--he comes walking out with his stuffed animals, saying, "Eat!" (He loves breakfast!)  The other day he was being so cute and making cheesy faces at me while he was eating breakfast.

What a cutie.  He is such a joy to have for a son!

Crazy Maple House Girls!

Living in a house with 7 teenage girls is always interesting!  Nathan is getting used to having many embarrassing "girl" conversations around the supper table!  It is kind of funny, actually.  But with 7 teenage girls comes many interesting times.  They can be quite hyper and they act really crazy a lot of times.  They do have their share of issues that we work through with them, but most of the time they are really fun.

One of our most hyper girls--she was crawling up and down the hallway acting like a cat.  It was really funny, though it sounds really weird, I'm sure!

One of the latest things they like to do is see who can put their fist the farthest into their mouth.  They were all trying it at the lunch table today.  

This one always is wanting to take weird pictures of herself with our camera.  She can make some really funny faces!

One the way to the pool at our hotel.  She is coming out of her shell, big time--when she first got here, she would not let us take her picture at all!

This was at a restaurant in Cincinnati.  By the time we got our bill, we (houseparents) were dying to get out of there!  These girls love to act crazy in public just to embarrass us!  They were laughing hysterically at something.

Good buddies

We love hanging out with Nick and Jess!  Kaine and Carter are 10 days apart, and Halle and Mason are 1 month apart.  The older boys get along great, and I'm sure Halle and Mason will too, once they are old enough to play.  We went to their house on the 4th of July, and we had a great time hanging out with them.  

best buddies!

Aren't they cute together?  You never know, this could show up in their wedding scrapbook someday:)

Thanks for having us over, guys!  We had a great time!

Maple House Trip

Every year each house at Gateway is able to take the residents on a house trip.  This year, our house went to Cincinnati--we went to Kings Island, and then went across the border into Kentucky to the Creation Museum (a very cool museum--we highly recommend it!).  We stayed 2 nights at a hotel.  The trip was lots of fun, but we were excited to be home, too, since we left Kaine and Halle in Bluffton.  

Nathan and one of the girls acting a little strange:)

Our group at Kings Island (on the botton left is our amazing assistant, Rachel Huber)

Nathan and the girls--it's kind of hard to see, but they are all eating edible crickets.  Gross!

Rache H. and some girls

The girls think Nathan looks like a cop in this picture:)

So that was our annual Maple House trip.  Fun, but definitely a relief to be home, too!

Welcome to our blog!

Hello everyone!  I thought our first post should be about something really profound, so I decided to introduce our 2 adorable little kids.  Maybe not profound, but definitely really cute!  A lot of our posts will also include the residents here in our house--the Maple House at Gateway Woods.  We are houseparents here and there is always lots going on!  But for now, here are some pics of Kaine and Halle.  Have a great day!

A stack of cuties:)

Kaine loves his little pool

Halle is such a happy baby!