"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Thursday, January 29, 2009

kaine's first memory verses!

Well, since Kaine turned 3, he was able to start Sunday School!!  He has been excited to go for months now, and it is so cute to see him sitting with all the big kids and singing in the Sunday school room!  He seems so little for that!  But he loves it.  And now he is learning a memory verse per week.  It is so cute!  Here is Kaine quoting the first 2 verses on his list.  See if you can understand him:


I just love hearing him quote these verses!  We asked Marlise Steiglitz, his Sunday school teacher, if he said his verse on Sunday after sunday school.  She said she could tell that Kaine knew it better than any of the other kids, but she could barely understand a word of it!  He still got a sticker, though, because she could tell that he knew it. :)  By the way, these are the verses just in case you couldn't understand them:

"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."  Romans 3:23

"Be ye kind, one to another."  Ephesians 4:32

Well, we are getting ready to go off duty for the weekend.  Three whole days!!  Yay!  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Friday, January 23, 2009

one more Christmas post:)

Well, here it is, a whole month after Christmas, and I have one more set of Christmas pictures:)  Our family Christmases were spread out quite a bit this year.  For Nathan's family, we waited until Jenna was here in January, so we celebrated Christmas pretty late this year.  So here are some Mueller family Christmas pictures.


Here is Halle, once again content to just eat her present rather than open it!

Kaine got a Curious George book, and a stuffed animal to go with it.  It joined his (rather large) collection of animals, and Curious George is definitely one of his favorites now.

Halle got a little doll--I think it is so cute to think of Halle playing with dolls!

Nathan picked out some super cool shoes for Kyle:)  Actually, when Kyle opened them, all he could do was laugh (although he did admit to us that he really likes them!)  They are a little flashier than he was expecting!

Dave and Terri got Kaine a little tool set.  It is so cute!  It has actual tools, just smaller than normal.  He loved it!

Here is the little stud, trying on all his construction gear :)

Halle wanted to, too!

Here are the cuties, once again having a blast with their daddy!

A great picture of Halle with Grandma Terri

The next day after our Christmas celebration, we went sledding in the backyard!  It was a blast, but I already talked some about that in the last post.  Here is my little eskimo :)

Dave did a faceplant in the snow!  It was kind of funny :)  (sorry, dad!)  He had a great attitude about it, though!

Kaine and his Aunt Jenna:)

We sent Coco down the hill a few times!  She actually didn't seem to mind it!

Thanks for great Christmas memories, dad and mom!  We had a blast at your house!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

a visit from jenna

The last couple of weeks we were blessed with a visit from Jenna!  It was so great to be with her.  We spent a few nights in Bluffton at Dave and Terri's house with her, and she also came up to visit us at Gateway a few different times.  Our kids had a great time with her, too.

Here is Jenna and Kaine at Texas Roadhouse the day that she flew in.  Jenna taught Kaine how to touch his tongue to his nose:)

Here are Natie and Jenna at Kaine's birthday party.  They have a really good relationship, and Nathan really enjoyed talking with her lots these past couple weeks!

I love this picture of Jenna and Halle.  They both look so good in it--it is adorable!

We went sledding one day at Dave and Terri's house.  It was so fun--Kaine loved it!  I might post more pictures of it another time.

A picture of the Mueller kids/grandkids

Another awesome picture of Jenna and Halle.  I love this--a full body shot would have been even better, though.  They were both dressed completely in black, and it was so cute!

Jenna was reading Kaine a book at our house.  She and Kaine spent a lot of time together!
Jen, it was great to be with you!  We had a really great time, and we are excited to see you in May!  (Lord willing:) )  We love you!

Monday, January 12, 2009

kaine's birthday party

We had Kaine's birthday party at Dave and Terri's house on Friday night (thanks, mom and dad!).  It was lots of fun, and Kaine got so many neat things!  Just what he needed 2 weeks after Christmas:)  Anyway, we really appreciate everyone who came to the party and for his presents.  I think he had a blast at his party!




Nathan did a GREAT job decorating Kaine's Nemo cake!  We ordered a cake topper-thing online and it didn't come in time!  It was kind of annoying, but it turned out okay because my hubby is such a great artist:)

The finished cake--good job, Natie!

Kaine loved his cake, too!

Another example of Nathan's talent--he actually made this pinata!!  Jenna (his sis) helped.  They did such an awesome job--I think it looked professional.

Kaine is taking a swing at it.  It was pretty strong--it took Kaine a LOT of tries to bust it open!

One of the things inside the pinata was suckers.  Kaine had one in his mouth pretty much the whole night:)

Halle was enjoying the tissue paper

Kaine was so excited to get this really awesome Cars tent.  It was really neat!  Thanks, mom and dad!

Here is Kaine trying out his tent.  He wanted to be in there the whole evening, playing with all his new stuff.

Halle found one of Kaine's suckers.  I let her suck on it with the paper on, but then the paper came off and she was just eating pure sucker.  I think she is a little young yet for a sucker, so I had to take it away from her...

...which never goes over well:)

Happy Birthday, Kaine!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Happy Birthday to my sweet little Kaine!

I cannot believe that my little boy will be 3 years old tomorrow!  Wow, those 3 years sure flew by.  Happy Birthday, Kaine!!








We love you, buddy!!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve at Clint and Amy's house.  It was so much fun.  It was so cute so see all of our kids playing together.  Since we live up in Leo, it doesn't happen too often that we get together with everyone, so it was great.  The kids played really well together (for the most part:) ), and us parents had fun playing the newleywed game (which we won--we have been married for 7 years!) and outburst, and just talking.  Here are some pics from the evening:

Carter, Hudson, Madalyn, Hayleigh and Kaine--they were super hyper most of the night!

See what I mean?  Poor Maddie is taking a beating--she was such a great sport!

The little ones were much more subdued:)  Here is Halle and Deacon--I think they will be good friends someday--they are exactly 1 month apart in age.  Actually, speaking of that, today is their "birthday"--Halle is 10 months today, and Deacon is 9 months.  Happy Birthday, Halle and Deacon!

All of the kids, minus Cline (he was in bed):
Deacon, Hudson, Carter, Mason, Kaine, Halle, Hayleigh, Madalyn, and Gage

I just have to mention what a great sport Deacon was that night.  This is a picture of Deacon at about midnight!  He was so amazingly good!  I couldn't believe this little guy lasted that long!

Here is Kaine at midnight--Amy bought all the kids these little horn things.  Kaine loved his!  He asked Amy if he could take it home, and she said "Yes--please take it home!"  Thanks a lot, Amy:)  He didn't want to stop blowing it in the car!

All us girls: Jane, me, Tara, Jessica, Amy--we missed you, Sarah and Angie!

The men and the little boys (once again, minus Cline)


Thanks for a great evening, Clint and Amy!  We had a blast.  Happy New Year, everyone!