a wonderfully relaxing and fun weekend...

Once again, we have been so very blessed by my parents.  We were so glad they drove down here to MO to visit us this past weekend!  They are truly amazing.

Most of you probably also read Jill's blog...if so, you already read about this!  And if you did read her blog, you will know that my parents brought FIVE coolers filled with food for us.  Wow.  Food for the whole weekend (my mom thought of everything) and also stuff for our freezer.  Thank you, mom!

When my parents come to visit, it is super fun because that means we get to hang out with Aaron and Jill's family all weekend, too!  We eat our meals together:

Hang out a LOT (here we are listening to my dad tell a story one evening):

The kids get PLENTY of grandparent time:

Of course, they have to bring our kiddos some gifts (the kids were so excited about that!):

Kaine gets to play computer games and eat chips!  Not an everyday occurance in our house...when the grandparents come, our rules change a bit :)

We get to eat out:

And the kids get a LOT of cousin time!

One of the evenings, my parents babysat for all seven kids so that Nathan and I and Aaron and Jill could go on dates.  Thanks, mom and dad!  That was super nice of you guys!

And we celebrated Layla and Ivy's birthdays (although Layla's actual bday is not until November 23):

What a fabulous weekend.  We are truly cherishing these sweet times with family while we can.  And here is how cool my parents are...they left here at 2:00 am to go back to Indiana.  They left super early so that they would have a couple of hours to spend frisbee golfing near Indy!  How cool are they??

Thanks for everything, mom and dad!  We are so glad you guys came!  See you at Thanksgiving :)

my favorite picture :)

In September, there was an airshow in our town.  It was a really great airshow, especially considering it was free!

A highlight of the day was this "jet-truck" thing.  I don't know the technical term for this thing--but basically it was a truck that someone had totally revamped and put an ACTUAL jet engine from a fighter jet in it.  

As you can imagine, it was loud.  VERY loud.  

It also caused a lot of smoke.  No, a TON of smoke.

I thought it was amazing.  So did the rest of the crowd.  I can't describe well enough how loud this thing was.  

Here is a picture of it:

And here is my favorite picture.  I took this right when the jet truck was zooming past us on the runway.  I love everything about this picture--Daisy's terrified face, and the looks on Nathan's and Aaron's face.  Ha!

Priceless :)

what our webfast taught me

Most you probably know that we participated in a "Webfast" about a month ago.  (read here if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Many people have asked me what I learned from it, if I liked it, etc.  So I thought I would post some of my thoughts on it.

First of all, I really loved doing the webfast!  It is so easy for me to waste time reading blogs, scrolling through facebook or just googling stuff.  Although I LOVE the internet for many many things, it is a temptation that I was glad to be rid of for a month.  It was just nice to not even have the option of facebook, you know?  And it was kind of fun and there was tons of accountability, because our whole class here at the Missionary Training Center was doing it together.

I learned two major things about myself through Webfast.

#1.   I do not need to check Facebook every day!  Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE to read everyone's statuses and I just think it is really fun to know what's happening to everyone.  But at the end of our Webfast month,  I realized that it was OKAY that I hadn't see my newsfeed every day.  So as a result of that revelation, I decided that I will be checking Facebook less.  Like, maybe just a couple times a week or something.  I think it is kind of freeing, really.

#2.  When we were getting ready to start the Webfast, I was very excited that I would have more time to be in the Word.  I thought, oh good...I won't have the distraction of the internet!  It will be so much easier to find time for personal Bible study!  However, I learned this about myself:  When I don't have the distraction of the Web, my tendency is to look around to find a different distraction.  If I found myself with extra time, I would always be thinking, what can I get done?  Or I would want to get ahead on homework or something like that.  Which are all GOOD things--but they are not the most important things!  I already knew that I had "Martha" tendencies rather than "Mary" tendencies, but this Webfast really proved that to me.  My takeaway from this:  I need to be very intentional to have time alone with God--even when my life seems to have less distractions.

So there you have it!  Feel free to keep me accountable about this stuff.  And if anyone ever wants to do a Webfast with me, just let me know!  I would be willing to do it again :)

happy birthday to my favorite person in the world!

Today is Nathan's 31st birthday!

I cannot believe God gifted me with this man.. He is WAY too good for me.  (Not kidding).

What an amazing father.  He loves to play with our kids, he is so faithful to teach them Scripture (Kaine and Halle have an amazing understanding of the gospel, in my opinion), and he is very consistent in training them in a godly way.  All of our kiddos adore Nathan and love being with him!

And as for me...I feel very loved and cherished by this guy.  All the time, Nathan tells me that he loves me and he compliments me like crazy.  (So much so, that I am a little immune to his compliments!  I am so used to them...kind of sad, huh?? )  

He is my best friend :) 

Here he is, cooking supper for me the other day when I was feeling stressed with homework, etc.  

Happy Birthday, Natie!  I love you tons!

melt my heart.

Daisy was sick last week, and she lost her voice.  I hated to see her sick, but she was just so adorable!  I couldn't resist getting it on video :)

a visit from friends

 I know I have talked about this before, but I am so thankful for friendships.

Our good friends Nick and Jessica came all this way to visit us for the whole weekend!  That is a good 9 hour drive, and they brought 3 of their kids, so we feel blessed indeed.

A bit of background on Nick and Jess:  Jess and I had our first babies (both boys!) only 10 days apart.  When the boys were just tiny newborns, we joined up with some other couples to do an 18 week parenting Bible study.  And the rest is history--we became fast friends, and so did our boys!  

Two years later, Jess and I had our second babies (a girl for me, a boy for Jess) only 1 month apart.  And then our third kids are only a few months apart, too!  So our families were destined to be friends:)

Here is a picture that I love.  This is when Nick and Jess visited us when Halle was born.  I remember Halle was super fussy that evening...it is so crazy how fast they grow up!

 (Halle, Kaine, Carter, Mason)

So anyway, here is our weekend!

Friday evening, Nathan and Nick made a fire for the kiddos.  Fires are always a hit with our kids--especially Kaine.  That kid could burn things for hours.

In fact, they ran out of things to burn...so Nathan had the great idea to go and get our kids' craft/project box.  Here is Nick, looking at a flaming craft that Halle made.  Thankfully, our kiddos didn't mind!  They were just happy to get more kindling!

Saturday morning we woke up to a very rainy day.  Actually, it was really the first rainy day since we have moved out here to MO.  Bummer, huh?  So we had to be creative :)

The kids thought they would love to put swimsuits on and play on the playground.  They thought it would be a great waterslide!  Here is Carter on the slide.

However, as you can see from the lack of smiles on Daisy and Addi's faces, they didn't enjoy it much.  They were freezing!!

So they ran back up to our apartment just minutes after they went outside...

And we bundled them up in towels.  I love this picture of Kaine and Carter!  What good buddies they are (and Hudson, they missed you!  Maybe next year :) )

(Here is another flashback pic of Kaine and Carter.  I love this pic...I just want to squeeze those cuties.  Actually, it makes me tear up to look at it, so I will move on...)

Adalynn and Layla are about 4 or 5 months apart, and this weekend was awesome for them!  They played so well, and it is obvious that they genuinely love each other.  I love to see their friendship developing!

Of course, a rainy day has to include at least some ipad time...

Nathan played UNO with the older 4 kids...

While Jess read books to the younger 3.

Later on Saturday, we drove to the next town and ate out for supper.  Layla and Addi were crazy as usual in the back of our van :)

A picture of the girls:

And the boys:

And our group (minus me).  We decided to put all the kids at one end, and the adults at the other end.  The kids all did awesome!!  We adults could actually talk to each other!

Love this sweetie :)

Another girl pic, with the mommies included:

We got back to our apartment and of course the kiddos were all super hyper!  Jessica brought them all glow necklaces, so they had fun in the dark with those.

Then for our evening entertainment...did you know that if you light a ring of fire around a scorpion it will panic and sting itself (basically committing suicide)?  Crazy, I know...but it is actually true!  So we tried it that night...

Most of the kids weren't too sure they wanted to see an "animal" commit suicide, so they watched from the safety of our living room window :)

By the time we got our kids to bed that night, it was after 10:00.  But my amazing sis was still more than willing to come sit in our apartment with our sleeping kids so that Nathan and I could go and hang out with Nick and Jess at their guesthouse.  Thank you, Jill!

Kaine spent the night at the guesthouse with Carter, and when we got there that night I had fun spying on them as they jumped from bed to bed...they have so much fun together :)

Nathan and I had a great time playing games and talking with Nick and Jess that night until after midnight.

The next day, we all went to church in the morning, and then we ate at Subway for lunch afterwards.
Halle and Mason are both 5 and they really get along well, too!  It was cute to see them interacting with each other.  I am really not sure what they are trying to do to each other in these pictures :)

And these 3 girlies are just so adorable.  I just love them.

Kaine and Carter of course wanted to sit alone!  They practiced pinching each other and giving "indian burns"...such funny boys.

There is a cool cliff along the drive to church that Nick and Jess had a good idea to stop at for a photo op.  Here is Layla and Addi, waiting for the guys to make their appearance at the top of the cliff...

All the boys:)

So thankful for these godly husbands and amazing fathers!

After church the kiddos talked us into letting them watch The Sword in the Stone while the little girls napped.  It was a great time of conversation for us parents!

After Layla and Addi woke up, Halle did "art class" with them.  So cute.

For supper that night, we headed out to Ha Ha Tonka State Park for a picnic and a chance for the kids to check out the castle.  Daisy's stroller was loaded down with food...

We had a picnic...

Beautiful little girls...

All the kids!  (minus little Bodie)

The kids loved exploring around the castle...

Love this friend!!

We ended the weekend back at our apartment that night.  The dads did a "Royal Rumble" with the kids.  Pure craziness!!

Whew.  As I was typing this, I realized I just subjected you to a TON of pictures!  Sorry about that!

Nick and Jessica, thank you so very much for coming!  We had a lot of fun with you guys, and we so appreciate the effort.  We love you guys :)