new year's...

We celebrated New Year's with a great night at Nick and Jessica's! (Just like last year...thanks for being such great hosts, guys!)  Our kids (and we) always love going to their house, and this year was no different.

The kids had so much fun on the trampoline and the massive bean bag that was on it!  (Doesn't this look like a kid's paradise??)

Our wonderful hubbies organized games of kickball, dodgeball, musical chairs, and who knows what else with the kids.  While we ladies sat and talked :)  

I was so thrilled that Halle made some new friends...she doesn't know too many girls here in our hometown, so this was awesome.  They had so much fun together!  Halle keeps talking about Madalynn and Haleigh, too (and I'm pretty sure I spelled their names wrong :) ).

And it is always great to get these two boys together (and they missed Hudson!).  I know I have mentioned it before, and I probably will again...but we so so so appreciate the friendships that Kaine shares with these boys!

Thanks for such a fun evening, Nick and Jess!  We love you guys :)

a post about cousins

Here is a tribute to our kids' cousins...we feel so blessed to have them in our lives!!  We are so thankful to be doing life so closely with our kids' first cousins (Ivy, Israel and Abel).  This Christmas it was also so fun that our kiddos could spend some time with their second cousins, who they do not see too often (Avery, Atticus, Atlas, Drew, Hannah, Spencer, Allison, Caden, Conlin, Quinn).  We didn't get too many pictures, but we did have good times with them :)  

 

 

What a blessing to have cousins :)

perspective

Has sickness hit your house yet these holidays?  It has hit ours.  The past couple of weeks have been filled with kids (and me) with fevers, terrible coughs and major runny noses.  The other night, the stomach flu hit our little Layla.  This girl seems to attract the stomach flu!  She gets it multiple times per winter!  Sigh.

 

But as you can see from these pictures, she is a very sweet and surprisingly happy flu patient (at least this time, she was!)  What a sweetheart.  (And what a sweet hubby who stayed up with her on the couch for a couple of hours in the night!  He is always willing to do this...thank you , Natie!)

So at times, all of this sickness can frustrate me--it means I get less sleep, have to deal with more fussing, and don't get to do all of the plans that I want to do.  Notice how it is always all about me? 

God has been so faithful in helping me to see my selfishness and unjoyful attitude.  Although it is still no fun to be sick or have sick kids, I have been finding joy in it, in being so thankful for the health that we all do possess...and also remembering that God is so good, even in the midst of suffering.  Ha!  And this "suffering" can hardly be called suffering.

And recently, God has REALLY challenged my perspective...some good friends and neighbors of ours, Lane and Emily, were in a terrible car accident a couple of days ago.  Lane and Emily were married last spring, and they live on the third floor with us at NTBI, just a few doors down.  They are a super sweet and godly couple who are planning to give their lives to missions.  Praise God that Emily came out of the accident okay, but Lane is in bad shape.  Thankfully, it sounds like he came through his brain surgery pretty well, so it seems that prayers are being answered...but wow.  God has used this in MY life to challenge my thinking and my attitude.  Please join us in praying for Lane and Emily! 

Merry Christmas!!

 

With love in Him,

 

Nathan, Rachel, Kaine, Halle, Layla and Daisy

more goodbyes...

As my sister Jill said recently in a blogpost, our lives are full of transition.  Along with these transitions will come MANY goodbyes.  A few days ago we had to say goodbye to a family whom we have grown to love very much.

Scot and April are on staff at NTBI, and our family has grown close to theirs.  Our kids have become such good buddies!  But they are leaving soon to spend  a few months in Texas--so when we get back to NTBI from our break, they will be gone.  So anyway...we said goodbye to them :( 

This is Jon Wiley.  He is a couple of years older than Kaine, but neither of them notice or care!  They are such good friends!  I have overheard them saying things such as:  talking about how they are "brothers in Christ"; talking about maybe being on the mission field together someday; and about becoming "blood brothers" (they actually asked us parents if they could cut themselves and become blood brothers!  So funny!  We persuaded them to make matching tatoos instead).   Anyway, Jon Wiley has been such a good friend for Kaine, and we have appreciated the influence he has had on him!

This is Madison.  She is only a couple of weeks younger than Halle, and they are such good friends, too!  Maddie is a very affectionate girl with a fun personality...she says such funny things!  I have always appreciated how much she enjoys Halle and how well they get along together.  Maddie and Halle were ballet buddies this semester, and it is always so cute to see petite little Maddie in her tutu and leg warmers!  She is so cute:)

And here is sweet Sadie.  She melts my heart :)  She says the funniest things, and she is always wondering where Layla is when we see her (she loves Layla!)  They are good buddies, too...they are in childcare together and it is so cute to see them hug when they see each other in the hallways at school.  What a sweetie.

A couple of weeks ago, Scot and April had Kaine and Halle over for a sleepover!  They had sooooo much fun.  (and no, Daisy didn't spend the night, too! this picture was earlier in the evening while Nathan and I were there).

Here is Scot with Nathan and Aaron...haha!  They were going to go out with Scot for coffee and showed up in their Christmas sweaters for a joke.  It was very funny:)

I am so sad that I don't have any pictures of April!  When we left NTBI today to come home for Christmas break, I was thinking earlier that I wanted to take a picture with her...but then I forgot.  Sigh.  Oh well.  April is a super godly woman whom I respect very much.  She has been a great friend for me at NTBI!

We are so thankful for this family blessing us in many ways.  As Jon-Wiley said to us one time, "Being a missionary is hard because you have to say so many goodbyes.  But it also means that you get to say more 'hellos'"!  Such a wise thing for a young boy to say!  But so true, too...and a perspective that I want to remember.

good times with good friends...

We are so excited to be back home again in our hometown!  All the way here yesterday, our kids could NOT stop asking us "how much longer"..."are we there yet"...you know, all the kind of questions that we as parents typically get so tired of hearing.  However, since I knew how excited they were about seeing their grandparents after not seeing them much at ALL these past few months...it was hard to be annoyed :)

 

Before we left Michigan, though, we were privileged to hang out with a very cool family.  These are some very good friends of ours (whom also have been our next door neighbors for the past 1.5 years at NTBI).  I have grown close to Enoch, whom I have been helping with language study for all 3 semesters so far.  Jae and Enoch have taken the full load of classes at NTBI, in a language that is not their own, and have had to work soooo hard to learn English on top of all of it.  They are great examples to Nathan and I of perseverance and faith!  (and doing so well with their English, by the way!)

 

We went out to Applebees with them, and Coldstone for dessert.  Yum.  Lots of good food and good times:)

Kaine is good friends with their son Urim.  They had fun playing with knives at Applebee's :)

And their daughter Woo-ah is Halle's age, and they are really good friends, too!  Halle comes with me to all my language sessions that I do with Enoch, and the 2 girls play so well together!  At Applebee's, they kept wanting to turn around and watch tv :)

Jae has always had a soft spot for Layla...he (and Enoch) think she is sooo cute!  (And with good reason, of course!  She IS so cute!)

So thankful for Enoch and her sweet spirit.  She is a wonderful example for me.

So now, we are in Indiana!

I wish I had taken a picture of our kids when we first arrived at my parents' house...they were swarming my mom, showing her all their special things they had brought with them, and all talking to her at once.  It was very sweet:)  Here is Layla, showing her all that was in her little backpack.

Kaine and my dad had fun doing "science experiments" last night.  Kaine loves this kind of stuff!  He didn't even want to eat a bedtime snack because he just wanted to keep doing science experiments :)

We are so happy to be back for 2 1/2 weeks and very excited to see everyone.  And of course, we are anticipating Christmas along with our kiddos :)

starting some traditions...

The other night we celebrated our family Christmas.  It was so much FUN!  I think our kids are getting to the age now where they are getting into it, too, and I told Nathan recently that I thought it would be smart to try to start some traditions for Christmas.  It seems like that is important in a family, right?  Up until now, we didn't really have any family traditions, within just our immediate family.  When the kiddos are little it doesn't seem to matter as much.  But now that our kids are getting older, and also since we are going to be moving around so much during their ENTIRE childhood, it seems like it would be good for them if we had some steady family traditions.  (and it will be good for me, too!  I think if we end up living in a remote tribal location someday I will so appreciate something familiar at Christmastime).

 

So...we did some things this year that seem small, but I think we will continue year after year.  And I hope to add more traditions along the way, as the years go by!

 

So we started out by making Christmas cookies, which Kaine and Halle LOVED decorating.  I think this will be easily continued on the mission field.

Their finished creations.  COVERED in sprinkles :)

Another tradition that I personally loooooved.  Waffle sundaes for supper!  You can see that our kids were pretty excited about this, too!  It was extremely good.  And extremely unhealthy :)

I think Daisy wasn't sure what to think at first...a bowl filled with ice cream, redi-whip and sprinkles for supper???  (with a waffle under it somewhere)...she LOVED it.

Of course, our kids' favorite part--the gifts.  (as of right now, we don't get our kids much for Christmas...just little things.  Kind of like stocking stuffers--minus the stocking!  They get enough other gifts from grandparents, great-grandparents, etc that they definitely don't need anything else.  They didn't mind, though.  They love little things, too:) ).

Then, another tradition that I think will easily be continued wherever we are--homemade games.  Nathan thought up a few games and our kids loved it.  Actually, this is a tradition that is big in my family.  My grandpa Ralph used to make up the best games at Christmas, and it was a huge part of our day!  Now, my dad does the same thing for our family and we LOVE it!  I told Nathan that he needs to continue this, too.  He did a great job!

Here is the first one--pop-can bowling.  They got to keep whatever cans of pop they knocked down...

Then, not sure what this would be called...I guess "spin the gun"?  Nathan put tape on the floor (see below) with prizes in each section.  Then he drilled a hole in this wooden rubber-band gun that Kaine has, and stuck something in it so that it would spin on the carpet.  It worked great!  Whatever the gun pointed at was the prize that they got.

And the last one--shooting a dart gun and knocking down prizes.  Kaine loved this one the most:)

Halle decided to create her own game when it was all over :) 

It was such a fun family Christmas!  Love my little family:)