We had a wonderful Labor Day evening with great friends and food!! Our dear friends, the Core’s, are moving to Omaha, NE soon and they so graciously had us over to eat the food from their freezer…. Lobster tails and ribs (I want a freezer like that)! Brett and Jenny and their kids, JB and Macayla are not only great friends of ours, they are such a sweet family in our Bowling Green community. Leading the BG Young Life for many years, and working with the pregnancy center and so active in our church. The generosity and the love of Christ that pours from them is amazing and inspiring. Our first “taste” of their graciousness was when Ethan was born 3 1/2 years ago. We were fairly new to the church (or at least we still felt new) and Jenny arranged meals for us to be delivered every other day for a month. She showed genuine interest in the issues of a new mom and helped however she could. Although I know now she was doing only what was natural for her… caring and loving on people. We have watched Brett and Jenny give of themselves, their time and their things over and over and its Christ we see in all they do. It has been amazing doing life with these dear friends and it’s so hard to believe they will soon be in a new community, and in a new church with new friends. But what a great family Omaha is getting. Our prayers are with you, friends, as God opens new doors for you, provides new friends for you and blesses you far more than you can imagine. We love you Core’s! (tears)

Ok… on to some fun memories… here’s our Labor Day:

Check out those lobster tails!

Lucas and Lexi enjoying the cookout

The kiddos

The Ladies

And the Gents

The whole gang

And the Core’s… we will miss you guys!

Categories: Friends, Holiday
2 Comments »

Ha! I can’t believe July is almost over!!! But here are some pictures from our 4th of July celebration. Yes, you will see us all in long sleeves and pants… thanks to our lovely Ohio weather it was rather cold on the 4th of July. Kevin and I were both suffering from 3 week colds that just wouldn’t go away but we couldn’t miss the fireworks at Ft. Meigs! Now that we have kids, it’s more fun watching them watch the fireworks than actually watching them ourselves.

Categories: Family, Holiday
No Comments »

This post is a little out of order as it happened before Easter but I wanted to include some pictures anyway. We did an Easter egg hunt the week before Easter and the boys got to meet the Easter Bunny. They had fun collecting easter eggs… although Lucas wasn’t quite sure of the huge furry bunny (we don’t blame you kid)… it was a fun morning.

Lucas was putting eggs in any basket on the floor… we didn’t know this little girl.

Ethan busy eating his candy and Lucas not so sure about this furry thing!

Ethan giving a hug to the Easter Bunny

Categories: Family, Holiday
1 Comment »

Hard to believe Easter is over already! And hard to believe we celebrated Easter with snow on the ground! Bleh! Also… did you know that little boys don’t get dressed up for Easter? Yeah, only little girls. Everywhere I shopped (ok, so not the expensive places) there was hardly any choice for boys Easter outfits. Just button down shirts and like 2 to choose from! Oh but little girls… they have hundreds of cute dresses to choose from! I’m not bitter I promise! I wanted a little bowtie for Lucas but ha… no luck!! Oh well.
We had a good Easter. We didn’t get to celebrate with Kevin’s family b/c his mom and grandma have been having some health issues (to sum it up). We sure missed them and can’t wait to visit soon! We’re praying for you guys, we love and miss you very much!
We did, however, get to spend Easter with my Grandma’s family… we had a family reunion on her side. It was nice to see everyone and see the how much the cousins, 2nd cousins, 1st cousins once removed, etc., etc. have grown. The older cousins had fun hiding TONS of eggs for the 3 little ones! They found more eggs than they could handle… or maybe we parents could handle! I’ve never seen so much candy on Easter! But they had fun and that’s what matters right.
Here’s some pics from our day:

I realized we didn’t get a good picture of Ethan on Easter until he was way too gone to cooperate so this is what we get.

Categories: Family, Holiday
No Comments »

We had a great time ringing in the new year with our friends. We were even able to stay out till midnight since our friends kids gave up their beds to let our little ones sleep. Thanks JB & Macayla! We had a fun night eating, playing games, eating, talking, eating and oh, did I mention eating.

I am looking forward to a new year with new adventures and challenges. It’s pretty amazing how the years go by faster and faster… guess there’s no way to slow it down other than slow down yourself and try to enjoy every moment. I hope this year brings as many joys and blessings as 2007. God is good!

Categories: Friends, Holiday
No Comments »

After a great visit in Detroit with Kevin’s family we came home and spent Christmas with my side. Ryan and Heidi and the kids came in from Colorado Sunday night (12/23) so we were able to visit with them all week. The kids opened their gifts from Gram & Gramp on Christmas Eve … they had a blast and kept asking for more! Somehow they need to learn they don’t NEED more!… or maybe Gram and Gramp need to learn that. It was fun to watch them tear open gifts and see the look on their faces… so cute. Ethan got a bright, new, shiny tricycle (among other things) and Lucas got diapers and baby food (among other toys). I admit, I asked for those things for Lucas… this is probably the only year he won’t care and won’t know the difference. Actually, he was excited about the food… that was the only thing he recognized and loved.

On Christmas day we went to my Grandma & Grandpa’s house for lunch and exchanged gifts there. It was nice to visit with everyone, as the whole family (cousin’s and all) was there. After Grandma’s house we went back to my parents house, put the kids to bed and we had our own time to open gifts … just the adults. We like to drag it out and spend hours opening gifts, talking, laughing, eating and just visiting. It was great. Mom had lots of fun handing out the gifts this year… she started out giving each of us a gift from our childhood … we had to figure out what it was that we always played with as a kid and was our favorite toy. It was fun going down memory lane and seeing how some of our favorite toys are still around but have changed just a bit. I got a Strawberry Shortcake doll (loved them as a kid!), Kevin got matchbox cars, Ryan got a light bright and Heidi got a sock monkey “Georgie”. Mom really got a kick out of that game. … and so did we. Thanks mom for a fun surprise.
We spent the next few hours laughing and opening gifts and just being together.

The rest of the week was filled with kids, kids and more kids. OH and a baby announcement! Not me… Heidi! I’m going to be an Aunt again! Yay! Congrats you guys!

Here’s some pictures of our week… I don’t have many as we were pretty busy chasing kids to snap photos all the time.

Christmas morning at our house

At Grams: Cousin Annette & daughter, Kaitlyn, Ryan, Heidi, Noah & Ryleigh

Categories: Family, Holiday
No Comments »

What an amazing season of many celebrations! I’ll have to break it up in a couple posts at least.

I had so much fun getting ready for the Holiday’s this year. It was so much easier to do things not being 9 months pregnant. And it gets more and more fun the older Ethan gets… the more he understands and the more family traditions we can start. This year was the first year we did Advent… it was actually the first time Kevin and I have ever done it, as neither of us did it as kids. It will definitely stay a great family tradition in our house. I loved, not only the family time together but what a great time of sharing Christ together and remembering the true meaning of the season. And as the boys get older we can add lots more great activities.

The weekend before Christmas we went to Detroit to celebrate Christmas with Kevin’s family. It was such a nice visit with everyone (as usual). I think my favorite part was singing Christmas carols together while Dad Vile played the piano. Great memories and I know Ethan loved it too! (he loves to sing). We played games, which is always interesting and fun with Kevin’s siblings. On Sunday afternoon, Kevin’s dad pulled down the old slide projector and slides and we watched family pictures and reminisced about Christmas’ growing up (well, they reminisced, while I listened and learned more about my family :)) It was fun to see pictures of Kevin and his brother and sister and compare who Ethan and Lucas look like.

We had a great visit and it’s hard to believe Christmas is already over. Here are some pictures of our weekend in Michigan.

Jonah & Ethan playing

The big kids anxious to open presents

Loving our new cozy blanket

Gram & Jordan

Jordan always taking care of the kids

Ethans new headphones

Uncle Joel & Lucas

Singing with Uncle Jack

Categories: Family, Holiday
No Comments »