16 years old!!!

Playing with his sister in the sand

How can 16 years have gone by so fast?? I can't believe that Brandon is 16 already. He wanted to celebrate his birthday by going to a Nebraska Cornhusker game, so he and Bryan went for the opening game on September 4th. We went to Lincoln the night before and spent the night at the Em*bassy Suites in downtown Lincoln and then they went to the game the next day. The day of his birthday he wanted to go to the river so we invited the "cousins" to come and they all had a really fun time. We celebrated with gifts and cake in the evening. The highlight was getting his drivers license on the following tuesday!! Happy 16th Birthday--Brandon!!!!

1st Day of School

Chelsey's 1st day of Kindergarten

Brittney, 4th grade

Courtney, 7th grade

Dylan, freshman

Brandon, Sophomore

Kendall & Chelsey

Courtney and Jadyn

Waiting in line to go to their classroom

School started and we had a couple of firsts in our family. Chelsey's 1st day of school in kindergarten and Dylan's first day of high school. Chelsey was a little nervous going to school but she had her good friend Kendall with her so that helped a lot. Most of the kids in her class had gone to preschool but she didn't and so didn't know what to expect. She was excited to come and tell me all about her first day and has been excited everyday since also. She is pretty worn out by the end of the day. It is going to be a big adjustment for me also as I don't have anybody at home anymore. I have had kids home for the past 16 years, now hopefully I can get some long overdue projects done.

My brother, see what I had to live with all my life!!!

On Sunday I went to Omaha to meet with Don & Angie for lunch. We met at Cul*vers which was a lot of fun. My brother is a comedian want to be.....doesn't that just make a sister proud?!!

Tennessee Trip

Bryan and Brandon arrived home from their missions trip about 3:00 AM July 31, they had a great trip. A few things that they did were help with some painting and other projects at a church, work at the Nashville rescue mission, hand out food to the homeless, and just try to meet people and share Jesus with them wherever they went. It was a growing experience for Brandon and his excitement for Jesus is great!! I sure hope that the light doesn't fade and that he and the whole group are really fired up to share Jesus wherever they are.

Swimming and Day Camp

Checking out how many lightning bugs they have

Brittney, Jamie, & Chelsey swimming

Courtney going down the slide

Chelsey going off the diving board

Chelsey & Kendall before day camp

Brittney & Jamie before day camp

The kids had a fun time swimming in our pool in the backyard this summer. Well it is actually a cattle tank but it was a lot of fun for them. We also were able to go to some swimming pools in our area (our town is getting a new pool so no pool this summer) a few times. Chelsey was able to go off the diving board with a lifejacket on and she loved that. The kids also loved the tall and fast slide, they would see how far they could skim on the top of the water at the end--Dylan was pretty good!!

Brittney & Chelsey were also able to go to daycamp 2 times this summer. They did horseback riding the first time and then Chelsey rode in a canoe the 2nd time. Chelsey also fell in the mud on the obstacle course (that didn't surprise us). She wanted to go to "night" camp but won't be able to go next year. What a difference between our kids, Chelsey is not afraid to do many things and I am sure she will be staying the 2 nights next year with no problem.

Tennessee here we come!

Tennessee Missions Team

Prayer before they leave

Bryan and Brandon are on their way to Tennesse with a group of 30 from our church and a church in York. They were not exactly sure what they were doing when they left but think they will be working with a homeless shelter, street evangelism, and possibly some contruction projects. It is a very exciting adventure for both of them and hope that they are able to share Christ with many people this week.

Another trip--this time to North Dakota

My mom broke her femur and so we went up to help her

Rafting on the creek, they must be in North Dakota

Dad & his niece, Shirley
I had never met most of these relatives, was a fun time!

Dylan on stilts

Do you think she got up? No, but she sure tried hard

Riding grandpa's 4-wheeler

We found these kittens, not very old

We got these kittens in town for free, they sure were cute!

The girls standing in a canola field

We made a trip up to North Dakota to visit my parents. My mother broke her femur on May and so we went up to help her. I cooked, cleaned, and did laundry for her to get caught up some. She was not able to put any weight on it for 6 weeks and now found out that she cannot for another 6 weeks. It sure has been hard for her to not be able to do much. We also found 3 sets of kittens with 3 kittens each, 9 kittens, plus my mom wanted gold kittens and so we found some free ones in town and brought home a male and female and they are so fun to play with. My cousin and her husband and 3 girls came out to spend the day on the farm with us. Her mother died at the age of 29 and so she came to live with my grandparents on the farm for awhile so she wanted to see the farm again and show her family. I hadn't met them all and so that was really fun to get to know them and will be fun to stay in touch with them. My husband and boys also enjoyed "rafting" on the creek. There are a lot of really pretty yellow fields in North Dakota. It is canola, like the oil. The girls posed in the field of yellow for a picture for me. Everybody loves going to grandpa & grandma's and it was hard to leave!!!

Camp

Courtney & Dylan were able to go to Timberlake Ranch Camp again this year with their good friends. Courtney went to Horse camp for the first time and really loved it. She was able to take care of a horse named firecracker for the week. She was also able to go with her 2 good friends and 2 more friends that we didn't know that were going to be there that week and in her cabin. She really liked her cabin leader also very much. Dylan went with his good friend and had lots of fun also. He always likes the swimming and the games. He likes Alpha wolf which is a game played on the last day of camp and in the pitch black and they stay up until midnight or so. They always come home tired. We are thankful that we have a Christian camp so close (25 miles away) to our house that they are able to go to.