The Days of our Lives~by Beth

Another week of Advent candle lighting. Here are Johanna, Christiana, and Charity. One week till Christmas.
Next we went home and celebrated Johanna's 7th birthday. Yes, there are 7 candles in that cupcake.
This past Friday Johanna and Abigail got to go do a young child's open gym with Katie. She took a few shots of their fun.
We managed to finish school, put up more of our lights for the house, and I have all the gifts wrapped and all my ironing done. Hoping to get get our Christmas letter out this weekend too.

Chinese Hat Day~by Beth

This month we will be studying China, and specifically Hudson Taylor. His "salty" life created thirst in the lives of thousands of Chinese. It is estimated that there are between 100,000,000 and 200,000,000 believers in China today, which began with the faithful work of Hudson Taylor. Here are our girls, and Stephen too, who likes to be involved in everything we do, wearing the Chinese hats that they made today.

Advent Candles 2010~by Beth

We have had two weeks of Advent so far. Our children are overjoyed to have the privilege of lighting the Advent candles. The first week Abigail lit them. The second week Johanna and Stephen lit one each. Katie fixed up Johanna's hair. So adorable.

Exercising with Katie~by Beth

Katie faithfully runs. Since she came home the girls have been joining her on her runs. The little two can't keep up so Katie takes them on many walks. They are so cute!

Thanksgiving 2010~by Beth

Here are some pies that Nathan and Hannah and Caleb created for Thanksgiving. We were so blessed to have all our children home for Thanksgiving, including our sweet daughter-in-law Hannah. We had great fun with them and they even worked tirelessly on this puzzle. After a week with us they drove to Miami for a week long cruise and then flew home to Texas. Katie is still with us until the end of December. We thank God for the blessing of our children.

Two Little Princesses~by Beth

Here are two of our little Princesses. Emma is wearing a gown that was on clearance after Halloween so I picked it up. It gave her and Charity great joy. Johanna is wearing one that was given to us as some point. A little big, but she was happy.

Football season 2010~by Beth

Our boys started football practice in July and everyone gained a lot of skill. So much so that the boys went to state. They finished the season 5th in state. Of course we are a part of a small state league, but still they played well. Here are the boys from our house. Stephen and I watched many games. Bubbles helped pass the time.

The Fishing Field Trip~by Beth

Our children participated in a field trip that was set up for Jonathan's school but they let us tag along. It was at the pond of Bass Pro Shop. While they fished I did some shopping for Christmas. Here are a few shots of the fun.

Abby turns 5

Abby celebrated her birthday this week. She got to go to ChuckECheese last week for a school fund raiser with her siblings. Sunday we celebrated with cake and presents. She loved her gifts and kept carrying them around the house with her. Today she told me that she did not understand why she was not starting school yet since she turned 5. I explained that she would start when school began next year. Besides, we have to get Johanna through 1st grade phonics before I start all over in kindergarten phonics.

Caleb's new class

After several months on the waiting list Caleb officially started his culinary class. We took a photo of him yesterday when the rest of his uniform arrived. Today's photo is the "going out the door before our first class" photo. Yesterday was our last game until state November 11-12, so we only have practices. Life is so busy with active teens in the house.

Joel is off to the University of Florida~by Beth

Friday was another milestone in Joel's and our life. He left for UF. Stephen and I helped to pack him up. Here are the photos to prove it!

An unexpected trip to Texas~by Beth

After the conference ended, we grabbed some dinner, late, at the Golden Arches with Nathan. The plan was that we would take Nathan back to the South Campus where he was staying and also drop off Caleb and Zachary to spend the night. In the morning all three would ride back on the ALERT vans back to ALERT and the boys would work base support for a little more than three weeks. Just as we arrived at the South Campus at dusk I got a call that my aunt in TX had passed away. So, we got the boys off, got the other children ready for travel and said our goodbyes. While filling up the van with gas Jonathan and I began to discuss whether it would be possible to go to Texas for the funeral that would be the following Tuesday, 4 days later. Since Jon did not have to be to work until Friday we figured we could swing it. So, at 11:30pm we started out, not for Florida, but for Texas. We called Nathan to check with him about staying at ALERT which was fine. His sister-in-law works in conferences at ALERT so she arranged our housing on campus. Around 2:30am we pulled over to rest at a rest stop somewhere in Illinois. David got out to use the restroom and looked at the map of where we were but he must have been too sleepy to realize that Illinois was not on the way home to Florida. Later in the morning the children woke up and began to wonder where we were. Charity, in particular, kept asking where we were, where we were going, etc. I tried to give vague answers like "We're going south". Before we got to the Texas sign she had figured that we were not going home. They erupted in cheers when they realized that we would visit family in Texas. We kept our visit a secret from Katie. She had been asking us to visit practically every month. She had also suggested that we send Stephen with the two boys coming to ALERT and he could fly home with them. So, when we arrived we went to her apartment and had Stephen knock on the door. Because she and Stacey (our DIL's sister) had been painting all day in over 100 degree heat and had just gotten back and showered, they were pretty tired. So, Katie yelled "Come in." Stephen turned the knob and I had him walk in and she squealed with delight. The whole time we were there was delightful. We got to help Nathan on two rooms they were fixing up in their apartment and celebrate Katie's birthday a couple days early. On Tuesday we drove over to Ft Worth for the funeral and had a special time with all my Dad's relatives. I got a shot of the remaining three siblings of my grandparents. They have lost two siblings now. Dad is the one in the center. Though it was a very long trip home, it was well worth going.

Indy conference~by Beth

After visiting in Ohio we headed to Indianapolis for our ATI home school conference. The adult sessions were very good, as always, and the children all loved their programs. Johanna and Abby were in the Children's Institute, Charity and Emma were in Pre-Excel (with their leader being the daughter of a good friend of mine), Christiana was in Commit, and the boys in ALERT cadets. Nathan came up on the ALERT van to be the logistics man for the cadet program so we got to spend time together. That was great. We also helped out a lady at our hotel with transportation since her van needed some work. Here are some photos of our conference.

Kiddie Park~by Beth

Lisa and I took the 5 girls and Stephen to one of the oldest kiddie parks in North America. They had a great time and so did we. Here are some of the things that they did.

The Creation Museum 2010~by Beth

We left for the north on July 15th visiting the Creation Museum on the way up again. We had a great time visiting the grounds outside before the museum opened. It was such a fun family time, though we only had 9 children with us. The picture on the bridge was a brand new Japanese garden and it was beautiful!! I wish I could have taken it home with me :-)
Later the day we went on up to visit some friends that I met in Israel along with the pastor and wife that lead the tour and had a wonderful time together. The next day we went on up to my sister's and visited all my family. Jonathan preached twice for Dad at church while we were there. My sister took some days off work to spend time with us and we really enjoyed being together. Of course we went swimming at Grandma's pool. Stephen had such a great time learning to jump in and roll in. Here are the kiddos and and the cousins.

The Organizer's Secret Weapon~by Beth

People ask me all the time how I do it. Right now the question is how do I get ready for vacation with 11 people to pack for. The best solution for me is using my organizing gifts with the greatest tool I know to use. That's right; it's a list. Not just one jotted down in pencil on an old envelope or something laying around. It is one created on the computer and printed. Last July our hard drive crashed so I lost last year's list. But I was able to recreate it using one from my ATI mom's list and my list from last year which I had filed away. The picture illustrates just what kind of list I use to get our crew ready to go. We must have clothes to visit Grandma and Grandpa and all the rest of the family. We need to be prepared for our conference after that with all our dress clothes, and cadet uniforms, etc. Then there is the food, and how to feed us all while at a motel and on a tight budget. So, as I pack, I check. That is, check it off my list. As you can see it takes up my whole dresser top with 5 whole pages. Do we leave something home that we need? Usually, but then I just add that to my list for next year. Hey, that's what Walmart is for, right?

Abby the princess~by Beth

Isn't she just the cutie pie?

Beach Day~by Beth

The week before Stephen's birthday we had a beach day at the request of Katie. We went out to Bowditch Beach, down the road from Ft Myers Beach. Joel joined us as well. We had a great time together playing in the water and sand. We had frisbees and a football that we threw out in the water. The only down side was that the Gulf water has gotten so hot, that it felt like bath water, literally, the first 50 feet from shore. It got a little cooler past there, but not much. We had to get wet and then stand in the breeze to cool off! Ah, but what fun memories.

Party day~by Beth

We had a great Friday celebrating Stephen's 2nd birthday. His actual day was Saturday but since Katie flew back to Texas that morning we decided to do it a day early. Katie and all the children had a blast. Joel was even there. We had some inside games first including "Stephen Says", then some outside games like relays, water balloon toss and then all out water war. It was pretty funny. Of couse all the boys wanted to nail their dad. We ended up eating outside since everyone was soaked, except mom which made it convenient to go in and out with the food. Here are a few photos.