Stephen turns Three~by Beth

Here is our little darling on the morning of his birthday, all ready for church. What a handsome guy! After blowing out his candles on his cake he opened his gifts. His sisters gave him some Toy Story goggles. We thank God for bringing Stephen into our lives.

27 Years Together

On June 2nd, Beth and I were privileged to go to PF Chang's for our anniversary. It was the last day of teacher in-service for me, and so I was officially done with school for the year. Beth took two pictures of the event. The lighting wasn't the greatest, but I think you can make out what the images are in the pictures. When we came we mentioned two things to our server--one, that it was our anniversary, and two, we don't drink. So she was kind enough to bring us a couple of glasses of ginger ale with fruit mixed in. It was so appropriate for us. I am blessed to have a wife who has put up with me all these years, and who has blessed our family with twelve beautiful children.

Father's Day Treat

What a great day Father's Day has already been for me! For the second year in a row my lovely wife has blessed me with a delicious pie for Sunday dinner. With lime and chili chicken, home-made french fries, and green beans as the main menu, we enjoyed dinner together. The pie was raspberry again this year. Yummmm! Caleb grilled the chicken on the new grill the children bought me for Father's Day. Christiana helped Mom with the pie. Thanks, Beth (with the help of the children), for making the day special!

Caleb is Using His Culinary Skills

Memorial Day was another day when Caleb showed off his culinary skills here at home. He took charge of our holiday dinner, and made shish kebobs and rice for our enjoyment. That, along with the cherries and corn-on-the-cob that Beth picked up at the store, made for a great Memorial Day dinner.

Caleb's Graduation

On Saturday, May 14th, our fourth child graduated from high school. Caleb Joshua was one of 17 young people who were part of the Christian Home Educators of Southwest Florida (CHESF) graduation. Each of the young people were given an opportunity to either give a speech, perform some musical piece, produce and show a DVD presentation, or any combination of the above. Caleb gave a speech where he was gracious in thanking the LORD, his parents, and siblings for all that had been accomplished in his life. At the beginning of the ceremony, there was an introduction of each graduate along with pictures as he or she walked to the front of the church. Mr. Gerry Peterson said, "When I read all that Caleb had done, I said, 'He's been involved in a lot of things!'" Well, yes, Caleb has done several things during his school days. Some of those things include: being involved as a Character Coach in Character First training at a Christian School; playing basketball, soccer, and football for both LCHS and in the rec league; accompanying our church on the piano; taking culinary arts classes at High Tech North here in Cape Coral; refereeing soccer; being a squad leader at ALERT Cadets during our yearly regional conferences. He just did this again two weeks ago when we were in Texas.

We're very proud of him. Plus, he got to graduate with one of his life-long friends, Kenneth McDonough, who is pictured in the top photo next to Caleb. Next to Kenneth is James Peterson, one of Caleb's teammates in football and basketball.

Easter 2011 with our Texas kin~by Beth

We had the most awesome Easter this year. On Good Friday we left for Big Sandy, Texas and arrived at 6am the next morning after driving through the night (thank you Jonathan). After moving into Nathan and Hannah's, and Katie and Stacey's apartments at ALERT we had an enjoyable day with them and getting to know our new granddaughter. She is so precious. She is sleeping through the night already so that makes for happy parents. On Monday, after Katie got off work, we went shopping for groceries and out for coffee. It was just Hannah, Lydia, Katie and I. We had a wonderful time. Tuesday we started the conference which continued on through Friday evening. The kiddos had a marvelous time in their programs. Saturday we left and just arrived home today. Here are some photo highlights. There were so many good ones it was hard to choose. Hannah's sister Stacey is on the far right in the family photo. She is a part of the family. We are only missing Joel here. It was taken on Major Behr's back deck facing the lake after the Easter service Sunday. It was so beautiful. During the conference the boys' got to rappel on the tower and climb the rock wall, among many other activities. Katie has her "registration boy" behind the desk here. Many great memories.

Boating Part II~by Beth

Here are more photos.