Oreo

The newest addition to our family.  A Shichon (designer breed - Shih tzu and bichon frise mix).  He is right under 12 pounds and is a wonderful ball of fluff.  He is the best dog we have ever had...and a wonderful family dog.  He loves each of us and craves to be with us.  We got to take him with us to the farm.  Even my mom kind of liked him and she isn't even a dog person.  However he has a sensitive stomach.  Right before our trip he got a hold of a Poinsettia leaf and ended up throwing up 5 times on our 16 hr trip over to WV.  He hardly makes a sound.  He loves to play with us but is also content to play by himself or rest.  Mike picked him up for our family in November.  My niece is also now asking for one :)

while he was at a pastor's conference a few hours away . We did our research this time and it certainly has paid off.  The boys were surprised.  SO if you are looking for a great dog, let me highly recommend this kind.  They named our dog Oreo and we kept the name, we got him at 16 weeks and he is about 25 weeks old.

So I am thinking about getting back to blogging so this is kind of a test to see who is still checking my blog.  Is facebook enough or do you miss the words to go with the pictures?  Please comment and let me know.

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas 2013

Soccer season

Almost every Saturday until November 10th, we found ourselves at the soccer field for games. Caleb greatly improved in the goalie position and would usually play the whole first half of the game there and then move to a forward position. He was helpful to his team in the speed department and gave a few assists to goals although he never scored.

Mike loved helping coach the under 8 team, they were such a great group of kids. They only play 4 on the field at once and managed to win all but 2 games. Titus liked playing defender best but got moved around to learn all the positions. One game he scored 3 times - Hat trick!

I barely caught this score on tape..You can tell he is quite pleased with himself. :)

Piano Special

Caleb played a piano special at church in the evening service. He played 2 songs, Rejoice int eh Lord Always into Praise Him, Praise Him. He has only been playing since July so we are really happy with his progress. I helped turned pages so didn't get to take a video.

October 10

Titus lost his first tooth!

He lost it at 5 AM, tried to hold it in his hand till morning but he lost it in his bed, we found it later. Leaves are starting to change colors!

Camping - Norfork Dam Quarry

October 1-3, we decided to go camping (about 30 min from our house). The nights were a little chilly but the quiet beauty was wonderful. The first night we went down to the river and watched the fly fisherman for a while. The campground also had 2 play gounds the boys enjoyed. We made S'mores, played card games and let the boys run around with their glow sticks. We were awakened at midnight to a siren - warning everyone they were letting water out to the dam we found out later. The next morning we went across the street to the fish hatchery. Then the boys went fishing in the creek. We could see so many fish rihgt infront of us but they didn't bite the bait. One more night in the tent, then a pancake breakfast before packing up and heading home. A nice family get away!

October also started our Missions Emphasis Month and we were challenged each day to read from Meditations on Missions. It was such a good devotional and really helped focus our thoughts on what God says about missions. In the evening church services Mike played the videos "Dispatches from the Front Lines." They were so eye opening to the need of the gospel around the world but also an encouragement to see other Christians in so many other countries.

Titus Soccer Game

Pretty much every Saturday from September to Nov. 10th, we spent our mornings watching the boys soccer games. Mike helped coach Titus' team ... I will do another post later with more pics later in the season, maybe even a video.

Truck Pull

Caleb's 1st Soccer game

Although Caleb has never practiced goalie or really knows all the rules of soccer he is a very eager boy and has dreamed of being goalie for years. So he volunteered to be goalie for his team at the first game. Within the first minute of the game he stopped 4 shots but on the 4th kick, getting it out of his area he booted the ball behind his head into his own goal. At half time he moved up to a forward position. He had such a great time playing and the game ended in a tie 4-4. I was in Flippin with him while Mike was in Mt Home at Titus' first game (which they lost). We met in the middle to grab lunch at Long John Silvers and talk about their games. Titus was on the Green Village Carpet Team and Caleb got to be on the Purple Cardiology Team. A year ago I am not sure he would have ever put a purple shirt on...so it was kind of funny but he was OK with it.

Mountain View Folk Center

The donkey merry-go round

Candle dipping

Printer

Black Smith We had a wonderful trip on our second trip to the Mountain View Folk Center. This time we went with about 30 other homeschoolers. I did buy clay mugs for each of the boys with an animal of their choice molded inside. Caleb chose a bat, T a T-Rex and Abe an elephant; as their drink disappears the animal emerges. It was such a nice day together. Unfortunately Mike stayed home to put drywall up at the church. He has been busy with a lot of renovations. Last week he bought a truck - that helps with all that and is suppose to also help us get out of debt (the truck is older and half the price of Mike's Mazda). Now to sell that..of course I am writing this in January and this was back in September. We finally did sell it here in December!

Family memories

Other things I don't want to forget...

Mom taking a ride on Mike's motorcycle

Just being together

Titus' love of marshmallows

Mike and Abe flipping the Jet ski

The Beautiful Day the Lord gave us

Joseph - Sight and Sound

Laura and Whitney had to head back after our time on the lake. Mom and our family headed out in the evening to see the show Joseph in the Sight and Sound Theater. It was a lesson on forgiveness. The next day the boys spent some more time in the pools and then we went shopping and mini golfing before we had to drop mom off at the airport. Certainly a very memorable, fun vacation.

Still Waters Lake Day

The next day we had a beautiful day on the lake, we rented a jet ski and then a pontoon for 4 hours. The kayaks were free. We took lunch out on the boat with us and then took turns tubing and spent time swimming.

Still Water Resort

Abe really wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for his birthday (along with about 10 other things) but the nearest one is 3 hrs away. His birthday actually fell on Sunday. He loves Pizza and Bananas so that is what we had for our evening meal. Then on Monday we headed up to Branson to go to the Still Waters Resort on Table Rock Lake (on a groupon Mike got). About 15 minutes before our location was the Shepherd Hills Tower and Zipline. We stopped off for a birdseye view and also Whitney and I took a ride down on the zipline. I had done some meal prep before, so when we arrived we put the chicken alfrado lasagna in the oven and went for a walk around the resort. After dinner we had a brownie/cookie cake for my mom's upcoming birthday. Next we investigated the 3 pools on site, It was a little cold for me but the boys loved the Zoom Flume slide and the waterfall that went into the pool. Next we gathered wood and made a fire to cook Smores over. It was a great day!