NEW LOOK

Do you like it? I just like change once in a while. The picture was taken one year ago on a foggy morning on our farm. It's one of my favorites! Hope you like it, too.

SCRIPTURE MEMORY

We all know it's something we should do, but if you're like me, it's a struggle that I don't fight very often. I memorize verses with my kids, but I'm ready to take on a bit more and really make sure it sticks in my long-term memory. So, Evan and I have decided to do it together and hold each other accountable. He heard a really good teaching on memorizing scripture this past weekend at the men's retreat he went to and came home and motivated me to join him. The guy who taught the session has several books of the Bible memorized. We are going to start with just a few verses each week and hopefully work up to larger chunks.

This week it's Romans 9:9-12:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate towards one another with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation and continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Since that was from memory, I'm not sure where all my punctuation goes. It's amazing how many times a day I am prompted to try to say this. I hope this is the start of something that we can keep up. I guess that's why accountability is key! It's also a very good reminder that what I'm committing to memory is how I should be living my life every moment of every day.

For another post, I will explain our scripture memory box that I have used with my kids, which helps review and maintain what you memorize. But that is for another day.

MICHIGAN - PART 3

These last few photos are of our time at the hotel and also our stop at Mt. Rushmore on our way home. This was a great way to end our trip!

My beautiful niece, Evie

Love this picture!!
(My sister, Traci, & Myah)

The whole crew (minus 6 who were missed dearly!)


This was the first I met my niece, Elaina, and the first Traci got to meet Aden.

A great way to end the trip...even if it was after 20 hours on the road!

MICHIGAN - PART 2

The latter part of our trip was also a great time. We saw lots of people Tuesday and Wednesday while we were in town, spent Thursday morning visiting my grandparents and left that same day to go see my sister and her family in Indiana. We spent one night at their house and the next night at a beautiful hotel celebrating my other grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. I think the thing I enjoyed most about our trip was that I felt like we actually had good, quality time with people.

Enjoying time with cousins!

(l. to r. Kiana, Myah, Erin, Alli, Tyler, Joel & Aden)

Oh, how I miss my friend, Gina...no baby news yet!

Enjoying the beauty of Papa's dalias

A day at the cottage -- we got to see LOTS of wonderful people! Myah had fun with the fly rod (she takes after her daddy...) and even though the temps were on the chilly side and we couldn't swim, the kids had a great time in the sand and with the fishing poles! I wish I had more pictures of everyone who was there!

Mom & Dad VO, our family and Grandpa T.

Kiana and Grandma T.

Grandma VO with Aden


Playing in the pond at my sister's house

My 3 boys! (Can I just say I love this picture!)

Swimming was a highlight on our entire trip

WE MUST BE RELATED....

Without realizing it, I put the SAME SONG on my blog this weekend that my sister has playing on hers. Yes, I visit her blog regularly, but it really didn't register what specific song she had playing. The song "Mighty to Save" really spoke to me this past weekend at church, so I came and made it my new song here. Then, I hopped over to her blog and guess what's playing??? You guessed it!

TRIP TO MICHIGAN

PART 1

Overall, we had a great trip! Considering it's 24+ hours in the car one way with 4 kids, everything went as well as could be expected. Sometimes our trips back are so crazy, they don't feel much like a vacation, but this time, it really did.

We started our trip in the UP. We spent 2 nights in northern MI, where we crossed the bridge and spent a day at Mackinac Island where we took a carriage ride to see things. The kids loved it, of course. The picture above shows Kiana chasing the sea gulls off the yard of the hotel we stayed in.



The day we took the ferry to the island was Joel's 6th birthday! It was a chilly ride, but it ended up being a gorgeous day! I enjoyed being around the beautiful great lakes again. Wish we had more of that in MT!

We headed to Petoskey that same day, where we briefly stopped to see some great friends from college and had birthday cake around 11:30 that night in the hotel room. (Thanks to grandma, it was yummy Zeeland bakery cake!)


Photos below: Pictures from our day on the island...

The next day we headed down to my parents' house. We celebrated Joel's birthday again with lots of family and friends. It was a fun time -- a birthday unlike any Joel has had before! I think it was a highlight of the trip for him and it was so great to see everyone again!

It was also great fun to introduce Aden to everyone. It truly is a blessing to have so many great-grandparents around to enjoy. We are so blessed! Thanks to everyone who came out to see us!

This only takes us half-way through our trip. I am having a terrible time narrowing down my pictures! So, stay tuned for the rest of the week... when I have more time!

My grandpa with Aden. Aden was 2 months old.