Disney is preparing for Hannah's birthday!

Christmas 2008

Helicopter ride!!!

Melissa, Kyle and Mark and I went on a double date which started in a most special way: with a helicopter ride over King's Bay in Crystal River! It was BEATIFUL! Thank you, Terry Hambel for the wonderful ride! It was so neat to see our home town from above!

Children's Christmas Service

All three kids were in the school's Children's Christmas Service last week. All the kids did a great job! Maggie and Hannah did a lot of memorizing and practicing and the poor girls were sick the week leading up to the service! Maggie could hardly talk, but she sojourned through like a real trooper! For the first time, I got to sit in the congregation without a little one next to me! We're really proud of their efforts to proclaim Jesus' love for all through their parts in the service. What a blessing!

Jake in his little vest and tie!

Thanksgiving 2008

Making a Gingerbread house with Abby.

Jacob and Hannah with Joey.

The finished project! Now can we eat it??

Pilgrims and Indians

Our K-1 class recently sailed the Mayflower to have a dinner with the Preschool Indians.

Academic Fair 2008

On Saturday, we held our first Academic Fair at St. Paul's Lutheran School. The kids submitted Social Studies and Art projects that they had worked on at home over the last month. Then they competed in a math competition, spelling bee, forensics, and academic bowl. Maggie won 4 blue ribbons and one red ribbon (2nd place) and Hannah won 2 red! (Hannah didn't get to compete in the math, spelling or academic bowl because it was only for 1st through 8th graders.) Here are some pictures!

Halloween 2008

We had a good Halloween this year! The "best Halloween ever" according to the girls. Jake just loved the candy. And he kept looking back at his tail, wondering what was going on back there.



Our friends, Ron and Krista Joseph were having a little fun with Ali's butterfly wings...

Jake's first day of preschool!

Yep, Jake started school today. We arranged with the preschool for him to visit for the day and see how he'd do. Mrs. Welfel said he did really well, so he'll probably continue going on Tuesdays and Thursdays, maybe even as early as next week! He was very excited and I took a few pictures of him before school.

First family camping trip

We took the whole family (plus Melissa and Kyle) camping on Friday night up at Ginnie Springs Outdoors. We got a beautiful site right on the Santa Fe river. We saw lots of wildlife: turtles, jumping fish, heron, buzzards, squirrels, and drunk college students. We went swimming in the springs where they have cave diving and we rented rafts to float down the river for about an hour and a half. Maggie's favorite part about camping was swimming in the springs. Hannah's favorite part was the bacon we made for breakfast and Jacob loved using the woods for a bathroom and collecting wood with dad. They all slept very well in the tents as well!