~Christmas Crafting~

I wish I was further along with my Christmas crafting... but I'm getting there.  I am only making two major gifts and was hoping to be done by now.  I'm trying to steal minutes during the day but it just isn't going as fast as I'd hoped. I was not home one day last week and two other days didn't go as planned.

 These are Kiersten's dolls for this year...

Let the countdown begin!

~Date Night~

I finally fit in my date night with Jordan... our annual birthday tradition.  He was too busy racing to go out in August/September and then  I got busy and then he got sick... and now here we are!

We went to Red Robin for some burgers and onion rings.  I took him shoe shopping (the only thing I have to buy when he is with me) and we got some milk shakes at Sonic.  I did mange to drag him through Target too!

~Jonah~

We enjoyed a rare afternoon out at a local theatre last week. It was the story of Jonah. 

We waited til it emptied out before leaving.  Kiersten had fallen asleep at the end and I knew we would need to find a bathroom... the guys were patiently waiting for us to get out of there!

We enjoyed the show and the fact that we could count it as school!

~Champion Trophy~

My guys all dressed up:-)

Eric won the championship for his class at our race track this summer!  He got to go to an additional banquet for this trophy! 

 We will have our track banquet in January when all our guys get trophies... but boy, was this exciting for him!  Aaron won this two years ago... I wonder if we will have any winners next year!?!?!?

~New Ministry~

I really enjoy when my family is able minister together!  We have spent time assembling John & Romans, we have handed out flyers for VBS, we clean the church together, and we try to visit together (in our home or going somewhere else).  It is really neat to see some of our children start to pick up and help after activities.

Our church was asked to start a ministry to Single Moms.  I talked to Gregg about me being involved, but truly... when do I have time to do that!  I have a family that needs to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord... and that means I need to be around... or we need to at least be together.

Then... I heard an update on this ministry.  We needed someone to watch the kids of these single moms so they could attend the meetings!  BINGO!

We are so excited to be a part of this ministry.  We are using a building not too far from church that the kids are actually used to going to for kids activities.  Our plan is to have our kids running part of the evening.  Games, puppets, snacks, activities, crafts!  These kids need to be loved and I think we can do it!  My kids are going to learn that it isn't all about them... and I think they will have a blast serving. 

We had one toddler the first week and 8 kids ages 10 months to 16 years the second week.  We meet every other Tuesday.  Those kids plus my kids, other church kids and helpers... 22 of us!

I won't be sharing much about this because I don't blog about other people... but we are excited

~Tru Wuv~

My Loves

~Youth Night~

I love our teens:-)  My teen specifically, but we have so many cool teens in our church.  I believe in parents being active in youth activities... therefore I go when I can.  I also help out in their Wednesday night class.  They get together to play volleyball and I try to stick around for a little and mingle.

A few weeks ago they got together to play Frisbee football.  I was put on a team but did more watching than playing.  It was so fun to be there with over two dozen teens!  They play hard!

  My guys is in the middle of this photo going after the Frisbee... he is actually pretty good at this game!

They were just about done with their game so I went up and restarted the fire.  They had hot dogs for dinner... I went home to feed my family.

Good times!