First Day of School

Karli went earlier in the week to meet her teacher and take her supplies.  

She was super excited about this year in first grade.

Mrs. Miller and Karli

The first day of school as a freshman.  

That's one tough freshman!

But not too tough for his momma!  ;)

I got a smile.

Our girls ready for 1st and 4th!

Kelsi had a great day!  

This was Karli's best day ever!

I asked Nathan how his day went and he said "good".  

I had to pry for the details and got the freshman had to do the congo 

and sing the Northwood fight song.  :)  

Good times!

Summer Highlights

Beginning of the summer was the best!  Very relaxing.

Soccer camp for both girls.  They loved their coaches.

Then Grandparent's camp with Grandma Jans.

While Kelsi went to Prairie Camp.

Then she got to go paragliding!

I finally got a patio!!  Love, love, love!!  Thanks to Dave Miller's Landscaping.

Will have to show more pictures once we do the landscaping.

Nathan had friends over.

More friends over!  :)

Girls had loads of fun playing and being silly.

Camping over the 4th of July with Grandma & Grandpa Jans.

Kelsi showed her first pig at the fair.

Swimming lessons for both girls.

Nathan ended his summer with football.  

Cousins stayed the night.

Guess what??????

The summer is over and it is time to start school!  

The summer has been a blast but we are now ready for routine.  :)  

Soon will post first day of school pictures and my short weekend in Florida!

School Night

Just one of those school nights, a little calmer than most.  Kelsi and Rob went to basketball practice.  Nathan was downstairs doing homework.  

Karli fell asleep after getting into trouble for not listening.  

She told me she was going to calm down on the couch after being spanked.  :)

It was very quiet as I was making supper!  

I wondered if this is what it would be like when the kids are grown and gone.  :)

Nathan came upstairs, we talked about his day, started to eat supper.
Then Karli woke up and joined us. 

 I told Nathan how much I appreciated him for emptying the dishwasher and Karli for sitting like a big girl at the table without getting up and moving around.  (Usually having an accident!)  

Tried out some of the "Sticky Faith" stuff that I am learning. 

I am usually tired after school and can focus on the negative at the end of the day instead of the positive.  I am working on it.

Tonight was a good night.

After things were cleaned up, Nathan even helped his sister with her homework.  :)

Little Fun With A Car Hood!

Saturday Nathan and his friend, Asa, were suppose to go to Ft.Wayne for IMEA Music Conference but because of the snow it was cancelled.  So they had a little fun in the snow.  

Rob got a car hood from our neighbor, Chad, and they had a blast!

Then it was the girls turn!

New Year's Weekend

Stayed up too late last night getting caught up with pictures to Christmas.   Now I need to finish the holiday festivities.  We went to my brother's over the New Year's weekend and had a great time.  Here are a few pictures of our time together.

We arrived Friday evening, made our own yummy pizzas, and then sat around the table talking but mostly playing Scrabble against each other on our own phones, ipods, or ipads!  :)  Reminded me of that funny Christmas picture where everyone is looking at their phones instead of the photographer.  :)

Saturday we slowly made our way out of bed and went to 

the airplane museum.  It was a really cool place.  

At least the older ones enjoyed it and the younger one didn't complain the whole day.  

This is the first airplane that you get to see, The Wright military flier.

Karli was not too thrilled.  Rob was reading every word!!

I thought it was a great place to take pictures.  The lighting was cool.  If only I could get my focus right.

I loved this picture!  How many times have you been here, Erin??  ;)

I like Erin's expression in this picture, too. 

Entertaining the youngest!

Then the twirling began!  They were happy at least!

Rob was all excited that Nathan took an interest in the engines.   

So he was teaching Nathan everything he knows!

There were engines everywhere!!   These guys were slowing us down!!  

I loved all the cool planes!

Then we saw "Fighter Pilot" in the IMax theater.  Cool!

After the movie we had to hustle it over to take the bus to see the presidential planes in a different area.  It was very mysterious!  We took a bus to a different air base and were told not to take any pictures.  Rob even looked on google earth to see where it was located and it was not on the map!  We walked on the plane that served as Air Force One on the day of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.  We also walked on the presidential aircraft of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower.   

I thought it was really neat, thinking of the history!

We went home, had fondue for supper, opened presents, had more fondue for dessert, and watched Sherlock (my new favorite show).  

Watch out for Rob.  He can be deadly with his fork!

Then we (well...most of us) watched the ball drop and off to bed.

Hope your 2012 is everything you hope it to be!!