I Am SO OLD! :-)

Can you believe I turned 20 on August 31st? Wow. Time really flies faster the older you get. It can be so easy to look to the future and think of where you'll be then, instead of focusing on doing your best for the Lord in the here and now! :-)

My family helped me to have a great birthday!! Before I show you any birthday pictures, though, here's a few old ones of our family, just for fun!

This one's REALLY old!! Don't you love those hairstyles and the big glasses? ha ha :-)

These are a little more recent - probably taken in the last 6 or 7 years. God has sure grown our family!

Now for some birthday pictures (taken by Caleb). These are a couple of special cards I got from my friends Hannah (in the b&w picture below) and her little sister Tabitha. Thank you girls for writing me!! I was so happy to get cards from both of you!

Lydia and I in our matching t-shirts from Amy Vest! And the card with the pink heart is homemade from Lydia! She always creates the most colorful and creative cards! :-)

Thanks Daniel for the body pillow!! I always sleep better with puffier pillows. :-)

YUM!!!! The same thing I get for EVERY birthday - AMERICAN CHEESE!! My favorite!

 

This is my "birthday movie" - Standing Firm (thanks Caleb!). I had never seen it before but I thought it was very well done (especially since it was the director's first movie).

 

Ethan and I reading the special card he made me. :-)

Oreo Ice Cream Dessert . . . . oooh, my mouth drools at the thought. ha ha :-)

Thanks to my family for making my birthday special!!!
What are some fun traditions that your family does for birthdays?
I'd love to hear from you!

Dying to Self

Caleb's 17th Birthday!!

My baby brother turned 17 on Friday!! Boo Hoo!!!

I wanted to show you all some pictures from his scrapbook, so I snapped a few with my camera. Isn't he just CUTE?! Wow, can you believe this family picture is from 1994?!

(notice the fish in my uncle's hand)

This picture below is one of my all-time favorites. Those were the good old days. :-) It's sobering to see how fast time flies, but it's exciting as well!

We got Caleb as a foster child on my birthday (yep, he was the best birthday present I ever got!) and he was only three days old. Then just 15 months later he was ours! :-)

 

And here with are with the newest addition to the family - Daniel! But I'll save the rest of his baby pictures for a November post, when his 14th birthday rolls around. :-)

 

And here's my little . . . er . . . my taller-and-stronger-than-me brother on his special day!! He just relaxed and did nothing all day, as you can tell.

Opening special cards . . .

 

 . . . and gifts.

(yes, that's a double-pack of store-bought peanut butter - we tend to give each other favorite foods for birthday gifts!)

Isn't he handsome?

Caleb loves to make me laugh . . . . along with Ethan of course!! :-)

Happy birthday to my awesome brother!

Photo Shoot with Little Ethan W.

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to do a photo shoot with little Ethan W. the other day!! He is so cute! I shot the pictures with my Canon Rebel XS and I used both Picasa and Adobe Photoshop Elements to edit them. I still have a lot to learn so thanks for letting me practice on you Ethan!

Help For Pakistan

Lake Itasca Family Music Festival

If you've never been to the Lake Itasca Family Music Festival before . . . be sure to put it on your calender for next year (the first FULL weekend in August)!!! We've been able to go every year since it started (in 2006) and it is truly one of the highlights of our year! Not only are there always some GREAT family gospel bands, but we get to see so many of our friends at once it's overwhelming!

We arrived early on Friday this year, and went swimming at a lake in Itasca State Park after setting up our tent. The bands started at 5pm, and went until 10:30 that night. Then all day Saturday there were bands, workshops, food, bands, fellowship, bands, workshops, bands, friends etc. etc. Caleb and I had a blast staying up late on Sat. night playing Do You Love Your Neighbor (a wild game of sitting in a circle and switching seats!). FUN! Sunday morning there was a hymn-sing and David Darragh from Ireland (married to Melanie Berge) preached a very good message. We enjoyed watching the last bands and then we stayed afterwards to help clean up. It was a very enjoyable weekend, and already we're looking forward to next year!! Visit the website at http://www.familybluegrass.com/

The Wissmann Family (click on each band's name to go to their website)

Lindley Creek

The Harper Family - Hannah Harper can really SING!! I wasn't sure it was her at first because her voice sounds about 6 years older than she is.

The lighting on the bands at night was kinda cool.

 

The Link Family - one of our top favorite bands ever!! We just bought their new CD and LOVE it!

The Triple L Band - (our top favorite band!) we met them two years ago at this festival and we listen to their CDs ALL the time! It was so much fun to see them live again.

 

This is our campsite - it's VERY primitive camping (which is fine for two nights!) and this is the first year that it didn't storm during the weekend!! 

The kids had fun playing at the park - there was a merry-go-round . . .

 . . . a slide and more!

This is Melanie's little baby, Mariah - isn't she CUTE?

And this is Mindy's little girl, Elianna - I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of her! :-)

 

Our good friends the Alzen family played on the showcase stage - I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers right now as they are in the process of adopting two young boys from the Ukraine.

Guess who else was there?! Amy Vest and her family!!! I hadn't seen Amy since filming the documentary in April, so it was SO much fun to see her, talk with her, and work out some of the documentary details (we are planning on having it finished towards the end of September). Thanks for the precious time we spent together, Amy!

 

Here are a couple pictures from the hymn sing. It's always neat to have so many musical people get together to sing - it's beautiful four-part harmony!

See you next year at the . . . . .

 

P.S. Videos of the bands coming soon!! :-)

Yesterday . . .

 . . . we had quite the adventure! We had to run into town to run errands and meet some friends at a park, so dad drove there directly from work while mom took all of us in the van. She had to pull our trailer because we were going to ride our bikes at the park. We drove to town on the highway, and everything went fine (well, except for a near accident when mom couldn't see a car coming). But THEN - when we got into town - we went over a bump at an intersection on Broadway and THE ENTIRE BACK AXLE OF OUR TRAILER WENT FLYING!!! Not just one or two wheels flew off (which is all the trailer had) but the WHOLE heavy, metal axle - wheels and all!! As we went over the bump and heard the noise my first thought was, "Oh wow that was a big bump, I hope it didn't hurt the trailer" and I looked back to see the axle bouncing across the road and landing past the sidewalk on the grass. Immediately mom pulled over - we were all very surprised and scared. THANK GOD nobody was hurt, and some good friends of ours lived close by so we were able to ride the bikes over to their house and Mr. U. was even able to fix the trailer for us!! SO MANY THINGS could have gone wrong (and I don't even want to THINK about what could have happened) but God was with us and there were no cars or pedestrians in the path of the axle, and right where the accident happened there was a perfect parking spot on the side of the road for mom (van, trailer and all) to pull over into. If it would have been just a few yards further we would have been stuck in the middle of the road and backed up traffic for miles! We are just so glad that no one was hurt, and we are SO THANKFUL for our friends kindness in helping us out!! Praise the Lord for His graciousness in watching over us!!!