New Shed and Porch

We were thrilled in September when a new shed and a new back porch became a reality!!  All thanks to the conference and to Rich Holz who made it happen!  The kids had so much fun watching the progress and "helping" as they could.  School got done quickly so that they could get outside where the action was!  :)

Now when our evangelism series is over we can finally move everything shed worthy into the shed.  Right now it resides in the garage....  :)

The first Sunday in September! We never get to celebrate Father's day properly because it always falls during campmeeting. Since David is a pastor that means he is working and we barely see him. We were thrilled to find out this morning that this Sunday is Father's Day in Australia and we'll be celebrating this holiday from now on!!

His children love him!

And here are 10 reasons why. 

His wife loves him! 

And started making him pie.....that is, until she cut her finger something fierce and he had to make the majority of it!  :)  Strawberry Rhubarb! 

Not only did we learn something new about Australia today, but we had so much fun celebrating our father right along with them!!

Canned Peaches

74 quarts canned

14 quarts frozen

With much thanks to the husband!!  He canned them pretty much by himself the second time around since I cut my finger!

Yumminess all winter long!

Humane Society Birthday Party

It was an untraditional birthday party for sure, but so much fun!!

Chaeli invited 9 friends to celebrate with her by bringing a gift or donation to the humane society where they also played with, petted, and fed the animals.

Chaeli's favorite! 

Our favorite.  Tubby! :)  A mastiff and boxer mix.

I was there too!  Sometimes that is hard to prove! :)

Babies!

Back to the house for your choice of pie!  Lemon, Apple, or Raspberry/Blackberry/Rhubard.

She even blew all those candles out with one breath!!  10 year old lungs must be strong! :) 

We also did a fun scavenger hunt to end the party.  I'll have to upload pictures of that later.......

Birthday Surprise

When we arrived home, Chaeli received a very special package in the mail for a friend she's known since she was 10 days old (this girl is 10 days younger!).

Here is a list of 10 things that remind her of Chaeli.

These were 10 individually wrapped things that matched each number on the the list.  And all because it was Chaeli's 10th birthday!  It was so sweet and Chaeli loved opening each specially chosen gift!!  

THANK YOU, Aile!!!

Camp Au Sable - August

We were at Camp Au Sable earlier this week for Ministerial Meetings.  We always have a lot of fun at Camp Au Sable and this was no different.  We stayed in a cabin this time and that just added to the fun!

His worship from the top bunk!

One of the pastors had his motor bike there and gave the boys a ride....or TWO.  :) We couldn't convince Chaeli that she would enjoy a ride also.

Chaeli's birthday fell during our time at camp again this year.  Even though we had a birthday party scheduled for a few days later at home, I could let the day pass unnoticed!

Each pouch contained $1.  10 in all.

So proud of this girl.  For the past 2-3 years she was not willing to try the swing or the zipline.  She decided without any prompting that she was going to do both.  She conquered both fears on her 10th birthday!  And LOVED them.

And this 4 year old little guy decided that he would climb all the way to the top of the zipline also.  I was amazed.  And impressed.  

You see, he knew that Papa would be at the bottom of the tree cheering him on and that Mommy would be at the end of the zipline waiting for him.  Perfect love does cast out all fear (1 Jn 4:18).  Imagine what God's love can do!!

St. Ignace, Michigan

"I climbed......"  I can't remember the name of this place.  But we climbed up a lot of stairs to get here.  :)

This was an overlook for viewing the Mackinaw Bridge.

St. Ignace park.  Perfect for getting some energy out! 

Splashing together! :)