Photography Blog

Just wanted to let you all (ya'll for those of you in the south :) to know that our daughter Megan has started a photography blog. We are excited about the talent that God has given her. To keep up to date on her latest photo shoots you can follow her here.

Wordless Wednesday

We Need Some New Clothes

Mark and I have realized that our wardrobe could use a couple of new things.

So I've done a little online shopping and have come up with these....

I think I might get this t-shirt or maybe this one

Or maybe I can wait until January and get this one.

And for Mark I thought about this hat. Or maybe even this one.

Do you think they would suit us?

Manitoba Stampede

Once again we had the fun of going to the Manitoba Stampede in Morris.

This year we went with the Penner family and Joshua and Rebecca

A lot of fun was had by all.

Cowgirls (someone needs to get Rita a cowboy hat!)

The Little Cowboys

Ruth and her 'shadow'

Me and My Sweetheart

And they are off.

Small scale chuck wagon racing

Where's the snow?

A close finish

Chariot Races

Cowgirl putting in her pony tail

Me and my sweet little Joe

Smiling Raechelle

Buckaroos

What's wrong with this picture?

Whoa Horsie!

Thanks again you guys for a great day!

We're Back

We got back last Sunday evening from our trip.

We had a really good time and have so many memories to share.

But as usual it is really good to be home again :)

When we got home we were pleasantly greeted by a job well done at home.

The gardens were freshly tilled and weeded (thanks to the Penner family) The lawn was freshly mown and all was kept up very well on the homestead (thanks to Joshua and Rebecca) I can't tell you what a blessing it was to have all those things done so that we could concentrate on unpacking and the other things that needed our attention. While we were gone it was so nice to be able to keep in touch at home and know that things were being taken care of. Thanks again Josh and Rebecca. So even though there were so many highlights of our trip we will try in the next little while to give you a taste of our favorite moments.

I have always been fascinated with the Amish way of living and have always wanted to get a closer look at their lifestyle. Well we had a chance to do that when we visited the Amish village of Arthur, Illinois.

We went to the Amish Interperative Center and when asked what we hoped to accomplish in Arthur we told her that we wanted to understand that Amish and their lifestyle better. So she suggested that we hire a guide to come along with us in our van to tour the area. This sounded like a great idea to us and so we hired sweet lil Josephina. She was the sweetest little lady and we had a great time with her. She grew up in this Amish village so she had lots of helpful information for us.

It was so interesting to see the mix of both worlds driving around. Buggies were everywhere driving in and around vehicles.

In the town of Arthur at most stores they had places for horses to be tied.

Some even had covered stalls.

In this particular Amish village they were allowed to ride bicycles and we saw lots of them.

All of their houses and barns were white. The reasoning was so that they were not to flashy.

One thing that was really neat about the Amish people is their obvious effort to do things together as a family. You would rarely see just adults in a buggy, there were usually children with them.

Since we are farmers we were glad to be able to get a look at how they do haying.

Each family was allowed to own 2 diesel motors. This farmer was using a motor to run the baler. Supposedly the motor was used so it would be easier on the horses. The motor is on the wagon that the man is standing on.

This Amish village was allowed rubber tires, although I don't think all Amish villages are. They could also hire in tractors, vehicles to drive them around and other things, just as long as they weren't the drivers.

It was also very common to see children driving their child sized buggies. It was so cute :)

At the end of our tour we visited an Amish man's yard who made buggies for a living. It was interesting to see that there were even top of the line buggies with all the gadgets. Even though they tried so hard to stay simple, their buggies witnessed the fact that materialism creaped in here too. This particular buggy, which Josephina called a teenagers buggy, had a speedometer, clock, LED lights, blinkers, brake lights, and a battery gauge.

This one was a more simple version but bigger.

This is just a small sampling of all that we saw. Click here to see the whole album.

Happy Birthday Brooke

4 years ago today we welcomed little Brooke to our family.

Brooke is a very sweet little girl.

She can be very quiet and she can be very bold.

She seems to have the ability to moniter everybody's lives and boss them around all at the same time :)

Her curly hair is something that we all adore.

She can be real goofy sometimes and we love her cute little smile.

We love you so much Brooke. You are a blessing to our family!

Some Trip Photos

Here is a bit of an update of our first couple of days of travel.

We are having a great time. Right now we are at our friends, the Muncks, and are really enjoying visiting with them. More about that another time. But for now here are some random photos of some of our journey so far.....

Caleb and Mikaya having breakfast

The boys loading up for the busy day ahead :)

I often wonder how many boxeS of Cherios they would eat if you would just let them go at it! Mikaya sporting Jesse's hat Baby Josiah being his sweet, sweet self

Throwing around a football at a campground

The famous jumping picture

Enjoying the big jumping balloon

We went to the Mall of America.

Really I didn't think it wasn't all it was hyped up to be.

Of course the rides and stuff were crazy expensive so we basically just walked around and looked at stuff. The Lego world was really neat though. I can't imagine how much time it would have taken to make these things.

We're still working on our scavenger hunt.

Mark and Caleb wearing off some pent up energy. I forget what this game is called. Denyse can you help me?

Sisters enjoying quality and quanitity time together.

Here's what we are traveling in. Jennifer, Megan and Kerri sleep in the van while the rest of us squeeze into the camper. Wearing off more energy (have I mentioned that before:)

There were 2 turtles at one of the campgrounds laying eggs. It was fasinating to see and we wished we could see them hatch. We plan on studying up on turtles to see how they dig that hole?!?!?

I think one of the things we have really appreciated on this trip is the creativity of our God. All of His creation is so unique and so amazing. And it puzzles is me how people think this all just 'happened'?

Happy Traveler

Lots of reading.

We took out the third seat in our 15 passenger van so the boys would have a little more room and we could store their toys and books back there. Thanks to Esther who gave me the idea of putting some rubbermaid drawers back there to keep their things organized. So far it has worked great!

TO BE CONTINUED.........