Drew, Being Drew!

I LOVE this kid!!

God is Good!

Trick or Treat

God is Good!

Drew is EIGHT!!!

Well, it happened again.... I know that 365 days did not pass, but somehow, it's Drew's birthday again! This little guy has me wrapped around his finger, as do all my kids! He is one of the kindest, most caring young men I know and we made sure to celebrate every moment of his wonderful birthday! Drew woke us all up at 7AM on Sunday morning, ready to open his gifts! He later told us he had been up for an hour, but let us sleep a little longer. How kind of him!

After I made his big breakfast, french toast at his request, and we went to church, we then headed to Ramseyer Farms for his birthday party! We had 5 kids attend and we had a wonderful time. We started out with cake and presents, as I knew once the kids hit the fun of the farm, we wouldn't get them back in for cake! So here is Drew with his Steeler's Birthday cake!

A few of the girls enjoying their cake!
Drew and the boys, and Paps in the background, enjoying their cake!

Then we were off for a Hay ride through the pumpkin patch. The kids were so well behaved and seemed to have a wonderful time!
Daddy and Toby were snuggled up for the Hayride! (Toby is doing his best Puss'n Boots impersonation)
Then the kids took their turns at the Spud Slinger! Some of them slung those spuds perty darn far!
Toby took a minute to try and figure out how to milk a cow! And it was only a minute. He got bored pretty fast!
One of the biggest attractions for the kids was the corn crib chute slide. It looked rather painful to me, but they all took several turns going down! I think you can see Drew was having fun!


They also went through the corn crib maze several times and stopped only briefly for a group photo!
They each got to pick a pumpkin, and I think Drew picked a winner!
And before we headed out for Taylor's soccer game in Canton, we got the boys to take a quick photo on the wagon!

After Taylor's victory, we went to Rockne's for dinner, again Drew's choice!!

It was cool, but a beautiful sun filled day! Drew's already counting, only 364 days until his Birthday!

God is Good

Bothwell Soccer Tournament

Final tournament of the fall season! The girls did wonderful! We made it for the final game, which they won 1-0 and I was so proud of how the girls played! Every one of them! The team we were playing was very tough physically, and our girls spent a large portion of the time on the ground! But they didn't give up, and they didn't give in to playing like the other team. They continued to play strong, fundamental soccer and it worked for them! It would have been so easy to start pushing back and tripping up the competitor, but they didn't, and no matter what the score shows, that alone makes them winners to me!

Way to go OSU U12 Red!!!


Way to go Taylor!!

God is Good

Drew's last soccer game!

Drew had his final Smithie Soccer game this weekend! Once again, he says he's never going to play again. He says he wants to play Football! We went through this last year, so we'll see. The thing is, he's really good at soccer (and from a momma standpoint, it seems so much safer!!)

Here he is with his team "warming" up for the game. It was very cold! He is in the Steeler's hat, of course!

And a shot of Drew during the game. I think this is his "I'm cold, can we just get this over with" look!

And I'm guessing this is a true sign of the third child. Toby was very fussy, and I was alone, as Nate was with Taylor at her game in Canton. Finally he crawled up in his chair and asked me to cover him with the blanket like a tent. A few moments later, I peeked in on him, and he was fast asleep!

Another fun soccer season, got a little cold at the end, but fun none the less!!

God is Good!

Smithville Historical Society

Last week my mom called to let us know that the Smithville Historical Society was having an open house. Nate was going to be at church all day rehearsing for the Night of Worship, so the kids and I packed up and headed over. We spent about 2 hours there, and we had a great time. The kids really enjoyed the Black Smith shop. Drew got a hand made nail, which he thought was pretty cool. Here he's showing it off! (yeah, it's small :))

Taylor loves to take photos of Anvil's. Can you tell she has some Smithie Blood in her! She really wants to transfer to Smithville, but we'd rather have a roof over our head and know it's permanent first.

And here's a shot of the kids in the barn. Toby was being a little stubborn, so it's the only good shot I have of all of the kids.
Just another fun day in rural Ohio!

God is Good!

As I type, Nate's in the living room strumming the Bass, getting read for the Night of Worship at Wooster Grace Brethren Church! Praying for a great turnout as we celebrate and worship the Living God!

God is Good

Student Ministry

What it means to me to be involved with Students

A Different Kind of Hero from Wooster Grace Students on Vimeo.

Tay's Video

Taylor was with her friend Anneliese and they made this video with Anneliese's sisters. She had so much fun doing this! Enjoy their day of silliness!



God is Good!

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

Taylor is about half way through her fall soccer season and is improving with every game! I LOVE it!! They haven't won a game, but they have been looking good.
And she's getting a little more aggressive!! I never thought I'd be so excited about my daughter knocking someone to the ground, but any soccer mom understands I guess. I even cheered at this game when she knocked someone over, then had to apologize for my craziness. Those of you that know Taylor, know what I'm talking about. She doesn't have an aggressive bone in her body (unless she is with her brothers!)

And here's a photo of Drew at his game. We only have one photo, because moments after this one was taken, he ran off the field and lost his lunch and we quickly took him home! He is doing well and enjoying playing!

God is Good!

Wayne County Fair 2009!!

Another year, another Wayne County Fair! Again this year, Paps joined us for some of the day and had to share some Ice Cream and Bloomin' Onion with the kids! We rode rides, looked at tractors and enjoyed interacting with all the exciting farm animals.


Riding the bumper cars. Not sure Drew enjoyed it as much in the passenger seat. But it was about a 35 minute wait, so that was our only time on them.

The boys on the Ferris Wheel. May be Drew's last chance to ride with Toby! Kinda Sad!
Toby ran into several friends while at the fair. Here he is with a church buddy, Conner.
Taylor And Drew waited again about 35 minutes but got to take a ride on the BIG Ferris Wheel. They were adorable together!
I think Toby touched every single bunny in the barn. Then we went into the poultry barn and I thought for sure he was going to stick his hands into their pens, luckily, my warnings must have been stern enough and we saved all his fingers.
Taylor had a few favorites!
Toby was sure that this poor guy needed to eat.
I was surprised Toby wasn't scared to death. He's growing so much in so many ways! But he was sure to tell this clown exactly what kind of balloon he wanted.
And for some reason, the clown requested this photo... a little creepy !?!
This was one of Toby's favorite rides, the dragon roller coaster!
And all three kids on the Crazy Bus. I think I'm going to need a Crazy Bus when we get to the point where all the kids are too big to ride these rides. I look forward to this each year!
As usual, Toby enjoyed a lot of the evening on dad's shoulders, but he didn't want his photo taken!
It took a lot of coaxing on Taylor's part to get Drew on this ride, but I think he really enjoyed it!
And the annual photo at the church booth!
God is Good!

Cute Toby Story..

On Thursday, I kept Drew home from school, as he was battling sour belly all week so we thought we needed to give him a full day of rest. So I got to take Toby to preschool. On the way there, as we were getting closer to his school, Toby said "Mommy, I bet Miss Shell (Miss Michelle) is saying ' Where's Toby?'". And then he began to scream... "Here I am Miss Shell, I'm not on the bus today! Mommy's bringing me!".

I just thought it was cute that he was worried his teacher was missing him and wanted her to know where he was! He's growing up too darn fast!

Grandparents Day 2009

This year, the kids had Grandparents Day at school a lot earlier than usual. It was always in the Spring in the past. But this year, they had it Fair Week, which worked out Wonderful because Paps always takes Fair Week off from work, so he was in town and got to go this year. The kids were so excited.

Here are the kids with Grandma Derri and Paps!

And here they are with Grandma Debbie and Papaw Rudy.


And while this wasn't taken at school. It was taken on Fair Day at the county fair (more of those photos soon!). I just thought it fit better on this post! I love it!!


God is Good!