Memorial Day, honoring a Veteran!

I am honoring my twin brother Rusty this Memorial Day. Rusty will be returning from Afghanistan tomorrow evening, which we are praising God for protecting him. Rusty has faithfully served our country for nearly 21 years and has served now in combat 41/2 years. He will be returning home just in time for several special milestones. He will be home the evening of his wedding Anniversary. Five days after that his oldest daughter Tori will graduate from high school. Then June 6, he will be promoted to Warren Officer 4. I will attach several pictures honoring Rusty this Memorial day. Welcome home Brother!!!! We love and miss you!

Unexpected Weather

Last Friday night an unexpected 15 minute wind storm blew through our neighborhood, which blew several trees down in our back yard and our neighbors yard. It also destroyed more then half of our wooden fence. Thankfully Richie's second family (his brothers from the Fire Department) stepped up to help with the clean up. A few of them will be helping to put our new fence up. We are praising God for growing us through the unexpected situations we face.

Happy 11th Birthday Josh!!

We feel so blessed to have Josh. He is our type A child. He is pretty organized and does not like things out of place etc. He's prompt to get his work done. He has been blessed with a lot of his Daddy's good qualities.
I made Josh these homemade from scratch cupcakes. My kids thought since I was making them from scratch they were healthy cupcakes. I told them there is no such thing as healthy cake. I still used a cup of sugar.:-)Not to mention the frosting which was full of sugar and homemade too. We love you Josh!!!

Before and After

"How quickly they grow up, they'll be grown before you know it" I heard this several times, especially after I had Ethan, 5 children 81/2 and under.
Caleb has changed SO much over the last 5 years. He has had this long hair look for about 3 years. He decided he wanted me to cut it. He's tired of being called Justin Bieber. He also started playing rugby, so now he can accually see the ball.
Here are 3 pictures of Caleb. The first was Christmas 2006, the second is the before and the third is the after. You can see how much he has changed in 5 years.

Liberty of the Sea

Richie and I had a great time. Never could understand all the fuss about cruises. Well now I understand. It's truly a vacation with all you can eat anytime, maid service at least twice a day and unlimited entertainment. I will say though that the servings at meal time in the dining room, were not huge portions, it was perfect. We walked the stairs on the ship at least 1/2 of the time, rather then taking the elevator to work off eating dessert every night. We went on 2 excursions, one in Jamaica and one in Haiti. First we went to Falmouth, Jamaica. There we went on a historical tour of the "Good Hope Home". We also visited a pottery house as well. Second we visited Labadee, Haiti. Royal Caribbean leases a portion of this part of Labadee. It was SO very beautiful. Here we did another historical tour with a Haitian man from Labadee. We ended our trip riding the Sea World Shamu Plane with Southwest Airlines. Sorry all the pictures are random. They don't post in the order I put them in and then I can't seem to figure out how to rearrange them.:-(

Conference at Sea.....

With the White Horse Inn. We started our trip on Saturday with a Pre-Cruise here in Miami. Thus far we have had an amazing time of learning more about God's word and have had rich fellowship with like minded believers. Today we leave on the Cruise out of Ft Lauderdale and will return Saturday morning. I will post more pictures and more about what we are doing when we return.

Dysecting Earth Worms

Caleb is taking "Life Science" at our Homeschool Co-op. This Science class will prepare him next year for Biology. I had the privilege to assist in Caleb's Life Science class yesterday. They dysected earth worms. I will admit, it was gross. At the same time, as they opened the worm up, it is proof of what an Amazing God we worship. As you can see from the pictures Caleb was not too sure about Dysecting.