Jacob turns 10!

I wish I had more picture! This is the only one I could find for now. Jacob turned 10 in October 2011. He is a great kid that tries hard to be obedient. We love having him on our home. He also chose Strawberry Trifle for his birthday cake!

Cougars Vs. Longhorns

In September Chris and I flew for a quick trip to Texas. We flew into San Antonio and stayed with our friends The Theler's.

We had a great time visiting with other friends also including the Taylor's and Mike Davis. We even were able to visit with Chris's niece and nephew in law, Christy and Monty. We stopped at the tail-gating party to get all "Prettied Up" for the game.

I just love this picture of Jared. I couldn't stop laughing after he bought that wig! He looked so perfect! I have to say that the Longhorn fans are the most polite, well-mannered fans I've every met. I guess as long as you are not from Oklahoma...

Sam turns 8!

Samuel turned 8 years old this year. We had some of his friends over and had a great time playing water balloon volleyball, and going on a treasure hunt.

John, Tristan, Sam, Jacob, Kobe, Aaron, and Ben

Sam chose to have Strawberry Trifle for his birthday cake. And how can I forget the pinata! We are so proud of Sam and the fine boy he is.

Summer Storm 2011

We had two crazy storms this past year. The first one was at the end of May. I was actually driving when the worst of it hit! I pulled over and was enveloped in fear!! The thunder sounded like it was bursting right above the hood of my car and the wind was crazy. Then the hail started. They were so big I thought that they were going to dent the car...the majority were the size of golf balls.

The next storm hit in mid July. Once again, the winds were very strong. When we woke up in the morning, our trampoline had disappeared...it had blown about 3 houses away and was in a big crumpled pile of mesh and twisted steel.


A large tree in our backyard was also blown over. Several smaller trees had also blown over in the woods that are part of our backyard. We worked for the next two weeks cutting down the tree into smaller parts and cleaning up the yard. Thanks to Kevin Thomson for the use of his chainsaw!

Joseph Turns 13~

I now have a teenager. In July 2011, Joe turned 13. He is 13, going on 30!! He is so excited that he has now officially reached his teen status. For his birthday, Chris took Joe and some of his friends to a paintball tournament. They get all geared up and then have a "war" against another team. He had a great time and came home with some war wounds to prove it! These are pics of Joe eating his birthday cake of choice...Poppyseed cake!

King's Island

We splurged this last year and bought season passes to King's Island. We had so much fun. When we went, Joe and Jacob would take off to ride the coasters, and I would head off with Sam and Ben to "Planet Snoopy" - the kids section. I think Ben's favorite ride was the "Boo Blaster" where he tried to shoot as many ghosts as possible. I think Sam's favorite ride was the Railroad. I think Joe would have voted for Diamond Back, a coaster with a 230 ft. drop and Jacob would have voted for The Beast, the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. (Very Bumpy!!!)

Sam and his Russia Report

Sam did a report on Russia for school. He really got into it and enjoyed researching about the government, economy, famous Russians, Russian food, etc. Here is a picture of Sam with his poster. This was in the Spring of 2011 for Miss Fischer's class.