Rebekah's college graduation

 The day before our daughter's wedding, she graduated college! She had spent the last semester student teaching and really enjoyed it. She spent 8 weeks at an elementary school and 8 weeks at a middle school teaching music. It was really fun to see her direct most of a concert for the middle school at Christmas!

She not only graduated, but she also graduated with honors, summa cum laude! That means her overall GPA was between 3.9-4.0 for ALL of her college years! We are so proud of her and her success! Enjoy the pictures of her special day!

She is third from the back (with long hair) walking in... she waved to us!

The ex-coach of the football team gave a speech...

Walking across the stage!

Congratulations to the honors graduates...

After we found her, we checked out her tassels that she was wearing... what a scholar!

Our girl and her honey... so happy together!

Her Dad, the graduate, and me!

Our happy family!

Posing with her roomie...

We gave her a nice teacher bag with lots of pockets! (and had Chick-Fil-A for lunch!)

It was an exciting morning and we were glad that we were able to attend and be together!

She has a great future ahead of her and we thank God for her life!

Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you,

the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love, he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

1 Timothy 4:12

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.

Thanksgiving 2020

 We had a lovely Thanksgiving last week. We stayed in town this year. My parents live in our town, so we were able to be together with them (we took our temperatures every time we went to their house). My brother and his girlfriend came from Arizona, and we had a nice time meeting and getting to know her, playing games, and chatting a lot. Here are some pictures from the week...

Our son was home a lot because he was quarantined. He was exposed to someone at school. He didn't work or see his girlfriend. We enjoyed having him around a lot more!

The three kids even played a board game together! This does not happen often, and the girls were delighted. They were laughing... I had to capture the moment!

Since my daughter is dairy-free this year, I had to make her a dairy-free pumpkin pie. It was good, but not as flavorful as I hoped. I may need to try again and increase the pumpkin pie spice!

While we waited for dinner to cook, we played "Beyond Balderdash" together. We had played it at home recently, and the kids liked it! They are finally all old enough to enjoy some games that need bigger vocabulary words!

During our dinner, I was surprised that Bethany got the turkey leg! She liked it and ate most of it! She had Sprite in her wine glass.

Our dinner was really yummy! The turkey was very moist, there was no stuffing, but plenty of sides! Bethany loved the jello that Grandma made. Rebekah made the green bean casserole and it was a bigger hit than my sweet potato casserole! I'm so thankful that we were able to get together!

We played "Reverse Charades" and we had a great time... it is so funny to act out words or phrases with others! Here the group was trying to act out "magic carpet" for my brother. If you look closely, you can see the carpet turned up! 

My parents' dog, Saki was sleeping with his tongue out, and it was so cute!

Mallory loves my parents' other dog, Pookie. She is pretty snuggly sometimes!

Then after my brother and his girlfriend went back home, on Saturday we decorated our home for Christmas! It was fun, and since we got rid of some furniture, it was creative too!

What about you? How did you celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Thanksgiving 2018

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving week with Joshua's extended family. As per tradition, we celebrated Bethany and her cousin Lydia's 10th birthday while we were together. It is fun to see them open their gifts while we are all together. We enjoyed time at a local hot springs pool, baking pies, playing lots of games, talking, laughing and going to the grocery store! It takes a lot of food to feed 14 people!

Celebrating birthdays...

 All together after the pool...

Baking pies and cookies with Nana...

Cousins happy to be together!

 Mallory learned to crochet from her aunties...

 "The guys" played poker...

 The 4 little girls made these cute paper turkeys for the dinner table...

 Pies lined up and ready to eat!

 On Friday, we got a special treat. Joshua's mom and sister have some friends who own horses and have a ranch. They gave us a carriage ride on this gorgeous day, and then let us ride the horses individually! It was cool! The kids all enjoyed it, especially Mallory, our animal lover! The horses were Suffolk draft horses, which are big! We enjoyed riding, petting and just watching them. They were gentle giants, so sweet to us.

 Mallory was the first volunteer to ride a horse...

 Caleb got a turn...

 Loved their heads and medallion...

 Joshua riding...

Mallory again with cousin Lydia...

My turn... loved this view!

Riding together... we could see mountains in the distance! It was a treat!

We always have so much to be thankful for... our warm home, great family, delicious food, cozy beds and clothes, a good job, reliable cars, the privilege to homeschool, for our gracious God and for His Son, Jesus, and SO much more!

What are you thankful for? How did you spend Thanksgiving?


Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Colossians 4:2
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe...

Thanksgiving 2017 highlights

Last week we ventured off to the big city to celebrate Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time visiting Joshua's family for 4+ days. While we were there, our oldest daughter, Rebekah decided to cut off her long, gorgeous hair for a big change! Her angled bob is very cute on her! I do miss her mane of locks though! She will donate the hair soon.

 Caleb had gotten a new 5 X 5 Rubik's cube for his birthday, and he was still working on it, as well as another mega cube that he had. The boys working on the cubes was a very common sight.

 Nana and the grand girls (my 3 daughters and my 3 nieces) baked pies on Wednesday. They made the dough and rolled it out. We had six pies!

 Note Mallory's amazing hairdo...

Here's the baking group in their cute aprons:

 My niece & nephew on the other side of my family came by, so my sister could take us to the hair salon. It was cute to see the girls all together. Love them!

 On Thursday morning we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade (with a few of their friends)...

 Bethany wrote a list of what she is thankful for... (which is amazing because she doesn't like to write!)

 The kids watching a video on Rebekah's phone...

 The crew all ready to eat! (including my brother-in-law's parents)

 The next morning, the girls were looking at old pictures on Nana's laptop...

 We had a little birthday party with these two girls, and here they are wearing their new outfits! (including new boots!) Thanks Nana and Auntie Allie! We are loving comfy LuLaRoe!

 We are thankful for our family, which are also some of our best friends! We love getting together and were sad to leave, but so happy to be in our own beds! What a blessing! We are thankful for the delicious food, fun games that we played, lots of laughing, Bunco (which may be a new tradition!), and mostly for our Lord, Jesus and His saving grace for each one of us! What a great God we serve!

What are you thankful for this year?

Psalm 136:1Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.
His love endures forever.

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.