Annah is 8!

Annah turned 8 today! She was so patient to wait until the very end of the day
to have cake and ice cream and open her presents
with all 5 of us, Gram & Krampa, and Uncle Travis & Aunt Erin here!

Mommy made her favorite cake--angel food cake with pistachio icing. Look at all those candles!


She got lots and lots of clothes for her birthday, which is what she really needed!
And sparkly jeans!


Gram gave her a potholder weaving loom!
You can't be a little girl and not have one of these at some point in your growing up years!


Her eyes bugged out at this funny present--baking mix to make her favorite--peanut butter cookies!!


Annah also got several books, and was very excited about these 2 Magic Treehouse books.


She received a few games, including Bunco, Mancala, playing cards, and Operation!


We love you our "big" 8-year-old little girl!!!

Happy Halloween!

We're here in Indiana right now, because Annah wanted to celebrate her birthday here at Gram & Krampa's, and the rest of us thought that sounded like a great idea!

Tonight we took the kids trick-or-treating at Great Grandma Crabill's...


...and at Uncle Walt & Aunt Joyce's...


...and to see Grandma Lopshire and Great Grandma DeHaven!


Then we headed into Trunk 'R' Treating at Churubusco Church of the Nazarene.

John McCain & Sarah Palin were there handing out candy from the trunk of their car!


(We also know them as Uncle Travis & Aunt Erin.)

Annah's Class' Fall Party

Caeden and I visited Annah's class at school today for their Fall Party. I had signed up to supply the craft or game. We took a big bag of apples, and her teacher came up with the game ideas. For the first game, we hid apples around the room. Ten of the apples had number words from one-ten and ten more apples had the numbers 1-10. When the kids each found an apple, they then had to find their partner and match up the number with the number word.

Annah and Jack enjoyed their apples after they partnered up.


For the second game, the kids passed apples under their chins without using their hands. (They kind of had to cheat a little sometimes; it was pretty hard.)


The class played a few fun rounds of hangman spider-style on the ActivBoard to end up the party as they enjoyed their snacks.

Recent Layouts

The cooler weather makes me want to stay inside and scrapbook! Here are some recent pages I've done. (As always, click on the photos to see them larger.)

Fall Westival '08!

We had such fun at our church Fall Westival (No, I don't mean Festival, it's a Westival!) today! Jeremy and I were part of the Boot Scoot and skit in the sanctuary for most of the evening. Jeremy played Black Bart the bad cowboy, and I was sort of a cross between Charlie Chaplin and the ol' guy playin' the piano in the Wild West town establishment. (Not the salloon.) Since we were involved in the drama most of the night, the kids got to experience all the
other activities with Miss Pat.

Before everything got started, we did get a family photo:


And I did get to take the kids around Trunk 'R' Treating at the beginning though...

Leanna had a great Wizard of Oz trunk! The kids played a ski-ball like game that determined whether they got courage, a brain, a heart, or a home. Leanna gave them a card with a picture of whichever one they "won." They thought it was super cool!

These guys are in a Life Group that did this neat-o covered wagon for their trunk.


Art helped Caeden lasso the "cow" to win some candy!


Noah had a hockey game at his trunk. Caeden had never seen or heard of hockey, and was a bit challenged trying to figure out how to use the stick and puck.


Caeden, Sylvia, and Annah with their friends Caleb and Kelsey,
who had a cool trunk full of horses!


And a real saddle on a "horse" that Annah got to ride!


Pastor Todd as "Sheriff Self" the Mexican sheriff, running the iPod giveaway game.


The face painting ladies and balloon maker guy were amazing!!


Andrea the clown, who decorated the church beautifully for this huge event!


Brian Bill & The Be Right Backs--our own live band entertained all evening long in the gym.


Annah got the "Queen's Lizard" face. The girls didn't want to wash it off, it was so pretty.

I'll steal your socks!

I love it when kids say things to crack people up! Just within the past few minutes, Caeden has said...

[singing] "Oh Christmas tree, o Christmas tree, how lovely are your feathers!"

Then a while later, I was telling him for the 10th time to finish eating his lunch. He got mad at me and said, "You are the meanest, meanest Mommy. And, I am finished eating. I won't eat my lunch! And I will steal all your stuff. from your closet. all your clothes. and even your socks!!!"

He didn't understand why I busted out laughing when he was trying to think of the meanest thing he could say to me!

Profile for Church Bulletin

Our church is profiling random members in the bulletin/newsletter right now, and I was asked to answer some questions as this week's profiled person. Thought I would share them here, as there wasn't room to print them all in the bulletin, and just for posterity's sake...

Q: How long have you been attending Bloomington First?
A: 7 years

Q: What initially brought you here?
A: I grew up in the Nazarene Church, so we knew it would be one of the ones we'd visit when we moved to the area. My sister-in-law grew up on the district and she and her family highly recommended we visit here because they knew Pastor Scott and knew it was a great church for families.

Q: Why did you decide to stay in our fellowship?
A: Not only were we greeted warmly, but we have continuously felt the love of Jesus poured out on us by this congregation over the years! I truly feel that they are all my family, my brothers and sisters in Christ! It is more than just a friendly church, and I have learned and grown so much in my walk with the Lord because of these people!
I also love that there is continuous opportunity for learning and growing more deeply in the Lord and in ministry! (Sorry about all the exlamation points; I just get excited about my church!)

Q: Tell us about your family.
A: My husband, Jeremy, and I have been together pretty much since we were kids (14 and 16--Think about that parents of teens!), and have been married 8 1/2 years. Jeremy works as a Finance Supervisor in the Illinois Operations Center at State Farm, and also works at keeping laughter in our home.
God has blessed us with 3 children: Annah is almost 8, loves the outdoors, singing and playing violin and piano, and everything about school. Sylvia is 5 1/2, and is very proud to be in kindergarten at Ridgeview Elementary School. She likes snuggling, crafts, and going to gymnastics. Caeden just turned 4, is really into trains, watching movies, and running around like crazy. I never could have imagined a family as amazing as the one God has given me!

Q: On what ministry team(s) do you serve?
A: Homecoming Worship, EPIC Worship, Toddler/Preschool Ministry, and Small Group Ministry (I help lead my Covenant Life Group.)

Q: What small group(s) do you attend?
A: Covenant Life Group "2", and EPIC Worship Team

Q: What is something fun that few, if any, people in the church would not know about you?
A: If they don't know me at all...I like to scrapbook, take pictures, crochet, blog and do web design.
Even those that know me pretty well might not know...

I can wiggle my ears--without using my hands.
I have met several famous people.
I like to go fishing, and put the worms on and take the fish off by myself.

Q: Where has God placed you in the community?
A: This is something I am praying about and trying to work on. As an introverted stay-at-home mom with little kids, living in a rural area, I find it can be challenging to get involved in the community. Sometimes I feel like the only places I go regularly are church and the grocery store! Right now, I teach private voice and piano lessons in our home. Each spring I am a judge for Vocal Solo & Ensemble contest. I'm excited to see where God leads me in the community in the future; He's already planted some ideas...

Q: What do you tell your friends about your church?
A: I tell them how thankful I am to have this family, especially since we live hours from any blood-relatives. And, I tell them about the great Bible studies we learn from, and how grateful I am to be part of ministries here!

Q: What is your favorite Bible verse?
A: I don't think I can narrow it to just one, but some I like to meditate on are: Psalm 119: 105, Philippians 4, Galatians 5:22, Proverbs 4:23, Psalm 139, Proverbs 31

Q: Tell us how you came to know Christ as Saviour.
A: The first time I remember hearing the salvation message presented as a decision, I was a little girl sitting around a campfire at Camp Lakewood Methodist church camp. I asked Jesus to come into my heart then, and it's been an incredible learning, fighting, growing process since that time. I think as a kid, I thought it meant I had to "be good" and seem "perfect." Now I'm realizing what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, and how to work at deepening it!

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
A: I'm still working on it, but I hope I will one day be able to say that I helped my children to truly come to know and love Jesus.
As far as earthly accomplishments, I would probably say the process of working towards and receiving my Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the Conservatory of Music at Capital University.

Q: What was the last book you read?
A: 90 Minutes In Heaven, by Don Piper

Q: What is your favorite cereal?
A: Granola

Q: What is your favorite quote?
A: "Music's only purpose should be for the glory of God and the recreation of the human spirit." - Johann Sebastian Bach
"Making a decision to have a child--it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone

Q: Whom do you really admire in our church?
A: Seriously, everyone. Each person is so incredible, and has such an important story to tell, and I marvel at the various ways God works in our lives!

Caeden's 4-year portraits

I used to take my kids to Sears for portraits every year near their birthday. I haven't for the past couple years, and now that I have a nice camera, I figure I should do it myself. So, today, I decided to try to get some photos of Caeden at his new age of 4.

He was less than willing to cooperate.


He even threw a couple fits. He was not at all willing to allow the process.


But out of the 183 photos I took, there are a few that are okay.

I think this is probably the one that will go on the wall.


My boy loves trains and anything to do with them. I thought this would be a cool idea, but it didn't turn out like I wanted. Maybe with some more editing, I could make it look okay.


Caeden's favorite...Thomas the Tank Engine





I love this building for a background,
but we didn't have the right light there at the time of day I was shooting.
Still, he looks cute!


I love his expression in this one...


This one I think I'll print for his room.


I like it edited a bit artsy too...

Paper Bag Album - Caeden's Fishing Trip

For a long time, I've wanted to try making a paper bag scrapbook album, but just found the small size limiting. I wanted to use 4x6 photos and not have to crop them so small you couldn't see anything. So, I decided to use the bags full length when I made this album documenting Caeden's first fishing trip.

I used random scrap papers, ribbon, ink, and a transparency transfer technique (for the journaling) that I recently learned in the class I'm taking at Creative Scrappers. It came together quickly, and I'm happy with how it turned out. I do plan to change out the ribbons holding it together for some rings when I find some.

One of my favorite things about a paper bag album is the pull-out pages you can put inside the bags. What a great way to incorporate extra photos, journaling, quotes, etc. I didn't include photos of all the pull-out pages here, but most of them.

You can also see these photos larger in my Scrapbook.com gallery.