The Old has Gone, the New has Come!

(If you're visiting our blog for the Thanksgiving update . . . you'll have to scroll down to the next post! Much has happened since I wrote it - see below)

Today was a VERY special day for me & Isabelle. We were both baptized! It was an amazing day of surrender & commitment to the Lord for us both. We were so thankful to have my parents & Kevin's parents along with some close friends join us to bear witness to the commitment we were making before God! After our pastor led us through our statements of faith & a prayer, Kevin baptized me & then together we baptized Isabelle. It was truly a day that we will never forget. Thank you God for you son Jesus & for the gift of Baptism!

We are THANKFUL!

Thanksgiving greetings to you! 2008 has been a rocky road - personally, spiritually, economically, physically - but just like the ice cream with the same name, it has been sweet. It has been sweet because of 1 very valuable lesson that God has taught us: No matter what, God desires that we offer our thanks & genuine worship to Him. We can honestly say that this lesson has changed our lives because it has changed our very hearts. As a family, through the highs & lows we have made it a priority to give God all our thanks & heartfelt worship. In the process, something has happened - our hearts have grown more in love with God, we have been given greater perspective in our hard circumstances, and we have found that our eyes are fixed on the ONE who is hope in all things!

When we have had hard times, we have found that we get stuck & it's hard to be happy or find anything to be thankful for. Can you relate? But what we've learned this year is that life is hard BUT God doesn't want or expect us to stay in a place of sadness, depression, or defeat. He wants to give us victory & joy - that comes when we thank Him & worship Him.

We thought we'd share a little of what we're thankful for. We have a "give thanks" calendar countdown that the kids are filling in each day. Here's a sampling: my chickens, my mom & dad, my teacher at school, my sissy, bubby, heaven, God & Jesus, my bus driver, Holly, Brad & Olivia, Nana & Papa, God's love, seasons, friends at school, all my family, my school, Grandma & Grandpa, playtime, safe trip to Grandma & Grandpa's, food to eat, turkey, the world God made, my cousins . . . . and many more. I, Kelly, am thankful for God's abundant grace & provision. Kevin is thankful for his "lovely wife who supports him in all he does" (I promise he wanted me to write that!)

So as we head into this time of being "Thankfull" and approach the birth of Jesus, will you join us in thanking God for who He is & for what He has done for you. Leave us a comment - we'd love to know what you are thankful for this year!

We pray you are blessed this Thanksgiving as you spend time with family & friends & remember God's faithfulness to us all!

Happy Thanksgiving & Merry Christmas
Kevin, Kelly, Isabelle, & John Michael

Happy "Surprise" Birthday Hal!

We just returned from a weekend visit with the Redford family in Parsons, KS. Kevin's dad celebrated his 60th b-day on Friday. We tried to keep it a "surprise", but that's hard to do when you have lots of children who know & a smart man who knows there must be something going on when his wife is busy preparing things. . . we had a great time all together.
All the cousins! John Michael, Tyler, Jaden, Isabelle & Samantha

The 3 brothers - Kevin, Richard, Brent
Memory Game - look in the box & try to remember everything you can see in the box.

"What am I?" All the kids & the dads had animals taped to their heads. They had to ask yes/no questions to each other to figure out what animal they were. John Michael was a deer. Isabelle was a chicken. Kevin was a seal.

Birthday lunch at pizza hut - the kids favorite! and then home for cake!

Happy 10th Anniversary to Us!

Wow . . . where does the time go? There are many sentimental things to say at this point, but I'll spare you too much. Kevin & I have walked through many things, and the Lord has been so faithful all along the way. We are truly best friends & more in love than ever! Okay, I'll stop! :) We enjoyed a weekend to ourselves here at home to celebrate. Kevin has 2 passions: me & hunting so we combined the 2 & he took me hunting all weekend. It was really fun. We saw 11 deer - no bucks, bummer! I was SURE it was my weekend to get a deer, oh well. As he & my dad say, "can't catch a fish if your line isn't in the water." So we at least made our attempts to be out in the wilderness to see them. They just didn't want to see us!

We ate dinner out, left the house a mess, didn't answer the phone, & made a trip to Cabela's. I needed long underwear - it got COLD here this weekend. While there, they announced they were having a deer processing seminar - so guess where we ended up? It was very interesting & very helpful as we eat venison most of the year. Now we just have to get a deer!

Kevin brought me these flowers Friday afternoon as a fun surprise. Aren't they beautiful?

Here we are headed to LaCygne, KS (20 minutes south of our house) to hunt. We were hoping to not put these pics on the blog, but instead the pics of our deer. No luck - so you get to see us!

My Gym

John Michael goes to My Gym every Tuesday for an hour. They have structured playtime with about 8 kids in his class. He LOVES it! It helps me run off some of his endless energy! Peek a boo! I see you! JM loves to hide in these balls.