christmas

our lifelong friends, the snyders, attended christmas eve service with our family and then came back to the house.. we love the snyders! mom and jerry were here too and they KNOW we love them!


and olivia and keri:

what karis has been up to...

before she leaves for AFRICA on thursday.
she was asked to make a 40th anniversary cake for some people in our church.

here's how it turned out:



nice, huh?

easing back in....

some things we've been busy with the past few months:

picking and freezing (and eating) strawberries




slamball (basketball hoop pulled up to the trampoline)


field day for homeschool co-op
(jack and mike only)

easter cantata/pageant

this year everyone but haley and me had the pleasure of participating in our church's Easter pageant. they used a professional actor from sight and sound to play the part of Jesus, and the tricky part was that he was supposed to pick peter up at the end and carry him out. peter kept saying, "nope. it's not really Jesus. that guy doesn't even go to our church." so they never practiced it.


that's karis holding pete's hand as they walked in for the procession of Jesus entering. olivia is in front of them, and mike is wearing a brown tunic, while jack is wearing a green one. i don't have a great shot of just jack, which is a shame because they were supposed to look adoringly at Jesus, and jack nailed that. his expression was .......... moving. really. that's karis' boyfriend, t.j. playing the guard. at one point, when they came in the side doors, something happened (i think he kicked it and stubbed his toe) where he was trying really hard not to laugh. that kind of took away from the seriousness of the situation being portrayed, but otherwise, well done.




in the picture above you can kind of get a glimpse of jack's expressions.

at this point, below, pete was getting an idea that this was the end and started holding on to olivia *really* tight. but before he knew it, Jesus had scooped him up, olivia had scooped up another girl, and they started quickly walking out the center aisle. once he got to the back and was reunited with his sisters, he was fine. robin and nick were the props guys. i didn't get a picture of them-sorry!

happy last year in your teens, karis!

last night the favor of the Lord was upon us as we waited for karis' best friend, sara, to fly in from tallahassee. the snow was coming down fiercely and blowing all around us, the philadelphia airport was closed, but we were able to get her from harrisburg with no problem. thank you, Lord!



this morning we slept in a bit (schools are closed for all the blowing and drifting of our measely 3" but it is nasty out) and so we had cake for breakfast. sara brought a monogrammed license plate for k's car (so cute!) and we gave her a gps system and yoga pants.



we are thankful for good friends, great family and an abundance of blessings on karis' life these past 19 years. we pray for God's wisdom and blessing on this coming year as she works so hard at her 2 jobs preparing for wherever God leads her.

we love you karis!!!!

snow..

we ended up getting about 12/15 inches. church was canceled but our friends, the hurlberts, came for lunch anyway. there's an awesome sledding hill behind our development that the kids have enjoyed going to. karis was supposed to go to work at qvc (christmas rush you know) but robin got the car stuck just past our driveway (they hadn't plowed our street yet).

at one point, it was windy and the snow was really coming down, and mike looked at me with his big smile and said, "mom! blizzards are SO MUCH BETTER than hurricanes!" and went on his merry way. gotta love those southern born boys...

all in all, we are so thankful for snow. it's wonderful, quiet, pure, miraculous joy. thanks Lord!

more catching up

last month when we had nick's birthday party, karis, her friend brittany from church and olivia went on an impromptu photo shoot around the corner. it's so fun to see what pictures end up on my camera....

karis bought her first car with a little help from grandpa craven.
it's a honda accord 4 dr that "drives like a dream" and has the dings to prove it.

frieda

karis and her boyfriend, t.j. were training at q.v.c. (in different departments) but got mixed up on who was picking them up, so they walked home (about 2 miles). they found this injured butterfly on the way, and karis promptly named her frieda. she fed her and gave her water, but she only lived 2 more days. she sure was pretty, though, eh?

bowling

all summer we've had free bowling coupons (you have to pay for shoes) for the 5 youngest kids (have to be under 16yo) but we hadn't had time when we were all together to be able to use them.

so, the first week we had them all back home for school, we did p.e. at the local bowling alley.

so. much. fun.
while i've loved every age/stage of our kids, and look forward to them being on their own, i will miss the days when it's just us.

strasburg railroad

we've had lots of out of town company lately, and it's been fun taking them to different tourist destinations. when the 3 big kids were little, we would take them to the strasburg railroad (i'm sure ticket prices weren't as high back then, but we had a friend who worked there who kindly gave us tickets so i never noticed...). this day we took karis' friend ashley, but nick wasn't with us since he had spent the night at patrick's.

pete was quietly concerned about the whole thing before we got started.
then when we saw thomas the train engine being repaired, he continuously wondered how he got sick and what they were doing to him (and what happened to his face? it wasn't a painted smile)

karis had the camera and saw this kid. she thought the t-shirt was funny.
(and we'll be homeschooling 4 this year! yay!)

halfway through the train ride, there's a nice, quiet picnic grove that you can get off to have lunch or play on the playground. we always do this, and that's usually a way you can differentiate between locals and tourists. it's not an advertised thing, so tourists rarely know it's an option.

facing the sun

creation2009

now that we have internet in our home again (thank you Lord... and robin...) it's fun to go through the main computer and see what pics are on it that i haven't seen (and to do a test post to see if i remember how from the pc).
i'm not sure which girl is responsible for this picture, taken at creation where they worshiped with 50,000 others while camping, waiting in line for port-a-johns and listening to bands/speakers.

nice job on the picture, girls. how 'bout a guest post?

farewells

these three are very happy to say goodbye to the bathroom all 9 of us have been sharing for the past 6 months.
we praise God for His faithfulness to us--God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

more posts on the new house coming. we won't have internet of our own until the 17th, so i only get to check emails/the blog every 2-3 days or so.

thank GOD

my 18 yo baby girl was in a car accident. she had her 2 teenage siblings and a friend with her, and thank GOD they are all okay. her grandfather's van, though, is totaled. if you think of it, say a prayer for her, for confidence and safety as she gets behind the wheel again, and for me, as i'm currently traveling the pa-md-wv-va-nc-sc-ga-fl route to pack up our home in florida in preparation to move permanently to pennsylvania, but my mother heart is really hurting to hug them all, and kiss them, and maybe even sit on their beds and pray over them while they sleep (used to do that all the time when they were little).

karis,
olivia and and the boys and i miss you like crazy, we are crazy about you, and want you to know how very much we're thinking of you (sitting in chick-fil-a right now eating nuggets for you). haley and nick too!
love,
mom

graduation

our firstborn graduated on monday, june 8.
there were 590 or so students in her graduating class.
it was hot (by pennsylvania standards), and held on the football field.
it lasted only 1 hour 45 minutes.
not bad.


coming in with her class.
she was in row 14 on the left side.


they only gave us 3 tickets, so haley was the one who got to come.
bffs


this is only 1/4th of the students

her best friend from church, kara

really excited for that diploma!

she had no idea who this man was.
we are so proud of her.

though i must admit....after 10 years of homeschooling, our blood/sweat/tears intermingling to achieve the goal.... it felt a bit like a 9 month difficult pregnancy, only to give the baby up for adoption. probably a really poor analogy, but painful nonetheless.

as a wise homeschooling friend reminded me, at least she has a diploma that will never be questioned.

we love you karis!

flag football-spring 2009

the 2 middle boys have had fun in spring flag football.
jack's coach was our neighbor and local sports announcer, mike.
his assistant coach was his dad :)


mike's coach was jahn, and assistant coach, dad :)
they had so much fun playing their last game under the lights at the "quad"
the quad is 4 artificial turf soccer fields divided into 6 football fields.
it's usually off limits to just anyone, so it was a big deal to get to play there.




nick went around taking pictures,
haley stayed home for some alone time (can't blame her for that!)

i'm such a dork

and since making fun of parents runs in our family (we don't laugh *at* you, mom and jerry, we laugh *with* you.....) i'll post this just so the kids remember what they can make fun of me for years down the road.

we're getting karis' graduation announcements ready to send, i'm making a collage of pictures of her whole life, plus planning haley's birthday party, a camping trip and returning home to florida the day after graduation. it's a busy month. lots on my mind. i love that you can order pictures from costco online and pick them up in an hour. robin's mom had requested a prom picture, so i ordered that too.

i decided to get 20 wallet size pictures of karis' senior picture (that i took at maclay gardens in the fall) and a few wallet size of her prom picture because it's such a great picture.

only, i didn't read the fine print and see that each wallet size order was actually 4 wallets per sheet.

so now i have 24 wallet size pictures of prom instead of 6.
and 80, yes EIGHTY wallet size of her senior picture.

i offered to use it as wallpaper, or stickers on the drinks at her party, but she thought that was a bit much. :)

7 things seen this weekend

1. 3yo helping with mountain of mulch


2. forgiven puppies post-baby-bunny-catching
(still upset by that scene)


3. game of wiffle ball with friends
(check out that dew cap!)


4. proud grandparents sending granddaughter off to prom


5. unihibited pre-teens singing "ymca" complete with motions


6. sister love


7. beautiful girls-almost women

prom 2009

karis and t.j. carr
(his mom was maid of honor in our wedding)
(the prom was held at the hotel/resort where i worked to put myself through college)


the computer is working so slow, so a collage is going to have to do for now.
they went with kara hammill and austin vanblargen
they are all in our youth group at church
karis and kara are school friends too

time moves on

today karis goes to her last prom in high school.
she graduates in 4 weeks.
haley celebrates her 17th birthday in 2 weeks.
where has the time gone?
the saying is true when you're deep in child raising:

"the days are long but the years are short."

hug those babies

(train track in montreat, nc)