Ike's a Teenager!

Ike turned 13 on April 27! It has become a tradition in our family that the 13th birthday is the "biggest", and we always try to do something extra special! We happened to be in Springfield, Missouri for Ike's birthday so he was able to go to Silver Dollar City in Branson (about an hour away)! Here are some pictures from the day:

The birthday boy!

 The "chosen four" who got to go to Silver Dollar City: Ike, Abe, Mom, and Sam! :)

Later that night, we did cake and presents in the RV after the convention was over.

Mom and Dad have always gotten the boys a "man's" gift on their 13th birthday. Ike was totally surprised by a welder, which he's been wanting for a really long time!!! 

Happy Easter!

"The Son of Man must be delivered into the

hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the

    third day be raised again."  Luke 24:7

Look Who's 6!

Cal turned 6 on April 7th! He's such a fun little boy and he LOVES birthdays! :) Here Cal is all decked out in his "real cowboy stuff"!!!

We drove down to Indianapolis the night before Cal's birthday. The next afternoon we went to the zoo since Grandma has a membership! Here Cal, Jed, Ike, and Maggie are sitting outside the entrance to the zoo.

 Two little monkeys...one's cuter though, don't you think??? :)

The zoo had just put in a new viewing window so that people could see the tigers up close and I was able to shoot this picture of one of them!

Eating at Chuck E. Cheese's later that day!

From left to right: Ike, Abe, Jed, Maggie, Cal, and Grandma

Dad, Me, Sam, and Grandpa

South Carolina!

Our first convention of the season was last weekend and it was a blast! It felt sooo good to be back in "the loop" and to see all of our "vendor friends" again!

 Setting up the booth. :)

It was raining at the convention and Ben accidentally locked the keys in the car! Sooooo, Dad and Sam tried to get them out...but were unsuccessful. So finally, some vendor friends of ours came to their aid. They were trying to pry open the back window...when the entire thing shattered! :) Our insurance covered it thankfully and they had it fixed before we left SC!

Springin' into Spring!

Spring arrived much earlier than usual this year...but we were glad to see it!

Cal loves his bike!

The first bouquet of daffodils of the season!

 Crocuses are some of my favorite flowers, I love the all the different shades!

Blossoms from our crab-apple tree!

Happy Birthday Abe!!!

Abe turned 11 on March 6th!!!

What We've Been Doing in...2012!

Ok, since I have not posted anything for a LONG time, I thought I'd just do a quick run down of all that we've been doing in the past few months!

Jed turned 4 on January 15th! He is such a fun little guy and always makes everyone laugh! Here he is, having a blast at Chuck E Cheese's!!!  

We totally redid our family-room this winter, complete with tearing down the old paneling and putting up new drywall (we hadn't planned on doing that part!).

Dad's favorite part? The new mantel, we had nothing but bricks before!

I turned 15 on February 10th! Here I am with Cal, behind the cake that Dad and Maggie made for me!

 One awesome big brother turned 17 on February 17th! Here is Jed and Cal with Sam, the birthday boy!

 After years of wishing and searching, we were finally able to purchase Mom's dream car of a chartreuse green bug!

On Maggie's 8th birthday on February 26th (YES! We have a lot of February birthdays!), we went to the American Girl Place in Chicago! She had been waiting for, and talking about, this for this for a whole year!

 We took the train to Chicago so that we wouldn't have to bother with traffic (just us girls went)! She is getting so big!

 The little boys will play Lego's for hours!!!! They are definitely following in Ben and Sam's footsteps!

 We finished our newest book, "The Homeschool Experiment, a novel", written by Charity Hawkins, the first book we have ever sold that someone else has written. Go to our website by clicking here, to check it out!

 

Maggie is playing on the UPWARD basketball team this year at a local church! She is loving every minute of it!

The "Lady Panthers" in action! 

The convention season is approaching, so we are starting to get ready for that too!