NEW UPDATES!

WOW - I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted!!! WHY haven't I posted lately? I guess too many new things here going on! Thanks to those who sent the sweet emails asking how we are doing - wondering why I haven't posted updates lately :) It's so neat to see who really cares for us!

I guess I'll start with the most important thing:
ML's job situation - Many of you know that he lost his job after VeraSun became bankrupt and was bought by Valero - which is out of Texas.... we will NOT be moving there! LOL thankfully! He had many interviews and I'm so proud of him, as he was sending out so many resumes and honestly looking to provide for us. He accepted a job offer for Lawrence and Schiller just last week and will be starting with them tuesday! I'm so proud of him for providing for our family! And I'm so thankful to God for providing a job for ML to use his talents and have a witness field.

What am I up to?
LOTS!!!! Mostly keeping busy preparing for freezer cooking sessions. I have had a LOT of interest in this, and unfortunately can not make it a business and keep the costs low. So I'm going to continue doing what I have been doing - dividing up the total for groceries and have moms get together for a fun time :) I AM making a site to put up info though because I constantly have people requesting info on how to do this! :)

I'm still teaching piano too, although not as many students during the summer.

AUDREY
Audrey is going to M-W-F preschool this next fall and is SO excited for it! She's really excited about our new playset and spends a lot of time outside now :) She just finished up dance, gymnastics and swimming classes at Family Wellness - I had the opportunity to sit in on the last 10 mins of her dance classes and snap these photos during her mini recital :)



She did SO well that we've decided to sign her up for dance again... both ballet and hip hop/jazz. She LOVES these classes! :) She will also be in swimming lessons this summer and have gymnastics at her OLD gymnastics center - which she is crazy super excited for! She is a little monkey gymnast, so it's no surprise she loves that class!

ELIZA
Is learning to be a little more happy :) she's not AS high maintenance as she use to be, so that's nice! She's a superb listener and copies almost everything that Audrey does! She loves to eat! Mostly fruits (blackberries are her fave) and veggies (broccoli and cucumber are her face).... She'll down cupcakes too and LOVES those!


SO, here are some other neat things that have gone on this last month!

I held a surprise 30th birthday party here for my brother Jeremy and it went great!

My brothers and I .... older brother, Jeremy on the left and younger brother, Kevin on the right. See me... I'm the pasty white one in the middle :)


I made him his fave. cake - triple layer german chocolate. It was SO much fun making this!

Just this last thursday, my mom took the girls thursday night and kept them until we went to brookings just yesterday (saturday)... I missed the girls SO much! That's the longest I've been away from them!!!

ML and I used all day Friday to plant flowers and trees! It didn't take us long to actually PLANT everything... we started about 2 and were done by like 5? so that's pretty good! We planted TWO apple trees in the backyard, two blackberry bushes, one blueberry bush, 5 lily plants in the back and then THESE on the left of the house:
Aren't they pretty?! They should spread out more in the next few years too :)

We also planted THREE rose bushes in the front of the house! I'm so excited for these to grow! They are suppose to get to 3-4 feet tall and wide! We are going to put a small tree in the front as well and possibly a hosta or two :)

Eliza was out while I was taking the photo - here she's looking at the flowers we planted :) We do a daily devotion and one of them last week talked about how Adam took care of the garden and so we had Eliza and Audrey plant flowers to take care of :)

AND, on to our NEWEST thing... that we are SO completely excited for!!! ML's parents gave us some money when we came home to spend on the girls and we decided to use the money they gave the girls to go toward a playset for our backyard! The girls are SO excited for this and finally this morning got a chance to play out there........ for like TWO hours before church! LOL

There it is!!! two swings, a trapeze bar, a rope ladder and metal and step ladder, a rock wall, wheel and telescope, a tire swing and a slide - and a wood top! :) I'm CRAZY excited because this means we won't need to keep the van JUST so we can get out to go to the park! yay!

I'm really excited because Eliza loves to swing on here! She won't go on swings at parks... so this is a HUGE deal! :)Audrey loved pushing her baby in the swing :) hee hee. she's such a little mommy!

AND the rock wall is her FAVORITE to climb up!!!

Our view of it from the deck!

The last thing to share is that Wednesday we got to take the girls, along with my mom, to the Omaha Zoo!!! OH how we had SO much fun!!!!!!! The girls were SO well behaved and the weather was incredibly nice! I don't think I could have asked for better weather!

To see photos, click here!!!

This week has been SO much fun as a family. I'm thankful that ML had a week off between jobs so we could all hang out as a family :)