Wedding Bliss!

Jeff and Tianne

joined as one on April 10th, 2010!

A day on the course!

Jeff and the guys spent Friday morning on the course. It was very cold and windy. I don't know how they stuck it out, but they're men so they wouldn't give in to the wind!

I won't tell you who hit this ball here, but you could take a guess!

A day at the salon!

Tianne and the girls spent the afternoon getting pampered with manicures and pedicures! It was a great time for us to get to know each other! And very relaxing before all the craziness began!

Jeff and Tianne's moms!!

A pedicure can really make you giggle!

Watch out Bubba!!


The big day!

Their respective doors the morning of!

Meet the Samsons!

Showin' off the Husker red

We went to Thanksgiving Point to take their wedding photos. This place was amazing, and we could have spent a few more hours there if we'd had more time. But we made the most of the time we had and had fun doing it! Right Jeff? I won't post the pic of you yawning!!! I hope you see now that it was all worth it!!

Whispering sweet nothings in the secret garden!

Love this one! They have such fun personalities!

The Details

The Reception!
I have more pics from the reception and I might try to add a few more later!

Wrapping up the evening with sweet conversation between sisters!

Of course they couldn't get away without friends getting to their car!

Goodnight Samsons!
Thank you for letting me be a part of your day!

Wordless Wednesday

Limerick fun!

We've been memorizing poetry all year and this week we've been making up our own limericks. It's been quite fun seeing what the kids come up with. Here are the poems we made up.

Limericks are generally humorous(which catches the attention of silly boys!) and are set up in a particular way;
They need 5 lines.
Lines 1,2 and 5 have to rhyme and lines 3 and 4 have to rhyme.
Also lines 1,2 and 5 have 8 or 9 syllables and lines 3 and 4 have 5 or 6 syllables.

The first one I did to give them an example to follow then we came up with some rhyming words that we could use to make more. We did all 8,8,5,5,8 limericks.

The last one was inspired by the M.U.D. truck letting out water from our hydrant this morning!!

I would love to walk in the sand
On the edge of this great big land
How nice it would be
To stroll by the sea
Along side you holding your hand

I heard a buzzing by my hair
It must be something in air
Could it be a bee
I really can't see
Would you please catch it if you dare

I looked out and saw a green car
And behold it came from afar
But why was it there
I just had to stare
For the car was very bizarre

One day I was watching the clock
At once it just started to talk
I looked all around
And nothing I found
Would explain this talking old clock

One day I looked out my window
And saw that the water did flow
The water was clear
Like a giant tear
Out of the hydrant it did go

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Need more Honey!

Madi was in the kitchen enjoying a cornbread muffin and Grandma was helping her get the last of the honey out of the container to spread on top. Grandma tells Madi "We're going to have to get more honey, it's just about gone" Madi smiled and just then Daddy walked by and she said to him "Dad we need to get more of you at the store"!!! Of course we all had a great laugh!!!

Why Would They do That?

This morning the phone rang and as is very often the case in our house both the phones were dead so we couldn't answer them, in fact we still can't find them! So I asked the kids to help me find the cordless phones to which Gabe responded "What's that"? I said "Our phone, you know that rings and we talk into it"? He then asked "What's cordless"? I answer "It means it doesn't have a cord connecting the phone to the wall" Gabe with a confused look on his face says "Why would they do that"?!!

Tying the Knot

No not me! I'm securely tied already!!

My brother is getting married...



and a couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking engagement photos of him(Jeff) and his fiance, Tianne. I hadn't done anything like this before, since I've only gotten into photography about a year and a half ago and I've only been practicing on my kids. Even though I'm sure they weren't expecting me to be perfect and have it all together, I put some pressure on myself wanting to give them good photos that they will have for a long, long time! So we headed downtown to start our day! I have little experience and knew it was going to be cold(20 degrees) so I was concerned that I wouldn't have much time to adjust my settings to get a good exposure while they were sitting there freezing. Overall it went well and yes there were some that were overexposed and couldn't be used but we took roughly 400 so we had many good ones to choose from. So all in all I was pleased, and really when you have a good-looking couple to photograph you can't go wrong, right?

Without further ado here are the soon-to-be Bride & Groom....

Jeff & Tianne

Art School - Fun School

We signed up our boys for art classes at Hidden Acres Art School this year and have found it to be a tremendous addition to our school year! The boys look forward to it every week and are learning a ton! Here are some pics taken during their class last week. The paintings they're working on here won't be finished this week so I'll have to add completed pics when I can!

Sledding & Stitches

Sledding

by Joseph Pearl

The sounds of freedom and the sounds of joy

Laughing all the way

The frozen mixture of white stuff

Slipping faster on each day

Going down the cheeks are red

Like apples in the fall

Blurring images of trees

Some big and some small

Snow hitting me on the head

And getting into my tush

Watching for the crash to come

Don’t need a pricker bush

Made it passed the icy bend

Now the journey is at end


At home after ER visit.


Well tonight at the end of Ethan's journey down the hill he met face to face with a metal pole. He had been sledding all night with either daddy or big brother on a sled with him and this was the first time down by himself. He was about twenty feet away from a set of stairs that has a metal railing along it down the hill. He wasn't able to stop himself as his sled was turning toward the stairs and next thing you know 'crash'. His brothers and daddy were running to see if he was ok. He asked if he had a bloody nose, which he did on both sides, but he also had a pretty severe laceration to the forehead as well. Daddy was pretty shocked to see his skull right there in the middle. So he quickly called me and I met him (pulled up at the exact same time! PTL) at the hospital (which was right down the street! PTL). He took the other boys home (where my mom was with Jake and Madi! PTL) and I took Ethan in. I was also a bit shocked when I looked for the first time. Not knowing how bad it was I was getting a little teary but of course staying strong for E as he was REALLY nervous about the prospect of getting stitches.

They got us right in but we had to wait in his room for the Dr. We flipped through the channels to pass the time and stopped on Hope for Haiti. While laying there Ethan was saying "I don't want to be here" but I lovingly tried to reassure him that this was exactly where he wanted to be. "God is taking good care of you," I said. You were right down the street from a hospital when you were hurt. There is a doctor here to help you and medicine to numb your head so it won't hurt as much." I was talking to him about the telethon on tv and why they're doing that. Because there are tens of thousands of young boys(of course adults too but just trying to help him relate) and girls there who were hurt and some even lost their mom and dad. Most of those who are hurt don't have a hospital to go to or a doctor to help them or medicine to feel better. We talked about it for a bit thanking God for His provision and about the need to pray for Haiti and give what we can to help others in need. He seemed much calmer, that is until they came in with the needle! Yikes!

As they were numbing it then cleaning it I had to take a seat, feeling a bit woozy! Ethan held a washcloth over his eyes. He cried just a bit as they hit some sensitive spots but I think he was more nervous than anything. He did great! And had no signs of head trauma, loss of consciousness, strong sudden headache or vomiting, which was a huge relief after seeing such a bad gash. So if your brave you can scroll down and check out the newest scar in our family!



Right when we arrived at the hospital. I only got two shots and neither do it justice. It was much worse in person!


That white in the middle is his skull. Our poor boy!


All stitched up! But yet to be cleaned up. They need to come out in 5 days, and I hope it doesn't scar too badly!

I love you so much Ethan and think you were very brave!

2009 Christmas Letter

All about Him!

As we approached this Christmas season I am reminded once again of the worldliness of our world!! We are so focused on the 'gifts' and not the Giver. We wanted to find ways to keep our hearts and our minds focused on the One gift that will last for all eternity! So I searched for some God-glorifying traditions to add to our current ones. I found on a couple of blogs, an idea for decoration the tree! The bulk of the ideas I found here.

Decorating the tree
We are decorating over a few evenings so that we can take our time and dig into God's word point our family toward the One alone who is worthy of our worship.

Here are some of the parallels (in no particular order) we will use as we try to focus our tree decorating around Christ our Savior!

Evergreen tree- (though ours is fake) Everlasting life,
-Adam lead the human race into sin by eating the fruit of the tree that God forbade.
-Jesus died for us on a tree paying the penalty, for our sin, required by God.
Lights- Jesus is the Light of the world, Mt 5:14 John 1:9
Glass/Reflective ornaments- We are to reflect His light, Phil 2:14-16 John 8:12 John 12:46
Gold and silver- Jesus is our treasure, Mt 6:21
Red- Jesus is our Savior...etc. Is 43:11
Purple-(I don't have any purple ornaments yet so I may have to hit the sales after Christmas to gather a few for next year) Jesus is the king
Pink- He loved us we are to love others Jn 13:34
Blue- (I don't have any blue either) Jesus is the living water Jn 4:14

Shapes:
Wreath (circular)- Jesus is was and is to come, Rev 1:8 Is 9:6
Bells- Jesus is the good news, Lk 2:10
Angels- announce "Jesus is born", Lk 2:8-10
Wood- Jesus was a carpenter, Mk 6:3
Clay- We are the clay, God is the potter Rom 9
Star- Jesus is the bright morning star. Rev 22:16
Fish (yes we have a fish ornament) Jesus' miracles- Feeding of the 5,000- Casting the net-
Candy Cane- Jesus is our shepherd Jn 10:11

So you can use what you have or buy some new ornaments with the thought "how can this point us to Christ?" "How would this remind us to show honor to the one who gave His life for us?"

The kids are already coming up with their own reminders of who Christ is and how we can celebrate Him!! It's prompting wonderful conversations throughout the day!! Which is my desire, for all to be centered on Him!! A true joy!!

Adorenaments
Another thing we've done each year is Adorenaments! These are 12 ornaments that highlight the different names for Christ. It comes with a book that has a verse and devotional for each name. We start 12 days before Christmas and do one each evening! It's too bad they've discontinued this set! But you can still find them on Ebay and Amazon used. We've had them for about seven years now and we enjoy them more every year! We do these in the evenings and add them to our Advent readings.

Advent Readings
We've been following this scripture reading schedule that I came across on a blog I follow, Girltalk. It's a few verses at a time and we can easily add it in to our book we're reading each night. We're really enjoying the book The Experience of Christmas (Family Devotions & Activities to Prepare the Heart).

It covers seven topics:

1. Fulfilled Prophecies,
2. Family Service,
3. Christmas Symbols and Traditions,
4. Christmas Worship,
5. Sharing the Christmas Experience,
6. The Names of the Messiah,
7. Christmas Prayers

There is one for each day of December and includes family activites, discussion questions and a hymn or carol that we sing/learn together!! We've had a great time with this even though we haven't been able to keep up everyday!!

We're also going to act out Mary and Josephs' trip to Bethlehem with our nativity set. We start them far away(the kitchen) and every few days we move Mary and Joseph closer(cabinet-shelf-table-nativity) to the stable and on Christmas eve they'll arrive. After the kids go to bed we'll put baby Jesus in the bed of hay. Once they awake we'll read in the bible the story of Jesus' birth.

We're striving to make the birth of Jesus real to the kids, to help them understand God's story of redemption through His Son. This season has become so commercialized and I know it's God's desire(Ps 78:5-7) for us to tell our children of His works in and through His Son Jesus. So that is our desire as well. We don't want them growing up thinking the Bible is just a bunch a stories. IT IS God-breathed. IT IS living and active even today. We want them to fear and love God with all their hearts and to take seriously the gift of salvation God has given in His Son. So Christmas for us is in some ways just another day in the year in which we want them to see clearly that God is real, sin is real, judgment is real, and God really did send a substitute for the penalty that must be paid for our sin. The most wonderful gift of all....JESUS!!!

May God bless your family this year as you celebrate the birth of our Savior!!!

2 Cents

This is how Jake is putting in his "2 cents" in these days!! Daddy changed his diaper last night and slid it over for me to look into it. Needless to say I was not expecting to see two pennies in his diaper! We're not exactly sure how they got there, was he saving his money for a future purchase, was he stashing it there because he knows that his siblings like to find and keep for themselves any money they find, we may never know! But it will make quite a memory!!! Our little Jakey always wanting to put his 2 cents in!!!