The most wonderful time of the year

this year Christmas was a blessing. With the fear of the winter storm, I thought for sure christmas would not be able to be celebrated at either of the parents' houses this year. God heard my prayers and we didn't see the storm they were predicting. We got to spend our time with family, and it was great! 2 days of family, 6 hours of opening toys and inserting batteries, then we had to leave for a wake.
My grandma passed on Tuesday before christmas. It was hard to lose her, but it also a happy time. 64 years happily married to my grandpa who passed a few years back. since his passing she suffered terribly with alzheimers. We visited her often, as she was staying in the nursing home in manchester ( where john's parents live) It was so hard watching her slip away. she was very ill and suffering the last week. I think her christmas gift was being able to spend Christmas with Grandpa at last. She was a devoted and amazing Christian woman, who is finally home. We will miss her. We all went to dumont to say goodbye. The wake on sunday, we stayed in a motel sunday night. The kids played in the pool, and had a great time. Then on to the funeral monday morning. We hadn't seen that family for a couple years, and it was nice to see them all again.

God sends us blessings in all kinds of ways, it's a great thing when your eyes are open to see them. He blessed us abundantly this year with family, with friends, with our church. he's provided us with everything we could possibly need and then some. Many wishes that your year is filled with many blessings and many precious moments with the people who mean the most to you. Every day is a gift, as well as a challenge. Can you make a difference today no matter how small? We are so blessed and looking forward to the next year! Merry CHRISTmas!

Henry Davis

last month i asked the kids if they would be willing to give up some of their christmas presents to give to kids who needed them. They said YES! I couldn't have been more proud. We donated them to the Henry Davis Foundation. Henry Davis is a man who works to give to others. He keeps only enough to get by. Every year he hosts a free meal, and free toys for those in need. This year we were blessed to be a part of it. The girls and I were in charge of wrapping the gifts to be given to the kids on christmas. People lined up at 4 am, the doors didn't open until 11. Hundreds of people came through the doors, enjoyed a meal, and got to choose one toy for each of their children. Some people got nice new toys, some got used toys, all were grateful.
One little girl stood out to me, and brought out the tears i had been holding in all day.... She was 6. by the time she got through the line, there were no new toys left. She chose a baby doll, with a stain on it's dress and dirt on it's face....She came up to me to get it wrapped and proudly announced in the most excited of voices..."This is for me!!" the tears came, though i tried not to let her see. I wanted so badly to get her name and number and show up at her door with piles of toys to make her christmas magical, but I didn't want to get in trouble. Now i think of her and her 3 sisters every night, their big smiles, their dirty clothes, and the way they took such joy in the simplest of things and i pray that they are always as happy as they were when they recieved their dolls that day. God didn't give them many material things, but he gave them hope, and he gave them joy, and he gave them a spirit that i'm sure will touch many over the years.

I'm even more excited now about spreading God's love, and giving back for all that he has blessed me with. I hope my children will also be given the gift of compassion and a desire to help those in need, because if not to do his work...why are we here?

this and that

Abby and Carter only have one week left of basketball...


Abby is doing really well, at the last game she scored 5 baskets!! Carter is trying! He made one basket last week, which was so awesome. when the ball went in, he threw his arms in the air and said "YES!!" and all the people clapped. he's getting better at dribbling too...










We had a lot of fun decorating the tree...but even more fun making cookies. we made home-made icing this year, that was an adventure! lots of sprinkles, and lots of smiles later we have enough cookies to last us for weeks (though i doubt they'll last that long!)

we have finally finished delivering the rest of fall product for girlscouts....now cookie sales start in january, i'm not excited! being a leader is stressful! sorting 200 nut/candy products was no fun task, i'm dreading the 900 boxes of cookies i'm going to have to sort when the troop is done selling, i have no idea where i'm going to put them all!

The girls got to sing at church yesturday, it was so cute! they sang silent night and joy to the world and a couple others. Kaelyn looked very shy up there, but Abby was all smiles, she's a lot better at being the center of attention!

Exciting news....Carter is potty trained!!!!!! i can't believe how hard that was. he has been accident free for 3 weeks now. he's very excited about being a big boy, and he tells everyone he sees that he now goes "_oop" on the potty! 3 down 1 to go!

Chloe started walking!! She took a few steps by halloween, but as of a few weeks ago, she's pretty much walking everywhere!! i'm excited, but sad. she's my last one, i'd kinda like her to stay a baby forever :(

happy halloween

it was a cold one this year! The kids had a good time anyway...and collected bags of candy! chloe didn't participate, she fell asleep right before we left so she stayed home with grandpa and grandma meyer.

sick babies

we've been bitten by the flu bug! It started with my Nephew Landon getting sick, then 2 days later Abby got sick. Abby was feeling better a few days later, then Kaelyn got sick. Fevers over 103, sore throat, cough, tummy aches, runny nose....luckily chloe and carter were spared, so far!

birthdays and big rigs

Abby is 7!! hard to believe she's growing up so fast. She had a wonderful birthday and recieved many wonderful gifts...and one not so wonderful gift, a sound effects remote. Let's just say that the "boo" button gets used a lot, and it's not music to my ears! After cake and ice cream we headed to the playstation with the kids. She had a great time!

The girls started girl scouts a couple of weeks ago. So far they enjoy it. I'll be "co-leader" for a little while until john's schedule changes. I'm looking forward to sharing the experience with the girls.

Kaelyn has played her first soccer game, though she is still not that into it. I guess sports aren't her strong point, but with parents like hers, it's no wonder! She didn't play much, and I'm not even sure who won...she has little enthusism for the game, more interest in playing on the playground!

Carter is finally showing strong strides in potty training after his relapse a few months ago. I'm excited to say he has been wearing "undies" for a week now with only one accident ---yay---! i'll take small victories as they come!

last week we went to "big rigs, little kids" Carter got to sit in a tractor, race car, semi truck, helicopter, ambulance, fire truck, and a few others...he was pretty excited!

soccer time

Kaelyn has started soccer! She has a game every thursday from 5:30-6:30. Her team the red rockets had a mock game yesturday with another team. kaelyn was waiting on the sidelines and got bored, so she just stood there spinning in circles for 5 minutes. thats my girl!

Carter starts preschool!

Well, the day has come, my little guy is off to school! He looked so little climbing onto that big bus. I cried as he took off. it's hard to believe he's growing up so fast!

Back to school!

The girls are back to school as of yesturday! They are enjoying it so far. Kaelyn was happy to be back to school so she could see her friend anyssa. Abby just loves having something to do all day long! Other great news is girl scouts is being offered this year! I can't wait to get the girls involved, i loved girl scouts when i was younger. they are also deciding what sport they will play this fall, but so far it looks like soccer is the choice for both girls. I guess that means i will officially be a soccer mom! Carter has a choice between football and basketball, but he only wants to play baseball, so we'll see what he ends up deciding on.

we got family pictures and school pictures done last week, will get those in the mail as soon as we get them in.

Summer 2009

It's been a very busy, though not very warm summer. The girls took a trip to wisconsin dells in july and had a wonderful time. They went with grandpa and grandma wygle. August has been a busy month. The 8th we took our annual trip to adventureland. It was Carter's first trip and he had a wonderful time. Though he had little patience for the heat and the long lines...just our luck summer decided to come the day we went, with temperatures over 90 degrees! We did get a chance to cool off at kokomo cove. Kaelyn loved the rides, the scarier the better. She loved the tornadoe. Abby decided to try the roller coaster this year, unfortunatly she found out she didn't care for it. She started crying after the first hill. It was heart wrenching not being able to stop the ride for her, but she made a full recovery afterwards...no more roller coasters for her!


The 15th we had Carter's 4th birthday celebration with a small gathering of family. After the party we went to the sweetcorn festival where we all had a good time.




The kids all had an opportunity to enjoy 2 weeks of vacation bible school. They had a wonderful time learning about god and all he does for us. During the wrap up for vbs the kids had a musical performance. Unfortunatly Carter was suffering from the "I want mommy"s and he just stood up there looking rather angry during the whole performance, needless to say he was memorable! The kids are looking forward to Awana starting in September.


Kaelyn took swim lessons this year, she did well...her greatest accomplishment was being able to retrieve the ring from the bottom of the pool!


Chloe has had a rough patch of fevers and general blah's, as she is now teething! They are popping up left and right, leaving us with many sleepless nights. She has gotten 3 in the last week! Lets hope that the worst is over. She has also started crawling, and pulling herself up on everything! She's very eager to be able to play with the kids, but moreso to be able to play with the cats! She will chase after them anywhere ( I'm pretty sure that was her motivation to crawl!)




John has accepted a new position at Toyota Financial where he is currently a collection agent. he will be switching to customer service. we're pretty excited about the change, it means hopefully that he will enjoy his job a little more!

School starts in one week. Kaelyn seems excited but Abby is claiming she doesn't want to go! This will be Carter's first year of preschool! He is excited to say the least. I'm also excited for him to have other boys his age to play with. Well, thats all for now! I'm sure we'll have more to report in the next few weeks as school starts.