Blessing: " Teacher Parents"

Having parents that are both teachers can be somewhat a blessing and a curse.  More of a blessing than a curse, of course.  I'm sure our kids will disagree during their teenage years but they'll someday be thankful.  One of the blessings of having "teacher parents" is us knowing the value of reading.  Our parents both tried to instill this in us as young children and it wasn't until adulthood we really learned the value of it.  Thanks mom and dad!  

Because reading is so valuable, we kept summer reading calendars for both Kenley and Alexis. At summer's start,  they each got to pick out a "reward" to work for.  If they read 20 minutes a day and/or 100 books, they could get their rewards at summer's end.  Kenley picked an overnight with Joshua (which I have no pictures of) and Alexis picked a new Build-A-Bear (imagine that!).  This girl is in love with stuffed animals.  She's spent most of her childhood playtime playing with her stuffed animals.  The only other thing she really plays with is her Barbie Dream House so I don't know why we even keep the other 8,359 toys around.  Here is Alexis reaping the rewards for reaching her summer reading goal.  Way to go Kenley and Alexis.  You will appreciate this someday, we promise!  :)

Purpose of my Blog

The purpose of this blog has changed since I started it in 2008.  Then, Alexis was our only child. When she was born 3 months early, we started a webpage to update all friends and family on her health condition.  In 2008,  thanks be to God, she didn't really have any health conditions to report anymore so I started this blog to share pictures with family and friends.  Well....our lovely world of internet has since changed and about 90% of our close family and friends have Facebook so that is how we share pictures.  Since Facebook, I've been HORRIBLE about updating the blog.  I couldn't decide if I should keep the blog or get rid of it.

I've decided to keep the blog as a means of reporting all of our daily blessings.  There are so many blessings that take place in everyday life that never get recorded by photo or video.  This is a great way of recording these blessings. Writing has never been my gift, so I'm writing these mainly for myself (for scrapbook/babybook purposes) but I did decide to share with family and friends since I creep on so many of their blogs. 

Feel free to follow me but just know that 90% of my posts will be about my kids and our life so I have a way to remember their little lives.    Be blessed!

Blessing: Free Fair Tickets

We love the Iowa State Fair.  For it's price (free for us this year....we won tickets from KAYL) it provides a great amount of entertainment.  We love the fried food.  We love the free entertainment (a ton of great music on the free stages).  We love the Big Green Slide.  We love the sky ride.  We always have a great time at the fair.  This year, we celebrated our anniversary by seeing Casting Crowns in concert on Thursday night. They always put on an AWESOME show and this year was no different.  On Friday, we went with the Shanks and took all of the kids to the fair.  Like always, it was a great time.  Here are a few of the highlights: 

Blessing: Sibling Love

We are so blessed to have 2 great kids.  I've said that many times.  One of the blessings I pray for and am thankful for (so far) is that they love each other.  Alexis is a great big sister and Austin loves her too.  Here are a few summer pictures that capture their love.

Blessing: "Staycation"

This summer we went to Adventureland.  We decided that since we did Disney last year (exhausting and expensive) we'd just do a "Staycation" this year.  Brenda, Joshua, Nathan (Josh's friend), Kenley, Alexis, Justin and I went. Alexis had a blast as she was FINALLY tall enough to ride most of the "big rides".  She loved the Dragon.  Rode it 3 times and would have more if we would have let her.  It was a beautiful summer day and we LOVED the waterpark they have there now (although we didn't get pics of that).  We are blessed to be able to have the health to ride the rides, have the money to do this with our kids, and have family we love to go with.  Fun day!

Blessing: FREEDOM!

I love the 4th of July.  Maybe it's because it's in the middle of summer and I love summer.  No, that's not it.  It's because it's a celebration of our Independence and I'm so very thankful to live in a FREE country.  I'm thankful for each and every one of our service men and women and their families who sacrifice more than most of even realize.  I'm thankful for my brother, Adam, who gave 6 years of his life to serve in the U.S. Air Force.  I know it wasn't easy for him to be away and miss out on 6 years of his niece and nephew's lives.  It wasn't easy for him to miss family Christmas, Easter, birthdays.  It wasn't comfortable for him to leave our country for an entire year to be stationed in Korea.  But--It's because of people like him that we get the opportunity to enjoy freedom.  THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart, to each and every U.S. service men and woman.

                                            My brother, Adam, in the plaid shorts.  Thanks

                                                               for your service Adam!

Here are a few pictures of our family enjoying Independence Day this year!

                                             Sparklers at the Storm Lake fireworks.

                                          Our crew parked waiting for fireworks in Storm Lake.

                                            Austin enjoying the parade in Storm Lake.

                                                    The kids having fun at the parade.

                                           Miss Independence Day Birthday Girl and Papa Cy

                                                                 Happy 4th of July!

Blessing: Swimming Lessons

This summer, my pretty girl got to take swimming lessons at our local Newell Pool (6/27-7/1_).  That pool in itself is a blessing.  We MIGHT have gone crazy in Newell this summer without it!   It was a huge blessing that Alexis could take Swimming Lessons with Becky.  Becky was GREAT with her (she loved her) and she learned a ton.  She was super timid about swimming alone at the beginning of the summer but after lessons with Becky, she did amazing.  She passed her swimming test to go off of the boards and was a rockstar for the rest of the summer. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE to go to the pool and want my kids to be able to grow up loving it too.  So thankful for swimming lessons!