Kristin's Birthday

Kristin, LOOK!...your birthday made front cover news!

"One more year of existence down the drain. Happy Birthday!"

I love you, BIRTHDAY GIRL! Have a super day tomorrow! :)

Eric's Back on the Streets

First night back in patrol.

Works 6pm-6am tonight and tomorrow. Then Fri, Sat, Sun off!
He looks too sweet to be mean to anyone.

Mera's light paintings

Sunday school

Kaleb and his SS teacher and class.

My 4th grade girls bus class. They are so sweet, and I love them all!

Yesterday was Bus Sunday...all the bus kids, workers, teachers, and choir sang a special Sunday morning. Can you spot Kevin in the choir...and me down w/my class?

(all pictures courtesy of Saundra Hoffert)

www.photozmom.blogspot.com

Car show

We went to a car show yesterday in arroyo Grande,about 15 min from us.

We got there kind of late so not as many cars left, but still had a great time.

The car in the middle of the piscs is what kristinah wants to have as our next car. It's a 1964 Volkswagen 21 window van. I wish I would of taken some more pics of it to see the windows,they go all the way around. Mera had a great time as always. She got to sit it a fire truck and a police car, and kristinah and kristen got to check out the swat truck. It was a nice day.

Bye bye, van!

Today, Bro. Myron drove up to our house in a big truck w/a big flat bed trailer to haul away our very sick van down to his shop.
After sitting for almost three months, the van wheels were shut tight and wouldn't turn...the tires just scooted across the gravel when Kevin hooked on the chain and pulled.

Time to use some good ol' elbow grease. After Bro. Myron raised the van and hit the tires w/a hammer, both men put their muscles into pushing the tire to get it to turn! ...and finally it DID! WD-40 would have helped a lot on this job; however, when Kevin went into the garage to get it, the can was nearly empty. Kaleb then informed us that Travis had sprayed it all over their little red wagon a couple of days ago.

Both men used their muscles again to get the van up onto the trailer by using this crank/pulley thing(I have no idea what the proper name for it is.)

There goes our van! Lord willing, one of these days, we will get to drive it again! :)
Thank you, Bro. Myron...you and Saundra are such a blessing to our family!

Our Wonderful Visit with Susan and Joey

Eating supper in Mormor's private dining room.

There they go; Joey and Caleb are in the lead.

Hurry, Susan. She did, and she came back first.

Wow, do you see what I see???

Fun together at Caleb's pool.

Makin' do w/what ya got!

We've been having some cool rainy days, but the sun was shining hot today! The kids rigged up a homemade water slide using their kiddie pool, the water hose, and the slide that has broken off from their swing set. The muddier the water got, the more fun Travis seemed to have! :)

Commando Eric

Hang on, Eric!! (front left)

Sneaking up on the enemy!

Run, Run, Run!!
Ewwww....this grass is itchy!

Oohh, I hear somebody coming!

False alarm...I'm going back in for a swim!

Mama's Birthday!

Tomorrow, July 21, is our precious mother's birthday! Twelve people love you immensely and treasure you greatly! All of us can't get enough of you or take our eyes off you! :)
A stay-at-home wife, mother, and homeschooling teacher...my mama decided against a "career life" to rear and nurture her children in the LORD. After accomplishing that feat, being the intelligent woman that she is, my mother then returned to college and acquired her Bachelors in Math Education.
No matter how far away we live from our mother, she always stays endearingly close to all her children and grandchildren. We still rely on her wisdom, guidance, and affection.
I love you, Mama. There has never been or is or ever will be another mother as perfectly marvelous as YOU!

Happy Birthday, Mama!

another nice day at the beach

Supper w/the Hoffert's

This evening, Myron and Saundra Hoffert came over and had supper w/us. Myron took a look at our van...and like we feared, the van is really broken. Saundra and I had a great time chatting! :) After eating, we went outside and enjoyed such a pleasant evening and colorful sunset!

Only in CA

The Whitley's sent us these suckers with REAL bugs inside. You have to lick a while to get to the middle where the bug is. Kristin said the kids in California eat these suckers all the time...bug and all, I guess. Today, Kaleb thought he would give it a go w/this cricket sucker.

(Be sure to scroll down and check out 'Hanna Humor' on the left of the blog under "let's communicate".)

Mera makes Mama lunch

"Mama, want some lunch...C'mon C'mon!!"

She kept pouring into the bowl and giving them to me.

She put grass, dirt, I gave her a little flour, three snails, flowers, leaves and lots of water. Yummmmm!

Today we went on a nice bike trail called the Bob Jones trail. It's a nice paved trail for riding or walking near the beach; so we parked and rode about three mile or so to the beach, then played on the beach for a while. Then on the way back we stopped at a restaurant right off the trail and had some sodas and cheese cake; yumm! Then back to the car and home. We can't wait to go again.

She gets her smarts from me

This is Kristen's grades for her sophomore year. She always says that the reason she went from a D to a B- in Geometry is due to Mama's tutoring. We are very proud of her considering the average GPA at her school is around 1.8.

Mo's BBQ

Some finger lickin' good BBQ sauce from San Luis Obispo, CA. Thank you, Kevin and Kristin, for sending it to us! For supper tonight, I grilled one of our home grown chickens smothered with savory Mo BBQ. Delish!

This morning while dressing Travis, I left him for a couple of minutes...and when I returned, this is what he looked like. Thank goodness he used Allyson's markers...so they weren't permanent!

Kevin gave me these cheery flowers when he came home from work today...because he said I was on his mind all day. :)

It's a BOY!

Here is our boy!

The doctor first said he was 90 % sure , then looked from another angle and changed to 95% sure:-)

Anna and Allyson

Today, we met the Grabers at McDonalds in Coralville for lunch. Anna and Allyson were hugging immediately! :) Then after eating, we went shopping at Stuff(a place similar to Goodwill). What a FUN afternoon we all had together!


Time to go home...our time together went so fast...

Trumpet and Trombone

(pictures from Saundra Hoffert)

Bro Joe and Kevin played "My Country Tis of Thee" for the offertory yesterday at church.

Our 4th

On this July 4th, we remember how blessed we are to live in America; the second nation in the history of the world to be founded on God and his Word...the first being Israel. Now as socialism is slowly and slyly creeping into our country, we must cherish and vigorously cling to our freedom which so many men and women have laid down their lives to give us.

Did you know your senator only needs to receive ten negative phone calls concerning a bill or law which you don't like and immediately it puts a red flag on the bill and could keep it from getting passed. Every ONE call is considered as a thousand people! So pick up the phone!
A man spoke at our church on Sunday and shared the above fact w/us and a lot of other really good information! Be sure to check out his website... http://www.awakeamericans.org/

4th of July

I didn't take this picture, but this is one of the fireworks photos from the show we went to in St. Augustine last night.

We have traveled all over the place the last few days and I am so tired I can hardly stay awake. We have driven up and down tons of beaches, Mama, and I've been keeping my eyes out for good places for you all to stay when you're down here. We have done nothing but swim in the ocean, lay on the beach and eat at all different types of nice little seaside restaurants every single day from morning to night since Thursday.

I have Eric's computer now, Candace, so I am back in business with emailing and checking the blog. I thought I was having internet problems the other day, but it turned out to be my laptop which has now completely died.

It was a fun few days!! I dread going back to work tomorrow.

Caleb learning a Norwegian Folk dance

Mormor gets chocolate candy!!!