Back on Track--Highlights

Yes, I am still stamping and enjoying it but life has been filled with many blessings and some not so blessed.  I thought I'd give you a quick overview of the first part of 2017-I'll try to make it quick :)

First 3 months of the year are Sale a Bration with Stampin' Up! so i usually work really hard during those months, in addition to homeschooling, FACE co-op Vice president activities, track meets, and housework.
Our families love to spend time together but the older our children become, the harder that is to make happen..here are a few events from this past Christmas.  Top pic is Joel's family, then Dad's 80th birthday dinner with his brother's, and Christmas Dinner at Joel's Mom and Dads.
The bottom photos are from my families' time at the mountains for Christmas.  The left pic is some of the 12 oldest grands of my parents 54 grandchildren...they also have 4 greats now.  On the right is the pyramid that just about maimed my brother LOL. We always seem to do something crazy.

In January, Tyler and Steph did a Gender Reveal Party!  It's a boy!

A 5th Birthday Party for Kale...yes, I made the dinosaur cake!  pretty proud of that...

 Baby shower for Steph.  Her Mom and I organized this.  It was a work of heart.  We had so much fun!   Tash did this elephant cake...adorable!  

 

We got together with Joel's family to cut up a steer...it's a family tradition after all, and Dad had to get in there for a little bit and show everyone how it's done.

I held my 28th semi-annual Scrapbooking/Getaway retreat. We meet at Camp Eder in Fairfield in the Spring and the Fall.  The scrap fairies provided bubbles for everyone.  Guess they thought we needed to get rid of some hot air!  It was alot of fun; I love how everyone comes together from all walks of life and makes friends that look forward to seeing each other and catching up.  

Our Joyful Heart Stampers group attended OnStage Local, in Richmond, VA

How fun to stamp together, get the new catalog and meet up with friends!  Very grateful for this group of ladies and their friends.

 In the midst of all this excitement, we've had some trials...one of the biggest being car failure.  Joel's car has been under the weather and that's what malachi has been driving while Joel drives his dads old pick up.  Then, my car blew it's engine on the way home from church about 2 months ago...we bought a used engine online, had a relative put the engine in, it lasted for 3 days...all the oil leaked out...got that fixed and the engine started rapping.  We found out that the warranty on the engine was not going to hold because it took too long for the mechanic to put the engine in...only had 10 days.  So, we just got the car back last night...it runs, doesn't sound too terrible so we are thinking of running it til it dies...but we spent so much money trying to fix it that there was nothing left to think of getting another vehicle.  Yes, it has 165,000 miles but everything else on the car has been fabulous. Happy to say that Joel and Malachi fiddled with his car til they got it back on the road so hopefully we can return all family vehicles that have been borrowed.   Please pray that we make it a few more months with these vehicles!  We are very curious to see what God is teaching us through this...we have definitely learned to lean on Him in a new way.

 For the last 3 months, we prepared for this event, the EBAHS (East Berlin Area HomeSchoolers) graduation/program.
The singing was rapturous and the skit was amazing.  Malachi was Officer C.O.P. with his rival, Mr. Sherlock Hemlock.  Malachi had to charge Judy and the Phalanges with an # ID10TS and haul them off to jail.

And I saved the very best til last...The arrival of little Rhett, just last week.  He weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz.
and is a very happy little man.  He's finally sleeping better at night for mommy who is an amazing mom. Kale's a great big brother and always happy to spend time teaching his little brother! Not to forget Dad...Rhett is pretty attached to his Daddy.

 So, that catches us up til now!  I'm so excited about the new catalog and very frustrated with the discontinued list...because just when someone wants something, it's gone.  Well, I'm still gonna give a final salute to some of my favs and give you some sneak peeks at what is to come in about 5 days.