See Food

Luken has really taken to eating "real" food. Gerber has yogurt melts that he really loves.

But as you can see, he loves to let it run down his face as much as get it into his tummy.

He thought he would share it with you.

Grandpa Ted

Grandpa Ted is currently living in Cody, WY to work. He was home for a couple of weeks around the holidays. The kids always love a chance to hang out with Grandpa.

Happy Birthday, Jeremy

Birthday celebrations always start first thing in the morning for us. The birthday person gets to choose a special breakfast and gifts are given. Here he is with the kids. Please don't tell my teenage I put this picture on here or I will be in big trouble.

Luken was so good to me. He smiled at just the right moment.

Family and Friends

These are just some pictures of the friends that were at Sam's party.

Above she is with Tessa and Rosie Goodman. Rosie, Sam tells me, is her best friend.

This is Sam with Ashley and Mya Betts who she is related to in a second cousin sort of way.

Here she is with Gabe and Megan, relationship stated in previous post.

Makayla could not be left out, so we did her picture with all those remaining.

Sam's Birthday Party

Sam's birthday party is always a hard one to find time for. With her birthday sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's, I have to plan carefully. This year we had some unexpected guests, Uncle Christian, Aunt Amy, Gabe and Megan. It was so special to have them.

Above is Aunt Amy, Uncle Christian, and Luken.

Here are some of our guests.

Sammy opening her gifts and reading her cards. This is the first year she has been able to do this.

Blowing out her seven candles. My kids are growing up WAY TOO fast.

Luken with Great-Grandma Georgia above and Grandma Brenda below. These Grandmas keep trying to get him to walk. They need to stop that.

Cousins

Great Grandma's memorial was a time of getting to see cousins that the kids had not seen in a while. Here is Megan (Jeremy's brother, Christian's little girl) with Sam and Makayla.

This is Josie and Matt (Brad and Becky's), Sam and Makayla, and Megan and Gabe (Christian and Amy's).

The girls had such a good time playing with these guys. You should have seen this group of girls. I am actually missing two of the girls. Roslynn and Ysabelle were also here, but I think they had left before I took this picture. Ted and Brenda are acquire quite a crew of grandkids.

Trip Up the Clearwater River

Sadly enough, at the beginning of the month, we had to take a trip up river for the memorial service of Jeremy's grandma, Mary Jackson.

These are actually pictures from our trip back home. There was a bit more snow on the river on our way up. It was beautiful.

I am mostly putting these pictures on for my family in Kenya where snow is thought to just be a part of the imagination.

Another Tooth

Sam lost another tooth. This one really bothered me. She allowed it to get so lose that it was hanging very crooked. Finally, it began to bleed. We told her that she needed to pull it or Dad was going to pull it for her. She went into the bathroom, shut the door, and 15 minutes later came out with her tooth in hand.

Birthday Girl #3

Sammy turned 7 at the end of December. She is our last birthday of the year and it is always a hard wait for her.

Thank you, Grandma Phyllis and Poppy. She loved her God's Little Princess DVDs.

She is our paper lover. She loves pens, notebooks, and any type of paper product you can give her. These were note cards we found with an "S" on them. Makayla gave them to her.

"Happy Birthday to Sam!"

Every birthday comes with a special breakfast. Crepes is a favorite one around here.

Now we have a 14 year old, 7 year old, 5 year old, and 7 month old. Life is interesting.

Christmas with Movius-Sager Clan

Above is a picture of our niece, Josie. She is extremely cute, but if her parents can be believed, very mischievous.

Roslynn, Ysabelle, and Makayla. As I am sure you realize now, these two girls are some of our girls favorite people. They love any opportunity to spend time with them.

Katie, Payton, and Breanna - Brea is the eldest grandchild. She just turned 15 and is working toward getting her license. Scary - Not Brea, per say, but the thought that there are two more right behind her who will be getting their licenses over the next few years.

Ange, Amanda, and Bryan - And I do mean "clan", it just keeps growing. Our sister-in-law, Amanda, is expecting the next grandchild this month.

Do you see Grandpa in there with four of his sixteen grandchildren?

Bailee and Brittin - Bailee is actually the next oldest and Brittin is number 4. They actually were hiding behind pillows before I made them get their picture taken.

Cameron is really the only clear one and he is number 3. Sadly for Bailee, he will probably get his license next. We are thinking of waiting until Bailee is 17 before we allow her to get her license.

This was what it looked like when it was time to open gifts. You can see Trav back in the right hand corner. Actually there is a better picture of him below.

The people missing from these pictures is Grandma, Brad, and myself. The rest of the family were not able to be with us. We missed you Amy, Christian, Gabe, Megan, Becky, Bret, and Lee ann.

Christmas at the Schmidt's

It is always nice to have Marvin with us at Christmas time. This is actually the second Christmas he has been home without my parents.

He does not live with us right now, so that he can be closer to everything downtown. Mostly soccer related things. He lives with our brother, Josh's in-laws, Bill and Jessie Schmidt.

They are always so kind to us. At Christmas time, they always have something small for us and we for them. These pictures were taken the day after Christmas when we went to exchange gifts with them.

Bill misses his grandson, Tekoa, who is also my nephew. He always enjoys an opportunity to hold and play with Luken.

Please pray for Bill, Jessie, and their daughter Danielle. They leave next week to travel to Kenya and spend a month there. It is Kenya's summer right now and where Josh and Rachel live, it can be unbearably hot.

Teenagers

For those of you who do not have a teenager in your life, you should. I have learned more in the last month with my teenager than I have in a long time. She has challenged me to really think about what I believe and why.

Do I really believe that God loves me enough to forgive me when I make mistakes? Do I really believe that he is always there for me? Does he really care enough about me to take care of all of my needs? When I am afraid in the middle of the night, will he really be there for me? Do I really have to be nice to people that are not nice to me? Why must I put others before myself?

All of these questions and more have we covered in the last few weeks. God has really challenged me to be ready for her questions and dilemmas, so this has really stepped up my time with him and isn't that what it is all about. Time with our creator to know him better.

I encourage you. If you do not have a teenager in your life, find one to befriend. You will be blessed more abundantly than you can imagine.

Guitar Hero World Tour

This is Dad and Luken practicing to be rock stars the day after Christmas.