Happy Birthday, Sunshine!

A few days ago was my sweet Sunshine's birthday. I just wanted to post a few thoughts and pics to mark the occasion!

Lg, you are one of the greatest things that has happened in my life! I love you and so much about you! I love that you love the Lord, that you chose to become a Christ-follower at the precious age of 6. I love that you care so much for others, that you love your brother and foster brothers so much. I love that you have so much confidence in who you are... and I pray you will never loose that! I love your smile with your cute dimples and grown-up teeth. I love your wacky sence of humor that reminds me of your daddy oh, so much. I love your tender heart and strong values.

But most of all Lg, I love our Lord for choosing us for you!!

Happy Birthday! Love you, sweets!

Kanakuk '08 Part 3

So I know you have been waiting with baited breath... why have I taken so long to post about Lg's wonderful and exciting adventures at kamp? Um, I really have no great excuses... so, here it is!

Last Saturday morning, myself, daddy, bubby, Yaya, my sis, bro-in-law and niece arrived at K-Seven at 7:30 in the morning to pick up Lg and attend closing ceremonies. It was WONDERFUL! Not only did we get to see our little sunshine after a WHOLE week, but meeting her new friends, listening to her stories and hearing the awesome Keith Chancey (K-Seven director) speak was so wonderful!

First we walked into camp and Lg saw us before we saw her.

(~Insert cute family pic here that I accidentally erased.~)

We were able to have a quick bite to eat then we made it over to her tee-pee where her 3 counselors had an awards ceremony for the girls in her group...



Ok, wasn't that just the sweetest thing ever??? I *LOVED* getting the opportunity to hear someone elses view of my daughter and her gifts. As you can tell, she received the BARNABAS award for being "The Encourager". (Just like my friend Karis did every year if Kamp! Lg is in fine company!!)

Lg's tee-pee mates and councilors.

After the tee-pee awards, we went to "Base Camp" to hear Keith Chancey speak.

It was so awesome to hear his encouraging and motivating words, but one of my favorite parts of Base Camp was hearing all the staff and kampers do all their "chants" throughout the remaining ceremonies. They were HiLaRiOuS!! What was even better? Listening to them ALL do a "Walk through the Old Testament" complete with fun hand gestures! It was AMAZING!! I know, it is a little fuzzy, but Keith moves around a lot!

Here are some various pictures of some of the activities Lg got to participate in while she was there...

Archery. Rifle (bb gun) range. pow-pow!

And to top it all off... every child who got to "Ring the Bell" at camp that week (accept Christ into their heart) is able to come down to the lake shore and be baptised by Keith along side their counselors. Lg went to camp already a Christian, but I can't wait until she asks to be baptised at the lake... not this year, but we went down anyway and as we arrived, a group of young men who are councilors was singing "Amazing Grace" accapella!! It was INCREDIBLE to listen to. I was so into it, I didn't think to record it till the end. This is what I caught...

I feel so completely blessed that my daughter was able to have this incredible experience. After being there myself, I know beyond a doubt how life-changing this one annual experience can be for a child. I am changed for visiting just once!

Kanakuk '08 Part 2

Ok, so dropping off our sensational first-born at camp was not as sad, weepy and sappy as I thought it might be... we all three made it through without a tear! I guess you just can't help but be happy and excited once you get there and see how beautiful it is and how SUPER NICE all the kampers and counselors are!!!

We were greeted by a cheery young girl who gave us directions and sent us to a cheery young guy who took Lg's luggage from us and sent us on our merry way. After parking and walking up to camp, we waited a few minutes in line to check-in with another cheery gal and then Lg was sent up to a large, off-the-ground, platform to be introduced to everyone:

After sliding down the pole, she was greeted with a big hug by one of her counselors (Jessica) and then escorted to the sno-cone table where three cheery "princesses" made her a sno-cone in the flavor of her choice.

After that, we all three were taken to her tee-pee. Yes, a TEE-PEE!! We were expecting a rustic cabin but were pleasantly surprised to find that she was staying in a super-cool tee-pee with 9 other kampers and 3 counselors.

We were able to stay and help her make up her bunk bed and organize her belongings, then we were told we could look around camp together, OR Curt and I could go alone while Lg stayed behind in her tee-pee. Needless to say we were sent on our lonley way because Lg wanted to stay in the tee-pee with her new-found friends...

~ Don't let the tee-pee flap hit ya on the way out mom and dad! ~

Now, it is just a waiting game. We wait to see pictures from camp posted on the Kanakuk website... we wait to see if she takes the time to write us back anytime this week... we wait to see if we can manage without her here for a week... we wait to see if we can make it without shedding a tear this week!

In any case, we just pray for fun, friends, new experiences and most of all, a closer relationship with her Heavenly Father!

Kanakuk '08 - Part 1

Well, despite the 36 hour virus scare we had yesterday, Lauragale will be leaving for kamp on Sunday morning, praise God! (not that she is leaving for a week, that she is well enough to go!)

This will be Lauragale's first year to attend Kanakuk Kamps in Missouri. She has been wanting to be a kamper for about 2 years now after hearing her older cousins tell of how wonderful it is every summer. This is her first year to be old enough to go. Seven is the youngest age. When you're seven, you can choose to go for one or two weeks. We opted for the one week session for obvious reasons.

Kanakuk has several different Christian kamps to choose from and all (except K-Colorado) are located around the lake near Branson, Missouri. We chose K-Seven this year which is located in Lampe.

~* If you are interested in seeing more information about Kanakuk and K-Seven, you can go to the link HERE and do a virtual tour. You can click on the different camps on the right side to see more detail about each one as well. *~

Anyhoo, so here we are... our 6 months of shopping and preparation have all culminated into this moment...

All that stuff to pack into that one trunk Lg is sitting in!

Here is the packing list we were sent... I know, you can't read it...

Items on the recommended packing list include:
~ 10 pairs of underwear and socks

~ Sunscreen and insect repellent

~ Bible

~ Party clothes (this years theme is Medieval Fairy Tale!)

~ Two pair of tennis shoes

~ Two swimsuits (only modest one-pieces allowed)

~ Shower and water shoes

~ Raincoat

So, we gathered our items and set out to fill the trunk!

(Need I add that I had to label EVERY LITTLE THING with a L.R. and K-7??)

It fits!!!!!! Barely, but we can make it close! Yeah!!

Here is a picture of the decor Lauragale made to go in the inside of her truck lid... her name with pictures of family and friends.

And because we could not locate a pink trunk like Lg was hoping for, I got creative and did this to make the plain black trunk a little more girlie!! I think it turned out super-cute!

Now...she is a HAPPY KAMPER!!!!!

Part 2 coming soon!!!!!

Various Summer Activites

I am just now getting around to posting about last week... I am sure you all are waiting with baited breath!

The week started off with golf camp for both the kids. They both enjoyed it a lot and we are looking forward to a future which includes at least ONE activity that the whole family enjoys and can participate in! Here are Annika and Tiger with the balls they won on the first day of camp...

Tuesday was Noah's last karate class at The Little Gym. This was his second season and he received his orange belt and a cute medal. It is just for fun so the belt does not mean much, but it does to him. He was very proud, but does not seem too interested in continuing the karate in the fall.

The rest of the week was made up of more golf camp, a new Beth Moore bible study (that is going to be great!), a charity street party and three birthday parties!! We were even able to start cleaning out the extra room we are using for the foster child. We made soooo much progress! I was and still am, thrilled!! Here are a few pictures of the room as it is now... It is not a true "Before" picture, but I was too embarrassed to post that one! These pic's are after most everything from the office was cleared out. Now it is awaiting paint. (And yes, we are going to take the deer head out of the room before we have a scared child sleep in there.)
Finally, I wanted to include a short film made by my daughter. She is really into making what I will call "Digital Shorts". She is pretty entertaining but is really going to need some cinematography classes if she is going to make a career out of this... you will see, the camera work is still in it's primal stages. Enjoy, but heed my warning... this puppy is 3.5 minutes long!


Lot's going on, so I will be posting more often!

Love, Brent

Treasured Images

Like I mentioned a couple of posts prior, my friend Malisa is an amateur photographer and starting a small business called "Fresh from God Photography." For a little practice, she offered to photograph Mr. Noah a couple of weeks ago then Lauragale yesterday.

She had just purchased new backgrounds and flash and wanted to work with them a bit before having some new clients in. As you can see from the photos of Noah I have included, she did an awesome job of catching his personality and love for his "lovies" he holds so dear. Some neat things that she offered that I have not included are cool textures that she added to many of the pictures to give them a more "vintage" look.


Yesterday we met her in a park adjacent to her house to get some shots of Lauragale. Of course Lg had to pick her outfit all herself, and it turned out nice to have her all in white by the brightly-colored azalea's and green grass. I loved catching her in this stage while her front teeth are missing! It is so precious!


Thanks Malisa for blessing me with these treasured images of my treasures. I love knowing that I will be able to look back and recall Noah and his favorite lovey "Pablo" and how sweet Lauragale looked during this time of physical transition! Being able to capture pieces of me and pieces of Curtis in our children is priceless. Knowing that they are growing up to be their own person and not just pieces of us is even MORE exciting.

Horse Show

Just call me CRAZY LADY!!! I am posting TWICE in one day!! Don't get used to it, it will probably never happen again!

Just wanted to brag about my first-born, Lauragale. Since September she has been taking English-Saddle riding lessons. She LOVES it and this weekend was her first "competition". (Now bear with me, we have only been in the horse community for about 7 months now, so we are still learning the ropes.) Well, Saturday was a school show hosted by the stables where she takes lessons. It was the perfect show to be her first. She was familiar with the arena and the people and it was really casual and low key.

Now don't call me a bad mom, but I was not able to be at the show because I had already committed to helping at our church's women's retreat on the same day. Fortunately, Lauragale could really care less. My parents and my sis, along with her hubby and my TOTALLY ADORABLE niece were there to cheer her on with Curt and Noah so she was pretty much in heaven...

She competed in two divisions, Equitation (judging her) and Under Saddle (judging her horse). They are both "flat" classes so she never left the ground! Jumping can wait until the second show! She was supposed to be in the "Short Stirrup" division (younger kiddos) but for some unknown reason she ended up in "Long Stirrup"... sooooooo, her competiton was a 10 year old, two 16 year olds and a 40 year old!! Welllllll, the girl was amazing! (proud momma talk) She came in fifth in Under Saddle (the horse was too feisty, Curt said.. yeah, it's Tony's fault!) but made THIRD in Equitation!!!

I was sitting at the retreat recieving text, picture and video messages just BEAMING!!!!!!! But you know, no matter how she did, I knew she was having so much fun and I was sooooo proud of her hard work and effort! Love you Lg!

Bragging now over...