Happy 50th birthday, Mom & Dad!!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!

Can it be true?

We are 50 years old!

There are days when I KNOW I am 50, and then there are a few days when I think maybe I am, um, 45??

Our children always plan a wonderful birthday party for me, but this year, since Mom and Dad both were turning 50, they decided to do a joint party.

For various reasons, we ended up celebrating last Saturday afternoon, and it was WONDERFUL!!!

Kendell and Nick are such gracious hosts, and LOVED treating us to a special dinner, in our own little alcove, all beautifully decorated, and yes, that is FIFTY candles burning on that silly cake:)

Kendell has attended enough parties at our church to be gettting a good idea of how to use what you have on hand, and for this party, that meant baby pictures of both of us, some Christmas decorations that had been put away, ( at least, I thought I put them away:) ) and LOTS of ribbons tied, twisted, and strung everywhere

 and they snuck one of the computers downstairs, (which was Nick's idea)  to be used for a slideshow and mood music while we waited to be served our delicious homemade Sub sandwiches

 We got to include the little boys at our table, as they kind of needed a spot out of the way of all the hustle and bustle, and it was a good way to keep entertained while we waited for our food!! and the phones were to be used for intercoms, since they were working on our lunch upstairs, and we were seated downstairs-they think of everything!!! :)

The planning started back in early December, got stalled out with Christmas, a major arctic blast, and a few other things, then, come Jan. 10, when Dad celebrated his special day, we decided, no matter what, the NEXT day, would be the party!

 The 2 planners, greeters, decorators and sub makers extraordinaire

 3 of their willing accomplices

 our annual treat of the "5 ft thing", better known as a ball run fro KNEX-Nick has this down to a science now, he can put it together in about 1 evening-we all LOVE watching it, but especially Isaac

 The serving team gathers to take our order:)

 A break in the action for a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace-Rose LOVES this song, and can sing it perfectly!!!

 One of our sandwiches, with all sorts of fixins on it-and we kept the sides simple-chips and apple sauce

 Happy 50th birthday honey-and MANY more!!!

 I'm pretty sure I don't look a day over 49, (but I often FEEL about 70) but I sure did enjoy my day!!!

 The 7 candles across the top are for our 7 treasures

Nick lit the candles, and he said, it GOT HOT-

I was sure glad to see them blown out-talk about wax running:)

Here's to another 50 years, OK???

Blessings

Chris, for all 9 of us

Happy 18 years!!

Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008

I can not believe we are celebrating 18 years of marriage today! I have been having a lot of fun the last couple days putting a scrapbook together of our wedding, and it has been fun to relive the memories of that special time in our life.

We were both 26, and could not wait to be married, so headed to Vegas with a few friends, and spent a dizzying week of activity out there, but had a lot of fun and surprised everyone by moving our date up from Valentine's Day to the 13th!! The people at the wedding chapel told us if we kept our scheduled time on the 14th, we would not have a limousine, we would be in a long line, and we would have no time for pictures afterward. I think the limo was the biggie for both of us-it had been so much fun to be picked up at the hotel for our friends' wedding on the 12th, and we enjoyed the bottle of champagne, and of course the free escort around town all night, so without telling anyone back home, we were married on the 13th.

I know we both thought we would never get this far-life was certainly not easy for either of us after marriage-we were both rather selfish, filled with our own ideas, and not focused at all on the other person.

Oh, how I praise the Lord for His redeeming love, and how He can take our mistakes and turn them around to good. My dear hubby told me the other night, "I think the next 18 are going to be even better than the first 18" and I truly believe that too. We are striving to put God first in our relationship, and that takes the emphasis off ourselves. We want a home that is a haven for all who enter in, and we want our marriage to be an example of God's love and grace.

No easy task, I assure you, but still, it is our heart's desire to live for the Lord, and that does make a lot of daily decisions much easier when we aren't focused on "me, myself and I " all the time.

Without our recommittment to marriage around year 9, we would not be here, and certainly not without God's help and guidance.

Of Course, year 9 brought our renewed desire for a family (all of the focusing on making a family up to that point only drove a wedge between us and that was mainly my fault-oh the pain of infertility!!)

We began adoption proceedings, and in 2000, we had the very-real adoption roller-coaster of finding out one child would maybe never be coming home, and the whirl-wind of bringing our daughter home.

Life has never been better since our children both came into our life, and marriage has taken on a new dimension with parenting, a dairy operation, moving, and a walk with the Lord all mixed together.

We are on the verge of adding another child to the family, we have plans and dreams for the next couple years of adding a sibling group, and we are waiting to see what God will do with us and the farm.

So much to anticipate and look forward to, hope, plan and dream for.

Looking forward to the next 18, but waiting for God to lead in all areas of our life.

Blessings

Chris