A Very Fun Family Night!!

by Steph // Wednesday, November 16, 2022 // Comments off

This past Thursday Addie planned our family night, and it was a good one!

She purchased these little canvases at the dollar store for $1.25 each and we had a painting night.

Everyone thoroughly embraced this without ANY hesitation and it was SO MUCH FUN!

Lane, Tate, Eliza and I have had painting classes during our school days – so this just seemed like an extension of that.

Wait until you see everyone’s end result!!

Ok – are you ready for the finished paintings?

Check these out!!!

How amazing are those?!

It was such a relaxing activity that only took a few hours!

We enjoyed our time together very, very much as well!

I made a yummy dessert as well, which has been a very fun part of family night planning for me!

I am enjoying trying new desserts each week!

I hope we get to have a repeat of this family night.

Not all of our Thursday nights are as well planned as this one – but that is not the point!

It’s the intentional time together, where we pause this fast paced life for a few hours and enjoy one another!

I’m in charge of this Thursday and am looking forward to it already!!

Stick around family nights!

You are SO enjoyed!!

A Weekend Trip

by Steph // Monday, November 14, 2022 // Comments off

The first weekend of November we made a trip to Illinois and Indianapolis to see our extended family!

We make this trip several times a year, and have established a little routine with it now.

Thursday evening we left after Blake and Grant got home from work, and headed straight to our favorite hotel in Peoria, Illinois.

We made it safely!

But not until almost midnight!

I cannot tell you how grateful I am that our big kiddos join us on these trips when they can!

It means so much to me and even more to their grandparents!

Grant joined us this time, which means we split up into two rooms – one for the girls and one for the boys.

That gave me a very quiet spot since I only had Eliza in my room!

It made for a wonderful quiet morning reading my Bible with a nightlight.

We travel with food, of course, and had breakfast in our room before heading out for our first visit.

There also was a coffee stop, just saying!

The photo below is of Grant’s drink, but it was just so much prettier than mine!!

We had a wonderful, wonderful time with Grandpa and Grandma Nettell!

I literally leave a piece of my heart there every time we drive away.

We pack a lot of conversation into our visits!

Next we headed to Morton, Illinois, which is where Blake and I spent the first thirteen years of our marriage.

Our big kids have memories from there too!

They were eight, four, and three when we moved to Wisconsin.

Ok, back to that Friday…we met Blake’s Mom at our favorite coffee shop for a late afternoon treat and coffee.

It was wonderful, as always!

And we saw our neighbor who lived next to us thirty years ago!!

I can’t believe I recognized her!!

In all of the visiting that was going on, I only took these two photos, good grief.

Our third stop was very anticipated for the lady who is typing these words.

We were meeting a college friend of mine and her husband for dinner in Bloomington, Illinois, on our way to Indianapolis Friday evening!!

Seriously, you all.

Do you have friends in your life where no matter how long you have been apart it is like you have NEVER been apart??

That is my friend Diane for me.

It was the BEST evening and we vowed to see each other more often now – because friendships are PRECIOUS and life is SHORT.

Our whole evening kind of looked like this first photo!!

Did my heart SO good!!

We got to Indianapolis about 11 p.m. Indy time on Friday night.

We had beautiful rooms at our favorite hotel there too!

We woke Saturday morning to a extremely windy and rainy day.

I got to hug my mom on Saturday!!

We headed to my brother and mom’s place after our coffee run and we had breakfast with them.

Since the weather was so terrible, we headed to the grocery store in the morning to get some lunch and a new water bottle for Lane because he forgot his at home.

It was a nice outing and we enjoyed walking around Meijers with my brother and mom!

We hung out after lunch for awhile and then headed out to wander more stores in the late afternoon.

It started clearing off right at sunset, and we witnessed the most BEAUTIFUL sky!

We were tired, so we left my brother and mom’s place pretty early to get everyone showered and ready for a good night’s sleep.

Eliza and I snacked and watched a cooking show, Blake stayed with Tate in their room because he was asleep by 7 p.m., and Grant and Lane went and took advantage of the gym in the hotel!

How thankful I was when we woke up Sunday and I saw the weather out the window!!

The flag was not even moving – which meant that terrible wind was gone!

The nice weather also meant we could be outside at my mom’s, which is my favorite place to be there.

We went for a long walk after breakfast that morning!

By 11:30 Indy time it was time to get on the road.

We had a super long drive back home to Wisconsin that day!

We arrived home safely late in the evening on Sunday and got unloaded and ready for the week ahead.

Yes, these weekends are a whirlwind!

But it is what works and it is SO WORTH IT!!

Looking very forward to many more visits this way, Lord willing!!

We enjoy every minute!!

Ok, maybe not the entire drive all the way back home – it is long!

But we enjoy every minute we have with our family.

It would only be better if they ALL lived HERE and we could see them all the time!

I am thankful for where the Lord has us, but it is hard to be so far from family for sure.

Looking forward to our next trip already!!

You were good to us Illinois and Indianapolis!

See you again soon!

Kick Off to the Holidays!!

by Steph // Monday, November 7, 2022 // Comments off

Every year we kick off the holiday season with our Operation Christmas Child shoebox shopping!

We have done this since the big kids were little, and these kiddos count on this and look forward to it.

So do I!

We set a time last week to head to the dollar store (which is really now the dollar twenty-five cents store, ha, ha!).

These guys are good at this after all these years and fill their boxes easily with things for their same gender and age.

Blake, Addie and I do the oldest age group – as they tend to run short on that age group most often.

We made a plan to pack our shoeboxes and make some homemade cards after dinner that night.

I had filled a box for Blake so that he could join us in the packing part!

It was a fun afternoon and evening!!

I LOVE the holiday season and all the traditions we have – especially the ones where we are giving to or serving others!

Thanksgiving is a mere two weeks and two days away!!

Are you all ready and excited?!

Let the holidays BEGIN!!!

So Long October!

by Steph // Friday, November 4, 2022 // Comments off

It’s time to walk through the month of October!!

Anyone out there aware that it is NOVEMBER???

You all.

What is happening.

My brain needs to catch up with the date on the calendar!

Ok then – the first weekend of October felt more like summer than fall!

It seemed like a great weekend to work on some outside projects, like emptying the garden!

Thankful for all my helpers and I LOVE having Addie Mae home on Saturdays now!

Chad and Grant were home a lot that weekend too – and worked on a project on our driveway!

It was SO sweet to see all of the brothers working together again!

There was a week night in October where our little town of Westby was having a walk through.

The businesses opened their doors, served treats, and there were also outside vendors near the park.

It was fun to walk through town on such a beautiful evening and see everything – but it was more fun to get a peek at Chad’s office space where he works!

Chad earned his reality license in September and is now working for New Directions Reality as their land and farm guy!!!

We had our family photo shoot in October as well!!

Check out the side bar of this blog to see the new shots of the kiddos!

The rest will have to wait until after Christmas cards, just saying!

Addie Mae was the coordinator of ALL the clothes – and that is a HUGE job!!

I picked the spot, and of course Kayla did all of the photography work!

Here are two “getting ready” for the photo shoot pictures!

Now that this gal typing this post is feeling better after surgery (and sleeping again!!), we have started a long awaited dream of mine!

We are calling it “NaiNai school.”

We could have called it “dreams do come true” though!

First up for NaiNai school were Clyde and River, who spent a day with us and I taught them their school that day.

I am switching between the girls and the boys – each of them getting a day for NaiNai school once a week!

That means the boys come every other week and the girls come every other week.

Are you all following this??

Anywhoo….it was FANTASTIC and I have been making plans in my head for things I want to do with them!!

We had signed up for a piano help class the first weekend of October, and then for Tate and Eliza’s assessments for the second weekend of October.

These guys passed their assessments with flying colors and are now in Level 6!

We LOVE piano lessons!!

Our October Thursday night family nights consisted of a movie night, a pictionary and chocolate cake night, a dinner and smores over a campfire night, and another camp fire after dinner night – in that order!

They are still SO fulfilling and I am so glad they continue on!!

Our monthly hymn sing continues on as well!!

We enjoy it SO very much, and are SO grateful our friends invite us all into their home once a month!

I was in charge of dessert for our October hymn sing, so I made LOTS of chocolate cake!

I know you know that we did not starve in October!!

I am thankful these kiddos enjoy being in the kitchen too!

Tate has taken charge of made-to-order omelets lately, and he is very good at this skill!

Are you ready for some food photos??

Good grief, you all, I take a lot of photos of our food!!!

Clearly you can see how much joy that kitchen is around here!!

We also still fill our days with school and other creative activities.

The days are FULL!!

My hand is healing nicely, but slowly in my opinion!

The lady with the bum hand might not be the most patient when it comes to wanting to do all the things, if you know what I mean!

Thankful for healing though!!

And that I am the one back to getting groceries and running errands very early on Friday mornings!

I do have a goal of being able to squeeze toothpaste onto my toothbrush with my left hand though – so I have gotten out my therapy putty and am working toward that goal!!

Tate and Eliza received water bottles from some of the sweetest friends!

They bought them while on their vacation!

It just makes me smile to see them in our kitchen being used everyday!

I also bought a HUGE water bottle and it is big enough that I do not have to carry two of them now every time I leave the house, ha, ha!

Speaking of gifts, did I tell you all that my hubby helped the kiddos get a new bird restaurant for me?

It’s been open awhile now!

It already snowed in October, but it did not stick.

I can’t wait until it really snows so the cardinals come!!

Wait, did I just say I can’t wait until it really snows??

Don’t hold me to that one, you all!

Blake also still thinks of me all the time and brings home the sweetest gifts for me!!

It has been time to repaint the island for over a year now.

Sometimes this is just how we roll!

When Blake and I were on our little trip away, we decided to get after this project.

We used cheap paint last time, and we got what we paid for, folks.

It is time to get some Annie Sloan paint picked out so that the paint will last this time!

I ordered these two samples and we do not like either of them!

Typing all of this has me remembering I need to order more samples and make a decision about the color!

Kayla surprised me with this planner when it arrived in the mail last week.

She has one and LOVES it!

I started using it this week and I LOVE IT TOO!

And I just made a note on my “home” list to order more paint samples, thank you very much!

Doesn’t seeing that it was addressed to “my mama” make you smile?

These kiddos of mine sure know how to make some crying in my eyes!

Lane.

He is our newest giant.

He is growing and changing by the second.

I know how this goes!!

I posted this photo and these words on Instagram one day, and I want them both here too.

“This young man wakes up every morning with ideas swimming around in his head. First he says, “Morning, Mom, how did you sleep?” And then he starts telling me about air draft and how the snow skimmer he is building will stay low to the ground because of the way he is designing the wings based on his knowledge of air pressure. He wants to be an aeronautical engineer. Do I feel inadequate to help him as a homeschool Mom achieve his goal? Nope. Not at all. I will not be able to teach him advanced Math courses or advanced Science courses – or even understand anything he’s talking about while I look in his eyes and listen to ALL his ideas. BUT, I do know this – God made me his Mama, and He WILL use me to mold and shape this young man into exactly who God wants him to be! His promises are worth believing, don’t you think? Can’t wait to see what the Lord does in Lane’s life!!!”

On that note – we have been trusted with SO much.