William's confirmation

 The "Confirman"before church

 Having a good conversation with his sponsors - Uncle Tim and Aunt Jane at dinner

 Our beautiful view out of the windows during dinner, and Jon looking cute as always

Spent the weekend in Grand Island this weekend celebrating Wil's confirmation. The good Lord not only blessed William with amazing faith, but also beautiful Fall weather for our celebration and family time together. The confirmation verse that he chose was Philippians 4:13..."I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" so fitting and true for Wil.  I just love it and his Faith Statement is amazing! 

William, Doug and I are so proud of the work you completed during the past three years of attending Confirmation each week and for the young man that you are becoming. Continue to carry the Spirit of Christ in your heart, allow him to walk with you each and every step of your daily life and let his light shine through you Wil ~~ we love you!!

Aunt Keri

Fall pictures

 Papa Suhr and Kate

 Wendi and Jon

 the Cairney's

 Stoltenberg's

 Papa and Nanny with grandkids and grand-pups

With it being such a beautiful day and that we were all able to celebrate a weekend together....we decided to take some family pictures.

Ben's Birthday

 "Good Morning" Birthday boy -- diving right into his presents.

 Gramma Cairney and Ben -- birthday buddies!  (So blessed to share this day with her each year)

 Thanks for the new socks Sissy!

Ben picked out each detail of his "birthday cookie cake" and it was delicious!!

Mr. Ben turned 10 -- officially double digits.....Where has the time gone??  What a joy it has been watching you grow and change, each and every day of the past 10 years my dear Benjamin.  I pray that you had a great birthday, and that all of your birthday wishes and dreams come true.  Much love -- Mom 

NBA game

Since our house LOVES basketball, we thought that it would be fun to surprise the kids with tickets to the NBA game for their birthday's. The game was the Golden State Warriors /vs/ the Denver Nuggets and Ames, Iowa native Harrison Barnes played for the Warriors. It was so fun getting to see basketball at this high of a caliber, right here in our home town....wow, those guys are TALL!  The Warriors came away with the win 104-101....What a fun night (-;   Happy Birthday kiddo's!

Kate -- officially a "teenager"

 Aunt Nicki surprised Kate with a "cake pop" & balloon delivery

 A putt-putt outing for the girls

 

 Excited about her "shopping trip" gift cards

 the slumber party members

Elyse, Breighlyn, Maggie, Kate, Caroline, Mackenzie and Blake

 

Kate turned "13" on Saturday. We have an official teenager in this house -- YIKES!!! I can't believe how fast that she is growing up.......so many wonderful memories with this sweet girl that is growing into quite the young lady right before our eyes.  She decided that she wanted to have 6 girls spend the night, play "glow" golf, watch movies, eat pizza, popcorn, etc.,. the typical teenage girls slumber party.  The evening went so well, and everyone was asleep by 1:30 AM, not too bad since my prediction was having to break out the "MEAN" Mom voice by 3:00AM. Doug and Ben of course thought that there was too much squealing and giggling all evening, but I loved it. It reminded me so much of slumber parties from 1986 (-;

May all of your birthday wishes come true Miss Kate and I pray that we all enjoy these teenage years with you!   God's blessings on you for many more birthdays......I love you ~~ Mom





Papa Cairney's 75th Birthday

 

 Gramma and the birthday boy

 the birthday celebration gang

Doug and I were excited to be able to host the Cairney family and celebrate Papa Cairney's 75th birthday on Sunday with a brunch. What a beautiful morning it was and always fun to get together and get caught up with all of the families (even Sammy the pup was able to join in the fun). Many more birthday's Dick, we love you!!

Weekend with the Stoltenberg's

Packaging for Meals for the Heartland

Nicki and I

 Jon, Wil, Ben and Kate

 Kate, Jon and Doug -- battling it out in a game of pro-draft

 Ben and Kate golfing with Aunt Nicki

 Jon and Kate up to bat

 William and Ben defending the outfield

 

As our tradition continues, we hosted the Stoltenberg family this past weekend, and again......FUN TIMES were had by all!! We started our weekend out with packaging meals downtown for Meals for the Heartland. What an amazing organization this is, and what a difference we can make for so many people in just 2 hours....It was a blessing to be able to do this together as a family. Then we enjoyed pizza and a family baseball game that evening....the kids had a great time, and the adults managed to not injure ourselves so it was a WIN for all!!! Sunday after church we went golfing, BBQ'd, played more baseball, and then winded down for the evening with movies and board games.  Monday morning always comes way to fast when we have to say "good-bye" but we loved having them here! Thanks for driving over David, Nicki, William and Jon.......we love you!!!