Happy 16th Birthday Anna!

Anna: "gracious woman"

"A gracious woman retaineth honor" Proverbs 11:16

Joshua's Visit

We enjoyed a weekend with Josh, celebrating his 25th birthday.

We enjoyed an evening of volleyball and games,
as well as much laughter and story telling.
We love you Joshua!

Baptisms!

We rejoice in the baptisms of 3 of our children this Easter. Anna, Jordan, and Kayla all shared their personal testimonies of how God has begun a good work in their heart, and their desire to follow the Lord in baptism, as a public profession of their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.
We are grateful for the fruit in each of
their hearts over the last couple years.
"Being confident of this very thing, that He
which hath begun a good work in you will
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ"
Philippians 1:6

Joey's 7th Birthday!

Joey turned 7 on Easter this year. He had several favorite gifts including his own personal box of honey nut cheerios!

He got this "bug" shirt as well. He decided not to wear it to Grandpa & Grandmas house because he thought Grandma might be afraid of the bugs and not want to give him a hug. :-)

and of course he got a sword to pester people with.

He chose his birthday cake out of a Taste of Home magazine we had. It certainly tasted as delicious as it looked!
"And that from a child thou has known
the holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation through
faith which is in Christ Jesus."
2 Timothy 3:15

Beautiful Easter Weekend!

Spring is finally here in full force.

The tulips and daffodils are blooming ,

and the pear trees are beautiful.

with the apple trees right behind them.
As I see all of the new growth appearing in
the plants, I am reminding of the new life that
we have in Christ because of His death
and resurrection.

We spent the afternoon on Good Friday with John, Diane,
and family and celebrated Heather's birthday.

During the afternoon we played games and enjoyed

the beautiful weather and flowers outside.

For the evening we went to Lindsborg, KS for St. Mathews Passion
by Bach, performed by the Bethany Oratorio Society and Orchestra.
It was a moving performance as we remembered the days prior to our
Saviour's crucifiction. The program included several audience choruses.

I did not realize that the melody from
"O Sacred Head, Now Wounded" was from this work.
Here are the words from the chorale sung
immediately after Christ's death....

"When life begins to fail me,
I fear not, having thee:
When pains of death assail me
I seek to find relief,
Alone thou wilt not leave me,
for Thou hast tasted grief."

After this remembrance of the death of our
Lord, we more than ever look forward to
celebrating His resurrection!.....and even
listening to the "Messiah" as well.

Prairie Rose Chuckwagon!

A family from church invited us to the
Prairie Rose Chuckwagon this past weekend.

We began the outing at their home where we did a bit of target practice. Everyone had a turn including all the young ones. Supposedly if you hit the target you would get meat for lunch, but if you missed...well, crackers for you!

We enjoyed some great BBQ....even those that missed the target...

as well as some wonderful fellowship.
Anna & Desiree with little Karlyn....and
John Wayne of course!
Everyone enjoyed the quartet
music, which took us back to the
good old Gaither, Cathedral days.


After the program and meal the boys tried
their hand with a lasso. They did pretty well...
... of course the targets weren't moving. :-)
Everyone took a wagon ride around the property.
It was a beautiful day! Thank you Ken & Norma
for a wonderful afternoon!

New Door!

Well the next project on the house was the replacement of the back patio door. Grandpa came over, along with Jonathan to help remove the old door. We had a couple really warm days here, so it was great weather to have a big hole in the wall.

We had to set the new door in and out a couple times to figure out all of the rebuild that was needed, (and it was REALLY heavy!) but as dad would say, with a bit of Yankee ingenuity the new door was fully installed and functional.

It isn't trimmed out yet, but it fits nicely and really blocks out the wind noise that we have had much of over the last couple days.