Tay turns 6! (Already!)

Happy Birthday, Taylor! For her actual birthday, we had a family night. We had dinner and dessert and opened some presents.

Grandma and Grandpa in the Mountains sent her this shirt and horse. Thanks, guys!

We don't have a picture, but Grandma and Grandpa in the country gave her a backpack with school supplies in it. Thanks!

Keats is ready for some cake!

Taylor was surprised to get such a pretty cake!

Cinderella!

Make a wish...
Gifts from the family. She got lots of crafts, a jumprope, and some clothes.

For Tay's 6th birthday party, she got to choose 2 girls to come over for a party and sleepover. She chose Aliyah and Jessi. She couldn't wait for the day to come! And it turned out to be just as fun as she imagined it to be! But first, mommy took her out on a special date, just the two of them. Of course, it was a big surprise!

We went to Libby Lu in the Mall of America to get a makeover! Taylor was so surprised! She got to sit down at a beauty parlor and get her hair done and some makeup on. She even got a new sparkly tank top and a boa and bracelets and a sash.
It turned out just gorgeous!
Party time!!!

Just some snapshots of the table
We chose the brown and pink theme this year.

Time to eat!! Taylor chose Mac n Cheese for her party dinner.

All full! Save any room for dessert?
Then it was time to dress up with makeup and new hairdos.
What artists!

After gettin' all pretty, we did a photo shoot to capture all the beauty!

Tay got a poster from Libby Lu, so I hung it up for a backdrop.

Gorgeous, Taylor!

Oh, Nan, so pretty!
How beautiful, Alex!
Stunning, Aliyah!
Amazing, Jessi!

Yum, Yum! Instead of cake this year, we decided to do sundaes with as many toppings as they wished!

They got pretty creative with their spoons, too...
Everyone enjoyed the treats!

Craft time!

They all worked so hard to make the butterflies just perfect!
Beautiful, girls!
Time for opening presents...


She got a horse stable and horse from Aliyah.
Jessi got her some earrings, makeup and nail polish Alex made her a pretty picture frame
Thanks, girls, for all the neat gifts!

Time to settle down... They watched Annie together before bedtime (good thing to distract them from the storm that was happening, too!) and then they went to bed and talked and giggled for awhile. Mommy only had to tell them to be quiet a couple times and then they were all fast asleep. What a fun party! We had so much fun!

Happy Birthday, Taylor! We love you and are so thankful to God for you! Thank you for all you add to our family. We pray that God will continue to teach you many things and that His grace will be even more evident in your life!

Our get-away

It was so fun to get away last week and visit a few new places. Yes, we got to be in 3 places all in one day, actually! Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C. We were on our way to Worship God 'o8 in Maryland, but took an extra day at the beginning to stop and see Washington D.C. It was so neat to see. It almost seemed surreal to be there. We've learned about it our whole lives, but have never actually gotten to see it with our eyes. Here are a few pics for ya.

This is Aaron and I in Maryland for the WG conference. It was incredible! I am so glad we got to go this year together.

This is the auditorium of Covenant Life Church (or the "Mother Ship") where we met 2 times a day for the main sessions. The things that took place in there were awesome!!
This is some of our group that went with us. We even hooked up with a couple guys that came from Nebraska. God was definitely at work in them!
Hilarious Mark Altrogge came up during the sessions to give the "announcements". He did a great job of making us laugh!
We are so grateful to God for what He showed us and taught us while we were there. We felt loved and cared for by Him in so many ways. Thank you, God, for meeting us!
This is what we did that Tuesday before the conference. We took the Metro over to Washington and then walked. All DAY! We were so tired and dripping with sweat by the time we came back. But it was worth it! Here is what we saw:

The Washington Memorial.

This thing is huge. I was amazed!

Aaron and I
This was the WWII memorial. I got a bit emotional at this one.

This wall was dedicated to the women of the war.
Isn't it beautiful?!
All this made me cry. I am so thankful!

The Lincoln Memorial

This was a cool one for me.
This statue is huge!
The reflection pond on the way to the Memorial
We assumed that most critters are used to people being there. We saw a guy that threw this squirrel a cracker and it stayed there, sat down and started eating. Right next to us!

The Korean War Memorial.

There were life-sized statues looking like they were on their way to a battle.

We saw a wall with actual faces engraved in them.


Neat!

This is the White House!! George wasn't home when we were there, so we decided not to knock. :) I thought it might be fun to try to climb the fence just to see what would happen, but Aaron wouldn't let me...

This is the Veitnam memorial. I couldn't believe all the names on these walls of the people who died to keep our freedom alive. I am so grateful to them!

All these walls here have tiny names written all over them. Amazing.
Aaron really was glad he got to see this one. It was special to him.

We visited an art gallery while we were there. There were some really neat pictures.

This one was a two sided picture (the only one in the U.S.).

It was pretty neat.
Da Vinci was the artist.

Depicting Jesus washing the disciples' feet.
Jesus' crucifixion.

It was cool to see so many pictures about the life of Christ, although some of them were somewhat different than the ideas we have about Him.

God was good to us this whole trip. He was faithful to show us His love for us everyday! We definitely have fallen more in love with Christ through this experience. God, help us to use the things we recieved from you this past week to grow us in our sanctification and to glorify your Name above all names! We love you!

Look! It's not the flowers!!!

Ok, I know, I know... It's been forever since I've posted. Can life get any busier? I suppose it can. :) We have had so much going on lately and then didn't have my computer for about a week. Aaron and I are leaving for Maryland tomorrow till Saturday for Worship God '08 while the kids are staying in Buffalo. We can't wait! We are looking forward to some "together time" by ourselves, but will miss the munchkins incredibly. Today is for packing. Should take most of the day to get all six of us ready to go. So, I will start blogging again when I get back. Looking forward to getting back into it!