Been awhile...

Sorry it's been so long. Life just gets crazy. So, where do we start...

Gideon had his very own Valentine's Day party. He made the invitations, decided who to invite and helped me hang streamers. The kids did relays, made hats, played games, decorated cookies, and learned about the first Valentine's Day and the love of Jesus. It was so much fun!

We have discovered that we love St. Louis weather. We have been able to play outside a lot. it's been very nice!

We did take a whirlwind trip to Colorado. Greyson's grandmother went to be with Jesus. It was a long, quick trip, but we are very glad we went. It was good to see our family and to celebrate Grandma's life, and now her new life with Jesus.

Greyson and I attended the annual winter ball here at the seminary. Gideon and Mia thought I was a princess! It was fun to get dressed up and have a nice dinner and dancing with so many of our new friends here at the seminary.

The day after the ball my brother Chad received a Heartsaver Heros award from the governor of IL, Pat Quinn. It was very cool to meet the man that Chad had saved. He had had a heart attack while driving, his wife crashed the car in order to stop, Chad arrived and hooked up an AED and performed CPR in order to save his life. I'm so proud of Chad!!! We drove to Quincy to be there for it. As you can see the ceremony was in a fire house, which of course, the kids LOVED!

Tomorrow break begins, the kids and I are heading to Rockford for a week. WOOHOO!!! Greyson leaves Saturday for Belize for a mission trip. Please keep him and his team in your prayers! We'll have lots to update when we get home!

A New Year!!!

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's 2009. We've been here at the Sem now for 6 months, Greyson and I have been married 8.5 years. It's just crazy how fast time flies! We headed home from Denver on the 27th and drove to Hays, KS, where we stayed the night so that we could attend church in Larned, KS. Grace Lutheran church is a little church that has blessed us so much! We are so thankful for them. From there, we headed to Kansas City to spend some quality time with Dan and Jenn, two of our dearest friends, and Mia's God parents. We had a great time swimming, hanging out, exchanging gifts, and just being together. Gideon was so sad to leave them, he told us he was going to miss them, and he had tears in his eyes. We love them lots!

We arrived back in St. Louis on the 29th, just 2 hours before Chad & Erica and Rusty arrived to spend some time here. Rusty brought his Wii, a favorite of Gideon's! Tuesay was gorgeous outside and we spent a lot of time playing outside. Mom and dad came down that evening when we had Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts. A wonderful time was had by all!

Erica, Chad & Rusty headed back to Quincy while mom and dad stayed to ring in the New Year with us! We played games and enjoyed a little Champagne while waiting for 2009 to arrive.

2008 was a wonderful year filled with lots of change, but overall good change. Nate joined us, we followed God's call to the sem, on a sad note we left friends behind in Rockford, but have kept in touch with them all. We welcome 2009 with open arms anxious to see what God has in store for us this year! :) God bless!

Christmas Eve

Well, it's Christmas Eve!!! I hope everyone's shopping is done! The kids are so excited about Christmas. We are here in Denver and we have hung out at Grandma and Grandpas the last few days getting our Christmas cards done and watching fun disney movies. Gideon fell in love with 101 Dalmations! I think we've watched it 3 times already.

Our drive was uneventful getting out here except that we told Gideon we would go swimming and at the hotel the pool was closed!!!!

Today we're heading out to a mall just to walk around and get the kids out of the house. Maybe we'll find some good deals too! :)

I can't wait until the candle light service tonight!!!! It's the high-"light" of my Christmas season! :) Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Christmas Cookies

One of my favorite things about this time of year is making Christmas cookies! Yesterday, the kids and I had friends over to make and decorate sugar cookies! The kids had so much fun. We ended up with a few beheaded angels and broken candy canes (Stacye and I got to eat broken ones!!!) but the kids had a blast!

What else has been going on? We had the campus tree lighting ceremony. That was pretty cool. Everyone progressed around campus and we would stop at each tree for a reading and hymn and then they would light them up!

The kids are so excited about Christmas! We have been so blessed with gifts from area churches. The kids had a "little Christmas" yesterday (we won't have room to transport very many gifts to Denver...), it's been so much fun! We leave Friday to head to Denver for Christmas! It should be an exciting drive with 3 little ones! :) We are really looking forward to spending this Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Grenz! :)

Have a blessed Christmas everyone!

Snowglobe

Scroll down to check out our snowglobe at the bottom!!! :)

Thanksgiving Break

Break started off AWESOME!!!! I got together with my 3 closest friends from High School. Kim, Krissy, Megan and I haven't all four been together for 7 years! We all turned 30 this year, so I made a cake to help us celebrate...We had a great day reminiscing and just spending time together. It was fun to show off my beautiful children!!! :)

Thanksgiving was a fun day. It was so great to have family around. My aunt and uncle from CA were even here. We had fun throughout the week playing games, visiting, and eating great food! The turkey was almost as big as Nathanael! I'll post a picture when I get it from dad.

Nathanael is growing like crazy and is gaining control of his head more and more. Here he is in a bumbo seat...

Today was exciting too, we put up our Christmas tree! It was so fun to have both kids actively involved in it and so excited. We put it up this morning, had lunch and then took naps... when Gideon woke up, he came out of his room grinning! Then, he looked at the tree.... "There aren't any presents, mommy." HAHAHAHAHA!!! He thought that if he went to sleep, there would be presents when he woke up! It was pretty cute. We also put a light up tree outside, the kids were just glowing about that too. here are a couple of pics from today!

It's been a fun break... now it's time to get back into the swing of things! :) God bless!

The 30 Club!!!!

Well, today I joined the 30 club!!! So far, it's pretty great! It has been a wonderful birthday! Rusty, Mom, Dad and Korey were all here this weekend to help me celebrate! Mom, my aunts, and Korey all went shopping on Saturday, ended up with dinner at the Macaroni Grill. We had a party of 19 there! It was so fun. The best part of the night was when Gideon came up to me, and said, "Mommy, I have something for you...." I asked him what, and he said, "happy birthday!!!" and gave me a great big hug. It was the sweetest thing ever!

Today I got to sleep in til 9:15!!!! I haven't slept that late in so long, although I was still up at midnight, 3, and 6:30, but it was nice to go back to sleep!!!! Then we just hung out around the house, Greyson bought me a new game for my birthday so we had a couple of friends over to play. Then Mom came and watched the kids while Greyson and I went out for a nice dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was our first night out without kids since July! So, it was really nice.

Let's see, what has happened lately that you need to be updated on? We went and hung out at the Turtle park before the weather got cold. It's just a park made up of all these giant concrete turtles! the kids absolutely loved it.

Greyson finished his first quarter..... one down, six to go!!! He did very well and is looking forward to the classes next quarter.

Now the weather is cold, the leaves are all down, winter is just about here!

Gideon had his Endocrinologist appt. this past Thursday. We'll get the test results from that on Wednesday. They are just checking him out because he's so small for his age. Mia goes to the Urologist in December to get established with a local doctor here to deal with her renal reflux. Nathanael is doing great!!! He's really holding his head up and smiling lots! This week he also grabbed a toy (pooh bear) and brought it to his mouth!!! He's so cute!!!

I think that's about it!!!! God bless you all!