More on the happy day

This one is my favorite.

The happy couple


Walking down the aisle

My handsome family

Lookalikes....except for the hair color

Proud Mom and Dad...with Tim

Six spectacular siblings

Wonderful Wedding Weekend

What a nice weekend!

SUPRISE

Well Joe, Faith and I have some wonderful news to announce. We are going to have a BABY!!!! Many may say ohh, your not married, yes that is right, but i have two things to say on this....1) God gives us suprises around every cornor and doesn't put things in front of us that he knows we cant handle. 2) We are very excited! Marriage is something that Joe and I both cherish and we will do someday! Just not right this second. I dont want to get married because i am pregnant. It has been a very busy year for all of us and with my new job and now this we have decided to take one step at a time, and our next step is to bring a beautiful baby into this world. WE ARE ALL SUPER EXCITED!!! We love you all!!! SUPRISE =)

Faiths Halloween!!

Faith as Ariel, she didn't want to wear her costume look at that face!!

Faith and Buck (my cousin Davids dog) Faith loves dogs!!!!

Faith was practically running out the door to go trick-or-treating!

Shes ready to roll!!!

Faith and her friend Seth.

Pumpkin fun! Faith had such a blast and did most of the gutting process by herself

She was so proud of her handy work!!

Just think! Less than a week before Tim and Sarah's wedding...we're all looking forward to it. It will be a beautiful wedding, and we look forward to having Sarah be part of the family.

Boo

(double click to enlarge)

Wind and friends

This is the result of the crazy winds we're having here! Adam's bedroom is the window to the right of the door -- we're so thankful the tree didn't hit the house as Adam was in bed sleeping when it fell. It is supposed to be even windier later so I hope we don't lose any more trees! This past weekend our family was in St Paul Minnesota for a baptism. Ryan and I were honored to be asked to be godparents for James -- the son of our wonderful friends Erick and Sheena. Ryan and Erick have been friends since their college days together.

James is 2 months old -- isn't he adorable?! He has hair just like Adam did when he was a baby.

Here are the boys with big sister Emma. We were at the Minnesota Science Museum.

I just had to post this picture! Ken and Carol have know Erick all these years too and I know they'd love to see this picture of Erick's little guy!

The big day! The boys were excited to get all dressed up and were trying to figure out how many days til the wedding when they can get dressed up again!

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!!!

Love, Joy

I love these pictures!

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately because my friend Tara and I are going to do a craft show. Faith keeps saying who is this for, whos that for. Finally she goes when are you going to make me a hat?? I said we would go to the store and she could pick out her own yarn. Well suprise suprise, she picked pink with sparkles! Its my second try, but i think its soooo cute!!!

Darling pumpkin

This is my favorite one!!! Her hair is getting so long again too!! (and yes she has her pj's on, she wanted to try the hat on the second i got it done!! LOL)

Autumn Splendor

(Double click to enlarge image)

Camp Lael - October 2010

Prayers

Please keep my dad in your prayers today. He is having surgery on his neck where he has a blockage. I hope everything goes great, quick and he has a quick recovery and can come home soon. I love you dad!! You are in my prayers, please keep him in yours too. Thanks Addy

I'm really savoring the scents of Fall as I go for my walks. Fall is my favorite season.

Enchilada Casserole - Crockpot Edition

This is an extremely versatile dish - you can swap in and out your favorites!

What you'll need:

1 package of tortillas
(Size depends on the shape & size of your crockpot.  I have a oval shaped crockpot and I buy the 8" tortillas and use three for each layer)
(Type depends on your taste and how "wet" you want your casserole.  Some tortillas sop up more juice)
1 pound of meat (You can use left over chicken, rotisserie chicken (precooked) from the grocery store, or you can brown up some ground meat)
1 can of enchilada sauce (I use 28 ounces)
3 Peppers (any color you want - mix and match)
1 can of black beans (you could use refried or pinto beans but I ♥ black beans)
1 can of olives
1 can of tomato paste
1 package of shredded cheese (or better yet - shred your own and add to your desire)
The fixin's (sour cream, ranch, taco sauce, red hot, guacomole, salsa, etc.)

You could add corn to this recipe - I think I'll try that next time.

Put it together.
Combine chopped or shredded chicken with the enchilada sauce.
Layer the tortillas on the bottom of the crockpot (I use three).
Layer the ingredients:  Checken/Sauce mixture, chopped peppers, black beans, olives, corn, & cheese.
Repeat the layers starting with the tortillas again.  Finish the top with tortillas and a sprinkling of cheese.  Pour any of the liquid that from the chicken/sauce mixture that didn't make it in - into the bowl.

Cook on low (usually 4 - 6 hours) - avoid taking the top off so that there is enough moisture in the recipe.
When it's ready cut it like lasagna!
Serve with the fixin's.

Faiths Fall Fun!

We got pumpkins!!!

Ohhh this on is Faiths!!

Its a dancing pumpkin

Check out this fancy footwork!!

Faith had this costume on when she was 6 months now look at her!~ She is sooo big!

Some of the leaves on my drive to Gwinn everyday. They look much better in person. i love looking at fall leaves and they have been sooo beautiful this year! Hope everyone got to enjoy the leaves by them......... happy fall addy

Sisters

Blustery Day

Saturday was beautifully blustery day. We took some time to get some shots together. I love lovin' on the girls. Addie was giving kisses and smiles! Addison showed off her new standing and cruising furniture skills. She is so strong and so fun - her giggle is absolutely precious. Alaina was a great cuddler. She and I just cozied up on the couch a few times. Her vocabulary has grown tremendously in only a month and it was exciting to have a "real conversation" with her. Best of all was when she came running downstairs on her tippy toes late on Friday night, her blankie dangling from one arm, arms open and shrieking "Aunt CC, Aunt CC, Aunt CC" and she gave me a HUGE whopper hug!!! I melted on the floor right then and there.

We took some outside pictures - I have a lot more to share - but thought you might want to see the whole family together first!

Okay - I can't resist - here's another one. I LOVE how it turned out. Isn't this a perfect picture of trust?

Just like . . .

Mama!

September Was a Blur

September was extremely busy for me this year. I had to cut down on posting for a while because of the hecticness. Sleep was rare. School started immediately following Arts, Beats, and Eats. Here are a few things that have been occupying my time: Working a lot - way way way to many hours; creating and implementing a lot of labs in the classroom (Candium Isotope Lab, Preventing Corrosion, Mystery Tubes, Building Polysaccharides, Biology Scavenger Hunt); Love in Action - serving in the local community as a form of worship; writing & rehearsing music (Jonathan and I have completed our 5th song); Volunteering at Open Hands Food Pantry; Out of Town Guests; Meet the Teacher's night; Meetings, Meeting Meetings; Rehearsing & Planning for the Chickfest Renewal; Bible Study; Leading Worship; and participating in the affirmation of my friend Nate as a Pastor at Genesis. It was a blur. October should bring more of the same :)

A Happy Sad

One last picture of the kids on our front porch ... the site of all the first day of school pictures, and every special occasion.
The first time there have been tears in the picture.

Tomorrow we're closing on our home ... hooray! We're so thankful and feel so blessed that we were able to sell so quickly. We took the boys to the old house last night so they could take one last look around -- they've been asking to do this. The excitement of seeing it empty and how small it now seems gradually turned to sellers remorse for the boys and the tears began. Everywhere they looked they have memories of that wonderful home. It's the only home Adam has lived in and the only home Isaac remembers so saying goodbye was hard for them. After a trip to Culvers for dinner (which seemed to cure all their woes) we went home and the sadness was gone and the smiles were huge as the boys were appreciating what an amazing new home we have. They were pointing out all the great benefits of living here as if they had to convince Ryan and I that we made the right choice. One of our favorite things about our new home is we now have room for lots of visitors! Hope everyone can come for a visit!
Love, Joy

The man that I love.....

Ken and I had a good time on Saturday cutting down and burning ash trees that are being destroyed by the Emerald Ash Borer. They have to be burned and we probably still have over a hundred yet to go. This was the start of the fire, but it got much, much bigger and we added the trees.