Allison Graduates Preschool!

Mother's Day Weekend

This Sunday marks two important events in our family. The first being the celebration of motherhood, an honor bestowed on each sister and the matron of our nucleus. We are also celebrating the wedding anniversary of "Oma" and "Opa". More to come about our dear parents. For now I wanted to post this poem so that this weekend we may meditate on the influence that our own mothers have had on us and the impact that being a mother has had on us as well.

“Reflections on Motherhood”

a poem by

Laura Kavan

As a day honoring Mothers fast approaches,

I, as a mother, am thinking and thinking.

This whole celebration is quite out of order.

So little of the credit belongs to me

Who just happens to be a mother.

As I sit and write, great humility fills my soul.

To think that so much honor and praise

Can go with the most wonderful thing in the world

The honor of being a mother.

A feat I could never win alone

Yet on this day, the honor is mine.

But the trophy is so great, I guess I’ll just accept

Then try in this small way

To make you all, who I love so dear

Understand just how much you mean to me.

For without you, a mother I would never be.

Mother and Gram and Gramp or whatever you’re so fondly called

Your part in my fame is supreme

For without your love and teaching and help along the way

A wife and mother I could never be.

Les, ‘Daddy’, ‘Dear’, ‘Honey’ or whatever else I may call you

My love for you must tell you all the things in my heart

Because feelings so deep, words cannot express

But your contribution to my great day

Is ever increasing as each year passes

Til now, you must share this honor with me

For apart from you, this wonderful person, a mother I could never be.

And to you dear children –

Joyce, Jerry, Jill and Kristy

I’m so proud to be your mother

Tis honor enough to share the happiness you produce

Without a special date to honor someone so humble as your mother.

Now as my thoughts begin to ebb.

I must praise and honor you, dear God

For this wonderful way of life

And ask you to help me be, a Mother

As understanding as Thee.

Happy Birthday DaRonn!

My wonderful husband is 33 years old today. To honor him here is a list of 33 of the multiplied many things that I think are just great about my man.

1. He loves God
2. He is passionate
3. He is not afraid of being who he is
4. He strives for excellence
5. He is a good bowler
6. He makes funny jokes
7. He plays with our kids
8. He is always trying to become better
9. He is man of integrity
10. He tells the truth
11. He is a man of action
12. He is a hard worker
13. He is a visionary
14. He is good at starting stuff
15. He hopes for the best
16. He prays
17. He studies the word of God
18. He seeks advice
19. He makes good decisions
20. He is a good judge of character
21. He abhors mediocrity
22. He is a picky eater
23. He has his sights set on the world
24. He enables others to reach their full potential
25. He is a considerate and loving husband
26. He reads lots of books
27. He is good at technical stuff
28. He travels
29. He is a friend
30. He helps people
31. He is kind to children
32. He loves his sons and daughters
33. He loves me

pug mill

Shown here is a mound of clay just reclaimed using our pug mill. Pieces of spent clay, trimmings, and damaged pots are reclaimed into a large plastic garage can. Water is added to the can to allow the dry clay to reconstitute and soften. The pug mill shown in the background is a large mixer. The wet clay and dry clay and even powdered clay is added into a hopper in proper proportions. There an auger with paddles, mixes and blends the clay into a more consistent substance. Along with mixing the clay, it is transported into a chamber where it is eventually pushed out a hole at the end of the barrel. This extrudes and compresses the clay into the square logs as shown in the picture. The clay comes out the end in a continuous stream like a Play Dough Fun Factory or toothpaste out from a tube. Someone then cuts it into uniform lengths using a wire like a cheese cutter. That created the stack of logs of clay shown in the photo. These then will be bagged four logs to a bag. Each bag will weigh about 50 pounds. The mound of clay shown is about 700 lbs. We do this about once a month. This clay is not ready to use just yet. It must sit for a few weeks to "season". The bacteria and other organics in the clay work to create the plasticity needed to be formed or thrown. This clay is softer and easier to work with than prepackaged clay.

Tomorrow Ronn, Jill, Kent and few interested others from the studio will travel about 70 miles north of Wichita to the little town of Marion, Kansas. There, we will visit Flint Hills Clay Works. This is a place that works with tons of clay. They send orders all over the country of clay dug out of the ground of the Flint Hills of Kansas. A future blog will talk about what we saw there.

Exploration Place: Pendulum

Spring is here

Here we are at the Bontanica.


A few shots of some of the beautiful weather we have been enjoying. Here is Jill with some of the colorful Botanica in the background.

The tulips are in bloom as seen behind the fountains at Botanica.

















Later that afternoon we went to Belle Plaine to the Arboretum there. Here is Jill on an old rope swing.
This gnarly tree is really the doorway to the fairy world.

Doing What They Do

Raimy trying her hand at oils for the first time. She is an artist. Her preferred style of expression is pencil drawing. But anything pertaining to creative arts is her outlet. She loves dance, music, painting, crafts, clay, sewing, drama, making books and whatever else she can do to create.


Timothy doing a word find. These or sudukos are his choice these days. Anything that is building or constructing he enjoys as well. I am amazed at what he can do with his legos and other building sets. He is a thinker.


Gabrielle doing her lessons in school. She is a worker. She says to me, "Mama, I want to work hard in school today." Her undaunted approach to tackling problems is inspiring. I am wondering what God is going to do with her life. It will be amazing to see, I am sure.


Tyler licking a book. So far he has tasted: deodorant, hand lotion, crayons, bubbles, all the furniture in the house, door handles, books, web cams and seat belts. I can't complain because this flows over into his eating of actual food too. He will eat anything!

What did you do today that was YOU?

Update

Hey fam, I have updated my art blog. Check it out! I still have more photographs to take so watch for more to come. Enjoy!

Click Here to See the Goods

Preschool Olympics

Allison's Birthday Party!

Happy Birthday Allison!

Wow, can you believe that our Allison is 5 years old?!?!?!? Hope you have a great one little girl!

Allison is...

A - Amazing
L - Lovely
L - Lovable
I - Intelligent
S - Super
O - Ours
N - Nice

Hungry Baby

Here is what Tyler does when he is hungry...

Happy Birthday Raimy!

Our Raimy is TEN! I am very proud of her. She chose cinnamon rolls and doughnuts in stead of a cake. She also chose to spend the day with her friend Faith. Here are some shots of the day...

Happy Birthday Raimy

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!
Double didgets, wow! I really hope that this was a truely wonderful day for you. I am very sorry that this post is coming after your bed time. But I want you to know that I love you very much and I hope that you will make a post to tell us all about what you did on this special day.
Love from Aunt Shawn

Raimy's 10 Today!!!

Raimy,

Happy, Happy Birthday! I hope you have a fun-filled, love-filled, cake-filled day! You bring so much sunshine and love to our family, I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. Make a wish, Smile, Live... today is your day girl!

Happy Birthday Raimy!!!!

Backyard Adventures

Just 15 minutes from our home sprawling on the side of a mountain lays Tunari National Park; this was our fun Friday destination today. The sun shone on my children’s way as they headed out on the trail to adventure and exploration. For an entrance fee of just a buck fifty we will be back again; and next time with a picnic lunch. Here are some snapshots from our morning.

New Blog

Hey fam,

I just wanted to post to let you know I started my own blog titled "emilyhoutz." Watch it for updates of what's going on in my studio, right now I am working retrospectively to make the blog more complete regarding my art. 

Thanks for checking it out.

http://emilyhoutz.blogspot.com/

Also, make sure you check out the previous post on the fam's blog here... it is so cute.

Sasha Update

Yesturday was a very big day for our big girl Sasha.

Nick put her big girl bed together for her and we got some very cute pictures that we would like to share with you all. Then we added a little video for the fun of it.

She just loves her bed! She loves that she can get into it by herself and even better, she loves that she can get out all by herslef. Even when its not bed time she likes to get in it and pretend to go to bed.

Last night was her first night in it and she did great. We didn't have any problem getting her to stay in it and go to sleep. And she was very happy to come in our room this morning to wake us up. But for nap time today we did have to put her back in bed one time, but thats not bad.

We are vey proud of her.

Washington Girls

Happy Birthday Lucas!

Hey there brother! I hope that you are having a great birthday. So the big 3 0 !!! Unbelivable!

Three decades of life. So are we considered adults now that we are thirty-somethings?

I really do hope that you are doing something special and that you are with people that make you smile. What birthday cake did you have?

Have a happy happy happy birthday, brother!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Happy birthday sis’!

Who remembers this one?

She sneaks around the house
As quiet as a mouse
Who is this curly haired
girl we talk about?
Emily, Emily, Ema – L Y

We have known you as Wumwy, one of the little girls, Emmer Jane, and Auntie Em’. Now that we are all growed up it is a privileged that I can also call you friend.

My Eight Year Old Boy

Yesterday I took the kids on our first Fun FridayField trip for a photo hunt up on the Cristo mountain top. I got some great shots of Timothy. I think that eight year old boys are some of my most favorite people in the world.

More slide shows to come of the wonders the kids captured.

Art and a Big Bag from Afar

Friday at school we did an art project of making Me Posters. Here are some shots of the finished pieces:

Raimy's (the whole family is included in this poster)

Timothy's (note the 3-D fold out feature)

Gabrielle's (figure lifting her arms is Gabrielle having fun with her friends)

In the orphanage kitchen I saw this huge bag of flour and couldn't miss the photo op. Notice that it comes from Cargill. The cook said that the flour makes the best bread.

(Detail of the bag and my shoe - hee hee hee)

February Fun

Is it only the 7th? Only one week has passed in February? Amazing!

Our week has been packed: our kids were in a wedding at church, we had a youth retreat at a resort, and we started school. The wedding was beautiful. An Englishman married a Bolivian. Her name is Wendy and his Peter (like the Peter Pan story). The youth retreat was great. I spent most of my time with our kids. But we had fun hanging out with the youth when they were not in a session. The day after we got back we were all very sunburned but we got started with school. It feels good to be back at it.

I wanted to get these pictures up so you could see them. Enjoy!

Hello Family,
Truth be told that i have not touched a computer in more then three months. So i have enjoyed my morning reading up on everthing that i have been missing out on. this seems to be my way. i keep up with the computer for a while and then i go on a long computer vacation. but i am back, so you should go back and check your postings because i left a few comments.

But more importantly i have a very exciting reason to get back into the buisness of blogging.
I AM PREGNANT AGAIN! YIPPY!!!
Nick and i just found out yesturday and we are exited to tell our family. (as well as anyone else who reads our family blog.)
If i am calculating things correctly we should have a new baby by the end of September.
We cant even express how excited Nick and I are. and i know in time that Sasha will be excited as well. so far she doesnt really get it.
we love you guys.
Nick, Shawn, Sasha, and Baby

My New Laptop

Hey family! I am so excited! I just ordered Apple's newest laptop... the MacBook Air. It is the world's thinnest notebook and it just came out this week. The downside is I have to wait a few weeks for delivery :( Check out the link and see how cool it is. I can't wait to be blogging from my home, from school, where ever. Watch out Scrabulous players! You won't be able to keep up ;)

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/guidedtour/

bulls eye

Emily has a new haircut. We hung the dart board up in Kent's room. We have had fun throwing the darts. My arm even hurts a little from doing it. Kent is hard to beat, he gets bulls eyes more frequently than the rest of us.

We have had a few days warm enough for biking which is great for January. They say snow is in the forecast for this week but it was fun while it lasted.

I've started doing the taxes; how about everyone else?

About the video...

Hello family. Raimy made this video a few weeks ago and I was finally able to get it uploaded. Hope you enjoy! Angie

Raimy’s Twister

By: Raimy

This morning I saw on the floor a pair of broken socks. I decided to make Twister. I started sowing one sock at the top and bottom with the other sock inside. Then I sowed a string to it and tied it to my foot so that it could come on and off. I started circling it round and round and jumped, just like in the video. You can make your own too. Twister!

Happy Birthday Shawn!

Dear Shawn,

Wow - you are what? 26? Congratulations on this your birthday!

I am sure that mom could tell it much better than I could; but I always loved your birth story best of all...

The nurse that assisted in the delivery wore flashy earrings because everyone was partying for the New Year. Mom was praying in tongues so loud they thought that she spoke Spanish - so they called in a Spanish speaking person to translate. Mom knew she had nothing to prove so she wanted pain killers. Dad was watching the injection and he fainted! He hit his head on the doorknob and had to be taken out to get stitches. And you were born on the last day of the year.

You have always been my sweet little sister. I love you very much! I hope that you feel special today and that you are able to do something fun. Happy Birthday!!!

Check out Christmas Slide Show!

Happy times and Holiday warmth while cold outside. Family gatherings in Omaha and Wichita.