Thanksgiving Weekend

We were able to spend a couple of days with Ron's parents in Northwest Ohio!  The kids were so excited to help Grandpa build up his wood pile!  They love working at Grandpas!

We didn't do much else, just eating some yummy food and a lot of relaxing!  It was a much needed break from the routine!

I'm Blessed to have Fantastic parents and siblings and also to have Great in-laws!  Love Love Love time with Family!

Little Pilgrims

There are some little pilgrims running around here today!

November in Review

Somehow I blinked and November was gone.  My lack of posting is not because there was a lack of events and responsibilities this month!  We kicked off the month with the boys race (posted below) and we haven't stopped running since then.

The second weekend of November found Nathaniel and I in Sandusky, Ohio for the 12U Youth Football State Tournament.

The Fairview Appaches  5th and 6th grade teams had gone undefeated through the season and they were excited to get to play on the turf at the State Tournament. 

 Congratulations to the 5th and 6th grade State Tournaments Champions!!!

Ronnie's last visit to the orthopedic for his finger was this month and everything seems to be doing well.  His finger is straightening out well too.  Praise the Lord!

This month was full of the kids Christmas Play Practice, hard to believe it is that time already, Christmas is just around the corner.

The middle of November marked new Directory pictures for our churches.  I was on the committee to schedule and see that those days went smoothly, so that was a very busy weekend as well!

Then on the 19th we had a fun Bible Books Pizza Party where 24 kids from 5yo to freshman in HS came together to celebrate because they had met the challenge I put before them to learn the books of the Bible (all 66) in 2 months!

It was a great time of fellowship and celebrating our challenge met!

We had a Missionary Speaker and a cafe one weekend as well.  Didn't get pictures of that!

Then last weekend Maddie and I got to go to the Fairview HS musical, Beauty and the Beast!  Maddie's favorite princess is Belle (she says because Belle has brown hair and eyes like her)!  We went with our friends, Cathy and Reese and had a great time!

November is also the month for Operation Christmas Child boxes.  Both of our churches participated in this ministry and it is exciting to see the kids excited about sharing love with kids less fortunate at Christmas time!  Here they are at our Farmer church praying over the boxes before we sent them off!

Tonight our Youth group (and others) gathered together to makes cheese balls.  This is a fundraiser that Farmer UMC has done for several years.  However this year the profits go towards a couple of our youth (including Ronnie) going to Honduras next summer.  We had a great turn out with 29 people total about 350 cheeseballs.

So...it has been a very busy month!  

I am looking forward to spending the next couple of days at my in-laws with nothing pressing to do and just celebrating Thanksgiving with family!

Youth "Treat"

 This past week our youth group met together and made dozens of chocolate chip cookies!  This was our second year for the cookie making, but the fun part was the "treating".  

We gathered together and made the cookies and then had some pizza.  We spent some time praying for 16 people/couples and then divided into groups and set out to deliver the cookies.  We picked this time of year to "treat" some of the shut-ins and widows in our congregations.  It was a great evening and we had fantastic responses from both the youth and the recipients!  

 

 

 Friends having fun!

 

This is the group that went out to deliver (minus the drivers).  We have a great youth group and some really good kids.  We are blessed to be able to work with them!

Race to Play

Yesterday, the boys all three ran in the Ney Park Race to Play (an annual fundraiser for the Ney Park).  This year was different from the last 3 years.  Ronnie and Nathaniel decided to run the 5K.  Eli ran the Kids Run (1/2 mile).

One thing that might be worth mentioning...the temperature!  It was 20 with the windchill on Saturday morning and we woke up that morning to a dusting of snow!  The boys bundled up and were ready to go.  The snow was gone by race time, but it was still very cold.

First was the Kids Run!  Eli ran a fabulous race and surprised us all when he came blazing to the finish line in first place.  He grinned the whole way through the race and had so much fun!

It really was a surprise how well he did - we were very proud!  He didn't train or anything, but did fabulous!  He says next year maybe he will do the 5K!

Ronnie and Nathaniel were next!

 You can see them here with the 2 brown carhart hats at the finish line.

This race was for all ages and while Nathaniel's training has been running with football pads for the last 2 months, Ronnie had been training in running, so we weren't sure how they would both do!

We watched them begin at the finish line and then we drove to the halfway point to check on the boys.  They were both doing well and keeping up their run!

Then back to the finish line. 

Nathaniel came in 9th (28.14) over all and 2nd in the 13 and under age group!  He even got a medal for 2nd place.  He did so well!

Ronnie was just a few behind at 13th (28.51) overall, and 3rd in his age group (13 and under).  He did great, his training paid off.

We are so proud of all 3 boys.  They ran hard and did their best!

Today Eli is complaining that his legs are hurting, but hes talking about starting training now to run the "big race" (5K) next year!