Summer Fun

Okay, finally time to update about our move and how things are going this summer. The last month and a half have been a busy time with moving and getting settled into our new house. Our house is great, we are all loving what God is doing with it and with us. Not to say that it's always easy, but it's always worth it.

I am done with childcare for awhile, at least for the summer and next year. We'll have to see after that. It was such a joy to be able to watch my friends children for them, but I am also now enjoying the freedom of just having Bella. She is so much fun this summer because she can run around and talk, she is saying quite a few words. She is also coming into the stage where she is testing all that we do and the boundaries that we have given her. She has some pretty intense fits sometimes, but to me they are more funny than anything!

Adam is keeping busy with school things. He is diving head first into the new job as Athletic Director, and is ending his second week of Coulee's first ever summer sports camps. This month was two weeks of basketball and in August will be two weeks of soccer camps for the students. He is also busy planning the sporting schedules for the next school year, writing some new class curriculum's for the PE program, and moving his office into a better location.

Our camera broke before we moved, so I haven't been able to take many pictures. But our friend Sami , is an amazing photographer and we are so blessed to be living with her in our house! So, most of these pictures are ones that she has taken since being at the house. The first two I took (you can probably tell), but the rest are hers!

Once a month we do a worship night at a local youth center and in May Adam and his brother Ben got to lead together, so Mom and Dad came up to see their two oldest sons lead worship. it was a great night and so much fun! It was also Mother's day, so Grandma Kathy got to see her grand kids on that special day! This is a picture of here with the granddaughters. Oliver was playing around too!

Although it's dark, here's a picture of Ben and Adam leading together.

Now, these are the pictures that Sami took. The big girls were riding bikes outside one evening and Bella really wanted a try, so Adam went up and down the sidewalk with her. She was so proud of herself for 'riding a bike'.

It has been so stinking hot here, that we got some sprinklers and pools for the kids to play in during the day while Sami and I are home with them. These pictures are from the first day they played in

Guess Who?!

Guess who...

is the cutest little girl I've ever seen ......... Bella of course!

gets to move into our new house in June ........ we do!

is going to medical school in Denver next year.........my little brother, we're so proud of him!

is LOVING the beautiful weather..........everyone!

has a birthday tomorrow..........our friends Jeff & Dorian!

is the new Athletic Director at CRCS..................ADAM, woohoo!!!!!

I was trying to find a picture of him from recently, and all I could find was this one from I don't even know how long ago...but here he is! He got offered the position on Wednesday of this past week and then he accepted on Thursday! We are both very excited, he has tons of new plans that he would love to see happen with the athletics at school and I love to organize and type things up and that will be a big part of his job too, so I'll get to help out a lot with the things I love to do! We feel so blessed that he got the position because there were other people much more qualified on paper than Adam, but because of his heart and his desire to make a difference at the school the principle and board decided he was the man for the job! This job will officially start with the new school year, but Adam will be doing a lot of planning and organizing this summer, maybe even organizing some sweet summer camps at the school!

Here is another picture that my friend Sami took of Bella and I. We were just playing around, but it's one of my favorite pictures!

And now on to some Easter pictures. We spent the weekend in Mukwonago with the Zastrow's and then traveled to Tomah on Sunday to visit my Mom and family. Unfortunently I didn't take any pictures at my Moms, but you can see all that we did at the Zastrow's!

Here's Grandma Kathy with the grandkids. I know we took a picture of Grandpa Tom too, but I don't know where that one is.

Bella, Oliver and Adam had so much fun playing. Adam would chase them around the living room and they would just laugh and laugh!

Bella loves babies, and this is her cousing Eliot. She loved getting to say hi, she's going to be such a great big sister!

Oliver and Bella had a blast together.

Uncle Ethan with his neices and nephew!

This is Bella and I on Easter morning. She kept making goofy faces for the camera!

Bella in her pretty Easter dress.

And all the kids and their kids together.

We had such a good time! Love you all and hope you are getting to enjoy the weather that we're having!

Big News!

We have some big news to share with everybody! But first I'll update everyone on our life, since it's been awhile.

Life is going so well here in La Crosse. Bella is a year and a half already and so fun. So is starting to say tons of words and just recently started to put two words together. I'm still doing childcare during the days and Bella is loving that too, because she has friends come to play every day. She was sick a couple of days this past week and I could really tell that she missed having her friends over.

Adam is teaching at CRCS and still liking it there. He just interviewed for another position there for next year to make him full-time. We will find out later this week if he got the job or not. We're all praying that he does, it would be such a blessing.

And now, on to our big news! We have two things to share with everyone. We just bought a house (picture below) and new baby Z is coming in October! We bought this huge home near downtown La Crosse with some of our close friends and we are going to live there together. Our dream is to live there and to be a light to our neighborhood, which is not in the greatest condition. We are going to live together as families and share everything, then out of our home we will feed/clothe/help anyone who needs it. By sharing the mortgage on this beautiful home, we will be able to save money and do these things that we want to in our community. We are really excited about our new adventure in life, but please pray for us as we have BIG dreams and cannot accomplish them on our own strength.

Just this morning we got to hear the heartbeat of our new little baby. It was strong and healthy. I remember getting to hear Isabella's heartbeat for the first time and today was just as exciting! Our due date is October 15th, only 2 days away from Adam's birthday. We think this is so fun, because Bella was born one day before my birthday, so this new baby might be right near Daddy's birthday!


Now onto some fun pictures from the last month or so.

Our friend Sami, the family we will be living with, has been taking wonderful pictures of Bella and their children and here are some of my favorites! She is so talented!

Here's Bella trying out her first popsicle! She loved it, but didn't eat it quite fast enough and it melted all over the table.

Grandma Peggy found the cutest Brewer's jersey for Bella and it is one of my favorite things to put her in. She is going to be such a little baseball fan. I can just see the games of catch that we'll pay together, I can't wait!

We got to go play with Austin at the McDonald's playland a couple of weeks ago. Bella and Austin had so much fun together.

I feel like I should have more pictures, but I think we've been so busy working on the house in our free time that I haven't taken many pictures lately. Hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful Easter!