We have a 12 year old!

Aubrey's twelfth birthday was yesterday. Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday we had a beautiful baby girl. Now we have a lovely young lady! I thought I'd share a few pictures:

Webkinz number 3 - Princess Brianna. She already has Princess Tiffany and Princess Andrea. Quite the names!

A look of stunned disbelief - she can't quite believe what's in the box....

A big thank-you hug for dad. And....

already talking to a friend on her new cell phone. She was thrilled and shocked!

Uncle Mick and Aunt Stacia came over to help us celebrate. Uncle Mick was the photographer.

By the way Gwen, I'm sorry. What can I say? Lane has already informed us that this just wasn't fair to Paige. FYI - Alltel has Razrs on sale - buy one for $20 get one free!

Our Blessings

We are looking forward to traveling to Leoti in a few days for time with our families this Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see everyone, relax with full tummies, and most of all, give thanks to the One who loves us and blesses us beyond compare. We've compiled a short list of some things we're especially thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I won't tell you who said which item; see if you can figure it out! Okay, on second thought I've edited the post to include the kids' names on their thankful items.

1) Dillon's only thirteen blocks away

2) that we will get to see everyone at grandma's -Aubrey

3) that we have such a great family:) -Aubrey

4) Ted and Shelly's is just 45 minutes away and Aunt Stacia and Uncle Mick are so close -Aubrey

5) that we moved to Hutchinson and for all my new friends -Jackson

6) that there's a whole bunch of stores and we don't have to go to Garden all the time -Jackson

7) my new house and my old gamecube -Luke

8) the internet and cell phones - such a great way to keep in touch with everyone, even though we're farther away (listen up Grandmas: my friend Cindy has a webcam so her mom can see her grandkids on a daily basis. Maybe we need to check into this!)

9) for the army protecting us - Luke

10) all those who have spent time teaching my children, in church, in school (yes, even Mrs. S has her good points), in everyday life

11)strawberries -Jackson

12) my mom and my dad -Luke

13) The series of fortunate events leading up to our move. As one thing after another fell into place, we could see and feel God's leading. We thank Him for increasing our peace that we were doing the right thing.

14) The years we spent in Syracuse. Even though we felt that it was time to move on, we had many good years and good friends there, and hope to stay in touch.

Check out Shelley's Blog

Shelley has some fun pictures of Aubrey and Bethany on her blog. We celebrated the girls' November birthdays this weekend with a manicure at the mall and a sleepover. They had a lot of fun and even tolerated their brothers very well!

By the way, if you are seeing a pattern here, you're right. It's the lazy way to blog! I'll let Gwen and Shelley do all the work.

http://www.tedshelberning.blogspot.com/

Check out Gwen's Blog

Okay, Gwen succumbed to the guilt and posted pictures from the kids' fun last weekend. Check out her blog at http://www.thewellsfamilyinkansas.blogspot.com/

The Farm

The kids and I spent last weekend in Leoti. I keep waiting for Gwen to post some pictures from last Saturday on her blog, but she hasn't yet (hint, hint). She has been busy this week, I know. SOOOO.... I'll just say that the kids had a terrific time playing on the farm and seeing who could get the dirtiest and the smelliest. Dad feeds the cattle distiller's grain, which is basically what is left over after the process of making ethanol. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Dad.) For some reason, my children have decided that it is great fun to jump into and roll around in. It's nice and mushy and warm, I guess. Anyway, they sure enjoy it. Dad recently built a new shed to house the feed, and he conveniently made a ledge about half-way up the walls so the kids could stand on it to jump into the grain. How nice of him! After a few hours of that, they come into the house and smell like they've been drenched in yeast or alcohol or something. Gwen, Mom, and I were in her bedroom looking through clothes. Aubrey and Paige wanted to help but we had to kick them out. Way too smelly!

The boys also discovered that clods of gyp will break easily if thrown, so they spent some time smashing them. They then moved on to the scrap iron pile to find some weapons. Luke enjoyed hunting pheasants with Grandpa Bob. He told me on the way to Leoti that he was "eager" to get back to Western Kansas and be around some cattle. On the other hand, he said he'd forgotten that there weren't any trees out there. Guess it doesn't take long!

Aubrey and Paige went to the Majestic in Scott City with Grandpa Bob for a concert put on by Rivers Rutherford and his friends. Rutherford is a country songwriter who has written several songs you've heard a lot on the radio. I think they enjoyed it, but possibly enjoyed the food more. They are growing girls!

We had a nice weekend visiting family - we stopped in at Grandpa Earl and Grandma Lois's briefly, and got to eat breakfast at High Plains with Grandpa Ed & Grandma Kathy. Always a highlight for my kids. They love the food there.

By the way, Luke was very proud of his math grades this week. He's doing well.

A Dog and His Boy

Barney loves the kids - he goes to the front door about 2:30 each day and waits until the kids get off the bus (it arrives around 3:25, he doesn't want to be late.) He can hear the bus coming and starts jumping and prancing until they get in the door. What a welcome home! He is officially recovered from his broken leg. The vet removed the pin Tuesday and he is walking much better. As you can see, his favorite activity of all time is sleeping with one of the kids. He has to sleep in his kennel at night, but when I let him out in the morning he immediately runs upstairs to see who's still in bed (usually Aubrey!) He'll jump on the side of the bed until whoever it is wakes up and pulls him up under the covers. What a life!

Robotics Competition etc.

Luke was able to compete in the Kansas Robotic League's meet at the Cosmosphere on Saturday. I knew nothing about robotic competitions until yesterday - it was a lot of fun to watch! Apparently the robot engines come as a kit from Lego, then you modify it and add features to accomplish specific tasks. The boys create a computer program which tells the robot what to do if it runs into a wall, etc. and then download it to the robot. The picture above is a maze which was timed. Luke's robot was pretty slow, but it did navigate the maze sucessfully! He and his teammate took fourth place in the Capture the Flag event. His slow robot was able to knock down the flags when other robots got stuck in corners. He loved everything about the event, and has plans to modify his robot to climb - one thing it cannot do now!

We spent Friday and Saturday working on the clinic - I painted the adjusting room, Jerry built some storage shelves and cut down a tree. We also got rid of some unsightly furniture and purchased a new cabinet for the adjusting room. Thank goodness for brothers - I KNOW I couldn't have helped Jerry get that cabinet out of the pickup and into the clinic. Mick and Stacia came by to lend some muscle. Jerry and the boys also are trying to kill moles on the property; we have to go back today to see if they bit the dust or not. I had the best of intentions to take pictures of the clinic to post here, but it didn't get done. Look for them soon!

I'm really enjoying the time change today. Moving from the Mountain time zone to the Central time zone was a plus for us since we are now in the same time zone as almost all of our friends and family (although I still catch myself adding or subtracting an hour when I start to make a phone call.... 13 year old habits die hard!) One thing we don't like about Central time is how dark it is in the morning. The kids walk to the bus stop at 7:35 a.m. and it's been dark the past week or so. Yuck! On the other hand, it won't be dark at 4:30 p.m. in December - woohoo!

It's time for me to get ready for church. I've messed around long enough this morning since I had an extra hour that now I'll have to hurry!

Halloween

The Caped Crusader and Boy Wonder!

Cleopatra, complete with dyed black hair and fake eyelashes!

What a Big, Big, Day!!!

Jackson pulled his own tooth out - the first one he's lost!! He was so very excited on Tuesday when he discovered it was loose. He worked on it Wednesday when he got home from school, and managed to twist it out just before we went trick-or-treating. Look at that grin!