Family Times

We had the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. (I realized that I haven't really posted much since the middle of Nov., so I thought I would let you know some of what we've done since then.) My aunt and uncle were able to come up from the Detroit area, along with 2 of my cousins and their families. We were so glad that everyone could get together at our house before they all headed up to Aunt Barb and Doc's cabin in Cadillac. Everyone pitched in on the food that we feasted on. It was all so delicious. I had just gotten a new roaster that plugs in on the counter, and I cooked a 16 lb. turkey in it. It turned out great! I am liking the roaster. I have used it twice now.

Aunt Barb makes the most amazing stuffing and brought that with her. I always love my cousin, Jenni's, corn casserole, and was glad to have that as part of the meal. Of course, we would all say that Thanksgiving would not be complete without the sweet potato crunch! Mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, salad, pies, cheescake, cookies, and who knows what else was enjoyed that day. Aunt Barb has also gotten me hooked on her special mix of vanilla spice egg nog and Vernors. It is quite yummy.

Other fun things we did (besides eating ha ha)were celebrating my cousin's daughter, Eryn's birthday, listening to their son, Cole, play the piano for us, having our girls sing some songs, listening to Christmas carols that Emma played on her violin, and all of us singing some songs together. We ended the night with a few rounds of Blurt and Catch Phrase games. That had us all in stitches at times. I am just so thankful to have family within a couple of hours away. We had a great day, and I thank God for the many blessings He has richly given.

Snowy December

Well, I don't know that we have to dream of a white Christmas (and yes, it's "Merry Christmas" despite the one window with "Happy Holidays") in MI. We had quite the storm on Dec. 11th, and had a little snow even before that. Now we have over a foot on the ground! I can't imagine that all the snow we have piled up outside is going to go anywhere fast. In fact, I saw that there are predictions for even more snow here later in the week. I guess it is said that a true white Christmas is one that includes snow falling from the sky that day, not just snow that is on the ground. We'll see what happens. I just know that it will look white outside. Well, here are some pics of what we saw after quite the snowfall last night and through the first part of today. Because the winds were supposed to get so bad and create possible blizzard conditions, white outs, and snow drifts, our cantata was canceled for tonight. Thankfully it is working out to reschedule the program for Wed. night at 6:45. We have certainly enjoyed the unexpected rest today! Soon I will get caught up on the last month's happenings with us. . . .

Catching Up

Well, I am finally getting some time to blog. I did a few different slide shows that show some of our fall fun this year. Last month we had a wonderful time having my sister, Sarah, and my nephew, Jonas come for a visit from SC. They had had such warm, dry weather down south for so long, that Sarah was very much looking forward to coming up north for some crisp fall weather. Well, the day I picked her up it was near 90 degrees! We had been having unusually warm weather before she even came, and to her disappointment, it had not changed to our normal fall temps. Our extended family from the Detroit area came up to see Sarah and us. We had planned a nice morning at Papa's Pumpkin Festival in Mt. Pleasant. The kids had some fun, but they were miserable in the heat when they went on the hayride to pick pumpkins. Who knew. . .You can tell by the girls faces in the picture of them watching doughnuts be made that they are quite flushed. You never know what MI weather will hold. Anyway, Sarah was here for 9 days, and toward the end of her visit, we did get some pretty cool windy weather. The day before Sarah and Jonas left, we took a drive up to Cadillac to see our aunt and uncle. We actually were cold that day, and we did get to see some beautiful fall color. Sarah got at least a taste of what she was looking forward to here, and of course, the time together was very special.

Last Day with Jonas and Sarah in MI

Emma's 2nd Gr. Nature Center field trip

Pumpkin Festival in Mt. Pleasant on a 91 degree Fall Day

Are We Okay???

Yes! Some of you may beg to differ, but we are okay. :-) One of you recently mentioned that you have gone to our blog and wondered if things were all right with us. We're just the crazy, busy Stephens is all. Blogging has definitely been put on the backburner for a bit lately. Believe me, much is happening around here. You just haven't heard about it. I have had quite a lot going on with the two groups I sing with from the Center for the Arts. Our Camerata Singers had the opportunity to be a featured group at the MI American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conference in Grand Rapids. It went great and was a lot of fun. This past weekend was a choral concert featuring the music of Z. Randall Stroope at the center. Chorale and Camerata both sang, so I had two seperate rehearsals last week, and then a dress rehearsal with all of the groups involved in the concert on Sat. morning. Last night our conductor let us go early from Chorale rehearsal. That was quite welcomed by all. Tonight I thankfully had another shortened rehearsal for Camerata. We have a concert in Bay City on Fri. and one in Mt. Pleasant Sun. afternoon. Whew! A lot happened all at once in the scheduling there. Next up is our Christmas concert at the center on Dec. 14. I think it will be a terrific concert, great for families. I have the privilege of singing "O Holy Night" at that concert and thank God for the opportunity to perform a song that means something from my heart. The arrangement is quite powerful.

In addition to the opportunities with the community groups, Kris and I are busy with school and church music. Please pray for us, for strength and endurance, and for these opportunities to reach hearts for Christ through the music we are teaching. Special programs are coming up soon. In the school, I am working with the preschool and elementary children on our Nov. 30 concert called "Christmas Around the World." In the church, children's choir is singing on Dec. 2 in our morning worship service. For the evening service on Dec. 2, we will be having our SS Christmas Program. I am enjoying working with all the different ages of kids during the SS hour each Sunday from now until the program. I pray that these kids will be so amazed at our God's love and sing from their hearts as we celebrate Christmas for it's real meaning.

The girls are doing well. Emma just got her first report card in 2nd grade. She did very well, with all A's, and we thanked the Lord for the abilities He is giving her to learn and retain so much. Olivia is doing quite well in K-4. She is learning blends now with the letters they have worked on this year. All of the vowels have been taught. We have worked on the consonants "B," "L," and are currently on "T" week. Tye-dye day is tomorrow--so exciting! :-) She has a Thanksgiving Feast coming up next week. That's always a K-4 highlight too. Emma's Fall Party is this Fri., and it sounds like that will be lots of fun as well.

Well, I have at least updated you on some things. :-) Our life stays exiciting, and while we are tired often, I love so much of what I am doing and see God working in all of these areas. I know that I have to be careful though because my excitement in wanting to do so much can backfire for me physically. Thank the Lord, He is keeping me strong! I know too that Dec. 16 (church cantata) is not too far away, and then we can relax!!! :-)

Who Do Our Kids Look Like?

So, my sister had this meter on her blog, and I just had to try it out with our kids. Nearly everyone tells me that Emma looks just like me and that Olivia looks just like Kris. They match that way with our personalities too. Well, according to the meter, our kids are a very good balance in their looks between Kris and me. What do you think?

Olivia's First Day of K-4

Well, my baby is growing up. She headed out the door with Daddy and Emma this morning ready for K-4. She had a great day. At dinner tonight she was starting to fall asleep. It will take a bit of adjusting to the new schedule. :-)

Bye-bye Summer!

Well, we ended summer vacation at the Muth's last night with a great cookout! Nicole Garalde (our new school piano teacher/accompanist) is living with us right now, so she was able to join us. We all enjoyed time with Jenny's parents and the VanDenBergs, having brats, hot dogs, and all kinds of great stuff. The kids kicked balls, climbed trees, and explored together in the backyard. Everyone took a short walk to a great playground near the Muths, and we watched the dads send the kids flying on the tire swing ("screaming fast," as Emma put it). There was a lot of other fun, but the tire swing was the biggest hit and most fun to watch. I must admit, watching Jeff VanDenBerg, who is 6' 5", take his 2 yr. old down a small curly slide was quite entertaining as well. Ha ha Tall people should only go on tall slides. :-)

What a summer it has been. We had a couple of really awesome trips. We were able to see both sides of the family. Emma finally got off of training wheels and loves to ride her bike! We've gone swimming, played at a splash park, saw a great fireworks display with friends, enjoyed blueberry picking, gone to the library and participated in the summer reading program, had an awesome day at Michigan's adventure, enjoyed having friends stay with us at our house, and just so many other wonderful things this summer. I am going to miss having the girls around. They played together so well, and we all just enjoyed being together so much.

More exciting than all of the above are the spiritual things that have happened. God gave me several opportunities during our week of VBS to lead children to Christ or help them understand something from the Bible. God has worked in my heart again by going through John Piper's book The Dangerous Duty of Delight and studying Scripture that supports the idea of Christian hedonism. Kris took our teens through it in SC, and I just was able to lead a group of ladies in the study the last several weeks. God is stretching and growing me in the area of teaching through The Excellent Wife in our Sunday School. Kris is taking the guys through the companion book for husbands. We started those studies 5 weeks ago. Really though the most exciting thing to me this summer was that a month ago, Olivia made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as her Savior. She was up late because she knew I still had ladies here after Bible study had wrapped up for the night. When the last couple of ladies left, she came out of her room and asked if I could come be with her. I rubbed her back and sang a lullaby, and then she just looked at me and said that her heart was black with sin, and she wanted it to be white as snow. Talk about being thrown for a loop! I asked her what that meant, and looooooong story short, after I got Kris from the basement (his hide-out while the ladies are over--ha ha), and we talked to Olivia for a very long time, she prayed from her own heart, not just words to repeat after one of us, and she seemed to be genuine. There has been some question in our minds, but we know that God can draw a child to Himself, and we are continuing to teach her that life is about Him, and we'll just watch for fruit. We would never want to manipulate her or try to convince her of something that isn't there/didn't really happen either. Pray with us for discernment! How exciting though that she wants to know more and is thinking about God.

Tomorrow is Olivia's first day of K-4. Emma's first day of 2nd grade was today. She had a great day. Jenny Muth's mom, Cheryl Forbes, is Emma's teacher, so we are very excited about this school year. First grade was awesome for Emma, and I am sure this year will be no less great than last. Here are some pics of this morning. I think Emma still looks sleepy. :-) Olivia's pics will come after tomorrow.

A Fun Day at Michigan's Adventure

Our South Carolina Trip

Well, it's going on a month since we got home from SC, but I finally got all the pictures posted. The girls had fun with me making the slide shows. I have some other pics on my phone. I need Kris to help me with how to get them off. :-) I'll post those later. There are pics on there from our day at the Simpsonville water park with LaDean and the kids. It was exciting being able to have them closer to Greenville. Kurt wasn't able to come the day we got together, but the girls sure loved getting to see their cousins and aunt again. Me too! :-) Praise the Lord--we just found out this last week that Kurt and LaDean's house in Atlanta sold, so maybe now they can look for a house in Anderson, where they are living now and have been since Jan.

We really enjoyed being able to see my family for a week. We actually were gone from home for 9 days. Kris was a very lonely man in an empty, quiet house. We drove down to SC on July 5. I was determined to do the trip in one day. Well, after 15 hrs, we finally got there. From my house to my parents' is 12 1/2 hrs. of driving time. When you include two meal stops and three other bathroom stops with two kids, one teenager, and a grown woman, well, it adds some extra time. The other person who came with us was Krystyn Bradley. She is 17 yrs. old and one of our babysitters. Her family has become like family to us since we moved to MI. Krystyn is the 6th of 9 children! She was willing to help me out with driving and taking care of the girls when they needed stuff in the back, since Kris wasn't able to come. What a help Krystyn truly was! She enjoyed being able to see a new state that she'd never been to before, and she fit in well all week with the family. Now she knows why I am so crazy! Ha ha :-) She learned quickly how to dish stuff back to my dad, and we all had fun. We ended up breaking the trip up on the way home. We left on Thurs. afternoon and only went up to Lexington, KY. We got home Fri. around dinner time.

While we were in SC, we got to go to our old church, Grace Bible Church, and see several friends that we miss dearly. We did the water park, which was a blast. We went to downtown Greenville for a day and met with Holley VanDenBerg and her kids at Spill the Beans. It was good for the kids to meet before the VanDenBergs moved up here. Their kids don't know anyone here, so that gave them some familiar people to look forward to seeing once they arrived in Midland. More fun stuff. . . the girls had a rectangular, good-sized pool that my parents bought for them and put in the backyard, so they could get relief from the SC heat and humidity. That was fun! Krystyn took the girls to my parents' neighborhood park in the sub. while I went to Starbucks and caught up with a friend for a couple of hours. We went to the Barkers house and swam in their very nice above ground pool one day. Sarah and I were like kids again. hee hee We made quite the "wave pool" with rafts, and the girls cracked up at that. We got a whirlpool going too. It was pretty fun! Of course the highlight of my week was spending time with my nephew, Jonas. I had not seen him since the beginning of Jan. He was a different baby, that's for sure! How fun though to see how he has changed and developed over these many months. We had a blast celebrating his first birthday with a party at my mom and dad's. We also enjoyed going to dinner at Sarah and Joe's one night. It was great to see Jonas in his own environment and watch him at home. Olivia's highlight was seeing their dog, Daisy. :-)

My parents both had things going on with them that were keeping them from feeling normal before and while we were in SC. It was good for us to be there with them and try to cheer them up. :-) My dad is recovering from surgery that removed a tumor off of his leg (thankfully, benign!), and my mom had a bad sinus infection that sent her to the doctor for a second try of antibiotics while we were there. She got a shot too, and she began feeling better before we left. We had not seen my parents since the beginning of the year either. I feel so badly that they don't get to see the girls more. They are sad not to be closer and see them growing and changing. Thank the Lord for technology that keeps them up to speed better in this day and age. It was good for us all to be together and enjoy a great week of catching up, having fun, and loving on each other in real life! We hope to go back at the end of this year/beginning of next. Until then, back to sending pics, talking on the phone, etc. Well, that about does it for the update on our vacation down south. I am sure Sarah will inform me if I left anything out. :-)

Our Last Day in South Carolina

Happy First Birthday, Jonas!

South Carolina Trip

1 Year Old

Wow, I realized this week that I have been blogging for a year now. While I haven't been able to post as often as I would like sometimes, I have really enjoyed blogging. It's fun to have a journal and scrapbook of sorts, seeing that I have wanted to do both of those things and not had great success in those areas. Besides the enjoyment of blogging for myself, I know there are several of you (comment makers under posts or not) who have told me that you enjoy checking the blog to see how the girls are changing and find out what we've been up to. Thanks for your visits to our site. :-)

I have almost caught up on all of the pics from the events since school got out. I still have a lot to post concerning my recent trip to SC. That is coming soon. Today may not be the day. We have lots going on. Bible study is tonight at my house, and I need to finish preparing and getting the house ready for that. :-)

The VanDenBergs (new band director/music teacher) arrived in Midland last night. I will be watching their kids later today. The closing on their house is tomorrow morning, and then we can help them move in. We are excited that they are here. Another cause for excitement is the soon arrival of the Browns! They are the friends we got close to soon after we moved here to Midland. They moved to Minn. 9 months after our arrival. Patrick got transferred with DOW Chemical. Thankfully, he is getting something like a double promotion and coming back to DOW here in Midland. Marybeth and I have kept up through e-mail and occasional phone calls. We have also been able to have them stay with us 3 times since their move to Minn. when they have come to Midland for various reasons. They will actually be arriving here on Sat. and staying with us. I found out this morning that their truck will be here on Sun., sooner than anticipated, so they will be excited to start getting settled into their new house at the beginning of the week.

On Monday, we are looking forward to going to Michigan's Adventure with the girls. They have never been to an amusement park before, so they are sooooo excited. I am too! :-) We are going with the Poupard family, so it will be lots of fun to be with friends. Well, that's all for now. Thanks to those of you who encouraged me to be a blogger. It's been fun!

Fun after our cookout on the 4th of July

Bay City Fireworks Display

Father's Day

Emma's Last Day of School and Soccer

What a great year Emma had in first grade. It was a big change for us having her gone every day, all day. She would leave just after 8 AM in the mornings and not get home until 3:30 PM. I sure am enjoying more time with her this summer. Olivia is too! They play so well together, and I am thankful. Emma just loved her first grade teacher, Mrs. Reece. She was in her wedding last summer, and I posted pics back then. We are very happy with how Emma did, and we know that Mrs. Reece taught her well. The SAT scores came in the mail not all that long ago, and Emma had great scores--praise the Lord! Reading is especially a favorite subject, and she scored very high in that area.

Soccer ended for the summer, and we haven't decided if Emma will play fall soccer again. She has done three seasons of soccer now, and it's been fun, but it gets busy with school, AWANA, etc. We need to make a decision by the end of this month. Here are pics of Emma's last game with the Golden Dragons. :-)

Olivia's Last Day of K-3

Olivia only went to K-3 for two mornings a week while I taught my general music classes to K-5 and 1st grades this past year. On the last day of preschool, the K-3 teachers had fun day for the kids, which consisted of rotating room to room for different activities. I had the opportunity to run one of those rooms (The Music Room--surprise! ha ha), and do lots of fun songs with the students on the theme of the ocean. Olivia is moving to a song about the wind blowing a kite with her streamer in a couple of pics here. I can hardly believe that next year my baby will be going into K-4!

Olivia's Birthday Party

Olivia had a great birthday party. We had it at a local park, and we thought it may get rained out. Just before people arrived, it was raining. We were glad to have a huge pavilion to ourselves. Thankfully, things cleared up, and it ended up being perfect. We invited several of the girls from Olivia's K-3 class at preschool as well as some kids from church. You expect to get maybe half of who you invite, right? Well, we had almost everyone respond saying that they would be there. Needless to say, she got a ton of new toys! I really do need to have a yard sale before the summer ends. I gave some of the more baby toys to Jonas when we went to SC recently. There is much more to go through though that the girls have outgrown. Anyway, these pics are about two months old, but I thought they would still be fun to post. :-)

Emma's Final Field Trip

Just a Busy Life

Well, I was saying not long ago that I needed to catch up with my blog because MAY was busy. I guess I did not anticipate how busy JUNE would be too. It was a good month, and lots of fun things were going on:

Kris performed his first wedding for some friends of ours. That was really special.

Kris and I celebrated 11 years of marriage on the 22nd!!! :-) He's just the best husband in the world. I am one lucky lady!

Emma was baptized! Kris had the opportunity to baptize her, and we just thank the Lord for that special event.

We had out-of-town company, the Browns, stay with us for a few days, and that was fun catching up with them. They will actually be moving here at the end of July--yea!

Our church had VBS, and the Lord gave me opportunities to teach and counsel children. I was able to lead 5 kids to Christ--praise the Lord! Another older girl had great questions about being saved still even if we sin. God gave us a great time of looking into His Word and assuring her that we can know once we're saved, we are always saved. We discussed living life in God's strength and grace every day.

I am sure there are other things that I am just not thinking of, but it was a busy month. July has started off great, and looks to be a bit more relaxing. We have company right now, but they aren't really here with us much. They are house-hunting all day, every day that they are visiting. The couple is the VanDenBergs. Jeff will be our band director/music teacher for some grades at Calvary next year. We are excited about that! He and his wife Holley are neat people. We look forward to meeting the rest of their family (3 kids) when they move here soon. We did get to go to the Bay City fireworks with them and a bunch of people from church last night. It was so awesome! The VanDenBergs got to meet a lot of people that they will see at our church when they come. Emma got to ride her first roller coaster last night at a fair that was down by the river where the fireworks were going to go off. I tell you, it was quite the initiation for riding roller coasters. She'll handle the ones at Michigan's Adventure well at the end of the month! :-)

Well, of course I still have so many pictures to post. Maybe I will get them all caught up some day. Here are ones from where I left off in May: