A New Chapter

The past few weeks have been full of activity and change.  After nearly 30 years, my parents moved from their home in the country to a super cute house in “town.”  Their new house is so well done.  You really feel like you’ve stepped into a vacation house when you walk in.  Mom and Tessa did a great job picking paint and décor to give it a truly relaxing and “beachy” feel.  It has been kind of a strange feeling to see their house empty and as we start to paint and change a couple of things to make it home for our family.  To answer the question that many of asked, “When are you moving?”  The answer – we don’t know.  There are a lot of variables in the mix and we are hoping that we will have moved before March, but exactly when in there, we do not yet know.  As of now, we are nowhere close to being ready.  It’s an exciting change, we’re excited for the opportunity to live in the country and enjoy the house my dad built.  We’re thankful Mom and Dad gave us the opportunity to buy their house.  We are excited to “do life” next door to my brother and his amazing wife and sweet daughter.  But we are sad at the same time.  We love our house, it’s been home for the past 11+ years.  We’ve spent our whole marriage here, minus the first 9 months.  More important than the house itself, we love our neighbors.  I’ve said it before, but it is worth repeating.  You can’t ask for better neighbors than the ones we have.  These people are amazing.  They bring you produce from their garden, they give your kids M & M’s every time you visit, they bring Halloween treats and Christmas gifts, they have no property lines, they always have the missing ingredient you need for supper, they are always willing to lend a hand, and they are among some of our closest friends.  We will miss doing daily life with them, there is no question.  But we still have a few months left and we plan to treasure each moment and look forward to many years of friendship ahead, even though it will look a little different than it has in the past.  We are thrilled for the family who hopes to buy our house.  They will be a wonderful addition to the neighborhood and I am excited to see the changes they make to make this house their own.

This sweet girl turned one in October.  She has been such a joy to our family.  It is so fun to watch the special relationship she has with Kate.  Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

  

This girl has super curly hair when her hair is wet, but once it dries, just the bottom half is curly.  It will be interesting to see how her hair turns out.  =)

Went on a field trip with this boy.

 

A couple days later, went on another field trip with the other boy. =)

 

Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party – we are a BIG crew these days. =)

     

Only HALF of the neighbor kids =)

This week we celebrate the life of Mike’s Grandpa.  His life here on earth ended a couple days ago.  The kids and I were talking this morning about Heaven and about my brother-in-law, Jason, talking about how Heaven is like your best day ever times more than we can imagine, over and over and over for eternity.  I got teary just thinking about what a GREAT day he is having today, no more beds, no more restrictions, no more medicine, what a celebration!  As we have talked about all the change going on in our lives right now, we have gone back to this quote by Dr. Seuss.  Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.  When reflecting back on Grandpa Gramm, he certainly left a legacy worth smiling about. I’m so thankful for the opportunity to have known him. 

I Can Only Imagine – by Mercy Me

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side
I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine
[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine
I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son
I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

Minnesota

The kids had a day off, so we met Amanda and Elliott at Radar Farms.  It was a beautiful day and the kids had a ball.

     

I went with Kate and the 3rd grade for her field trip to Salem Park.  It was a neat trip that taught the kids about the Pioneer Days.

  

We spent Columbus Day weekend in Minnesota with Russ and Beth.  As usual they spoiled us with great food and great company. They even traipsed us all around to get pictures for Lincoln with his traveling bear.

       

All the kids.

The kids put on a play for us.

    

Love this crazy girl. =)

Campout

A little catch-up on the last few weeks.  We got to babysit Joce.  She certainly does not lack for attention when she is here.  =)

   

Kate loves to hold babies and was so excited when one afternoon Bethany said, “Kate, do you want to hold Reid?”

Our generous neighbor’s gave us a bike their son had outgrown, so Creighton got Lincoln’s old bike.  He is doing great on it.

We went to Indiana to visit Mike’s cousin and her family.  Thank you for your hospitality!  We enjoyed being with you all and thanks for the pictures. =)

   

We also enjoyed the annual Curt Rassi family campout at the cabin a week ago.  We all had a great time and the weather was perfect.  Kate and Lincoln looked forward to it with great anticipation and it did not disappoint.  Thanks Dad and Mom!

         

Pictures can make our life look so perfect and we have a tremendous amount of things to be thankful for.  While we treasure these moments and times with young kids who still like us, our 4th entry into “the terrible twos”…..well, it never gets any easier, even after having gone through it 3 other times.  Anya is just busy, nothing is up high enough, a bowl of apples and pears left out ends up with 3 bite marks in each piece, syrup on the table ends up with the syrup all over the kitchen, breakfast dishes not put away ends up with cereal bowls dumped out on the floor or eggs spread to the far corners of the house, telling her no ends up with weeping and wailing and throwing a fit, so some days in a desperate attempt to keep from acting in a way I will later regret, I start taking pictures before dealing with the situation to give myself some time to get myself under control.  Hard to believe that such a sweet girl can also be so destructive and mischievous, and yet it’s true.  I don’t know about your house, but we need Jesus in this house.  That is the only way these kids have any hope of turning out, we surely have no idea what we are doing.