Please Pray.....

Please take a few minutes out of your day to pray for Kayleigh's family. Sweet Kayleigh was made whole again Monday, May 11th when she went to be with our Lord. She has had a long hard journey and is now resting in the arms of our Savior. I pray that God will give her family the strength to get through these most difficult days. What a blessing her parents are to so many. They are able to praise God.... even in this storm!

Annual Illinois State Twin Convention

For the past 4 years, we have been able to attend the twin convention in our area. It has been held in Champaign twice and Bloomington. This year it was held in Arthur. We have had a great time every year and have met some of the nicest people! We look forward to seeing the same people every year and excited to meet new people as well!

The convention is always held on a Sunday in April. There is a lunch at noon and then a short business meeting. The best part of the convention is the Twin Contest. They have all different categories and age groups. It is fun to see them all get up on stage! Some of the categories are:

*Twins that look the most alike

*Twins that look the least alike

*Twins that travel the longest distance

*The oldest twins

*The youngest twins

There are twins of EVERY age there. From infants to 90 years old, every set has their own story and it's interesting to get to know them. The first year that my girls went, they were totally overwhelmed with having their picture taken! Everybody takes pictures of everybody!!! With the girls being younger, and so dang cute, they were a BIG attraction! Now that most of the people are not complete strangers, they handle it a lot better!

I wish I could post up some pictures from the conventions in the past years, but I won't be able to do that until I get my own computer hooked up at our new house.

Here are a few from this year.....

(Left to right) Taelyn, Nevin, Nolan, and Mariya

They have a Shriner's clown to make balloons for all of the kids.

This picture was taken during the Judging. I believe the category was Woman (age 55 and up) - "twins that look the most alike". I am so glad I am not a judge. Some of the categories would be so hard! (FYI... The set with the #2 won!)

My camera batteries died just in time for my kiddos to go on stage!!! I had an extra set, but I missed them onstage. They didn't have much competition because there was not many twins that were their age this year! The girls won "Twins that look the most alike" in their age group. They have won it for the past 4 years.

This is my sweet friend, Carrie. She has come for the past 2 conventions with her girls. They are gorgeous!



We attempted to get a picture of my girls with her girls. It was nap time and not an easy task! =) Next year we will do it EARLIER! It will be neat to compare them every year and see how they have grown!


We met these boys the first year that we went to the conference. Actually, the mom and I met that year. The girls could care less. Boys have cooties! Anyways, we take their picture every year too. Someday my girls may look forward to seeing these boys there! ;)

At the end of the convention, they get all of the twins up on stage and take pictures. This year was not a great turnout. Usually they can't all fit on stage! It is so cool to see them all together! (One of the ladies is holding Nolan because he had fallen asleep. Nevin is in front of the girls and Nolan is right behind the girls.)

I didn't get a picture of Nevin and Nolan with their medallion. They were a mixed consensus! Some said they looked alike and some said they didn't! I think they ended up giving them the "Twins that look the most alike" prize for their age group, but only because they had NO competition! =)

Next year, the convention is in Danville!!! I am planning on being more involved this coming year and the years after! If you know anyone interested, let me know and I will give them some information!

Easter....Part Two (THE HUNT)

We usually have a HUGE Easter lunch at my parents' house. This year, since we are pretty much hogging every square inch of their house, we moved our Easter celebration to my brother's house.

We always have so much awesome food! I am blessed with a family full of great cooks!!! We had everything from homemade chicken and noodles to Italian beef/deer. (Did I mention that my family is also full of hunters?) And the desserts...oh my! I think we had more dessert than anything else!

It is so much fun to sit around and visit with all the family members! I think we had around 40 people there this time. We had 19 of the 20 grandchildren present. They are all between the ages of 2 and 14. So the annual Easter Egg hunt was very anticipated this year! I really enjoy watching all of the kids search for the eggs! It's especially challenging to get pictures of their little faces while finding the eggs! I definitely did not get everybody! Here's a few of the pics....

Taelyn... sporting a smile for the camera.

Mariya found one!!!

Ashton found a stash on the trampoline.

Nevin has a dog buddy for the egg hunt.... Josie!

Bryson was hard to catch! I have about 15 pictures of the back of his head. He kept running off before I could get a picture. Here he is with his cousin, Chloe.

Sweet Nolan. He had a hard time refraining from immediately opening the eggs and eating the candy.

My little nephew, Chance, spots an egg and takes off running!

My big nephew, Chance, up in the tree... getting eggs down for the little ones. (How he grew up so fast, I will NEVER know!!!)

Our little cousin, Macey, showing off her loot!


Our cousin, Jenna... one egg in each hand and running for another one!


My nephew, Coy, checkin' his eggs for goodies.


My nephew, Ty (Coy's twin brother)... with a mouthful of chocolate already!

I wish this picture would have turned out better. We don't get very many pictures with MOST of the grandchildren all in one shot. Here they are pictured with my Grandpa Beanie and Grandma Betty, my maternal grandparents and the sweetest, most awesome people on the face of this earth!

Easter...Part One

We had such a great Easter this year! The kids woke up at 6:00 to see what was in their baskets. We definitely don't go all out on gifts for Easter. They got some candy and a couple games to share. We didn't make it to the Sunrise Service. Hopefully we will be able to do that next year! We did have a wonderful church service with a packed auditorium!

My pictures didn't turn out real great this year! We were in a rush and I just snapped a few shots as we ran out the door!

Ashton...cheesin' (he doesn't like to have his picture taken!)

Mariya and Taelyn.... my little sweethearts!


Bryson.... don't think for a minute that he has nice dress shoes on... he was sportin' his "broke-in" cowboy boots!



Nolan and Nevin. This is the only picture that I have of them from Easter!!! What goofballs! Nolan looks like a pirate... Arrg! Nevin looks like a space cadet! Oh well.... they're still my cuties!




And of course, we HAD to get a family shot! Not great, but serves the purpose!




Easter Part two coming up next! Including pictures from our annual Easter egg hunt!!!

Pleasing God at ALL times....

Tonight as we finished up praying, I was chatting with the kids about some of the things that we have been talking about in our adult Sunday School class. We have been doing a 13-week study and it has been great! Last week, we talked about "Pleasing God". The main part of the lesson was basically if we are NOT pleasing GOD, we are pleasing OURSELF! It was a great reminder for me!!!

As I talked with the kids, I brought up the old saying, "There's just TWO choices on the shelf, pleasing God OR pleasing self!". The kids were very receptive and we talked about a lot of things. I asked them for examples and they came up with some great ones:

Ashton said ..... "If someone at school calls us a name, we should ignore them or tell the teacher...that would be pleasing God. If we called them a name back... that would be pleasing self."

(Good job Ash.... right on the money!)

Mariya said ... "If we are told to put on our jammies, we should obey and put on our jammies... that would be pleasing God. If we went and played around instead of putting on jammies... that would be pleasing self."

(Good job Riya... what a good listener!)

They said a few other examples that let me know they were right on target. THEN... my four year old, Bryson, chimes in .....

He says in a very serious tone... "If someone is mountain climbing, and there is an avalanche, then we tell them to RUUUUUNNNNN!!!!!!!"

Mountain climbing? Avalanche? Where does he come up with this stuff???

I'm thinkin' maybe he wasn't listening quite like the other kids! =)

Our lil Getaway....

Last week we took a spontaneous trip to Lafayette, IN. When the weather is nice, we try to take mini-trips about once every month or two. Usually not very far, within 2 hours from home. This time, we went for two days and had an awesome time! The kids enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool and most of all, Chuck E. Cheese! Other than that, we just ate (at Texas Roadhouse on Friday night, Chick-Fil-A on Saturday) and hit up a Target! I figured I would post a few pics....

Mama, Nolan, and Bryson hanging out in the hot tub.

Most of the time Ashton was in the pool with the goggles, but I snapped a pic of him while he was sitting still for a minute!

My Bry Guy

Chuck E. Cheese...the next day!


Taelyn and Mariya...tryin' out the dancing game. They obviously get their mother's coordination skills!




The boys loved the water gun game.



My Riya...cheesin' for the camera! Whatta sweetie!



Nolan riding tandem with one of the girls. I THINK it's Mariya.


Nevin....Daddy's boy.

Oh my word....I can see it already! 14 years from now.....

Chocolate?? What Chocolate????

Grandpa seemed to have left his box of chocolates

sitting on the table next to his Lazy Boy.

A few minutes after he left, the boys found them.

Of course, my "MISS MOM" volunteered to give them baths.

What would I do without my Sweet Tae and her helpful hands!?!?

And by the way.... you think the boys look messy???

You should've seen the recliner!!!