Snow in March...

We had a late March snow storm this weekend. Last Saturday I was wearing a tank top and working outside and we had views like this.....
Only to have this view a day or so later.....

Mom and Dad were hear to visit a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun, but busy time. This picture is from the Hutchinson Zoo where we went after church and lunch that Sunday. We went on this stupid little train ride.

Oh dear, it's been quite a while since I posted anything here!!! Things have been somewhat busy, but overall really good.

Some highlights have been, (while looking back at my calendar)

The first weekend in Feb. we went on a spiritual retreat with the other 1st year pm students and spouse. It was a good weekend and good to get away from everything. The weekend was led by Robert and Luann Yutzy, Luann is our leader in formation every Thurs. night and also spiritual director one-on-one with both Dan and I. I really appreciate Luann and her guidance!!! She is amazing.

The last week of Feb. was a really good one. We went to a Tommy Sands concert, he is a Irish folk singer and peace activist. He his two grown children perform with him and they were amazing! We really enjoyed it! We came to find out later that he has visited the Bruderhof more than once and Dan's parents actually ate breakfast with them once. I even told Dan and he agreed that we could see Dan's dad enjoying a nice long conversation with Tommy Sands...so that was amusing.

Same week we went to a production of Godspell! We took Maddie with us, but left the other two with a babysitter. We all loved it!! They did a great job and it was a lot of fun!

This past Thurs. night all pm students and spouse went to hear Shane Claiborne speak at Bethel College. This was awesome! He is a great speaker and he is very challenging. Great, great night!

Monday I had to take Alexa to the dentist to get two teeth filled. The one cavity was under an old filling, so it was a little more time consuming. She did great, though. Her cheek is still a little sore from biting it while she was numb.

This week is spring break for the college. That means I have most of the week off as well!! I had to go in Monday for cleaning day and I will go in for a little bit Friday morning, but I have the rest of the week off! It is going entirely too fast. It is giving me time to prepare for Mom and Dad to come this weekend though. They are getting here on Friday and will be here through the next Thursday. The girls have their spring break next week, so they will be here for most of that.

And that is about it...that I can think of right now anyway!

The anabaptist game.

Tonight Dan and Madisyn were involved in a big event called the Anabaptist game. It was the event of the night for 209 Junior High Students and their sponsors. There were around 12 groups and they all went from place to place learning about the early anabaptists. It was complete with soldiers and people being captured and "tortured". Dan played the part of Michael Sattler, one of the early anabaptists who was burned at the stake for his faith. He had a monologue that was about two pages long.
Madisyn was the only child in the whole thing. She had one line in a small skit. They were in a room and did their skit, before a soldier comes and bangs on the door and everyone had to run out. They all said she did a great job and she said she wasn't scared at all, but some of the junior high kids were.

Dan and his girls. :)

Dan and Maddie in their costumes.

Dan as Michael Sattler.

Madisyn in her costume.

Christmas

Well we are back in Kansas now after being gone for two weeks. We got to spend Christmas in MD and PA and had a really good time!! I'll recap the two weeks...we left Friday the 19th after I got off work and the girls got out of school, I think we got off around 4:30 or so. We drove through the night and it went really well...it would have been nice if the girls would have slept a little more but over all they did good. Dan even drove the whole way and didn't seem to have any trouble staying awake at all! We got to Mom and Dad's around 10 or 10:30am, so it took us around 17 hours total with the time difference. It was so good to see everyone!!!

We got to go to church twice, which was awesome. It felt wonderful being back there! Being back at Glade was one of the highlights of the trip. It felt so comforting being among our church family again. The second Sunday we were there Dan had Sunday school and the sermon. I think both went really well!

The first Sunday we were back kicked off our Christmas dinners, with the Maust Christmas dinner which was held at Brad and Jessica's. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and had a good ham dinner too!

The next week we left for PA on Tuesday and stayed with Grandpa and Grandma. We had our dinner on Wed afternoon and then went to the Christmas eve service at Franconia Mennonite Church, then we all went back to Grandma's. Thurs. was spent at Sandra's playing games and visiting. We waited till the Laker's game was over (for Dan) at 8:30pm to head back to MD. I drove the whole way so Dan could work on his sermon for Sunday and we didn't get back to Mom and Dad's until 1:00am. I was so glad to go to bed!

Friday we spent the day at Sonny and Alissa's for our christmas dinner, which was ribs that Sonny made...they were really good! We spent the day playing games and eating. That evening Dan and I attended the viewing for Raymond Bender....who is the father and grandfather for some good friends of ours. He was a great christian man and has a wonderful family! He left a wonderful legacy!

Saturday we went to our friends, Buster and Viola's. Sunday we played games and then I went to visit some girls from work we had a lot of fun playing Wii!! :) The next week was just hanging out at mom and dad's, visiting with friends, and playing games. We went to Sonny and Alissa's New years eve and had a good game of scum going!

We left mom and dad's new years morning around 11am and drove to Wakarusa, IN to stay the night with Dan's aunt and uncle. We left their house Friday morning around10am and arrived home around 10:30pm. The longest leg of the trip, or what seemed like the longest anyway was by far Friday. The girls were whiny and fussy and it just seemed to take forever, but we made it! We all slept really well in our beds that night.

Here are some pictures. They are in order backwards.

Here are the girls on the way to Indiana, Thursday.

Riley and Brayden on New year's eve.

Brayden, Madisyn, Alexa, and Riley in front of Sonny and Alissa's Christmas tree.

My cousins Cheryl, Brenda, and Angie, Alissa, Mom and Me in a game of Settlers.

At the Maust Christmas dinner.

Christmas program at Hesston Mennonite

Madisyn and Alexa were in a Christmas program tonight at Hesston Mennonite church.

Maddie is a shephard. The who group of kids singing. Alexa the angel is to the right of the screen and Maddie is all the way to the left.

Here is Alexa with her two buddies Alyssa and Courtney.

A recap of the past couple of weeks. It really doesn't include too much.

We had our pictures taken for Christmas cards and the church directory. We used this one for the church directory. We sure had a time of it getting everyone to look at the camera and smile nicely. Dan and Riley were the worst.

Riley started getting grumpy. She didn't want her picture taken anymore. Couldn't even get her to make a funny face.

This is our friend, Becca, with the girls. She was the one taking the pictures for us.

Back on Nov. 26...the day before Thanksgiving and Madisyn's birthday we had a gathering of the Pastoral Ministries Families at a cabin owned by the college. We had a really fun time, singing, eating, talking, and playing games.

We were pretty cramped in the cabin, but that's ok we still had fun.

Dan is taking finals next week on Monday and Tuesday. Friday we are heading home!!!!!! I can't wait! We are really excited!

Happy Birthday to Madisyn!

Today is Maddie's 9th birthday!