family pictures

June 5th we had a Bartel get together and since it was right after church, our family was already all dressed up, and there was someone else to hold the camera I asked for some help taking a family picture. My dad took a few with our camera that unfortunately didn't turn out the best, but I got really lucky when my uncle Larry got out his ginormous fancy amazing camera and got a bunch of great ones for us. This was not really very easy because Luke was hot, a little tired and hungry. On top of that we had just gotten to Larry's house and he wanted to play with Larry's boys but I just had to get that picture taken first.


This one above is my favorite. We had a hard time getting Luke to smile with out being silly and it turns out I like his silly picture the best anyways.

This is the more professional everyone smiling picture, also very nice! Thanks Larry! After we got some good family pics Luke was desperate to put on his super man cape and run around a bit and Larry got some really great ones of that too!

Dedication

We dedicated ourselves to raising Aaron in the church this Sunday. Remembering my promise to myself to take lots of pictures of all my children equally I was nearly late to the rehersal because I was afraid we had forgotten the camera!


This is most of what was read minus the congregation's part...

This is Aaron's "Certificate of Dedication" which includes his life verses. I think if you click on the immage you can see it larger.

Picture with pastor Anita afterwards. Unfortunately we couldn't stay and look for pastor Joan who also preformed the dedication. Aaron's outfit was a gift from Greg's aunt Becky.

Each child was given a children's bible and this one is very different from the one Luke was given. I think it is geared slightly older and it has lots of cool things in it.

The back of it talks a little about what is in it....

Here's one of the videos from the dedication. Unfortunately we were at the end of the line so there were music stands and microphones between us and the congregation.

Sunday School Retreat

Our Sunday School class had our very first retreat this weekend! Not everyone was able to make it and we did miss them but it was a lot of fun and I think we all are really looking forward to the next one.


The first night it was just our family and Jeremy, Jyl, and Hope Ewy. Hope and Luke are close in age and they lost no time getting the fun started. They had races, played all sorts of immaginary games, and played so well together that half the time we didn't even need to watch them closely, just keep an ear on them!

Racing! .... Hope getting some baby time.

We grilled pork chops and threw supper together while the kids played and then we went for a tour of the camp and got to see all the things Jeremy has built and is working on. They have a really cool stage out there and Hope and Luke gave us a sweet little preformance, see the video at the end of the post!

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The kids and dads made s'mores and eventually it was time for bed. Greg had forgotten to bring something in from the car and started to walk out to get it when he saw a really long skinny snake in the grass close to the cabin. He came back in and told me about it and of course my response was, "Hey, I want to see it!" I took a flash light and got to see it pretty well but I don't know for sure what kind it was. I don't think it was poisonous but I didn't test it or anything. I went back in to grab the camera because I wanted to look it up later but by the time I went back out the snake was gone and there was just this huge spider on the cement so I took a pic of that instead...

The next day Joey, Amanda, and Sam showed up followed by Ben and Andrea. We had a great brunch together, very yummy food!

Then we had a divotional time and a couple of hours of out doors time during which Aaron and I napped. We got up and played some games and talked a while using a faith based card game and while we did that the kids fell asleep watching Dora and stayed asleep until supper was ready. After supper we went back outside. Andrea had filled some water baloons for the kids...

Then they got out the bubbles Greg had brought.....

Then Jeremy got out 2 kites he had brought! It was perfect kite flying weather, and I think some of us adults enjoyed it as much or more than the kids.

The panda kite was really easy to fly, even Luke and hope could keep it up just by holding on. But the butterfly kite was quite a bit harder and of course that was the one both kids really liked. It kept wanting to do loops and then crashing to the gound or the roof of the cabin!

After the kites we sat around and talked while the kids did some more bubbles.

We sang some music together, though I would have loved to sing so much more.

Then it was getting late and people had to go home. This is the view from their back deck!

It was a really great retreat, hopefully the next one won't be far off and everyone will come.

Fun in the park! (6/21/11)

We met Ben and Andrea in the park one evening just for fun and when Ben walked up we had a fun little surprise. Ben had decided to shave off his beard for the summer but didn't quite shave off all of it...


Andrea said that after he had shaved off part of it he decided to really look like a hipster and then discovered that he fits into her skiny jeans!

It was a fun evening. We ended up at their house for some yummy raisin bars that Andrea made!

Harvest pictures (6/15 & 21/11

This year harvest came early and it seemed to mostly be on days that I worked. Every time I didn't work it rained! I did get out to the field for a few meals when I was on call which was really nice, and Luke got to ride the combine twice, once with my mom and once with me and Aaron. The day Aaron and I got to ride too was the last day my dad was cutting and he was almost done so we only got to ride for one combine load and then we road in the truck with my grandpa to coop where Luke got a sucker! It has been long enough since my there were little kids riding that my dad thought that the co-op no longer gave out suckers! I think Luke was glad he was wrong. (-:


This was Janet's night to cook and Rod Wedel was there among other guests. Luke didn't like to walk in the wheat stuble so Rod put him on his shoulders!

My sling made eating in the field possible!

Aaron's first time in a combine! He did great. Was happy and awake for the first little bit and then fell right to sleep!

It went by too fast for me, though it actually took longer than they thought it would because of all the rain. By the 23rd everything was cut and we had the traditional "thresher's ice cream". I had to work that night but Greg brough in a cooler with some ice cream that I shared with my co-workers! Yum!