Mission Call for Keith

Tonight Keith opened his mission call.  For the next two years he will be serving in Mongolia!  We were all pretty shocked!  I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even know where Mongolia is.  We had lots of friends come to be with us when he opened it.  Everyone put their guess on a notebook and Risk game.

We also had family participating through FaceTime and a Google Hangout.

He faked us all out when he started reading it.. making it sound as though he had received his first two batches of names for indexing.  Hahaha!


I am really proud of Keith for the work and dedication he has put into getting prepared for his mission.  I am grateful for him and excited that he will have this opportunity!  I am especially thankful for the Lord.  He has such an amazing plan for His children!  What a blessing it is to get to be a part of His work!  I really do love my Heavenly Father and Savior!  I also really love my Keith...my future Mongolian missionary!

Planning

With our new property comes MANY opportunities!  I find my head constantly spinning and planning with ideas for our home and land.  It is both exciting and exhausting!  I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who brought us to this beautiful place.  I am so anxious to serve Him.  Here are the current plans and ideas I am mulling around:

-Getting our dogs better established/possibly switching breeds

-Walking trail

-Landscaping

-Playground equipment

-basketball court

-volleyball court

-indoor painting 

-garage conversion to playroom

Happy Birthday LaMonte!

We had another busy, wonderful weekend!  Yesterday we celebrated LaMonte’s birthday.  We are so blessed to have him in our family!  He is so good to me!  He is a great father and provider!  I love and appreciate him more than I can say!

The Langford family came over to celebrate with us.  They gave us a bunch of Diamond spirit wear.  We really enjoy their family!

On Friday, the Levitt family came for dinner and a visit. They are expecting their 10th baby!  President Levitt is our Stake President. We had fun playing games together and getting to know each other. We have been SO blessed in our new home and Stake!

I got to have time with Sarah and Jacob on Friday as well.  They both had doctor appointments.  Afterwards we stopped at Sam’s for groceries and a snack. I really enjoy the time with these little ones!

Cross Country

Yesterday, I was able to go and watch David run in Cross Country.  This is his first year running.  He is loving it!  It sure brought back a lot of memories watching him out there.

Looking good!



After the race, ALL of my little kids decided they really needed the bathrooms.  We probably monopolized the 2 porta potties for 15 minutes. In this picture, we are all waiting impatiently while Jacob is taking his time inside and singing loudly... “Meet me in St. Louie”

Back to School

This year everyone decided to give public school a try. What a different experience!  We only moved 25 minutes away, but we are in a new Stake and an entirely different school experience.  So far, they all seem happy with school!

Birthdays

August 9 was a fun day for everyone as we celebrated Kevin’s 6th birthday.  We had a party at King Jack park in Webb City.  His biggest request was a candy maker.  He got a chocolate pen...and a bunch of other fun gifts!

Kevin is a delight to our whole family!  We love him!







On August 22 we got to celebrate again for Sam’s 7th birthday.  He is really growing up and maturing!  He is already taller than Jacob!

Sam was most excited about getting a new bike for his birthday.  He taught himself how to ride it!



We had a bonfire for Rebecca’s “Sweet 16”.  There were 30 or more youth there from 3 different stakes.  It was a really good feeling to have all of the youth at or home!  We set up white lights under our big tree which created a really fun atmosphere.  We are SO blessed to have our Rebecca!

Welcome Home!!!

I have been feeling both the drive and the desire to establish our family in a permanent location for quite some time.  We have felt a strong desire to know where God would have us to be.  The desire to know and follow His will for our family both now and in the future has been my greatest objective.  At times, it seemed we would face a dead end or insurmountable problem.  In fact, as we fixed up the home we were living in we fell in love with it even more!  However, LaMonte and I seemed to consistently receive the same guidance and impressions as we prayed.  We both felt the guidance of the spirit throughout the process of our search until we finally found the property we now call home!

It is perfect!  It is a large home with a full finished basement set on 13 Acres with a beautiful pond.

It feels like this spot was prepared just for our family!  It has a perfect balance of beauty, safety, fun, and proximity to everything we need.

Most of all...it is SO peaceful here!  I am so very grateful for the love and guidance of my Eternal Father who brought us to this beautiful place!