Thursday, January 29, 2009

Just Waiting

These last few weeks, we have been busy getting everything ready for our new arrival. We are now as ready as we can be at this point! We have a car seat, the nursery is ready, and our bags are packed for the hospital.

With only 3 weeks to go, we are really looking forward to our little girl actually being here!

Now we wait!

30 Weeks

Back in December, when our little one was 30 weeks in gestational age, we had another 3D ultrasound. It was so cool and so different from the one we had at 17 weeks. She was just so much bigger this time around!

Here is a sneak peak of our little girl.
Not as much room in there this time!

A 3D shot--don't her cheeks look all cute and chubby?



This one is our favorite, with her little hands in front of her face.


Baby Showers

Wondering what the Shoops have been up to besides waiting for Isabella to arrive? One thing is that we have enjoyed having two baby showers over the last couple of months.

The first one was held as a drop-in shower on Sunday afternoon, December 7, 2008. It was given by the grandparents-to-be, and included our friends from our church and community. It was so great to see some friends who we had not seen in a while. We also received so many cute things for our baby girl! Here are some pictures from the event.



Wesley, Sara, & Isabella


Wesley with our friends from church, Larry and Julie Cole, and Wesley's parents


Sara with our friends from West Side Community Church, Rick & Jeanne Butler. Rick was the pastor of WSCC, and he was the pastor who married us!


Yummy cookies and treats!


Wesley & Sara with our friends from church, Jamie & Jamie


A belly shot of Sara and Kristal!


Wesley and James, soon-to-be Dads!


Sara's Mom & Aunt Jane


Our church ABF (Sunday School class) also gave a shower for Sara, along with our good friend Kristal, who is due in March, on Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2009. The ladies from our Connection Group (small group Bible study) coordinated it, and everything was so wonderful! Here are some pictures from that shower.

Another belly shot with Sara & Kristal



The Connection Group ladies: Beth, Kristal, Sherry, Sara, & Deb


Sara with her gifts from the shower

We are so thankful for all of our friends who have given us showers and gifts for our soon-to-be- here little one!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Myrtle Beach


(Written by Sara:)

The first week in November, Wesley & I traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for a bit of a vacation. My mom and her brother and sisters decided to rent a condo there for the whole month of November. My mom and one of her sisters are planning to stay there practically the whole month, and the rest of the family put in for their time where they could!

We had a great time walking on the beach, shopping at outlet malls, playing miniature golf, going to the Medieval Times dinner show (we highly recommend it!), and just relaxing. We also did a lot of eating! The pulled pork barbecue from Sticky Fingers and the hamburgers and sweet tea at Fuddruckers were our favorites.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

The view of the beach from our condo.

This is where we played miniture golf the last day we were there--Hawaiian Rumble Golf. We paid a flat fee for an all-day pass, and we ended up going through the course five times throughout the day! If you look closely at the sign, it says it is the "#1 Most Famous Minigolf Course in the World." It also proclaims that it is the home of the Masters (there's a Masters of minigolf?) and approved by the USPMGA, which is the U.S. ProMiniGolf Association. (Don't believe me? Check it out...http://www.prominigolf.com/). Even though we thought it was a little redundant to be the "#1 Most Famous," it really was a great mini-golf course! Thus, we played through five times!


The volcano in the background would actually rumble and erupt fire every once in a while!


Here I am at the mini-golf course....and 25 weeks pregnant!





Friday, September 12, 2008

The Verdict is in...

We had our baby's ultrasound yesterday, and (drum-roll please)...we are having a girl!!!

The whole ultrasound experience was just amazing. Our doctor has the fancy 3D/4D ultrasound machine, and those images are unbelievable. Our God is so amazing and wonderful and gracious to make our tiny miracle and to let us be able to actually see her before she is even born!

Our little girl's heart and brain and stomach and bladder and kidneys are all great, she currently weighs 7 ounces, and we got the whole thing on a DVD! She was very active, kicking her feet and waving her hands, so the DVD is quite entertaining, at least to her parents and grandparents!!!

So, we are happy to announce that Isabella Gale will be joining the Shoop family in February!

Hooray!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Updates & Congratulations

Since our last post, Sara has been doing so much better. She is actually eating now and starting to gain some of that weight that you are actually supposed to be gaining during pregnancy. At her last appointment, Dr. Wickert just kept telling her to eat whatever she could! She is 15 weeks along now, and we are so looking forward to our next doctor's appointment in September when we will have another ultrasound. Hopefully, we will be able to find out if Baby Shoop is a boy or a girl! We know the grandmothers are anxious to be out buying more clothes than we will ever know what to do with!
Other than taking care of Sara and Baby Shoop, we have also started our usual fall schedules. Wesley had a very busy week at work the week before Purdue's classes started this fall. That same week, we also started FCI (Faith Community Institue) classes at church. Wesley is once again teaching "Overview of the Bible," and he has close to 50 people attending each week! Sara is taking a class on parenting so that we will at least know something about what to do when Baby Shoop arrives! Orchestra rehearsals and performances at church are also starting up again for Wesley in September. The rest of our week consists of relaxing in the evenings or getting the nursery ready for February.
We also want to say that Congratulations are in order for two of our best couple friends! Our friends Brent & Mary are expecting, due January 11th, although Sara wants that little one to wait and come on her birthday, January 12th! They are having a boy, and Brent has already said if we have a girl that it will be an arranged marriage! Our other friends, James & Kristal, are also expecting, due March 2nd. So, with our close friends, it has just been a baby boom! Troy & Sherry, are you ready yet for another one? (Just kidding!)
We will post as soon as we can when we find out about Baby Shoop's gender!
Hope everyone is doing well.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Our Good News!

We know, we know....it's been a REALLY long time since we have posted on our blog. We are sure some of our faithful blogger friends out there are getting really annoyed with us. But, we have a good reason this time, we promise.

We are expecting a baby!

Sara is about 12 weeks along now and the little Shoopster or Shoopette is due in February. We are of course very excited about the news, but this little miracle has also brought along some challenges.

Around 7 weeks, Sara was experiencing severe morning (or actually all-day) sickness, which quickly led to dehydration. After a round of IV's at the hospital and working with some different medications, the illness was still at a bad stage. So, her doctor (the wonderful and ever-patient (no pun intended) Dr. Wickert) put her on at-home care IV therapy. We won't go into all of that now, but some of the challenges of that were small veins and repeated tries at inserting IV lines that eventually led to having a PICC line (a more permanent IV line) put in.

Sara stayed on IV therapy for over 4 weeks, right up until just last Friday. The good thing was that she had the best nurse ever--her own husband, Nurse Wesley! Wesley was required to change out IV bags and flush PICC lines and pretty much do everything that needed to be done to take care of Sara. Now, for those of you who know Wesley well, you know that anything medical is NOT his thing. But, when it came to taking care of his Sara, he did his job like a champ!

So, now we are just trying to move forward after several weeks of these challenges. We know there will be more challenges that will come (including raising a child!), but we will take it one day at a time, and with God's provision, all will work out for our good. For now we are working on getting Sara's strength back up so that she will feel better and be able to get out of the house and resume more of a normal life.

The good news is that the baby is very healthy, in spite of all of the trouble Sara has been having. We have heard the baby's heartbeat several times (you get a lot of ultrasounds and sonograms when you are this sick during pregnancy! Sara has already had 4!) and Dr. Wickert assures us that it is perfect. We are deeply grateful that God has allowed our baby to be healthy through all of this.

We are very excited to be sharing this news with you. We have so appreciated the prayers and support of our friends and family during this time and we will keep you up-to-date as we move closer to the arrival of our little one! We promise!!!

P.S.--Our parents are ecstatic over this news. With this being the first grandchild on either side of our family, you can imagine the excitement. And the spoiling that will be to come!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Our friends welcome their little one

On Saturday, June 7th, at about 10:15am, our good friends Troy & Sherry became the proud parents of Jacob Eugene Cole. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 5 oz, and was 20 inches long. Jacob had a lot of visitors on Sunday afternoon, which is when I (Sara) took these pictures. I didn't get any pictures of me holding Jacob because I was taking everyone else's picture! Troy did take my picture with Jacob today when I went back for another visit (the perks of not having a full-time job!!!) I'll try to get that picture from him sometime when they are a little less busy....I guess that will be never now, huh?
Troy, Sherry, and Jacob are going home today, and we are so excited for them. We can't wait to be involved in this little guy's life, and we look forward to what God has planned for him.

Sherry & Jacob--isn't he just the cutest thing?


Jacob with Daddy--I think Troy is making a funny face mostly because I caught him chewing gum, not because he's trying to entertain the baby! But, when does Troy not have gum?

Here's Kristal with Jacob
And here's a picture of Wesley I took that day. I know Jacob isn't in this picture, but, Wesley's cute anyway!!!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Indianapolis Indians Baseball

On Saturday, May 31st, we went with our ABF to a Minor League (Triple-A) baseball game in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Indians played the Toledo Mud Hens, and we cheered on the Indians to a 4-3 win! This was a pretty big feat, considering that the Indians were at the bottom of their division, and the Mud Hens were the leaders in that same division.

We were sitting on the 3rd base line, and most of the game was spent dodging foul balls.

Wesley says, "Hey, batter, batter, batter.....swing batter!" Or maybe not, if you're going to send a foul ball in our direction!

Here are a couple of pictures from the game. You can see Wesley at the bottom of the one in the stands, and that is our friends James & Kristal behind him. The picture of the field is just after one of the Indians had hit a home run!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Just Something Cool

We both thought it was really cool that the kid who won the National Spelling Bee this year is from West Lafayette! Here is an article about his win:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As it turned out, Sameer Mishra provided more than just comic relief at the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He won the title.

The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, Indiana, who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries, was all business when he aced "guerdon" -- a word that appropriately means "something that one has earned or gained" -- to win the 81st version of the bee Friday night.

"I don't know about comedy lines, but my parents have been telling me since the beginning that I should always stay calm, cool and collected," said Sameer, who likes playing the violin and video games, and hopes one day to be a neurosurgeon.

Sameer, appearing in the bee for the fourth time and a top 20 finisher the last two years, clenched both fists and put his hands to his face after spelling the winning word. He won a tense duel over first-time participant Sidharth Chand, 12, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who finally stumbled on "prosopopoeia," a word describing a type of figure of speech.

Sameer was a crowd favorite throughout the tournament. When told one of his words in the semifinals was a dessert, he deadpanned: "That sounds good right now." He rolled his eyes and muttered "wonderful" when told that one of his words had five different language roots. He once asked "Are you sure there are no alternate pronunciations?" and later uttered "That's a relief" after initially mishearing the word "numnah" (a type of sheepskin pad).

And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? "I'm really, really weak."

Sameer is coached by his sister, Shruti, a high school senior and three-time spelling bee competitor. The first-place finish won him $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in other prizes.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Remembering Sara's Uncle Bob

My Uncle Bob passed away last week after a 6-month battle with pancreatic cancer. We went down to Tennessee over this last weekend to be with the extended family and to attend the funeral. My uncle's best friend, a minister-Rev. Gary Baker, performed the private family service, which was a wonderful memorial to my uncle's life.
During that service, Gary shared three words that he said were "other words for" Bob Hicks. The first was Friend. He shared how Bob had been his best friend and how he had been the kind of friend that the Bible describes as "sticking closer than a brother."
The second word was Treasure. My Uncle Bob was a creator--he loved to build things, especially any kind of woodcraft. Everyone in his family has something that Bob made with his own hands that they treasure.
The third word was Soldier. My Uncle Bob served in the Army when he and my Aunt Jane were first married. During that time he served in Vietnam in the Army Security Agency. He didn't talk very much about his time in military service, but he was completely dedicated to his service to his country during that time and after. He also was a soldier in his battle with cancer. As Gary said at the service, he battled cancer as a soldier and showed everyone how Christians deal with pain and suffering.
Most of my memories about my Uncle Bob center around the times I would stay with Bob and Jane whenever my self-employed parents were out making money all over the country. I would sit and do my homework on the couch while watching Jeopardy or the Discovery channel with Bob (or whatever that channel was then...) We would watch wood-working shows or even cool surgeries (since we were the only two who could stand to watch those surgeries!) I know I would not have been able to get an "A" on my rock collection in the 8th grade if I hadn't had Bob's help!!! Okay, I'll admit it....I actually didn't do anything! Bob did it all! I always felt so safe when I stayed with Bob and Jane while my parents were on business trips. And I have to admit that I did like his "special" cough medicine!
The military burial that my uncle received was so appropriate, and it was the most moving service of that sort I have ever been to. We are very comforted that my Uncle Bob is now free from pain and rejoicing in Heaven with our Lord.
I will conclude this post with the passage that Rev. Baker read at Uncle Bob's burial.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
1 Peter 1:3-9

Sherry's Baby Shower

On April 17, 2008, Kristal, Beth, and I threw a baby shower for our good friend Sherry. She and Troy are expecting their first child (a boy, to be named Jacob) the first week in June. (The exact due date has been much debated, but that is another story...) Many of our ABF (that's Sunday School to you non-Faith Baptist folks!) friends were there to celebrate with Sherry, and baby Jacob got all of the things his parents wanted to get! Here are a few pictures from the event:

Fresh flowers courtesy of Kristal! Those strawberries were as good as they look, too!
Sherry looking so cute!

Sara, Beth, and Sherry (Kristal took all of the pictures!)

Monday, April 21, 2008

Earthquake!

At 5:37am on Friday, April, 18, 2008, Wesley & Sara were sleeping peacefully in their bed when they were awakened by someone shaking their bed. Being good Midwesterners, Wesley & Sara knew that was the only thing it could be because there couldn't really be an earthquake happening in Indiana, right?

Wrong.

From the local paper:

A magnitude 5.2 earthquake that shook much of the Midwest rattled Greater Lafayette at 5:37 a.m. Friday.
Several aftershocks followed, including one at 11:14 a.m. with a magnitude of 4.6, which was felt in Lafayette.
The quake was centered six miles from West Salem, Illinois, about 144 miles southwest of Lafayette. It was felt 450 miles northwest of the epicenter and in such distant cities as Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Des Moines, Iowa.
Experts say the quake and aftershocks happened in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone, a series of underground faults in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois, said Larry Braile, a seismologist at
Purdue University. He said a quake of such size is unusual for this area of the country.
The quake is believed to have involved an extension of the New Madrid fault, a network of deep cracks in the earth's surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The fault is at the center of the nation's most active seismic zone east of the Rockies, something that's known to Midwest residents, even if they forget it now and then. The last severe earthquake in the region was a 5.0 quake in 2002.
No significant damage was reported in Greater Lafayette or in
Indiana.

After realizing that there was, in fact, no one shaking the bed, Sara knew that it was an earthquake, since she had experienced several while growing up in Tennessee. Wesley, however, was pretty "rattled" (I know, I know, that was bad...), since he had never experienced an earthquake before. Since he lived all over the place as a child, we guess he was just never in the right place at the right time!

An aftershock occured later that day while Wesley was on the 4th floor of Beering Hall. He described the experience as "crazy," since it felt as if the whole building was swaying. Sara thought the earthquake event was "just so cool!"

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Easter 2008

He is risen!

We were very busy this Easter season, as we are every year. We once again participated in the orchestra for the Lafayette Passion Play, presented by our church. We had two Saturday morning orchestra rehearsals followed by whole-production rehearsals on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Easter. The performances were Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, March 20, 21, & 22. The Passion Play truly is a professional-style performance while also being a great opportunity to reach out to our community.

The orchestra also played for services at church on Easter Sunday morning. We had a great time of worshipping our risen Savior with our church family.

That afternoon we went to Wesley's parents' house for a wonderful Easter dinner. Sara's parents were invited as well, and we enjoyed Jillaine's awesome ham, green beans, mashed potatoes and corn casserole (Sara's favorite). We also "hunted" for Kinder-eggs (a German chocolate hollow egg with a toy inside!), which is an Easter tradition for the Shoops. We all enjoyed eating our chocolate and putting together our small toys.

Even though it was early this year and seemed to be over rather quickly, we had a nice Easter.

He is risen indeed!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Ashley, this is for you...

As I mentioned in a previous post, several people have asked us to update our blog more often. One of these "people who actually have a life and interesting things to say on their blog" is my friend Ashley. We met her and her husband Graham in our Young Couples class and got to know them well through Connection Group.
They are expecting a baby in April, and I went to her baby shower last week (thus, receiving one of the "you haven't posted anything since Christmas!" comments).
Here is a picture of Kristal, Sherry, Ashley, and me enjoying the festivities. (I promise I was being included in the picture, even though it looks as if I just decided to join at the last minute without the rest knowing.)




I have been making blankets the last few years to take as gifts to the baby showers I attend. When you go to as many as I do (being in a Young Couples Sunday School class helps with that), you have to find something that won't break the bank. I started out making some that were just one piece of fleece with a binding around it. Lately, I have been making the "tie" fleece blankets that are just two pieces of fleece cut out to the same size and tied together around the edges. I think they make good floor blankets for the babies to play on when they get a little older.

For Ashley, since they are waiting for the surprise of a boy or girl, I made one that was solid green and solid cream. It looked really nice, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I went to another baby shower two days later for two other girls (I told you I went to a lot of baby showers!), and here are some pictures of those two blankets. One friend is having a boy, and one is having a girl.








Ashley, I hope you have enjoyed the posts from the last few days. (And Happy Birthday on the 10th!) I promise not to go another 3 months without posting again. Let us know when that little one gets here!!!

February Conference 2008

The second week in February, we attended the Biblical Counseling Training Conference at our church. Sara has helped out with meals and snacks at this event for the past few years, and we have hosted conference guests, also. Every time we host people attending the conference, they tell us how much they enjoy it and how much they learn. So, this year we decided to attend ourselves.

The sessions were every day from 8:00AM-7:00PM. That makes for a long day, but it was worth it. We learned LOTS of information. Some of it we had already learned on Sunday mornings in church and ABF (Adult Bible Fellowships or Sunday School). However, it was good to get a refresher on it. We also learned lots of other information that was very useful. There were lessons on secular psychology, marriage, psychological drugs, communication, relationships, and how to apply scripture to any situation that arises.

The goal of the conference was to prepare the attendees to counsel others. However, Sara and I learned a lot about ourselves, how we are to behave, and how we can help people we come into contact with everyday. The common theme throughout the week was that "the best counselors are also good counselees". So, we enjoyed the week and are already putting it into practice.

What's New?

We have gotten several comments lately from folks saying that we have not been updating our blog enough. From our end of things, I guess we just don't think we have too much going on that other people would find exciting. But, we also came to the realization that we don't have to only post on our blog about the big things. Even the everyday things can be exciting and fun to share.

So, I promise to post to our blog more often.

First, here are some pictures from New Year's Eve...James & Kristal came over for the night and stayed through New Year's Day. We played games and watched movies and football. (Of course...the two things that Wesley and Sara like to do the best! Luckily, J&K like to do these things, too!) It also snowed that night on the way home from the movie theater, and the flakes were the biggest I have ever seen! The "saying" for the night was, "Big Flake...Little Snow." That was true for that night, but not for the rest of the winter!

Wesley was soooo excited to be wearing his party hat!



Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas, 2007

“That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!” Philippians 2:10-11

Hello, Everyone!
We did not get a chance to get a Christmas letter out with our cards this year, so this blog entry will just have to suffice. We have been so busy this year with various things, most of which have been really fun, and we are looking forward to what the next year will bring.

On the job front, Wesley is continuing with his job at the College of Education IT department at Purdue. He really enjoys his job, and he hopes to stay at Purdue for a long time. As for Sara, she officially quit her job at BASi at the end of May. However, we guess they just couldn’t get along without her (just kidding!), so they called her in July to work on a special temporary project. The good thing about it is that she can work on it part-time at home. And get paid more than she was when she permanently worked there! So, she took the job, and has being doing that ever since. Since the job is only temporary, she was scheduled to be doing it until the end of this year. But, true to BASi fashion, it will continue until at least next April. It is nice that Sara can work at home, though, and she is enjoying the freedom that brings. In addition to that job, Sara has also been baby-sitting for a couple of afternoons a week for a child of a friend from BASi. Brooke’s daughter, Maya, is currently 4 months old, and what a cutie she is! Sara has been enjoying that immensely.

As for our church this year, it has been a year of exciting changes and transitions at Faith Baptist. Our Community Center opened in July to much enthusiasm. In the fall, our friends Doug and Karen Helmer left our church and ABF (Sunday School class) to embark on a new adventure with church planting though Harvest Chapel in Chicago. We are so excited for what they will be doing for Christ through that ministry! Since that change, we have a wonderful new leader in our class. Pastor Rob Green has been such a blessing to our ABF, and we look forward to learning from him and growing with him in the future. We were very involved in the “Christmas for Everyone” program again at church, and, of course, the Christmas musical. Another new adventure with which Sara will be involved next year is our church’s “Vision of Hope” ministry. Vision of Hope is a residential treatment facility for young women struggling with unplanned pregnancies, eating disorders, and addictions. Our church is very excited to be able to start this important ministry, and Sara is as well. She has been attending training for the past few months, and the doors are set to open January 1st, 2008.

This year has also been another year of exciting travels for us. In January, we went with Sara’s Mom and Dad to St. Augustine, Florida, for another of Sara’s Dad’s conference trips. It was so nice to get to go to Florida in January even though it was still a little chilly. St. Augustine is a fascinating place to visit historically. We had a great time taking the trolley around town and also finding some great places to eat! We found a great little restaurant called “Scarlett O’Hara’s” that served some of the best barbeque we have ever had. (Sorry South Street Smokehouse!)

In June we decided with Sara’s Mom and Dad to take off to South Dakota for a road trip. We rented a mini-van and drove from Indiana, through Chicago, across Wisconsin, across Minnesota, into South Dakota and ALLTHE WAY ACROSS South Dakota, down into Nebraska, all the way across Iowa, across Illinois, and back home again to Indiana. The trip took 8 days, and it was a great trip. We saw so many neat things, including Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, buffalo at Custer State Park, Wind Cave, mammoth remains at Hot Springs, Deadwood, the Homestead of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s family, the Corn Palace, Wall Drug Store, the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Rozenblat Stadium where they play the College World Series, and even where Wesley graduated from high school—Bellevue East! We had so much fun touring that part of the country. Sara had never been to any of those places, so she was really excited to see it all!

In September, we were invited by our good friends Troy and Sherry Cole to go with them and another couple (the ever-cool James and Kristal Arnold!) to Orlando, and we jumped at the chance. We had wanted to take an Orlando trip for a long time, and this turned out to be the perfect way to go. Wesley and I flew down on a Friday and spent a couple of days at Universal Studios before meeting up with the Arnolds and the Coles to do the Disney thing. We all stayed (along with Sherry’s sister, Jolene) in a condo that Troy and Sherry had set up, and we had a great time! We spent 5 days visiting the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and MGM. We laughed and “played” and relaxed and had an awesome time! Thanks, Troy & Sherry for inviting us!

The next few blog entries have a few pictures from our many adventures this year.
We hope everyone is doing well, and drop us a line or send an e-mail anytime!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!!

Pictures from Disney, September 2007

Wesley & Sara at the Magic Kingdom

Troy, Sherry, Jolene, Sara, and Wesley at EPCOT

The Girls with Mickey--Sara was so excited to see Mickey--she had never seen him at DisneyWorld, even though she had been there about 5 times!

Sara with Minnie

Sara, Wesley, James, & Kristal at MGM

Wesley & Sara at the Magic Kingdom Parade and Fireworks

Pictures from South Dakota, June 2007

Wesley & Sara at Mount Rushmore

Sara at school at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in De Smet, South Dakota

Wesley at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead--making rope

Bill & Nola at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead--making rope

Crazy Horse

Wesley at the Mammoth Site, South Dakota, giving us a height comparison of a Columbian Mammoth--Wesley is 6'3"--the mammoth is 14 feet!

Buffalo at Custer State Park, South Dakota

Wesley in Deadwood, South Dakota

Wesley's high school in Bellevue, Nebraska--Bellevue East!

Wesley & Sara at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska