K.K.'s 16th Birthday Party

Last Saturday we went up to my Aunt Stacey's house to celebrate Kaitlyn's 16th birthday!  We left around 6:30 A.M. and met up with my Aunt T.C. and cousins, Collin and Mason, in Mechanicsville.  Then we were really on our way! :)  Before we made it to my aunt's house we stopped in Stuarts Draft to pick up some feed and take a quick potty break.  :)  Then off we went again! :)

We finally arrived about 10:45 A.M. and gave everyone hugs.  It was a beautiful day outside so when we first arrived we spent some time out on the porch.  And who should be on the porch, but some of my adorable cousins?  As I'm sure you've guessed already, here come the pictures! :)

 This is Asher and he's 6 days older than Judah!  Don't you love his big, blue eyes?!

And you all know that this is Judah...my lil' brother.  Can you believe he'll be 1 year old in less than a month?

 This is Rachel, Kaitlyn's youngest sister, and she has the cutest smile! 

Around noon we ate Kaitlyn's special lunch of barbecue, chicken nuggets (for those not fond of bbq), veggies, and chips!

After lunch I was out on the front porch with my camera and Hannah came over and as she talked to us I grabbed two quick pictures of her:

The front porch of Aunt Stacey's house is so pretty and once I saw Hannah's two pictures I had to take some more! :)  So, Hannah and I brought our little cousin Cadence out and she became our first subject!

 The flowers in these pictures were totally Hannah's idea! :)

Isn't she absolutely adorable?!

After taking some photos we showed Aunt Megan (Cadence's mama) the photos and she came out for 2 pictures with her daughter.

Love, love, LOVE!!  Ah!
I love spontaneous, on-the-spur-of-the-moment pictures because they can be so much more "real" looking than posed photos.  Other than tell Aunt Mae-Mae to sit down in the chair I did nothing else!  Have I mentioned how much I love photography?  Capturing these types of pictures always make me fall more in love with photography!

Our next subject was Justus, Cadence's brother, who is so cute too!

Now you're probably wondering why, out of all 8 cousins that were there, I only have pictures of the younger ones.  Well, they were the ones available and easiest to persuade to come stand for pictures! :)

After the guys finished playing football and everyone else finished eating lunch Kaitlyn opened her presents.

Reading her cards (and don't worry about the face in the left photo...that's the "what-in-the-world" look not an unhappy one! :)

Kaitlyn's last present was from her parents.  It was a necklace with half of a heart hanging on it.  Uncle Mike read a few paragraphs about Kailtyn turning 16 and the significance of it before showing that he had another necklace with the other half of the heart.  It was a nice, beautiful 16th birthday present! :)

 The hug at the end of the reading. :)

Next came the cake and the "Happy Birthday" song!
 

 K.K.lit most of her own candles! :)

 "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear K.K., happy birthday to you!"

The birthday girl and her yummy Ukrops cake! :)

After all the festivities were over, everybody just "hung out."

Paw-paw rocked Asher (and himself!) to sleep...

Lexi gave Uncle Kevin his all-time favorite: a head rub...

...and the rest of us talked about memories from when were little, played games, and just enjoyed the family time. :)

Alas, the time came to leave and we gave lots of hugs and goodbyes.  The mountain views as we drove back to our house were exquisite!  I love the mountains!

Around 8 P.M. we stopped for dinner at a Cici's somewhere and ate a delicious meal (thanks Daddy and Mama!).  Then we were back on our way arriving home around 10-11 P.M. that night. :)

Happy birthday, K.K.!  We love you so much and hope you enjoyed your special day!
Love,
Kimber and all the Wassenbergs :)

Hannah's 17th Birthday

"And Hannah prayed and said:“My heart rejoices in the LORD; My horn is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation.'"

1 Samuel 2:1
The oldest child in the Wassenberg clan turned 17 last Tuesday!

We normally have the birthday person sleep in on their birthday, but since Hannah gets up earlier than all of us (every morning), we just told her to stay in our room.  After breakfast was ready we went upstairs singing Happy Birthday.  Never doing the same thing twice, Daddy brought his djembe along and beat it all the way into our room.  This was Hannah's reaction at Daddy's bonging:

A birthday hug from Lydia! :)

After the birthday song, we all went back downstairs (with Hannah! :) and had family devotions before breakfast.  My cousins, Kaitlyn and Sarah, had spent the night so they were here for Hannah's birthday! :)

Hannah and K.K. in our enormous beanbag! :)

We ate fresh blueberries from Westmoreland Berry Farm as we did devotions.

Judah ate his food, too! ;)

When devotions were over we headed to the table.  This was Hannah's plate:

Sweet Tart duckies swimming in a sea of M&M's!  (We always give the birthday person a bunch of candy for their birthday. :)

Hannah's breakfast pick was Farmers' Crepes.  They are a lot of work to make, but they taste so yummy!! 

 

Hannah eating her delicious breakfast!

For her breakfast "sweet food", Hannah had pop tarts! :)

 

And they were so yummy!!!

After breakfast, Mama left with K.K. and Sarah, but before they left we grabbed a quick picture:

Sarah, Hannah, and K.K. :)

Later that night we ate Hannah's chosen dinner:  lasagna and pizza bread!

Lexi set the table beautifully...she's quite the designer! ;)

She put Hannah's napkin in her glass after learning how to make it look like a fan.

(Thanks to one of G.G.'s books.)

After dinner, Hannah opened her gifts!

She received a certificate to Sweet Frog...

 

...some mint candy (she loves mint!)...

...and two shirts! :)

 

As Hannah was opening her presents, Judah was greatly enjoying himself as he ripped the tissue paper to shreds. :)

Hannah received a present from Grandpa and Grandma in the mail a few days before her birthday.  She opened it after all of ours were finished!

Inside was a beautiful, white outfit! :)

Loveliness! :)

Judah was still enthralled with the tissue paper! :)

We then settled down and watched The Chosen starring Robby Benson.  When it was over, we gathered around Hannah and her cake and sung "Happy Birthday" one more time! :)

Blowing out the candles!

(I love how Eden's hand is over Lydia's mouth to keep her from blowing out the candles! :)

Hannah's ice cream cake was very minty!  On the bottom was a layer of Andes mints, then mint chocolate chip ice cream, then oreos with hot fudge drizzled on top, and finally a layer of vanilla ice cream topped with home made whipped cream.  Phew...that was quite the list! :)

As we ate Daddy read a few chapters out of our new, favorite book series by Chuck Black:  The Kingdom Series.  They are excellent books and are an allegory of the Bible.  We bought them at the Homeschool Convention a few weeks ago and we've almost finished two books already!  We always end each chapter with "just one more, please!!"  They're that great. :)

Because it was Hannah's birthday, Daddy read more than usual and we actually finished the first book, ending Hannah's 17th birthday party! :)

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Because I'm here, I'll give you a recap of what we've been doing recently! :)

When G.G. passed away around 2 weeks ago, we held her Memorial Service on June 18th.  The next few days afterward was spent with family as we went to G.G.'s apartment and went through everything.  Her apartment has to be vacated by this coming Thursday, so everyone got together last Saturday and found what they wanted and took it home.  The Lord answered many of our family's unspoken prayers through some things G.G. had.  

The fact that G.G.'s gone hasn't hit us quite yet.  G.G.'s always been there, so it's weird to have her not be there.  Every time we drive by Covenant Woods I know I won't walk in there again, because my G.G. isn't there.  Mama thinks we'll miss her most when we go to the beach in August.  The beach was G.G.'s favorite spot and the little memories of having her with us, will probably make this vacation a little bittersweet.  

But, we're doing well and we're grateful for all the cards and kind words people have shared.   We appreciate it! :)

Through all this wonderful craziness, we're still trying to continue school through the summer (Monday thru Thursday).  Gardening will be on the weekends or in the afternoons.  [Our gardens are doing pretty well, praise the Lord!  Our corn is coming up and our greenbeans, cucumbers, and melons are just starting to produce.  Sometime next week we'll probably be harvesting our potatoes...so far we don't think the voles have gotten to them!!  Thank you, Lord!]

Last Saturday we held a baby shower for my Aunt Amanda at my Aunt Steph's house.  Little Cameron Collins is due in September and we can't wait to see Uncle Sean and Aunt Amanda's little one! :)

This weekend we have two families coming over!  We always enjoying having people over for dinner and dessert!

Next week is the 4th of July so we'll be spending more time with family! :)  K.K. and Sarah (our cousins) will be spending a few days with us and then Daddy, Mama, Hannah, Alexis, K.K., Sarah, and I (along with many people from church) will be going to Kings Fest on July 8th!  We're all excited! :)

So that's what we've been doing! :)  Through all of this business, we're grateful for every day
Have a great day! :)
Kimber :)