And They're Off!!!!!!!!!

 Remember Mama and Daddy's special anniversary present?  Well, today they left for their 6-day cruise to the Bahamas! :)

We went to Calvary Chapel Newport News for church this morning, and then headed straight to the dock.  Luggage tags were obtained and, after some time of waiting for Daddy to show up (he went to park the van), we all said goodbye.  We weren't allowed on the ship, so we said goodbye on the bottom floor as they prepared to depart.  For some the departing was a little tearful (truth be known, I did blink back the tears too!) but then we walked away and everyone got better from there.  (Still kind of sad saying bye to your parents for a whole 6 days!)

We heard from Mama a little while ago and the ship was leaving the port.  She said their bedroom and balcony was very nice.  They ate at some grill for lunch and she said that there are soft serve ice cream places everywhere (can you imagine??)!  Boy, if I ever went on a cruise, I sure would be fat when I got off!! :)

Lydia (left) was happy before the goodbye!  

The ship, Carnival Glory, (right) was massive!  I just kept going Wow, that's a big ship and it was!  Would love to go on a ship that big one day! :)

The weirdest part about this cruise is not being able to hear from Mama and Daddy for 6 days.  It costs $1.50+/minute to call from the ship and we don't have a laptop, so they can't email us.  We'll just have to wait and hear all about everything when they get back this Saturday!

Until then, keep all of us left at home in your thoughts and prayers please!  Never been alone for 6 days before!

Kimber :)

20 Years and counting!

On August 8th 1992 Scott Michael Wassenberg married Michelle Diane Nash.

  These two became one, and not long after their marriage, they gave their lives to Christ.
They are now living on 10 acres in the country with 9 children and many farm animals.
They are blessed and are a blessing to everyone they meet!

Since this was their 20th anniversary, we children wanted to do something extra special for them.
So, watch the video on a following post to find out what we did! :)

We have some people that contributed to this gift and we are very grateful to them.  For privacy's sake though, we won't say who they are.  :)

That concludes this post...be sure to look for the video to see what we did! :)

Have a blessed week!

Joyfully His,
Alexis

Hannah's "Sweet 16" Birthday (Part 3)

"...you shall celebrate..."

Leviticus 23:32

On Monday, June 21st, we celebrated Hannah's birthday (again! :).  Hannah decided that she would have Grandma's Farmer Crepes for breakfast that morning.  If none of you have ever had crepes before they consist of a tortilla-like pancake, filled with ham, eggs, and potatoes, and then smothered in a delicious sauce.  Anyways, they are so yummy and, no, we didn't save you any! :)

Hannah eating.

Daddy displaying his appreciation of the crepes for you.

Reading a card.

Eating a pop-tart.

Daddy made a late-night run to the grocery store, the night before, to pick up some pop-tarts for Hannah (as a surprise)!  They were really good too! :)

When breakfast was close to over, Hannah went on a hunt for a present.  Caleb had hidden the present in our room and he used a "hot-cold" tracking system, to give Hannah hints on where to find the gift!

Searching....searching!

Found! :)

Hmmm....what could it be?

Preparing To Be A Help Meet by Debi Pearl!!  Yeah!!!

Huggy, huggy! :)

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Later that day, Mama and Daddy prepared to take Hannah out...somewhere.  For awhile we had known that they were going to be taking Hannah somewhere special on her "Sweet 16."  So, Hannah got ready and then they left around 1:30.  (They left early so they could attend my great-aunts' funeral.)

Lydia on the sidewalk, waiting to wave goodbye to Daddy, Mama, and Hannah.

Baby feet! :)

While Daddy was taking a shower, everyone was cleaning the truck to make it special for Daddy, Mama, and Hannah.

Seth cleaning the outside.

After his shower, Daddy helped too! :)

Mama and Daddy getting ready to go.

My beautiful sister! :)

Daddy took the camera with him that night, so he could document Hannah's surprise.  Meanwhile, the rest of us ate dinner and, later, watched a Veggie Tales while eating some cookies.  Because I wasn't with Daddy, Mama, and Hannah, I'm going to let Hannah tell you the story:

"After the funeral for my Great-Aunt Julia we got back in the car and daddy told me that he and mama were taking me to look for a Hope Chest (a.k.a. cedar chest).  For those of you who don't know what a hope chest is please allow me to inform you; a hope chest is a decorated cedar chest that young ladies used to begin to store things for their future home or things that have special memories (first baby picture, first child, notes from children, husbands notes/love letters, etc.).  While looking for stores to stop in at we happened to see a Tack shop, and of course had to stop in and see what they had!

Looking around.

A glass horse figurine.

Me in a cow-girl hat...

Mama and I looking at a book that had 101 reasons why to get a horse, pretty funny!

After visiting a couple of stores (and having no success in finding a hope chest), we headed to the restaurant daddy had made reservations for...Ruth's Chris.  For those who haven't been there, it's a beautifully decorated historic mansion that has a wonderful fine-dining restaurant in the bottom level.  The food is DELICIOUS and you get a lot!  Now I have to tell you a little secret, I knew beforehand where we were going as daddy accidentally left a tab up that morning that had Ruth's Chris website (and I remembered people saying that it was a very fancy dining experience).  I enjoyed a little bit of small talk with my two wonderful parents, it was so weird having them all to myself...

The Restaurant!

Where our fine dining awaited us!! :-)

A lovely chandelier inside.

Daddy took this picture of the butter just for Kimber.

My beautiful mama!

...no comment...

Daddy is really personable and got to know our 3-4 waiters pretty good.  He told them it was my birthday and they brought out a delicious dessert.  It was chocolate mousse encased in a hard shell of chocolate, topped with home made cool whip and a candle (with drizzled Carmel on the plate).  It was absolutely wonderful!!!

Well, we soon left Ruth's Chris and looked around at a couple more places for a hope/cedar chest but didn't find any.  We then went to Friendly's and got ice-cream.  While we were eating daddy read the first chapter in Preparing to be His Helpmeet.  I loved it!

Many thanks to my loving parents.  The Lord has blessed me with loving guiding parents who try the best they can to please, honor, and praise Jesus with their own personal lives and with the family He's given them!  I could not ask for better!!!  I love you guys!!!!!"

Kimber and Hannah

Daddy and Mama's Special Dinner

"You shall bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it; and you shall bring in the lampstand and light its lamps."

Exodus 40:4

Last Friday we were cooking dinner and Hannah suggested we make a "special dinner" about 1 hour before dinner was ready.  (We're just kind of random like that! ;)  A "special dinner" is where we put a tablecloth on the table, set it with china and crystal glasses, and put candles 'round the room and on the table.  We were going to have a big family dinner but it ended up becoming a special night for Mama and Daddy...all alone with each other...in the schoolroom.  Lexi was the room designer, assembling the tablecloth, table settings, and lots of candles that added a beautiful, romantic flair!

Like I said, this plan was on the spur of the moment, so there wasn't anything really special for dinner: chicken pasta bake, greenbeans, and rolls was the menu.  We left the dinner as a surprise to Mama and then, once we were ready, we led her and Daddy in amongst the flickering candlelight. 

The table

One of the lovely scented candles.

Mama and Daddy before dinner. 

I was in there with the tripod and Mama and Daddy had to stay really still for about 4 seconds (they couldn't move!) so the picture wouldn't be blurry.  They did great! :)

Some more of the candles.

We then left them to themselves and went and ate dinner.  They communicated with us through a walkie-talkie and a few check-ups by various members of the family during dinner.

After they finished talking, they emerged from their cave and we watched Narnia and ate some homemade ice cream!

---

I had to get this post in rather quickly since we're leaving tomorrow morning for Rocky Mount, VA to visit with our uncle and his family.  We'll be spending the night and coming back sometime Saturday.

Delighting in Jesus,

Kimber :)

Emerald Isle Portraits; Mama and Daddy

"He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm."

Job 26:12

Well, it's been awhile since we've posted on here! :) I'm letting Lexi do the post on the beach, but because I took so many pictures (over 1,000) it's taking her awhile to get the photos uploaded. So, I offered to make a collage of each individual person (or group) and post it, so that way it'll be easier for her and more fun for me! :) So, the first collage I did was Daddy and Mama. You can just click on the picture and it will enlarge...for better detail.

On Thursday, before dinner, we did all of our portrait sessions. I set everybody up and went around and took pictures - which was, of course, lots of fun for me! :) (Lexi did my pictures)

I'm going to try to upload 1 collage per day this week, Lord willing, and I'm also hoping to get a garden post up here.

Striving to be like HIM,
Kimber :)