Queens, NY or Bust!

Luke, along with 10 kids and 3 adults, traveled to Queens, NY for their mission trip, July 19- 27th. All their fundraisers were done, their bags were packed, good-byes said and they were off to be Christ's hands and feet for the week! It is always awesome to hear all the funny stories and the miraculous stories of how God showed up! We are praising God for his hand of protection on these kids and all the miles they covered. The ultimate goal is that the love of Christ was shared and hearts were touched and transformed!

Update!

Some of you have been wondering what's up with the Hatfields?!...

well in short, July has been a crazy month for our family. With the 4th of July, a music fesitival(Luke and youth), mission trip to NY (Luke and youth), me and the kids visiting family while Luke was gone and now to close out the month we had the Heinens visit for the day and Luke's parents are with us until Saturday! We are so grateful for God's amazing provision for us as we spent over 15 days apart this month and thousands of miles were covered in that time as well. His love is sufficient and the many prayers our family and friends lifted up were answered!

God is good!

Read ALL the blog entries below and you'll see it's been a wild, crazy and fun ride!

Heinens visit!

Luke's friends from high school, Matt and Anna Heinen, came to visit us on their way through to a cabin up north. They had already traveled 4 hours and still had 3 hours to go. They appreciated getting out to stretch their legs and we enjoyed their company for a few hours. We went out for lunch and then the girls went garage saling while the men went golfing. Thanks for taking the time to stop by Heinens! We'll look forward to seeing them again as the plan is to stop by again for a few hours on their way home on Sunday!

Traeger and Caleb became quick friends.

Here they are at lunch time being little monkeys eating their bananas.

Flexible!

How's this for flexibility?! This girl loves chewing on her piggies :O)

Cousins!

Sunday night, while I was out with Casey, the Beutel/Skutka and Knuppel families (Luke's cousins/Aunt and Uncle)) went over to Tim and Laura's to hang out with Traeger and Ataly. As you can see they had a blast together. Autumn taught Traeger the worm :O)! I wish I could have got that on video.

Girl time!

I was able to meet up with Casey on Sunday night! As always, it was a refreshing time to connect, encourage one another and just be me! Thanks Casey for taking the time to meet up!

Hollandfest!

We happened to be in Cedar Grove when the annual Holland Festival was going on. It was fun to see some familiar faces, listen/dance to some fun music, eat some yummy festival foods, observe the traditional street scrubbing and we watched a really cool BMX bike show-all were a big hit with Traeger (as the picture shows).

Playing at Nana and Grandpa's house!

Traeger and Ataly enjoyed all the time they got to hang out with the Hatfield cousins at Nana and Grandpa Tim's house!

Traeger, Ataly, Madison, Annabelle

Annabelle and Traeger...2 years old

This was a year ago... Traeger and Annabelle 1 year old

Auntie Nicole (and Jack :O)) reading stories with Traeger!

Scrapbooking date!

Laura and I got to scrapbook for a whole day! She got a babysitter and we went crazy making memories! It was a ton of fun to hang out, chat, walk to Cousins for lunch, and make pages together! Thanks for a wonderful day! We were bummed because Nicole was supposed to join us but unfortunately all her paper got ruined in their basement when we had all that rain in the beginning of summer.

Traeger's tree!

My parent's have a tree in their yard for each of the grandkids. This is Traeger's tree! I'm thinking when they move we'll have to pick a new tree for each of the kids in their new yard. They already have Ataly's tree planted there!

What a doll!

You know how I mentioned my mom giving us all our old stuff....well that would include all our dolls/doll clothes! Now I have my own beautiful dolly :O)

Meeting Great Grandpa and Grandma Bohn!

On Wednesday night we also went over to Great Grandpa and Grandma Bohn's house. This was their first time meeting this Miss Ataly!

Nonnie and Traeger riding down the electric chair in Great Grandpa and Grandma Bohn's house. It's a pretty sweet ride that the kids love and it helps the Grandpa and Grandma get down the stairs!

Traeger had fun getting pushed around on Grandma's walker!

It was also Grandma's 78th birthday!

Visit with Spauldings!

Mom, Traeger, Ataly and I all went to Menominee Park in Oshkosh for a little picnic and playtime in the park with the Spauldings. It was great catching up with an old friend and my high school Spanish teacher (my friend's mom).

Traeger, Mommy, Ataly, Kahlen, Ryan (Kahlen's nephew/Mrs. Spaulding's grandson), Mrs. Spaulding and Bri (her granddaughter)

Traeger and Nonnie riding the merry-go-round! So much fun!!!

Traeger, Ataly and I all went for a ride together!

A blast from the past!

Mom is cleaning house in preparation for moving! That means she dumped a ton of boxes off at Cori's to look through. It was a lot of fun to look through it all and reminise the old times! We were sorting through old Halloween costumes (mom was very creative and did a great job with our costumes). We looked through all of our old report cards, misc. papers, art projects, etc. We picked through old clothes and toys! I tried on our my old prom dress and shoes. I count it a blessing to have such fond memories of my childhood and a sister who shares a lot of the same memories!

Cori and me trying on our old costumes.

I was Minnie Mouse in 5th grade and she was Bart Man in middle school!

Our old pom poms that were the Omro School colors! Rah! Rah! Rah!

Boys swimming lessons!

On Monday we went to watch the P boys during their swimming lessons. This brought back a ton of memories. Cori and I grew up going to swimming lessons and then spending the whole day there. We joke that the swimming pool was our second home during the summer! The pool has now since moved locations but non the less, a special memory we both hold dear!

Enjoying the summer sun!

Take me out to the ballgame...

On Sunday night we headed out the watch B play baseball!

The cousins loving their tasty treat after the ballgame!

We were able to watch a few innings of Gi's baseball game before the game got rained out! The whole gang showed up to support G! Grandpa and Nonnie, Great Grandpa Don, Great Grandma Jo, all the Patricks showed up too! We headed back to Cori and Adam's for some pizza to dry off and hang out!

Great Grandma Jo, Ataly and Nonnie

Sunday Brunch!

The P family came over to mom and dad's house for lunch after church! We hung out together, the younger boys took naps and then we were off to Breck's baseball game!

Lake Arrowhead Campground!

Grandpa and Nonnie have a permenant campsite at Lake Arrowhead Campground! So we decided to drive over there for the day to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. We went swimming, the kids took naps, the adults chatted, we all played in the playground and then before we headed home for the night we enjoyed some delicious ice cream!

Traeger and Mommy headed to go the swimming pool!

Traeger loves the water!

He went down the slide and loved running through or standing in the middle of this water fountain.

Traeger played for over 2 hours and was tuckered out, so we headed back to the camper for a nap!

Traeger, Ataly, Mommy and Nonnie

Thanks Nonnie and Grandpa for 16 years of special memories at the camper. Looking forward to our kids building memories there too :O)

Enjoying our ice cream before we headed back to Nonnie and Grandpa's house!

Just a few of Ataly's favorite things!

We were at Nonnie and Grandpa's house and she just loved splashing in the bath!

The exersaucer is her new entertainment...as if her dad and brother weren't enough :O)

Traeger bathtime... past to present!

Traeger ... 5 months old

Traeger... 2 years old

Traeger ... 4 months old

Traeger ... 2 years old

Traeger climbed in the tub after Ataly was done with her bath. His love for water hasn't changed!

The kiddos!

Traeger practicing tummy time with Ataly right before a bath!

Traeger loves to help give his sister a bath.

Date night!

Luke just got back from being gone for 5 days at Lifest and will be heading out with the youth on their Mission trip to Queens, NY for 10 days! This was much needed time together! We went out for supper and Luke golfed and I walked along! Great to squeeze in a little exercise on a date night too!

Bathtime!

On the move...

We haven't moved Ataly to her room yet because she doesn't have a/c in her room so she's still in her pack-n-play bassinet in our room.

Last night when I put Ataly to bed she looked like this.

When I heard her talking this morning around 9 am (I'm thankful she's a good sleeper) I went in and found her like this! She had managed to move completely sideways in the pack-n-play. The girl even has crazy hair when she wakes up because she has so much of it :O)

Buddies!

Julie had a few things to do in town, so she called to see if we could watch Simon. The boys did a great job playing together and Traeger did a great job sharing his toys!

Simon, thanks for being a great buddy for Traeger.

A new place to call HOME!

Another thing we did while we were home was stop by mom and dad's new lot that they will be building on. We got to see the hole that dad has dug for the basement and will soon have the foundation poured. Exciting times for them. It is a special location for them. It's located on land that Bohn Investments had purchased and made into a subdivision. My mom was able to come up with the name of the street she wanted to live on someday, and it backs up to the creek where my dad grew up swimming in as a kid. More pictures to come as progess is made.

It's still a little wierd to picture my parent's living anywhere other than where I grew up since they've lived there for 29 years. They were building their current home while my mom was pregnant with me. So it's the only home I know. The blessing of it all is that it's not the place that makes a home, it's the love that's shared inside the walls and I don't picture that changing :O) We won't lose the memories of our old home and we'll get to build new memories in a new place.