PUMPKINS!!!

So, Aaron and I had an eventful weekend... to begin our Saga we with babysat on Friday and then Saturday we had the YG and some Med school friends for a pumpkin carving evening. As you can see we had a lot of fun in a small space, but hey ,what can I say except they were good sports! The bottom picture is the finished products...You can all vote on the best carving if you'd like. Zoom in close, their are some pretty good ones! Well enjoy the pics and I'll give more about the weekend later this week.

Love you all and miss you tons!
Booxy

Just another day in the Kaeb House!

Hello!! I just thought I would share this picture with you guys...Yesterday, I was downstairs and heard something spilling all over the floor upstairs. Great, I thought, what did Abbi get into now? Wait, there's nothing out, they were playing outback just a minute ago, what did she just dump out. Then there was more and more! So I go running up there, and this is what I found! I had gotten groceries that morning, and hadn't put away the boxes of cereal yet. Josiah somehow ripped the box open, and ripped the bag entirely in half (note it on the table), thus Pops flew ALL over my kitchen!!!! When I got up there they were both screaming (in delight) throwing the pop's and 'swishing' their legs all over the table sending them flying! I had to stop and take the picture, since I have all of these stories for Chad about how my day goes, what the kids did, got into, dumped out, but this just about topped them all. I managed to salvage what was still on the table, but had less that half the box left when it was all said and done. SO...I just had to share this 'special moment' with each of you... :)
Hope you have a wonderful day! Love ya, Kristy

Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone! We are planning to have the Hoffmann Thanksgiving at our home on the Fri after Thanksgiving at around 4:30 pm. Hope this works for you all.

Also, Hoffmann Christmas is being planned for Sat Dec. 16. I don't know the time yet but it will probably be early evening. Hopefully Leah and Clark will be done with finals earlier that week. Seth plans to be home! Christa and Bekah, we hope this will work for you guys too.

Love, Aunt Bonnie

Hey, Girls! WOW, it's been a while since I've posted on here. (and alot of you, too, I might add) I check it all the time, and I have a feeling most of us do. So I'll try to post more, if you all try to also, OK?? :) Hope you are all doing well...we're pretty good. Took Josiah to the Dr again today! They now gave us a stronger supository to get him 'cleaned out' then they want to do an enima (sp?) It's getting very exhausting and hard to see him this way. So pray for him, if you think of it! We just want him better! Kels had a little fever after school, so we'll see if that turns into something.
We did have a great weekend! My hubby took me to Chicago...my Bday gift/Anniversary getaway. We shopped and ate out and he carried my bags and everything! It was great. Mom and Dad Kaeb had the kiddo's. My dad has an exciting change in his life/carreer beginning! He is going to be the World Relief Administrator. He's planning to keep his business for another year or so, and then probablly sell it. We are so excited for him, and think it will be a great opportunity. He'll travel alot...he's going to Biloxi in a few weeks. But it gives him a whole new purpose in life, and is helping alot! (he's been struggling with depression for a couple months-Dr says it's very common for patients who are all done with treatments, and feel they aren't doing anything anymore to fight the cancer) But he's doing great, otherwise! Praise God!
Chad and I have been looking at some houses lately! It's been fun. We're looking here in town & in El Paso. There is one in El Paso we really like, and we're praying about it and getting our house ready to possibly put on the market. So lots going on in the Kaeb household these days! We're looking forward to the Hoffmann/Walder weiner roast coming up!! Just a few weeks! Well, I've written a book here, so I'd better quit! Love you all, and let's hear from you! (even if it's just babbling, like I just did)
Love, Kristy

The Photo Session....

Well, it's that time of year (for me at least) when I need to get my kids' annual portrait pictures taken. Usually, I am so late in doing this that it's embaressing. But this year I've been a little more camera happy since getting a digital so I got my sister Heidi to help me and we went to my dad's new home and snapped away! It was fun! The kids weren't in the smiliest moods at first but with me jumping up and down and acting like I was falling on the ground we got some good smiles. Heidi took the pictures and then I edited them. I have so much fun doing that stuff.

The ones I put on here are some of my favorites of the two of them together. Maybe later when I have more time I can post their individual pictures.

I love the one of Josh pulling Darci in the wagon. His expression just cracks me up! And Darci looks like she thinks she is a princess that should be pulled about! It's my favorite one I think.

Well, anyway, I thought it'd be fun to show you the pictures and to have something new on the blog.

Love,
Rebekah

Here are a few more pics from our crazy month of August. Aaron and I are proud supporters of the Tigers team (yeah yeah, don't worry they'll get out of their slump soon).
Then a pic of another wedding we went to this summer (how many is that now?)
And this is a pic of Aaron and I with Kaley by best friend from high school who lives in Nashville.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Leah how's school going?
Sarah how's work? Keeping you busy?
All you in Illinois (and A. Barbie), thanks for all the work you do for Grandma, I wish I was close enough to help.
Marie and Rebekah (or Mom) I'd love to see some pics of my little kids!
Love you all and we miss you!
Booxy

Remember Grandma

Hi girls,

This messages is mainly for the Bloomington girls, but it would apply to any of the rest who come to visit grandma. After spending 5 days with grandma, i realize she is doing really good. In fact, she is physically doing amazingly well. However, in order for an older person to keep going and not to stiffen up, she needs regular exercise. While i was visiting, we went to the Bloomington church at least 3 times to let her walk. She loved it and it did so much for her attitude! She is not ready to start driving yet...which may be wise; however, i know she would love to be taken to the church to walk at least 3 or 4 times a week. This is where the grandkids can help. If one family could take her once a week and another family another time etc. ... it would be wonderful. She would be blessed and so would you! It could be anytime of the day or evening and your kids could run around the church with her! it would take maybe 45 minutes to an hour out of your day by the time you pick her up and take her home.

Mom will never ask for you to do this, but I know she would love it. Just call and say, "Would you like to walk tomorrow? I'll pick you up at 10:30am or 7:30 pm or whatever works best!"
I don't mean to be bossy and I know it may be a struggle getting her into your vans...just pray about it.

Love you all,

Aunt Barb

MEET TARA HOHULIN

Meet Tara Hohulin. Hey all you Bloomington people and Roanoke person, I would like to introduce you to Tara. She is starting her first year at ISU and will be attending Bloomington and Roanoke churches. Please make her feel welcome! Tara is from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is not going back home until Thanksgiving break. Tara's mom is Faye, a first cousin to Mark. Her dad is originally from Roanoke and is a brother to Tim Hohulin. We want her to love the North so we are hoping Central Illinois will be a good fit for her. Of course, Mark wants her to settle in Bluffton so do not introduce her to any single guys. Mark, never got one of his nieces in Bluffton, so now he is working on his first cousins' kids!!

I am heading to Bloomington on Friday to spend a few days with Grandma. She is coming home from Manor Care Friday morning. Hope all goes well. Pray for us!!

Love you all,
Aunt Barb

Enjoying our summer

Aaron and I have spent the last couple weekends out boating and generally enjoying the summer. We're having fun NOT STUDYING for this month. Next month Aaron will be back into a tougher schedule but this month is total freedom! So we went to Mom and Dad K's one weekend and spent Saturday out tubing with Carmen and Mike Rassi and Amber and Tim Lehman. Then this past weekend we went up north the Lake Houghten. One of Aaron's med school friend's Dad had a cabin on a lake, a boat, tubes, skis, 40 acres of undeveloped land, dirt bike, four wheeler, and paint ball guns...which all equals tons of fun...just a note though if you girls are thinking of playing paintball with your husbands...we bruise much easier then boys! The boys spots are little red welts that have already dissapeared....Kendria and I on the otherhand are still nursing our wounds a week later...but it was worth it! This weekend we're off to Alto for a wedding and baptisms...life is good! Hope all are doing well, miss you and love you tons!
Booxy

PS is everyone (or anyone) planning on going to the Hoffmann/Walder Reunion?

Hey all...

Hey all! How is everyone doing? I know it has been a lonnnnggg time since I blogged. I must say that I am a faithful reader of this....Now I am at my parents and have a little time.
Thought I'd post some pics...




We went to Hilton Head a few weeks ago with Klint's family. We had alot of fun! (we are really shiny in this pic)


In July-- Michael, Jane, Klint and I went to Holmes County for a short weekend. The two guys planned the whole thing--we were really impressed1 We did ALOT of antique shopping---it was awesome!!














We were finally were able to visit Grandma
It was nice to see where she is living!














I have no clue how this layout is going to look like b/c I have never posted this many pictures at one time. Hope this isn't confusing. Have a great rest of the week. Loveya all, Sarah

Labor Day 2007!!!

Hello Ladies,

Just wanted to remind you all that we have made reservations for the next Hoffmann vacation for Labor Day Week-end 2007. So please mark your calendars. I hope everyone can come, because we will have plenty of room. We have rented an entire inn for 3 nights (Fri, Sat, and Sun). It is called Grand Beach Inn and it is in New Buffalo, MI. (www.grandbeachinn.net) The inn has a heated outdoor pool and is a 5 minute walk from Lake Michigan. It also has a pool table and ping pong table. We are hoping this all works out well as it isn't too far of a drive.

Love you guys bunches! Aunt Bonnie

Good Evening, Ladies! Well I just made a FOOL of myself!! My Hoffman Family has a blog as well, and I had checked it, then went to check this one. I posted a little note, and entered it, then "viewed blog"...and it brought up MY families blog with my post for you guys!!! OOOOOHHH I am LOSING my mind!! OH well, at least all it said was something like this:

Those pic's were GREAT Rebekah...especially of Darci...what a sweetie!! That is so funny how she fell asleep. We just got Kelsey back tonight from Tim and Christa's. They had Paige and Kels out for a few days...they had alot of fun!! Not much else new around here...OH! I do have some good news...My dad had another scan last week and it was clear!! SO thankful for God's healing!! Well, I'll try to do better at posting, sleep well, and I love you all!!
Kristy

A few Pictures

Hi Ladies! Thanks for the picture Booxy! It was fun to see all of the girls together!

It inspired me to post some pictures of my family. Matt and I just realized that besides the picture of our family that we had taken at Booxy's wedding, we don't have a single family picture! Isn't that pathetic! We were going to an open house farewell thing for a family in our church and we were supposed to take a picture of our family and we couldn't find a single one! So, we've decided, we need to start asking people to take our picture (kind of an awkward thing to do all the time) or learn to use my mini tripod! So, these pictures are once again with me behind the camera.

Here is Matt on Sunday morning with the kids. He likes to play the piano...unfortunately, the kids like to play whenever he does too. But I think in this picture, they were actually letting him play alone! I love this picture because it's all three of my sweethearts in one big hug!
Here is Josh. It seems like he always has a bruise or something on his face! This one was from falling on the corner of the coffee table. I heard it from a couple rooms away. He was pretty happy in this picture though. He loves to have me take a picture and then look at it right away. Here is little Doozer laughing. She is growing up so fast. Can you believe she is almost one years old!?! I can't!! She is such a wonderful baby. I love being her mom. Josh is always so happy to see her in the mornings. They just laugh when they see eachother. It's so cute.
This is a picture of Darci on Tuesday. I had gone to Bible study in the morning. By time we left, Darci was ready for her nap. Unfortunately, I had to go to the grocery store. So, she wasn't able to go to sleep for another hour and a half. She was a perfect angel in the stores. I didn't realize how tired she was until I got home and started feeding her. She got more and more sleepy until she seemed to fall asleep while continueing to eat! She was Sleep-eating! She would pat her tray to find more food and then put it in her mouth and chew it up. The whole time her eyes were shut and she was practically snoring! Finally she just laid her head down and went to sleep. The picture below is when she finally went to sleep. Josh and I thought it was so funny we just laughed and laughed. It is so fun that Josh is starting to understand humor. It seems like just lately we've started finding the same things funny. I love it when we look at eachother and just burst out laughing together!
Well, that's all for now. Love you all. HOpefully, we could start hearing from some more of you soon. You don't have to post pictures or have anything important to say. Just say something! Even if it's just BLah! Just so we know you're still out their reading and breathing!! J.K.

Love you,

Rebekah

Mom's Birthday Party

Hoffmann girls had a great time this weekend for Mom's Birthday! Love you all!

I am Still alive

Hey girls!

I just got onto this blog again after probably 1 month 1/2 absence so I just thought I'd write. It has been fun catching up on your lives, even though as I sit here, my kids are probably destroying my house!! :) Oh Well!!

Last night I was sitting in church, appreciating Uncle Denny's sermon - talking about faith and God's will, and I starting thinking about our adoption. Then it hit me! I've been always talking about getting our referral (the picture of our child) in the distant future. But the future is quickly becoming the present! We have all of our paperwork compiled and are just waiting for Immigration to approve our homestudy. At this point, we have to get our documents notarized, authenticated, and legalized and then we are ready for our referral. We could be looking at a picture of our son, in less than 1 month!!!! AHHH! Can you believe it?? I can't! :) It's a little scary, exciting, unknown, scary, exciting... you get the idea.

Please pray that God will show us clearly who our son is - we can accept or decline any referral. Pray that we will have continued confirmations as we go along in this process. God has called us to be faithful and we are excited to be in this position but we definately have some anxieties. I'm a little nervous about his medical background. We are supposed to get complete medical history but obviously things could go differently. Also, I'm a little nervous about having 3 children!! We will not be going to get him until on average 4-6 months after we get the referral. Again, anything could happen, it could be 3 months, it could be a year. Another concern is that the birthmother sees him 3-4 different times throughout the process to sign papers and can stop the process and take him back at anytime. Once we choose our referral, we will have our hearts set on him and that would be hard.

Adoption is so unknown and things can change at any time. We plan for the best but have to be realistic too! Please pray for us and we soon enter this new phase of adoption. I thought the paperwork was stressful but once we know who our son is....it creates a whole new dynamic! It is pretty awesome though. I already love him as my boy and pray for him everyday.

Paige talks about him a lot too. She insists that his name IS Guatemala. We are going to name him Hudson David but she told me yesterday that we can call him Hudson but she will call him Guatemala! Some friends asked her if she prays for her brother, she said - "No! I pray to the God of Heaven!!" I love my girl! :)

I love you all too! Sorry for such a long post. I'm making up for lost time! Have a great day!

love,
Jami

I am Still alive

Hey girls!

I just got onto this blog again after probably 1 month 1/2 absence so I just thought I'd write. It has been fun catching up on your lives, even though as I sit here, my kids are probably destroying my house!! :) Oh Well!!

Last night I was sitting in church, appreciating Uncle Denny's sermon - talking about faith and God's will, and I starting thinking about our adoption. Then it hit me! I've been always talking about getting our referral (the picture of our child) in the distant future. But the future is quickly becoming the present! We have all of our paperwork compiled and are just waiting for Immigration to approve our homestudy. At this point, we have to get our documents notarized, authenticated, and legalized and then we are ready for our referral. We could be looking at a picture of our son, in less than 1 month!!!! AHHH! Can you believe it?? I can't! :) It's a little scary, exciting, unknown, scary, exciting... you get the idea.

Please pray that God will show us clearly who our son is - we can accept or decline any referral. Pray that we will have continued confirmations as we go along in this process. God has called us to be faithful and we are excited to be in this position but we definately have some anxieties. I'm a little nervous about his medical background. We are supposed to get complete medical history but obviously things could go differently. Also, I'm a little nervous about having 3 children!! We will not be going to get him until on average 4-6 months after we get the referral. Again, anything could happen, it could be 3 months, it could be a year. Another concern is that the birthmother sees him 3-4 different times throughout the process to sign papers and can stop the process and take him back at anytime. Once we choose our referral, we will have our hearts set on him and that would be hard.

Adoption is so unknown and things can change at any time. We plan for the best but have to be realistic too! Please pray for us and we soon enter this new phase of adoption. I thought the paperwork was stressful but once we know who our son is....it creates a whole new dynamic! It is pretty awesome though. I already love him as my boy and pray for him everyday.

Paige talks about him a lot too. She insists that his name IS Guatemala. We are going to name him Hudson David but she told me yesterday that we can call him Hudson but she will call him Guatemala! Some friends asked her if she prays for her brother, she said - "No! I pray to the God of Heaven!!" I love my girl! :)

I love you all too! Sorry for such a long post. I'm making up for lost time! Have a great day!

love,
Jami

Study Break

Check out the beautiful job the workers did on my car. Now when my lights are on my car has one I open and one half closed (check out the headlights!)









As a Study Break I wrote you all a little song:
I'm a little sippy cup
Short and Stout
I don't have a handle
But here is my spout
When I get all filled up
Hear me shout.
Kids tip me over
But I don't pour out!

I found this little sippy cup under our couch....yes still with milk (well I think it was milk) in it......YUCK!!! Talk about good quality sippy cups, I can't believe it didn't smell! So if anyone is missing a cute little sippy cup from April (yes 3 months ago) let me know...I'll bring in home next weekend.









I take my certification exam Tomorrow (Friday at noon) and Aaron takes his Step 2 Boards on Monday (all day), so if you have a moment we'd appreciate a little prayer! Love you and miss you all!
Booxy

Back from Canada...

...And my hubby's already planning the next one. Good greif! Maybe some of you didn't even know, but yeah, we went to Canada. It was nice...beautiful weather, fun times, decent fishing, but it's good to be home. It was much needed, the relaxing, quiet, not a care in the world schedule. And guess what...I caught the biggest fish! =) (hehe...Chad doesn't like hearing that) I'll just throw a few pic's on here from it. I also want to say, Matt and Rebekah, I can see how you would feel bad about this, but it honestly could have happened with any of our kids. (esp mine) We are always having to tell them to be careful and slow down around older people. One Sunday Kelsey just ran and jumped up into my Grandpa Farney's arms, and Praise the Lord that 89 yr old man caught her!! But I couldn't believe it! And Sarah...you certainly shouldn't feel bad about Josiah's rock incident. That was completly a freak thing!! We love you all, and are thankful she's doing well. When my Grandma Hoffman fell 5-6 years ago, somehow she banged up her face bad! My uncle sent out an email of her picture, and "UFO: Unidentified Fallen Oldie" So compassionate! But she even laughed. I still can't figure out how she could have looked so bad from a fall. Grandma looks great! :) Well it's getting way too late, so I'm gonna sign off. Good night, girls.
Kristy

My precious car!

Just thought I'd share with you the nice dent job on my car! It was more of a hassle than anything this last week. But I did get a nice rental car (2006 Mazda) for the week...stay tuned to see the new and improved Ford Contour!



Aaron and I watched "While you were sleeping" last weekend and I'm glad to share with you that Aaron is a fan. He was a little apprehensive of a "chick flick" but laughed alot and will now be joining us on our fequent quotes from the movie.
Love you all and miss you tons!
Bekah

We are SO Sorry!

I just wanted to make an apology to the whole family for our major role in Grandma's accident. We feel so horrible about it. We know that you aren't all furious with us but we are with ourselves! Anyway, I think Josh has learned that he can't push Grandma. He keeps saying, "No! No! Pushing Grandma josh!" So, I hope he understands.

Anyway, I wanted you to all know we're very sorry for what happenned.

Love,
Rebekah