Addy's birthday party

Addy turned 4 this March and since a lot of the Bible translation teams were still in Vila from recent  conferences and the SIL-VBT 30th anniversary, many of those kids were able to come to the party as well.  Addy celebrated turning 4 with Alex, whose family works on an island way up in the north.  The girls from another of the families spent hours making a pinata for the event.  Nothing like whacking a helpless little lamb until it breaks apart and sprays candy out, ya?!  :)

 Alex having a go at the pinata.

 Jesiah's turn. 

 All the older kids succeeded in knocking out candy and the honor of demolishing the remainder of the pinata went to Ross the boss.  :)

Poor Gweny had a fever so didn't feel well enough to do games and pinata, but did hang out for present-opening.  In the background are Alex's parents, Danielle and Michael.  They've since gone back to their island, Mota Lava, to continue work on their Bible translation project.

Leaving Montana, USA

My last days in the US in February 2012.

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Christmas, Si's birthday, and a partridge in a pear tree

Jesiah celebrated his 7th birthday in December!

We had his celebration at my parents' house and also had Christmas Eve with them.  Hought and Gretch and kids were in Terry for Christmas so just my parents and I hung out Christmas day.  It's been great celebrating holidays with family and enjoying quality time together.

 

 

 Addy got sea monkeys so my parents will babysit them and report on their progress while we're away.  :)

Here's some more pics to add to posts from before (kids programs and canning).

 

 

 

 

And then there's some other random events.

Dad putting my nightstand together.

 Me typing Sunday School and Lay Bible Institute notes for my mom when she had carpel tunnel surgery.  Please pray for her hand to heal fully, by the way, she's having some problems with it still.

 

 

 Gretch and I were able to sing together at church one Sunday, which was a lot of fun.

 

 Dad drew up plans for our duplex in Vanuatu so that we were able to purchase the appropriate building supplies to put in our container.

 

 Houghton doing surgery on my ganglion cyst.  :)

which of course draws a crowd

 

 

Jesiah at play...his last few weeks at public school for several years!

Outings

We've had a few fun family things this winter.  First, I went with Hought and Gretch to take some family pictures for them at the river.

 

One of the sleepovers I had with Gwen, my mom had one night to use up a free blizzard at Dairy Queen so she treated us - yum!

 

 

 

All year I've been wanting to go to a basketball game so we went to the high school boys game.  Honestly it was a terrible game, but we still had a good time.  Gweny was transfixed by the cheerleaders...

My nieces and nephew had Christmas programs for their schools so it was fun to see them with their classmates singing and quoting poems.

Hanging out with my mom.

Canning take 2

We got another opportunity in December to practice canning again before packing our stuff for Vanuatu.  This time we tried some new recipes and to can meat too.   Haha, look at us, apparently we're all coordinating!  I'm just really thankful for my mom and her expertise and help with this stuff and her servant's heart in doing all this with us!

 Spiced apples and beef roast.

 Roast and hamburger.  It looks disgusting but it tastes awesome!

God's faithfulness throughout generations

I've had graduation pictures of my grandparents and parents for years and always wanted to do something with them so I finally followed through this year.  Unique Creations in Miles City did this awesome job for me!

 My dad, me, Gretchen, and my mom.

 I had this plaque put in the middle as a testimony to God's faithfulness throughout the generations of my family.  All my grandparents are/were Christians, my parents are Christians, and my sister and I are believers too.  I am thankful for the witness each generation has been to the next of our Great God!  I can only pray that Gretchen and I are as faithful in passing on the knowledge of God to the next generation.

 Paternal grandparents: Jim & Betty Lou Thulesen.

Maternal grandparents:  Marvin & Eunice Benhardus.