I've Got the Joy Joy Joy....

Down in my Heart..... This is my prayer!

I was recently searching the internet for verses and prayers on Joy. I came across this from a Matthew Henry website. I have found myself lately getting stuck in the daily duties of being a wife, mother, housekeeper... etc, etc. Please don't misunderstand. I love being a wife and mother and all that comes along with it. I guess I just realized I needed to put the Joy of Jesus in these daily duties that I feel He has called me to do. I have saved this as a favorite and I look it up every morning and pray it for my day, for me, for my girls, for Barry.

Lord, enable me to rejoice always, (1 Thessalonians 5:16(ESV)) to rejoice in the Lord always,

because he has again said to me, “Rejoice”; (Philippians 4:4(ESV)) that I may go on my

way rejoicing, may eat my bread with joy and drink my wine with a merry heart,

as I shall have reason to do if God has already approved what I do. (Ecclesiastes 9:7(ESV))
Give me grace to serve you, the LORD my God, with joyfulness and gladness

of heart in the abundance of all things; (Deuteronomy 28:47(ESV)) and to sing of the ways

of the LORD, for great is the glory of my God. (Psalm 138:5(ESV))
Let me have that cheerfulness of heart which is like good medicine (Proverbs 17:22(ESV))

and deliver me from that anxiety which weighs down the heart (Proverbs 12:25(ESV))

and that worldly grief which produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10(ESV))

I hope you have the Joy of Jesus in your life and in whatever He has called you to do! It sure does make your day great when you start your day with the Joy of Jesus!

A Couple More...

Uncle Bob sent us a few more pictures from our Weekend of Togetherness! He actually had a couple of the whole gang... well minus Uncle Bob, he was taking the picture:)

Here we all are at the zoo!

All The VanHorn's at Max and Myrna's reception! Did you notice...
SIX Great Granddaughters:)

That's A Lot of Togetherness!

We traveled to Salina for Labor Day weekend to celebrate Barry's grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. We spent Saturday at the Rolling Hills Zoo in Salina and pizza that night. We enjoyed church together the next morning and also a nice reception for them that afternoon. It was a great celebration and wonderful to celebrate 60 YEARS with them.

Grandpa Max and Grandma Myrna VanHorn at their reception.

Great-Grandpa Max and Great-Grandma Myrna holding the twins

All the VanHorn All Girl cousins!!! Gracie is holding Hadley, Sydney is holding Leila and Lauren (Denise's daughter) is next to Sydney.

Riding in style! The girls loved to get a ride with Great Grandpa Max and his scooter.

The girls.

Hadley and Leila riding in style at the zoo!

Me and my girls:)

Gracie and Great Grandpa Max.

The 9th Annual VanHorn Backyard BBQ Bonanza

We had a wonderful Backayard BBQ this year! We had almost 90 people in our backyard and it was great fun! Our theme this year was "moo-litary". We had "camo" table covers and "camo" cows. It was a wonderful theme that Barry thought of... I should ask him for ideas more often. We had beautiful weather and a great turn out. I have posted just a few pictures of the evening. I hope you enjoy them.

The back of our great t-shirts! Wonderfully designed by Lori!

My sweet Molly being so silly! Do you like her dog tags?

Sydney, Hannah and Nannie!

A few of our great BBQ "regulars"!

Molly and Aunt Carmen

Barry and I. We were also celebrating our 11th anniversary that day!

My BBQ CREW!!! I could not do it with out them!

My girlies!

Preschool Days

Gracie started Preschool at Hope Lutheran last Friday. She was so excited to be going to school too. Although if you ask her how "school" is going she will quickly correct you and say "it is not school it is preschool"... she really is too big!
Here are just a few pictures from her first day last week.

Top: Gracie out front of the school
Bottom: Gracie showing her new backpack

A nice, cheesy smile!

"I'm ready!"

My sweet baby... off to school. Oh, excuse me... Preschool!!

My Sunday School Kiddos

I teach the 2 and 3 year olds at church and all of them are promoting up at the end of August to the Preschool class. I told them we would have a class party since they were are leaving me:)
We had lots of fun. We had cookies, juice boxes and even prize sacks for each of them. I gave them all kinds of sugar and then they had to go sit still in church for the next hour:) Here are few pictures of my class!

Anna, Gracie, Evie and Joseph... hugging!

Being super silly... they do that a lot!

Some really nice smiles.

Here they all are enjoying their snacks and prizes.

We had lots of fun. I will miss them but I get three new kiddos in a couple of weeks and that is going to be lots of fun too!

What is that Saying?

.... Necessity is the Mother of all Inventions....
It was time for Molly to move on out of the high chair into a booster seat at the table with the rest of us. She was ready and her high chair is falling apart. I decided to start shopping online for a nice booster seat. This is what I found. It was a nice size, isn't supposed to slip, a nice bright color... it is also $29.99! Yikes!! Not really what I wanted to spend.

So this is what I did....
tied on two seat cushions to a chair for her to sit on at the table. I have to say it worked very well and it was ... FREE!!!
(and since I am the only one who wants to use a seat cushion we had extras laying under the table)

If you give me long enough... I can be real creative:)