Happy 4th Birthday Gracie!!!

My sweet Gracie turned 4 on October 17th! She has been looking forward to her birthday ever since we celebrated her sisters birthdays! We had a great family party and with the theme of Hello Kitty! It is so fun watching her enjoy opening every gift and being excited about every gift too... okay she was not as excited about the clothes but she still had fun opening them:)

My Big 4 Year Old!!

Being Silly... she insisted she needed a birthday princess crown to wear to Preschool since it was her birthday!

Her new bike from Grammy and PaPop!

Gracie and her Dora scooter from Mommy and Daddy!

Getting ready to blow out the candles! She was not so fond of being sung to...

One of her birthday presents, a fun hat!

The birthday girl with her sisters!

Family Worship

We have been doing family worship in the evenings before the girls' bedtime with all three of them. We have been singing and having Bible stories. It usually goes pretty well and even Molly is getting the hang of it now! I took these pictures one night, I just couldn't resist. They were all "singing" along and sitting still... for the moment!

... getting ready to sing... Sydney sings, Gracie sings a few words and Molly does lots of noise making pretending to sing. It is funny!

Being Silly!

"Listening" to Dad read the Bible story. They are easily distracted!

My Girly Girls!

Some recent pictures of the girls! They turned out great:) Most of you who read my blog have probably seen these but I had to post anyway!
Enjoy!

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!