Carter's 8th Birthday Party

Family, cousins and friends helped join in on Carter's birthday celebration! We swam and sat in the sun at the Wakanda Waterpark in Menomonie. The weather cooperated to make Carter's birthday lots of fun.

Chad gets the cupcakes ready for Carter to blow out the 8 candles...... Between the wind and Carter blowing, the candles went out quickly.....

Carter opening his birthday presents. He really liked the Star Wars card that played music to the Star Wars theme.

Bradley is listening carefully to the Star Wars card, while Carter digs in to more presents...

The face tells it all.......Carter was so excited to get a potato gun and a sling shot!

The kids help Carter display his new Star Wars poster.....

It was so nice to have all the cousins there and Carter's friends, Maddie and Olivia...

Here are some shots of the fun taking place in the pool....

Dylan and Evan....

Cruz.....

This is a cool shot of Austin just hitting the water after a pretty good dive. I would give him a 9.5!!

What a cute picture of Autumn, Olivia and Maddie......

Another cute one of Paige and Abby.....

Carter, Abby and Paige.....

Grandma LaNita going in for a flip off the board.....

Abby doing a twisty turn off the board.....

This is a pretty cool picture of Grandpa Ken coming off the slide. I had to snap the picture before I could see him, as my camera has a delay. I was quite impressed with the outcome!

Other party people joining in on the fun.....

Austin, Grandma Deb, and Andrew. In the back, we have Grandpa Ken, Uncle Paul, Grandpa Bill, Chad, Auntie Missy, Uncle Todd, and Auntie Tara.....

Austin, Abby and Uncle Jamie.....

Carter loved his birthday present from us. He is modeling his new ride.....the Vapor moped!!

Even Chad had fun trying out Carter's new wheels.....

Thank you everyone for joining us for Carter's birthday party and making his day special!! We love you!

Swimming Lessons....

Carter did a good job at swimming lessons this year. It was a cold two weeks of lessons for the kids. They all had purple lips when they came out of the water!

Here Carter is practicing the back float...... The very last day, Grandma Deb and Grandpa Ken came to watch Carter, however, due to the storms rolling in, the lessons were cancelled. Thanks for coming Grandma Deb and Grandpa Ken!

Good job Carter!!

News from the Dorwin House

Hello Family-

We wanted to share the news with all of you individually, but it turned out that some family members know and some do not. Sorry we could not tell all of you at the same time and could not tell you in person. I wish that we could see all of you when we share the news.

I have been offered a new and exciting position at the Lake Geneva school district that has the excellent education and challenges in my career that I am looking for. In addition to teaching in the FACE department, I will have other educational responsibilities.

We will be moving to the Lake Geneva area. We are going down this weekend to look for a place to rent, as we currently have our house for sale. We are excited about a new move for our family, but most importantly we are keeping God in the center of our family. We truly feel blessed for this opportunity and trust in God that he will guide us along the way. Even in the excitement, stress, and rush of it all, it is important that we keep our faith in Christ.

Please pray for us as our family relocates and brings this big transition for all of us together! We love you-
Chad, Nicole, Carter & Bradley

Abby's Visit

We were lucky enough to have Abby come visit us for a few days last week. The boys sure did have fun with Abby and now that she's gone, they already miss her!!


When Abby first arrived, Carter was at swimming lessons and it was a COLD day. We went to the park to play and ate at the Panther afterwards. That night we were able to watch Paige at her t-ball game. She looked so cute as she was the "catcher" for her team. She did a great job playing!!


The next day we had another cold day of swimming lessons and the kids played outside most of the day. They picked black caps for us. In fact, we had so many black caps, we didn't know what to do with all of them. I was thinking that jam would be a yummy choice. That night Grandma Deb & Grandpa Ken came and we all went to see Harry Potter at the Durand theater. This was a really long movie for me. I guess it would have helped if I had seen the older Harry Potters.

On Saturday, Abby and I went to Eau Claire for a couple of things while Carter had a fun day at the Tarrant Pool in Durand. Abby tried.....and tried.....and tried to convince her mom to let auntie buy her a goldfish. There was no convincing mom that a goldfish would be a good purchase. Mom would not even go for a shark!! :-)

After lunch, we took a long bike ride on the bike trail. It was very peaceful and beautiful on the bike trail. Sometime you will have to ask Abby or Carter about our secret code on the bike trail......"Chi-ka-ka".
Bill and Chad worked on the siding of our house from the hail damage we had three years ago. The new siding did not match up with the old siding, as they do not make our style anymore. Bill was able to cut pieces from the old siding to match it up. Grandpa Bill and Grandma LaNita joined us for supper that night. Thanks, Bill, for helping with the siding!


Sunday morning we went to church and then headed to Independence to visit with Grandma Deb and Grandpa Ken. Grandma was so nice to have made Carter a birthday cake as his birthday is coming up next week. We sang to Carter and blew out candles. Abby prepared the candles for Carter......


These two sweethearts sure do have fun together!!
Bradley wanted to get in on the singing with us.......

Carter is working on blowing out the candles.......

Bradley wanted to help blow out the candles, too.......

It was so nice to see Grandpa Ed, as he was able to join us for lunch and birthday cake. The boys love visiting with Grandpa Ed. Bradley likes to inform us that "Grandpa Ed is old" :-)

O.k., so Grandma Deb's wig has been a big hit with the grandkids!! Carter had to display Grandma's wigs for us........

Here is the blonde one......

Here is the brownish-red one.....

Which one looks better????

Good thing Grandma is a good sport about sharing her wigs with the kids!! When Abby put on the wig, she looked like Jamie in a very strange way!! :-)

We had a great time with Abby!! Thanks for visiting us, Abz!! The boys are missing her and Bradley asks us everyday where Abby is and tells us that he wants her to come back!! :-)

The Excitement of Country Living.....

Last weekend, the boys are I were playing outside, when Carter saw a snake creeping along the basement cement wall. It was a colorful, black-with-red-blotches snake! Yuck!! We ran to get Chad and when we came back out, we found it creeping up the inside of the siding. Chad was ready to catch it when it came back out. We waited......and waited.....and waited......no snake. Chad started tapping on the siding with his fork, with hopes to bring the snake back out. Well, the snake didn't find his way back out, but a mother mouse with all of her babies came out instead!!




Here the boys are ready to help Chad get the mice that ran under our garden hose.

Bradley is ready with his gun and Carter is ready with the garage broom!!

Never a dull moment living in the country!!

:-)

VBS Fiesta

VBS 2009 went well this year. The theme was "Fiesta", which the kids had a blast dancing to the music.

McKenna, our pastor's daughter, did an awesome job painting the scenery for us. Here is the Mexican village she painted..... Amy Black was a "Maraca Munchies Leader" where the kids made yummy snacks. Missy was a "Cactus Crafts Leader" where the kids made fun crafts.

Here are some of the volunteers......

Brett, Lenny, Dane, Ann, Amy & Missy are in the picture.

Brett was a "Crew Leader" where he traveled with the kids from station to station.

Lenny, Ann & Dane were the "Grande Game Leader". The kids played games outside. I think the kids favored the water games.

We had a committed and energetic staff volunteers. VBS could not happen without the many dedicated volunteers.

Bradley joined in on some fun....

The VBS children learned a Bible Point each night:

"Jesus is our friend"

"Jesus is our life"

"Jesus is our leader"

"Jesus is our Savior"
"Jesus is our helper"

It was an exciting week as we prayed that our kids would grow in their friendship with Jesus.

The VBS kids sang a Fiesta song, with the help of the youth volunteers on Sunday, after VBS.

Hunter leads the way as the kids...."Cha-cha-cha....."

Happy Birthday Abby!

Happy 11th Birthday, Abby!! We hope you had a great day!

Love,
Uncle, Auntie, Carter, Bradley & Toby