Matt's Prom and Christopher's news article.

Tonight is Matt's Prom. Matt goes to St. Augustine Prep. They don't have school tomorrow so they can have their prom tonight.



Christopher wrote his first news article for the school newspaper.

Darlene's Semi

First of the spring formals was last night. It seems like they had a good time. Matt's Prom is next week.

2009 Semi

Shore Fellowship Family Service

Our elementary Sunday School program has a great program called Family Times that teaches a different virtue every month. Family Times produces Virtue Packs that parents can buy. We sell it in our book store, but they can also be purchased online. The virtue packs provide activities to be used once a week during dinner, driving, bed time, and in the morning. All of this is designed to give parents simple ways to help their kids grow in faith and character. We start the month with a family service which is similar to VBS. It introduces the virtue with songs, skits and a Bible story. Then each Sunday morning they continue to teach the virtue with a program pretty much like the fmaily service. It has been a great program and we can see the kids really learning how to live a christian life. The virtue this month in Conviction - Standing for what you believe is right, even when others don't.

Even though Christopher is in Junior High, he helps with the praise worship. This is a video of the opening to this month's family service. This all takes place in our children's ministry building. Tom designed and produced the tree house in the balcony.

Drew Learning to Swim (Video)

Drew has started taking off his “swimmies” or “floaties” and actually swimming.  Well, maybe it would more appropriately be called “desperate doggie paddling”, but swimming nonetheless! 

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here.

Braden Crawling (Video)

He started crawling about a week ago. 

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here (requires a fast connection).

The gardening has begun!

Becca and I started our garden tonight by planting a bunch of seeds. We
started peppers and flowers. I added another two flourescent lights and a
heating pad for the peppers. We'll see what starts to poke through the
soil in the next few weeks.

Brian

This was sent from my BlackBerry.

Sam gets the PIN!

Sam placed second at 110lbs in a Jr. High School Tournament

Lindsay Joy!

At 4:15am on March 18th, Lindsay Joy Spengler was born. She weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz, and when she came out, everyone in the room gasped and said "Wow, she's big!"

She's beautiful, has lots of hair, and is doing quite well! Karen is doing well and was thrilled to only have to push for about 10-15 minutes.

Happy Birthday Grandmom!

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here (requires a fast connection).

39 weeks and counting!

I had to work to get this smile! Karen is 39 weeks pregnant today... just one more week to go! We had another appointment today and it looks like all systems are "go"... just waiting it out at this point. Karen's pretty uncomfortable at this point, but I guess you can't expect much else! Take a look at the birthday list on the right and take a guess at who will have to share their birthday!

Our weekend

10 Turkeys showed up on Saturday at the bird feeder. Are turkeys birds? 2 more Toms in my family. They have been here twice more. Can I claim them on my taxes yet? Above is the shelf Dad made so now I can really reach one of my shelves. And finally, Dad preparing the soil for the pea patch coming on March 17. That's how we will celebrate Mattie's birthday, plant peas.

Playing Outside... in New England

This is what playing outside is supposed to look like in February... :)

Playing Outside…

We went outside today to play.  Here are some pictures I caught..

Many more available here.

State Qualifying Match

Nebraska State Wrestling Tournament

Toby will be wrestling in the State Tournament in Omaha next weekend.  We traveled 300 miles to NW Nebraska for the Nebraska Class C District Championships.  Toby won his matches on Friday and then needed to win one on Saturday.  After a tough loss to last year's state runner-up, Toby won his qualifying match.  This win earned him a spot in the State Tournament.  Our team qualified four wrestlers.  We are very proud of Toby and very excited for this awesome opportunity to wrestle at the Quest Center in Omaha.  His first match will be on Thursday afternoon.  We will keep you posted on how he does.  I will post a video later after it uploads.

 

Team Prayer before the tournament began.  Toby is in there somewhere.

 

Because our team consists of wrestlers from two separate schools, Toby wears Blue or Green depending upon the round.  Loomis is green but he doesn't mind wearing Bertrand blue.

Video of Braden Giggling…

To watch in HD, click play below, then hover over the bottom right corner, and choose HD. To watch it large in HD click here (requires a fast connection).

Nebraska Basketball

Jesse and I went to Lincoln, Ne to watch the Nebraska Corn Huskers play the Texas Longhorns.  The huskers won the game 58-55.  

 

Jesse with Nebraska Football Player Lance Thorell.  Lance is from our church.

We went to Cabellas in Omaha the night before the game

An Update on Us

It's been a while since we've blogged about anything, so I thought I would share some things that are going on with us.

First of all, Becca and I are now proud members of "PLANET FITNESS." It's pretty sweet because it's only $10 per month, no contract obligation, and it's got all of the cardio and weight machines that we could want. Plus, if we go 120 times each in the next year (I know, that's a bit ambitious) than our health insurance will end up paying for the whole thing! So, if you don't recognize us the next time you see us, don't be surpised.

Secondly, Becca went to a few doctor's appointments and we now have some medications to try to suppress Becca's migraines. We're pretty excited about the possibility of migraines being just a memory. Also, we found out that we now have two people in the family that have Lyme Disease. We have no idea when this might have happenned, but we hope that this can also quickly be dealt with.

Becca and I are continuing to enjoy our life at Frazer Mennonite Church. We are enjoying our time on the Honduras Partenership Team, Praise Band, various Children's Ministries, and Sunday School planning committee. It's fun and keeping us, not necessarily busy, but engaged.

Lastly, Becca has been enjoying her latest Grad Class. She is in a program at West Chester University for a Masters in Reading Education. She'll graduate with a certification as a Reading Specialist. The class that she's taking now will soon have her actually doing some tutoring with a young child throughout the semester. The Professor is pretty engaging and seems to be an excellent teacher.

I hope this helps everybody know what we're up to. Talk to you all soon.

Brian

Braden’s First Carrots Video…

Watch in HD

Latest Projects

Well we finally got the fan/light up in the computer room this weekend. Dad worked on it all Friday nite, only to find out the fan worked but the lights didn't. Back to Home Depot. The other constant is the bird feeders. He found a new food that they love. We had six birds at the feeders at a time. Now we are feeding them apples and citrus because he got a new book for Christmas that says they need the vitamins. (So do I so he makes me squeezed OJ and takes the peels to the birds.) Firewood is a constant project and now the woodstove now has a crack in the flue. So much for "free" heat. No snow in NJ.