Christmas 2007

The biggest event of the day! Javan lost his first tooth.

Kirk, Keri, Drew, and Truitt joined us for Christmas via Skype!

Dad and mom spent some time answering questions from their children.

Dad cutting the filet mignon! Yum! Sorry you couldn't taste it via skype, Kirk and Keri!

Jonas enjoyed the Jumperoo we borrowed from Mark and Andrea.
Jubilee trying out the new sled Nathan and Ben got for Christmas.

Children helping Grandpa open his gift.

The children always look forward to a trip to the Amazone with Grandma Riley.

We left Ohio shortly after 5 AM on Friday and spent the day at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We left around 430 PM and returned home around 7 PM our time.

The carousel is a favorite.

They had a section for robots that interested the boys.

Jubilee was a very tired girl!

They had a playhouse and everything in it was child-size .

Jolene waitressing in the Ice cream shop.
It was a great trip and the children can't wait to do it again. I am not quite as excited as I still haven't gotten back in order from this one. It seems to take a week on either end to prepare and get back in order.

Thank you to everyone for the gifts! Andrea, I bought a frame, now I just have to get the page in it and hung!

Lord willing our next visit to Ohio we will get to meet our new niece (nephew).

Happy New Year everyone!!!

A young boy's message about God

My good friend e-mailed this to me, I think you might enjoy it.

www.ksbj.org/eblogs/morningShow/?p=113

Enjoy!

Trucks!

This evening we went sledding with our good friends John Sauder and children. We were told to follow the truck tracks until we get stuck and walk the rest of the way, John will pull us out later. Wanting to be a good example to our children, we obeyed. :)

After our sledding the children and I were standing out of the way watching John and Chad work on getting the van unstuck. Jolene said to Arrow - "I wish my dad had a big red truck" (like John's). Jared said "my dad has a black truck" then Jolene said "we call it our hiccup truck" :)

We made it safely home with a smile to end our evening. Good night!

Saturday Evening at the Plattners

Chad and the boys were getting a popcorn snack ready to share.

Leave it to Jared to make a face!

Have you gotten our Christmas card yet?

Does this look like a girl caught in action? She just closed the laptop while I was away taking pictures for my blog.

Jonas and Mommy :) Jonas cut two teeth this week.

O.K. What in the world are these children doing?

They are talking to Grandma Plattner through Skype or video connection over the internet. This high speed stuff is great!

O.K. Andrea this doesn't quite one up ya, but it reminded me of your blog. Thursday night Chad was at Farm and Fleet with the children. They were in the rest room and Chad heard Jared announce "hey dad I don't need to wash my hands, do you want to know why? Why Jared? I'm wearing my gloves!

I didn't read your blog out loud to Chad as I do sometimes, I didn't want to give my children any ideas.

We have enjoyed sledding at our house lately and Chad said we have 5 inches of snow and it is still falling. Maybe we will have a good sledding winter. I hope the weather cooperates for our trip to Ohio, we are really looking forward to coming home. I made a batch of raisin bread for you today mom and dad, I hope I don't forget it. ;)

It's time for bed! Have a blessed Sunday!

Did I say weekly update?

I don't rightly know where to begin so I just decided to grab a few pics and try to keep it short. (Your welcome Mark!) I thought Jonas looked like a baby doll here.
Self-explanatory? Gotta have em of all the little ones don't we?


Happy Birthday Mark! Thanks for sharing. For those of you who weren't there, this is in OKC we went out for lunch in Bricktown and Darren asked for a candle to put in ice cream for Mark's birthday not knowing that he would get a free dessert for his birthday. It was large enough to be shared and it was very good!
Jubilee - she loves hats!
The children and I were folding laundry one day and Jubilee put on five pair of Jolene's underwear by herself. I couldn't resist a picture.
One of several wiener roasts we had this fall. I love them because I don't have much prep or cleanup!
We often eat outside when the weather and bugs permit.


Signing off - I don't feel quite so bad having my blogs far apart when the Riley - Blog queen hasn't been keeping up either. I'm not quite so intimidated now - Thanks Andrea :)

Starved Rock State Park

We had a wonderful time on our trip. Chad treated me like a queen. We hiked for about 3 or 4 hours on Monday and then went to a Mexican restaurant for supper.

Tuesday we hiked for a few more hours and then we went to the visitor center for the lock and dam. We got to see a barge lock through. The hiking was beautiful; we learned that the eagles come during the winter to feast at the bottom of the dam where the water doesn't freeze so I would like to go back with the children to see them this winter.

The children enjoyed their time with Grandpa, Grandma, and Drew. On Tuesday, Grandma took them to Tanners Orchard for their annual trip there; usually I am with them but missed out this year. Then this past Friday Dad and Mom and Drew picked them up at our house and took them back to Peoria for a field trip to the replica of the Nina (Christopher Columbus ship). I would have liked to see that but I have a lot of catch up to do at home, so it was best that I stay home from that field trip. I will try to get some pictures forwarded that I can post for you to see.

I feel a little guilty not blogging as much as I'd like, I'd like to keep everyone up to date with what's happening around here; but as I daily check the Queen Blogger's blog (Andrea) and realize she isn't keeping up so well these days I don't feel so bad. I understand Andrea, but I miss your blogs! I'll try to get more pictures uploaded soon!

Congratulations on the upcoming baby Andrea! We will be praying for you!

10 Year Anniversary Trip to Starved Rock

Here's some pictures we took on an 8 mile hike we went on this afternoon. This State Park has some well done trails and has various small canyons along the Illinois River.



Chad carried Jonas most of the time. As you can see, Jonas even got nap during our hike. The last half hour he got tired of the riding in the backpack carrier and LauraLee had to carry him in the baby sling. This is a nice time of the year to be out as the park is quite empty.

What the flu can do!!!

Today is Sunday, I feel a little better, I have a sore throat now but my fever and headache are gone. I just reread my blog from yesterday and realized there were some pretty bad errors. So to those of you who notice mistakes (like I usually do) and they drive you nuts, I apologize. I knew yesterday that my mind wasn't up to top notch, but I didn't realize it was that bad.

If I had lots of money I would set up an award for each person to leave a comment with the number of errors found - that would probably get the comments comming!!! Too bad!

Hurrah! We have high-speed

I must begin with the most important event since our Texas Adventure!

Jonas Daniel Plattner

Born Mothers Day, May 13th 2007

Jared with newborn brother. We have recently moved Jared into the baby room which is no longer the baby room, it is the "Boys room" Now we have two in each room, I hope with this new arrangement I can help Jared to keep "HIS" room in order and his older brothers can take care of their own.

In July we were home with dad and mom Riley. I saw Grandma Brinker the first day we were there while mom was at work. She recognized me right away and gave her doll that she was holding to Jonas. We sang a little and visited. Uncle Steve and Aunt Steph showed up shortly after we got there, they had just arrived back from Illinois the night before.

We went to Hinkley with mom, Mark, and Nathan. Our children enjoyed it although Nathan and Jolene got stung so that changed her idea about hiking for the day.
Jared "LOVES" frogs. We have an old cattle tank that is collecting frogs. I plan to do a nature study on frogs come spring (I don't intend to keep these frogs, we will start with eggs). I got a great book called Handbook of Nature Study that is somewhat like a personal encyclopedia. Gives a lot of information about nature and also includes instructions for fieldwork and observation questions. We currently have two wooly bears in a small fish tank that I plan to follow through the upcoming changes.

We went to grandmas as a family with mom and sang for awhile, then we took her outside.

We have been enjoying swimming at a friends house when they are gone. The children are doing very well learning to swim, etc.

We got together at dad and mom Plattner's somewhat as a last hurrah before Cam, and Kirk and Keri and family leave. This is all the children with grandpa and grandma. Drew and Truitt (Kirk and Keri's children) are on grandmas lap, and Drew (dad and mom's foster son is behind moms left shoulder. I think I have all the other children in other pictures. Truitt and Jonas

Truitt, Jolene, and Shelby (Two peas is a pod!)

On Saturday dad and mom took Clints and our children to the Rocking C stables. They each had a horse and a helper. They were given some beginning instruction and then played a couple games to reinforce what they learned. Red light green light and musical mares. You wouldn't believe they all want horses now!!! Jubilee was upset that she wasn't in on the fun.

Jubilee was all smiles when she did get to sit on the horse at the end.

Here go those peas!

On Friday we went to Michael's fun world. Here is Jubilee, Emily and Drew, all about the same age, on a merry go round.

Here is the play yard. We intended to do go carts but you had to be 10 to dry by yourself and that didn't interest the boys.

This is in Moline, when we parked to walk around the John Deere Commons there was a train going through which was of great interest to the children.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandchldren in front of a cotton picker.

Girls on tractor.

Chad Plattners

Bethany and Clint in rear, Emily, Shelby, Abrey and Tyler in front

While in the Quad Cities we went four a tour of the Rock River on the Celebration Belle.

Jesse, for some reason he reminds me of Andy B. with his squint. He sure is growing up!

Javan

Jared

Jolene

Jolene and Jubilee playing with "Tall stacker pegs" we just purchased for a creative school-time activity when I am working with one of the older ones.

Jubilee

Jolene sure is growing up too this summer!

O.K., those of you who haven't heard. Three weeks ago, a friend of our's son was run over by a cattle trailer. They life-lighted him to the Urgent Care Center in Peoria. That was on Saturday. He had two collapsed lungs, a cracked rib, and some internal injuries. All these things heal themselves in a young child over time. They watched him in intensive care for a little over a week and went home 10 days after the accident. We give God all the glory for his mercy and care on this young boy. We visited him when he got out of Intensive Care. He was glad to have company other than adults and doctors. His siblings did get to see him a couple times in ICU.

These are three of his seven siblings.

Jubilee cuddling Jonas.

View from the front

View from the rear, watching, family videos in the school room.

Jesse aiming for a shot, a favorite Sunday afternoon activity with daddy.

Daddy and his girls!

The Sunday after Jesse's birthday we surprised him with inviting some friends and their families from his Sunday School class. We played kickball and I had a Bible scavenger hunt prepared for him. They also jumped on the trampoline and played cops and robbers. He said he was glad it was a surprise. Only one picture got taken. I am trying to use the camera more so I have pictures to blog with.

Jonas in the bumbo we borrowed from Mark and Andrea

Well that's all for pictures, I don't intend to spend this much time in the future, hopefully I will keep current (approx. once a week). Right now I'm in bed with the flu so I have plenty of time to play on the internet. Not only do I have high-speed, but also wireless so I can work from my bed, my desk, or any where that suites me at the time :)

Now for something the Lord impressed upon my heart recently.

James 5:16 says Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

It seems that we tend to joke about our "faults" or even "sin". As I've been struggling to change some habits in my life, I have been praying that God would help me to overcome. For example, I joke about being grumpy when I don't get enough sleep. God has shown me that my circumstances are not an excuse. That doesn't mean it's easy to do what's right, but it does mean I need to strive to be an overcomer. God has even given this promise in James as a help. I have started sharing with my friends and I hope those of you who are my brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus will pray for me.

That is all for now, hopefully more next week.