David's expression..

David has mastered the art of making the cutest faces...this is one of my favorite from Christmas Day...

Progressive Dinner

The Youth in our church enjoyed dressing up for their annual Progressive Dinner on Sunday night. We hosted dessert and the gag gift exchange at our house and yes, it is all girls except for one boy (the little one down in the corner is David trying to blend in!).

Snow!!!

Our first snow storm!!!  We were hit with about 8 inches of snow last night into the morning much to the children's delight!!  They have been in and out all day, sledding, shoveling and making snow balls.  It is very windy and cold, so the outings have been limited.  Hopefully it will stick around until Christmas.

Merry Christmas from us to you!!!!

It is 12/12/12 and I sit down to write a Christmas Greeting to all my readers (okay, my 1 reader..Hi, Mom!).  2012 has come and go and we have seen many challenges and blessings along the way.  In November, we hit the 1 year mark of living in our new (to us) country home.  We have enjoyed having llamas and chickens and hope to add some ducks and maybe a goat next year.  We had fun family trips to Indiana and The Black Hills and enjoyed a graduation trip to Orlando with Carlina. Here is a little synopsis of our life in 2012:

Jesse-continued working at the Bean Plant.  He has been there 4 years now.  He still hopes to work his way back into farming (part-time) and we are looking at that goal in the future.

Robin-homeschooler and house keeper extraordinaire.  I continue to try to contain the wonderful chaos on a daily basis.

Colton (20)-finished his first year at CBC and continued on to his second.  Is still working on an Advanced Biblical Studies degree and doing well.  He worked at the local discount store all summer.

Carlina (19)-graduated from High School in May.  She continues to wash dishes at a local eaterie 4 nights a week and just finished her first college class online.  Writing is her passion and she is really good at it.

Julia (17)-went from Sophomore to Junior and is working hard at the discount store.  She loves driving her little PT around and spending time with her friends.

Alicia (15)-Entered High School this Fall.  She loves to write, draw, dance and sing.

Kati (11)-my chicken keeper and nature girl.  Is really working on her drawing and especially loves to draw foxes.  She entered the 6th grade in the Fall.

Garrett (9)-Can't believe he turns 9 in December.  He lives for when he can go to Aunt Debi's and play Mario on her WII.  Also a budding artist who loves to draw scenes from the Mario game.

Thomas (6)-keeper of all the costumes and wearer of them, too.  He is a creative costume designer as well, using only paper and glue.  He is working hard on his reading.

Anna (4)-My spitfire girly-girl.  Never without her purse, makeup and phone (pretend)).  She is still keeping Momma and Daddy on our toes every single day.

David (17 mo)-My lovey-dovey cuddly boy who is a joy to all of us.  He is a smart little dude who is trying his best to keep up with all of his big siblings.

May Jesus get all the glory for the wonderful blessings of our life.  He is the reason for everything we do and our sustainer who provides every breath.  We are so thankful that He came to earth and provided a way for us to live with Him forever by dying on the cross for our sins.  We are so very grateful for all He does for us each and every day.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends.  May 2013 be a blessed year.

November is upon us!!  One of the wacky things about Iowa (which I still find hard to get used to--even after living here for 18 years) is the quick changes in weather.  Today was 75 degrees!!  It was amazing and we had a great time playing outside.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 33 degrees with strong winds.   This kind of thing never happened in Texas or Florida..at least not to that extreme.

Colton is home for a quick visit.  All is good with him, classes are going well.  He brought 2 friends home with him and we've been cooking up a storm.  Colton enjoys being back in the kitchen again.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving and a visit from my sister (and family--hubby & 4 kids) and my mom & stepdad.  We haven't all been together since Thanksgiving 2009!!!

15 months..

My little guy is keeping his 43 year old mother on her toes!!!!  He is so curious and active and wants to do exactly what his older siblings are doing.  He is not happy to be playing on the floor when they are doing school...he wants to be at the table scribbling on a page of work.  He is not happy with a blank page..he wants his page to look exactly like theirs....

October update!!!

October has been a gorgeous month with temperate weather and pretty, colorful leaves.  We seem to have had a hard time shaking various illnesses this month..mainly colds and sore throats.  We have also celebrated 2 birthdays this month.  Anna turned 4 and Julia turned 17!  School, Awana and Church activities have kept us very busy.  Now, all the leaves have gone and the weather is getting ready to make a change.  We are looking toward November and the excitement of family coming to visit.
My 2 birthday girls:

      

Happy 15th Alicia!!

I can't believe it's been 15 years since I brought my baby girl home.  Alicia has always been so upbeat, happy and just an all around pleasant person to be around.  She loves music, dancing and theater and is also an artist and writer.  Can I say Creative with a capital "C"!!!!

Carlina's Graduation Trip

Can you guess where we went?

School 2012..

We are continuing with our second year of  My Father's World and loving it!  I have 2 in High School and they are doing MFW World History.  Julia is a Junior and is doing Apologia Chemistry and Teaching Textbooks Algebra II, as well.  She is also working about 20 hours a week.  Alicia is a Freshman and doing Apologia Phys Sci and Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1. ( I love homeschooling High School and wouldn't have it any other way.)  Katie is in 6th Grade and Garrett in 3rd.  They are doing MFW  Creation to the Greeks together.  Thomas is doing MFW 1st grade and Anna is doing a variety of Preschool activities.  We don't do any extracurricular activities.    We like to do family activities and try to do things that don't send the family to different places.  Jesse has a really weird "swing-shift" schedule, so we need to be available when he is off work, which is usually not on weekends.  We do all go to Awana on Wed nights and love to go hiking and have picnics when Jesse is off.  Also, taking care of our place is a major endeavor, lots of mowing, trimming and weeding this summer plus, taking care of the critters.

I recently read a great editorial in my favorite Home School magazine "Home School Enrichment".  The editors discussed reasons for Homeschooling and I agreed with all 3 of them.  The first thing listed was that "God meant for parents to play the primary role" regarding education.  We are homeschooling because "It's our Job!'.  Secondly, they said that "Christian Education Still matters".  "We separate God from our children's intellectual lives at our peril and to their detriment".  Thirdly, "Our Children Are Individuals".  I love the flexibility and pace that I can work with each one of my children.  Thanks HSE for the great editorial and wonderful reminders of why I am Homeschooling my children..

Homeschool 2012

Another year of school has begun......Here is our class of 2012-2013

 David-the Baby Meister

 Anna-the Preschooler

 Thomas-1st grader

 Garrett-3rd Grader

 Katie-6th Grader

 Alicia-9th Grader

 Julia-11th Grader

Carlina-graduate/homeschool helper and taking college classes online

Colton-sophomore at a Bible College

Garden!!

Loving the first watermelons of the season and watching a gorgeous pumpkin turn from green to orange!

Great schooling post from Gwen at TtT

Making it work with a big family

Black Hills 2012

The Black Hills, SD is one of our favorite vacation destinations.  We haven't been this way since 2003 and decided we were overdue.  We also decided that we would tent camp, which we haven't done in awhile.  All in all it was a great trip!  We had thunderstorm scares every night, but made it through without having to abandon our tents.

Summer!!!

Summer has hit *full force* with temps in the upper 90's.  We are loving our pool!!!  We recently celebrated 3 birthdays... Thomas turned 6 on June 26th, Colton turned 20 on July 2nd and Baby David will turn 1 on July 18th (we celebrated early).  We've had fun outside, trying to keep everything watered and playing with the chickens and llamas, too. We made it through a very hectic VBS week and went to Adventureland in Des Moines on a 100 degree day.  We also had fun hiking in the Loess Hills.  July 4th was a blast because our house is right across from the football field where they light the fireworks...as a result, we had a crowd that night.  Here are some recent pictures of our summer fun:

Memorial Day 2012

Jesse's Dad is buried on a idyllic piece of ground bordering a cornfield.  It is a pretty spot.  The headstone was recently completed and looks good.  Jesse's little brother (who died a day after birth) is buried right beside Jim, but the plaque was taken down when Jim's stone was put in and hasn't been reattached yet.  There is an angel statue to mark his grave right now.  There are many Beem's buried in this plot so we enjoyed walking around and looking at the graves.

Congratulations, Carlina!!!

Carlina officially graduated from High School and we celebrated the event with a bash on Sunday.  It was an exciting time with lots of friends, family and food!   I am so proud of Carlina...she has been home schooled from 6th grade on and has worked very hard.  She is going to be living at home in the Fall and taking some classes online and continuing to work.

Grandma's Visit

It was so nice to have my mom here for a few days.  She flew in from Indiana on Sunday and just left early this morning to go home.  She is a hard worker and helped me bunches.  She weeded, watered, cleaned and scrubbed.  We did take a little time to have some fun...she took us all out to the Olive Garden for lunch to celebrate Carlina's graduation.  I miss her and really enjoy when she comes to visit!!

May 4

Busy times.  Jesse worked the whole month of April with only a few days off.  Once a year his plant shuts down...everything is taken apart and repaired.  Finally we are through that hectic month and he has had a few days off....Thursday we built a llama fence, cleaned out the shed & worked on the pool fence.  We haven't lived on an acreage in years and I forget how much there is to do.  I have planted 9 trees (my goal is 10) and lots of plants, as well...watering them is a full time job.  We also now have 8 chickens.

They're here!!!

Cocoa, Cinnamon,Taylor & Tyler (a mom and her 3 daughters) are now residing on the Beem farm!