Family Matters

This is a post with lots of family pictures from Chris' side.

Some are Raabes (Robbie). Some are Raabe (Ray.be). Some are Pawluk

I grew up in a good family and I am grateful for the experiences I had which have shaped me into the woman, wife and mother I am today. I remember many trips to grandma and grandpa's house in little Garfield and as well as trips to Hutchinson to see grandma and Aunt Delma. It was a 3 hour drive so we usually left early Sunday morning and got home late that same night. What I didn't experience was spending time with extended family.

Our girls regularly see grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and family member we don't really even know how they fit in. Something like a second cousin once removed inlaw. ha ha It's GREAT!

My girls with Great Grandma. What a treasure!!

Meet Stephen...the newest member of the family.

Stephen is trying to remove an arrow from the wall in Dean and Linda's backyard. Apparently Chris' bow is pretty powerful and Stephen's aim is a little off. Ha ha We welcome you!

Chris' family Christmas weekend

Nana and Papa with our girls on Easter

Annual Raabe Family Reunion

Gift time for the little kids. Some years it's a christmas theme, this year it was an Easter theme. Aunt Helen loves to buy gifts for all the great nieces and nephews.

Cousin Erica got hitched to her German beau, Fritz this summer in North Dakota.

We weren't able to attend. (so sad)

Again, Stephen with my fantastic sister in law

We now have Holly and Stephen in the metro area...more family.

Thanks Holly for the time you put into our girls, they love you dearly!

I love this little guy.

Sometime when Kelly drops him off I just might keep him.

Another Raabe (Ray.be) family reunion

This covers both my family and Chris'.

What is amazing about this event is that Chris' aunt and cousin traveled 5 hours to Hutchinson, KS to help us pack up and move Aunt Delma to Nebraska. What a servant's heart!

I big shout out to my cousin Marianne and her sweet daughter Rachel from Seattle.

The July 4th North Dakota family reunion comes around every 5 years.

These are Minnesota cousins with their kids and our 3 girls.

Linda (mother-in-law) with her mom and 3 of her 6 siblings.

Family support!

Reagan played in a KC soccer tourney in January. What a lucky girl to have 2 aunts and 2 uncles come cheer her on as they took first place in the 3 day event.

Back in the day, families were not so spread out. They lived close to one another (sometimes LIVED together and I am not in favor of that. ha ha) and helped raise the next generation. I have heard "it takes a village" to raise a family and I fully agree.

Thank you to the family and friends who have come along side Chris and me to help build a strong and loving family.

Flat Stanley

Have you heard of the little guy (in a book) who was smashed flat by something falling off of his wall?  He gets sent all over the US, or world I guess, to friends and families to document his travels.  It's a cute idea and really not that big of a deal but became a pain in the rear for me only because I procrastinated.

Let me introduce to you Flat Stanley in Omaha, Nebraska

We had TWO Stanley's sent to us, one from Florida and one from Iowa.

F.S. in front of his Clayton's old house

I thought the students in Florida would enjoy seeing the snow.

Yep, F.S. took a trip to the dentist with us. 

Dr Trumm said he had a good check up.

Our faith in Jesus is a big part of our lives so naturally attending church is a priority.

F.S. heard a story about a God who loves everyone...also Clayton's old church.

This is our Iowa F.S.  After going to the dentist we visited Krispy Kreme.

Both Stanleys enjoyed their trip to Chris' 7th grade classroom

What boy won't like the attention of a bunch of pretty girls?

And here is F.S. at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, NE.

Nebraska is the home of the UNL Cornhuskers.

Omaha is the home of the UNO Mavericks and Creighton Bluejays

but I don't really care about either of those teams so no pictures.  ha

F.S. at Clayton's old school...isn't he a great tree climber?

Vincent and Bella hanging out with our guests.

Both F.S. attended some basketball and soccer games. 

Today there will be a quick trip to the Omaha Doorly Zoo...it's one of the best in the nation.

Thanks for sharing the journey of Flat Stanley with us.

Flying High!

 Never mind the holes in the socks.

 Should I be concerned that it's a different day (diff shirt) but the SAME SOCKS?

 Never been to the ER with this kiddo...can you believe it?

 No wonder she needs an adjustment every week!

It's all fun and games until someone falls off the bed...or flies out the window.

Oh my, I really didn't know this was going on until I found my daughter's camera.

What a great chuckle I got today!

Dear Lord,

Please protect my children when I am not around them.

Thank you Jesus!

HaPPy BiRthDaY to You!

Welcome to the teen years my beautiful daughter.

Birthdays have several fun aspects to them in our family.  One of them is dinner out and the birthday girl (or boy) gets to pick the place.  I was sure we were going to HuHot this year for Emma, at the last minute she switched to Red Robin, still a good choice.  A highlight for Emma was ordering off the adult menu AND ordering a drink.  Here she is with her "Freckled Lemonade".

the fam with the teenager

Our server was a great guy.  Before embarrassing Emma with the Red Robin birthday song he asked her if she wanted the attention.  HELLO!!!  Middles school who loves attention was happy to put the balloons behind her ears just to get a free dessert.

We have been in our current house for 3 1/2 years and the girls are all starting to ask for bedroom makeovers.  We don't need to repaint but we are changing Emma's new room into a Paris themed room.

Aw, money!!

 

Olivia knows the importance of giving.  She found a book in the house and wrapped it up for her sister's birthday.  Judy Moody is something Emma read about 4 years ago but she still thanked Liv and gave her a big hug.  It made Liv's day.  What a great big sister!

CUPCAKES TO FOLLOW THIS EVENING:
Gourmet GF cupcakes that are to die for...can't wait!

What Are You Reading?

Do you have a list?  I do and it seems to be growing.  What a funny idea for me to have a "Books I Want to Read List".  Can I just say, that is totally out of character for me!  Less than 10 years ago I could count on one hand the number of books I had read for enjoyment.  Today, I am willing if only I could have a 25 hour day.

I really enjoy Francine Rivers as an author.  She has a new book, maybe even 2 out, I'm on the waiting list at the library.  My other favorite Christian author is Karen Kingsbury.  The Redemption series is wonderful which leads into the First Born and Baxter series.  The Shack has been on my list for about 2 years and as soon as I can get it from my mother-in-law I'll be diving into that story.  My friend Vicki has my interests up about a book titled, "So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore".  Too bad they couldn't come up with a longer title.  On top of those I have 3 Debbie Macomber books on my night stand.

Geesh, my high school English/reading teachers would be shocked to know that I read books.  I'm pretty sure they knew I read the Cliff Notes and tried to get detailed info from all my friends before every quiz.  You see, I just didn't have time to read in high school.  My life was packed full.  If it weren't for some fun/laid back classes, school itself would have messed with my social life.  Phone calls, sports and boys really did occupy way too much time after school to focus on something as boring as sticking my nose in required reading.  :)

Now that I have a nook color I have my nook books and my "physical, hold the paper & turn the page" books. I like the Nook but I seem to read faster and get less distracted when I read books printed on paper.  I don't know why that is.  One a positive note, it is hard to find time to read and when I do, often it is late at night. Often a few pages in I fall asleep.  The Nook saves my spot every time.  Love it!

I have 3 books to plug today.  The first isn't surprising...THE NEW PHENOMENON by Chris Raabe.  In the near future author Chris Raabe will be speaking at Peru State College.  I don't see this as a venue that will sell lots of books but it's great exposure and I'm praying that the novel is incorporated into their reading choices for YA lit classes.  Another note worthy comment is we have our own domain.
http://chrisraabe.net  will take you directly to Chris' blog.  This is just a starting place eventually we will do more with it.  One more comment, it you have not gone to the facebook page for The NEW PHENOMENON and liked it, please do so now. CLICK HERE We will be doing a book give away in the next month.  You must like the book and make a comment on the post to be entered in the raffle.

The second book that I plan to read soon is THREE BURNING BODIES by Brian Bogdanoff.  He is a retired local police officer who wrote a non-fiction book about a case he helped solve.  We met with Brian today for tips.  His book is doing very well and has even been a number one seller on Amazon.  His book is available in e-version as well as printed form.

Last but certainly not least I've gotta send out a shout for my Daily Bible in Chronological Order.  We are reading it together as a family.  There are many stories already (we're only in Exodus) that I have read or heard many times over the years but suddenly they make more sense when you know what happened 400 years before and after.  The girls are asking great questions too.  When I don't know the answer we look it up or I say, ask your Sunday school teacher.  LOL!

This week I'm sending up some special healing prayers for Evan and his mom at Mayo Clinic, Dylan at UNMC, Klint at Lakeside Hospital and Dad.

Celebrating for Months

Life gets crazy.

Sometimes it is necessary to plan to procrastinate.

Our sweet little pink princess was born in December.

For a mom with unrealistic, over board party plans

this is a problem.  December is a busy month!

 As you can see the Christmas tree in the background, we really did do a little family celebration in December.  Emma spent her own money to buy Liv a pink frilly skirt from the dance store and Reagan made a cute pink visor but we hit the bulls eye with our gift...a PINK Nintendo DS!

I'm not sure about the outfit she's wearing...

 I do spend quite a lot of time at the elementary school so it

is only natural for me to hang out with the birthday girl for a little while

on her big day.  We went out for recess...burrr!  We had lunch...Panda Express.

And most importantly, we had treats.  She asked for cupcakes from the store.

(secretly I was sad, I like to MAKE treats but she wanted to be like everyone else)

6 weeks later......

Here we are at Bounce U
It's one of those fun places with inflatables for the kids to bounce in, on & through.

The plan was to invite 6 friends since she was turning 6.
Bounce U's smallest package was for 15 kiddos so we invited 12 (plus my 3 girls).
We had 9 friends show up, it was a perfect number.  Now to get going on the thank yous.

 Max is one of Liv's buddies.  The poor guy was there without any other male backup. 
Two boys didn't RSVP or make it and the other little boy got sick right as they were heading
to the party.  He was so mad at his mom for keeping him home.

Chris and Melanie on the balance beam.
We were trying to switch places without falling off.
We fell every time.  My friend Stacey enjoyed getting
some rather unattractive pictures of us...those won't be posted here.

This was Olivia's first party outside of our home.  No, I didn't do this for the other two at this age but I've gotta say it was worth the money we spent to avoid the mess at our house.  Next year we'll probably go back to something like pizza and cupcakes at our house and then I'll wish I spent the money on bowling.

I love birthdays (even my own).
I love celebrating the life God has give us.
It nearly killed me to take an entire year off of birthday parties last year (sept-feb)
So now I am back to making cakes and going over board and I LOVE IT!



Toro Magic

What a crew!

Soccer crazies...they were every where.  I am afraid the Raabes could be included in that group.  Our 10 year old soccer team traveled down to Kansas City for the Winter Magic soccer tournament.  Toro Fusion was formed just 3 weeks ago. I am very pleased to say that these little girls worked hard to become the tournament champions beating out teams who had played together for 5-6 years.  Way to go!!

Reagan has decided to hang up her softball glove to go full speed with soccer.  This was our first out of town soccer event.  We did it big...Friday through Monday!  The girls and the parents had a great time getting to know each other both at the games and in our down time.  I am excited to continue the season and watch the girls grow into stronger, quicker athletes.

Staying in a hotel with a pool is a pretty exciting thing for a bunch of girls.

It was a little disappointing for them to find out that Coach Chad was concerned

their little bodies would be worn out before the weekend was over.  His famous

saying for the weekend was, "you have 30 minutes to swim."  I couldn't help

myself...doesn't it look like the girls are getting the "bad" news. 

This was actually a pre-game pep talk. 

The march into the walls, game #1.

 There's my girl, full speed ahead zipping past all the defenders.

We started out the tournament with a loss to Agape Xtreme. The Fusion girls lead the whole game

(in spite of all the bad calls) and with 40 secs left in the game we were still up 5-4.  Those big girls from

Pleasant View scored twice and sent us back to the hotel knowing we had our work cut out for us

in the remaining 2 games.   Our goal was to make it into the winner's circle on Monday morning.

Nothing says bonding like making duct tape flowers.

 #8 might be small but she is mighty.

Reagan knows how to bring her power to a penalty kick.

The Raabes had the best following thanks to our KC family.

Aunt Angie, Uncle John, Uncle Rodger and Aunt Laura we appreciate

you driving all over KC to support our Toro girls.  Love you guys!

The Tebow

It's a craze right now but seeing my daughter do this gave me an opportunity to talk to her about the platform that she has right now.  If you have followed Tim Tebow at all, which I had not until recently, you have heard of his faith in Jesus Christ.  He recognizes that he is no better than the next person just because he can throw a football with a certain level of accuracy which enables him to make millions of dollars a year. Instead he uses his celeb placement as an opportunity to speak to the lost and for those who are without food and shelter.  We all have an opportunity to do something for the greater good.