Father’s Day with the Blue Angels!

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I am pretty sure that since we moved to Wisconsin in 2001, we have never missed watching the Blue Angels when they are in town!

How fun it was to find out they were going to be here again this year, and also that they would be here on Father’s Day weekend!

I am not sure who was more excited about seeing them – my hubby or our grandson River!

We went to our earliest church service that morning so that we could get to the airport on time for the air show.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day – hot, but not too hot – and both cloudy and sunny at different times.

When we got there, the guys took the kiddos to walk around the air show while Kayla and I and some little ones stayed with our camp chairs.


Pretty soon planes were in the air!

I could not believe how fast and how LOUD the F22 Raptor was!!


We worked hard at keeping everyone hydrated and snacking!

Blake did walk around to see if any of the booths had safe food for us, but even the smoothie booth was made with junk that they poured in those blenders – shame, shame!

The guys also went and grabbed all the umbrellas they could find from our van when it got super sunny, and it really helped to keep everyone cooler!


Before we knew it, it was time for the BLUE ANGELS!!!

The skill that these pilots have is incredible.

Just thinking about the fact that one wrong move could make them all crash is mind boggling!

We really enjoyed watching their show!

And tried to get a few good photos!

I think Addie’s photo won the prize that day – just look at this one!


Well, we were hot and sweaty when the show was over, so we all headed back to NaiNai’s house (that’s me!! And I love that my grand children call our home that!!) to jump in our pool and cool off!!

We hardly used our pool at all this year, so these photos are great memories!!


Of course, no amazing day wouldn’t end well without smores!

I buy a huge amount of smore ingredients at the first sign of summer and hide them in our storage room pantry, ha, ha!

I love being able to pull that box out and have an impromptu camp fire!


Here is the last photo I took that day as everyone drove away from NaiNai’s house.

Goodness, such a fantastic summer day – the kind of days we wait for!!


Well, I want to do that all again!!

Fall is nipping the air as I type this post…so I don’t think we will all be in the pool anytime soon!

Let’s talk about the father of my children for a second, since this post is about Father’s Day and all!

He has A LOT, a lot, a lot on his plate right now – EVERYDAY.

I am sure I don’t need to make you the list of all those things – but we are living out this “sandwich generation” thing – and I am here to tell you, there is no one who does it better than my hubby.

He is FULL of a calm, patient, wisdom that is just the foundation and rock of this family, and we could not be more blessed to have his guidance, example, and stability in our lives.

Truly, he is one in a billion.

I could not show you a more self-less man.

Goodness, Blake Moschel, I love you so much!!

Thank you for being our steady leader, even when life seems so upside down and crazy sometimes.

I am SO glad we got to celebrate you!!

The air show and a swim was a perfect celebration!!

Happy Father’s Day, babe!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

A Beautiful Bridal Shower!

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On a Saturday morning in the middle of June, Kayla hosted a bridal shower for Addie Mae!

I was Kayla’s side kick, and helped her bring her beautiful vision for this shower to life.

It was SO much fun preparing for that day!!

We were serving brunch to the ladies at the shower, so the first thing was to get some food made at home to take to Kayla’s the next day.

Of course I had my best helpers to help me!


Friday we headed to the farm to help Kayla clean and set up.

Being at the farm is just one of my favorite things, even if I am scrubbing chairs and sweeping floors!

I only took one photo!

The last thing that we worked on that day was blowing up all the balloons for the balloon arch – don’t worry we had an air pump!

I had to leave right in the middle of that project to pick up Lane from work, but Kayla managed to finish it!


Saturday morning started early!

Blake was going to feed David and all of our grandbabies some pancakes and bacon at our house while I went to the farm to finish getting ready for the shower!

Addie Mae brought Kayla’s big girls and Eliza to the shower – which worked out perfectly!

Everything was coming together SO beautifully!!

Kayla is so talented at things like this!!

Scottie made the donut board for us, and I love that he got to contribute to the shower in such a special way.

Pretty soon we were set up and waiting on our guests to arrive!


First up was all of that food!!

I wish I had a photo of that table full of food!

It was very pretty and we heard it was delicious too.

Everyone enjoyed the brunch and then our dear friend Jodi shared a wonderful devotional.

I am so so thankful that my girls have so many beautiful Godly women who pour into their lives!

After that, Addie opened so many gifts!

Gifts upon gifts!

They were SO thoughtful!!


Addie’s best friend and bridesmaid made the trip to attend her shower.

We were so thankful she was there!

Kamryn was also back from her and Grant’s honeymoon too!


Goodness, I enjoy looking at these photos and thinking back to that wonderful day.

What a sweet, sweet season we have been in!!

I know that all of Kayla’s efforts were not in vain – it was such a wonderful gathering!!

We are very thankful to all the ladies who came out that morning to celebrate Addie Mae and Scottie!

Four weeks from that day was their wedding day….the anticipation was building!!

Kayla Lauren, thank you for blessing your sister SO much, even though I know you would say the blessing was all yours!

Addie Mae, what a joy to celebrate you as a bride-to-be!!!

My heart could not have been fuller!!

I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!

Our Favorite Weekend Trip

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I think you all could probably type this post for me!

We are such creatures of habit here, aren’t we??

We enjoy taking a weekend trip many times a year to visit family in Illinois and Indianapolis.

We do the SAME things every time!

We stay at the same hotels, leave home at the same time, and even have some traditions with my brother that are the same!

No complaints from me – I love the same things when the reason they are the same is because they are so good!!

We took a trip to Illinois and Indy at the beginning of June.

In prep for that trip, Tate was my special helper as we went to check on my in-laws new home.

I wanted to get photos to show them when we saw them the next day.

We also stopped for some grocery, and then spent the rest of Thursday packing and prepping food for the trip.

Lane worked that afternoon, but once he and Blake got home from work, we left that evening and drove to Peoria to spend the night.


We always get two rooms when there are five of us and have a girl’s room and a boy’s room.

It works out very well, especially having two bathrooms.

Eliza and I enjoy being roommates on these trips!


Our first stop Friday morning was to visit my father-in-law, Ross.

I love watching these kiddos play the piano there.

We went back to the house for some lunch on the patio on a beautiful day.

As you can imagine, we have LOTS to talk about right now for the upcoming move.


Next we headed to our favorite little coffee shop in Morton to have a late afternoon snack and see Blake’s Mom.

These visits are way too short – yes.

But we are driving 1,100 round trip miles each time we do these weekend trips!


Friday evening we continued the 3 1/2 hours on to Indy.

The hour time change is not in our favor on the way there.

It is always SO late when we finally arrive!

But we had Saturday on our minds!!

When we get to see my brother and my Mom.

My brother planned an outing for us Saturday morning to a local nursery.

It was LOVELY and we were there a long time!


Remember my comment above about tradition?

Well, a summer water fight with my brother is one of those traditions!

I can hear the squeals and laughter just looking at these photos!

My brother is one in million – really making some solid memories with these kiddos!!

Please notice that I am sitting on the deck IN A JACKET while those crazy people dump garden hose water all over each other!


We started a new tradition for dinner on this trip.

Frogmore!!

Have you all every had it??

It is really fun!!

And delicious!!

We had a blast!!


We had some kiddos pretty excited about the pool back at our hotel, so we headed back in the late evening to give them enough time to swim.

I have an awesome video of the biggest kid in this family – my husband – swimming with the kids that evening.

He is hilarious and wild and crazy and super fun when in a pool, just saying!


Sunday morning we headed back to my mom’s for just a bit to spend some more time before our very hard “See you again next time” goodbyes.

My Mom is doing great, by the way, and remembered us all on this trip!!

We hit the road before lunch for the almost nine hour drive home.

The kiddos might have got a little stir crazy on the way home, but they were just emulating someone who was sitting next to her hubby in the front seat.

I am not good at sitting still!!


Well, I am so far behind in this little scrapbook of ours that we have been to Illinois and Indy again already!!

And have plans to go and see my brother again after we get my in-laws moved here.

See, we love the same things!!

What a fun trip this was!

CANNOT WAIT UNTIL NEXT TIME!!

Our Twin Oaks

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You might remember that the little nest we live in is named Twin Oaks.

The two huge old oak trees on our property meant a lot to us as we left the farm.

You can read a very sweet story about them be clicking on this HERE.

We had a lot of rain and storms in the first months of this summer.

One late afternoon a storm came through that was fierce, and pretty soon I looked out the window and saw this.

One of our beloved Twin Oaks.

I said out loud when I saw it “No, no no!!” which had the kiddos come running to see what was wrong.


This tree had already been hit by lightening a few years ago and had split in half.

We did our best to try to save it – but obviously it was weak and rotting on the inside.

It was several weeks later that we finally got around to starting to clean it up.

I say “starting” to clean it up, because the biggest part of that tree trunk is still laying in our yard.

It was a HUGE job!

Blake had a chain saw – and he also had Scottie, Addie, Lane, Tate, Eliza and myself to help him.


Thankfully it was not hot the day that we did this – nor was it raining for once!

Blake decided to cut a bunch of rounds from the trunk for us to save.

I am so glad he did that!!


We are hoping our neighbor will still want the biggest part of that tree like he said he would.

He burns wood to heat his house!

And he has big equipment to move a huge tree!

If not, we will figure out what to do with it eventually.

We have a lot of our own fire wood stacked thanks to that tree!

We can have camp fires for years!

So – here’s the thing – the loss of this tree is just a circumstance.

Most often circumstances are completely out of our control.

That is really GREAT actually, because that is where the Lord does His best work in our minds and hearts, isn’t it??

When this tree fell God gave me the opportunity to choose to say “It’s just a tree.”

“We were all safe during that storm.”

“That huge tree did not come close to hitting our house.”

“My hubby will know exactly how to take care of this.”

And now I can add to that – “Thank you, Lord, for giving us a great day of fellowship while we all worked together cleaning up that tree!”

I am still a little sad that it is gone.

But we are keeping our name.

Twin Oaks, two trees or not, you are still a very sweet little nest that we are so thankful to call home!

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