Reese's 4th Birthday

She is 4 today. My little angel has been gone now for 4 years. For whatever reason, this year has been really hard for both Don and I. We talked about it and think maybe it is because more and more people forget as every year passes. It is so hard on this end when it is so important that no one forget that we had this beautiful baby girl, but as Don put it this evening, the world has moved on. You want to scream it from the rooftop! You want everyone you pass to know that you had 3 little girls before Taegan and that the last little girl isn't here anymore, but she still matters. I know what should matter is that we know and we celebrate her life, and it does, but it is so hard when others forget the one day you think about all year. Ugh...

This year my parents came up the weekend before her birthday and we all went to the cemetery on Saturday. My mom brought flowers and we purchased another little angel statue from us and a pinwheel from each of our kids. We always try and get a decent family picture, but this was as good as it was getting this year. Lily can't stand the sun in her eyes (or anywhere near her eyes) and Taegan just refuses to look AT the camera!

Her grave with the decorations we brought.

I thought it was a good idea to try and at least get a good picture of the 3 kids (ha, ha!) and this was as good as it got. The girls are great, but Taegan refused to leave his pinwheel alone! It had to be spinning!!

Later that day we got a knock at the door and it was these gorgeous flowers from my Granny in honor of Reese's birthday. I absolutely LOVE them!!

Tonight, on her actual birthday, we took the kids to buy flowers from us and pick out a balloon. Here is a decent picture of the Engel clan with the new flowers in her vase.

I wanted the pale pink tulips. They were so pretty!

Don picked out an arrangement with some gorgeous green and orange flowers.

Here is a picture of the balloon we all picked out, and Taegan HAD to carry out of the store!

Her marker before we left.

Afterwards we went out to eat and then came home and set off our 4 sky lanterns. The kids were all so excited about this and so was I. They turned out great! I just wish we would have had a few more hands to help. Don and I got them up and going and we trusted the girls to take pictures (Madison) and videotape (Lily). I think they did great.

Getting the fire going...

You have to wait about 45 seconds for it to fill with hot air and...

Away it goes!!!

We set off 2 pink and 2 white.

They looked so pretty lit up in the sky. I just wish we would have had more people to help and then they would have gone up a little closer together. Either way, it turned out great and we will definitely be doing it again next year!

As each balloon went up in the air, the kids yelled "Happy Birthday Reese!"

Here is the video Lily (and Don) took of the last lantern being lit and drifting away.

We really did have a nice evening, just us. And I can say we survived another year. It was a tough week, a really bad day yesterday and pretty emotional day today, but we got through it. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for our family. I know they helped during those hard times.

We love you Reese! We are so glad God chose us to be your family. We miss you like crazy and we can't wait to see you again someday!!

Snow Day!!

Yesterday was our first snow day of 2011!! Don worked from home and we just had a nice day around our house and never got out of our pjs. The kids went outside and played in the snow 3 times in their nice, new snowsuits Grandma and Grandpa bought for our Minnesota trip!! Here they are before we put on their coats and boots...

And after the coats and boots are on. They look so cute all bundled up!!!

My snow angels!!

Here they are playing in the snow. Well, the girls are playing more than Taegan. I think he was just trying hard to walk in his snow boots and not fall!

My kids are obsessed with eating snow, I'm not sure why.

My CRAZY daughters!!

I told you they were crazy! Here is Madison, again with snow in her mouth! Lily with her tongue out again. (I have no idea why!) And poor Taegan looking at his sisters like they have lost their minds! What a bunch!!

So Very Far Behind...

Okay so it's been WAY too long since I last updated my blog. And honestly, it's not that we haven't been doing things, we have. I guess it's just that every time I had time to sit down and blog, I thought of 20 other things I should probably be doing instead. So, here I sit, still thinking of 20 other things I should be doing, but I'm going to at least get on here and say "hi".


Our family had such a busy month of December and January hasn't started off any slower. I will try to update about everything.


We had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a great Christmas season as well - it was VERY music oriented. December started off with both girls Christmas performances at church. Lily performed 3 songs with the Little Shepherd's Choir and Madison had a couple parts and a solo in the Kings Kids Choir at our church. They both did such a great job!! I just love watching the little kids perform in the Little Shepherd's Choir. It is a group of 4 year olds through Kindergarten and they are all so funny!! Lily has no fear and just gets up there and sings her heart out while doing all the motions. She just LOVES it!! Madison just amazes me every semester. Each time the choir has held try-outs since she joined, she has tried out and received at least a solo. I can't imagine at her age being able to stand in front of all those people and sing without any hesitation, but she does it like a pro. (She must take after her Daddy!)

Madison performed again at her school for their Christmas program and did a great job! They all look so cute up on stage and you can definitely tell they are getting better every year! Lily's preschool also had a Christmas sing-a-long. It was her first year and she had so much fun!! It is so cute to watch them all. Our church choir that Don sings in also performed 5 times (3 of which required them traveling somewhere). Add in fun school parties, celebrating Christmas with friends, our Christmas traditions of the TBC Light Show and driving around Topeka looking at Christmas lights and we had a fun (very busy) Christmas before Christmas even got here!

We traveled to Carthage for Christmas this year. My parents were so excited that our whole family, including my brother Eric and his wife Tiya, could be together at their house! My mom out-did herself with tons of homemade goodies, our favorite punch (everyday!!), lots of great games to play and wonderful meals! It is so nice to go relax with your family and enjoy their company. We had a FANTASTIC Christmas day!! Everybody got everything they wanted (and more)! It took our van, my brother and his wife's SUV and my parent's truck to get it all back here! We are truly blessed with such a great family! The girls got DSi XLs from my parents (their favorite gifts), Fur Real pets from Santa, a Barbie Dream House from us (my favorite gift of theirs!) and lots, lots more. Taegan got a huge train table and train from my parents, a ride-on train from Santa and about a zillion other train things!! Don and I got a new 50" TV for our living room!! Now you understand why we needed help getting it all home!

The night we got back we got together with Don's parents to exchange gifts. Again, we are so blessed with such terrific family! Madison got a new, bigger bike. Lily got a Razor scooter and Taegan got more Thomas stuff!! (I hope he doesn't outgrow this phase any time soon!) Don took off the week between Christmas and New Years and we traveled to Blue Earth, Minnesota to see Don's sister and her family. The girls were SO excited to go see their cousin and spend lots of time outside playing in the snow, sledding, and riding on the snowmobile!! The kids were great on the drive there and back and we had a great time visiting with everyone.

We celebrated the new year with some great friends. We always have so much fun and honestly you would never know we had 8 kids running around the house. We ate some terrific food, played games and laughed until midnight.

This new year is bringing a big change for our family. Don is starting his classes to become a minister and has taken a volunteer position of becoming the music minister and campus pastor for a new satellite church Wanamaker Woods is starting up in Osage City. We have been SO busy working on it. It is set to open on Sunday, February 6th. Don will lead a live worship service and then we will watch our pastor via a live feed from our Topeka campus of Wanamaker Woods. There will be a wonderful children's service called "JAM" (Jesus and Me) and a great youth group called "The Hub". We are so excited for it and are praying that it just takes off!! So, beginning in February we will no longer be attending Wanamaker Woods in Topeka on Sunday mornings and instead will be driving down to Osage City. The great part about this whole opportunity is that it gives Don great experience at being a music minister and at the same time we don't have to move or change jobs!! Plus our kids will still be involved with their choirs and everything else in Topeka on Sunday nights.

I think that about catches you up with our lives. I will post lots of pictures next!! I hope you had a great Christmas and are starting a great 2011!!!

Halloween Time!!!

I know, it has been a long time since Halloween, but we have been really busy and honestly, I thought I had already blogged about it. Guess not!! So... time to catch up!!

Madison chose to be Barbie Mariposa this year. She loved the outfit and we already had the book for the school's book parade. We made the flower headband and she was set. This is a picture before she went outside into the horrible wind for the parade.

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Scott, during the parade. It was really windy and pretty chilly, but she had so much fun!!

After the parade the class party started. Here she is at her desk ready to chow down on some yummy treats.

After the treats were gone, they decorated a Halloween bag and played some fun games. I enjoyed just hanging back and watching for a change, which was very nice!!

Lily wanted to be a ballerina this year. Certainly not an elaborate costume, but very cheap and since she is taking ballet, it can double as an costume for that as well. Here she is before her parade at Prince of Peace.

A quick shot during the parade around the gym.

After they parade around the gym they all gather in the middle and sing all kinds of Halloween songs that they have learned. They are really cute and Lily loves the music!!

Once the music was over, it was time to attempt a class picture. That was interesting, but I think we got most of the class half-way looking at the camera.

It ended up Halloween day and we still hadn't carved our pumpkins. So, we opted to just carve one. Don and the girls headed that up and I just snapped pictures. I love the look on Lily's face!!

They sure look like they are having a lot of fun!! (And don't ask me why they are both wearing tank tops on such a chilly day and sitting on my kitchen table too! I have no idea!! Apparently it seemed okay at the time.)

Here is a shot of Don helping carve the pumpkin after it was clean. He may look a little funny - he was attempting to be Larry the Cable Guy, but I don't think you could really tell. =)

Here is the finished pumpkin all lit up that night. They really did do a great job since it was so quick and now I get to save the other pumpkins as decoration until Thanksgiving!!

After carving the pumpkin, we quickly got changed and fixed the girls hair. I LOVE this picture, I just wish it was a little brighter. They really do love each other, even if I don't see it all the time!

Taegan wasn't in the best of moods when we were preparing for trick-or-treating. So, here is a picture of him once we got to a friend's house and we were ready to begin. He really got into then!! He looks like Bob the Builder, but it was really just a costume Gymboree was selling. It wasn't anything I was out looking for, but we couldn't find anything else I liked and once I saw it on him, he looked so cute! But, as I told Don, I think you could put a paper sack on him and he would look adorable!!

Here is the big group shot before the madness began. What a bunch!!!

We all went trick-or-treating around Sherwood Park for a while. The kids didn't walk door to door. They RAN!!! They didn't even take the time to go on the sidewalks. Nope. They just ran through the grass to the next door. You would think we never let any of them have a single piece of candy!

It was really cold, but they all made it through. Here is a shot mid-way through. They look so cute!

Once we got back home, Don wrangled Jack into a dog Superman costume and we attempted to get a picture of the kids and him. Not an easy task!! Here is one of the pictures. Not the best of Jack, but a better one of my kids (and really who is more important)!! Don then took the kids and Jack around some of our neighborhood. Apparently our "Superdog" was a big hit!

We had a great Halloween and I hope you did too!! I can't believe we are so close to Thanksgiving!!

Pumpkin Patch Fun!!

Lily's preschool recently took a field trip to Gary's Pumpkins. Lily was SO excited for her first field trip! It was the perfect day for it and we had so much fun!! Once we were there we got to ride on a "train" according to Taegan (by far his favorite part) out to the pumpkin patch so they could choose their pumpkins. They both found ones that had really long stems that they liked. (Since then both of the pumpkins have lost their stems - long story.) Here are Lily and Taegan after "picking" their pumpkins. I tried and tried to get a picture where they are both looking at me, apparently that's not going to happen.

I finally get Taegan to look at me and Lily looks away! Oh well...

Before snack time we stopped to get a big group picture. Here they all are.

Lily's best friend at preschool is a little girl named Riley. Lily talks about her all the time and draws pictures for her too. I'm so glad she is making new friends. Here they are playing together.

Lily is trying to see how tall she is this fall.

After snack we had time to go play at their playground. Lily wanted nothing to do with the big slides, but opted to just swing instead. (She's not my dare-devil.)

Taegan LOVED the playground and especially loved the bridge and smaller slide. I bet he ran across the bridge 30 times while we were there!

Lily pretending to be a scarecrow. How cute!

One final picture by the pumpkins. I'm so glad she is going to such a great preschool where they get to go on all these fun trips and experience so much! Happy Fall!!!