The Great Debate

A few years ago Nathan and Megan decided to try debate club.  They found out that they were both pretty good at it so Nathan has continued with it throughout high school.  This year he has been a part of the two-man negative team and they went undefeated during the regular season. Their team took first in the Lincoln Division of  South Jersey which allowed them to compete in the championship debate.  Most debates are not open to the public so I had never seen a debate before, but the championship was open to all the debaters from South Jersey and parents.  It was intense!! They did a great job, but unfortunately they did not win the championship.  But considering the school went 1-15 the first year they started debating, we were so proud that they made it to the championship!!  

Here is the winning team from the Lincoln Division

Russ Bauer -Affirmative Team, Shawn Tuman - Negative Team, 

Lizzie Raffo - Affirmative Team, and Nathan Foulk - Negative Team

The boys were also featured in our little local paper.

Congrats, guys!!!

Cherry Hill Women's Expo - 2014

I like to document our women's conference each year because it is fun to look back on and learn from and remember.  This year was a little different because we got our idea from a conference in Janelle's stake to invite the community and make it a missionary tool in that way.  It has been a lot of work and time invested, but it turned out really well.  Pres. Vai Sikahema and his wife, Keala  were our keynote speakers and then we had three sessions of classes that followed with lunch as a choice during the last two sessions.  We had about 300 ladies there and we estimate that at least 25 of them were not of our faith.  I was especially delighted because three of the ladies that I invited came and they had a great time!!!  Yay!! Unfortunately, I did not take any photos that day so the ones I am posting are from our event's Facebook page.  Thankfully some sisters were smart enough to bring cameras.  Here are a few photos from our special day at the Cherry Hill Women's Expo.  Only a few of the 14 classes are featured.

Ahmad Corbitt's Spanish class on Using the Power or Jesus Christ in our lives

Colleen Smith teaching on making your home a sanctuary

My sweet friend and counselor, Robin AhPing, teaching her class called
60 Tips, Techniques, and Tools to Better Cooking
Robin has been my counselor for the past four years and was released just before the conference.  I will miss her wisdom and association so much.

Dinner Wise with Rikki Hein and her friend Michaela

We had very simple, elegant decorations on the tables

A picture grouping on the stage

Our box lunches were wrapped with a little tulle bow and the sisters said they looked like a little gift especially for them.  Robin insisted that everything inside was homemade.  

Some of my Medford Ward ladies having a lovely time

I am so thankful for all the hard work and time that so many people put into this great day.
I know that Heavenly Father was pleased.

Evan - Our Ten Year Old

Hard to believe it, but our baby is 10!!!  He was pretty excited that he got to have 2 school friends sleep over in honor of his birthday.  They ate lots of food, played games, watched a movie, and probably stayed up a little too late.  But they had a great time.  

On Sunday we celebrated by having Evan's birthday dinner.  Evan wanted ham and asparagus.  He said that I could come up with the rest of the meal.  He got to open some of his presents that day.  

He got money from both of his grandparents...

...and some cool pool rings from Grandma Foulk, too.

He wanted an ice cream cake (although he really wanted an all vanilla one which he didn't get).  I was more than happy to split mine and give him my vanilla part for his chocolate one...no problem.!

Evan really wanted to light his own candles...

...and he did a great job.

Not sure what he wished for....but he should get it!!!

Monday morning he got the best gift ever because...surprise, surprise....it snowed and he got the day off school.  Oh, he also got to open more presents.

He had requested more long sleeve shirts and he also got some DVD's.

He should be ready for baseball season now!!

Happy Birthday, Evan!!  Sure love you!!

A President's Day Weekend in Boston

It has kind of become an unofficial tradition for us to head to Boston on President's Day weekend.  It usually falls just a little before Janelle's birthday and we have that added day off school so it makes for a good time to travel.  This year, no surprise, we got a big snowfall the day before we were supposed to go up, but we were determined to go anyway and we had a great trip up and a wonderful time there.  We built our big snow slide down their back porch stairs again which is so fun.  I couldn't find photos of it this time, but suffice it to say, we had a blast in the snow!! 

Here are a few of our photos from the trip.....

Janelle and James enjoying a good book

It is his favorite thing to do.

We took the whole family to see the new movie, "Frozen".  Loved it!!!

Then we came home and had the most eclectic meal ever.  We had planned to take everyone out to dinner afterward, but, imagine this....it started to snow again.  We sent Janelle and Scott home with their kids and we went to get some take-out.  Since limited places were open, we ended up getting little bits of things from multiple fast food places.  As it turned out, the boys....and really all of us...really enjoyed the great selection.  Who knew Chinese and Wendy's went so well together?!

Before heading home we got some group pictures.

Grandpa with Lucy, James and Alan

Grandma and Grandpa with Lucy, James and Alan

...and a silly one!!!

Nate and Evan with their niece and nephews

Grandma and her Robertson grandkids

Being silly with Uncle Evan

We had such a good time with you all.  Thanks for letting us come!!!

Do Ya' Wanna Build a Snowman?

This has been such a cold, snowy winter.  We didn't have too many times that we got lots of snow all at once, but rather, we got lots of times with just enough (5-8 inches) snow to cancel things like school, church activities, sports, etc.  It really has been amazing.  Steve was so busy with work that he was afraid for a time that he might have to miss out on his trip to California for Karsten's blessing.  Thankfully that didn't happen.  :)

Here's Ginny coming back from going potty

Evan took the opportunity to build a really cute snowman after one of our many snows.  The pictures he got (most of them, selfies) were too cute not to post his photo shoot.  Here are some of the excellent shots.  Happy Winter!!!!

Great snowman, Evan!!

Evan with his new buddy.

His eyes are made of prunes....pretty nice, I think!

A carrot for his nose and grapes for his mouth!!

Had to get a profile shot of course.....

....and one without the hat!!  Check out that bald head!!

Such a happy, friendly face!!

Ev had to do a couple with rabbit ears......

....I don't think the snowman even realized Evan was doing it.   Shhh..

Karsten's Blessing - Grandpa's Trip to California

On Sunday, January 12th, Steve got to participate in the blessing of Stephanie and Marc's little boy, Karsten Douglas Oxborrow.  He had not met Karsten yet so he was pretty excited to be able to go out.  Two of Marc's brothers were also able to be there along with Jennifer Himes and a number of friends from Steph's work.  What a happy day!!

Lots of people came to celebrate!!!

What a great little family!!

Grandpa was so happy to be there.  

Karsten might have been just a little tired of all the pictures

With Aunt Jennifer who came from Chino Hills

Just doing some visiting

Look at that handsome guy.  All dressed up for the big day!!

Sure miss this little boy!!

The First Three Months of 2014 - (Wow - That Went By Fast)

So, sometimes life just gets a little ahead of me and the blog doesn't happen for a while.  I thought about it many times, but there always seemed to be something else that needed doing in a timely manner so the blog had to wait. During that time we had a baby blessing, an engagement, lots of women's conference planning, a trip to Boston, an engagement called off, a boy turning ten, the Cherry Hill Women's Expo and a TON of snow and cold.  I will do some individual posts after this one of some of our happenings during that time frame, but wanted to record some non-photo info, too.  Sometimes life is a celebration - I guess it always is - but sometimes things take a turn, and we have to go through some hard times, too.
In January, Megan got engaged.  We knew it was coming and we were all very happy for her and for Kyle.  But as the next month went along, they discovered that maybe they did not quite know each other as well as they thought they did and they eventually decided to call off the wedding. This was a hard thing for them and all of the family involved, but when something doesn't feel right, you don't do it.  There were things to cancel, send back, and change.  Things like this are not convenient and usually hurt for a while, but we are so proud that Megan was true to her feelings and did what needed to be done.  Since our family had already bought plane tickets to Idaho, we will now be spending Spring break there.  It will be so nice to relax with family that we don't get to see very often.  Emily will be graduating during the time we are out in Idaho/Utah and we are so looking forward to seeing her, Jim, and Jimmie, too.

I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who is very aware of each of our needs and helps us through the tough times when they come.  We have called on Him a lot lately.

Our New Year's Celebration

It was so fun to Janelle, Scott, Alan, James, and Lucy come down from Boston and join us for our New Year's celebration.  They were able to come while Megan and Geoffrey were still here.  We did our traditional "fondue" party which really amounts to dipping a lot of different foods in a lot of different sauces, but we have done it this way ever since our sweet friends, the Kunz Family first invited us over to celebrate in 1993.  We have missed a few years since, but for many, many years we got together every year with this amazing family.  Unfortunately this year didn't work for them, but we carried on the tradition anyway.  We decided to brave the chocolate fountain this year.  That, as the pictures will show, was a huge hit.

Janelle and Scott had promised Alan that he could stay up as long as he wanted.  He was going to be "octurnal", he said.  What a kick.  He was determined and, bless his heart, he made it to midnight and the celebration, but when Janelle made a deal with him that if he got to pop a second popper he had to go to bed, he took the deal.  He was exhausted and happy for the out, I think.  Here are a few picture from the night.  We had a lot of fun!!

Alan trying his hand at dipping a big marshmallow.  He loved it!!

I think that James would have eaten all the strawberries....especially dipped in that oh so fun chocolate fountain.  He was in heaven!!

Such a happy face!!!


The adults were a little more tidy....  :)


The boys having an intense game of "Sorry" during Alan's "Octurnal" stage.

Happy 2014!!!

An Eagle Court of Honor for Nathan

After completing his Eagle Scout Board of Review in the fall, we were able to have an Eagle Court of Honor for Nathan and Ben Wright.  We decided it would be good to have it on December 29th, 2013 while some of our family were here for the holidays.  

The timing was good for the Wright family as well since Ben had already received his mission call to Singapore and would be reporting January 1.  It was a very nice program and included people from the troop and also from the stake.  

Jack Scheimreif even presented both boys with an item of memorabilia from Brother Jim Kosky.  Jim had passed away this year but was a big scouter.  He asked Brother Scheimreif to give an item from his collection away as any scout reaches a goal set.  It was a very nice gesture, I think.

Great job, Nathan!!!!

After the award ceremony, we had some light refreshments.  It was so fun to have additional members of our family here for this special night.  James and Meg had a great time!!!

 

Grandma Foulk was there, too.

Geoffrey arm wrestling with a little friend of the Wright family who was at the Court of Honor.

Here are Nate, Janelle, Scott, and Lucy at one of our festive tables.

I think Alan and James might have had just a little fun!!!  Look at those faces!!

The Wrights purchased this congratulatory cake for the boys.  It turned out great!!  But what, you might ask, are those little smeared spots at the bottom of the cake????

Hmmm, perhaps this is a clue.....  :)  Love this little one!!

Congrats, Nathan!!!  A job well done!!!