We love FRIENDS!

Our family and the Richter family is very similar but different!!  They have 4 boys very close to each of our 4 girls!  As couples we have been friends for a long time and it's fun to see our children growing up together and playing with each other.  Elliana swapped places with Benjamin (Madeline's age) for the day yesterday.  Fun times were had all around!

Celebrating Benjamin's birthday!!

Friends and.....thumb suckers!!!

Madeline (4 1/2) and Benjamin (almost 5)

Samuel Richter (7) and Elliana (almost 6 1/2)

Home Improvements!

The last year we have been able to do many improvements, big and small to our home!  It's exciting to see change and for the better!!!

Here are a few pics of inside our livingroom, dining room, and kitchen.  My ways of organizing over the years have had to change, especially recently with our girls and them growing up!!

We really love our home and Lynn works hard to do the things he can do or is willing to attempt to do!  He is really good about doing things when I ask him in a reasonable amount of time :-)  He knows I like to make our home nice and he helps me do that.

Everyone has their own box and I have the rest!  It has worked beatifully!  The shoes coming and going is always going to be a challenge.  But a big bin sure helps a lot!

I've learned I like to organize using bins/baskets like this!

I finally figured out what I wanted for window treatments here!  It only took me 5 months!

It also took me 5 months to figure out what I wanted for these windows in the LR.  But I'm happy with these Roman Shades from BBB.  The best part is that they are cordless...great bc of how low the windows are.

My Birthday!!

I had fun celebrating my birthday!!  I love to make a big celebration of our birthdays...the girls catch on and helped me celebrate!  The morning of my birthday they working so hard to make me cards and special things.  I love their childlike desire to please and make others feel loved and special.  It is so precious.

Going back to last week...we had a babysitter and Lynn and I went out.  We had dinner together at Green Mill (were we had our first date) in the mall near us.  Lynn gave me money to go shopping (with him!).  We I got a few things. Fun!  Shopping for myself is on the last of my list of priorities most of the time.

Monday was my birthday.  I skyped Andrea my sister in China early in the morning...great way to start the day :-)

My friends Sara and Sarah and I have been trying to get together on a Monday since that works for all three of us.  Well it turned out that the day we met was my birthday.  It was fun to celebrate with them and have a wonderful time visiting.  The 8 children played well and we got a lot of talking in!

In the afternoon my parents arrived.  They were flying to Arizona and so the girls and I took them to the airport.  Lynn works within minutes of the airport and so we went to visit him at work....Elliana was excited to tell Lynn's coworkers that I turned 34 today!!  He left work for a while and took us out to Culver's!

Back home I celebrated with my precious family!!  The girls made the cake and frosted it for me.

On Tuesday, Shawna my sister, came over and watched my girls (as well as her 3) for the whole day!!!  She even made supper for us all!  wow!!  i ran errands ...Yes know really exciting...however, as this stage in my life its a blessing to be able to have a day by myself to run errands and get a ton done in one day!  Thank you thank you Shawna!!!!

I also received birthday call from my family....thank you for thinking of me!!

School is so much fun!

We've had a lot of fun in school this year.  We have an hour of school in the morning from 9-10 each day.  This is the written work  part.  However this does include some things like Letter sound Bingo and show and tell!!  The Lord has brought creative ideas to my mind...I'm not gifted with lots of creativity!!  So we do crafts and other activities throughout the day.  Lynn has devotions with our family in the morning sometimes and talks about what we are learning that day.   Each letter is stands for some part of God's creation and I teach the girls a phrase to remember that deals with their character.  So then we are given ideas of how to incorporate them into our family devotions.

We check out lots of books and do fun projects like reading a book and making up our own version of the book!

Z is for Zebra, "I can't hide anything from God."

For example, Letter P was for penguins.  "I show love to everyone, especially my family." 

So we talked about that during the 6 days we focused on letter P.

One thing I love about homeschooling, among the many things I love, is that I know exactly what they are learning and I can teach them anytime...it's not just during "school."  Things come up all the time whether I'm teaching them academics or how to be  Christlike.  I feel like the verses in Deuteronomy 6 about teaching your children is coming true in my family.  Where ever I am and whatever I am doing I should be teaching them in different ways. 

We have our "moments!!"  However, I am learning to anticipate them and am hopefully becoming a better Mom each day.  As I look back to the beginning of the year I realize how much I've figured out about how to teach my children, motivate and encourage.

Both Elliana and Madeline are learning to read!!!  It is so amazing to teach my children how to read!  I can hardly believe it really. 

I love to watch them play together and we had sooo much fun outside today!!!!

I LOVE my husband!

So for our anniversary in December Lynn got us tickets to a WILD Hockey game for Valentine's Day.  And YES, I was excited!!  It is a special pasttime for us.  When the WILD first started we were just dating.  We have gone every year (pretty sure) since then.  The years since having kids we've gone once or twice a season.  I have grown to really like watching hockey and have learned more how it's played.  We've always lived within 10-15 minutes of downtown St. Paul so that's made it easy and fun.  And Lynn gets great seats too!! (although there really aren't any bad seats in the Xcel)

This time I brought "Flat Stanley" with us!!!  Some of you may know of the book in which Stanley is flattened enabling him to be mailed anywhere and learn of that place.  Well, my friend's son's class was reading it and he sent his Flat Stanley.  Well I made our own then and brought him to the hockey game.  We actually had a super fun time with him!!  I tried really hard to get him on the big screen but to no avail.

So Valentine's Day was great...Heidi (Lynn's sister) came over to watch the girls and have the traditional cookie day/evening with all 4 of the girls...she is amazing!!  Most holidays Heidi brings all of her supplies and dough and frosting and cutters to have the girls make sugar cookies.  She makes it sooo special for them.  What a favorite tradition the girls have with their Auntie....

Well after Heidi came Lynn and I went to Olive Garden (brought little V to feed her, only child for 1 1/2 hours) ate a great meal.  We dropped V back off at our home and hurried downtown to the game.  

Super fun.  We definitely recalled our "DTR" which was on Vday...so this was our 12th Vday together!! wow!!

The Lord has blessed me incredibly to be married to Lynn Alan Wolters.  He makes me feel like a princess.  He is definitely my prince charming.  I love him so much.

Lynn loves me and that makes me want to serve him and find ways to show him I love him.  He has helped me become the person I am.  He leads our family and our marriage relationship in a way that honors God and points our family to Him.  He is not perfect :-)  However, neither am I.

So excited for Andrea's wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will post more about Christmas later.....here is one goofy pic of our fam Christmas morning before church!!

Shereen + Lynn = 10 years!

July 8th, 2001~~engagement...so romantical.  One surprise after another!  Lynn is so good at surprising me...still.  Brunch at Nicolet island Inn, Minneapolis.  Then an amazing horse-drawn carriage ride over Stone Arch Bridge over the Mississippi River.  We stopped half way over and Lynn got down on his knee and asked me to marry him...I said, "Yes, of course!!"

December 1st, 2001~~wedding day

So I've been waiting to do this post for 4 days....I want to tell you all about what i remember from our wedding...but I need to take the time I have and put down what I can!!

What an amazing dreamy day!!!  That is how I've always described our wedding.  In fact I've never watched our wedding video yet because I'm afraid reality might not be exactly how I remember our wedding...crazy I know but I will watch it soon. 

 Thanks to my incredible Mom and her friends who planned much of it since I was in the Twin Cities living and working.  I know I don't know all the details and work she did to make it work.  Dad thanks for supporting Mom and Lynn and I.  And just making things happen...like getting our video of pics to work the night before our wedding.

Thanks to all of you who showed your love and excitement for us by coming to our wedding or sharing in our pure joy during this time of our lives.

Our wedding took place in Marshfield, Wisconsin at the church were I went to youth group growing up.  My church I grew up going too was a little small and didn't have a place for our dinner reception.

Lynn Alan...

I am reaffirmed over and over again that Lynn loves me....i am so completely blessed to have a husband who is a Godly leader of our relationship and family, he would do anything for me and I know that. 

Lynn treats me like a beautiful princess.

Well...here are some pics from our wedding.  Lynn scanned them for me.  Ours were taken on film.  One of my projects in the next year should be to scan them all.

Lynn waiting for me at the front of the church

Dad...what a special moment this was...I will never forget it

my Grandma Fast flew from Oregon to be here....so incredibly special

And now for one of my fave pics that has been on my fridge since the pics was taken....my sister Shawna's wedding in 2004

It's been so fun to share these with you