Happy New Year 2009!

We want to thank all of our friends and family for being the BEST and we pray God's blessings over each of you for 2009!! We are ever grateful for His grace and mercies that are new everyday. We feel very blessed to have each of you in our lives. We thank Him for a healthy, safe and great 2008! One of our special blessings in 2008 was the birth of our nephew/cousin, Judson Paul!! We are crazy about him and enjoyed lots of trips back to Ohio to see him. Our love to each of you who read our blog in 2009! Hope to see you soon or that y'all can come visit us - we have plenty of room for guests :)

Almost 4 Days Left

Needless to say, the kids are counting down until Christmas Day here. Not just on our Advent calendars but in every conversation and action!! It's soooo much fun to listen to them and their excitement. I'm glad Jesus is at the center of each conversation, we're blessed in that. Each day there are new questions like: "what time was he born?" ; "was He really born on the 25th of December?" Those aren't easy questions and like many answers that we have to give the one that always satisfies them and is truth is this one: "there are so many things that we don't know about His birth and God can't wait to reveal all of that to us when we get to heaven, there's so many more things we will learn and get to ask there." We're excited to get to heaven and we're also excited to celebrate Jesus' birth that happened 2000+ years ago. He's the reason we get so giddy over giving each other presents because He is the greatest one we've EVER been given!! Here's some pics of happenings around here this month, enjoy!!!

Singing Time

Last night I had a music concert at the public school where I go to music classes at. I learned songs in different languages and how to sing in a round. My friend, Silas, and I sang a song and held the American Flag called, "You're A Grand 'Ole Flag". It was very fun!! Here is a picture of Silas and I during rehearsal.

9 days and counting........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuUpGDfyl7Q

Learning To Roof

While we were in Ohio there were some BAD winds in IA. And when we got home Holten and I went up to the woods only to find half of our "man-shed" (that's what my dad calls our shed) roof on the ground. So that night we told our dad when he got home........ two days later we got started working on repairing the roof. We went to Menards to get the supplies we needed and then we spent the day Saturday on top of the roof putting the new roof on. We learned how to use a chalk-line and how to use a wonder-bar. It was a lot of fun!!!!

Happy Fall/Halloween

From our Gladiator, Daniel Boone and Miss America

HFS (Handel Funniest Sayings)

Instead of AFV (America's Funniest Videos), which is a favorite show of our kids when they get a chance to watch TV, we are going to title our post HFS. So whenever it deals w/ a quote one of the kids make, that I really must put down somewhere so I don't forget, it will be called HFS. Thus the reason I should have started blogging years ago. Because when you have three, as close together as ours, the idea of finding a notebook where you journal that stuff is out of the question!!!! :) Anyway, back to the saying.

Halena and I went to the grocery store on Thursday evening to get some snacks for her K friends. Halena likes to talk A LOT but especially when she is with Mama or Daddy without her brothers along. So, it's imperative that you go ready to LISTEN!!! She told me how much she wants to go to Paris all the way to the store and that she really loves that city. Who knows? That's a whole other post in itself! On the way home she said, what year was I born? She answered on her own after speaking the question aloud. 2003. Then she said, "when was Holt born?" She also answered that one by herself. 2001. In her mind she made it work out that she was older than him really because the year she was born was higher than him (ending in 3 instead of 1) Oh, the struggle over being the baby :) Then she says, "now when was Hayden born?" She couldn't answer that one so I said, "1999". She looks at me and her mouth drops open and she says, "did they have cars then?" Guess I'm not teaching history too well!!

The Best Fall Sport

I played flag football this Fall. I was on a 1st/2nd grade team with my friend, Thomas. His dad was the coach. I played defense and I was the Left Guard. We won 5 games and lost 4. We got a trophy when the season was over!

Lovin' Fall/Harvest Time

We went to an amazing Pumpkin Patch outside of Omaha, NE. When our day was over, and we were driving home, we all decided we want to be pumpkin farmers :) The farm is 55 acres of just pumpkins. (The family has more acreage that someone else farms but they just do the pumpkins.) There are acres of things to do. We have been having beautiful weather here in IA for weeks. The day was perfect and what is better this time of year than caramel apples and hot cider!!! We rode a hay wagon down to the fields and each picked a pumpkin. Here are a few pictures to give you a glimpse of the day :)

Can You Believe We're Doing This?!!!!

The kids and I have been talking about starting a blog for awhile now. We thought it would be a good way for our family to know how we are and what we're up to on a more daily basis or as often as we would post (don't hold your breath:) So, since I'm clueless on how to do one our friend, Jessica, told me it was easy and I could do it. We usually rely on our friend, Coates, to do this type of thing for us, but since he's in Ohio and we're in Iowa, that wasn't going to work. We regularly read blogs: BeitCarr and Blue Ink, Medium Point and got inspired by them.

So, here you have our humble attempt to start blogging and posting pics of the Handel family. We pray it makes you smile and helps you have a glimpse into our busy world of being a tight-knit family striving to grow in our faith and share it with the world.