WE "R" BACK!!!!!

WOW ITS BEEN 2 1/2 YEARS!!!! Where has the time gone?!?
Its been full of wonderful and exciting adventures! We have experienced great joy and heartache, laughter, tears, excitement and doldrums, great highs and deep lows... In short we have been experiencing LIFE!!! Isn't that what its all about? Taking life one day at a time and learning, growing, changing, and developing on our roads to Zion!
   So to sum it up I will give a quick update....
DAD and MOM

 After Dad retired from BD in 2012 they lived in N. Idaho for about 6 months before Dad felt impressed to start working again. He was lead to a job in Ashville, North Carolina. He works as a contracting engineer and his contracts last about 6 months and so since their time in North Carolina they have lived in York, Pennsylvania, and most recently Orlando, Florida. They are currently waiting for their next assignment and will spend the time in Idaho...
 Mom besides being a faithful letter writer to her missionaries (first me and now Graham) has started doodling and makes every missionary jealous because of how beautiful her letters and envelopes are! She also is still the best cook in the whole world and you could say she is know nation wide (because of all of the places they have lived) Mom loves the nomad life because it gives her a reason to dejunk every six months and they can now fit almost all of their belongings in a small uhaul trailer.

KATIE

   well you could say her life is pretty boring except for the fact that in the past two years she has been to India 3 times, Africa once, and has spent at least a week in Idaho, Washington State, Utah (several times), Nebraska, Ohio (ok that was just 3 days), Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, has made three cross country drives from one side of the nation to the other, has graduated as a Holistic Iridologist, and is currently certifying as an Emotion Code Practitioner.... and that's just a beginning! She is such a great example of living by faith and obedience to God's will and doing whatever God asks of her!

COVEY and MELODY

    Mack and Rae keep them busy and make life exciting! Rae turned 2 in december and Mack just turned 4! Covey loves his job as a ship welder and they may even have the chance to travel with his job too... Melody is not only a great mom and keeps the little ones happy and busy but she also makes the best GRANOLA EVER! They bought their first ever house and Seth, David, Katie, and I were able to be there for part of the remodeling! Thanks for letting us help out :) Its super cute!

JOSEPH and JENNI

   It HAPPENED!!! Last May Joseph was sealed to Jennifer Ann Marks! We are so happy to have another sister and guess what?!? she sings SOPRANO!!! They are currently living in Idaho and livin' the dream... They are also expecting their first little bundle of joy in May! Congrats! Joseph and Jenni!

KIMBALL

  Besides many of his other accomplishments over the past couple of years he has become quite the bloomin' Chef! He even has a blog that he posts the recipes that he creates as he tries to eat healthy whole foods! After spending a year and a half in Idaho he has recently moved to Provo Utah...

JOHN and BREEANNA

   Yup! ANOTHER WEDDING!!! John met Jenni's sister, Breeanna, and it didn't take long to see that "there might be something there that wasn't there before" (haha guess that movie) They were engaged last fall and were married in the Salt Lake Temple, December 4th 2014. They both have a great desire to serve others and go where ever God wants them to be and hence Heavenly Father decided to send them to serve the people in Africa for their honeymoon! They too are expecting and their baby is due in September!

SETH

...Is still solid! He just holds everything together... He loved the rugged life in Idaho and became quite the mountain man (he even had a beard to prove it :) He and Joseph built their own log cabin with his trusty axe and lived in it all winter with Joseph and John. They didn't freeze so we must assume that it worked (actually they said that sometimes it even got too warm in that cozy little cabin)
Last Summer he took David and I to Germany for six weeks... or they took him... or we all just went together and enjoyed every second of the time we spent there! After returning home from Europe he has spent the last several months in back in Nebraska and everybody loves the polkas he plays on his accordion! He and I play at all of the nursing homes we used to play with and have enjoyed performing together...

DAVID

   Is become quite the intellectual scholar. He went to India twice with Katie and then found that he had a deep love for all things GERMAN! He and Seth started learning the language and together they could get anywhere... When we were there everybody would always talk to Seth because he could understand what they were saying and then he would translate to us and David would respond because he was the one who could speak it... so together they got me through :) haha it was a fun adventure! He made many fine friends whom he called his "fine knabes"
He spent several weeks in Nebraska with Seth and I and then struck out on his own and is loving school at LDS Business College. Needless to say his favorite class is Rhetoric!

BETSY

    I spent 18 wonderful months in Virginia serving a service mission... It was a great experience and I came to love the people there SO MUCH! (haha I can't tell you how many times I wrote that in my letters)
4 days after I got home I went to Germany with the boys and since then I have not spent 6 weeks consecutively in one spot. The Lord has led me across the country a couple times and love the adventures and excitement. In December I moved back to Nebraska with Seth and have enjoyed my time here ministering to the elderly, jamming with my friends, and playing with the Pfeils and the Davis boys. Its been a grand adventure and I have no clue where The Lord has in store... we take one day at a time...

GRAHAM

   Last June, Graham was called by the Lord to serve a mission in the Orlando Florida area. (yes, mom and dad lived in his mission and had a wonderful time getting to know his missionary friends) He is really enjoying it and loves the people there!

ISAAC

   He has grown about a foot or two... (ok maybe just a few inches) but he just turned 18 and has grown up a lot over the past couple of years. He went to India twice and right now he is getting ready to serve a mission too. He has fallen in love with Ireland and all things Irish! (its a good thing his middle name is Hayes) He has been learning the bagpipes (or small pipes is what he calls them because they are smaller than the normal ones). He has also been developing a great gift for photography. He has a way of taking pictures that make you want to print them out and hang them up on the wall...

MARILEE

    is taller than me now... when did that happen?!? She turned sixteen last fall and has turned into a beautiful young woman! She has a fun personality and is a joy to be around. She is finishing up her year of school and she has also enjoyed moving around so much except for the fact that it has taken her far away from her dog, Ginger. In Florida she also discovered that she loves DOLPHINS and she even got to kiss one! She is excited to finally be going back to Idaho with Mom and Dad.


So that is it for now... I hope that you enjoyed the update. God has been so good to us and everything that happened has only deepened our Love for Him who is LOVE! We are excited to see what He has in store in the coming years and know that He has all things in His Hands and all things are for our good and our refinement into children of LIGHT who will one day be able to stand in His presence and sing praises unto His name
                                                         "While I live will I PRAISE the LORD!"
Psalms 146:2

What's this?!?

Last week was also very eventful because we spent most of the week camping out at a national music festival at LeMars IA. What a fantastic experience! Here are some snapshots of our week.

When we got to the fair grounds where the festival was being held we were blessed to get a spot that provided some shade from the blistering sun. I think that this was one of the last shady areas left. The temperature was very dry and hot (it was over 100 F a couple of the days). But with our van and our instruments in the shade we were ready to set up camp.

Here is a side view of our private camp ground.

 It was pretty windy all week long and Graham did a great job staking the tents down, because they didn't fly away (or maybe there were enough people in the tents that they couldn't blow away :) 

 After our camp was all set up we enjoyed touring the fair grounds...

 We met a lady who had spun everything from silk worms to raccoons. 

She had a basket of very bright colored yarn and she told us that she dyed the yarn with Koolaid and Jello. 

There were ten stages at the festival and musicians played non-stop the whole time we were there! 

After meeting some of our friends and getting familiar with the surroundings we were shocked out of our comfort zone when we were asked to play on the main stage in the place of someone who had not showed up. Well gathering our courage we stepped out on the stage and faced our audience of literally 7 people. (well I didn't really expect more people than that at 11:30 at night)... We played until midnight and then hit the sack totally exhausted.

Random Catch Up!

Its been a long time since I have sat down and actually focused on getting caught up, so that will be the purpose of this blog post!  So here it goes...

We have an announcement to make! We are actually doing something that I never thought that we would do... we are making a our own CD! Since we've never done a CD before we thought we would keep it simple so it is only going to be a recording with Betsy(fiddle), Seth(bass/accordion), and Graham(guitar).

Mr. Pfiel has his own sound recording system. We are really thankful that he would take so much time to help us get this CD. 

CD cover shoot out.

David is making so much progress:) Even after being away two years he has not lost his touch as a performer. He makes us laugh so much. hahahaha

I guess your not a hillbilly until you've tried playing the fiddle.

There was a lot of break time in between performances. We made sure that it did not go to waste... 

Happy Birthday Graham!! 

If you haven't heard the maggie dear song, you've got to look it up... one of our favorites.

Here's a link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XvJPSRXWPI

We went to the Visitor Trail Center in Omaha, NE and decided to be pioneers. 

We enjoyed sharing our music at the Y. Over the past two years of being members we have made a lot of good friends. 

Corn, Corn, and more Corn!

Yes, its that time of year! CORN SEASON!!!

A few weeks ago, a friend asked us if we wanted any sweet corn and said that we could have as much as we could pick! Needless to say that afternoon everybody that was home headed out to the field and picked as much as they could (In other words, as much as our little honda civic could hold)...

Our Corn Crew!

(David, Seth, Graham, Isaac, and Marilee)

   

How many do you have there, Graham?

Having fun?

They came home with over 300 ears of corn! 

Seth ran the cooking process and then dumped the cobs into the ice water so that...

David and Graham could cut the corn off the cob!

Isn't that a nice looking pile of corn cobs?

We filled about 40 bags and then stuffed them into our freezer. (I think we are going to need another freezer)

Even though it may not look like much in the end, I can assure you that every bitefull will be thoroughly enjoyed!

"Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving." 

Doctrine and Covenants 89:11