20th Wedding Anniversary

Paul and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.  The kids have made it a tradition to make it a special night for us.  They decorate, cook and dress up special to serve us.

I pray that our next 20 years of marriage are as wonderful as our first!

19th Anniversary

Paul and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.  I love celebrating our anniversaries, mostly because our kids love it so much and make it such a special celebration.  There are no restaurants in the village we live in so every year they decorate a room for us to have a special meal in.  They go all out with the decorations and with the meal.

The kids love dressing up and serving us our food.  We ring them every time we need something and they come running to serve us.  They are so cute because they are so excited to serve us.

Benjamin

Sometimes we dress up really nice, but this year we had been out back digging in our hole all day and we didn't feel like dressing up.  So, we had a nice relaxed dinner :)

19 years, it's hard to believe!  If  somebody had told me what lay ahead 19 years ago, I would have had a hard time believing it.   But I wouldn't change a bit of it.  Well at least not much... :)  I love being married to Paul and the life we live together and I love our nine kids and the joy they bring us.  I praise God for bringing us to this place in life and I'm looking forward to the next 19+ years and all that He has in store for us.

Caleb serving lemonade.

The boys could only come with one tie between them so they had to take turns with it. 

Mom and Dad's Anniversary

On mom and dad's anniversary we spent most of the day at the Old City with the rest of our group.

Funny story:)  Deborah, Anna, Olivia, Havah, and I started out with about 30 shekels.   We bought pastry's, iced coffee, and chocolate milk.  When we were done we had 2 shekels left and we were going around to all the stores asking what we could by for 2 shekels.  They all said nothing so we decided to sell the boys some of our pastry to get more money.  They gave us 11 shekels so we went and bought a piece of pizza.  After we ate the pizza, we found five more shekels in Anna's pocket. We thought that worked good last time so we went and bought some more chocolate milk and tried selling it to the boys but they must not like chocolate milk as much as pastry's:) but then Shanea took pity on us and just gave us 20 shekels.  So we thought we should see how much money we could make so we started singing on the street corner.  We didn't make a lot of money but a lot of people took pictures of us:)  We bought ice cream with the rest of our money.  I think we did pretty good, we doubled our money:)

Sarah got our chocolate milk that nobody wanted.  She looks like she likes it.

Mom and Dad got fancy ice cream since it was their anniversary:)

When we got back to the B&B we all stayed there while they went out for supper at the mall.   

17th Wedding Anniversary

Our 17th Wedding Anniversary passed while Paul and Abigail were in Israel. Here we stand in wedded bliss and if you'd have told me that 17 years later we would have nine children and be living in Alaska, I would have thought you were crazy! Seventeen years later, I wouldn't trade places with anyone in the world. I love the life that God has given us and the man that God has given me.

Paul just keeps getting more handsome every year!

Paul picked up a couple of steaks while he was in Anchorage and our wonderful kids prepared a delicious meal for us after they decorated our basement guest room. As good as the meal was, the service was even better because the kids were so cute. The boys found white shirts and a couple of ties to look like waiters and they found Sarah the perfect dress. They were very excited about serving us. They gave us the doorbell (it's detachable) so we could press it for service.

Anna is serving us our salad with choice of dressing.

The boys came running at every ring.

Sarah volunteered to taste the food for us.

We look forward to our Anniversary every year partly because the kids make it so special.

16th Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary this month. If you'd have told me 17 years ago that I would be married with nine children and living in Alaska in 17 years I'd have thought you were crazy. Paul and I met in October and we were married a little over a year later in November. A little over nine months after the wedding, Abigail was born and the rest is history. We wanted a big family and the more kids God blesses us with, the more we realize that when it comes to kids, more is better. Having a big family is just a whole lot of fun!

Paul is a lot of fun too!

Since there are no restaurants in Nondalton, the kids have made it a tradition of cooking a fabulous meal for us and decorating for our anniversary.
This year we had T-bone steaks, imported from Anchorage, with a beautifully set table, right down to the cut orange on our glasses.

After the meal was over the kids became the cleanup crew. Below you can see them dividing the spoils of our leftover cake.

50th Anniversary

My Mom and Dad got married 50 years ago June 20th, 1959. They look so young in their wedding pictures! They are just as in love today as they were then and they are still energetic and young at heart. Every year they travel to several places around the world doing medical missions work or rebuilding houses or churches. I thank God for my parents and the Christian home they raised me in... May God give them another 5o years together!

Mom walking the aisle with her Dad, Antoine Versteeg.

To the right of my Mom is my Dad's Dad, Bill and Bill's sister Catherine. Next are Mom's Mom and Dad, Antoine and Sarah.

We got Dad a new straw hat and Mom and new humingbird feeder for their 50th celebration.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Chris & Carole's 17th Anniversary

We headed to the beach for a week to celebrate my parents 50th wedding anniversary. My sister Carole and her husband Chris' anniversary came first though. They celebrated 17 years of marriage. I really can't believe it's been 5 yrs since I saw my sister and her family. I hope it is not another 5 years before I see them again. Getting to spend time with them was a huge blessing. Chris is a chaplain in the Army, where they are serving the Lord all over the world and raising their two girls Callie and Carolina to love the Lord.

Below Carole is holding her niece Sarah.

Chris and Carole celebrating their 17th anniversary as we gathered for my Mom and Dad's 50th.

15th Anniversary

Paul and I celebrated our 15th Anniversary on November 6th.  The kids decorated our overflow apartment.  When we don't need it for guests, I teach Adult Basic Education in it.  The kids made it look really nice and then they cooked us an awesome steak dinner.