We're Going to Nationals!!

Jacob and his partner, Zach Harris, made ninth place out of 55 teams at the NCFCA Regional Invitational speech and debate tournament. Rebekah is so glad---because that means we will all be going to the national tournament in South Carolina on June 15th! Great job kids!!
Thank you Mrs. Stevens for being such a great coach! Great job Logos Club! PS. Christian won an award for being such a faithful timer--good job Christian!

L is for LOGOS! Happy debaters at a late night party at Laurie and Debbie's hotel room. Brave moms for inviting the whole club to their room at 1:30am! See picture below.

2:00am in the hotel room with many Logos club members at the Regional Invitational tournament in Arlington, Tx. this last week celebrating a great tournament. Bring on the PIZZA!
Rebekah had a very popular speech about a young cockroach girl named Josefina, who is receiving suitors for her hand in marriage. She did not break to semi-finals with her humorous speech at the Regional tournament although she had won to semi-finals in two previous tournaments. Jacob broke to semi-finals with his persuasive speech, but he will not get to compete at the national tournament with it. He made third place in the finals round at last month's tournament.
Am I a proud mother? Of course I am! And a little teary eyed in this picture. Great job kids!


Jacob and Zach discuss their case on Free Trade with Mr. Remke who gives an economic seminar to the club shortly afterwards. Jacob will be flying to New York with several debate friends to attend a week long seminar on Economics from May 25-29th. You can imagine how excited he is about that!
Rebekah talks to Laura and Emily before the seminar. Laura is also going to New York.
Christian gives the second affirmative constructive speech, while his partner, Julia Rosenberger flows his speech in the background.

Christian asks cross examination questions of Evan Stevens.

Beach Visits

In between trips this February, Tim took the family for a day at the beach in Galveston. Rebekah and I decided that would be a great way to spend her spring break...

So in March, I took her to Corpus Christi for a week. We had a very 'girly' vacation! Swimming, shopping, movies , getting our nails done, lattes, sunbathing, and eating out. It was a perfect reward for all of Rebekah's hard work and mom's too!
Dolphins near our boat at Corpus Christi.

This picture was taken on a paddleboat tour of the bay.

Here Rebekah is attempting to attract dolphins to pet. We took another tour with a group called "Dolphin Connection". The dolphins played and teased us, just following along side our little boat. It was amazing to see how friendly and playful they were.


Rebekah feeding the seagulls on her senior trip to Corpus Christi this March.
Rebekah was determined to get in the surf. We swam three days...the first day it took 20 minutes for me to get all the way in. The next day I heard the water was warmer---65! Brrr!

A Day at Grandma and Grandpa's

Donna with Colin and Brennan. It's the first time I've ever gotten to hold Brennon! He's just over a year old in this picture.

Daughter-in-law Amanda, holding Elisabeth and Andrew's first baby Lena. The girls got to know each other better over facebook. Neat!
Grandpa Tim takes Amanda and Matthew's first little boy, Colin, on a lawn mower ride. He will celebrate his third birthday at our house on May 18th!

Baby Lena, only a little over two months old, needed a nap. What a precious moment, just getting to sit and watch her and make sure nothing disturbed her sleep.

My dear sweet daughter-in-laws, Elisabeth and Amanda Rodgers. Amanda is holding Elisabeth's little girl, Lena.

Uncle Christian, our baby, who is now 14, is showing nephew Colin how to work his matchbox race track.



Like father and Grandma & Grandpa...like sons. Tim and I, and Rebekah and Christian, all play the piano, as does Matthew. So of course, my grandsons made a beeline for it as soon as they could. Aren't they cute?
Colin so makes me think of Jacob, who was convinced he could ride anything that had a key. Thank goodness, Colin didn't have a key. :o) He's ready to roll though!

Of course, no day at Grandma's is complete without meeting her chickens. Actually, these are Aunt Heather's chickens which I am babysitting indefinitely. Her house burned down at Christmas and she didn't have time to drive back and forth to the homestead to care for them. Brennan and Colin weren't a 100% sure they wanted to pet a chicken even if it was covered in fur!

Getting to know the grandbabies again!
Amanda with her 1yr old, Brennan. These guys aren't afraid of the camera are they?


Watch out Matthew! You may have a 'budding' country boy on your hands!

Percy Sings with Christian's trumpet

Percy, Rebekah's puppy, loves to howl. If all of the family gathers around and howls (like pretend wolves), he will put his little snout up in the air and howl his little heart out.

When Christian began to play the trumpet, we discovered that Percy especially loved to sing with him. We thought maybe it hurt his ears, but we don't think so now. If Christian is in the back of the house when he starts to play, Percy will hunt him down and go join him. Enjoy!
Here is a picture of Christian taking his first trumpet lesson. Thanks to Klaus, he already knew quite a bit and had practiced 'buzzing'. He was so excited to be able to play music after only a couple of lessons!

And Another New Grandchild!

Welcome Baby Lena Marie Rodgers! Born February 5th at around 9:45a.m She weighed 7lb.4oz and was 20" long. (More pictures to come!)

Beautiful mommy, Elisabeth Marie Rodgers, and her daughter, Lena Marie.... like Mommy like daughter! Can you tell Lena adores her mommy??And proud Daddy Andrew--- I guess that's obvious-Ha!

And I'm sure you can tell that I am a thrilled and very happy Grandma!

Aunt Rebekah stole my grandbaby...but I can't blame her! I guess we can share. :o)