Love

Yet another demonstration of my husband's love for me. He is so sweet, and so creative. This was what I woke up to Valentine's morning, along with a dozen roses. Ben sported his "I love my wife" shirt, and we had a wonderful day together. I love him.

Our January

January has been a blur for the Gerth family. We began the month by moving out of our home of seven years and finishing our time with our dear church family at Ventura. Then we took off for Minnesota to see family and do some partnership development. Unfortunately we all got sick on the trip and continue to fight the illnesses, but we as a family still have much to be thankful for and joyful about. Amidst the tears and difficulties of this month we were able to spend wonderful time with family and old friends.

A few highlights:

This is our first family picture that we've been present for in over a year. We sure have missed Ben's family and it was wonderful to be ALL together. Ben's parents and siblings graciously opened their homes to our crazy little clan, and we enjoyed our time with them all thoroughly.

Jenna was able to meet Grandpa and Grandma Gerth for the first time. She loved her time with them and can't wait till next time :)

Playing "popcorn" with Aunt Suzy!

Criss-cross Applesauce with Grandpa...as you can see this is crazy fun!

Jenna loving every minute of it all!

"Miss Moosebee"

"My Aunties are AWESOME"

RAAAR...Dinosaur battles with Uncle Josh

Bonding with Aunt Jennifer and talking to Cousin Baby Gerth due to arrive any day now. We can't wait to meet her!!

Legos with Uncle Matt and Uncle Steve

Sister time!

Time to just plain be silly :)

Story time with Uncle Josh and Aunt Jennifer

And lots of together time with daddy.

We are so thankful for the family that God has blessed us with and for the time we can spend with them!

My Hub

Have I mentioned lately that I love my husband? Well, I do!!

One more day!!

At our house we love to celebrate Advent, the coming of our Savior! One way that we celebrate is by gathering around our Advent Calendar (thank you Aunt Suzy :) every evening after supper and reading through the story of Christ's birth. Every night Ben reads a little further and we get to add one more figure to our Advent Scene.

The kids are THRILLED that there is only ONE day left!! Tomorrow we celebrate the coming of our Savior and the kids get to put baby Jesus in His manger.

We are so thankful that Jesus came, died and an rose again so that we could stand justified before God! And we are also excited that He is coming again, and when He does there will be no more death, pain or fighting sin. So thankful for the coming of our King! Happy Advent!

It's been a while!

It has been a long while since I have posted anything new, and this is my reason...

Jenna Grace arrived on October 20! She is sweet as can be, and her brother and sisters adore her. Here are a few pics from her arrival.

We have lots of great conversations already, and I look forward to many many more :)
Ben is very excited to now have three little princesses. He is such a good Daddy!
Kara takes her responsibility as the biggest sister very seriously. She loves to help me by holding Jenna for me when I have something I need to do.
Luke is the proud protector of his new little sister. He loves to kiss her on her head, and it mealts my heart every time! She sure brings out his sweet side.

Ellie and Jenna will be good friends I think. Ellie enjoys finally being bigger than someone and is excited to be a big sister. Her favorite thing to do is sing to Baby Jenna and Jenna loves it!

We love being a family of 6!!

Fabulous Day!

This past Saturday was a beautiful day. It was nearly 80 degrees, sunny and just plain perfect! Our day started with Kara and I going to get her hair cut. She had been looking forward to this for weeks, so it was a very exciting morning! A friend from high school cut Kara's hair, and Kara thinks it is great fun to go to Miss Randi's salon :)

After the haircut we picked up the rest of the family and headed on a beautiful drive to Crane's Apple Orchard for some apple picking and apple cider doughnuts...yum!!






We got home and ate lunch outside in the beautiful weather and played for a while.



Then we ended the day with a campfire and roasted hot dogs. It was the perfect fall day and good to spend the whole day together as a family.



We're realizing that in Tanazania we will not have this beautiful season called fall. This is a bit sad. It is both Ben and my favorite time of year! So, we're making the most of this one, and it has been so fun. Happy beautiful fall to you all!

A day at the zoo

Monday is Ben's day off, and it was a beautiful day, so we decided to pack up the kids and head to the zoo! Luke wanted to pet every animal...especially the lions. Can you blame him? Those big kitties look so cuddly! The lions were actually from Tanzania, which made them even cooler. The bear was the second fave and he was actually awake and gave us a great show! We had a blast admiring all of God's beautiful and sometimes entertaining creation.

The kids especially love the little cabin that is just their size!

This is probably one of our last family shots as a family of five! Our little girl will be joining us soon for any further adventures :)

And then there is the train! I think we spend more time here than we do at any of the animal exhibits, but the kids love it.

Ben and I like the train too. We sat and talked while the kids played.

And kissed too :)

We watched the bear play for a long time!

And then played the African drums for a while.

It was a marvelous day!