RVCCO in Concert!

Last night Joanna and Josiah performed with the RVCCO! It was a wonderful concert, and playing with an orchestra has been enjoyable, and a great experience, for them both. The repertoire for this concert was Beethoven, Handel, Grieg and Haydn and was a lot of fun to listen to!

Joanna with the first violins, and Josiah in the cello section.

I've put together a few video clips from the concert (video below), but you can also check out Here, Here, and Here for a few other clips from the evening.

If you had been here on Sunday...

..you would have seen a crowd of people enjoying relationships that God has given, and delighting in the beauties of His creation on a fresh spring day!  Conversations while sitting in the sunshine, volleyball games, food, fun on the trampoline, sitting on the back porch swapping stories and making plans for summer... Spring is certainly here and we are looking forward to lots more fellowship in the great outdoors over the coming months!

Of course, there were also lots of little people around enjoying swings, slides, balls, jump ropes, and smiling!

Liberty Day!

Liberty Day 2010 has come and gone!  What a full and wonderful weekend it was!  As of today, we have still not received any photos from the variety of photographers that were there, so I stole this one picture off of Dawn's Blog until we get more to share with you!

We had 900 attendees from 12 states join us for the event, and we are so grateful for the many wonderful people that joined us as staff and support for the event - this has truly grown beyond our expectations and abilities!  And we are especially grateful for the grace of God that led us through many last minute changes, unexpected road blocks (stage curtains/lighting/etc.), and health issues (Patrick Henry had lost about 90% of his voice that day, but was able to put all of that last 10% into his speech!)... and so much more!  God is so very good!

Of course, I know that all of you who were unable to attend are on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what Dr. Jehle and Mr. Titus shared with us.  If you aren't, you should be!  It was excellent!  Head over to Resounding Voice to purchase the audio set.

Lord willing, we'll have a few more pictures to share with you all before too long.  In the meantime - we're still working on recovery around here! :-)

Getting Ready for Liberty Day

I think we will soon have an entire collection of historic dresses - from newborn to adult size! Yesterday Aunt Abbey helped create a new dress for a growing Caroline for Liberty Day 2010.

BTW - the registration deadline is this Saturday, March 13, so get on over to the Liberty Day site and send in your registration!  We are counting down the days and are VERY excited about this year's event!

Indiana Convention

Back in late February, most of us Erbers joined the crew of Resounding Voice and headed to Indiana for their annual homeschool convention.  It was a quick weekend trip, and it was rather nice to only have a 5-hour drive this time!

Josh managed to keep us busy here and there throughout the weekend, but we were able to enjoy some downtime in the evenings back at the hotel.  It was a pretty straight forward event with few surprises - which is always nice!

One of the most notable facts from the weekend, was the discovery that the Resounding Voice staff prefers to purchase cell phones that match the color of their bowties.

Overall, the first event in the 2010 conference season went well - here's to the rest of the year!

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Life and Fun at Grandma's House

Happy Anniversary, Josh & Abbey!

Two years together!

Seen In Our Yard This Morning...

The Aftermath...

Stuart with "the cat" who was dubbed "Wilbur".  I think we are now Wilbur's new home...

Seen In Our Yard Last Night...

Five fine gentleman chose to brave the zero degree weather, bundled up and slept out under the stars!




One nice thing about sleeping outside in zero degree weather is that the sky is crystal clear and you really have an incredible view of the stars!  And since you'll probably not really be sleeping all that much in the course of the night, it is rather nice to have a view to enjoy... :-)

Settling in for the night.  Yes, that cat hung around them all evening and ended up climbing into Stuart's sleeping bag for the night.

They all survived, though some of them came in fairly early this morning, and they all had good appetites come breakfast time!

Because I Can't Resist...

Trenor - at two months old.  He's a spittin' image of his daddy! 

We were looking through old slides the other night and found a couple pictures of Josh that look just like Trenor.  Now to get those slides transferred to digital photos so we can compare the "oldies" and the "newbies" more easily... :-)

The Things That Life is Made of...

January has been a month of a small world for most of our family.  Small in that it has revolved mostly in one room around one topic. 
The room: The Office. 
The topic: Liberty Day. 

Thankfully, I think the "must be done by end of January" things are now done.  So, you all can run over to http://www.libertyday.net/ and check out the new look over there (thanks to Kathryn), as well as all the new information for 2010 (that's what we've been working on).  Once you are done oohing, and aahing over all the exciting plans for 2010, you will want to click right on over and submit your registration online!  Then, there's only one more thing to do.  Invite all your friends to come, too!  There are files you can print off and hand out, or you can just direct people right to the website, too.  If you are on Facebook, you can rsvp there as well and invite your Facebook friends.  See how easy and fun all this technological stuff is - once it is all figured out put together and updated?? :-)

But on to other things...

To say that all of January was spent in the office on Liberty Day would be mostly true, but not entirely.  There have been, of course, plenty of other things going on.  Schoolwork, church and family stuff, mostly.   Family stuff, does, of course, include grandkids - like the little girl pictured above eating oranges from Grandma M. in Florida!

Joseph has started EMT training this month.  The class goes through May, I think.  So far he has taken two tests, and has passed them both just fine.

Dad has been superintending the work of repainting most of our main level.  Joseph and Joanna have both participated some in that as well, but the rest of us have just been trying to avoid getting paint all over us. 

In light of the new paint, it was discovered that our living room also needed new curtains.  So Mom has now finished sewing those and the room has a whole new look now.

Joanna and Josiah are both busy preparing for a competition coming up on February 20. Jessica is the piano accompanist for Josiah this year and is finding one of his pieces enough to push her beyond the heights of her former level of piano expertise (which was, admittedly, limited). With only three weeks left, there is lots of practice is going on around here to polish every aspect of their pieces!

And that's about it - for now... you just never know what a day may bring!

Wrapping up 2009!

Before 2010 gets too far under way, here's a quick review of the last couple of weeks of 2009!

Event 1:
Church Christmas Party - 12/20/09

In the afternoon of Sunday, December 20, our church families got together for a time of remembrance and celebration of Christ's birth. We read scriptures, sang hymns, and rejoiced together!

Event 2:
Do-It-Yourself Messiah - 12/21/09

Despite many changes and other day-of challenges, a group of us did make it downtown for the annual Do-It-Yourself Messiah! As an add-on to the already special evening, us "Older Siblings" snuck in dinner at Giordano's ahead of time! Nothing like preparing to sing by filling up on pizza! But sing we did - and take pictures we didn't. So you'll have to hop over to the Yen's Blog if you want those.

Back at home 6 happy grandkids spent the evening, night, and next morning with their grandparents!

Event 3:
Christmas Day - 12/25/09

Despite snow storms, ice, airport delays, etc. Jonathan did make it home for Christmas! His flight ended up arriving only one hour passed the scheduled time and we were SO glad to get him back home! He was also excited to meet his newest nephew for the first time!

And, we got to enjoy dinner once again as a complete family! The most treasured gift all season!
The evening was spent in a very relaxed manner, looking over gifts, projects, etc.
Caroline played almost every Christmas carol in her book for us!

And we spent time - just chillin'... and enjoying being family.

...or tackling Grandpa...


And "just because," I'm including this picture from the morning after Christmas. We have NEVER seen foxes around our house in the 11+ years we've lived here. Lots of other wildlife, but never foxes. Until the week following Christmas. Almost every morning there were two of them playing in our yard. And then they disappeared again and we haven't seen them since. Anyhow, here's a picture of one of them standing just outside our living room windows as the Great Snowstorm of December 26 started to blow in!

Event 4:
Sledding - 12/30/09

As the year drew to a close and the snow deepened, and as Jonathan was home on vacation and that is a good excuse to get together with friends (as if one was needed), and as other details just lined up right, several of us spent an afternoon sledding with a group of friends from church. Some classic spills, fun rides, and lots of laughter were experienced and observed! :-)

Event 5:
Bella's First Birthday - 12/31/09

What can I say? This adorable sweetheart is a whole year old!! She really enjoyed her cake...

Event 6:
Returning to Normal Life

Ahhh.... the ongoing quest for "normal life"! Sadly, right now "normal" includes the fact that Jonathan is back in Idaho. But on the home front, we are getting back in the swing of school, music lessons and all those other great responsibilities that claim our attention!
Praising the Lord for 2009, and looking forward to what He has in store for us in 2010!

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful time together with extended family on New Year's Day...

From our family to yours - God bless your year!

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to you all!

A Blur...

Little Trenor is now two weeks old! And what a very full two weeks that has been for our family! Of course, spending time with Josh, Abbey, Bella and Trenor was high priority! But mixed in with it all were a few other events that required our attention as well.

Friday evening, December 4th, we had the fun of taking part in a local town's annual "Victorian Christmas" celebration. It was very cold, but fun and memorable!

There was a parade, carolers, and other festivities around town, but our job was to demonstrate a few old English dances.

We got together 8 couples from our church (including the young gents picture above) and put a few dances to well known Christmas tunes and danced in the center of the town square!

Like I said, it was a very cold evening, and we were grateful to be able to hang out indoors for part of the time!

The rest of that weekend and most of the next week was occupied with this little guy and his family. Abbey and Trenor were able to return home from the hospital on Sunday afternoon, December 6. Thank you to all of you were praying for her! Aside from lingering weakness and the standard weariness of having a 2 week old (and 11 month old!), Abbey is doing very well now.

Bella is thrilled with her new little brother and loves him very much!

But while all that excitement was going on at home, I (Jessica) was off galavanting about the country! On Saturday, Dec. 5, Dad and I headed out to Omaha, NE for an ordination service at one of our sister churches. Dad returned home on Monday morning, but I stayed out there with the Kayser family until Tuesday when I rode with them down to Cincinnati, OH (or actually, across the river in KY) for a conference on the Sufficiency of Scripture.

I had been invited down to help out at the conference, so I got to spend the weekend working alongside this great group of ladies! It was a very enjoyable blessing to get to know them all better (we had all at least met before). I also had the opportunity to visit with others of the attendees and came home refreshed in spirit, but rather in need of a few extra hours of sleep!
I also got to know the Kayser family better as they hosted me in Omaha and as we spent many hours in the van together! Thank you SO MUCH, Kaysers - for the meals, the lodging, the transportation, your warm hospitality, your encouraging conversations... I greatly appreciated it all!

After dropping me off at home, the Kaysers spent all day Sunday with us before we finally said farewell on Monday morning (we are up to Dec. 14th, now).

But before we parted, Ben finally won a game of Quarto! Congratulations! :-)

So that brings us up to this week. And this week has been full of fulfilling our "duties" as aunts, uncles, and grandparents; final music lessons before Christmas break; counting down the days until Jonathan is back home (only 7 left!); Strufoli making; Christmas shopping and other gift preparations; trying to finalize plans for the various events of the next two weeks; and I don't know what else, but it seems to have flown by quickly without many spare moments! But, of course, when "busy" is related to "family" it's a good busy!