On January 10th BJ, Gideon, Josh and I hitched a ride with Mike and Cody and picked up Emily then we headed to The Battle at the Barn. What an experience! I have never been to a race like this one, ever. It was a small track ( it took the go carts 6 seconds to make a lap), and there was motorcycles, old and new, go carts, lots and lots, 3 wheelers, and 4 wheelers. There was a lot of wrecks but not a lot of injuries. Thank goodness. Kurt was the only one racing but I think once we got there BJ really would have loved to race too. Anyway, Kurt got first in his first heat then got bumped by another 4 wheeler in his second and his chain fell off. So for the next couple hours they worked on fixing that. In his final race he started in the second row in 6th place and by half way he had made it to secondplace. He pulled in front and for the last 4 laps he led and won the race. We were all very excited!


It was a really long day but we all had lots of fun.
Fixing the chain.

The boys all got a really nice bow and arrows set. Gideon has to get a little stronger to pull back the strings so he has been working on his chin ups and push ups lately.
Christmas at Mom and Dad Boenders
I know I am way behind but I could not miss Christmas. Mom always makes a wonderful supper and sets a beautiful table for the adults and the kiddos. We had a wonderful night as a family. Thank you Mom and Dad!
Rachel got an amazing horse barn that I dreamed about when I was a little girl so both her and I have really enjoyed playing with it.
Johnathon, Rachel and Gideon all got very fuzzy, soft jammies.

The BJ Boender Family Christmas
Rachel got a Barbie and her very own scrapbook with stickers, embellishments, and paper. Yeah!
John and Gideon got new combines!

Don't these go great with his Jammies? It was all we could do to get them off before bed. They were also the first thing he put on before we left in the morning. I told him he would probably get a little cold in just boots:)

Christmas at the LeavertonsCall me crazy but this is one of my favorite Christmas traditions since I've been in Iowa. We all got to church on Christmas Eve and then quickly go home and go to bed. In the morning on Christmas Day we all get up at 6:00 and head for Grandma and Grandpa Leaverton's house. Sometimes we get them out of bed:) After we all get settled Grandpa reads the Christmas story then we sort out the gifts. We go in order from youngest to oldest. After the gifts are open we eat cinnamon rolls and watch a movie. Mom always makes a good dinner so around noon we eat dinner. After dinner we all take a much needed nap. Thank you mom and dad for another wonderful Christmas!


Aunt Kay got Gideon a remote control Tarantula. Wow, he has had a great time scaring everyone!

BJ's Deer BJ got a doe this hunting season and he got a really good recipe from my sister Kelita's fiance Ben. So he made the recipe all by himself with the backstraps of the deer. He only had to call his mom once with a question. I was proud of him and enjoyed having him cook. It was really really good and I am really bummed that I didn't get an after picture:( It was so good we hardly had any leftovers to take a picture of when I finally thought about it. Oh well, maybe next time.

Ferguson Christmas


The Steve and Jan Boender family.

The Gene Ferguson Family


The Grandkids

the boy table
The girl table

Honey Creek

Mom and Dad Boender invited us for a night of fun and family on the 26th. (Yep I'm a little behind.) Anyway, we had such a great time! The pool was really nice and there was lots for the kids to do. BJ and I enjoyed being able to just sit and watch our kiddos swim instead of having to follow them around all the time. They are all really growing up.

Gingerbread Houses

The Finished Products




Cousin Cody came over on Christmas Eve so I thought it would be fun to decorate
Gingerbread houses. It took me all morning to make the cookie dough and cut out the cookies.
The kids played so nicely while I worked in the kitchen. Thank goodness. After I got everything cooled, frosting made, table covered and lunch made and ate we started.(I was planning on trying to do this with all 3 of my kiddos plus Cody but BJ came home and took Johnathon to go plow snow. At the end of the day that was a true life saver! I think John would have been a little small). The kids had so much fun and really did a great job at not eating lots of candy and being very careful not to break the houses and make huge messes. We had lots and lots of fun.

Christmas Tree

Okay, so I was going to try to take some pictures of our nicely decorated tree after we all worked hard to make it look fairly decent. Johnathon and Gideon must not have cared to much about it because they both knocked the tree all the way over. John was first and he was sorry but thought it was pretty funny. The next day Gideon was showing Cody how John "just barely bumped it" and knocked it over again. That time Gideon had to hang all the ornaments. So just picture in your mind a fairly tall tree decorated by my 34" little big boy. You guessed it, the top has no ornaments:) So the day after Christmas I went to Wal-Mart and bought two 3 ft. trees for half price and not so fragile ornaments. Hopefully next year I can have 3 beautiful trees. We will see.

Ben's Bonfire
After program, lunch, tree, and a nice nap. We got back in the truck and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Leaverton's house. Ben (aunt Kay's fiance) had been working on picking up all the fallen trees off the forest floor at grandma and grandpa's. He was finally finished and wanted to have a big bonfire. We had such a great time! It was a very big fire, the wood was dry so it burned quickly and hot. Rachel and Johnathon were very concerned at first because they thought everyone was saying "bomb fire" so in their little minds they thought for sure it was going to BLOW up and be very loud. They were relieved when they realized it was just a really big campfire! After we all watched it burn for awhile we went to the house and had a big pot of chili and a whole bunch of good snacks and goodies. What a good ending to a great day!
Most of my people pictures turned out really fuzzy. I haven't quite figured out how to get my camera set to take good night portraits. It did an amazing job at the fire pictures though.

Christmas Tree
After the program and a really good lunch that Dad made. We all loaded in the truck and headed to the Scotch Hill Tree Farm. After a very cold walk through the trees we found the perfect one. Dad and Gideon did most of the cutting but Rachel and John wanted some of the action so they helped a little bit. After it was all cut down Gideon drug it to the truck and Dad loaded it up.
A decorated tree photo may come later, though it daily changes, so we will see:)



The kitty in the picture followed us all through the tree farm so Rachel thought he needed in the picture. We later found out that the kitty belonged to the neighbors of the tree farm. He must of just enjoyed all the company visiting the trees.

Sunday School Christmas Program

Sunday School Program

What a day we had last week Sunday! It started out with our churches annual Christmas Program.
We sat both children down and gave them the "standing in front of church " speech that they always get before a program. When we got to church we sent Rachel to her class room before we went to find a seat and both BJ and I said a quick prayer and waited for what was to come. To our pleasant surprise she did an exceptional job! She did all the motions and sang (loudly) but at least she sang. Her dress even stayed down. I have to admit I was a little concerned about it. But she did wonderfully! We were very proud of her.
After the pastor's sermon it was Gideon's turn. He did extremely well too and sang when he was supposed to and really focused on paying attention. He daily amazes me as he continues to grow and make decisions for himself. It is such a blessing to see him growing in the Lord!