Happy Holidays to Everyone!

I trust you all had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. We certainly enjoyed ours. We spent the afternoon with my mom and side of the family and then the evening with the Herbsters. We had a great day praising the Lord for all He is to us and all He has blessed us with. We truly are grateful for His love and provision.

Unfortunately, I have no pics to post today. Mike left early this morning for his missions trip to Japan. Obviously, he needed to take the camera with him; therefore, I have no pictures to share! No doubt when he gets back I will have many to post.

We would appreciate your prayers while he is away. This is the longest trip he has taken and the longest we've been apart. He'll be gone 18 days! Yikes! We know he is doing what God has called him to do, but it is always so difficult to say goodbye! Part of me is glad that the anticipation of this day is over and now we can focus on counting down the days! Right now he is somewhere over the Pacific, expecting to arrive in Tokyo around 1:30am our time. I know Mark is going to try to post pics on our website if you're interested in keeping up with them. You can see them at herbsterevangelism.org.

Please pray for his safety and for many souls to be reached as a result of this trip. We can't wait to hear what God does! Also, if any of you have any magic potient for a mother-of-four-keeping-the-kids-24/7-for-18-days, let me know. I might order a case from you! :) Just kidding...we are having fun and are looking forward to making many memories!

Now that the hustle and bustle has officially started, I wish you a Merry Christmas Season!

Enjoy your day!

Happy 8th Birthday, Micah!

Well, this was the first birthday for Micah to wake up to Nana and not Mommy and Daddy! We were a little sad, but we knew he had so much fun. Everybody came out on the hotel deck and sang to him...even though it was freezing cold outside!


The kids all had breakfast with Nana at the hotel.

The waitress brought Micah a birthday biscuit.

We took Nana to the airport and it was so sad to say goodbye. Thanks for coming, Nana! We had so much fun!

Micah asked to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We were happy to accomodate!

Here's Micah with Wild Bill Hiccup, our famous puppet in Children's Meeting every night. Wild Bill called him up to the front and sang his rendition of Happy Birthday. All the kids in Children's Meeting thought it was great! (Don't let out the secret, but Daddy is Wild Bill!)

After church Monday night, Daddy took Micah out for a date. They went to Starbucks for hot chocolate and coffee. It was a special treat to get to stay up late and go out with Dad.

What a cozy way to end the day! I think Micah had a great birthday!

Nana Fun Day!

Nana stayed at a hotel this weekend while she was visiting. The kids always know what that means...Sleepover at Nana's! So after church Sunday night, all the kids stayed the night with her. Micah got the Absent Minded Professor for his birthday, so Uncle Mark rigged up a way for them to watch it. They had a great night. I'm sure Nana will need some time to recover, but they made great memories! :)


Micah and Nana after church Sunday morning.

Nana with 6/11 of her sweet kiddies!

The Perfect Birthday Formula

This last Saturday, Micah chose to go to Chipotle for lunch (What a good son! We could eat there EVERY day!!!)

Anyway, we walked in and found our table and then the Big Surprise happened...Nana walked in. Micah was so surprised! Nana flew to Virginia to be with him on his big day. His birthday wasn't until yesterday, but we celebrated on Saturday, well, actually, the whole weekend!!

Micah asked for a Science birthday this year. So we had a blast...literally! :) I will say, this was a far cry from Winnie the Pooh when he was two! The older they get, the more involved - and fun! - the parties get!

We really had an incredible day. More than anything, it was so much fun watching the kids enjoying it all and just being together. Thanks, Micah, for a great excuse to have such a fun day!

Micah enjoyed blowing out his sparkler candles.

Micah helped me set up the table. We had molecules, Smarties, Nerds, dry ice, slime-green applesauce, lab coats, bow ties...the perfect formula for fun! We ended up doing ten different experiments with the kids. We ALL had fun!

Surprise, Micah! He was so excited!

McKenna really enjoyed making her pink slime.

We made volcanos out of play-doh, then we put baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar and voila! an volcanic eruption!

Malachi made the best slime! Oooohh!

I think the kids' favorite thing was the dry ice experiments. Here we dropped in a cube of dry ice, a small drop of dishwashing soap, water and this snake of bubbles climbed out the cylinder!

Here's the mad scientist with all his supplies! This will keep him occupied for a very long time!

Micah said his favorite gift this year was being with Nana!

All the little scientists!

This was the grand finale...we put seven mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke and this geyser shot up at least 20-25 feet! We did this experiment four times it was so much fun!

Here we made Pop Rockets. We put half an Alka-Seltzer in a film canister with a tablespoon of water, put the lids on, stepped back, and watched the canisters fly into the air!

Family Fun Day

Okay, last post for today...

This last weekend, Mom and Dad Herbster were staying with Matt and Julie's kids at the Wilds in North Carolina. With us being in Tennessee, only two hours away, we decided we would meet halfway and surprise all the kids. As we left, we kept telling the kids we were going to go for a pretty drive through the mountains (which was true) and find a fun park to play at (which was also true). What we didn't tell them was that we were driving an hour away to play at a park with their cousins.

It was awesome to see their reactions when they saw Nana and Papa and all their cousins. We pulled off a great surprise!

Nana and Papa Heaven!!

Micah with Jonathan and Sarah.

Malachi and Nathan

Having so much fun playing together again.

Unfortunately, it rained most of the day, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Wet and all, they had so much fun just being together. We are so thankful for our family. The only sad part was that Matt and Julie were not with us...we missed you guys!

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

As I have been posting these events today, I have to chuckle. For those of you viewing these, your heads must spin a little when I mention all these different states we have been in. Such is the life of an evangelist family!

This last Saturday, we visited Warrior State Park here in Tennessee. We had a great afternoon being together and relaxing. Over the last two weeks, we have had sickness go around our crew, and it was nice to all be healthy and happy again. :) The weather was gorgeous and we had fun taking fall pictures outside.

One of our kids' favorite things to do is pile up leaves for our pictures. They love the crunchy sounds and the chance to get dirty at Mom's request!

Down by the playground, they had this pretty brook for the kids to play in.

After playing on the playground and in the leaves, we headed over to the lake. We had fun skipping rocks and splashing big ones as well.

This playground was huge with so many varieties of things for the kids to do.

McKenna love the camera!

Sweet sisters...

Whew...this one will make you a little dizzy!

Happy Fall, everyone!

Apple Pickin'

Last Thursday, while we were in Indiana, we visited Kercher's Apple Orchard. We had so much fun picking apples, going through the corn maze, drinking apple cider, and walking through the pumpkin patch. Please forgive all the pictures...it's just so hard to leave any out! We are so thankful for another day to make memories! I have to admit, this is one of my favorite times of year!

The kids picked Golden Delicious apples. Their favortie part was picking them right off the tree and taking a big bite.

Our four favorite pumpkins!

I'd say McKenna has Daddy wrapped around her finger, wouldn't you?

We got the kids their own pumpkin bottles filled with cider.

Taking pictures in the orchard is so much fun!

McKenna picking away!

Micah was chosen to carry the bushel because of his strong muscles!!

Caramel Time

One Saturday evening, we all went outside to make caramel apples. I'm not sure what was more fun...dipping the apples in the caramel or eating all the candy corn, red hots, and nuts to dip the apples in. It is quite weird to see them doing all this in short sleeves and shorts. This day, it was in the 80's. Very odd for October!! Thanks, Aunt Amy, for a fun evening!


Yummy!!!

McKenna didn't care for the apples much...she just wanted the candy!

Malachi won the award for creativity. He decorated his apple like a turkey! How festive, buddy!

Michala and her plate of fun.

Micah loved all the caramel...ooey-gooey! The only problem is that he is missing a front tooth and it's hard to dig in! He still had so much fun.