Rachel's Blessing

We will be blessing Rachel this coming Sunday (December 3) at 11:00 AM at our meetinghouse on the corner of 86th South and Fayeway Drive.

If you can't make it, I will be terribly offended and never forgive you--unless you have a reason, such as you are giving a lesson in your ward, or you live in North Dakota, or you forgot. If you can make it and you are a worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holder, then please join me in the circle.

I wish you all could have come to our little Thanksgiving gathering. It was fun. 'Til we meet again.

Schlenske news

We still have a hole in our living room. However, progress has been made, and the one day Ben had off, he bought stuff to board it up for now. We were hoping we would have a couple of nice days after it got cold, but no luck. It is cold, especially with wind chill. I feel badly that Ben has to get out and even attempt to board it. But he's tough. We just started tearing our kitchen apart for remodeling. I'm most excited for the kitchen to be done, but not for the process. I'm sure most of you know how hard it is to live with a mess in the kitchen. I have been living with it pretty torn apart since we got here, but now the real fun begins!
Little Ben was blessed last week. That was special. I am posting a couple of pictures of him with a his blessing outfit on. Thanks Darcee! And Congratulations to David and Susan! We love you all.

Rachel Winn Benge

Look at the 19 inch child who arrived at 1:50 P.M. weighing seven pounds even. It's Rachel Winn Benge! Mom and baby are doing very well, and even Lucy is excited. Rachel may not look excited to be here, but she is faking.

KC AND KIANNA ON HALLOWEEN (PLUS THE GOULISH MONSTER KIRK)

A request

A request:

So, I've always thought the blog was a great idea, but I haven't been great about using it much. I decided the other day that I would post something at least once a week to update everyone on the happenings of our family. Perhaps because winter is coming on, or is actually here in North Dakota, I am feeling lonely for all of you and would really like to know more of what goes on in your lives. I also really like to show our kids pictures of extended family. Hence, I am requesting that all of you post more often, for my sake. I miss all of you.
With that said, let me tell you of our happenings. We are still working on our house, and even though with wind chill it has been below 0 degrees nearly every day this week, with snow, we still have a hold in our living room wall and are trying to figure out what to do with it! We have plastic and other things piled in front of it to keep cold out in the meantime. Ben has been working in the missle capsule a ton lately, he upgraded to a commander, and then comes home and tries to get as much done as possible when he is off. Sadly, it looks like his work load is going to increase even more. The Air Force is trying to save money and has decided to have the missleers go on alerts for 3 nights (four days) at a time, with little break between alerts. We are hoping to survive such a schedule. In the meantime we enjoy every moment Ben is here. The band of brothers are thriving. Little Ben is a smiley guy and becomes more fun every day. I am homeschooling the others and Jeffrey sure loves it. He is technically in Kindergarten, but I must brag on him - he is doing 2nd grade math and is reading superbly right now. He is loving to learn and is usually quite easy to teach. We go over to a friends house a few days a week, and teach our children together. It is demanding, but fun. William is still William. He is either the sweetest kid on earth, or else causing all the mischief. He has quite the orginazational brain. He is doing quite well reading now too. Abel is the joker of the family and the dramatic child. Dallin is sweet as always, but has the occasional 1 1/2 year old tantrums.
I'll stop there because I'm taking up too much time and room.
We love you all!

Sumo Porter's First Halloween

We went to trunk or treat to show off our little chunk. He was a hit. He had two costumes...one was for when he got too cold. Mom and Dad went as Tacky Hawaii Tourists. Enjoy. Please post your kids costumes.