June Photos

 Playing with the leaf blower ~ Animals on the loose ~ Our new flag pole

Grant's baby beanie boo ~ Brothers ~ Sleepy Millie

Summer sleeping ~ Smoothie King ~ Fun Homework

Half-Price Shakes after 8 ~ Moon Marble ~ Stuffed Animal Friends

Water Gun Battle ~ Snugglebugs ~ Prairie Fire Art

Capture the Flag ~ New Roof ~ Lego Room is Back!

Fruity Swimming

One of the best purchases of the summer were these fruit slices from Sam's. They were the perfect floatie for when you wanted to be in the water without being under the water!! Millie especially liked them- well, more when they were on land than on water! They also doubled as boats, space pods, stepping stones, doggy beds, and race cars! They definitely sweetened up our summer!

Mini-Golfing

Blackbob Park has a little hidden gem in the back of the park and its Mini-Golf! My mom took the boys a few times last summer, towards the end of the season. Fast forward to this summer when they remembered it. So my mom took them back. When they were there, they found out you can buy a pass for the WHOLE summer for $25 for the entire family! How could you say no to that? We've gone quite a bit this summer! We went as a family one evening and it started raining about 9 holes in, so we wrapped up the game and then came back the next night to finish. I love that! Can't beat cheap summer fun!!

SBO: Gadgets and Gizmos

After serving at SBO Jr, Grant could not wait for his week at SBO!! Grant loves being involved at church, in any way possible. He knows a lot of the staff and leaders around the church, so its definitely one of his very happy places to be! His favorite part is the pre-show, the time that people are arriving and checking into their groups. They do lots of cool skits and videos, so we always had to make sure we were there by 8:45 so we didn't miss any of it!!

I love that they do worship at the beginning and then go right into the storytelling. This year, they story revolved around this man who was trying to fix these robots because they were broken, just like we are broken. There is only one thing that can fix us and that is Jesus!  Grant had a small part in one day of the storytelling, so that was super fun for him!

 His favorite intern at church was playing one of the robots and loved getting his picture with them one day! Look at that smile on Grant- pure joy!!

If you ask Grant what is favorite memory of SBO would be, he has two. This video being one of them. On the last day, during his favorite song, Rising Up, they gave all the kids this glow sticks and during the most exiting part of the song, the smoke machines blew and hundreds of balloons fell from the ceiling. In Grant's words, "it was EPIC!"

There is one other memory Grant has that he will remember FOREVER...(stay tuned in another post)

Grant is a Believer

Something Levi and I have always prayed for was that our kids learn to the love the Lord at some point throughout their life. That they understand the importance of putting their salvation in Jesus. That they learn to live their life for the Lord. 

Since the boys have been old enough to understand, I've tried my best teaching them about Jesus. Reading them Bible stories. Memorizing certain scriptures. Doing Bible studies with them.  I can do all that til I'm blue in the face, but God is ultimately the one that opens their heart to understanding it all. And thats exactly what happened to Grant during his week at SBO. While I feel the he has believed in God and put his faith in Jesus for a while now, this week it all truly "clicked" for him and he 100% knew it and believed it. 

When I picked him up from the 4th day of SBO, his teacher mentioned that she and Grant had been talking about accepting Jesus as your Savior and she said he was stirring over what it all meant. When we came home to have lunch, I could tell he was struggling with his thoughts and feelings, so I dropped what I was doing so we could talk it out. He started getting choked up because he feared he wasn't going to Heaven. I asked him if he knew how to get to Heaven, and he said, "By believing in Jesus." I asked him if he believed in Jesus, and he said, "Yes!" And I told him that he had nothing to be scared of because it sounds like he would be going to Heaven someday. Oh, the look of relief on his face was priceless! He said, "I have always believed in Jesus, but I didn't really know what that all meant until just now." We talked through the ABC prayer (admit, believe, confess). And right there in our kitchen, Grant knowingly became a follower of Jesus. He was so happy! He made me text so many people so they could hear his good news! 

That night, when Levi got home from work, he and Grant went out to dinner and Grant picked out his very own Bible. He was so proud of it and was just beaming from ear to ear. 

Just a few months prior, Grant was reciting a scripture passage during our Christmas service, and he read these words "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12-13. It gave me chills when he read those words aloud months ago, but to know those words are now describing Grant is the best feeling! Thank you God!

Flag Day!

We are many things in the Broeckelman house, one of them being Patriotic!! We always have been, always will be! We take patriotic holidays very seriously around here. Maybe it has to do with Levi's military career, but any chance we get to celebrate our country and the people who serve it, we jump on it!! I have this picture of Grant from Flag Day 2013 that is one of my very favorites! It was this picture that makes me want to instill the same patriotism in the boys that Levi and I each have! So we make it a point to celebrate Flag Day! 

We bought a bunch of flags the year Levi got home from Bahrain and decorated our front yard with them. We continue to pull them out year after year and decorate the front porch.

God Bless the USA!

SBO Jr: Gadgets and Gizmos

One of our favorite things in the summer is SBO!!!! We look forward to it all year long and we knew this year would not disappoint!! Wyatt was attending SBO Jr. and Grant was volunteering as a song leader and sites helper. I was planning on volunteering as well, but we were hosting swimming lessons at our house during that time, so I felt I needed to be there. But when I dropped the boys off each morning, I got sucked in to the all AMAZING things happening! I loved watching Grant help lead worship and I loved watching Wyatt dance and sing praises!! This years theme was Gadgets and Gizmos, with the memory verse being Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know this full well." What an amazing truth to learn! It's always a fabulous week of fun and love for Jesus!!!

Grant was a song leader on stage, so that was so neat to see him be a part of the action!

Tooth Fairy Visit #1: Wyatt

I knew my days were limited with Wyatt's baby smile when I saw a permanent tooth trying to sneak in behind his baby teeth! (Don't mind his freshly lunched teeth ;-))

 So I was doing my best to capture his baby smile as often as possible because I knew it was going to be gone shortly. He hated the process of having a loose tooth. We tried a numerous times to pull it out because it just bothered him so much to have it wiggly in there. We tried a Nerf gun and floss, we tried twisting, we tried pulling. It just wasn't ready until it was ready...

And then on June 7th, it was ready and Wyatt lost his first tooth! We just came home from SBO and were having lunch when he bit into a strawberry and dislodged his tooth! He pulled it out himself and was SO excited! Definitely a little nervous too because he couldn't tell if it was strawberry juice or blood (both) but I assured him everything was just fine!! 

He was so excited to put his tooth in a special place! We have this little Precious Moments heart container that Grant uses when he loses a tooth. So he put it inside and wrote the Tooth Fairy this note. 

She even responded with the tiniest note of her own...

He earned a $5 bill for that first tooth! Special day!!

Family Night @ The Pool

We love a good nighttime swim. When the sun hasn't quite set, but it feels so warm and cozy from the pool. It hasn't been quite warm enough for me to get in the pool yet, but you better believe the boys have been swimming and swimming and swimming!! Levi got in with them last night and it was a total invitation for fun!!! Lots of jumping and splashing and throwing going on!! Made my heart so relieved and so happy to be on Summer Vacation!!

They started with a jumping contest to see who could "catch the most air." I was the judge.  Levi won but the boys won for style!

Millie isn't a fan of the pool or other people swimming it. We call it the Lassie syndrome- she thinks she has to rescue anyone in the pool, so she barks and runs around the perimeter like crazy! The boys put her in the pool for a second. She turned around, swam to the steps, and ran to jump on my lap and that's where she stayed til we all went inside. But she still kept a watchful eye.

Having these special moments makes me want summer to NEVER end!!!