Garner/Des Moines/Lucy's grandparent trip.

Lucy had her special grandparent trip and had a great time! My grandparents did special trips for us when we were younger, so my parents wanted to carry it on and it's so sweet! Thanks Dad and Mom for doing this and making amazing memories together- how wonderful to have grandpa and grandma all to yourself! They went to Branson and enjoyed lots of fun things. Lucy did get homesick at the end of her trip, but overall did great and loved it!

We had some cousin fun in Des Moines when we went to pick Lucy up!

On the way to Des Moines to get Lucy after her trip, it worked out great to stop and stay the night in Garner with our good friends, the Ragsdales. We enjoyed their city pool, fun ice cream, and good fellowship and it was great to see them!

Ellory stepped in front right when I took this, but I thought Kley coming out of the waterslide was funny!

Recent reads 2026.

Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis- This was an interesting pick up for me because I was waiting for some books I had on hold to become available but needed something in the meantime and I was looking at what was available now and this popped up. I do not follow Rachel Hollis, know anything about her, and have never read any of her work until now, but I heard so many people talking about this book back when it came out in 2018. It has definitely received it's share of controversial reviews, which made me intrigued to hear what she actually said. It was an interesting read, and I appreciated her honesty in talking about many personal topics, but I felt there were only snippets of talking about God and a lot of references to working harder to succeed, dream big and you can do it, you determine your own happiness, etc. I would not recommend this book as a solid Biblical resource.

My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney- Wow, how does Alice come up with her ideas? The plot twists are mind blowing to me and I would be the worst thriller writer. This was the second book I have read by her and I don't know if I can read more? I ended both of my reads by her astonished and confused. Like not confused as in I didn't actually understand it, but confused as in what on earth just happened and that was so many things and that was really the ending? This story was about Eden Fox, who goes for a run and comes home and it locked out and there is another woman in her house who looks similar to her and claims to be her. Then Eden disappears, but which Eden and who is who? Birdy, a detective, comes to investigate the case along with the local police officer, and the discoveries they made and connections revealed are deep and crazy.

A Million Tiny Moments: Reflections to Refresh A Mom's Spirit by Emily A. Jensen and Laura Wifler-I have several books written by these authors and I love them all! They had a podcast called Risen Motherhood for about a decade that I loved, but that ministry recently sunset and is no longer, but both are still active in other types of authorship and ministry now. This book was kind of a compilation of different blog posts, articles, etc. from the Risen Motherhood ministry archives before it ended to have many of those things published in one place, and it's a good read! This is a different type of book because it's definitely Christian, but not set up for a Bible study, and it's written in brief segments that aren't linear, so you could pick it up when you have a couple minutes and read any short portion of the book as a quick devotional and encouraging read. 

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- I read this when I was younger (it came out in 2008), and just listened to it again. I remembered big points from it, but it was wild to read it again! The premise of this story is so mind boggling! It's set in the nation of Panem, which is the ruins of what used to be North America. The Capital runs all of the 12 outlying districts, and annually they hold the Hunger Games, where one girl and one boy aged 12-18 from each district is chosen to compete in a televised fight to the death and the last one living wins. Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take the place of her younger sister who was chosen, and she competes in the Hunger Games. I feel like you can't help but be drawn to Katniss, her story, and who she is as a main character.

Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block- I found this as one of the new books at our local library. He talks about his entire life, but spends the majority of time on his childhood, where his mom pulled him out of school at age 9 and was homeschooled until high school. His mom taught him in math, but other than that he was basically left alone to pursue his passions, educate himself, and grow to the genius he was and would be, as his mother said. She said school was stifling him and he was a brilliant genius who would do amazing things. Their relationship was very dysfunctional and his mother was sad he was growing up and wanted him to stay young and be with him forever (like he went through a period where his mother forced him to crawl around the house like a baby). When he returned to school in high school, the bullying he endured was so difficult and sad. He overcame a lot and is a father himself now, and his resilience was powerful to read and he talks about how there should be more regulations in homeschooling to make sure kids are learning and not falling through the cracks.

Summer activities 2026- sports and classes.

What a fun summer! Grateful for the many summer opportunities our girls have to be involved in many different things and for the many people that work hard to make it happen! Our community is so special to me and I'm thankful our girls get to grow up in such a great place!

Lucy and Ellory had their last softball game and had a great season! They both grew as players and had some great plays and hits during games- yay!

Norah and Ellory had their flag performance and it was fun to watch!

Norah and her friend Brooke got to do a few craft classes together!

Enjoying some gelato on a hot day!

The girls got to do a nature camp for a few days and enjoyed it! Norah loved making homemade ice cream and Lucy and Ellory loved catching bugs!

Summer coloring fun!

Lucy and Ellory both did the kids triathlon and was so impressive to watch! Way to go girls!

They both said swimming was the hardest, then running, and biking was the easiest. They had to swim a full lap (across and back) in the pool, bike a mile, and run half a mile. What a workout!

Go Lucy!

Go Ellory!

4th of July 2026.

Happy 4th of July! Thankful for the USA and for this wonderful place to live. From everything to the entire country, state of Iowa, our town, to our very house and yard, we have much to be grateful for! We moved almost exactly three years ago (basically across the street from our prior house of 8+ years) and this house has been a sweet blessing in many ways, and a huge way of that is filling it with people we love. Love our annual neighbors and friend party with smores, sparkers, and fireworks!

Kley loves lighting all the fireworks! We gave him this flag shirt for Father's Day and knew he would love it for all the 4th of July festivities. :)

De Jong/Guthmiller celebration with smores and sparklers too- such fun! Love my favorite four!

Kley's grandma lives right down the street from us and it's great! Glad she could join in too.

Sparklers with Will and Gerrit!

Love cousin time! Kley has one sister and they moved to town a year ago and it's been so fun to have cousins close by! 

The actual 4th of July weekend was a bummer because we were supposed to head to Des Moines, but I had been having some strange symptoms for a couple weeks which culminated in an ER visit the night we were supposed to leave with a kidney stone. It didn't pass right away, so we ended up having to stay home. While we were sad to miss out on our original plans, we got a few house projects done and got some fun time with Papa, Amma, and Great Grandma too and special activities like pool (3 days in a row- it's been warm!), minions movie, and going out for supper. Thankful for the USA!

Father's Day 2026.

Happy Father's Day to the best of the best! Kley, I am so thankful I get to parent alongside you and that our girls get to have you for a dad. Thank you for working hard for us and consistently showing up and being the fun and loving dad that you are. What a gift our girls have in you! We all love you so much! Very thankful too for my dad, father-in-law, brothers, grandpas in Heaven, and the many great dads we know.

Lucy and Ellory recently.

It's been too long, so it's high time for another update! We are so proud of all three of our beautiful daughters and thankful for who they are growing up to be. What a precious blessing to be parents! Lucy and Ellory are happy and healthy and what a gift that is.

We last left off at about Thanksgiving, so we have some catching up to do! We celebrated Christmas at Thanksgiving with the Schut side in Des Moines, and loved meeting new cousin Stuart! We were at home over Christmas break and celebrated as our own family of five and with the De Jong side. We went to Des Moines for a few days too just for fun. All the girls were in the Christmas program at church and played a piano song for that too. Lucy played Silent Night and Ellory played Angels We Have Heard On High and they did great! For New Years, we celebrated with our friend party/trivia contest, and we stayed overnight at a hotel in Sioux City as a family that had a bowling alley and pool in it, and enjoyed tubing too at the snow hill. Much to be thankful for!

Second semester went really well. Both Lucy and Ellory enjoy school and had great friends and teachers. We are so thankful they feel safe at school and are learning well and kind in the classroom. I volunteered in their rooms once a week and it was special to be able to see what they were doing and help out! Great teachers are remarkable and so grateful for those sweet souls investing in our girls! Lucy and Ellory both got good remarks on their report cards and encouraging words from their teachers. They also finished up 3^rd grade Sunday School and had a great year with an amazing teacher who made lessons really fun and meaningful. Lucy and Ellory took piano lessons all year again and it's fun to hear the growth! While practicing wouldn't be their favorite thing, they do a good job (most of the time) of just persevering and getting it done! They did winter rec basketball, spring rec soccer, and a short few week softball camp and enjoyed it all! Way to go girls! Ellory finished up her lyrical and jazz dance class and they had a “night at the movies” themed dance recital. Lucy and Ellory did great in their 3^rd grade music concert at school- they sang lots of fun songs with a food theme and did a few on recorder too.

We celebrated Lucy and Ellory turning 9 in February! We got to celebrate with both sides- Schuts in Minneapolis at Zack and Karlie's house where we went to the frozen ice castles, and with De Jongs where we went bowling. For our family outing, we did Tilt indoor arcade, ice skating, and supper at Culver's. They each had some friends over for a party- Ellory chose a blue/pink theme with some crafts and Lucy chose a sports theme and we did some outdoor Olympic challenge games. At their 9 year wellness check, Lucy was 61 lbs. (35%) and 4'7” (83%) and Ellory was 64 lbs. (47%) and 4'5” (57%). Ellory is wearing a size 2 shoe and Lucy size 1 and both are in youth large/size 10-12 clothes.

March was so fun because we got to go to Orlando with De Jongs! It was the best week and we all had a wonderful time. The hotel was great and had such a fun pool area with the biggest lazy river we'd ever seen! They also had special huge water slides and a water obstacle course that we got to do one afternoon. We went to Sea World, Legoland, American Girl store, Magic Kingdom, and Universal. We loved it and are so glad we could go! We celebrated Easter in Des Moines and had fun doing egg hunts and Easter baskets with cousins, and also got to celebrate with De Jongs with a fun scavenger hunt when we got back. Thankful for the best reason to celebrate- His death and resurrection! Tulip Festival was a bit of a disappointment because we had sickness in the house. Lucy got it the worst and had a fever and was coming out of both ends for days, and Kley, Norah, and Ellory got it too but not quite as bad as Lucy. We were still able to do a decent amount for Tulip Festival, but people weren't feeling amazing for it. Glad we were still able to do what we did, get a few photos, and enjoy part of it! Overall we had a very healthy winter thankfully. Lucy loved the end of the year third grade field trip to outdoor fun day at Sandy Hollow, but sadly Ellory had to miss it because she was sick. They both got to be in a neat interactive play at school about immigration, where they were different characters who were immigrating to the US. They had to give a speech about who their character was and why they were immigrating. They did a great job and was fun to listen to!

A huge highlight to the end of spring was meeting new cousin Miller! He was born on March 24 at 21” and 8 lbs. 1 oz. We finally were able to meet him at the end of May and we were all so thrilled to hold him! Welcome to the family, Miller! So fun to add two cousins within six months of each other. Lucy and Ellory both felt the end of the school year was bittersweet, which is great because I'm grateful they love both school and summer! Lucy still loves anything sports related and Ellory has been a huge reader lately- so fun to continue to watch them grow and see what they love and where the Lord is leading them. We have lots of outdoor play, bike/scooter rides, lego city building, elaborate pretend house situations, crafts, music listening, and playmobil set fun. We love you so much, Lucy! We love you so much, Ellory! Being your parents is a deep blessing!