Faith, Hope and Love

1 Corinthians 13:13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.

This post is a tribute to Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma VK, two amazing, Godly, kind, loving people whose family legacy is one of faith, hope and love (and a few others)!

- Faith - 

One thing is clear if you know Roger & Wilma VK!  They LOVE our Lord, and they desire for each person to know how much our God loves us!  When called on to give a speech at dinner this weekend, Grandpa VK immediately grabbed his Bible, and read excerpts from the following Psalm.

Psalm 90

A prayer of Moses the man of God.

¹ Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.
² Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

³ You turn people back to dust,
    saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
⁴ A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.
⁵ Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:
⁶ In the morning it springs up new,
    but by evening it is dry and withered.

⁷ We are consumed by your anger
    and terrified by your indignation.
⁸ You have set our iniquities before you,
    our secret sins in the light of your presence.
⁹ All our days pass away under your wrath;
    we finish our years with a moan.
¹⁰ Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
¹¹ If only we knew the power of your anger!
    Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
¹² Teach us to number our days,
    that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

¹³ Relent, Lord! How long will it be?
    Have compassion on your servants.
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
    that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    for as many years as we have seen trouble.
¹⁶ May your deeds be shown to your servants,
    your splendor to their children.

¹⁷ May the favor^[a] of the Lord our God rest on us;
    establish the work of our hands for us—
    yes, establish the work of our hands.

- Commitment -

Roger & Wilma VK - 

Celebrating 65 years of Marriage & Life together!

4 children, 10 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren later and they still look great!! 

- Family -

- Love -

 

- Laughter - 

- Fun & Adventure-

 

 

The VKs really know how to have fun together!  At family gatherings, there is always laughter, learning, and adventure.  There is a lot of figurative leg pulling, jokes galore, energy, and games, games and more games!  Mostly though, there is a solid foundation of Faith in our Lord, Hope in what tomorrow will bring, and an incredible Love for one another.  

I get overwhelmed by the love that this family has for their grandparents and for each other!  It's really awesome, and my hope for Graham and Kincaid is that they will have this same experience for years to come!  If you ask me, these two little guys are incredibly blessed to be a part of the next generation of VK's!  We sure are blessed by them!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Grandpa and Grandma VK!

Taking Flight

Kincaid took his first of four flights on Friday, October 19!  With a confident papa and a nervous momma, we boarded the plane at 8:30am!  We were Michigan bound for a weekend of family fun in celebration of Grandpa and Grandma VK's 65 Anniversary!  

Excited for his first flight!  He really had no clue what was going on, but was having fun taking in all the new sights and sounds! 

Kincaid quickly fell asleep as we taxied down the runway.  So thankful he was willing to take his pacifier!  

It came in handy on our flights!

Caid slept the majority of the time which made for a much calmer flight experience for me :)  He did cry for about 10 minutes towards the end of this first flight, but, thanks to our awesome flight attendant, he quickly snapped out of it!

HELLOOOOO Grand Rapids!  Miss GR so much, and loved looking at all the beautiful fall colors!

  

Glad to FINALLY be in Michigan, but not super excited about the 4 hour car ride!  He got super grumpy not long after this! :)

Kincaid did awesome during our whirlwind weekend full of travel!  He now has a road trip and flight under his belt!  Turning into quite the little traveler!  

Puppy Love

It has been so fun to watch Kincaid develop a greater interest in Gracie these last couple of weeks!  More often than not, if he sees she is near, he is stretching out a hand to try to touch her.  Here are a few moments we were able to capture! SO CUTE!!

Caught ya Caid! :) 

Kincaid's Fourth Month

Saturday was a chilly, cloudy, snuggly kind of day (can you believe it snowed here on Friday!!), and my boys took advantage of the opportunity to SLEEP!! Kincaid is either taking after his daddy's love for sleep or going through a growth spurt because he slept even longer than Jon! Or maybe he thought "it's my 4 month birthday, and I'll sleep if I want to!" :) With a few brief feedings and diaper changes, the kiddo slept until around 9:30, then slept again around 11!  

Now at 4 months old (17.5 weeks old), Caid continues to sleep well through the night which is a true blessing!!  He has also continued to improve on and develop new skills including the following:

He is working on his 6 pack almost daily when sitting in his bouncy chair or the swing, and has decided to also throw in some leg kicks while he's at it:

Has discovered that if you bend far enough, eventually your toe lands in your mouth:

He is strengthening his legs, toe grabbing, flexibility and language skills:

He learned that there is more than one view from his pack n play at work - 

all ya gotta do is wiggle (he started with his head at the blanket and feet at the blue spot): 

  

On Thursday, September 28, he also decided that it was time for this: 

and since he can now fully roll over without the struggle, he has decided that he is no longer a back sleeper (I still ALWAYS put him to sleep on his back, but he is in this position about 5 seconds later...).

  

Developmentally, I think those are the big ones this past month!  We will go for his 4 month well baby exam on Monday, and will also get his second round of shots!  I have two more months to bring Kincaid to work with me, and we are trying to enjoy every second of it!! 

He gets so much love from the folks in the office, and I am so grateful I get to have him there!  There have been so many firsts I've been able to share with him!! We'll all be sad when December 6 rolls around!!!

This past week at work, Kincaid got to meet Kansas' Secretary Phyllis Gilmore when she and her team visited our service center.  She commented how cute both he and the other little baby are!

Here he is helping me alphabetize some files at work a couple of weeks ago....

In addition to growing and learning, we also just had some plain old fun this past month!  We visited Grandpa Mark, Uncle Tyson/Kathy, and Great-Grandma Wilma, and Kincaid got some new first time evers!  Grandpa Mark also came up and babysat/stayed the night, so we could go on a date for my birthday!  It was awesome!

Hanging out with Grandpa Mark:

 First ride on the combine, semi and 4 wheeler!

  

 These guys can't wait until Caid is talking and asking 1000 questions about farming!

Some special family moments at home and at the fishing lake:

We fall more and more in love with this guy each day!! We are trying to just take in each moment with him (even when that means dishes piling up -- ahhh), and can't believe how time is flying!  

We have a fun month ahead with a visit to the pumpkin patch with Cousin Zayley, a weekend trip to Michigan & Caid's first flight, and Kincaid's Baptism!  Pictures coming soon...

God is so Good & it's a great day to be alive!!