A new Kesler!

We got the news today that we will be adding another member to our family! Her name is Isabel and she was born on December 30, 2007. She has short blond hair and a great temperament. Right now she is with her foster family but we will pick her up Saturday, and if all goes well, we will be her forever family!
You may have guessed, but Isabel is a Golden Retriever/Labrador cross. She is a breeder dog for Canine Companions for Independence(CCI). We will officially be her breeder caretakers until she has five litters of puppies and retires from CCI. At that point she will officially be our pet! We are responsible for her puppies until they are eight weeks old and are ready for their puppy raisers. I don't think it will be to hard to say goodbye to the puppies, we will be ready for a quiet (ha ha) house again I'm sure!
I am very excited to be part of CCI. It is exciting to think that a puppy we helped whelp and cared for when it was little will go on to be an assistance dog for someone. What a great thing! It is also neat to have the kids involved in an organization that has so much respect and has helped so many people. It is just a WIN-WIN. We get a great dog, and hopefully down the road there will be many assistance dogs in Isabel's lineage.
Now for those of you who are asking "Are they crazy?" Maybe. I don't think I am underestimating the amount of work five litters of puppies will be. I just know that the good things in life, rewarding things, are usually a lot of work. Having the opportunity to see one of Isabel's puppies graduate will make all the hard work worth it!!

Great Bread!!

I have been trying to make homemade bread for a couple of years now, with little success. I have even looked for bread making classes but nothing has fit my schedule. I have always thought that if I could spend time with someone who knows what they're doing I could figure it out. Bread dough needs to have certain textures and be kneaded for specific times according to "how it feels" rather than what the recipe says! For a novice, "getting a feel" for a good bread dough is almost impossible from a description in a book, at least for me it was! However, I am drawn to the idea of fresh bread, so I continued to read books about baking bread(I know some people might find this boring, but not me!!)

Then I stumbled across this book!
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
By: Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois

It has revolutionized the way I bake bread! I have been making bread with the method presented in the book for a month or so now, and I am totally amazed! It really is the easiest, best bread I have ever made. I have been making it while the kids do school every morning, and every night we have fresh bread for dinner! The bread has a crispy crust, with a moist, delicious interior. I know there are fancy bread baking terms to describe the bread(something about crumb?) All I know, is that the bread is fabulous! I have only tried two recipes so far, because the bread is so good my family keeps asking me to make it again! I have made the Artisan Free-form Loaf and the Olive Oil Dough. I have used both for pizza dough and bread sticks. I highly recommend both!

So, I would definitely recommend this book! I checked it out from my local library, but decided I needed to own it. So now I have my own copy!

Dominican Republic Mission Trip!!

This summer I went on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic! This is a picture of all the people who went with me to the D.R. (Dominican Republic), and some of the friends we made.

This is a pool at the beach and they don't have our cleanliness standards. The pool was green with limes floating in it This is the house we stayed at when we weren't working.

This is the beach. They beat our beaches by a mile!

This is the church we spent most of the time in. It is called La 2nd Iglesia de Dios Pentacostal.

We worked on its second story, did a V.B.S. and two church services.

This is the giant pile of sand we used for concrete.

It's bigger than a bus!

This is me on the pile of sand we used on the 2nd story for concrete

This is me and Austin on the stairs while doing a bucket line,

which is how we got the sand to the second story.

This is all the kids and team members playing a game ( I never learned the name!)

This is the V.B.S. at the church. The balloon station is crazy and swarming with kids!

This is a picture of Cody and myself doing V.B.S. at a church called Tabernaculo de Dios.

This is me reading part of the bible story at V.B.S.

We read the story of Jericho.

This is the average meal in the DR, chicken and rice.

This is another picture of us two nights before we left.

I had a great time in the Domminican Republic.

I learned alot and saw how God is impacting the D.R.

I would definetly do it again!
By: Aidan

First day of FALL 2009!

It's the first day of Fall!

We celebrated by going to a little nature preserve. That frog was in the pond next to a place where turkeys roam!

After our walk we did some papers for our Fall books!

There we are!

and there!

Ooh, it's Isaac!

Camille caught a huge Butterfly! Wow!

Isaac again!

That's Me!

Ants! We found an ant hole! Cool!

I took this picture!

Joseph!

Mine again! Isn't it beautiful!

Here we are!

Turkeys!

Over all we had a ton of fun!

Wish we could go there next season!

Happy Fall to all!
By: Elise

Chickens!!

I guess this video is the perfect way to introduce our next family adventure!

We are joining the urban chicken underground!

Yes, we are planning to get a couple of chickens. We will keep you updated!

(Please pause music before watching video!)

Family Visit from Montana!!

I just thought this was a cute picture of Aidan and Joseph!!Camille wore this on the 4th of July. Elise and her cousin dressed Camille and did her hair in red, white and blue. Very cute...and patriotic!! This outfit was handed down from her cousin, then Elise wore it for several years when she was little, and Camille has now worn it twice!
Isn't this just the sweetest picture you've ever seen?
H. your cousin misses you!

While the family was here, we went to the splash park a couple of times!
Everyone had fun!
Joseph LOVED it! He would crawl from spray feature to spray feature.

Even the big kids had fun!

Isaac soaking up the sun!

Auntie T.

Grandma and Papa enjoyed watching the kids from the shade!

We also went camping at Bodega Bay! The kids had a blast playing on the beach! The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there. We couldn't have asked for a nicer trip.

(although I was reminded why I don't camp with a baby!)

I think this is a great picture of B. at the marina in Bodega Bay!

Elise and H!

What a beautiful pair! They had so much fun together!

Pioneer Camp!

This last week I joined Elise and her class at Pioneer camp. Although we only traveled about an hour, we went back in time about 150years! Here we are hiking to camp, it was just beautiful!Once we got to camp, we changed into period clothing for the time.

Doesn't Elise look just like Laura from Little House on the Prairie!!


I also wore pioneer clothes, the bonnet was really nice in the sunny weather. Behind us is the tent that we called home. We slept in sleeping bags on the ground, which would have been fine if there weren't HUGE red ants! No one got bit, so I guess we worried for nothing!

The kids did all the camp chores of serving meals, and cleaning up after each meal.

Here Elise is washing dishes with some friends.

These kids look like they are waiting to go to school in 1850! It was so fun to see everyone dressed as pioneers, it really helped to make you feel like you had gone back in time!

Elise relaxing in the shade on a porch swing with friends!

This was a one room cabin for a teacher to sleep in.

Candle making!

Rope making!

We learned that when the settlers were coming west, the kids would walk behind the wagon and turn rope. They also tied jars of cream to the wagons in the morning so that by evening when they stopped for supper, the butter was ready. The pioneers didn't waste time(even while traveling) and were very efficient multi-taskers!

This is 'Ole Coot', he is a local trapper who was raised by a bear in a local cave!

He taught us to make pouches, shoot a gun and showed us blacksmithing.

He was also a fantastic story teller!

The last morning we made tamales for lunch. We love to eat them, but had never made them before. Now that we know how easy it is, we will be making them at home also!

We had a great time at pioneer camp!

I think the kids really grew in their understanding of pioneer life, I know I did!