About us...

So I gave you our history and this is our present...

We are a family of 6, we live and work at Hidden Acres Christian Center ( a church camp). Ryan is the Youth Ministries Director and I am the Hospitality Coordinator (the fancy title just means head cook).  We are very blessed to be living in a big house right where we work.  Rylee (our oldest- 7 years old) is a second grader and we homeschool her.  Brenlie (5 years old) is a Kindergarderner and we started homeschooling her this year.  Taydem (3 years old) she goes to preschool in the elementry school.  Paysen (4 Months) and is homeschooled and learning to roll over :)

So Homechool...you may wonder why.  Well here it is.... If you would have told me when we had Rylee that I would be homeschooling now, I would have laughed in your face.  I never thought I would be a homeschool mom.  Afterall, homeschooled children are weird and socially enept, right?  I don't want my children to be like. Oh, and how in the world do I have the patience and discipline to homeschool?  But after really thinking and praying about it we came to the conclusion that it was the best thing for our children.  These are the reasons why we decided to homeschool...

Reason 1: Since we work at camp, we have retreats here every weekend and are working during them.  Rylee went to Kindergarden at the school and we just felt like we didn't have any time with her since she was gone all day and we were working on the weekends.

Reason 2: When Rylee went to Kindergarden every day she came home she just had a terrible attitude and her friends were mad at her or she had a bad day and then that made her attitude bad...so everyday we had to reel her back in and remind her of our rules and that it wasn't okay to talk back to us and it wasn't okay to have a bad attitute towards us or her sisters.

Reason 3: We don't want our children to become "worldly" i guess is the right word.  Thinking that the way they dress and having boyfriends and friends that may be a bad influence are more important than their faith.  I realize that if we raised them to not value this then it wouldn't neccessilary mean that when they went to school they would value those things but why not give them a better opprotunity to have a head start and not have to follow the world.  Why wouldn't WE want to be the primary influence in our children's lives? 

Reason 4:  Their Education...the program that we decided on is the ABeka Accademy.  It's a bible based program so they have bible time everyday where they learn and memorize bible verses and they learn about bible stories and bible songs.  As well as Math, Science, Reading, Writting and all that jazz.  But even with the other subjects they try to relate it to God.  The program we do is the DVD program.  They have 180 Lessons to do, one each day and they watch the DVD with the cooresponding lesson and they a teacher that they watch that teaches them.  So we just tear out the worksheets from a work book that go with the lesson and they do the sheets when the teacher says to.  People that have gone through this program are usually more prepared for college because they are teaching kids more than the kids in their grade at most schools are learning.

I could go on because there are many more reason we decided this but these are the main ones. 
And as far as our kids being weird or socially enept, well our kids are in constant contact with people because we do live at a camp.  They love talking to people they don't know because they see people they don't know everyday.  We also have them in Tumbling so they can have fun and play with other kids and also learn to do their best in an activity.  So I guess if they do turn out "weird" then at least we have taught them what we want to teach them and we are okay with that because we love them and we want the best for them and we to give them the skills that they need to survive as thriving adults that contribute to society instead of being someone that depends on society to support them.

Our New Blog

So I've decided it was time...time to start a blog.  Our lives are crazy, and maybe some of your are just crazy enough to wonder what its like are like.  So here it is...

We are the Graden Family.  It all started 9 1/2 years ago when Ryan proposed to me...we had dated for 2 years and were engaged for another year.  So we got married.  We decided that we were going to wait until Ryan was done with his BA degree at Iowa State to have kids.  Well, we were wrong, God had other plans.  A few days before our first Anniversary we found out that I was pregnant.  Hesitated excitement followed the news but we knew that God wouldn't give us anything we couldn't handle.  So Rylee came along in December 2002.  She was 11 1/2 months old when Ryan graduated as he took 21 credits and worked full time durning the last semester. 

Fast Forward 2 1/2 years later, we decided Rylee needed a playmate soooo...Brenlie was born in August 2005.  We were happy but Ryan still thought that we probably needed to try again for a boy.  So Taydem arrived in June 2007.

At this point I thought our family was complete.  I was happy and VERY busy with 3 girls.  But not Ryan...he still thought we should have another go at a boy.  But he was completly prepared for another girl if that is what God should give us.  Either way he just wanted another child.  It took a little convincing but I finally agreeded and in June we welcomed Paysen into our lives.  4 Girls!  Wow!  I keep telling Ryan that not all dad's can handle the blessing of a girl and that is why God gives those dad's boys.  But He must really think that Ryan is special...special enough to give not only 1 blessing but 4. 
He is such a great dad to those girls too.

So...this is our family...the fast version.  Still kinda long but we have 4 children for goodness sake...everything takes longer especially with GIRLS!