In the Studio

We had the opportunity to go to Ware House Productions Studio in Omaha, NE the beginning of this week to record our 2nd cd. It was definitely a team effort for our family. The first day found Joshua with most of the little ones in the bus where they read stories, played games, and took naps. Chelsy, Mitchell, Allison, Carson, and I worked on the instrumental tracks while Marlin sat beside the producer, Mr. Ware, and encouraged us all to stay focused plus checked on the little ones frequently. Day two found us finishing up the instrumentals and then moving on the vocals. We are so thankful for God who gives us a reason to sing and also to Mr. Ware who so patiently recorded all our efforts and then carefully worked to correct our many mistakes. It was a fun 2 days for all of us.

A year and a half ago when we recorded our first cd Carson was just learning to play the bass but this time he got in on the action!

Elizabeth loves to sing!

Denver made his violin debut on "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus"

Even Rebecca got in on the action.

This time Hudson sang "Amazing Grace".

Meet our patient, talented producer, Mr. Ware.

Being in the studio wasn't all work!!

A bonus to recording in Omaha was spending time with the Wissmann Family. Thanks to all the Wissmanns for your generous hospitality! Here is a picture of Hudson "reading" a story to Charissa Wissmann.

AND THE WINNER IS.............

We are happy to announce that the winner of our contest is Wanda Stutzman, who is Marlin's youngest sister from Kalona. Congratulations, Wanda!
We finished the vocals and soundtracks on the cd on Wednesday and only need to do the final touches of the mixing. Check back later on today for pictures of the recording and of our bus. Also, coming up is a belated birthday post for Joshua who turned 10 on Monday.

Liz & Grandpa Arlis

When we were in OK in February, Liz got to spend some special time w/ her "adopted grandpa", Grandpa Arlis. Sunday afternoon was spent reading stories, and stories, and more stories.....it was a highlight of the trip for her!
Happy Smiles!

A Belated Anniversary Post

To celebrate the first anniversary of our blog, I have posted a random collection of pictures from this past year. We would love to hear from all you lurkers, so please comment by voting on your favorite picture and why you like it. Every one who comments will have their name entered in a drawing, to be held on March 27, for the first copy of our new cd. We will announce the winner on March 29. By the way, we are planning to be in the studio March 24-26, so you will have to wait a month or two for your cd. Have fun!! We are looking forward to hearing from you.

HARD WORKING BOYS!

MARLIN READING THE WORD TO THE FAMILY

A SPECIAL MOMENT FOR SISTERS

ELIZABETH

OUR FAVORITE DAD

GIVING LOVE

OUR UP AND COMING DOBRO PLAYER

NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP

LEARNING TOGETHER

BEST FRIENDS

M-M-M-M

MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE UNTO THE LORD

Up-To-Date with Rebecca

Hello, ladies and gentlemen!! This is Rebecca, (age 6 months, respectively) reporting for the Bontrager Family Singers and on life in general from my perspective. You will have to excuse them for the lack of blogging recently....they all have been extremely busy and so I decided to take responsibility and do my own little post. My life has been busy too.....of course I am very loved and get much attention from my 11 adoring "parents". It is so much fun to be the baby! Anyway, my most recent milestone has been getting my first tooth!! Everyone has been so excited for me but it was a painful process and I didn't enjoy it much. I had some grumpy times but everybody was extra loving to me so it wasn't too bad. Since I got this new little tooth, they all seem more excited about "it" than they do about me! I know, that doesn't make any sense to me either, I mean, if there was no me, than there would be no tooth, right? Once the news was out that my toothie had arrived, everybody wanted to see it. That was frustrating because I don't like having my mouth opened by other people. It doesn't feel nice and it's definately not
very sanitary. And besides, why is my toothie so special? I only have one and mommy has a whole mouthful but nobody ever opens up her mouth to look at her toothies! What an unfair world.

Here it is......Allison opened up my mouth so Chelsy could get a picture of it.

Chelsy decided to take a bunch of pictures of me. She says my eyes look "yummy" on this picture. They all say I'm adorable. And they say it in sugary voices so I guess that means it is a complement.

Then Chelsy thought I should try on her hat. It was ever so slightly too big but I will grow into it. Chelsy and Allison laughed and laughed at me when they put it on. I wasn't sure what to think but I ended up liking it. Most of the time when Chelsy takes pictures of me I try to look really bug-eyed (and I'm really good at that!) but today I decided to look cute.

So anyway.....that's the news from my little corner of the world. I'll try to get them to post again soon but if they don't I'll try to update you now and then. I really had fun doing this. Maybe I could take it over. :) Please comment and tell me what you think of my new toothie! And my hat!

~Reporter Rebecca~

(as interpreted by my Big Sis Chelsy:))

Events

We would like to tell you about some exciting plans that we have made for this year:
1. You are invited to join us on our farm for our 7th Annual Turning Hearts Celebration. The Wissmanns and Norm Wakefield are coming back. We will be putting up an "Events Page" on our website in the near future where we will post a complete schedule.
2. September 7-11 we will be having a family camp with the Wissmanns at Village Creek Bible Camp in Lansing, IA. More details will be on our events page.
3. Chris and Anne Hogan will be coming to Crooked Creek Christian Camp in Washington, IA to do a marriage seminar on November 21-23. Watch our events page for details.
Our prayer is that your family will be encouraged through the teaching and fellowship at these events.

Cousins

We enjoyed the time with our family so very much. Elam & Esther and Tim & Karen, thanks for your generous hospitality. We all considered our time with you in FLA (Elam's) and TX (Tim's) very special indeed.

Allison, Laura, and Chelsy enjoyed many laughs together. Nic, I wanted to post a picture of you, but the other pictures are still on my Mac and I need your experise to post from that computer!!

The girls now have 2 traditions to keep when we go to TX: 1. Buy matching shirts and 2. Have a tea party.

The boys can't seem to get enough of wrestling with their cousins. Looks like Denver and William are winning these matches.

Friends

"A friend loveth at all times." Proverbs 17:17

We were so blessed to spend a little bit of time with Marlin's brother and his wife, Wayne and Linda, in KS who are living there for a 18 months to help Choice Books. At our service we must have met at least 100 relatives including Marlin's sweet 97 year old great aunt Edna.

We also spent time with Steve and Evelyn and family in KS. As families we found out that we both loved serving the Lord and had many other things in common, too!

Steve's daughter, Patricia, and Chelsy both love photography, sewing, the outdoors, and Dutch Blitz.

In OK we enjoyed getting together with many aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. etc. We love our relatives!! Elizabeth got reaquainted with Marlin's cousin's daughter, Lori Beth, and played dolls with her for hours.

We met another cousin's daughter, Carla, for the first time on this trip.

Allison and Charity, who have been pen pals for about 6 months, met each other for the first time in Ok.

One of the highlights in SC was spending time with the Wissmann family. For the 2nd year in a row we got to be their neighbors while we were at the prison crusade.

Our friends, Billy and Barbara Stoll, generously gave permission for our families to uise theri 4 wheelers. Many children + Sunshine +4 wheelers = Many hours of fun!