Congratulations Nate!!

Way to go Nate! Last time I saw him walk down the aisle was when he was ringbearer in our wedding, this time he was in a gown! Gosh that was almost 15 years ago!
Nate with his family and girlfriend Rachel.

Nate giving Myah some love, she was very fascinated with his hat!
And also with Rachel's little brother Joey from Guatemala
Our family with the graduate! Myah was not cooperating a whole lot, she did however do amazingly well during the ceremony!

Dayton really looks up to Nate!

Happy Birthday to our niece Rachel! She is 14 today!!
Nate and his adorable girlfriend Rachel, they both graduated with high honors (Nate lost his scarf after the ceremony!), they are both attending the same university in the fall! We just love them both!

Our oldest nephew Nate graduated from high school on Thursday evening. We went to WMU for the ceremony and it was such a wonderful celebration. Our whole family was there to share in the excitment. Nate is an outstanding young man and I can brag on him a little bit. He graduated with high honors. He has chosen his college to attend in the fall. He was offered full scholarships to other colleges to play baseball as a pitcher but he turned them down. He was thrilled the other night when the college that he chose called to say they want him to play for their team and have held a position for him! We are so happy for him! Nate has received so many honors in baseball lately that I just have to share them. We were able to be at the game where he broke the school record for the most career wins, it also was the conference record as well with 29. Nate is not a large guy by no means, but on the plate it doesn't matter what the size he has 4 pitches that he can throw consistently, his record is 30-2. Nate is very humble, you won't hear him ever brag at all, he likes to blend in with his team. He never has a bad game, he is very consistent! I don't know how he does it, seriously, I don't! They just won the district championship in a very exciting game on Saturday and are hoping to advance in todays game. He was thrilled to receive a huge honor this past week as well (actually the same night as the university call), he has been chosen as one of the 32 best players in our state to compete in the East vs. West side game at Comerica Park (Tiger's Stadium) 16 from the East side of the state vs. 16 from the West side. Out of all the divisions. This actually brought a smile to Nate's face, we can hardly wait to go watch him play in a few weeks! We are very proud of him! What an honor.

The extra special part of watching Nate pitch is seeing his younger brother Taylor behind the plate catching for him. Taylor and Nate both took 1st Team all conference honors this year. Taylor is a sophomore and is a very decorated athlete and scholar as well, he has just been chosen as one of 8 students across the state to serve on the MHSAA Student Advisory Board. This was a super huge honor as well. I told my sister in law Lora to share her secrets to raising such fine young men and she simply replied, "lots of prayer". She and Scott have raised their family in the church and have always put God first in everything that they do. God gets the glory for all of their accomplishments. It is very refreshing to see young men who aren't afraid to bow their head in a restaurant before a meal and pray. They are very thankful.

We pray for a bright future for Nate, he is entering into a business law degree. We wish him the all the best and are so very proud of all that he has done so far and can't wait to see what his future holds!