"Fabulous!!!"

I've been dubbed "FABULOUS" by:

Mia!

Thank you so much Mia!

Your blog as well is truly FABULOUS!!

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. we have been so busy with Christmas and much more, that I hadn't had time to post!!!

Did you all have a good CHRISTmas??

We did, I will be posting pictures about it AS soon as I can!

Now the rules are,

~Tell people when they have been tagged

And let people know when you have there post up!

Alright I award:
Tori at : Dare To Be Different

Sasha at: The life of Sash

Abigael at : The Abbs

There you have it! Congratulations! You all have FABULOUS blogs!!!!

~Nikki

Merry CHRISTmas

Merry Christmas!

This is our CHRISTmas letter and picture! Thought I would share it with all of you!

Have a merry CHRISTmas!

(Our CHRISTmas picture always looks terrible) *Smile*

“ Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful, and since we’ve no place to go - let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

As I write this year’s Christmas letter, we are experiencing a typical Iowa winter storm. We are supposed to get 4-8 inches with another storm in just a few days. It is so beautiful outside - I love the snow! I can hardly wait to get outside and build a snowman, make snow angels, and go sledding or ice skating! I know some of you probably think I’m crazy - but it is one of the things I love about living in Iowa.

This year has been quite an eventful one for our family. In June, we experienced terrible flooding throughout Iowa! Our home, along with many others, was flooded. We had a basement full of water as well as a few inches on our main level. With the help of many wonderful people we were able to move everything out of our basement, finishing up just minutes before we had to evacuate our home. We lost everything in both of our garages & some things on our main floor - but overall our loss was minimal compared to so many others who literally lost everything. To make a long story short, we have moved to Cedar Falls, IA. With the help of more wonderful people, we packed everything up into boxes and moved to our new home all in one day! The Lord in his wonderful wisdom, had this home ready & waiting for us. We spent months cleaning & repairing our flooded home - once again with the help of many wonderful people, and continued to try to sell it. We recently had an offer and we will be closing within the next couple weeks! Praise the Lord! Through it all - we have truly seen the hand of God at work and give Him praise for His sustaining grace!

Now onto other news!

Deanna is 18 and will be 19 in February. She graduated from high school this last May in Des Moines along with about 100 other homeschoolers. I have to admit that I felt a mixture of pride, relief, and amazement as I watched Deanna receive her diploma! I was never actually sure I could do this “home school thing” through high school, and she actually turned out okay!! : ) She is still at home for now and is staying very busy as our ministry secretary, playing piano at church, teaching the teen Sunday School, leading Bright Lights, and traveling with her dad quite frequently. A couple of highlights for her this year - getting her driver’s license and voting for the first time! (even though it had to be by absentee as she was in North Dakota!)

Tori is a sophomore this year and will be turning 16 in January. She misses having Deanna to “do school” with and can’t wait until she can graduate as well. She hoped to get her permit this last fall, but mom couldn’t find her birth certificate, so now she will have to wait till spring. Until then - she enjoys
cruising around our house/church property! Tori recently played “Peggy Sue” , a 50’s style angel from the past, in our church’s Christmas program. She had a “peachy-keen” time!! Tori keeps busy traveling with dad, playing piano on Sundays, doing power point at church, frequently updating her blog, and following her Waterloo Blackhawks!

Nikki - my “baby” - was excited to turn a decade old in August! Makes this mom feel kind of old! She is in 5th grade this year and enjoys school. Nikki is still quite the chatterbox and can make a friend quicker than most people can blink! One of her newest interests is her new blog! She saw Tori working on her blog and decided she wanted one too- so she pretty much set one up all by herself! The girls have made friends with other Christian girls all over the world through their blogs! Nikki continues to be a HUGE hockey fan, loves playing with her gerbil Sammy, and had her first piano recital this year.

We have definitely learned that this thing called LIFE is all about change! We never would have guessed that we would move our family three times in the last three years, and live through a catastrophic flood. Del & I will be celebrating 25 years together next August - we’ve had our ups and downs - but neither one of us would trade this life together for anything! Del continues to spend many weeks on the road. He loves traveling and ministering in various churches. He continues to serve on the Iowa Holiness Association Board, leads music at our local church, and works as a screen printer when not on the road. Each of the girls loves taking a turn traveling with their dad - and this BIG girl loves getting a turn occasionally as well!!

One big highlight for our family this year was holding a revival in the Chicago area! We were all able to go - which is a rarity for us - and we had the time of our lives taking a train to downtown Chicago and sight-seeing! Special thanks to Rev. Mark & Paula Else who were our hosts and tour guides! We are looking forward to a return trip in the spring.

Another highlight was our first Iowa Hawkeye game! Del and I were given two tickets from a friend - what a great time we had! And now they are off to a bowl game! Go Hawks!

We recently returned from our annual Evangelists’ Gathering in Indiana - this is always a highlight of our year! It is such an honor to be with those that we have looked up to for years - the great giants of the faith! We were blessed by the preaching of Linda Seaman, Dr. Steven Manley, Rev. Tim Stearman, and General Superintendent J.K. Warrick. We enjoyed the music of Adam’s Voice, Gary Haines and Mark Murphy. The beautiful four-star hotel and delicious Amish cooked meals were top-notch! Special thanks to Dr. Chuck Milhuff and Joy Nash who provide this for the evangelists and families each year.

Well, once again I’ve written a book! We are so thankful for each of you - we are blessed to have you in our lives. Most of all we are thankful for our Lord and Savior whose birth we celebrate at this time of year and we look forward to His soon return! God bless you all!
Merry CHRISTmas - Del Chris, Deanna, Tori, & Nikki
http://www.delrittgersministries.com/

Picture Happy,

Hello everyone,

This post has a lot of pictures, But I am way behind in posting!

We have had so much going on!

So....

Here are some pictures of the Christmas Program and our trip to Indiana!

Have fun!

I had to post this picture of our CHRISTmas tree!

I thought it was really pretty!

Can you believe it is so close to CHRISTmas!

The Christmas program,
Aubrie, Olivia and August.

I played Buffy the modern day angel and Tori played Peggy Sue the angel of the past!

The program was based off of the original Christmas Carol.

The 4 angels, Emma played the future angel, Ashley played kinda all of the angels put together, if that makes sense, she was the main angel, Tori, and I.

Aubrie was so cute, she played Mary.

Buffy, A.k.a. me!

All three of us girls,

Deanna played the choir director!

Peggy Sue, A.k.A. Tori!

Deanna putting lipstick on Tori!

Tori looked so cute when she was done!

Greeting the cast after the program!

Evangelist gathering, it was so cold on the way home!

Tori forgot her hat so she was wearing a scarf around her head!

The place we stayed at is a really big Amish community!

Here, they all came in to eat and they put all of there hats and coats on the rack!

There was a buggy on the hitching post in the motel parking lot!

We thought this sign was really funny!

It was raining really hard, and the electricity went out!

We ate in the dark with one candle on our table!

YIKES!!

Mom and Dad!

Me holding up my wreath that is made out of a balloon! someone there made one for me!

Us with some of our Evangelist friends Jimmy Dell and his wife!

Me with my dear friends the Raeburns!

I highly recommend them!

Here is there website address,

http://www.rednoseministries.com/

(They are really good at making anything out of balloons!)

It was so much fun!

Wish you all a merry CHRISTmas!

I will be posting again soon!

~Nikki

Rittgers Up-date!

I'm sorry one and all - I'm sure my blog has been seeming like a dud lately.

Well, Sasha and I have been working to get my blog spruced up! So....she and I have been e-mailing. She and I are working to find some neat backgrounds and some other things that will really make this blog fun!

Anyways, we returned home from Indiana Evangelist Gathering on Wednesday and had a wonderful time! I will be posting pictures of that ASAP!

We have been so busy lately! Tomorrow we have a really long Christmas program practice! It is scheduled from 1:00 to 4:30 but we are behind so she said that it might even be longer! *shrug* The program is this Sunday! AHHH! Please pray that all goes well! I play Buffy the Angel...the modern day angel! We have been practicing since October and it seems sometimes like a never ending process! It should go fine though! But all of us would please ask for your prayers! They would be much appreciated!

I have started writing a novel. I'm going to try so hard to stick with it! I normally get a beginning started but two words I haven't ever got to is 'The End'! Pray that I will be able to go and get it done! It won't be a really long novel - not near as long as Arianna at Random Thoughts is! But who knows - maybe I'll get writing happy, you never know!

I'm anxiously waiting for Christmas to arrive! I love CHRISTmas!!! Every day I count down the days until Christmas!

I love all the decorations, goodies, setting up the tree, watching Christmas movies, getting and sending out Christmas cards, setting up the tree, all the curiousity, the smell of freshly baked cookies, singing Christmas carols, the Christmas play, etc.....I love Christmas but sometimes it is hard to concentrate on the true meaning of Christmas! But just remember the true gift of Christmas was a baby...JESUS! Christ is born! ALLELUIA!! What do you folks normally do for Christmas?? Are there any traditions that you are like "it's a tradition! We have to do that!" I do! What is your favorite part of Christmas (besides Jesus)?? The goodies? The decorations? The caroling? Tell me! We all make homemade Nativity sets - each of us girls make a piece to add to our little Nativity set! It is really fun! I love it! I want to go sledding so bad! I love sledding and making snowmen! Do any other people like building snowmen?? Or as some people would say Sand Man? LOL. Sledding and making a snow man isn't just for kids! Grown-ups do it too!

We have so much snow it is not even funny! I'm like so dreaming of a white Christmas!
I love white fluffy snow! Until it starts to melt and you are like this snow is really yucky! It is like slush and it is disgusting!!!!!! But for the time being it is really pretty!

Our family of course has been going to our annual weekend hockey game! It is way fun! As we all go in our gear to cheer on our Black Hawks! It takes up most of our weekends but we don't mind! My blog is going to be (hopefully) all in hockey! Let me describe what my header means. A powerplay is an attempt to score by a team which has a numerical advantage in players due to a penalty or penalties. (The description was taken from the program from our hockey games!)Make sense?? So....maybe from that you can get what my header means, Powerplay 4 Him! But we love hockey! It is by far my favorite sport!

Pet-wise we have a dog, Princess (A.K.A Prinny), and a gerbil Samantha (A.K.A Sammy)! They are also a big part of our life!

Well.....I hope I haven't bored you too much! I will have pictures from Indiana up soon! The motel rooms were so cool!

Have a Merry CHRISTmas! And like I said earlier, remember the true meaning of Christmas this year! Every day is a gift from God - that is why they call it the present!

I wish you all a very joyous Happy and a Merry Christmas!

Keep checking out my blog for the grand revealing of a totally different blog!

God Bless,
~Nikki

Things....

I'm with the help of Sasha doing a really different look for my blog. it's getting a whole no "do" if you know what I mean!! LOL. So stay tune it will all be coming hopefully soon!!!!
Well this is to short of a post, what should I say???
We are leaving for Indiana tomorrow so don't think I've vanished into thin air!
We will (if the weather is okay) be back this Wednesday! So today we have to pack and get the house in order. (For some reason we have to clean the house before we leave even though no soul is going to see it! ) GO FIGURE!!!
Well right now I'm sitting at the computer posting to all of you with a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy and roast on my lap right now and just about getting ready to let the dog inside!
Just a second, (sound of door opening, a dog running into the house, putting leash back on hook, shutting door, locking the door). Alright I'm back, if you couldn't tell I was letting the dog in. well I don't know what to say!
Pray for the Christmas program and for our safety to Indiana tomorrow!
Have a great Christmas holiday!
~Nikki

Holiday Greetings!!

A few days ago we put up our Christmas decorations!!

I love Christmas!

And then last night we put up our tree!

We lost our tree in the flood, so our Grandparents

gave us there tree!

Thank you G'pa and G'ma!!!

We Love you!!!!!

All of our stockings the little one in the middle is my Gerbil's Sammy!
We have tons of snow here!
It is so nice!
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!!!!!!

They just re-roofed our home and they forgot to put the eaves back up!

So there was quite alot of snow that formed on there!

ICICLES!!!

The snow that formed on our house!

Like mother like daughter!!

Tori being weird as usual !

Me eating a icicle that I broke off the house!

YUUUUMMMMMYYYY!!

Putting up decorations!

Not even all our decorations!!

Tori pouring her a cup of Cappuccino.

Thursday night!

When we put up our tree!

Me making cookies while I sing to music!

The angel on the top of our tree!

That was the angel dad had on his tree when he was a little boy!!

It is a tradition that every Christmas we make a Nativity piece to add to our homemade Nativity!

The wise man on the left, the tall one that has green on??

Mom made that one!

Other than that this is Tori's Nativity!

Deanna's Nativity!

My Nativity!

I made most of those when I was like three and four so they are really colorful!

LOL.

Every Christmas we try to see who was the cutest , well we all think we were the cutest!

Well I put all of Deanna's baby pictures and other pictures of herself in the back of the tree!!

I was telling mom not to tell Deanna that I hid them!!

LOL.

Hanging on my ornaments, or hiding Deanna's??

Ho, Ho, Ho, who is THIS Santa Claus??

Dad???

Me proudly holding up my ornament!

We always laugh at some of Deanna's ornaments, because she has some pretty funny ones like these two!!

Don't ask me about the face expression??

I have no clue what she is doing!

Tori's ornaments!

Tori and mom drinking there ornament shaped coke!

They wanted Deanna to take a picture of them drinking it, and they ended up drinking to much and started coughing!

It was really funny!

Kinda a "be there at the moment experience!"
LOL.

Me trying to put the skirt on the tree!

We are FAMILY!

Good Times!

Deanna was in a really odd mood!

She was really funny!

But very odd!

But we all agreed we would rather her act kinda odd than grouchy!

LOL.

*Smile*

Grandma's killer fruit cake!

It's a song on a CD.

Deanna is in a really odd mood if I can sit on her back!! Prinny our little elf!!

We thought we should just leave the tree like this!

The presents will be easier to get to then!

LOL.

Have a merry Christmas!!

Remember the true meaning though!

We have been having colds going around in this household please pray that we can get over them!

Pray for our Christmas program on the 14th!

And pray for our Christmas party tonight!

Deanna teaches the teens and pre-teens and we our having a Christmas party for that class tonight!

Pray that it all goes well!

And last but not least,

Pray for the flood victims, as some still have water in there house!

Many people need to get done by winter!

Which here it has already come!

Pray that through the flood many lives will be changed for the better!

Thank you!

And God Bless,

~Nikki