I would like to announce the birth of my newest nephew, William Andrew Hoyer, on March 25th! He is such a cutie, and quite the little chunker, being born at 9 lb 11 ounces. I just love him, and can’t wait to meet him!
William
William with Mommy (Natasha), Daddy (Andrew) and his big sister, Charlotte!
One thing Brian and I never do, that a lot of parents with young kids do, is occasionally go out on dates together! So, we decided to start. We’re gonna try to go out once a month. Any more than that is difficult because we don’t have any babysitters close by.
About a week ago, we dropped the kids off at Brian’s parents’ house and went out to a restaurant called Jake’s. It was a very nice place!
Brian
Brian’s BBQ chicken burger and fries. The fries were incredible!
Me
My Philly steak with portabello mushroom ciabatta wrap with chipotle ranch sauce. It was excellent!
Brianna sleeping on Grandma’s lap. She was like this when we got back from our date.
Brianna ate almost a whole McDonald’s cheeseburger while we were gone. No wonder she was snoozing!
Last Saturday was our church’s 4th annual marriage banquet! It was a lot of fun. There was good food, fellowship, fun games, and Bro. John LaFontaine spoke, which was great!
Brian, Brianna and I at the marriage banquet. Nursing mothers are allowed to take their babies. Plus, Brianna is a real “mama’s girl”, so I don’t know how long she’d be happy without me.
Brianna trying to avoid our kisses. hehe
Bro. LaFontaine speaking.
Me playing the “Not-So-Newlywed Game”.
Brian playing the game. Here he was saying which meal he would rather have me never make again.
Click here to see the Marriage Banquet Photo Album. I haven’t uploaded all the pics yet, plus I might get more from other people, so keep checking back to see more pics.
(Some pictures provided by Kim Browning.)
Last weekend we were at a luau, celebrating the 16th birthday of Katie Sanchez from our church. It was lots of fun, the food was awesome, the decorations were lovely, and there was even a piñata that looked like a pig!
Silas, Brian and I at the luau.
The Sanchez family. From left to right: Katie (the b-day girl), Natie, Joi, Angel and Zoe (with the lei in her hair.)
Kim and I feeding Brianna maple baby puffs that taste like Waffle Crisp cereal.
Silas about to hit the piñata!
I love theme parties!
I was unable to make it to Opa’s funeral, but I have some pictures of it to share. I will be visiting Edmonton around Christmas time, so I’ll be able to be with my family from there at that time.
My Dad giving the eulogy.
The pallbearers, which include my brother and cousins. From left to right, they are: John, Isaac, Andrew, Matthew, Mark and Peter.
Family and friends at the burial.
The grave marker. “September 27, 2009″ will be engraved below Helmut shortly.
Below is the eulogy my Dad gave. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting. 
Good afternoon,
For anyone who doesn’t know me, my name is Edward Hoyer and Helmut Hoyer was my father.
I want to say a few words in memory of my dad. To most of you here, he was known as “Brother Hoyer” and to others especially those in the business world, he was known as “Ed”.
My father was born on May 06, 1921 in Wirballen, Lithuania which is located in Northern Europe. He was the youngest of four brothers; there was Ewald, Franz, Walter, and my dad as well as two sisters, Wanda and Meta.
Dad’s life as a child and young person in Lithuania at that time was relatively pleasant. Dad had a great family and good friends.
In his teenage years, Dad became a barber by profession, learned a bit of english in school, sang in the Lutheran Men’s Choir and while attending the Deutshe Mittelschule, he and a friend were known as the Table Tennis or Ping Pong, Champs in the area.
As with most people in that era, the 2nd World War changed his life in many ways. Because of his German background, he had to leave his home country and was serving as a German Soldier in a war he disagreed with and under a leader he despised. God in his mercy protected him and brought him through without a scratch.
In 1952 he set his eyes on immigrating to Canada. It just happened that on the same ship a young lady was also headed west with her relatives, and Dad had his eye on her as well.
This young lady was Wilma, and they were married on July 8 1953 and over the next few years had three wonderful children, Miriam, Edward, and Edna.
Growing up we had a happy home and I have many good memories of Dad and the things we used to do together. He always put his children first. When I think back, Dad was always in a good mood even when things weren’t going so well. Dad loved to go fishing and hunting and also putts around at home. We had a nice acreage with a large two story cabin that was our recreational spot. It was two hours west of Edmonton where we always had a great time on the weekends, and many friends and believers came to visit with us there.
I believe it was in February of 1953 at the Central Baptist Church on 97th street here in Edmonton that Dad’s life as a born-again Christian started. Then in the early part of 1970 our family came to know God in a far greater way when we heard about a 20th Century Prophet and the Rapture Message that he brought.
Dad’s life and all of our lives were never the same after that. Dad and Mom raised us to know the Lord and we thank them for that.
This afternoon we are not sad that Dad is gone home. Of course we will miss him, but are not sad because we know that he now enjoys the Eternal Bliss that awaits all those that love the Lord.
On behalf of the family, I would like to thank each one for your prayers, your kind words and for coming out to be with us today.
God Bless you all.
Helmut Hoyer, my paternal grandfather, went to be with the Lord on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at the age of 88. He was a very special person, and lived a very interesting life. He was born in Lithuania, and immigrated to Canada. He used to tell us all kinds of stories about when he was in the German army. He was a neat person. I wish you all could have met him.
We are sad that he is gone, but we are happy for him because we know that he is in a better place and we will see him again one day.
The funeral will be held on Friday, October 2, 2009 in Edmonton, Alberta. Click here to see the Legacy.com guestbook for Opa.
Here are a couple older pictures of Opa:
Opa in his 20′s when he was in the German army.
Opa in his 30′s.
Opa and Oma Hoyer. This is the last time I saw Opa, when I was in Edmonton two years ago.
Opa meeting Silas for the first time.
Love you, Opa! I’ll miss you.
On Saturday we went to Amish Country with a few ladies from the church. It was a lot of fun. It’s nice to just be together and have time to talk and stuff. We went shopping at a few different shopping areas, and ate at an Amish restaurant twice.
A pic of one of the areas we were shopping in.
(Picture by Noemi Cannon)
All of us at the Amish restaurant. From left to right: Sis. Noemi, Aunt Norma, me, Brianna, Brandy, Braedon, Sis. Miranda, Sis. Gomez, Sis. Linda, Sis. Browning, Brenda, Mom Holdren, Zacky, Sis. Smith and Kim.
Zacky and Kim at the restaurant.
Brianna’s first Amish Country trip!
It was lots of fun, especially at this one store, which I don’t know the name, which had 3 levels, and lots of awesome home decorations. It was really, really, cool. I bought something for my fireplace mantel from there.
Sometimes it’s fun to have company over for an evening of games! So, a little over a week ago, that’s what we did! We also had pizza, appetizers, snacks and desserts. It was a fun party!
The games we played were Corn Hole (an Amish outdoor game), Catch Phrase, Balderdash, Chubby Bunny and Oodles of Doodles.
Playing Balderdash. From left to right: Brian, Katie, Angel, Ally, Joi, Karisha and Jon.
Chubby Bunny is where each person tries to stick the most marshmallows in their mouth and still say “chubby bunny!”
Angel (on the left) won, with a total of 9 marshmallows.
The kids also played a few video games. Here is Zoe, Silas and Natie.
Here’s a couple desserts at the party. On the left is a s’mores-type dessert that Jon and Karisha brought. It was awesome! On the right is a Fruity Cheesecake from kraftfoods.com that I made. Joi cut up the fruit though.
Can’t wait till next game night!
Last week we went to a bubble show at the library. It was interesting, and fun for kids.
Below is a video of part of the bubble show, plus Silas in the audience. There would have been some cooler bubble stuff on this video, but I accidentally wasn’t videoing for a while when I thought I was videoing.
This show was cute cuz the bubble lady showed the kids how to make bubbles using everyday items you find laying around your house.
Silas and I in the crowd, waiting for the show to start. Actually, Brianna’s on my lap too. You can just see her pink sleeper footie sticking out to the right.
Brian and Brianna watching from one of the back walls.
This was a fun family outing, and the great thing about it was, it was free!
Last night we were at a LaFontaine concert at our church. It was really awesome, and very inspirational! I loved it! I bought their newest CD, “Beautiful Day”, and Sheri LaFontaine’s Christmas CD called “Wonder”. Can’t wait to listen to them!
The LaFontaine adults singing at the concert.
Wesley VanWyk. The last time we heard him sing, he was just a kid!
The LaFontaine kids singing. They did an excellent job, and we were all impressed.
The LaFontaine parents singing! I think they’re so cool.
Great concert!
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