August Update

Okay, now that it is the end of September, I guess I should update our August Adventures.  We began the month of August as we always do -- Enjoying my birthday (the advantage of being born on the first of the month).  My birthday present -- saying goodbye to our dog.  Don't worry, it's a good thing.  Shalom is quite a large and active dog -- too active for my young children, and too big to get a sufficient amount of exercise in our small town.  Therefore, my wonderful sister and her husband agreed to take Shalom to go live out in the country with them.  And, from what I hear Shalom is absolutely loving her new home.  I did enjoy having Elizabeth and Joel up for my birthday, and Elizabeth even made a delicious Oreo cheesecake.  It was wonderful.  The best thing about my birthday -- being able to sit beside my husband through two entire church services -- I love having missionary speakers in church!!!

Okay, moving on.  We also had to say goodbye to some sweet friends.  Jon and Deb are now directors for Village Missions, and with their change of position were leaving their current ministry.  We went to visit them and say goodbye -- although not for good -- we look forward to their visits with some of our local Village Missionaries.

Jon and Deb Hanson

August is a month of birthdays for our family.  Lydia celebrated her birthday by turning five, and she wanted a Princess Birthday cake.  Her favorite birthday present -- A Pretty Pretty Princess game from her Aunt Beth.

 

Ezekiel also enjoyed a birthday celebration.  He turned two, and has been joyfully advancing in the area of speech.  He is so much fun, and loves trying to keep up with his older siblings.

 

 One of the fun things of summer is the intense heat :)  A couple of times this summer we met my parents at a city waterpark.  The kids loved meeting up with Oma and Opa, and Ezekiel loved playing in the water -- Kara loved going down a waterslide by herself.  Lydia loved playing under the water.  Andy enjoyed everything, but Ezekiel's favorite part -- The Lazy River.

One thing that happened this month was Kara -- She discovered a love for reading.  I was finally able to get her to start reading some chapter books, and the image below is a scene that I expect to see repeated many times over the next several years.

We also took the kids to a local historic place.  We had a picnic at the Home on the Range Cabin.   The kids enjoyed the picnic and discovering a tiny bit of local history.

To see more pictures of our August Adventures, click here.

Fourth of July Activitites

On July 4, we decided to take a drive.  We figured the best place to visit on Independance Day is Lady Liberty herself.  We loaded up the van and drove .  

The kids all gathered around the base of Lady Liberty for a photo op.  For some reason, I thought she would be much taller and surrounded by water not fields :)

We also drove some of the country roads and the kids had their first near death experience (or at least they think they had a near death experience).  We had had a lot of rain the previous week, but we were driving down a gravel road that was safe -- until the gravel turned into what looked like a dry clay road.  Well, the dirt and clay was not the least bit dry as J.A. surfed and pushed the van through.  At one point we were stuck and trying to figure out how we would get out (the particular location had no cell phone reception).  However, J.A. the master pilot was able to baby the van until she cooperated and we finally arrived back on almost dry ground. 

We drove straight home to pick up some coins for the car wash.  We did not want the clay to stick like cement to the van.

At home, Ezekiel decided he wanted to be supper, so he climbed into the roaster and continued to try to turn it on (he neglected to notice that it was not plugged in).  

This is not yet the end of our Fourth of July adventures, but I will save the rest for another post.

Backyard Campout

All summer we have been trying to have a backyard campout in preparation to actually take the kids camping.  However, everytime we would have an opportunity to set up the tent and campout, I would take a look at the weather forcast and discover -- Thunderstorms coming our way.  Thus, the campout continued to be postponed.  Monday afternoon JA set up the tent.

We planned to camp out Monday night, but since the kids had spent most of Monday outside, by six o'clock they were grumpy and tired, so we decided it would be better to wait to campout Tuesday night after having a good day of rest (I think this may have been a mistaken judgement). 

As you can see Ezekiel thoroughly enjoyed his s'mores.

Kara, Lydia, and Andy roasted all the marshmellows for the s'mores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday came and the kids rested, and spent the day inside (so as not to destroy the tent while they played outside).  After nap time, we ate dinner and then daddy fixed a campfire so we could roast marshmellows and enjoy s'mores.

 After enjoying our s'mores we got everyone ready for bed, and then descended upon the tent.  Even Ezekiel was excited to get to sleep in the tent.  It took quite a while, but we finally all fell asleep shortly after midnight.

 

Child's Pizza Kit Giveaway

http://inthekitchenwithaudrey.blogspot.com/2010/07/curious-chef-giveaway.html

Check out In the Kitchen with Audrey.  This blog is a great blog to follow if you have young kids.  Can you imagine cooking on a daily basis with your two year old?  I certainly can't (of course that may have to do with the number of kids I have). 

Currently, you can become of follower of In the Kitchen with Audrey either through facebook or through signing up as a follower on her blog and win this great kids in the kitchen set.

I know I would love to win this for a Christmas present for one of my girls.

The Fourth of July

This year for the Fourth of July, we had a church service in the park.  We rented out the town windmill (I can't believe I don't have a picture of it), and held services inside.  The day was very wet and rainy, so we were thankful for the shelter to keep us dry.  Thankfully, the day was nice and cool so we were able to comfortably enjoy the service.  We were excited to have Kayla (the girl wearing the glasses), her father, and a friend of his attended our services.

We had a wonderful morning of worshiping the Lord and hearing about True Liberty in Christ Jesus.  After the service we enjoyed a dinner together.  I enjoy services like these where we are forced to step back from our traditional Sunday habits and forced to focus on our reason for meeting -- To worship our King together, and to edify each other.  It was also a great opportunity to reach out to the community for those who would not normally attend church.

A Delinquint Blogger

I have neglected to update this blog for the last two months.  I can give the excuse of spending the first part of the summer sick to my stomach, and the second part trying to get my house back in order after being sick.  However, those are simply excuses.  I will attempt to get my blog caught up and have some great things to update on (the least of which is my failure of a garden). 


The kids are growing quickly, and have been a great help this summer.  We have been busy establishing family jobs, and trying to grow closer together as a family.


We attended my sister's beautiful wedding.

More pictures here

We also attended T-ball games for three of the kids this summer.

More pictures here

A Request for Advice

Hello everyone who reads my blog. I need some assistance in a couple of areas:

1. Potty training little boys -- Andy has been potty trained for almost two years now, but he can not make it through the night dry. We even get him up in the middle of the night to go potty and he still frequently wets the bed.

2. Thumb Suckers -- I feel like we have tried almost every possibility to help the girls cease their love of their thumbs, and yet they continue to adamantly suck them. Kara can stop for a week or two at a time, and then the thumb is right back in the mouth. We are at a loss of what to do. The dentist informed us on Monday that because of the way Kara's permanent teeth are coming in, she will assuredly have to wear braces. However, since she still does not have her back molars she is unable to get the wire put in her mouth to stop the sucking. Lydia's mouth and bite are not nearly as bad as Kara's, but the dentist informed us that her teeth are getting there. Please, if you have any successful tips, or even any tips that you don't know if they'll be successful, I would love to hear them. We have tried socks over the hands, we have tried painting that thumb deterrent (Kara just says "Yum pepper") .


Thank you for any advice and help you can give us.

Happy Birthday J.A.

In the ten/eleven years that I have known my husband, I just continue to be amazed by his godly attitude. He is continuously directing my eyes upward to my Lord. Today, my awesome husband turns 33! While I have yet to throw him a cool birthday party like my kids (Do you think he would like a GI Joe party :), J.A. supports me in every endeavor I undertake.

He has been an incredible father to our four children, and they each love him immensely. One of the first things we hear in the morning (besides our resident woodpecker) is Ezekiel calling out for Daddy to open the door and let him out of his room. All four kids love pouncing on top of daddy and rolling around on the floor. He also takes time to have them help him on various projects around the house, and he takes an active part in their activities.

Let me tell you a few fun facts about my husband. When he is being goofy he loves to say he wants a car with purple lightening bolts on it. He absolutely loves listening to Patch the Pirate and Adventures in Odyssey. His favorite song to sing in the morning is from This is the Army -- "You Gotta Get Up this Morning." (to which my typical response involves "Someday I'm going to murder the Bugler.")

JA also loves to go hunting, and he is looking forward to getting back into bow hunting (if I can ever find a reasonably priced bow, so if any of you have one you are wanting to get rid of, please let me know).

One thing I love about JA is that he would climb the mountains for me, he adores me in a way that every girl longs to be adored.

He certainly has achieved first place in my heart.

Turning Six

From this April 27, 2004

to this Beautiful young lady in April 2010

Six years ago, I had the blessing of giving birth to my firstborn child. Kara's due date was May 7, and JA was to graduate on May 8. I knew without a doubt from when I first found out I was pregnant that Kara would be early. There is no way I could have handled JA's graduation, party, and all of our relatives that were coming for his graduation, from a hospital bed. Also, I wanted to be able to spend some time with just the three of us as a family before JA's mom came to stay with us for a month. So I just knew she would be early. And she was -- 10 days.Until Ezekiel was born, I would have to say that Kara was my easiest delivery -- I slept through labor and woke up to deliver her in a matter of minutes. However, it was not quite that simple. I did go into labor Monday night during our Uncommon Vessels Meeting, and several of the ladies at the meeting could tell I was in labor. I went home, slept, and got up Tuesday morning to go to my doctor's appointment. We left early because I was pretty sure I was in labor, but was not ready to go to the hospital. We walked around Wal-Mart for as long as I could handle it, and then went into the doctor's office. I told them I thought I was in labor, and instead of seeing the doctor they sent me to the hospital -- Oh, now I know! We walked over to the hospital, and were admitted. At 1:30 the doctor came in and broke my water and gave me some pitossin since my contractions weren't doing anything, and then they gave me an iv with stadol. Shortly after that I fell asleep. At 4:00 I woke up, and I think Kara was born at about 4:25. A nice easy uneventful labor.
To see more photos from Kara's first year with us, click here

Almost 6

Wow, I can hardly believe it. Six years ago I was anticipating the birth of my oldest child. With the due date almost two weeks away, I knew for certain I would be going into labor within the next few days -- I was that confident that Kara would come early because of how crazy life would be if she didn't.

Last Saturday we celebrated Kara's sixth birthday (even though her birthday isn't until Tuesday, April 27). Kara chose a Tea Party theme for her birthday party, and I was more than happy to go along with this theme. It was so easy, and the girls loved it.

Kara blowing out the candles on her tea pot birthday cake. For those of you who don't know,
Kara thinks she is a cat, and that is why she begged me the day before to put
a cat on her birthday cake. So, I did (or at least I attempted to - she thought it was a bear).

Each of Kara's friends brought their favorite doll to the party
Here are the girls making sure their dolls are having enough tea
and sweets.

The girls carefully unfolded their napkins and placed the napkins in their laps.
It was so neat to watch these young girls be so concerned about proper etiquette
they were beautiful in their fine dress and pure girlishness

Kara loves to play Go Fish, so the girls gathered around
together to play a game of Go Fish - Thank you Lynette for
facilitating this game for me.

While Lynette was helping the girls play Go Fish, I was helping them one girl at a time
glue ribbons and flowers on hats for their dolls. It was fun to see each girls
personality exhibited by which ribbon and flower she chose, and how she wanted it placed
on the hat.

Kara absolutely loves the new doll she received for her birthday.

Here are all of the girls, their dolls, and their hats. Andy had just arrived back from
his trip to the park with Daddy, Ezekiel, Opa, Uncle Tim, and Uncle Joel, so he wanted to get in the picture. Thankfully Aunt Beth was kind enough to get Raggedy Andy down off the shelf
for the picture.

And here is the birthday girl. I will post more about her later this week if I
get a chance.

To see more pictures from Kara's Birthday Party click here

Vacation Plans

Help!!! JA and I are considering moving up our plans to vacation in Hawaii to next spring. We have been planning to go to Hawaii for our 10th Anniversary which will be a year from this December. However, we currently have enough Airline miles for both of us to go for free (which will expire before our 10th Anniversary).

Now, this is where we need help. I know a lot of you have vacationed in Hawaii. Can you please share with me where you went in Hawaii, and why you think it's the best choice of destination? See, I need to start researching so we can decide where to go, but I don't even know where to begin. Also, what did you do in Hawaii that you think we would really enjoy doing ie. Climbing to the top of a volcano, taking a boat trip between islands, visiting Pearl Harbor, etc. . .

Thank you for your Help!!!

Cloth Diaper Talk

Cloth Diaper Talk is doing a giveaway of a Diaper Sprayer. We have been cloth diapering for three years, and I have never used a diaper sprayer. From those of you who do use one, what have I been missing? Please share your experience, and whether or not it is a worthwhile investment. If you are interested in cloth diapering, check out Thanks Mama to view their variety of products.

Dinner Time Fun

We don't do much for April Fools Day around here. April 1 is also my mom's birthday, so it's not usually a day for pranks -- other than last year when everyone surprised her for her 50 birthday.

I decided to have some fun with the kids, so thanks to Family Fun I planned and carried out a prankster's dinner. We had

Not Chicken Pot Pie

Vanilla Pudding with Starburst carrots and corn
Airhead peas
White Chocolate Chicken
Banana Potatoes
Topped with a pie crust

And for dessert
Meatloaf Cupcakes with
Mashed Potato Frosting

Oh, I almost forgot about the side of
mashed potato ice cream
and toffee gravy

Needless to say, Kara took one look at the mashed potatoes and told me that it was ice cream and caramel. It took her a few licks of the frosting before she told me it was mashed potato, and then she looked at the meat and said "This is a meat cupcake, thank you mom for making such a healthy cupcake."