wordless wednesday

Grandparents

make the world a better place. Don't you think?

My kids are blessed with some of the best!!! We love you Grandma Sharon, Grandma Cheryl & Grandpa Rick

13 years and going strong

I love you bud.

Thank-you Auntie Charity for watching all 7 kids so we could get dressed up and go out to the Keg! We also had 1 night away, completely uninterrupted. Wow! It couldn't have been a nicer anniversary.

8th grade grad pics

our lovely soon-to-be 9th grader!

on their birthday

Ask me to sing

for you sometime. My best? "Halle Faith". Lyrics: by me. Music: by me.

Halle Faith, Halle Faith
Halle how I love you!
Love your smiles, love your frowns.
Love you all the way around.
Halle Faith, Halle Faith
Halle, how your mama loves you...


Halle Faith, Halle Faith
Halle how He loves you!
He brought you to us, He kept you with us.
He loves you even more than I do
Halle Faith, Halle Faith
Halle, how your Father loves you...

It's short, it's to the point, but she loves her song I've been singing since she was 4 weeks old.

Puts her right to sleep. Which was especially handy at a time when she was a serious fussy gus {thus the "love your smiles, love your frowns" because we saw more frowns than smiles for quite awhile. We think she may've had a pinched nerve in her neck or something wrong with her back.

I digress....back to the song:

Aidan heard it the other day and said "That's even better than our song!" {referring to the "boy" song "Love you forever" which I didn't write but borrowed from this book; but the music is mine. I can sing that for you too if you like. Or not. :o)

And in case you were wondering Hope has a song too. Hers is to the tune of "The first Noel" with my own lyrics. Didn't know I was talented like this, did ya? {ha-ha}


My dear Halle, you are one vivacious little girl!

Your eyes just penetrate right to my soul!

They are so deep, so brown, so curious, so beautiful.

As are you, my baby girl.

God must have great things in store for you!

At only 2 years of age, you have overcome great obstacles
and you are on your way to serving your Mighty God!
You could have died when you were born, you should have
according to the doctors. You were purple when you
were brought to the hospital and your cord had been
clamped with a hair barrette. You were intubated and
your God rescued you and place you into our hands,
to raise you to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him.

And that is just what we aim to do. While we have you in
our home and under our protection and care, for this short
season of your life, we will point you towards your Savior.

Halle how He loves you! He loves you when you smile so
cute and your brown eyes sparkle mischievously. He'll
love you when you sin and fall. We're so so very grateful
He brought you to our home!

How we love you Halle!!!

Next on my reading list...

and maybe yours too??? Dr. Timothy Keller's "The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism"

"The doctrine of the Trinity overloads our mental circuits. Despite its cognitive difficulty, however, this astonishing, dynamic conception of the triune God is bristling with profound, wonderful, life-shaping, world-changing implications... Ultimate reality is a community of persons who know and love one another. That is what the universe, God, history, and life is all about. If you favor money, power, and accomplishment over human relationships, you will dash yourself on the rocks of reality. When Jesus said you must lose yourself in service to find yourself (Mark 8:35), he was recounting what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been doing throughout eternity. You will, then, never get a sense of self by standing still, as it were, and making everything revolve around your needs and interests. Unless you are willing to experience the loss of options and the individual limitations that comes from being in committed relationships, you will remain out of touch with your own nature and the nature of things. In many other places in this volume, I've traced out how impossible it is to stay fully human if you refuse the cost of forgiveness, the substitutional exchange of love, and the confinements of community... this world was not created by a God who is only an individual, nor is it the emanation of an impersonal force... We believe the world was made by a God who is a community of persons who have loved each other for all eternity. You were made for mutually self-giving, other-directed love. Self-centeredness destroys the fabric of what God has made..."

thankful {thursday}

there is so much to be thankful for this day

::

Annah and Viktoriya are at CCLS camp {not that they're gone but that they're learning more about Him, worshipping Him, and making friends}

::

Hope is nearly potty trained {only needing diapers at night}. Only 1 in diapers!

::

Chad's having a blast building a cool turtle yard. We were given a new tortoise whom the kids love. His name is Dozer and he's pretty darn cute.

::

We've been so healthy this summer.

::

Our church is flourishing. We love teaching the children every other week. We've made wonderful friends. And our Friday morning women's Bible study is awesome!

::

Aidan's love of reading is contagious and fun!

::

Halle's laugh is better than chocolate.

::

Our garden has yielded the yummiest tomatoes, romaine, lemon cucumbers. The peas were bitter but they're pretty anyway! The goats got to the fruit trees again. Argh!

::

Scrapbooking with the older girls has been so much fun lately.

::

Annah is a soccer natural. It's neat to see her work hard and she found out she and her friend Maddie are on the same team for the fall.

::

My husband is just the best. 13 years of marriage this Monday. Besides the Lord,

the greatest blessing in my life is my best friend.

Sweet Hope

My Hope Noelle, how your Mama loves being with you...whether it's folding laundry, or baking or just talking: you are my sweet little friend.

When you hear me say anything that sounds even romotely like "be right back" or "store" or "see you soon" you always ask "With you? With you Mama?" Of course I have to say "Yes, my Hope, you can with me." You are sweet.

You are just sweet to the core, and that sinful nature, it must be in there somewhere {Chad says he's seen it} but I'm not sure! You are sweet.

When I'm reading a book on the couch or sitting outside at the picnic table watching you play, or typing on the computer, you'll come up to me and "Hi, mama. Hi." and you rub my arm or pat my back. And sometimes you'll lay your head on my lap. It warms my heart! You are sweet.

At night when you know it's time for bed, you'll ask "Movie? Movie, with you Mama?" No Hopie, it's time to sleep." "Teeth Mama?" "No we already brushed your teeth." "'Nack Mama? Nack. Num-num?" "No Hopie you already had a snack. Or two. Time for bed." "Rock. Rock Mama?" "Okay, Hope, we can rock one more time." So sweet.

You love fruit. Nearly ALL fruit is your favorite. You love spicy foods like mama. Salsa and chips with guacamole are your faves. Hummus and bell peppers are up there as well. Zucchini bread, cereal with rice milk, and veggie pizza are "nuuuumy!" You don't like peanut butter. Our first to not love peanut butter! You like me to sit and eat with you {of course}; but I love how you say "sit mama, eat, sit mama". You are sweet.

When one of your siblings get hurt, or are in trouble, you will walk over and just lay a gentle hand on them. {as in the picture below} No words, just some support. You are just so sweet.

And I love you,
your Mama

wordless wednesday

another river post

I am making up for a busy summer of not posting much. :o)

This is the spot to play in the river. Ask me where and I might tell but then I'd have to... well you know. Anyway, a few more pics of our little family...

a trip down south

all of us girls {and Caleb, Katherine's new baby boy!}

auntie charity kisses hope's owie

and grandma carol nurses ry's

new baby Grace with mama Andie

carol's gorgeous hydrangeas

15 years later and still best of friend :o)

carol helps halle scale the steep ladder

and lastly a trip to Krispy Kreme's, a rarity for us

so hard to eat just one!

a perfect way to end the day, dontcha think???

fun, according to Ry

clean is almost as good as dirty

more lake wenatchee camping pics

I tried several times to edit the last post, unsuccessfully! So here are a few more anyway...

silly faces 'round the campfire

Ry, my clean little boy. Detests dirt, this one.

Chad shows Annah how it's done.

A quick stop for lunch in Leavenworth on the way home!

After this they went to the Reptile Zoo in Sultan.

Everyone else got ice cream and Ethan thought it way cool that he

got a rice crispie treat instead. :o)