A Fair Deal

Abbigail, 4 years old and Forest, 1 year old














Recently I remembered a funny story about Abbigail and Forest.Abbigail was probably 5 and Forest 2. Forest was playing alone,with some random toys when I heard him crying. I turned around to see that Abbigail had decided she wanted to play with the toys and had taken them for herself. I told her that she couldn't take them and made her give them back to him. She sadly returned the toys to Forest. Her frown quickly changed to a cheerful smile as she said, "Hey Forest, let's pretend you work at a store and I want to buy these things from you." He gladly agreed. Genius.

Being Busy

I am going to attempt to post a full month's happenings in 1 entry. Life the last several weeks has kept us very busy in a very fun sort of way. Abbigail and Phoebe had their birthday on May 5. We celebrated Phoebe's 5th birthday with a tea party at a cute little coffee shop, Cuppies and Joe. We drank pink lemonade "tea", enjoyed yummy cupcakes and listened to tea party stories. For Abbigail's birthday-the big 10!- we went to Frontier City-a local amusement park. The kids all rode on their first roller coaster. They all loved it-It looks like Forest is crying here, but he is actually having a great time. Just don't ask him about the Pirate Ship-not a good experience there. :/
We are enjoying life with a baby in the house again. Josiah has been such a wonderfully content baby. He sleeps great and seems to always have a sweet smile in exchange for a good conversation. He's 2 months old now and I just can't picture life without him!
This is a photo of Josiah in one of his favorite contraptions- his bouncy seat. And here he is in another favorite contraption- his swaddle, with one of his favorite people- Daddy.
Another big event this month was the outstanding performance of Forest and Phoebe as ring-bearer and flower girl in a good friend's wedding. Kenny preformed the ceremony for Adam and Maria. He did such a great job. Here is Forest and Phoebe at the rehearsal.

We have also had a lot of fun just for the sake of having fun.

We celebrated the coming of summer with watermelon and a pool party...

Playing at the Paseo Art Festival...Silly faces..
And tearing down the shed in the backyard!

The Venue

Coffee. Conversation. Music.

Forest's Funnies

I recently remembered a cute story about Forest when he was about 4 years old...His big sister Abbigail, who was about 7 at the time, had hit him in the arm(unknown to me), so he hit her back. When I heard Abbigail cry, I started to correct Forest when he quickly blurted out, in his defense, "Well, the Bible says to do to others what they do to you. She hit me so I hit her back!!" He felt so justified. His disappointment was apparent when I explained that Jesus taught us to treat people how we want to be treated, not how they treat us. Now that he's nearly 7, he understands what Jesus taught, but he's still learning how to apply this concept to his life. I would have to be honest and say, so am I...

Josiah- A Blessing from Heaven

Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
-Psalm 96

Finally! Our sweet baby is here. After 9 1/2 months of pregnancy, 25 hours of tiring contractions and 4 1/2 more hours of hard labor, our baby boy, Josiah, is here. He was born at home on March 21st at 3:30 a.m. On the lower end of the scale(compared to our other babies)he weighed 8 lbs. and 5 oz. and was 20 inches long. The labor was hard work and much longer than I had hoped for, but everything was perfect in the end. I couldn't have done it without the help of Kenny- he was such a great coach. He did everything from getting me food and drinks during the labor to holding me up when I was too tired to stand. The midwives were invaluable as well. I'm so grateful to have had them be a part of this with us. Thanks Michelle and Kristen! Our great friend, Keri B helped out with the other kids, which was also a great help. I'm so glad she was here to share in the birth of our son.

All of Josiah's big sisters and especially his big brother were so excited he has finally arrived. Yesterday, I overheard Phoebe telling a friend of ours that sometimes she thinks it is a dream that he's actually here.

Kenny and I are just overwhelmed with joy about another baby, and even a son, in our home. We love the name Josiah because of the testimony in the Bible of how King Josiah restored the kingdom of Israel back to serving their God. Kenny and I have both experienced this same sort of restoration in our own lives, as we lost sight, for a time, of who Jesus was and who He was asking us to be, only to see Jesus bring us back to Himself. We are deeply grateful for His work in our life! We pray that our son, Josiah, will be one who turns others to the living God that can heal and restore.

HERE is Kenny's side of the story, written the day Josiah was born, before he had a name.

Thank you everyone who prayed for us and served us during this time. We are so thankful for your help!

It Was the Worstest Day Ever and the Bestest Day Ever

Today was the first day of Champs Camp for Abbigail, Abbiyah and Forest. Champs Camp is a day camp that our church hosts over Spring Break,where kids get a chance to play several different sports. They all had a blast and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Phoebe and I had big big plans since it was just her and I and because this will be our last chance to spend some time alone together before the baby comes. We went to the grocery store(not a part of the big big plans, but a necessary part of the day)and got locked out of my van when the alarm malfunctioned. To this Phoebe said, "This is the worstest day of my life," with a sigh. But, she got to ride on the toy truck outside the grocery store twice and have a juice pack while we waited for my heroine friend, Annie, to come rescue us. I got the alarm turned off after some extra effort and we got ourselves and the van home safely. After lunch we went to a yummy cupcake place, Sara Sara Cupcakes, and enjoyed wonderful strawberry cupcakes and chocolate milk. Phoebe then decided the day wasn't so bad after all. I thought it turned out pretty good, as well.

In the Granola Groove

This morning's creation was home-made granola and home-enhanced yogurt. I made the granola with oats(of course), walnuts, almonds and honey. I usually put dried fruit, like cranberries or raisins, in there but we were out this morning. I made the granola in my iron skillet with some oil. I like to cook granola on the stove top instead of the oven because I think it's easier and it takes less time. I also like to use my iron skillet because I am anemic and hope that some of that iron gets into the food. Anyway...I made the yogurt simply by adding thawed frozen strawberries to plain yogurt. All was yummy.

Well, yesterday was my due date and I'm still waiting for my sweet baby to get here. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm ALWAYS late. Very late. Nearly 2 weeks late. They know this because I complain about it constantly. So, here I am blogging my complaint. Just thought I would update anyone who might not have known how far along I am. I am predicting March 20, but we'll see. I will keep posting as I make progress closer to my real due date, whenever that is...

Another Breakfast Idea...

Here's something else new that I tried today. It is Baked French toast with Sugared Peaches. I still need to perfect the recipe a bit, but I thought it turned out pretty good. The peaches were frozen, so I cooked them in a pot on the stove with a little bit of brown sugar- this is the part I need to perfect- I want the peaches to be sweet enough that they will serve as the syrup for the French Toast, but not so sweet that it's a total sugar overload (which is what I get from regular pancake syrup). These weren't quite sweet enough. The eggs in the French Toast give it protein, though not a lot so I would also serve this with a glass of milk, which would give it a little more protein. I figured the total cost of this meal would be about $6.00- that would be $1.00 per family member and that satisfies my criteria for being reasonably priced. :o)

New Breakfast Ideas

I have been searching for new breakfast ideas, as everyone here is getting tired of scrambled eggs and toast every morning. My dilemma in coming up with new ideas is that I have a few criteria that has to be met...(1)It must have protein!! (2)It has to be whole grain if there are grains (3) It has to be reasonably priced. Well, here is an idea I came up with (from some inspiration I found from google.) This is croissant bread with sliced, boiled egg and cheddar cheese. The kids actually liked it, as did Kenny. Next time I'm going to make it with whole wheat English muffins with the cheese and eggs as well as Canadian bacon. I know, I know the croissants in this picture are not whole grain ( but they were good :o)) That's because I had to do a quick run through Braum's and that was all they had. Also, they may not look quite as tasty as they really were, but the kids had fun making their own. Anyway...please leave a comment and let me know what you eat for breakfast.

Funky Town

I guess you could say that Kenny and I just don't know how to act "normal." We dressed up for Valentine's Day and met up with friends dressed just as crazy for dinner. Needless to say, we had a few stares at the restaurant. But, It was tons of fun.

Back in Action...Finally

After a very long break, I am finally back to blogging. My computer was down for awhile and life has been busier than what I have been able to keep up with at times. As I had posted before, Kenny has been pastoring a church part time. Well, tomorrow is his last day at his old job and starting Monday, he will officially be pastoring full time. Again, we are so excited and having a great time. I am now 33 weeks pregnant and looking forward to the arrival of our new little one. I am hoping the next 2 months will pass quickly. We are now half way through our school year and moving right along. Abbigail, Abbiyah and Forest have started playing basketball. Just this past Saturday was their first game. Abbiyah and Forest are actually on a team together and Abbigail is on another team. They did such a great job. I was so proud of how hard they tried. Abbiyah and Forest's team doesn't actually keep score, as everyone is still learning the game. But, they both put all their energy into the game. Abbigail played 2 games on Saturday, and her team won both games. I just hope as they get older they will stay interested in the same sports, as I can't imagine what it will be like running from one sport event to another on different days and at different times. I'm excited to be blogging again and will be more faithful this time around.