The Kids

I just realized that I hadn't put any pictures of the kids up in over a week! And I missed Tiny Talk Tuesday. Please accept my utmost apologies!

So here's a quick one from Elizabeth. Last night in the tub, we were playing with her letters (A-Z, plus 1-9) and she named all of them, with the exception of P, 6 & 9!!!! I was so impressed! She just loves her letters! I was very excited to tell Dad when he got home.... and she just turned 2!

David is still enjoying school. He loves all the reading. I have found that the Sonlight schedule for is just not enough reading for him, so we've been flying through it pretty fast. He's also going through the Early Learner workbook easily, too, which I was really unsure about using. Unfortunately, he easily tires of writing & coloring, but I know we've got plenty of time to develop that skill. In the mean time, his Legos are helping to develop those fine motor skills. Click on that link to see his creations!

Baby #3 has been partying it up in there! I don't remember either of the others moving around quite like this one does. If she continues outside like she's doing inside, the world just better watch out! She's definitely a mover & a shaker! And I think she has a name.... a first & last one, at least.

My Prayers for You, Week 2

I started off hand writing my cards, but this week I needed some practice with the photo editing software that came with my camera, so I decided to play with text and photos.

Visit Faith Sisters to learn more about the My Prayers For You Challenge.

It's Fireproof Day!

Just in case you weren't aware, today is the day that Fireproof comes out in stores on DVD!

Of course, I pre-ordered my copy and got it in the mail yesterday! Ha!

Anyway, I highly recommend this movie. And I highly recommend that you go buy it, or rent it, or go over to 5 Minutes for Mom for your chance to win it! You won't be sorry.

Or plan a night out... I have heard of & seen signs at numerous churches in our area that are hosting free showings of the movie and some are starting "Fireproof My Marriage" classes.

My Prayers for You, My Children

So now, I'm basically copying my sister's post from Sunday. Just remember that imitation is the highest form of flattery!

She tipped me off to the My Prayers for You Challenge a couple of weeks ago at the Faith Sisters blog. (the above image is theirs) The challenge is to create a project based on prayers for your children:

These challenges will help you transform your prayers from vague and general requests to specific and distinct petitions in line with God's will for your children's lives.

I checked out the post about the challenge, because I know the importance of praying for my children. I am a simple, quick & easy, scrapbooker and I do not consider myself a paper crafter, like Sissy. Some of those samples are way to elaborate for me to spend my time on... I've got boxes to unpack still, diapers to wash, a bridesmaids dress to sew!! Those are just the things I have to get done, not even the things I want to get done! But I liked the idea.

So here's my way-scaled-down version of the challenge: I had some pretty index cards, an index card binder that wasn't being used any more, and a gel pen. Voila! Done in 2 minutes or less:

And that's not even a good photo of it. Oh, well. You get the drift. You don't have to spend 2 hours on a little prayer card to remind yourself to pray for your children! Of course you can if you want to. And if you want to go more in-depth and learn more about praying for your children, I highly recommend the book, The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian.

Now, what did she do next? Oh, yeah, my sister was given an award! Then she gave it to me:

I wonder what it says? Huh... so I'll copy her words from the awarder:

"This blog invests in the PROXIMITY in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that even more friendships are propagated."

OK, so I'm still not sure what it says, but I have made some sweet friends through blogging that I would have never met otherwise, so I'll follow Sissy's lead and pass it along to my newest friends:

Heather @ Not a DIY Life
Rachel Anne @ Home Sanctuary

And I've also really enjoyed getting to know Rhonda Jean at Down to Earth, but I haven't really interacted with her enough to say we've formed a friendship. It has been quite motivating to watch her garden grow in Australia while we're having winter here. She also covers cooking, other homemaking topics, and living deliberately.

Ever Do Anything Crazy?

Have you ever done anything crazy? I can imagine the first thing that popped into your mind was probably something pretty crazy, whether it was something you did or not.

When I first heard the song, Something Crazy, I liked it because it was a really fun song. I like fun music. The whole song talks about how sometimes love makes you act a little crazy. I'd always thought of the crazy things that love makes you do to be something like spending a lot of money on a big ring, or serenading outside of your beloved's window, or just acting goofy like a young lovebird sometimes does. Or maybe performing antics as you try to win someone's heart.

This week God spoke to my heart about love. Not that goofy acting kind of love, but deeper love; and here are a few things I realized:

It's crazy that God to come from heaven to die for me. It's crazy to give yourself shots twice a day when you're pregnant. It's crazy for teenagers to travel half-way around the world to a dangerous country to dig trenches or do a street drama. It's crazy to keep loving someone who's hurt you very deeply. It's crazy to change your hopes and dreams to benefit others. It's crazy to give yourself, your time, and your money away.

It's crazy, but it's true, you really don't know Love at all 'till He's making you do something crazy. That's just it. When God gets a hold of you and starts filling up the empty spaces with love, you really do start acting a little crazy.

And it's quite ok.

Something Crazy
written by Steven Curtis Chapman and Matt Bronleewe

He's got a Bible and a megaphone
Standing on the corner
And everybody's saying he's crazy
Well does he really think
Anybody wants to hear what he has to say
He's not screaming at anybody
In fact, he says it's a love story
That he's trying to tell them
And he knows he may look a little strange
But he just smiles and says that's okay
'Cause you know sometimes love makes you
Act that way

And it's crazy when love gets a hold of you
And it's crazy things that love will make you do
And it's crazy but it's true
You really don't know love at all
'Till it's making you do something crazy

I know a lady in Uganda
Forty kids call her mama
And everybody thought it was crazy
She used to drive a beamer
But I've never seen her
any happier than she is now
I met them all around the world
They're the boys and the girls
Filled up with the love of the Father
And they know it may look a little strange
But they just smile and say that's alright
'Cause love puts everything in a different light

Well some might say
It's a crazy thing to believe
In a man who would say He came
From heaven down to earth because of love
But I just smile and say
That's okay 'cause you know
Sometimes love makes you act that way

Crazy photos courtesy of my oldest niece & nephew. I assume they're self-portraits... I found them on my camera on New Year's Day after I'd left it unattended for a while! Bet they never expected to see them here... : )

Tiny Talk Tuesday

I usually ask David what his lesson was about in Sunday School. He usually tells me he doesn't know. This week, I asked again, not really expecting an answer. Then it came.

Peter, James, and John.
Oh??!?! Your story was about Peter, James & John?
uh-huh
What about them?
They went fishing. They were in a boat.
Well, what happened?
They didn't catch any fish.
Then what?
Then Jesus showed up!
And what did he tell them to do?
silence
Did he tell them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat?
Uh-huh.
Then what? Did they catch any fish?
Uh-huh. They caught so many fish that their nets tore apart!

How about that? It was kinda like talking to a man. And I wonder how the story was presented this week that got him so engaged in it...

Elizabeth, playing with her Little People Fire Station, put the fireman inside & closed the door saying, "Nite, nite Dad. I love you! Nite, nite Dad. I love you, I love you!" Aw!

That's all I'm gonna share today because I've been trying to get this done all day. If you want more Tiny Talk, search for past posts or go over to Mary's and read the others'.

Recipe Swap

I'm a bit late getting in on the swap, but I discovered some new recipes this week that I wanted to share anyway.


It's not the greatest picture, but the other day I was hankering Sloppy Joes. I will admit, for most of my life my recipe for Sloppy Joes was this: Brown hamburger meat. Simmer with a can of Manwich. Not having a can of Manwich and not wanting to postpone the meal, I found this easy recipe on RecipeZaar:

Detweiler Sloppy Joe Mix

1 lb ground beef
onion, chopped
green pepper, chopped
1 c ketshup
2 T brown sugar
1 T mustard
1/2 c water

Brown hamburger, onion, pepper together. Add remaining ingredients and simmer 15 minutes.

That's it! And it was better than Manwich! For 2 of us, I used a 1/2 lb of meat, I think 4 slices of onions chopped, and the last of the red peppers I had in the freezer. Then I forgot to cut the sauce in half, so it was really saucy. Next time I'll get the meat to sauce ration right. Dad liked it anyway.

Next, I've been struggling with the bread all week. I've made 3 different recipes & keep having similar problems: very little rise and very dense texture. After doing some research last night, I have the idea that perhaps I have a bad batch of yeast.

To test this theory, I decided to try another recipe - a white bread, which I've read is easier to achieve and generally has a faster rise time than whole wheat. After 2 hours in a warm oven, my dough finally doubled. I shaped the loaf, then waited another hour on the second rise. Nada. So I sprayed some plastic wrap & left it sitting on the counter all night. By morning, it had risen, and I had delicious warm, buttered bread for breakfast! (I still think it didn't rise as much as it should have, though.)

I'm not particularly a fan of white bread, but this was really good, so I'll share this recipe, too. I can't remember where I found the recipe, so I've got no credits to pass along. I'm including my changes to the recipe.

Amish White Bread

3/4 c + 2 T warm water
1 t active dry yeast
1/4 c granulated sugar
1/4 c canola oil
2 3/4 c all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
4 t vital wheat gluten

Put warm water, yeast and sugar in the mixer bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes. Add the oil, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix with the dough hook for a few minutes until smooth and firm. You want it to clean the sides of the bowl, but slightly stick to the bottom and hook. Turn into a greased bowl to rise until double. Shape, put in loaf pan and let rise again. Bake at 350* for about 25 minutes. Thump to check doneness.

Tiny Talk Tuesday

Aunt Sissy helped me with some pizza dough issues the other night and said to make sure to take a picture of the pizza. So here ya go... in David's words, "Double Alfredo Pizza!"

Looks rustic, huh? The dough was still pretty thick & I had a really hard time flattening it. As you can see, this was pretty crusty pizza. I heard no complaints, though. The rest of the amazing alfredo sauce will become Chicken Alfredo later this week... then we'll see if it really does taste like the Olive Garden!

Narration by David with the black board being outer space: The Transformer will fly around & around the Earth before he lands at the Kennedy Space Station!

Man, he's come a long way.

Next, I finally got Elizabeth with her new baby, stroller & one of her new diapers!

And to see just how much fun it is in real life, I bring you a video: : )

OK, so that video and the conversation with Sissy about the pizza reminded me that I hadn't posted the dancing video from Christmas!

Many of you have seen Andy & Lauren cutting a rug at the family reunion, but here's Crazy Aunt Sissy & Crazy Aunt Wee (neither of which should be confused with Crazy Aunt Mabel) showing their stuff at the house:


Elizabeth loves that video and starts giggling & chanting, "Dancing!"

Don't forget to visit the other tiny talkers over at Not Before 7!

And one more thing, but certainly not the least today - Please keep my friend, Rachel Anne, in your prayers as she's dealing with a miscarriage this week. I am heartbroken for her; I can only imagine what she's going through.

Birthday Review

Wouldn't that be perfect for one of those beautiful silhouette portraits?

Well, I now have a 2-year-old. I was looking at her asleep in the car the other day & realized that she doesn't even look like a baby any more. She's now a little girl. And here, I give you a rare peek into what few others have seen: Little Miss Attitude.


If the above photo had come out in focus, I don't think we'd be able to stand it! Now on to her birthday party!

We had hot dogs, chips & Funfetti cupcakes. She picked out the cupcakes. She likes colors. I had a #2 candle, but it kept falling off the top cupcake, so we had to go with individual candles.

Guests included 4 great-grandparents, 3 grandparents, some of her aunts & uncles, all of her boy 1st cousins, and her immediate family. It was a pretty good turn out for a last minute party, and we greatly missed those who were not able to be here.

She'd been looking forward to the cupcakes all day long, but when everyone started singing & her cupcake was on fire, she looked a bit bewildered!!! I was just glad she didn't start crying (like someone else used to). She made the cutest little blow at her candles!

She kept her eyes on Grandpa H while eating her cupcake, but finally made it through & was excited about opening her gifts. I didn't get many photos of the gift opening time because I was helping her. I'll have to see if Grana got any good ones.

She got washable markers, cash for her college fund, some clothes, a tea set, a picnic set, a ladybug folding chair, a doll with a carrier & accessories, and a set of doll-sized accessories that included a stroller, playpen, & swing. It all went together quite nicely, and now she can practice being Mommy when our new baby arrives, too. I was most excited about the BumGenius 3.0's she got! And she knew what they were when she pulled them out, exclaiming, "Diapers!"

Here she is showing off some of her new dishes:

I've tried to get a picture of her pushing the baby in the stroller, but it's just a blur or she keeps turning. She's getting harder to photograph!

For Elizabeth's 2nd Birthday

Dear Elizabeth,

Sunday, April 2, 2006 was a day that changed our lives forever. It seemed like an ordinary Sunday, but that day, we had a guest speaker at church, Dr. Voddie Baucham. He had been there for a weekend event that I had fully planned to attend, but had completely forgotten. Thankfully God got us there for the sermon we needed to hear most. The church's sermon link is not still up, but this page is almost the exact same sermon he preached that morning: Multigenerational Promise. I am still inspired and convicted by that message.

Dad & I thought about what we'd heard for 2 days. Finally on April 4, as we drove to GV, we talked it out. It was scary. It was exciting. We decided we wanted God's blessing. We decided to have a second baby.

January 9, 2007 you arrived. So tiny. So beautiful.


Today we celebrate your second birthday. And just like last year, I wanted to note what you're up to now-a-days.


I think you become more beautiful every day. Your chocolate brown eyes and dark brown ringlets are adorable! Your grandmas and great-grandmas love to spend time with you and always comment on how expressive you are. You love your ABC's - you love identifying letters everywhere you see them and singing the ABC song. Of course, we have to follow the ABC song with If You're Happy and You Know It. In the last few days, you've also enjoyed counting to 10, albeit just a bit out of order. But that's ok, you have plenty of time to learn. Your sentences get longer each week.

You love stuffed animals, books of all kinds, Sesame Street, real animals, and the Little People barn you got for Christmas! You love your family - all of them. This Christmas you spent lots of time with your extended families and loved on everyone, especially your cousins. You are happy most of the time but are also starting to show a bit of a temper! You can hold your own with David, too!

I am so blessed to have you for a daughter and I thank God for taking us to hear that sermon back in 2006! I thank Him for convincing us to accept His blessing: you. I can hardly wait to see what you'll do this year, but I know it will be amazing.

I love you very much,
Mama

Starting PreK, Ice & Tiny Talk!

Finally... Monday was our first official day of Preschool at home! David has really been looking forward to it, even though he really didn't know what that meant. I was just hoping he wasn't disappointed it meant staying at home with mom!

So far, I think he's enjoying it. I took pictures the first day, which are on my flickr. (Keep in mind those photos will appear in reverse order.) Some of the highlights were making letters with the wood pieces from Handwriting Without Tears:

and being able to draw on the new easel with chalk:

I was actually surprised how quickly we went through the lesson plans. So far our longest day has been about an hour & 20 minutes - and I've added in some extra books & workbooks! I suppose that's a good start, though. The only thing I know that holds his attention longer than that is Legos!

Elizabeth is sometimes at the table with us, sometimes with Dad, and sometimes doing her own activities like coloring or playing with ABC magnets:

Our first day of preschool also happened to be the ice day! It was nice to be inside with a warm fire going all day long as the drizzle slowly built up on the trees. What resulted was absolutely beautiful!

I can only guess that the ice was the source of our power flickering several times on Monday. With the last flicker, we lost our internet. We were down until Tuesday night, so I completely missed Tiny Talk Tuesday. So, for those of you hungry for the cuteness, here's a delayed version:

Last week, David kissed Lauren & then said, "I turned you into a frog!"

Tonight in the car, Elizabeth was playing her animal game (she either hollers out an animal name or a sound, then I'm supposed to make the sound or guess her animal). Her turkey was hilarious!

Then David said something about the animals, so I asked, "Who made the animals?" "God!" "What else did God make?" "Sharks!" "What else?" ... "There are lots of sharks in Mexican-co, in the Mexican-co ocean." ...

"God made the whole earth." "We live on the Earth and I see a star (out his window). That star is a planet." "I think that planet is Venus." ... "Why is Venus following us?" ... (turning the corner) "Venus is gone!" ... (turning again) "Oh! Venus is back again!"

Dad said he remembered watching the moon from the back of the car when he was little (back before car seats) and thinking the moon was following them. It's amazing how much they are alike!

Cousins

Sharing my favorite cousins photo from last week. Aren't they a great looking group?

I should get Mom of the year for this one!

OK, seriously, I am so proud of myself for coming up with this one! A few nights ago upon getting out of the tub, David said he wanted to wear his Wall-E under-wear. Then I had to remind him that he didn't have any. (I had looked & couldn't find any!) He was sure they were in the washing machine & I reassured him that he did not own any.


That night after he went to bed I had this idea to get some iron-on transfer paper and make some! I had previously thought of doing this on a t-shirt, because I haven't seen many of those either. I found a website that had some Wall-E clip art and downloaded the images. Tonight after bedtime I ironed the drawers.



I think they came out so cute! I was almost tempted to go wake him up to show them to him! I'll let you know how they go over in the morning...

My Favorite Christmas Photos

On Fridays, Rachel Anne invites the gals over for coffee. I've never participated before, but this week she asked us to bring our favorite Christmas photos so I had to join in! I made coffee, tea, and hot chocolate gifts for Christmas, so I brought those along, too:

My favorite photos of the kids both happen to be by the Christmas tree. I love how the soft lighting of the tree casts a warm glow on my babies. David's photo was on Christmas Eve, wearing the new PJ's he just got for his Christmas Eve present.

Elizabeth's was earlier in December as she was enchanted by the lights & ornaments on the tree.

Of course, I didn't get any wonderful pictures of Dad & me together. Did anyone else in our families get any?

Rachel Anne got a great shot with her hubby. You should go see how sweet they are!