kids

We got to have two good friends come visit yesterday. The kids got to skip nap and have a very Joy filled afternoon. Needless to say, they went right to sleep last night. The kids ran up and down the stairs chasing, wearing costumes, watched a movie, ate snacks and we went for a walk up the new road and over to the pond. All in all a lovely afternoon.
I love the picture of Caiden and Erik walking along the sprinkler pipe with Anslow...Perhaps a snapshot of a future time? A wonderful moment in time, two little boys and a dog.

A rocky day

We had 5 deliveries of rock yesterday and expect more today. The rock is for the new road going up the hill. We are glad to be able to get the rock on before the weather changes. Today they are going over yesterday's with more. It looks like we will need about 15 loads....Wow! At least we might be able to drive in and out of the place come snowy weather!! yipppeee!!!!
We also got to meet with Jeff here at the site, so he could decide how best to bring in the house and give us lots of good advice for developing our site...thanks Jeff!

a little partying and playing

Ady turned 4 yesterday. We had a very pleasant day celebrating. First..family and presents. Next her favorite meal of slow cooked ribs in bbq sauce, and green beans with bacon, and sourdough bread. yummy! Followed by cake and ice cream. My friend Erika graciously decorated the cake for me. Ady loved it! then off to nap.

Then spend the evening at the bowling alley. We played a game, ate pizza, drank pop, played games and spent a bunch of tickets on lovely "prizes". (think chuck E cheese prizes!) It really was very relaxing and lovely day with family to celebrate our great daughter. I do believe that she felt like a princess on her special day. They loved going bowling. We hadn't done this except with the cousins a year or two ago. I'm glad we went. They had tons of fun, and I won! yippeee!!! good for all!

Of pumpkins and Jack

First, use the sense of smell to figure out that the pumpkin does not smell so good.
Then the sense of touch to realize that the strings and seeds are slimy and not worth touching. Leave the scraping and pulling to the fearless mommy.
Next, Wait patiently for daddy to be ready to cut. Watch him draw a "scary" face, then cut out the shapes. Being careful not to get those precious fingers too close, even when pointing seems necessary.
Next, try out the pumpkin pieces and pretend to be a jack-o-lantern.
Finally, Meet Jack.

a friday dilemna

oh, how I wish I could have two bodies tomorrow. The kiddos are going to the pumpkin patch with their classes and get to ride on a school bus ( a novelty for them) Last year I went and got the greatest pictures of them and their classmates picking out pumpkins and playing in leaves. However, tomorrow morning is my best opportunity to make Ady's birthday cake without her seeing it and getting help from my friend Erika. Ack! I can't even beg Kevin because he will be doing a permeation test with some guy so we might dig a new septic in the next few weeks. ugh! I hope the cake is worth it!!! :) and I hope someone else is taking cool pictures!!

what do you think?

so...we are thinking of using this.
Let me know what you think.

Fall Collecting

I like Fall this year. So far, we have icy mornings, nice afternoons and chilly evenings. I am getting to use my newly finished shawl, I'll take a picture soon to share with you. I did decide to add fringe after all and I must say that it is nice and cuddly.
The kids and I enjoyed an afternoon walk today. They collected "Fall" stuff in a bag...mostly whatever brown stuff they could pull off dried stalks, and a few leaves.

BFFs

The BFFs in Portland at Women of Faith.

I had great intentions of taking lots of pictures and having this funny blog post about all our stops. Alas, I have one picture of us, and one picture of her adorable family. We had a wonderful time last weekend. We were inseparable in highschool and most of college. Then came marriages, babies, divorce, marriage, babies, moving in between all these things. Now we finally get to spend a whole weekend together...we are still so much alike and have so much fun together.

As I was chatting with her while she packed last Thursday she was looking for her favorite jeans. I told her about my rush to finish laundry so I could of course bring my favorite jeans. When she holds hers up...they are exactly (I mean even down to the cute pockets) the same as mine (only a different number, but that's not open for discussion here.) The next morning as we are doing the bathroom shuffle at her brother's place, I look down to see two matching deoderants....is that even possible? Then the toothpaste...then our thoughts throughout the conference.

As the weekend came to a close and we were soaking in her grandfathers' hot tub we realized that God had been teaching us very similar lessons recently and used the conference to confirm and teach us more deeply. We have agreed to challenge one another in these areas and to pray for one another. After all, if we pick out the same deoderant after 20 years of friendship, I guess we just may have the same struggles and be able to pray very succinctly for the other.
after all...that's what friends are for!
Nora, Zacharia, Kevin, Justin, Jenessa
(if you are new to the story of Nora and I...you'll love the fact that we are also both married to a Kevin.)

a few fall chores

I was a bit inspired today. The sun is shining and it is a beautiful fall day. I started by cleaning my kitchen. All the cupboards and containers and window sill...vacuming the edges..cleaning the toaster oven (yuck!) now it is all nice and shiny. Then while Ady was helping daddy with some pipe, Caiden and I went for a walk. After that, I decided it was indeed finally time to clean the kiddie pool and I did! When I went to lift the tarp from under the pool, a few bugs and beetles and frogs jumped around. So I called Caiden out to see the frogs. This provided probably a half hour of entertainment for him. Until he put one on his sister who screamed bloody murder! I thought something real was wrong, but it was just a jumping frog had landed on her leg!! what fun boys and girls are!


The exciting new fall chore is irrigating the new road! The excavator told us last week that we needed some rain so we could pack the dirt then we would be able to add sand and rock and stuff to actually make a real road. Well, around here, if we wait for the rain, it will be winter and then it will be mud. So, since farmer husband had not winterized the pumps yet and the reservoir was not drained, we are now raining on our own road! Exciting stuff!!! We are however at a stand still waiting for the surveyors to finish their part and submit to the planning people...then we will be able to start applying for permits and get a well drilled, and, and and...this is all very new to me and I'm hoping God will continue to open the doors as we need to go through them.
The kids have had a lovely day. They have dug into toys that they haven't used for awhile. They started the day with playdoh...I think I'll hide that for another long while!!! Then caiden got into the drawer of paper and ink stamps...that was fun. then he traced cookie cutters and cut dinosaur shapes out. Ady dug out her Dora dance video and Caiden his spiderman exercise video, then the costumes. All in all, a nice day of "new old" things to do.

Matthew: a guest blogger

Hi,
my name is Matthew and I got to visit with Caiden at his house today. Caiden's mommy picked us up from school with his little sister Ady. At home we got to take a nap in his cool dinosaur sheets.

After we slept we got to drink chocolate milk and watch T.V. for awhile. Caiden made me a name tag today, now everyone will know my name! Thanks Caiden! After that Caiden's daddy played with us. Caiden let me star in my own puppet show, that was great!


For dinner we had strogonauf and carrots. Then we cleaned up Caiden's room and played with his daddy on the trampoline...boy, that was Lots of Fun! We started on the big blue chair, jump onto the trampoline then his daddy catches us in the air and lifts us high, it's like flying! (that big grey blur is Anslow, Caiden's dog, he's pretty big and and has BIG TEETH!)

Then off to bed to sleep all night and start a brand new day tomorrow!

a bit to watch

I went to the Women of Faith Conference this weekend with my BFF Nora. I am now catching up on the homefront and will blog more details later. I wanted to share a bit from the conference though. Watch the video...I believe you will be blessed. Patsy Clairmont was one of our speakers and I now have sore abs and cheeks due to her sensational story telling. Enjoy.




And then the glorious mom humor from Anita Renfroe. If you haven't seen this as I hadn't. enjoy! turn it up and be ready to listen fast! :)

A beginning

Today we got to start building our new road for our new home. We have been on a wait and see plan for some time. This is kind of a step in faith for us. We are in the process of choosing a home and waiting for estimates and will then do some comparison shopping and probably some prioritizing. We are excited about this. I truly thought we would always be in the green house. Our green house that nearly every family in the basin has either lived in or known someone that has lived here. If the walls could talk!

By the time the kids came home from school quite a bit was done already, I wish I could put smells on here. The smell of freshly turned dirt that hasn't been dug in many generations is so awesome. It is so soft and filled our shoes and socks as we walked.
This was the first "big" rock dug out this morning. The hill we are building on is filled with giant rocks and will be interesting as we go along. We are hoping to move many of them into our future yard. And hopefully there aren't too many where things like a foundation and septic tank need to go!
This is Kevin looking at the flags he put out yesterday when he paced off the areas for house, garage, and driveway. He is looking East which will be the back of the house.

This is facing south west which will be the view from the front, hopefully also the view from a porch if all goes well.

John 3:16

Last night Ady and I were reading one of her Princess story books. Afterward I said something like, "you can be a princess too. You can be a daughter of The King if you have Jesus in your heart. Do you want to have Jesus in your heart?"
Ady: yes.
Mommy: You have to tell God that you are sorry for sinning and believe that Jesus died for you and ask him to be your savior, do you want to do that?
Ady: yes.

so we prayed. Ady asked Jesus to be her savior last night.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

Maybe all this princess stuff and happily ever after isn't so bad after all. Since, as God's children we are heirs to the The throne, and in the end? Happily ever after in heaven that goes beyond anything we could ever dream up. I personally am looking forward to singing (to never be off key again? sounds fabulous!) But, we will not be floating on clouds playing harps, it will be Oh oh oh, so much more!

I pray that my little girl will continue to learn God's ways and promises and accept His blessings with gratitude and take His yoke and learn to trust in Him with as complete a love as is possible on this earth. I pray that she will seek fulfillment in His love and allow Him to fill the empty places.
Ady's name? Adyson means daughter of Adam.

Heavenly evenings at the farm

Our evenings have been "heavenly" lately. There is seldom anything on any of our five stations that is of interest. Kevin has been reading Heaven, by Randy Alcorn and I am still knitting a shawl. We sit on the couch. Kevin reads aloud to me and I knit (this also helps keep me awake, I'm not always a good listener!) We get to chat about this completely awesome topic, and not just stare at the T.V. all evening.
I am hoping that this trend will last through the winter...I will certainly need to find another knitting project. any suggestions???