The end of December 2011

Almost the new year. What a year this past one has been. The biggest blessing is little Chloe` Avynle`. She just melts my heart with her smile and loves to cuddle. Grace Anne is talking now, a big step that I thought would take a lot longer for her to reach. Abby just loves to sing and boy, can she carry a tune, I just love it! Selah is reading...really, really well! I can't get over how fast she has learned.
Let's see what this new year brings...whatever it is, I am so grateful that My Jesus will be with me.
My Mom shared this passage with me the other day and it seems so applicable to my life lately....and maybe yours?

Psalm 77

For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of Asaph.

 ¹ I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
      Oh, that God would listen to me!
 ² When I was in deep trouble,
      I searched for the Lord.
   All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
      but my soul was not comforted.
 ³ I think of God, and I moan,
      overwhelmed with longing for his help.
                         Interlude
 ⁴ You don’t let me sleep.
      I am too distressed even to pray!
 ⁵ I think of the good old days,
      long since ended,
 ⁶ when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
      I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
 ⁷ Has the Lord rejected me forever?
      Will he never again be kind to me?
 ⁸ Is his unfailing love gone forever?
      Have his promises permanently failed?
 ⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious?
      Has he slammed the door on his compassion?
                         Interlude
 ¹⁰ And I said, “This is my fate;
      the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
 ¹¹ But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
      I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
 ¹² They are constantly in my thoughts.
      I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.
 ¹³ O God, your ways are holy.
      Is there any god as mighty as you?
 ¹⁴ You are the God of great wonders!
      You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
 ¹⁵ By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
      the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.
                         Interlude
 ¹⁶ When the Red Sea^[a] saw you, O God,
      its waters looked and trembled!
      The sea quaked to its very depths.
 ¹⁷ The clouds poured down rain;
      the thunder rumbled in the sky.
      Your arrows of lightning flashed.
 ¹⁸ Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
      the lightning lit up the world!
      The earth trembled and shook.
 ¹⁹ Your road led through the sea,
      your pathway through the mighty waters—
      a pathway no one knew was there! ²⁰ You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
      with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

God is with us friend. His ways are not our ways or His thoughts our thoughts. And I am glad for it. He is the creator of the stars that sing, the minnow that swims, and for me, His girl. We are not forgotten by Him. The path in our life may not be the one you or I thought we were going to take, in fact if there was a choice it may not have even been chosen,  but guess what? He is with you and He knows. Just like He knew of the path through the Red Sea. What a miracle and awesome display of His power and knowledge. Take heart dear friend. He will hold us in the storms and carry us when we are weak, He will rejoice with us and cry with us, He always listens and wants to. He loves us. He is love.

A Long Time

I'm not sure how I missed the month of November but it is now December 3rd, and only for about 20 more minutes. Haven't had too much time to think about turning 30. Probably a good thing since I cried when I turned 10 (you know, no longer in the single digits...ha ha ha).
The beginning of November we had the flu, not the stomach bug kind but the real influenza, achy body, high fevers and coughs. It felt miserable but it was a family bonding experience, especially since it took about 2 weeks for it to finally be gone! We watched lots of nature movies, Disney Earth being our favorite.
We were without internet for the last half of November. Celebrated Thanksgiving and a few days later enjoyed a snow storm on the 30th.

Grace Anne loves the snow. This is her first time playing in it like a big girl!

Abby making a snow angel

Beautiful Selah and the snowman!

Abby's snow angel (a little out of order)

Chloe` loves bananas

Chloe`'s first sink bath

She loved it!

Bubbles!

Blueberry eyes

home

Sorry the pictures are so out of order. This was a fall craft we did with leaves we gathered.

Leaf wreaths!

We had this big bed out in our living room for over a week. Talk about feeling crammed and having cabin fever!

Watching our favorite nature movie

Daddy and some of his girls!

Selah had the camera and was taking pictures of her and Makenna making funny faces

Hannah joined the fun!

Beautiful Makenna, one of Selah's pictures. Gotta get this girl a camera for Christmas!

I'm hoping to post some more pictures soon....of birthdays! Abby girl turns 4 on the 5th and she is super excited!

Until then,

Calle`

Trick or Treating and Apple Sauce Making!

The girls had so much fun dressing up. In fact, they put their costumes on in the morning and had them on all day.  Grace Anne especially loved her little dog out-fit and was so sad when she had to take it off at the end of the day.
We had fun making apple sauce on Saturday. We didn't can it this year, we just froze it, which made it go so much faster.

Grace Anne the adorable little puppy, Chloe` the adorable little cow, Selah and Abby beautiful princesses!

Melts your heart doesn't she?

Say cheese!

Beautiful girl!

Abby was the "pacifire" princess!

Cute Chloe` was too tired and it was too cold outside to go trick or treating,

 she stayed home with mommy to pass out candy

A picture with her pumpkins

Abby's

Selah's

3 Gallon sized bags of candy from their adventurous evening of trick or treating.

Make'n apple sauce. Abby taking a turn.

Selah taking a turn

Even Grace Anne helped!

Yum!

Always tastes better when you help make it!

Beautiful Abby!

It has been a fun past 24 hrs!

A Warm October Day...and other thoughts.

Here are a few pictures of the girls on this beautiful October day. They were enjoying the raspberries and
Chloe` was enjoying the leaves.

Sisters!

Love her!

And she loved the leaves!

All the sisters!

Chloe` still has a leaf!

Yum!

Cool baby!

Something to think about...

Zechariah 3:1-7 "Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD. Satan was there at the angel's right hand, accusing Jeshua of many things. And the LORD said to Satan. "I, the LORD, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from a fire." Jeshua's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, "Take off his filthy clothes." And turning to Jeshua he said, "See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes." then I said, "Please, could he also have a clean turban on his head?" So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the LORD stood by. Then the angel of the LORD spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, "this is what the LORD Almighty says: "If you follow my ways and obey my requirements, then you will be given authority over my Temple and it's courtyards. I will let you walk in and out of my presence along with these others standing here."

That's Satan for you. The accuser. Now I'm sure many of the things Satan was accusing Jeshua of were true, it says his "clothing was filthy." I know my clothes get filthy often. I mess up and spill jealousy on my shirt and get my knees stained with anger. Satan is right there accusing me, saying, "God did you see what she did! See how bad she messed up!" But notice what the LORD does. He rebukes Satan. Forgives Jeshua, gives him clean clothes and a job working for Him! Guess what? He does that for us! Do you know why? Because of Jesus. Because I am His child, when God looks at me He sees the crimson tide that has washed me clean. I don't deserve it, none of us do. But I, like Jeshua, have been snatched up like a stick in the fire. Why? I don't understand it completely but it is because of the great mercy of God...His great love.

"And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't and life can't. The angels can't, and the demons can't. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Pretty amazng huh? Go ahead and do a happy dance! Makes me want to!

Our family fishing in October