Reading

This weather is wonderful for reading. I love curling up with a good book and a cozy blanket. Here are a few that I've just read and would highly recommend...

The Epic by John Eldredge. A great little book on playing our crucial part in the much Larger Story we are born into. This guy has a gift for reminding the reader about such truths.

The Duggars 20 and Counting. Loved this. A great resource for homeschooling hints, encouragement on training children, their humble story as well as some great recipes that will feed a crowd!

The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn, oooohhhh. Shall we say life changing? A must read.

The Lord of the Rings. In Sunday school, Neal mentioned we were reading the book and one of the teens piped up and said "why would you read it when you can watch it! that book is loooong!" True, true, it is over 1000 pages. Well, we watched the first movie the other day and I decided right away that I like the book better. Why? Because in my imagination Orcs were not so ugly! Eww!

So what's new? Well, Selah has a very loose top front tooth. This is big news in the family! A new stage in life.  Will she be like her daddy when he was a little boy, tough and brave and yank the thing out?! or will she be like her mommy, letting it hang there by it's last thread for days? I have an inkling but will wait to see what happens. We have notified the tooth fairy and she is on standby.

My sister took these pictures...didn't she do great!?!

I'll close out with a yummy recipe for some easy brownies

1/2 cup melted butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

Mix this together well, then add

1/2 cup flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix well and spread into an 8 by 8 greased brownie pan. Bake @ 350 for 20-25 min.

As easy as a boxed mix and so much better!

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!