Beautiful weather!

Some pictures taken today of the kids enjoying the beautiful weather!

Crib!

Baby has finally been moved to her crib after 4 1/2 months in the bassinet beside our bed. It's always hard moving them into their 'big' bed but fortunately with this baby, the crib is in our room :) Do I sense we need a bigger house...haha.

Here are some pics of the girls in their pink today. Other than that there is not alot going on. Just trying to catch up around the house now after a week of everyone sick and the house turning into a tornado zone!! And there are some recent pics of baby girl in blue talking to herself in the mirror :)

How exhausting!

Three of us came down with the stomach flu yesterday. I started feeling awful in the morning, by late afternoon our daughter got sick, and then by the evening our little guy was getting sick. Poor hubby had to do the cleaning up and had his Lysol wipes in hand the whole night. By bedtime the kids were fine but mine lingered well into tonight. After getting some soup in me, I'm feeling a little more like myself. So the 5 of us had it and I'm praying that baby doesn't get. It was a quick weight loss program though....over 4 lbs in one day! I don't recommend it though :)

18 weeks and we got a tooth!

Still waiting to see if the stomach bug is going to hit anyone else. So far it has been hubby and our 4 year old. I'm also still working on my third poncho....haven't had alot of time over the past couple of days for it! Here is a pic of our girl in her lavender headband today....I just love these. She also has her first tooth finally!! Over a month of teething and being cranky, it popped through (at 18 weeks old....yes, we have early teethers)

Stomach flu

The stomach flu has hit our home...uuggg. It's hit 2 out of 6 so far and we're just waiting for the next victim. Please pray baby won't get it!!

Another tooth

Tooth #6 is out. What a mouthful of holes :) She lost the 4th one on the bottom the other day and her adult teeth up top are coming in. Both older kids went to the dentist and she assured me both of them will end up with braces! Start saving now!

There is also a pic of baby girl in her black headband and I'm currently working on my third poncho which is cute, cute, cute!! It is a beautiful multicolored blue, green, and teal. Can't wait to finish it.

In my spare time

I taught myself how to crochet last weekend and these are the 2 ponchos I made during the week. My only model is a 2 1/2 yr old boy *grin* but we won't tell anyone except our blog readers...haha. The pattern is for size 1-2. I made the pink one a little bigger so it could probably fit up to a 3 year old. I could weave ribbon along the bottom, put a bow up top, add tassels (not sure how to do that without fraying happening) but I am pleased with them so far. The white one was my first attempt and I made a few boo-boos along the way, but I ironed them all out while making the pink one. I have multi-colored yarn I'm going to try next and then I hope to make some that I can sell. My next step is to do a few baby blankets and get an inventory going so I can put together a store. I eventually want to have baby sweater sets too along with the crocheted hats (with the flowers shown on a previous post below). Here is a picture of one of the headbands too. So cute!!

One more year

So another year older....and another year that has been full of God's wonderful blessings! Thank you for all the birthday wishes, cards and calls. We've got a household of sick ones with colds but it's still been a nice day :)

Reverse thinking

Watch out!!

Have you seen this bumper sticker around lately? We've been seeing it pop up while out on the roads. Looking at it quickly, you would think it's just a bunch of symbols. If you look at it closely it reads "Coexist".

*The first symbol is the cresent moon and star representing Islam.

*The second symbol is the peace symbol.

*The third symbol is the male and female symbol: the male symbol (an arrow pointing away from a circle) is derived from the astrological symbol for Mars.The female symbol (a cross-like symbol fixed to the bottom of a circle) is derived from the symbol of Venus. When used together, the symbols can signify intersexual or transgender.

*The fourth symbol is the star of David representing Judaism.

*The fifth symbol is the letter "i" topped with a star within a circle. This is a pentacle: The five-pointed star within a circle is the most common Pagan symbol, and it is typically used to identify oneself as a Pagan or Wiccan.

*The sixth symbol is the letter "S" and has been adapted to resemble the Taijitu, a Chinese symbol representing the idea of yin and yang. Yin and yang describe the two opposing but complementary forces found in nature. Yin is associated with shade and darkness as well as femininity, while yang is has associations with light and masculinity.

*The last symbol is the cross representing Jesus and christianity.

It is trying to promote religious tolerance, acceptance for one another and their beliefs. The Bible is very clear about God's tolerance and acceptance of other beliefs.
Exodus 20:3 - Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:3 - ...Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
If you see this bumper sticker, use it as an opportunity to share the love of God!

More projects!

I've been working on another project this weekend. I taught myself how to crochet!! It's going to take me several days to finish since I have less 'free' time that I can devote to it. I'm really enjoying it and have several patterns I want to try out. I also want to post some pictures of the girls over the weekend. They received several comments on Sunday! (I didn't crochet these ones but did make them with the flower)

more about the critters

I've had a couple questions about my little critters :) I've only made the polar bear so far, but I'd like to start making the puppy, frog, sheep, panda, hedgehog, tiger, penguin, octopus and walrus. They are made out of fleece and the eyes are screw eyes which are impossible to come off vs. sewn on button eyes. I'm having a hard time coming across some of the fleece I need (tiger pattern, and sheep and panda special texture fleece). There is a snake critter that my son wants me to make very badly!! I haven't even thought of a price for them.

In other news, our baby girl got her first set of vaccines today at her 4 month checkup. I was tossing and turning all night thinking about them and praying about it. I have mixed emotions about vaccines. With all of our children, we have divided up the vaccine schedule to our liking. We have about 2 (sometimes 3) done at a time rather than the scheduled 5 or more at once! We also get the single dose vaccines (obviously not Dtap or MMR because you can't break them up) but we don't go for the combo vaccines because I believe they have the mercury in them as a perservative. So our poor sweetie has to endure 2 or 3 pokes instead of just 1 but I feel it is safer this way. So hopefully she will cope well with them.

Ideas

I finished up a little project I had started quite a while back. It was something I thought of trying to sell but......they take a lot of time since I'm not an expert seamstress :) It turned out really good though and I may try some of the other critters.

Lately I've been really praying that God would reveal a way I could make some extra income from home. Something with a small start up cost and that would sell well!! I've been doing some research and an exciting idea has been brewing. I don't know if anything will come of it, but I will continue to pray about it and see what God has in store.

For now, here are some pictures of my first 'little critter'.

Resurrection Sunday

Read the post below before reading this one!!

So this morning we woke up and opened oven to discover the cracked surfaces on our cookies. When we bit into them they were hollow! Jesus followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. MATTHEW 28:1-9
(*didnt' get a good picture of it)

I did finally get the second easter dress done....at 3:30am!!!! It was a bit big on her so she has room to grow in it I guess :) Overall I was pleased with how cute they both looked in their matching outfits.

After church we had our lunch and this was the first year we decided to do an easter egg hunt. The kids were very excited! They each received a gift as well. The boys love their army men and our girl got a bible case, notepad, pen and ruler. She was very happy!

Resurrection cookies

Tonight we made Resurrection cookies. As we make the cookies we learn all about the Easter story, of God's love for us, of Jesus death and burial, and tomorrow morning we will learn about his resurrection.....all while baking cookies! Here are pictures of our evening and the story...and tomorrow we shall post pictures of our cookies for you :)

What you need: 1 cup whole pecans, 1 tsp. vinegar, 3 egg whites, pinch salt, 1 cup sugar, ziploc baggie, wooden spoon, tape, Bible.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Place pecans in baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. When Jesus was arrested, He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. JOHN 19:1-3

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into a mixing bowl. Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink. JOHN 19:28-30

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Jesus gave His life to give us life! JOHN 10:10,11

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. This represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers and the bitterness of our own sin. LUKE 23:27

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup of sugar. The sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. PSALMS 34:8 and JOHN 3:16

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. The color white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.
ISAIAH 1:18 and JOHN 3:1-3

Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. MATTHEW 27:57-60

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Jesus' tomb was sealed. MATTHEW 27:65-66

GO TO BED! We may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. JOHN 16:20 and 22
On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. We will find out what happens tomorrow morning!!

New dress

I've been wanting to make matching dresses for the girls for awhile. I finally finished up the one dress today and was excited to see how it looked. She tried it on and the material got caught in the zipper. I mean really caught!!! I tugged and pulled and finally got the zipper up towards the top but she has to wiggle herself in and out of the dress to get it on and off. I was sooooo frustrated!!!! Hubby came home and looked at the dress and within a minute....the zipper was free :) Oh my hero. Now I wonder if I can get baby girls dress done in a day so they can wear them for Easter Sunday??

New look

We went and had our family pictures done today and I love the fresh, spring look so I thought I'd continue that onto my blog as well. The kids did really well. I wish we could have gotten all the pictures!!! I took every precaution for baby girl not to get spit up on her clothes before picture time....I dressed her when we got there and put a bib on her until we were ready to take pictures BUT I didn't take precautions not to get spit up on me!!! *smile* All down the front of my shirt...fortunately it dried while we were waiting for them to set up :) Oh well!
Hubby got a call back today from his interview. It's a no-go :( We were both disappointed but we also know that it is just a closed door....we're not meant to go that route. We wait on the Lord! We know that He will continue to meet our needs.