Church update

We haven't figured out how to do panoramic shots on our camera, so I did the best I could stitching some pictures together to give you a full view of our building update. These pictures are taken from the top of the hill looking down. At the bottom of the hill sits our current church building (which is hard to see in the photo. We have a beautiful view of the mountains from up here don't we!! The slab needed to be poured 2 weeks before the Carpenters for Christ could start building....and exactly 14 days before they arrive, the slab was poured! We also have 99% of all the lumber we need donated from a client my hubby has been doing business for recently. How great our God is! Sometime I will have to give the whole story about our building project....we give all the glory to God!

(click on the pictures below to make them bigger)

Cake #2

Here is cake #2 for tonight's social after church! I love this cake but sooooo need to improve on my writing skills!!!

Cake #1

Today we went to see family and also celebrated hubby's Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. I was able to do the cake and enjoyed this one. It was made with fondant roses and I thought the end result was really pretty. I tried to cut out fondant letters this time but goodness.....those are very tricky!!! All in all, I was happy with the final result and am gearing up for my second cake tonight. The cakes are baked and the roses are made. Now to assemble it all and enjoy it tomorrow evening :) Here are a few pics of cake from today.

Walks and Cakes!

It has been so busy around here lately, we have not been able to get out for our evening walks. We finally got out the other day and it felt good....I need to be getting out every day!! Here are a few pics of the kids. I'm also working on 2 cakes this weekend. Instead of doing buttercream roses, I tried my hand at fondant roses. I even made a video of how I did them with the help of my 7 year old videographer :) I will post pictures of the cakes tomorrow.

flowers for Mommy

carrying his doggy on his shoulders

Chocolate Fondant Roses

Siblings

Here is a video of 2 year old brother occupying 5 month old sister :)
(I usually upload the lesser compact version of videos for quicker loading but this video is high quality for a change!)

baby London

We went to visit our beautiful new niece/cousin today. Mama and baby are doing very well and may even be coming home tonight. I do not see alot of resemblance between her and her sisters, although one picture I was looking through did remind me slightly of her older sister. I guess the months will reveal how closely she looks like her siblings (or maybe even her cousins!) For those who don't know....our children and my brother's children are double cousins. My brother married my husbands sister so we've always been interested to see how close our children resemble each other. But so far.....the cousins look nothing alike :) Here are a few pics from the kids visit today.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'

Our girl is 5 months old and has figured out how to roll over! Problem is, she doesn't like being on her tummy for very long so there is alot of crying happening in our household lately :) .....add to the fact I think she is getting more teeth! If you click on the pictures, you can really see her 2 bottom teeth.




We are also excited that a new addition has been added to the family today. We welcome our new niece and cousin born this morning. Hop on over to Treasured Moments for updates.

The love of reading

It has been a long road to get to this point with our daughter! To see her sitting like this, on her own, brings me joy :) She began to read very early (we have video at 3 years old reading Dick and Jane) but reading for her has always been a "school" activity. There had not been a real love for reading in her. She was content to read short kids books (Amelia Bedelia, Dr. Seuss etc) during school hours or to her brothers when they asked, but I wanted to get her into more mature reading material. For Christmas I came across the Rachel Yoder series which is written by a Wanda E. Brunstetter, a Christian author. The series is about a 10 year old girl growing up in Amish country. I gave her the first 4 books in the series and asked her to start reading the first one during her independent reading time. The first half of the book was me constantly reminding her to go read a few pages each day. By the mid-point, I didn't have to remind her anymore, and towards the last 3 chapters.....she eagerly grabbed her book wondering what was going to happen next. Today, I'm proud to say, our girl has finished her first book on her own and can't wait to start the next one.

For you Mom

Here's some updated pics :)

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Dad. I love you!

Reading time

My son's favorite part of school is reading! Quite surprising for a 4 year old. He grabs his book and sits and waits for me to get ready. This is a excerpt from today. He had not read this before.
Sin
Sin is bad.
God tells us not to sin.
God is sad if we sin.
If we sin, we can tell God.
God will get rid of the sin.

Recent pics

These are some recent photos from the past week or so.

Our week in review

Sometimes the week flies by without posting to my blog. The days seem to be going by so quickly. This week we've been driving out to our church almost every evening to see the progress. It is so exciting to see dirt being moved and knowing we will have a new building built next month. What exciting days!!! Here are a few pics of the land behind our current church.

Then I listened to a great webseminar this week about homeschooling boys. It was done by a couple who has raised 6 boys and 2 girls. Boys do learn differently than girls! I learned some great tips.
Then we headed off for a date night on Friday. It was long overdue and we had a good time (us 3!) Baby is still nursing so much we couldn't leave her for several hours :) We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants which was paid for with a gift card....love that!! Then we hopped on over to Sears for a quick browse since I had $36 left on a gift card from there. We ended up getting 4 pairs of kids jeans, a Sunday dress, and 5 ties for $6 out of pocket. Not bad! The jeans were on sale for $3.99 and the ties were big boy ties (not clip ons) so our son is extremely excited for Sunday to come so he can dress like Daddy!!
I also got my interview papers in the mail to become a citizen.....woohoo. I take my test next month and if I pass, I will be sworn in soon after. I need to get studying!
And finally today, we headed up to the mountains. Bad timing again on our part but we had a good time. The ride home was rainy with hail but we enjoyed our time at the waterfall and a picnic lunch. It's been a busy week but enjoyable :)

Mother's Day

This necklace began 7 years ago with a single heart on a chain. It was the birthstone of our firstborn and my first Mother's Day. Since then, our God has graciously allowed us to add 3 more birthstones to my Mommy necklace :) This year we added the 4th! I love this necklace because it is a beautiful reminder of the years I've been given as a mother. It is something I truly cherish. We prayed earnestly for each one of them before they were conceived. I poured my heart out to God about my desire to be a mom and He has blessed me so much. I love you my beautiful children. I am so honoured God chose me to raise you.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom. Thank you for the years you poured into me teaching, guiding, disciplining, loving me through all the difficult and trying years of childhood, and for the love, support and friendship you show through my adult years. God needed you to create and help mold me into who I am today. I am blessed to have you in my life.
Happy Mother's Day to my Mom-in-law. God gave me another loving example of motherhood in you. You have such a beautiful, loving spirit about you. I am blessed to have you in my life.

Strawberries

Instructions for an easy strawberry smoothie!!

In a blender combine:
6 ice cubes
7 large strawberries
a splash of orange juice
1 tablespoon sugar
Blend for about 15 seconds or until ice is crushed.
Enjoy!

I have been drinking these for weeks now :) There is a strawberry farm that has just opened up and we are already half way through our 16th quart of strawberries! We love strawberries! We've also been enjoying some delicious strawberry treats like waffles with strawberries and whip cream, and today hubby brought home a small pound cake to eat with our fresh strawberries. Yuummm....excuse me while I go and eat.....

Going for a record!

OK....I don't know what's up but I think we are headed towards a record for colds. We are all now on cold #6 over 6 months. I think we are going to look into getting an air purifier/ionizer for the house. Today, mine has really hit and all 4 kids are in the middle of theirs. Is it just us or are other people catching colds like this continually??

I love to crochet!

Since I taught myself how to crochet a few weeks back, I've been busy making lots of neat things. My most recent project today was making a purse for my daughter. She loves it!!!! I hand sewed beads to the front as well to give it a little pizzaz. It fits her just perfect. So far she has a change purse, a comb and some lip balm in there. She says it makes her feel grown up :)