Happy Birthday

Today our boy turns 5!!! He is growing up so fast. His party is not until tomorrow but that didn't stop us from celebrating tonight. Not only does our boy like pirates (the theme for tomorrow) but he loves watching Daniel Boone and Davey Crockett. So we thought it quite appropriate to get him a coon-skin cap which he just loves! I loved the expression on his face when he saw it. I asked him the other day how Davey Crockett made his hat and he replied "he caught a raccoon, cut off its butt and put it on his head...." hahahaha I laughed so hard! He also got a watch which will help him as he learns to tell time :) We all enjoyed the store-bought spiderman cupcakes while Mommy is busy making the cake for tomorrow. This was the first 'flop' I've had. What a frustrating day to say the least. The first attempt ended up in the garbage, so I had to readjust my plan of action and the second turned out better. It wasn't exactly what I had planned but our boy loves the look so far. Just a few more details and it will be done. As always, I will post pictures tomorrow of it.....but for now here is some from tonight.

Twins?

I've been going through some old pictures and comparing our 2 girls who are 7 years apart. They do look alike!! Here are some cute comparisons. Can you tell who is who?

Visit

We had a really nice visit from friends over the weekend. We don't get to see them very often but we keep in contact through facebook and blogging :) All the kids got along so well for meeting each other for the first time. Our daughter has not stopped talking about one friend in particular *grin*. With their 6 kids and our 4, it was lots of fun!

Then today we headed off to the mountains again and enjoyed the drive and nice weather. This time we went to Jump Off Rock where you can see 8 different mountain ranges.

Love this!

Love this new website at i am baker. She mostly does royal icing cookies which I have tried once before and failed miserably. She does some cakes as well....but she has definitely sparked my interest again in cookies and trying out royal icing using her recipe. What neat ideas....I think I spent almost an hour looking through her stuff!!

I've also added a new blog to my left side bar. Women living well has some great reading!!

Marshmallow toothpick towers

Today we were making marshmallow towers and shapes....and I'm pretty sure there was some eating too when Mommy wasn't looking :)

Rachel Yoder Maple Cookies

Ever since our daughter has been reading the Rachel Yoder series, that's ALL she talks about. Not only talks about it but pretends she is Rachel, draws pictures about Rachel....on and on ..... I'm thankful she is so enthusiastic about reading now and enjoying this series. She is now on book 6 out of the 8 book series. At the end of her books there are Amish recipes and she asked if she could make one. I told her to pick her favorite and she chose Maple Cookies "because they are Rachel's favorite!!" So today she made cookies for the family :)

Growing

Here are some photos taken yesterday. I can see so many changes in the kids lately. It's like all of them are going through a growth spurt all at the same time! I can really see it in our oldest right now. I'm going to blink and she will be a teenager before I know it!! We've also had to bring down the 12 month clothes from the attic for our 6 month old girl. Good grief she is growing fast! I washed all of them and was reminising with our oldest daughter about "I remember when you wore this...." "This is what you wore when..."

And you will NEVER guess what 4 out of the 6 of us have right now....yep, another cold. This is getting disturbing! Our 7th cold in 7 months. I'm seriously thinking about taking us all to the doctor next month if we get another one. It's definitely not allergies. They start off with a sore throat, move to the sneezing running nose and end with a cough. We all get it around the same time, within days of each other....I just don't know.

She's on the move

A unique mode of transportation

Happy Father's Day

My husband is a great father! He loves to play with his kids, he teaches them and instructs them, he is an example to them, and shows them affection with kisses and hugs and wisker burns :) They love their Daddy! Happy Father's Day Babe. I'm so grateful God gave you to me and how He has blessed us with 4 beautiful children.
Happy Father's Day to my Dad! You too are a great father and I'm thankful to God for you. You encourage us, support us and love us, and continue to be a wonderful example of fatherhood.
Happy Father's Day to my Dad-in-law. We appreciate your example as well and all the encouragement you have been to us as well as your support and love.
We are truly blessed!

Goodbye carpenters

The Carpenters for Christ have gone home now, and we really enjoyed meeting in the new building last night for service. How exciting it will be once it is completed and we meet in there permanently!! I believe there is a second group coming (maybe even tomorrow??) to continue working on the building. Our God is providing and we pray it won't be too long before the building is completed.
We are also dedicating our daughter this Sunday. Our first born was dedicated on Mother's Day and baby girl will be dedicated on Father's Day! Hopefully she won't cry too much for Pastor :)

I passed!

Am I ever glad THAT's over!!!! I have been studying my 100 questions for the civics test for my citizenship test and was so nervous about it but ..... I passed!!! It took about 10 mins from start to finish and now I wait to hear when I will be sworn in. My hubby keeps saying he feels sad for me in a way. It is a big thing to change your citizenship and I'm thankful he appreciates me as a Canadian :)

6 months

Our girl is 6 months old already. My, my how quickly half a year can go by!!! She is doing great in all areas, getting close to being able to sit on her own (a few seconds by herself right now), enjoying her sweet potato (green beans not so much!), and working on teeth #3 and 4 (I can see them under the gums). The weather here has been HOT and HUMID! I feel so much for the carpenters working on our church building. I'm also going for my citizenship interview on Wednesday so you could pray for me :)




rosy red cheeks from playing outside!

Church video

I've been updating the church blog a couple times a day so I haven't had much to post on my own blog :) Here is a video I took today of the guys installing one of the trusses. Be sure to keep checking out the church blog for continual updates!

Church updates

Continuing to update the church blog at http://BBCinSouthCarolina.blogspot.com Keep checking daily for updates. These are exciting times for our church!!

Pillow

The dinosaur pillow is done! She did a good job for her first time. It took awhile this morning to finish off the last side. I think she was getting a bit frustrated but when it was completed, she was quite happy....and so was brother! I gave her a blunt tapestry needle to work with for her first project which made it difficult getting through the fabric at times. She wants to make a quilt next (very ambitious) but I told her she needs to do a couple more pillows first to practice her stitching :)

Sewing

She is now learning how to sew! We are starting with something simple....a pillow. She wants her first pillow to be for her brother "because he was just so nice to me today!" We went to the store and let brother pick out his fabric of choice....of course it was dinosaurs! She measured her material, marked and cut, marked the edges as a guide to hand sew, threaded her needle, and I showed her the first few stitches and off she went.....
So far she says it's lots of fun! There have been some tangles and redo's along the way but I'm glad she is having fun with it and learning! She can't wait to use the sewing machine, but I told her she needed to learn to hand sew first. Today she says "I'm learning what Mommy's do!" I'm glad I can teach you my babe :)

All on her own

Today I had our daughter bake cupcakes all on her own (no help at all!). I stood back and watched (and only piped in when it got to putting the batter into the paper cups....she was a little too free with the arms and spreading batter everywhere!)

reading her instructions and gathering ingredients

measuring out water and oil

adding the eggs

ooppss...forgot the dry mix!

mixing it up

rechecking the directions

pouring it into cups

into the oven

she was so excited when she was done and hugged and thanked me. I realized I have not been getting her involved enough in the aspects of home. I'm enjoying the new blog about Raising Godly Homemakers and that is one thing I pray our daughters grow up to be!!