Aug. 23, 2009 - End of the Summer Fair

What a great way to end the summer.  We spent the day at the Lynden Fair.  This was the first year of no stroller!  It was wonderful.  All the kids were old enough and tall enough to go on rides.  They enjoyed the farm animals and a magic show, and cotton candy.  The day was fillled with much laughter and ended at the local pizza parlor.  It was a perfect afternoon.

Braden enjoying some cotton candy

James giving his thumbs up approval of the day

Alaura and Adayla enjoying a rollercoaster ride

Loren and James posing for the camera

Logan milking a fake cow in the dairy barn

The four big kids ready to ride together....

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Jun. 17, 2009 - Mr. Cool

Mr. Cool 2 year old sitting on the counter, up to no good!  Pretty cute!

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Jun. 16, 2009 - Ballerina Princesses

Home from the ballet recital.  The girls were beautiful and they got wonderful boquets of flowers from their Grandparents.  What lucky ballerina princesses!

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Jun. 15, 2009 - Handsome Husband

Here is my handsome, wonderful husband working oh, so hard outside with this power tools!  I love him sooo much!!!!

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Jun. 9, 2009 - Kindergarten Graduation

Today was Kindergarten graduation at Lynden Academy.  Mrs. S. gave each child an award to end the school year.  It was alot of fun and really special to see your child stand up in front of everyone and have such wonderful things said about them.

Adayla, Jonathan, and Alaura being silly friends

Three Best Friends!!  The called him Johnny Appleseed.

Mrs. S. told everyone how Alaura is her special "mini-me".  She was awarded with the Teachers Helper Award.  Alaura likes everything to be very organized and "just so." just like her teacher.

Alaura's special award brought big smiles!

Mrs. S. awarded Adayla with the special certificate for most Enthusiastic Student.  Her enthusiasm has led her to be the most improved  in reading and writing this year.  Adayla jumps in with 2 feet first and gives everything she's got and then asks questions later :)  Not always the best idea, but it seems to be working for her so far!

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May. 30, 2009 - Loren and Jimmy

Today Loren decided to spend some time with Jimmy.  Did you ever see a 2 year old so happy to have a snake wrap himself around him like this.  Pretty cute.

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May. 30, 2009 - Ballet Recital Dress Rehearsal

Today was the big dress rehearsal for the ballet recital the girls are in.  They did a great job and are really looking forward to performing at Mt. Baker theater in 2 weeks.

Adayla was happy to be beautified with make up and a fancy ballerina bun on her head.  She twirled around the house in her tutu for hours. This will be Adayla'a first ballet recital.

Alaura was in her regular ballet leo on her way to the rehearsal and thought she'd show me just how beautiful her eyes were today. You can't miss those eyes! This will be Alaura's 3rd ballet recital. 

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May. 30, 2009 - Stinging Nettles

It's that time a year again!  The stinging nettles are out looking for a few good legs to rub on.  Adayla was the first victim of this evil plant this year.  She screamed as though she was dying but after daddy gave her some ice to rub on it and few tickles, she was laughing in no time. Since this picture, many more victims have fallen to the stinging itch...

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May. 13, 2009 - Digging a trench in the warm sun

Daddy had to dig a long trench today to fix the water problem outside.  The kids were happy to help :) 

Adayla helped daddy dig the trench.  One tough girl that LOVES to help with outside chores!

Braden got the job of burrying the pipe and getting it all filled back in.  Kids are awesome help for daddy!

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May. 13, 2009 - Mothers Day Photos

Mommy and her six beautiful children

Daddy's beautiful girls!

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Apr. 29, 2009 - AWANA GRADPRIX RACES!!

Tonight was the AWANA Grand prix races!  We had a fun pizza dinner with all our church friends.  Then we moved on to the races.  Unfortunately we didn't win the over-all trophy for fastest car but Adayla did come in 2nd place in 3 of her races and 3rd place in 3 of her races.  Alaura's car didn't win any races but she did win 2nd place for funniest car.  The girls designed their own cars, sanded them, painted them and fully decorated them.  Adayla really wanted hers to look like Lightning McQueen and Alaura wanted an animal car.  They did their own paint jobs and were very proud of themselves for such great cars that were made.  Both girls also earned blue ribbons for finishing their bible verses memorization book.  They memorized and recited 33 verses this year.  Way to go Girls!!!  Daddy dropped the camera and broke the zoom and focus while we were at the races so the pictures are very poor quality.  Oh well, you get the idea from these few pictures anyway.  Enjoy!

GRAND PRIX RACE TRACK

ALAURA WITH HER CAR, 2ND PLACE FUNNIEST CAR AWARD, AND BLUE RIBBON FOR BOOK COMPLETION

ADAYLA WITH HER CAR AND BLUE RIBBON FOR BOOK COMPLETION

ADAYLA'S BEAUTIFUL RACE CAR

ALAURA'S SUPER CUTE ANIMAL CAR

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Apr. 29, 2009 - Spring Discoveries

Spring has arrived!  With the beautiful weather comes outside discoveries.  Today the kids discovered a slimey, nasty blob at the stream out back.  Turns out what they discovered was a blob of frog eggs floating in it's "jelly".  They found tadpoles and very noisy frogs too!  Here is a picture of there egg nest in a bucket.

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Apr. 12, 2009 - Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!!   We had a wonderful day.  We spent some time at church this morning.  It's always a wonderful service and this year the word "sacrafice" stood out to me.  I often get caught up in what that definition means to me in my everyday life.  What we seem to forget is what that word truely means and who paid the ultimate sacrafice for us.  We are so blessed and loved. 

When we got home, we found that the Easter Bunny came for a visit while we were gone!  The kids enjoyed their baskets full of special treats.  Nana and Papa John came over and shared a yummy ham dinner with us.  We decorated eggs and had an indoor (rain outside) egg hunt.  The kids really enjoyed their day and crashed hard when it all ended. 

James loves the peeps the best!

Braden wearing his cool necklace

Beautiful Easter Flowers Alaura, and Adayla

Logan got sand toys!!!

Loren says, "I like this Easter Bunny thing!" 

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Apr. 11, 2009 - Easter Cookies

Friday was cookie baking day! All of the kids got to roll out the dough, cut out the cookies, bake them, and the best part of all.....decorate them!  They all did a great job!  We chose the oldest and youngest to show off their cookies this year.  Enjoy!

James made fancy cookies this year.  Cute bunny!

Whoa!  Look at that pile of sprinkles!  Finger lick'n good!

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Apr. 10, 2009 - High Fructose Corn Syrup

Our family has been trying to cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup out of our foods.  Do you know how hard this is???   It is in EVERYTHING!  As we starting reading labels, we realized that it is all around us, in all foods that come in a bottle or a bag or a box.  As to not be overwhelmed, we decided to change 1 item at a time.  We started with BBQ Sauce.  We love KC Masterpiece, but the first ingredient is...yup, HFCS.  We switched to Bullseye BBQ Sauce.  Just as tastey and no HFCS.  Our wheat bread is HFCS free.  Okay, we were on a roll.  Obviously, no more soda pop cause that is pure HFCS.  Next challenge....changing what we put on our pancakes......It's kind of becoming a game of finding something in our house with HFCS and then go to the store and hunt for it's new replacement brand. 

What wrong with HFCS, you may ask?? No, it's not any more dangerous for you than sugar.  It's just much cheaper so companies are putting it in EVERYTHING as a preservative.  So, when you think you are eating healthy, you later find out that it's laced with HFCS.  By being aware of what has HFCS in it, and finding an alternative, you are cutting back on the sugar intake.  Statistic:  We consume an average of 132 calories of just HFCS each day. 

Cutting out HFCS is just one small step that our family has chosen to live a healthier life.  We tried some other changes too.  We switched out white tortilla shells to whole wheat.  The kids loved the switch.  They said the wheat shells were more moist. Yeah!  Every shopping trip we bring home one new thing to try.  Maybe someday, we will be shopping and eating healthier, just one product change at a time.

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Mar. 26, 2009 - Meet Woody!

Our family has been so blessed this year with another baby!  No, I didn't manage to give birth to another sillies!  This is Woody.  He is with us 4 days a week.  We love him to death and has been a wonderful addition to our family.  The kids were excited to pose with Woody so everyone could see thier newest little buddy.  I have yet to actually get to do much with Woody, as somebody else always seems to be playing with him.  His days with us are busy and I'm sure he likes the quiet of his own home at the end of the day.

This is Woody with James.  Isn't he adorable.  He is 7 months old and a yummy chunky little guy.  We love you Woody! :)

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Mar. 23, 2009 - Proud Mommy Moment

When raising our children we always pray that if they could grow up to have one thing or to be one thing or to learn only one thing it would be to have a gentle, forgiving, loving heart.  For some children this is learned and for others they are just born with it as part of who they are.  I have been so blessed to have six children all with wonderful hearts but today one of my children stood out among the rest.  We are a part of a homeschool co-op and today was parent/teacher conferences.  This is what I recieved from Alaura's teacher.

"Alaura is my sweetheart and my helper.  She likes to take care of the flock.  She takes pride in putting the room in order and helping other students with their work.  She is caring and empathetic towards things great and small."  

She went on to comment more specifically on her learning progress for the year, but none of that mattered to me.  The fact that my daughter uses her gentle, loving, helpful, polite, motherly spirit is all that matters to me.  She is everything I could have dreamed my daughter would be.

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Mar. 17, 2009 - One of those days......

Hey look....it's my typical day :) 

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Mar. 17, 2009 - Pirate Birthday!

It was a pirate birthday this year for Logan's 4th birthday.  The kids all had a great time and Grandpa C. made a fantastic cake as always!  Logan got several wonderful gifts including his first bike with training wheels.  The highlight of his birthday was FINALLY being old enough to chew gum!  And he savored every last juicy slurp of that first piece of gum :)

My pirate crew of 6!  Arrghh.....

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Mar. 9, 2009 - Tanzania, Africa

So my very dear friend, Richelle, whom has been by my side during the most worst times of my life (7 years ago) and standing right next me during the best times of my life, (the birth of my children), and most importantly an amazing second mom to my children, has left me for an unknown amount of time.  She left on Thursday morning for Tanzania, Africa.  She will be attending DTS for six months and then most likely spending time in orphanages after that.  She is not really sure of the direction that the Lord is taking her, just that for right now, it's in Africa.  I am so proud of her for so many reasons but the silly selfish girl inside me that loves her so much wants to cry out......COME HOME!  DON'T LEAVE ME!!  I have been selfish for many years and have taken full advantage of our friendship with nothing ever asked of me in return.  The very least that I can do for her is to wish her well, tell her that I love her, and pray everyday that she finds the path that the Lord has laid out for her, even if it's in Africa.  So, Lord, if your listening.....You know my heart and all that I want for Richelle. Please keep her safe and bring her home to me as soon as you can. 

             WE ALL MISS YOU SHELL!!!!!

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