Pictures over the past few days...

The day before Christmas Eve (friday), we went to Wenatchee. Wow was it busy! The girls were VERY tired on our drive home.

And here's the proof!

These poor children were so tired. They really did fall asleep like this. I woke Lilly up and got her to put her seat back a little bit because her neck would have really been hurting by the time we got home.

We spent Christmas Eve (saturday) at home, opening our gifts from friends, family and one another. We were very thankful to have recieved some games. We LOVE playing games! We also watched some Christmas movies and just had a nice relaxing day at home.

Chip being a chihuahua is always cold in the winter and anytime I have my electric blanket out he comes to snuggle. 

"Ahhh! Finally, I am warm!"

Then, Christmas Day (sunday), we headed over to Twisp and spent the morning/afternoon with two very dear ladies, Kimmie and Ruth. Chris had a great bible study for us on the birth of Jesus. The girls and Samuel behaved very well and I was able to hear the whole thing! We also sang some songs and Chris and Lilly played the piano for us.

Kimmie, Olivia and Lilly

 A very sharp/pointy icicle hanging off the office roof.

 Chris trying to prick his finger on the very sharp/pointy icicle, lol.

After we sang songs, I asked Chris and Lilly to play the song they played at the recital because I didn't get a great view. So here is Chris and Lilly playing the same song.

(In case you were wondering, at the end of the video I noticed I was

standing way too close to the heater)

It was such a beautiful drive over Loup Loup pass that morning. On the way home I had Chris pull over so I could take some pictures.

A view of the Methow Valley 

Look closely and you can see deer in the field. 

Deer tracks in the snow.

After we got home we got busy cooking our Christmas Dinner. We had a very tasty turkey with all the fixins. Here is something new I tried this year (pictured below). We paired this with some whole wheat Ritz crackers.

Holiday Feta Cheese Ball

I hope you all had a great Christmas! Now I must stop blogging and finish packing. We are taking a trip to Oregon to visit and spend New Years with some friends. What do you have planned for New Years?

Lilly's Christmas Recital

Here ia a video of Lilly playing at the Christmas Recital. Next time, I will definately try to get a better view.  They played at the Apple Springs retirement community this evening.

 Samuel is getting both of his two front

 bottom teeth in at the same time.

May God bless you and your family this Christmas!

Trip to O.H.

We got to Oak Harbor early yesterday evening. Belive it or not, we got here exactly when we wanted and planned on getting here. If you have ever traveled with 3 little ones and 2 dogs, you know how difficult it can be. It took us almost 6 hours to get to Oak Harbor from our house. I'm still surprised that we got here on time with all the snow on Stephens Pass and then the rain/traffic after that. We had plenty of time to relax and stretch out our legs before church and even have dinner! Thanks so much for dinner Sherri!  Brother Hower preached an excellent message and then there were great testimonies of how God is blessing in peoples lives. Then to top of a great night in God's house,  there was pie and fellowship with some much missed friends!

Also, I won the Family Daughter book giveaway that I posted about a couple days ago!!! How cool is that? I can't wait to read it.

Now some pictures....

"I can grab things with my hands now."

 "Now just to figure out how to grab things and

put them in my mouth at the same time."

 "Is this how you drink out of this thing?"

 Stevens Pass when we drove over it yesterday.

 Levi (the Vaughn's doggie)  checking out Samuel.

 On the blanket...

 Off the blanket, lol.

Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

My Sweet Lillian

Today, Lilly celebrated her 7th birthday! God has blessed us with such a sweet and loving little girl. I am so thankful for her and would like to share some pictures of her. I realized after I started looking through pictures this was not going to be a quick and easy post like I thought it was going to be. We have tons of pictures! So I tried to pick out some of my favorite. Now I must turn off this computer and get some sleep :). We leave first thing in the morning to Oak Harbor, to spend the week there for Thanksgiving.









The Family Daughter Giveaway

Sarah L Bryant and KBR Ministries are giving away a copy of the book The Family Daughter to one select lady. To find out how to enter the giveaway click on this link: 

 http://www.aboverubies.net/2011/11/family-daughter-review-and-giveaway.html

 Or you could go to the KBR  website and fill out their annual survey to be entered into the giveaway.

http://kingsbloomingrose.com/2011survey.html 

There are only 3 days left!

Rumble & Shake

This morning around 5 a.m. we awoke to the house rumbling and shaking. Chris and I both sat up in bed asking each other "What was that? Was that an earthquake?" We were so convinced that it wasn't an earthquake, that we even thought maybe someone had had an accident on the road behind/above our house and came rolling down the hill or something. We looked around out the windows upstaris but nothing was out of the ordinary, no cars had crashed into our house. So after getting the girls and Samuel back to sleep, I got online and found out that yes, indeed we did have an earthquake! I don't know much of anything about earthquakes, but if you follow this link it will tell you all about the earthquake we had this morning. There are some very interesting things on this website about earthquakes, if you have time to check it out.

 http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/uw11181309.php

http://www.omakchronicle.com/nws/n111118a.shtml

we also have another 2-4 inches of snow in our forcast for today!

A Snow Day

Brrr! It sure has gotten cold quick. I'm not sure what happened to our fall weather but it seems like we've skpped right over it and jumped right into winter. Yesterday around 2pm it started snowing and kept on going. When we woke up this morning we had almost 2 inches in some areas. Not much I know, but we have more snow in the forcast. The girls were very excited and wanted to go play in the snow right away. So we decided to have a snow day!

yesterday (looking out over our driveway)

this morning 

our very miniature snowman

the girls trying to make a bigger snowman



Fried Peach Pies

Two years ago this month (on the 7th), my Granny, Emma Haskins went to be with the Lord. Everytime I think of her, I think of the fried peach pies she made. A couple of years before she died, she showed me how to make them and for whatever reason I didn't write anything down. No recipe or anything. I guess I thought I could just remember everything. I am sure kicking myself now! To say her fried peach pies were delicious is an understatement. I've been wanting to try and make them for a while now. So after searching the internet and calling my Aunt Miranda and Aunt Stacy for help, Chris and I decided to just give it a try.

The problem I ran into, was every recipe search on the internet used dried peaches and my Granny used canned peaches. We would have happily used a recipe from the internet BUT we couldn't find dried peaches at any of the grocery stores around here. So, I called my Aunt's and they told me what they could remember but wasn't exactly sure. We ended up just choosing a peach pie filling recipe we found on the internet using canned peaches because that's what we had in the pantry.

The pies came out ok but didn't look or taste anything like my Granny's. That's the bad news, the good news is, we didn't burn down the house and we didn't have any serious burns. I will never forget that day Granny was trying to teach me how to make the pies, I accidentally dunked the tip of my ring finger in the hot oil when I was putting the pie in the pan. So I was very nervous when it came to that part! No matter how hard we try I don't think we will ever get them just the way she made them but we are sure going to keep trying.

a couple of them busted open :(

 Olivia kept Sambo busy for us

Lilly's First Recital

Lilly's piano teacher invited her students to play for the nursing home, here in Okanogan. Lilly played Jesus Love Me, Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow and Holy Holy Holy. Chris played also, he sang and played the guitar to How Deep the Father's Love for Us and Rejoice in the Lord. I tried to get a video but I was holding Samuel and he was moving around too much making the camera shake all over the place. I did get a picture of the group though. They all did a great job!

 

Catching Up

The past couple of months have been super busy and there is no sign of things slowing down anytime soon. My mom came out to visit in August, which was wonderful! If I had my way she would never leave but I guess holding someone hostage is against the law, haha.  :-). We went to the Rodeo/Suicide Race in Omak. We had a great time despite the heat and the dust in the air. Can't wait till next year!

 In September, school started back up and if you didn't already know, we homeschool the girls. Lilly is at a 2nd grade level and Olivia has just started so she would be at a kindergarten level. Lilly is also taking piano lessons every Monday and so far she is really enjoying it. We took a trip to Oak Harbor and I got to attend the Ladies Bible Fellowship, which was great!

This last month, October, Samuel hit the 4 months old mark! He is doing wonderful and growing very fast. He laughs out loud alot and he rolled over for the first time this month! We were also able to take another trip to OH to attend the Missions Conference, which was a huge huge blessing!!!  I can't say enough good things about the teaching/preaching from Bro. Bruce Martin. Also, at the end of this month my brother Rick, was out riding horses with friends and long story short he ended up with a very badly injured and broken leg and foot. It is an answer to prayer that he didn't lose his leg but he has a long road of recovery ahead. So if you would please pray for his leg to heal properly, that he would be able to walk normally and for the pain that he is in. Big note here...Oct. 19th 2005 ( 6 years ago!!), I trusted Christ as my Savior! Thank you Mrs. Cheryl Prisk for sharing the Gospel with me and leading me to the Lord!

I know that was a quick review of what's been going on in our lives these last couple of months. But to mention everything I would be at this computer for a VERY long time. As I sit here and look back over the last couple of months, I have to say God has been working in my life in SO many ways. As you can see I have changed the title of my blog. I heard the song, Only One Life, for the very first time back in September at the LBF over in OH.  I haven't been able to stop thinking of it since! I have read over and over the words to this song and it has given me many things to think on. This has become my favorite song and will remain so for a long time I'm sure.

Only One Life

Only one life to offer; Jesus my Lord and King;

Only one tongue to praise Thee and of Thy mercy sing;

Only one heart's devotion;

 Savior, O may it be Consecrated alone to Thy matchless glory,

Yielded fully to Thee.

Only this hour is mine, Lord; May it be used for Thee;

May every passing moment count for eternity.

Souls all about are dying, Dying in sin and shame;

Help me to bring them the message of Calvary's redemption

In Thy glorious name.

Only one life to offer; Take it, dear Lord, I pray;

Nothing from Thee with-holding, Thy will I now obey.

Thou who hast freely given Thine all in all for me,

Claim this life for Thine own to be used, my Savior,

Every moment for Thee.

Several things...

Numero Uno... The Waldrons are back from vacation/camping, so we had them over for dinner last night. Chris made everyone pancakes and bacon. We had kind of a pancake extravaganza night. There was blueberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, bananas, peanut butter and even raisins to choose from to have in/on our pancake. Not enough for ya? Chris also put out powdered sugar, 2 kinds of syrup and whipped cream for the top, yuuum! I had chocolate chip pancakes with fresh blueberries/strawberries and whipped cream on top with a slice of bacon. (I also had Kali help me fix up my blog and help me with the things I couldn't figure out. How does it look? Thank you Kali!)

Numero Dos... I got my hair cut, twice!! I don't have a picture to put on here right now but will try to do that later. I will also explain the two haircuts in two days. Ooooh the suspense, heehee.

Numero Tres... New curtains, yay! Downstairs is our family room and for a long time now I have tried to find some colorful but not too "busy" curtains to go down there. There is alot of brown going on...the couch, the carpet, the t.v. stand and a brown shelf. Lotta brown and needing some color! So I finally found some I like at pier one. Got them home and put up, they look great! They had a weird smell so I washed them and then accidentally shrunk them... big unhappy face here! The ones over the window look fine, no problem there but the ones that go over the glass door are about 8 inches too short.

Numero quatro... We were driving to town one day (the long way) and I looked over and saw this building structure with a huge yellow banner over the top that said, A Monument to Government Stupidity.  So I told Chris and he turned around so we could get a better look. Not sure what it is or was or what it was supposed to be but I would sure like to know. Maybe I can ask around and find out. To be continued...

 

Just a Tuesday

Today feels like a monday...but it's not it's just a tuesday. The plan for the day was to catch up on all the laundry that I have gotten wayy behind on. :(  When we first moved into the house I noticed that my wonderful extra large washing machine was leaking. We thought that the tub had gotten off track from the move, so Chris worked on it and it stopped leaking. Now almost a year later it has decided to leak again, way more than it leaked before might I add. So Chris again worked on it but hasn't been able to get it to stop leaking so far. I have been putting towls down to soak up the water leaking out and doing small loads because they don't seem to leak as much. We have also found out there is no local washer repair person that can come look at it, they are about an hour or so away AND the person Chris talked to said our washer is going to be very expensive to fix, blaaah. Anyhow with the leaking and being so busy with the kiddos and everything else, the laundry has gotten backed up. So I got ALL the laundry seperated and ready to be washed and went to start the first load and wouldn't you know we are out of laundry detergent!!

Lilly making lunch (hers and Olivia's favorite..PB&J)



Huh?!

For a while now I have wanted to change some things on my blog. I haven't had time to do much else besides post pictures and such  here and there. I just couldn't help it.... today every minute I've had to get on the computer I have tried to do something to my blog. Why I have done this while Kali is on vacation and in another state I do not know. She helped me when I first started the blog and any time I have had a question. (Thanks Kali) Sooo, please bare with me while I try to figure out what I'm doing OR while I wait till Kali gets back and shows me how to fix what I've done wrong, haha.

Not again!!

This is Chip aka "Chipper". He has a problem... and

me being his owner it has become my problem! He is

a hoarder/pack rat, not sure what else you could call it.  

This is underneath my bed! It takes about a week for it to get like this. 

No matter how hard we try to keep all things picked up or bathroom doors closed

he always finds a way to get into everything.   

This is not even that bad, it has been way worse than this before.

4 socks, 2 pencils, an envelope, hair clip, a thumb tack, a house shoe

and tons of shredded up napkins, paper towels and toilet paper.

We may need to plan an intervention or take out an ad in the paper

for a free dog...just kidding. :))