Thankful Thursday *Updated*

1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

On Thursdays I've been going over to the tiny town called Twisp (say that 5 times fast) to have a bible study/prayer time with 2 women. We've started studying through the book of Esther, starting with chapter 1 today. (bible study went GREAT!)

On the way home over Loup Loup pass, there had been a wreck/accident at a very curvy part of the road. (Omak Chronicle, info about accident) As I slowly passed by all the flashing lights, ambulances and what have you, my first thought was "Oh no, someone is probably hurt." My second thought was, "That could be me or somone I know." So as I'm praying for the unkown person/accident, I started thinking about  James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

There are so many things I take for granted each day, so I wanted to share some things I'm thankful for today...

I take for granted the A/C working in the van, which it is not doing right now...

Yes! This was the temperature when I left the office in Twisp.

I am thakful for summer and A/C in the van (when it works)!

I keep telling Chris it's against the law for me to pump gas, haha...

 He doesn't belive me, but he knows I hate pumping gas so

 most of the time he will make sure there is gas in the vehicles ...most of the time.

I am thankful I didn't run out of gas on the way back home!

Aaahh, walking into the cool A/C in the house...

I am SO thankful for air conditioning on really hot days!!!

After all the sweating I did with no A/C in the van,

 I was thankful to get home and wash up.

I am thankful for clean running water and soap!

It might seem so simple a thing...

I am thankful for fresh clean towels!

Something I think most of us take for granted...

I am thankful for ice water!!!

We do this so often, most of the time I don't even think about it.

I take for granted sitting around the table, having a healthy, hot meal with my family.

I am thankful for my family and daily bread!

 

Playing apple letters with Lilly and Olivia.

I am thankful for my children, their laughter

and being able to have fun with them!

I am also VERY thankful for friends and family who pray for me. Last week and this week I've gotten e-mails, cards, letters and phone calls from loved ones letting me know they've been thinking about me and praying for me and my family. If that's you....THANK YOU!!!

If you've just read this post...please share some things you're thankful for.

Sammy J

I know I am a little behind with getting this post on here. The sound of fire works going off in the neighborhood keeps reminding me I still haven't posted about the momentous event in our house!

June 25th we celebrated Samuel's 1st birthday!!! Can he really be a year old already?  I guess time flies when your having fun. We have SO much enjoyed having this little guy around.

Just a few things about this great little guy...

He can drive without pushing the gas OR looking at the road :-)

He tries to teach Chip how to do push ups...

Has the longest tongue in the world...

Has 2 of the coolest sisters ever!

LOVES LOVES LOVES taking a bath!!!

He likes birthday cake!

Happy Birthday Samuel!

Apron Giveaway

Who doesn't love a nice giveaway?!  If your not into entering those sort of things, I would recommend still checking out the blog.   Giveaway at Growing Home Blog

Sweet Little O!

Happy 5th Birthday Olivia!! It seems like just yesterday we celebrated her 4th birthday. Where does the time go?  We have been extremely blessed with such a funny/crazy/weird little person, who is now 5 years old! I don't think there has been a day go by that Olivia hasn't said something funny or something to put a smile on our face. She is an extremely picky eater but with our encouragement she is getting better with eating and trying new things. When asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner she said peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I'm fairly confident that she could eat pb&j sandwiches every day of the week. She is also quite the challenge for us as parents. I tell her all the time she is going to give me gray hair or no hair. I think it's an understatement to say that she is quite a character.

(She had a piece of rice stuck on her nose)

Just some things I would like to share with you that Olivia has said recently:

Samuel was sitting on the couch next to me, Olivia came into the room and started laughing and laughing. So I asked what was so funny and she replied, "Samuel is sitting on the couch like a human!"

Olivia was learning scripture and part of it was Luke 4:44 which says..."And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee" We were going over it and I asked her if she could try to say it on her own and she said of course...." And he preached in the Galliglogs of Salilee."

We were visiting with Steve and Sherri Vaughn a while back and had just been teaching and talking to Olivia about treating others the way you want to be treated. If I recall the situation right she was asking Sherri if she could help her do something and said that "I just want to treat you the way I want to treat you" to which Sherri was kind of concerned how was she wanting to treat her. It was kind of a confusing moment but after I realized what she was talking about had a VERY good laugh!!

Both girls went to wash their hands and when they came out of the bathroom I asked if their hands were all clean and Olivia replied with, "Yup cuz I used hanitizer." (I think she meant hand sanitizer)

I was boiling some eggs on the stove for hard boiled eggs and Olivia was helping. After looking in the pan with the eggs with a questioning look on her face she asked, "Mama why do you have rotten eggs in boiling water?"

She has been helping Samuel learn how to walk and one day she was walking around with him and let go and said, "Mama hurry and look, Samuel is walking like a human!"  (maybe one day we will tell her that he is a human, lol)

Ok just one more....the other day Olivia was using the bathroom and called out that there was no toilet paper in there and she needed someone to bring her some. So I said "Ok, Lilly is going to go get you some", then Olivia calls out and says "Nevermind!!". I'm thinking to myself nevermind?! So I asked if she found some toilet paper and she said, "No, I'm just going to use my hand!" To which I replied with a "NOOOOO!" and ran to the bathroom to stop that from happening!!!

We had ice cream cookie cups...

(chocolate chip cookie on bottom, scoop of ice cream

on top of that with whip cream and chocolate syrup)

Dress up with her cousins on a trip to Texas a couple weeks ago.

From top, left to right: Sophia as Blue M&M, Olivia as a Bumble bee, Lilly as a Fairy

Gia as a Bride Princess and in very front none other than Jerry as the Hulk



Spring Recital

Aahh, what a busy day we've had around here today. Lilly has finished up all her paces and has completed the 2nd grade!! She is SO very excited to start the 3rd grade. She asked me if her paces were going to be even more difficult for the 3rd grade and I said "Yes, probably they will be a little more challenging." I thought she was going to be upset by this but she was even more excited to start. Crazy kid. She also had a recital this evening, hence the title of the post, at Apple Springs Retirement Home. Once again she did a great job! She did 3 songs all together. The first one she played with 3 other girls was called Dixie Land Jam.  I only got the last 2 songs on video though. She has 2 more piano lessons this month and then she's off for summer break and won't start lessons again until school starts. Hope you enjoy the video's.  :-)

All the students that performed.
 Lilly is in the front row in the blue skirt. 

Songbird Chorus

 (note to self: get a better spot next time for recording)

Green Sleeves (Lilly-piano, Chris-guitar)

Piano Recital Video



1st song: Asleep In The Nest...by Greenleaf

2nd song: I've Got The Joy...by Cooke



Piano Recital

As I mentioned in my previous post, Lilly had a piano recital last night. She did such a GREAT job, as did her fellow piano students.  I was very impressed at how well they all performed and played their pieces from memory. We also enjoyed a pot luck before the recital with the other students and parents and over all had a very lovely evening.

The students that performed 

 

Lilly and her teacher Mrs. Christensen

 

[[[[This is the spot where the video of Lilly playing is suppose to be. For some reason it's not wanting to upload. The last time I tried I let it sit here for over an hour. Not sure what the problem is but hopefully later I can get it on here.]]]]

 

Olivia and Lilly posin' for the camera

 

My Sweeeet Baby Cakes! I just love this little guy :-)

A Whole Month?

Has it really been a whole month since my last post? Time sure flys by when you have little ones running and CRAWLING around! Yes you read that right, Samuel is crawling now. On Valentines day he started doing this belly hop thing and a few days later he had crawling down like a pro. He also has 6 teeth already and is working on 2 more! He is still very much attatched to me and LOVES taking a bath. He is growing sooo fast, I can't belive in 4 months he will be a year old.  Lilly and Olivia have taken to "mothering" him and sometimes argue over who's going to play with him. He definately doesn't mind and loves the attention.

Olivia has been busy learning the sounds each letter in alphabet makes and  an animal and song that go with each letter. She is working on memorizing Psalm 100 and has it all down except for the very last part of the last verse. She is also learning numbers and is very good at math and counting. She also is SO very funny and she's always saying very funny things. I have a growing list of funny things her and Lilly have said that I will post another day.

Lilly has a piano recital later on this evening, so hopefully I will be able to get some good pictures and videos to post. She has been doing very well with her piano lessons and her teacher says she has a good ear for music. She is almost finished with her paces for the year and has already finished reading the books we got her for Christmas. She loves to read and what I like very much is that she likes to read to Olivia. It is so sweet to see them sitting and enjoying a book together.

Chris has been busy as well with the outreach and jail ministry here in the Methow and Okanogan Valleys. We will be traveling to Maryland here soon as he is scheduled to preach at a church there. He has had several doctor appointments over his ankle and is still having alot of pain and swelling. Here recently he had  a steroid injection of some type and it seems to have made things worse. Way worse than it was before. He has an appointment with his doctor today, so hopefully they can figure out something to do to help.

So what have I been up to? Chris and I moved our house/bedrooms around, so I have been trying to settle on a paint color for a couple of the rooms. Chris got me a very early birthday present, a kindle! Those things are so neat! Since both of the girls have had growth spurts like crazy, I've been making them some culottes to wear this spring and summer. This week in particular, I've been busy getting us ready to go on a trip coming up soon to fly to TN to visit our family. I am SO excited about this trip and also very sad at the same time. Last month on the 18th,  my Memaw (grandmother) passed away so I'm very sad that I won't be able to see her when we get there. I am also not looking forward to the traveling part of the trip either. This will be the first time flying with 3 children and we thought it was hard with 1! But I think we have prepared plenty of things for them to do and hopefully we won't be the annoying family with crying children the whole flight :-/.

Last night I was up waaaaay too long and past my bedtime changing the look of my blog. I was bored with the way it looked and felt the need to spice things up a bit. I'm still not happy about the background and will probably change it....again. I went through so many different backgrounds and font's last night trying to find the ones I liked. So what do ya think of it the way it is? I think it's too dark and not too crazy aobut the font, I dunno. I don't have too much time to work on it, so it's going to have to stay this way for a little while.

Anyhow, since I really haven't been taking pictures lately and don't have new ones of the kiddos, I will leave you with some art the girls have drawn/painted on the easel that Lilly got for Christmas.

The Majors Family

What happens if you have a small body and huge head?

You fall over!

 Lilly hung these up to dry on the refrigerator.

Hopefully we won't need anything out of the refrigerator

for a while.

 Olivia drew this. She said this is her Daddy and he is so strong.

Glaucoma?!

I have had to wear glasses since the sixth grade, ugh. So I am very familiar with going in for an eye exam every year to every couple of years. Well, today I went in for a regular eye exam and to get contacts. Everything was going as usual, then the Dr. tells me my eye pressure is very high. Then I hear the word, glaucoma. I don't have glaucoma (thank you Lord!!!), but I am at high risk of getting it in the future. I don't know too much about it, besides it can cause blindness (I think). While I wait for my next appointment (in 4 months), I will surely be looking into it. I looked it up once today as soon as I got home and what I read made me kinda scared. As I sat here wondering if one day I will become blind or have to have some kind of eye surgery, I looked over at the calendar on the wall. Do you know what it said? At the bottom, it has a verse of scripture: 2 Samuel 22:33 God is my strength and power; and He maketh my way perfect. I thought, how silly I'm being. I was getting myself so worked up over what might one day happen. If it does or doesn't happen, God will be there giving me the strength to get through it. 

Thank you Grandma Spence for sending us those calendar's every year!!!!

Home Sweet Home

We made it back home on Monday evening. It has taken a few days to get settled back in at home. It always surprises me how much work it is to get all of us unpacked and then get back into a routine. We had a great time visiting with the McDowell family, it was truly a great blessing to spend New Years with them. God is so good to us and gives us exactly what we need, when we need it! The drive was so beautiful, I took tons of pictures and it was hard to choose which ones to share in this post. So I picked a few....

On the road, leaving Okanogan

 The boys checking out Samuel

 On the road, leaving Oregon

 Gave the girls gum and Olivia got it stuck in her hair!

 With not many options and no peanut butter, we

decided to just cut it out. I thought she would be upset

but she was more ok with it than me, lol.

 Learning how to drive at 6 months :-)