Out of the mouth of babes

This is the most recent conversation that the girls and I had.

Me: "No school tomorrow!"
Lauren: "Why no school?"
Emily: "It's Good Friday that's why."
Amy: "Why is it Good Friday?"
Emily: "Because it is the day that Jesus died on the cross."
Lauren: "That's a Good Friday? I thought that it was Black Friday that Jesus died on."
Emily: "No, that is the awesome shopping day!"
Lauren: "Your telling me that we shop on Black Friday and Jesus died on Good Friday. Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

Emily's BIG day!!

These beautiful ladies are some of Emily's friends. From left to right.....Emily, Sydney, Brooke, Holly, and Sophie.




Our first stop of the day was at Warren Dunes State Park. It is basically huge mounds of SAND EVERYWHERE!!! We climbed the biggest one and then SEVERAL not quite as big ones. I SO got my exercise for the week in...in one afternoon!!!








We were led to a special water hole. It was GREAT fun and very refreshing for our over heated bodies.




Next we came back home and got ready for our next ADVENTURE!!!

The next BIG thing!!

I found out about Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A here!! I was SO excited when I read about it!! That special day just happened to be the same day that Emily was planning her Birthday Party. I asked the ladies if they would like to go. They were just as excited as I was. It was definitely going to be a part of our day. The gals worked together for two days getting their outfits ready. Here are pictures of our final products.

Yes, we did add a friend. Morgan is the little"cow" in the front.

It was so much fun!!! I want to totally encourage you and your family to do it next year!! We were able to order ANY meal off the menu for FREE!!!! The food was wonderful. I asked the ladies if they would like to do it again next year, but they just laughed and said, "Probably not!" So all my friends out there, be ready....because I am going to be begging you to go with me next year!!!

The day is coming to a close!

When we returned from Chick-Fil-A, it was time for Emily to open her present from her friends!!! Another friend came just for this part. Anna is the gal sitting in the chair on the left. I sent her on a treasure hunt to find her gift. It took her about thirty minutes to find it!! Her friends went in together and got her the gift that she has wanted for YEARS!!!



A DIGITAL CAMERA!!!! She was so excited!! Jeff and I were very excited too!!! There was no way that we could afford to buy her something so expensive. We as her parents hurt, because we couldn't get her her heart's desire. Thank you friends for making us all so happy!!!


After the gift time, the gals went swimming in the lake....in THE DARK!!! It was a lot of fun. We probably would have stayed for hours, but the mosquitoes were AWFUL!!!! They were eating us alive! We decided to go home and get showered and then watch a movie. The movie is finishing right now as I type. WOW, what an awesome day!!!

Happy Birthday, Emily!!

Water fun

Emily went tubing for a couple of minutes today!! She had a blast!!!

Amy had her fun on the water slide!!! Sometimes life here at the camp is just TOO easy!!!

What were we up to today?

Daniel's fun thing for today was listening to a CD, while in bed.



Emily is all about her hair. She enjoys looking good for any occasion. Today she worked hard on straightening her hair so that she could go....swimming in the lake!



Lauren and Amy's newest passion is making pot holders!!! They are very creative and quiet when they are doing these!! If anyone out there has extra pieces for a loom sitting around, my family would love them. Even Daniel has gotten into making these things. In fact we now have SO many pot holders in our house that many of you will be getting one for Christmas!!





Joel loves to have a HAMMER (or hanger in Joel language) in his hand at all times. I won't tattle on him and tell you some of the more creative places he has hammered. I will tell you though that he has gotten the hammer taken away more than once.

I am happy!!

I was TOLD to post again, because my last post was SO depressing! I am one to obey when given a command, so here you go!
I am going to tell you some good news today. Are you ready? I lost three pounds this week!! My grand total is now 17 pounds!!! I only HAVE to lose 3 more pounds, but I have decided to not stop there. I am not sure how far I will go, but I think I will know when I get there!
My older girls are having a sleep over tonight. Morgan and Abby are the friends of choice this evening. They are supposed to be watching a movie here in the living room right now, but they are laughing and talking while the movie is playing. Girls are so much fun!!!

2008 Father Daughter Banquet

Lauren, Emily, and Amy get to go to the Father Daughter Banquet here at the camp each year. While they are there they help their daddy with his work. When there isn't anything left for the children to do, they go to their seat and enjoy the food and the program. This night is always fun for the them all.

Amy helping Daddy make the punch.

Emily paying close attention to Daddy showing them how to cut the pies.

SMILE for the camera!!!

Little Miss America cutting her first pie.

A quick picture of them together before Daddy had to run refill something.

What a week

This week has been so good for me. God has asked me to do one of the hardest things I can ever remember doing. He wants me to TOTALLY trust Him with my husbands heart. I thought that I was "pretty" submissive, but He has shown me this week that it is not good enough to just be partially submissive. I need to be submissive in EVERY area. Well there is one specific area that I have reserved for myself. Imagine this, I didn't think that I could trust the God of this universe to direct my husband in what is best for our family. I have struggled GREATLY with this for years. I would "give" it to God and then find myself taking control again. I have given it to God again this week, but this time I didn't just say it....I wrote it on a piece of paper and laid it down on the alter. I bawled like a baby. I chose to TOTALLY trust God with my husband. I know that this battle is not over! Actually just typing this out is making me cringe, but I want so much to please the Lord and obey Him fully. I can't changed my husband.....ONLY GOD CAN!!! There really is such freedom in that knowledge. Now living it......I can only do it with God's help!!!

Now onto the more fun thing about this week. Lauren and Emily have been attending a drama camp during the day. Friday night they got to preform a play with the whole drama camp. Lauren sang her first SOLO in front of a crowd of about 200. She sang half of a song and her friend Sharon Weeks sang the other half. While Lauren was up on stage preforming, Jeff and I were beaming from ear to ear!! We were so proud of her. She actually looked like she belonged up there. Emily did great with her speaking parts. She also looked pretty natural. I can't imagine how two people who HATE to speak to a group, produced two children that seem to love it!! Only God knows how it happened!!

By the way, if you are interested in watching the exact services that Jeff and I are sitting in on, you can watch them LIVE over the Internet!!! Just go to http://www.lifeaction.org/lam/ Then click on the Revival Summit: live video stream. It should take you straight to the page. Services on Sunday morning start at 9:15 and go to probably 12:00 or so. Sunday night starts at 5:30. Monday through Thursday night begin at 6:30. If you get a chance to watch the services, I know that you will be TRULY glad that you did. Even Lauren is loving the services!!!

They are better than me

Lauren , Amy, Daniel, Emily and I decorated cookies the other day. They did better than I did!! I enjoy putting frosting on the cookies, but I don't care much for spending all that time decorating them. We had a great time together seeing what new ideas they could come up with.

We went out today to deliver some of those cookies, but we didn't give many away. At the first delivery, the man was not home. I drove right by the second delivery, I figured we could just deliver them on the way home....wrong. Third delivery, yes finally someone to give them to. Fourth delivery was never made either, but we plan on trying again tomorrow.

In the midst of our cookie deliveries, we went shopping to buy gifts, to give away, from Life Action. We had a blast buying things, but while we were shopping the roads got very ICY!! People were sliding off the roads. I do not like driving in the snow, but I hate ice even more. If I had known that it was going to be icy, I would never have left my house!!! On our way home from shopping, I slid through TWO stop signs and many other places. One of those slips was a miracle that we did not crash. I was going (sliding) as slowly as I could down a steep hill, at the bottom was a stop sign. I never did stop, not even close to stopping. I was headed straight for a truck crossing in front of me. I was totally calm though, a huge God thing!! I needed to turn the corner at the stop sign and it was as if God gently guided our van around the corner and we somehow slid up right behind the truck, without touching it!!! I hope my angels are getting their rest in anticipation of our commute to church in the morning! Jeff will be driving, Lauren will be in my seat in the front, and I will be in the back with the children where sight of the road is pretty much impossible. You know...what you can't see, can't hurt you!!

GOD, I WANT TO MOVE SOUTH!! In fact, my whole family wants to move south. Could you please move us SOON?

Today's highlights

1. Joel has a name for Lauren. Her official name from Joel is now.......Nauney (sounds like naughty)! Joel is obviously very perceptive of his sisters faults, because he also has a name for Emily. It is....Dissy (sounds like ditsy)! Enough said!!
2. We had another fire tonight while using the stove. Emily was just frying up some ground turkey and flames started shooting out from under the pan. Cooking over a open flame is not my idea of fun!! I blew out the flames and we moved the pan to another burner.
3. The children went outside to play most of the afternoon!!!
4. I gave Jeff a haircut.
5. I worked very diligently on our Christmas gifts for our supporters.
6. I got three separate foot rubs today!! No my children were not just being kind. I did Lauren's HUGE pile of dishes and in return she has to rub my feet or back for 1 1/2 hours! She did two of her three 1/2 hours today and Daniel did the other 1/2 hour (for discipline issues)! Have I told you recently how great it is to have kids?

As it should be

Today was a great day. Joel took two naps and he was MUCH happier...and so was I!! Lauren and Emily decided to get along today. They wanted to dress alike and do their hair the same way. I have been praying for their relationship. Today was just a glimpse of what could come in the future. YIPPEE!!!

Haircut anyone!

Today was the day for haircuts in our house. I cut about four inches off of Amy's head of hair. She is now wearing a cute little bob (uneven, but still cute). Jeff and Daniel are looking handsome once again. I love it when they get their haircut. They both needed a lot cut off, but no where near Amy's four inches!
It was also tooth pulling day. Emily requested that I pull out one of her teeth for her. All I can say is that when you are a mom you do almost everything imaginable at some point in your "career"! The many jobs of motherhood are different than I ever dreamed of. Worth it...just different!

Snow much fun!

This is Emily and Amy out having fun in the snow. I sure wish that you could be here to play with us. I say "us" because I actually went out and played the other day and I had the time of my life. As long as it is not cold and windy, I really enjoy the snow. There is one more stipulation for me to enjoy the fluffy white stuff...it needs to be OFF THE ROAD!!