I DO!

13 Years ago Dean and I said these words to each other before a about 150 people. We were blessed yesterday to take time out to remember and celebrate that day.

Those of you who were witnesses to our wedding will know that that it was certainly a day to remember!!! Even if your weren't there, I'm pretty sure you would've heard about it by now.

Dean brought home a beautiful flower arrangement. It goes so nicely with the house decorations for fall. (He chose the flowers himself!) We then went to a Japanese restaurant for a lovely meal. It was nice to try something new, we've only been to a Japanese place in the States before.

We are so thankful to God for his blessings.

Happy Birthday !!!

Happy Birthday, Dean!!!
Happy Birthday, Kelli!!!

My husband and my sister-in-law share the same birthdays!!!
I hope that Kelli has a fantastic day and is spoiled by her gorgeous and wonderful family!!!!

Pizza and Movie

Here are a few shots of Abigail's pizza and movie party. I set up a table in the basement to look like an Italian restaurant. My plan was to have Dean and Sam dress up as waiters and serve the girls pizza. (I told Sam he could do it on his roller blades and that swung the deal for him!) Unfortunately we ran out of time for the waiters. Dean was busy setting up the movie, and then had to run and pick up the pizza. Sam didn't realized until afterwards that he didn't do the waiter bit.


We managed to send Aleah to Nanny's house for a sleepover - other wise I think she would've done her best to be the center of attention. Abigail had enough competition with Levi!

(notice Abigial checking her phone...just in case!)

It was a good night, and probably one of the easiest parties yet - that is one of the good things about children growing up - their parties are less 'high maintenance'!!

Mom's Toolbox

We all need a few tools. Here is a great tool to help with Bible reading and prayer.
It's found at www.momstoolbx.com - Look at any tags for SOAP. I've set a link on the sidebar as well.

I have found getting up before the children and spending time in God's Word and in prayer definitely helps me 'set my mind' for the day. Sometimes I struggle to know what to read or how to apply what I've read. I think I'm going to try a little SOAP daily and see how it goes.

Abigail turns 11!!!

Happy Birthday to Abigail!! She is now 11 years old. It is VERY hard to believe that I am the mother of an 11 year old. So begins a new 'season' of life!!! Abigail enjoyed opening family presents this morning in Mom and Dad's bed. (A tradition it seems in our house, everyone has to gather on the bed and watch the birthday person open presents.)



Abigail received a package from Grandma as well! (Thanks, Connie!) The kids love receiving their favourite 'American Cereal' on their birthdays.




Samuel has been struggling recently with envy/jealousy towards Abigail as she is now older and often is able to enjoy more privileges than he does. (ie - staying up a bit later, going to clubs that might run later, having a little more independence etc.) It has been a real sore point with him, and as Abigail's birthday drew closer we have had a few talks with him about being thankful for his sister, and trying to celebrate with her and not be envious of the gifts that she will receive. We prayed with him especially last night after an 'issue' and asked God to grant him self-control as Abigail receives gifts. He did a fantastic job this morning dealing with his 'self'. (Praise the Lord for His strength!) The video of Abby opening her 'main' present shows the struggle that Sam was going through.



Abigail's main present was a mobile phone! She has started coming home from school by herself on occasion, and is increasingly doing things independent of her family (all within reason) so we felt that it would be a good time to get her a phone so the she can contact us and vice versa.



She will be having a pizza and movie party with some of her friends tomorrow night, which I'm sure will be a lot of fun. It's nice to know that she is not too old to sit on her Daddy's lap and have a cuddle!



We thank and praise God for our beautiful blessing!

Back to School!

Today was the first day of school! Abigail is now in Year 6 (her last year of Primary School- sniff, sniff!), and Samuel is in Year 4! Where does time go!!
Here are the kids dressed in thier uniforms and ready to go - not quite sure why Aleah was pulling such a funny face, it might have something to do with her brother!!




Here are their happy faces when they returned home to a yummy after school snack!









I got this idea/recipe from www.allrecipes.com - Play Dough Cookies.
They were quite fun to make...and eat!

Camping!

We went camping from Tuesday - Saturday in our favourite camping spot. Christchurch in the Forest of Dean. It's near Wales/England border. It was kind of last minute although we had said that we wanted to go camping before the summer was out, but with just getting back from Contagious I wasn't too sure about packing up and heading out again. One HUGE bonus was that Auntie Sue had washed all the kids' clothes and so that meant that I didn't even need to touch the kids' stuff...the bag was ready to go! Monday we spent most of the day buying camping gear...we needed a new tent - we had outgrown our old tent. So off we went hunting for a reasonably priced BIG family tent. Thankfully we found one, a 7 berth tent - 2 rooms (5 and 2). We also purchased another child seat for the bike,and a bike rack for the van because we knew that there was a great bike trail we wanted to go on. We borrowed a BUNCH of camping gear from Lee and Sue, including the BEST thing ever - a 'luggable loo'!!! We packed up the van Tuesday morning and headed over to see Nanny and Grandad who had just arrived back from their trip to Canada. From there we set off for the Forest of Dean. We arrived in just in time to get the tent up, cook, eat, and get in the tent before the rain came! In our haste to get packed up we forgot to bring a mallet so the tent wasn't completely secure. It was very windy that night, Dean and I woke up several times in the night thinking that night was NEVER going to end! Wednesday was raining all day off and on. So we explored the local towns (picked up a mallet to hammer down the tent pegs) and stopped in the local cinema to get some relief from the rain. Levi wasn't too enamoured with sitting in a cinema for the afternoon, so I was trying to get him out and didn't see a step - I fell and sprained my ankle!!! Thankfully, Levi wasn't hurt. Wednesday evening it stopped raining so we enjoyed being outdoors for a while. Aleah liked to play in the van - she was 'driving' to all sorts of wonderful places.

Thursday we went on an bike ride through the forest - after stopping off at a local pharmacy to get a tubi-grip for my ankle that had now swollen up quite nicely! With the little ones strapped in to their seats and the older ones set on their bikes we took off on an 18km bike trail!!! The first bit of the trail is uphill!!! Not a steep incline, but enough that your legs BURN!! The kids and I had to get off and walk out bikes a few times, and a few tears were shed. When we got to the 1/2 way point we stopped and had some lunch, then headed off to the best part of the the trail - the downhill part.
There were a few places where we were all pulling on our brakes to keep control, and some pretty scary turns. The kids did a great job and were really thrilled with themselves when we finished the trail. It rained some more that night, but since we were all pretty tired (and I was coming down with a cold)it was nice to get a bit of and early night.

Friday was a bit more rain on and off. We explored some more of the local towns, and went to Goodrich Castle. The kids loved walking through the remains (dated back to the 12th Century) of the castle and listening to the audio tour. Just as we finished exploring the castle it poured down with rain for about 20 minutes (just enough time to look around the shop)! We decided to make life easy for ourselves and get fish and chips for dinner. Again, we spent the evening in the central part of the tent. (Thank goodness for a new tent, we wouldn't have been able to do this in our old tent!) Once the 3 younger ones were asleep, Abby and I played Phase Ten and Dean was able to spend some time reading one of the many books that he is working his way through.
Giving Levi a 'bath' in the washing up bucket in the tent where it was warm and dry...Aleah is waiting her turn! (Boy, does she need it!)

We woke up Saturday morning to glorious sunshine and a campsite full to the brim with campers! (It's a long weekend here in the UK!) The kids were able to spend some good time playing in the campsites play area while Dean and I packed up. I must say, Dean does such a great job squeezing all our STUFF in! I would've just started throwing things out!!! That basically sums up our trip, althought there are loads of other stories to tell but I would be here all night. They'll all come out, I'm sure.


Dean's Nan and Grandad (his Dad's parents) live in Chepstow, S. Wales, and we had to pass through their town to get home - so we stopped by to see them for a bit. We had a lovely lunch with them and then we all went to a local Church/community fair. It was lovely to be able to spend time with them. (Thanks again for the yummy lunch, Nan and Grandad!!)

We arrived at home around 6:30pm, and were all VERY happy to be sleeping in our own beds, in the dry and warm! We are still unpacking and doing laundry. All in all we had a great time, life in our family is always and adventure and we wouldn't have it any other way!!!!