Dedication...

"Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord."

Ephesians 6:4

 On October 17th, we dedicated Eva to the Lord.  Trusting in God FULLY is something I have always struggled with.  I have recited Proverbs 3:5-6 numerous times to count...."Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge HIM and He will make your path straight".  You see, I just want to partially trust God with our children. I often think "Ok, God...I trust you with their life as long as you promise to  __________ (fill in the blank)."  To publicly dedicate Eva's life to the Lord, choosing to FULLY trust God while raising her with open hands, was a step of faith as it was with all the girls.  And I know I will continue to try to hang on even when I know that our children are much better off in God's hands than in our own.  I know I can't raise her on my own strength alone or protect her like God can...so WHY is it SO HARD to trust?  After all, we know our Heavenly Father loves us perfectly and has great plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a HOPE and a future? (Jeremiah 29:11)  These children are HIS and SUCH a blessing from HIM.  I know in my head I can trust HIM but my heart fails to believe otherwise.

Thanks so much Grandmas' and Papas' for coming to share in this very special day in Eva's life.

We chose Mark 12:30 for Eva's life verse:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." 

This verse is one that I have prayed over all the girls during my pregnancies...that while God was forming their hearts, that he would give them hearts that love Him and long to know Him.

  And I continue to pray...because most days, that is all I can do.

Christmas Cards...

...yep, it's that time of year again. Thank GOODNESS family pics are done. Now it's time to create that card. So many choices...decisions, decisions. There are SO many places to choose from, then SO many options when you finally choose a place to get them printed. My favorite is Shutterfly. I chose to write a blurb about how great I think they are, and in exchange I get 50 free cards! You know how much I love FREE and the word "SALE" and that is just one of the things I love about this company! I have been a customer for a LONG time and have always just been SO impressed with not only their special offers but also with the quality of their pictures, cards and photo books. They are so easy to make too and I have always loved their designs. I'm really into the vintage designs (they have SO many cool ones!) and plan to use a card from their new Holiday collection. Check out their goods HERE

Can you guess which one I'm going to choose?

And finally, can you guess which picture I'm going to use?

Theme 1:  "You better not pout, you better not cry..."

 Theme 2: Hope your Christmas is buckets full of fun!

Theme 3:  Using the above picture on our blog, fully dressed as the Wizard of Oz Crew..."Merry Christmas, from the land of Ahhh's"

Ok, I better stop here.  I'm pretty sure Shutterfly didn't make this the "Who can make the dorkiest Christmas card? contest.


Family Pictures...

...yes, that word use to cause me to shudder. NOT something I looked forward to...the planning of the outfits,bribing using "positive reinforcement" to get the girls to put their outfits on, get their hair curled AND smile for the shots. That is ENOUGH to worry about...so I'm very thankful for our photographer who meets us where we are...(even if I forget an ENTIRE outfit for the baby) to take our pictures. Not to mention her extreme patience and calm attitude when half our family is in tears. Check out a sneak peek of our pics HERE. Thanks again Jen for just being so wonderful :)

If I only had a brain...

...I would have realized that sewing+4 kids=mass chaos.
But I'm SO glad I did because the results were just FUN!

Ok, I had to show you the second picture of what the table REALLY looked like BEFORE I cleared it off to make it look like one of those pictures from Martha Stewart or some really cool famous and crafty blog. I just wouldn't want to give you the impression that my house is immaculate or anything.

7 years ago, when Jared and I lived in Michigan, we were AWANA leaders and we bought these Dorothy and Scarecrow costumes to wear to the Halloween party (we thought we were HILARIOUS since we were from Kansas). I was pregnant with Emma at the time and I told Jared, "Let's keep these, because one day, we will have a family big enough to sport the WHOLE Wizard of Oz cast at Halloween". He laughed. And here we are , 7 years later.

We got invited to a costume party/birthday party in our neighborhood. What a blast we had.

My little "Toto" baby. LOVE her.

The trashy Dallas cowboy fans.

The cards.

A cute little train and his dad.

The beautiful hostess and her son (it was their birthdays...he was 32 and she turned 9...so she says....)

Thanks for an awesome party...we had SO much fun! The girls are STILL talking about it!

This is how we roll...

QUESTION: How does this mama of 4 kiddos, take a shower?

ANSWER: Throw the 3 older kids in the tub, and put the baby in the swing.
Yes, I thought that was a great answer UNTIL the baby starts screaming (the blood-curdling scream) and one of the girls tries to get out of the bathtub to get a pacifier then slips and is crying, then I get out of the shower, grab the baby, trying not to get her soapy and wet while trying to console my other child who hit her head.....
**Sigh**
Whoever said, "The days are long but the years are short", definitely knew what they were talking about.

Pumpkin Patch Fun...

Fall would have to be my favorite season...and going to the pumpkin patch is one of my favorite things to do. The girls got to go to a pumpkin patch birthday party and as you can see, they had a blast!

Kerby Pumpkin Patch is complete with a zipline, a playground, a corn maze, a spooky house, animals, and of course, LOTS of pumpkins to choose from.

We have only been able to carve 1 of 3 big pumpkins...hopefully we will get them done before Halloween. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I wrote "big pumpkin". When Ellie was almost two, we drove by someone's house and they had a big inflatable pumpkin. Ellie started screaming in excitement, "Buffukin...buffukin!!" (big pumpkin!) These people continue to display this big pumpkin every year and we laugh so hard every time we drive by it.

Ok...on a much more edifying note...I just love this devotion...who says you can't incorporate Christ into Halloween...this devotion is so awesome to do while carving your pumpkins and such another neat tool to teach your kiddos about what Jesus did for them....

Being a Christian is just like a pumpkin!

First, God picks you from the pumpkin patch and brings you in from the field. The Bible says He selects us out of the world. We are in the world, but no longer of the world.

He then washes all the “dirt” off the outside that we received from being around all the other pumpkins. All the outside influences of our former life must be cleaned up. Old things are passed away and all things become new.

Then, He carefully removes all the “yucky stuff” called “sin” out from the inside. Look at this! Yuk! He then changes us from the inside out by the Power of His Word. That’s why it is important to go the church and learn about God’s Word.

He carefully removes all those seeds of doubt, hate, greed, and fear. He replaces them with the seeds of faith, hope and love. After Jesus is invited inside, you begin to experience the changing power of God’s love in your life.

Then He carves a new smiling face. We are changed by the power of His presence in our life. We then become so grateful. It can even show on our face!

Now we are going to light this candle inside. Look! This pumpkin now reflects the light from inside out. So too, when Jesus, who is called the Son of Light, lives inside of us, He shines through our life for all to see. We can let His light reflect through us to reveal His presence. “Let your light so shine before men that they may be able to see your good works and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.”

So you see, we Christians are really like this pumpkin! We will never be the same with Jesus inside of us!

Random Backyard fun!

The girls came running in, VERY excited, from playing outside...
"Mom, dad, there is a real hot air balloon and it is coming to land by us".
And we thought, "What great imaginations they have...always coming up with something".
They dragged us outside and to our surprise, this is what we saw....

We chased it...it was just across the street from our house.

So much random fun on a beautiful fall evening...and it DID land VERY close to our house :)

Harvest Time!

We live SO close to the winery and nearly every time we drive by, Ellie (the question-asker) asks when we can pick grapes! Last year I missed the sign-up, so this year, I put it on my calendar to call in July and we were excited when there was an opening to pick grapes!

We couldn't have asked for a better morning and a better baby! Eva did great on her first adventure picking grapes. She slept ALL morning in the baby carrier.

The girls were amazed when they found this spider and web. Even though I'm not a fan of spiders, I thought it was pretty neat too!

We weren't sure how this was going to work out...getting to the winery at 8:00 am to pick grapes until a little before noon. On our way to the winery, Jared and I just looked at each other, started laughing and told ourselves we were crazy! But...we were so proud of the girls. They worked SO hard picking and had SO much fun! Half-way through picking, Ellie asked "When do we get to do this again?"

After picking grapes, the winery fed everyone brunch, complete with Sangria :) And, we even got a free "Harvest Crew" T-shirt! We would have to mark this up as one of the best, family-friendly outings we have done. If we can do it with 4 kids under the age of 6, in the mud, anyone can! And to top it off, the owners of this place are wonderful people!!

About 2 and a half TONS of grapes were picked yesterday morning...the girls contributed to 4 buckets worth and they were SO proud. When we drove by the winery last night, they squealed with excitement about how much fun they had!

And another one off...

Ellie had her first day of pre-school on September 8th. I wrongly assumed that sending the second one off to pre-school would be a lot easier the second time around (been there, done that, right?) Not so much. Especially when she said, "Mom, I'm just a little scared", when I dropped her off.

I had to get a good picture of the Kailan backpack because I'm sure this won't be cool in a few years, but right now "it is the coolest thing ever!"

Of course, she loves it and wants to go EVERY day, not just 3 days a week!

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Off to the zoo I went with 4 kids, 6 and under. It's alright to call me crazy. Sometimes we just need to get out of the house. Thank goodness my friend came with her daughter...that helped!

Edyn and Trinity...they are going to be such great friends!

Edyn trying to pose like the flamingo. Silly girl!