My half year check up!

I was snuggling with Kamryn tonight and I said "I really try hard to be a good daddy." She said, "You are a great daddy." I said, "I know I am not perfect but I try really hard." To which she said, "I love you Daddy. You are the best daddy." I replied, "Is there anything I can do to be a better Daddy." She said, "No. I can't think of anything." I said, "Do you want me to yell at you more." She said, "No you don't need to do that."

Sweet,Sweet, Kamryn Anne

Tonight I (Steph) came home after everyone had eaten dinner and Kamryn came into the kitchen to join me while I ate my dinner. (I had a French Dip and it was GOOD!) Anyway, we got to catch up and I learned about what she and daddy had been up to all day while I was busy packing. I was telling her about a very cool surprise that I've been working on this weekend for my good friend Jennie. Jennie is turning 40 on the 4th of July, and for her birthday we are surprising her by having the inside of her house painted. They have wanted to paint it for a long time but have never found the time to do it. Jennie is away this weekend for the first time in 12 years, and she is going to come home to a painted house. And, she will have a whole bunch of cool new artwork that she is going to "babysit" for us while we are gone. Kamryn loved the idea of the surprise and was very excited. She said, "Is there anything else we can do to make it really special? Like, maybe we could paint roses on the walls?" I asked her if she would be willing to do that and she said that she would. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever, but that wasn't quite the look we were going for. :)

I love my girls...

Life gets so busy and chaotic and it is hard to truly appreciate the preciousness and beauty of these souls that God has given to me to love and guide and parent. As they lay sleeping tonight, so peaceful, I am reminded once again of the gift of parenting, the joy that these children are to me, and how grateful I am to the Lord for the privilege of loving them so personally and intimately. A little bit sappy, but sometimes sappy is good.

Kamryn's Birthday Party

Enjoy some pictures of Kamryn's birthday party...


Western themed.


26 Kids


15 adults.


1 giant water slide









and Billy Bob crazy teeth party favors! It was a good one.

Pic of the Week V

Back in the day, I had a couple of students in my youth group who were both really cool, creative, full of passion and energy. Well, them students done good. One is now an aspiring photographer and the other is a military man. Both I am so proud of and you get to be blessed by both. Doug Sanborn is the man getting married, looking at his wife for what appears to be the first time. Ryan Flynn is the photographer and that is all I really need to say. Amazing pictures makes me want to get married all over again.

Here is the link to Ryan's website!

A birthday girl swimming

Kamryn turns eight today and is celebrating with her cousins later! But swimming lessons started with a whopping 55 degree weather, but thankfully 85 degrees in the pool! Going in was fun but coming out, not so much!

Brady swimming...

Here is Brady swimming... So sweet!

Julia Swimming...

Here is Julia swimming. She had smile on the entire swimming lesson!
So cute!!!!!

Peace to all...

Beautiful rainbow from Steph's parents house... Twice the blessing as you can see a second rainbow just above it!!!

So cool!!!

A little perspective...

"Tomorrow is forever!"

An exasperated Julia, after finding out that we were going to have to wait until tomorrow to play with our neighbors new puppy.

The Horse Show, Part 1

Julia loves Barney!

Natasha

We were listening to story time with Natasha on our IPOD... (storynory.com - a great, free, children story podcast for those with mp3 players...) She always starts with HI, this is Natasha and ends with, "thank you for listening to story time with Natasha... Bye, Bye!" The stories vary every week, but when you listen to them back to back like we often do, you hear a lot of the name, Natasha. Well, Julia picked up on this and ask, "Why is the name Natasha in every story? Natasha, Natasha, Natasha... Every story, Natasha...." It was a pretty funny you should have been there moment!

Ear piercing - a happy ending:)

Before and After!

Kamryn is turning eight on Monday and wanted to get her ear pierced before her birthday!!! We went today and all is good!!! She got them pierced!

Going for a ride

Tonight at dinner we were making our after dinner plans and Julia looked outside and saw the little garden wagon that I use for weeding and other things and she said, "Kamryn, will you take me for a ride in the dragon?"

Pic of the Week IV

My buddy and worship pastor at Northlake is an aspiring photographer. He has some great shots on his website http://www.mikeweston.net/ and I thought I would show off one of his pictures of Bellingham Bay at its finest!!!!

Go Mike!

Packing up...

Leave it to kids to find the joy in packing...

Just say no to Spam and yes to us!!!

You may have noticed a little box to the left that says "enter your email address." Now if you are like me, you don't enter your email anywhere because when you do that Mr. and Mrs. Spam like to visit your house... Let me assure you that this little box will result in absolutely NO SPAM!!! But, what you will get is the blog that we write emailed immediately to you... What does this mean? Well, it means being updated when the updates happen, it means be alerted when the alerts go out, it means being in the know when there is stuff to know... So, sign up and enjoy no other visitors to your email home except our family and our life to be in Africa!!!

That'll preach...

Tonight my daughter Bradyn was being exceptionally helpful. She was outside helping daddy, and then inside helping mommy, asking both of us after she was done, "Is there anything else I can help you with?" And then during dinner, saying more than once, "Thank you Mommy for a great dinner, even though it is a little spicy." And then when she went to get water, she asked, "Would anyone else like some water." And then came the most amazing moment of selflessness after Julia went to the neighbors house without asking after dinner, Bradyn came to me and said, "I think I would like to take Julia's consequences for her." I asked her to repeat herself because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. She said the same thing again. I was like, "Wow, honey that was very sweet. That is like what Jesus did for us when he took the punishment for our sins, and changed places with us isn't it?" She shook her head yes and she burrowed up in my hug. I told her that Julia didn't know that what she did was wrong and wasn't going to receive any punishment, but thank you so much for being willing to do that. She shook her head and had this relieved/"I'm such a good sister" look on her face. And best of all there isn't a bad ending. She was an amazing girl tonight, living the verse that we are memorizing from Philippians 2:3-11 passage. "Each of you should look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others..."

Heaven and worms...

Julia: "Daddy, when we get to Heaven we are going to eat worms and rice."
Daddy: "Really?"
Julia: "Yep."
Daddy: "Where did you hear that?"
Julia: "Jeb told me."
Daddy: "Really."
Julia: "Yep. We are going to eat worms and rice."
Daddy: "Julia, we are not going to eat worms in Heaven."
Julia: "Yes we are."
Daddy: "No, we won't eat worms in Heaven."
Julia: "YEEESSSS!" (capitalized and extra letters to express voice inflection)
Daddy: "Noooooo." (extra letters added to mimic her voice inflection)
Julia: "Well, maybe we will eat Chicken and Rice."
Daddy: "Yes, that sounds better."

Extra eggs

This morning I made pancakes and fried eggs for the girls for breakfast. As the girls were eating their pancakes I asked them who would like an egg. They all said that they wanted one, so I made three. Shortly after Kamryn came over with her plate and said, "Thank you for the good food may I please be excused." I said, "But what about your egg that I'm making you?" She said she was full and couldn't possibly eat another bite. Bradyn, trying to be the ever helpful one, said, "I can eat two, I'm really hungry, I'll eat Kamryn's egg." (They know how I hate to waste food) I knew that Bradyn's little tummy was getting full because she had already had three pancakes which was the same amount that Kamryn had had. I told her that we would just save Kamryn's egg for later. She said, "Okay, can I have that small one because I'm kind of full."

A baby and our Kamryn...

We went to see cute little Daisy Lee Gemmer (the daughter of our children's director at Northlake) at the hospital today, a mere 22 hours old and probably the cutest, most amazing baby I have ever seen. Weighing in at 9 pounds and coming out with a c-section, she was just staring at us, making cute noises and making me want another baby, but that is beside the point. Kids under 12 couldn't go in to see the kids (lame) so they wheeled out Daisy in the clear baby carriage so the kids could see her through the window. Daisy just stared at my three kids through the window... It was priceless.

But, what Kamryn said later was even more priceless. See, Kamryn has made up her mind long ago that she wasn't going to have babies because it (a c-section) would hurt too much. So, when I came home later that day, she ran up to me, gave me a hug and then asked, "Did you hold little Daisy?" I said yes, she is so cute. "Is Deanna in a lot of pain?" No, she is feeling pretty good. "She is not in pain?" No. She is good. "O.K. I think I will have a baby then."

So cute.

Airborne

On our past few plane trips we have taken the herbal cold preventative called Airborne prior to our trip. The girls think it tastes really good, and we just feel better about the person in front of us coughing knowing that we have loaded ourselves up with lots of good stuff. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling like I had the beginning of a cold coming on so I told Steve that I wanted to take some Airborne. So, he put it out on the kitchen counter for me. I walked out to the kitchen with Julia in my arms and she saw it right away and said, "Mommy, we need to take some Airborne." I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I have a bad breath." We all got a kick out of that! She was right, she did have a bad breath (or two) but I don't think that Airborne would've helped any.

1/2 Birthdays...

I said to the girls at dinner time, "Do know what today is?"

"It's Travis (our neighbor friends) birthday!"

"Yes", I said, "and what else..."

"It's June 6!"

" Uh, yes, and what else..."

Kamryn got a big smile. "It's your half birthday!"

"Yeah!!!!"

Kamryn then said, "That's the same as me and Jesus!"

Me and Travis. Kamryn and Jesus. Cool!

Crazy Sleepers

I had some caffeine after dinner the other night on accident so I was up burning the midnight oil. Before heading to bed at about 2:00 a.m. I checked on the girls and this is what I saw. Julia is on the floor at the foot of her mat. Bradyn sprawled but actually on her mat, and Kamryn on the floor next to her mat. I'm a little nervous about them actually sleeping in real beds with tile floors when we move to Africa.

Sisters

I took this picture of the Julia and Bradyn last night. I often find them "snuggling" like this.

When I grow up....

Julia: "When I grow up I want to be an ant."

Mommy: "Why?"

Julia: "Because I can crawl around and nobody can make me dead."

Picture of the Week III

This is my weekly picture of the week that highlights someone that isn't us! This week it is a former youth group student named Luke Leisy who is in Iraq right now. Having someone we love and know over their makes the war that much more real... Please continue to pray and support our troops!

Miniature Horses

You may have read about how Kamryn just loves horses. All she wanted for her birthday was to have some horseback riding lessons (this is what she wanted and did last year too). So, I (Steph) was flipping through our Whatcom County Homeschool flyer and I saw an add for a miniature horse camp. It's put on by a 14 1/2 year old homeschooled girl who will be assisted by her mother and sisters. Anyway, Kamryn is very excited, and can't stop thinking about this camp next week. Today in the car she asked me, "Mom, do you think that the girl will pick our horses for us or will she let us pick our own horse?" I told her that I didn't know for sure but that I thought maybe she might pick the horse for you that she thought would be best for you. Kamryn said, "yeah, that's what I would do if I were running the class. Otherwise, everyone would just pick the best looking horse and then there would be a big fight over the horses. That's usually the way it goes." Then Julia piped in, "When I grow up I want to be a horse." Just yesterday Julia had told me that she wanted to be a butterfly when she grew up. Kamryn said that she wanted to be a horse to. I asked her why and she said that she wanted to live in a barn with a mommy and a little sister. She said that she wanted to have an owner who would ride her and take care of her and love her a lot. Then she wanted to know if she could ride horses in heaven. To which I told her that I absolutely think that she will be able to ride horses in heaven.

Left Behind

Today I (Steph) was getting ready to go to the grocery store with my neighbor and I told the girls to go and get in the car. I finished getting what I needed and I went out to the garage. I got in the car and Kamryn wasn't in there. Bradyn and Julia both asked where Kamryn was and I said that I didn't know but that I was guessing that she just walked down to Travis' (our neighbors) house because she knew we were going to the store with them. So, I closed the garage door and drove down the street to Travis' house. I got to the door and asked if Kamryn was there. They said that she wasn't and so I first checked the back of the van to make sure that she wasn't hiding, and then I drove back home to see if she had been inside the house when I left. Sure enough, the garage door was open and I could see Kamryn in the kitchen on the phone. She came out sobbing.....she had been left behind. I was probably only gone for 2 1/2 minutes, but it was long enough. She had called Steve who said he would rush home, and as I was pulling out with Kamryn Steve drove up (These are the times when you are glad that daddy is only 1/2 a mile away at work). Kamryn was quite upset. Of course, I felt terrible. After daddy gave her a big hug and we were on our way again Kamryn said, "I'm so glad that daddy loves me. If he had seen on his cell phone that it was me calling and had thought I was just playing with the phone he might not have answered, and then he wouldn't have known that I needed him. I'm glad he answered the phone." She is so sweet! I just love this girl.

In case you were wondering...

Kamryn told me today that Horses are her favorite animal, bunnies are second, deer are third and sealife is fourth.

We gave her birthday present early, a week of learning and working with minature horses, complete with a horse show at the end of the week! She will be doing that next week!