Monday, January 18, 2010

A Hard Day's Work


Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalms 127:3 KJV

My industrious boys decided that once and for all they were going to figure out why we have a stream running down the driveway, filling up the back yard with mud and standing water. They had heard what sounded like running water while up behind the outbuildings on the east end of the property. After some investigating they found a natural spring had sprung up under one of the buildings. The entire underside of the building was flooded and gurgling with a literal spring which flowed straight from there, down toward the house. Dad and I had a prior engagement and so left the boys with Ashley and Amanda and their new discovery. Three hours later upon our return we saw two exhausted and muddy boys dragging in as we were pulling in. They had trenched a 1 foot deep and 100 foot long ditch all the way from the building to the road where it could dump out in the storm drain. They had successfully diverted the spring away from the house! No more river running down our driveway! Thank you boys.. what hard workers.. We are blessed with such wonderful children.



The Spring originated under this building






Part of their trench




It has been diverted all the way down the fenceline to the storm drain



Grant shows us their work






Our big helpers!


The dry 'river bed'



Sunday, January 17, 2010

Toddler Training

Now that Miss Gracie is 2, we have decided that she should start pulling her weight around here! :) The girls and I had a sweet time the other night, teaching Gracie how to stack the dishes in the dish drainer. It really did not take her long to get the hang of it! She ended up loading it entirely on her own. We only had one casualty. A glass which did not quite make the trip from the sink to the drainer!

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The finished product.. Not too bad! Good job Gracie!
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Friday, January 8, 2010

The Little Princess Turns 2!

Our precious baby daughter Grace was born on January 7, 2008 via emergency C-section and 4 weeks early. Weighing only 5 lb 12 ounces she was a fragile answer to the prayers of her family.
We love you so much precious Gracie!



~One Day Old~


~One Week Old~







~5 Months Old~




~6 Months Old~



~One Year Old~
















Grace's 2nd Birthday





My little drama girl "Mimi, is that MUSIC? Let's Dance!"




On her new rocking horse


Our Big Girl Turns 2!

Helping Hands

There are still many projects to complete here at the rental. Grady works on them in his spare time, enlisting his family when at all possible! :) Here, the older children and he are putting up sheetrock in the kitchen~






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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Season's Happenings

For the Holidays we travelled to Portland where we stayed the night at Nana and Papa Ben's house. Our family spent the day with them and then enjoyed the company of Ben's daughter and family who came for dinner. Ben cooked up a delicious Cioppino (I think it is called) which was a delicious Italian seafood soup teeming with yummy lobster, shrimp, crab and baby clams.. mmmmm~! He also roasted a lovely pork roast and yummy cornbread. Maia brought a very tasty brussel sprout casserole and sweet potatoes. For dessert, Ben and Maia treated us to various cookies and dainties including a gluten free egg nog cheesecake! Complete with gourmet coffee of course! Mandy and Ashley had a nice time watching all the children while the adults ate. The girls even gave a bit of a music lesson to the cousins!

Hard to believe 2010 is here~ May the Lord teach us much in this coming year. And may we continue to seek Him for all things.

Lamentations 3:22-24 The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, "The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" (NASB)



~ December 2009 ~




Nana's House


Dad brought a gift for each of the boys.. wooden ship models. As Nana and Papa Ben live in the city, this helped keep the boys occupied all day. It was nice for the guys to spend some time on a project together.














Nana and Gracie ♥






Mandy with her new Cello






Letting the cousins give it a try~!












Ashley treating us to a few tunes~





Ashley gives cousin Austin a quick lesson~





The three amigos~









Maia with baby Aunalei



Enjoying a delicious dinner~!