Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Casting Crowns If We've Ever Needed You
I wanted to post this video on my blog because I feel this song is very relevant, not just in light of recent events, but in the every day life of a Christian. This Youtube version of the song is believe it or not, less visually stimulating then some of the other versions, but I still get choked up every time I watch it.
I don't often post about my views on the state of the US or the world. It is not that I don't notice what is going on around me, how can I not? I do notice, quite a bit. I have gone through times of sincere despair when I think about the moral and physical destruction we create. My heart breaks when I think of the child half a world away that is dying right now because he has no food. My heart breaks, possibly even more, for the child that is dying right next door because his/her mother has a choice. I get increasingly angry at the unjustices of this world, the political filth the infiltrates our every day lives, and how, as a country, we are moving further and further away from God. However, and this a huge however, I have hope. God sees all that I see and more. God knew the World Trade center would get hit and thousands would die. God knew people would kill babies. God knew government would be corrupt. I have immense peace knowing God is holding us in His perfect hands. This is not the kind of peace that leads me to be inactive, certainly not, but it is the kind of peace that allows me to trust God with those things I cannot change.
I hope you watch the video. I hope you recognize the need to completely rely on Jesus Christ.
Julie
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Maddeline's Birthday and Lots of Pics!
Ok folks, Ihave lots of pictures up and many of them are of Madeline. Her Birthday was on the 6th of this month and she pretty much ended up with 3 little parties.
This was party #3. Maddie is giving Katelyn lov'ins to thank her for an awesome birthday gift (that Katelyn picked out herself no less). Last weekend we went to Maumee Bay, probably one of my favorite Ohio State Parks. We decided to just celebrate with Ryan's side of the family while we were there.
Opening presents
Asher being a cheese head.
Princess cupcakes, sorta. I made frosting and brought cupcake liners, sprinkles, etc with me to the park. I even brought cake mix. However, I forgot to get oil and eggs and we were no where near the store. I was going to buy cupcakes from the lodge, but they wanted $30 a dozen. Ummmmm.....no. So we improvised. I frosted the blueberry muffins I had already make and brought from home and let Madeline sprinkle them and put on the crowns. It worked great.
This lodge has a great play area with all kids of "soft" things for the kids to bounce around on. They has so much fun!
How cute is my little nephew Truett?
The kid table eating the yummy buffet breakfast. This was the first time that we put all the kids a one table (minus the littlest in each family). They did pretty good I thought.
Sweet pie Lucy and Asher at the "head" of the table.
Madeline riding her bike from Christmas last year. I am sad to say this was the first time she rode it. I put it together that morning. Very, very sad.
Ok, so here's the difference in what a free range egg looks like and a store bought. They yolks in the free range eggs are MUCH oranger and richer. I got a dz eggs for like .39 cents at our local store (they have some good weekly specials) and our hens are laying really low right now. Plus, fresh eggs are hard to peel when you hard boil them. So I bought 1 dz eggs, you should have seen Logan harassing me. I think he thought I was two timing our hens.
Last week was visitors week at gymnastics. Here is the little kids' group (go Gee, the only boy in the group).
Here are the kids showing off! 
Anna Banana.......
Madeline...... Let me say here, Madeline held that V sit forever. She is competitive like her big sister.
Asher got a chance to hang around on the equipment. He loved it until he had to move for the class.
Ava, just chilling and waiting for Katelyn to get done.
This picture is from the party at our house the day after Madeline's birthday. My mom got Madeline make up and Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Nick got her princess dresses. Uncle Nick and Aunt Kristy helped the girls get all done up. Beautiful.
Maddie eating her birthday cake.
This is what happens when a 4 year old says "let me take a picture."
I thought this was so cute. Madeline giving Aunt Sue lovings for her birthday money. 
Opening more goodies (check out Cadence on my lap, she was very interested in the present opening).
This was actualyy Madline's birthday. We ended up at Jami and Jason's house. We gave her our presents and Jason and Jami had a gift for her also. It was so nice and she loved her Pillow Pet. Here she is showing Sophie and Kayla the love.
Leah and Logan picked this out for Madeline and paid for it with their own money. Such a good big brother and sister!
Waiting like a princess in the dress she picked out.
Aunt Chrissy and Gracie (aka peaches) earlier in the day. How photogenic are they!?!
And finally, my poor tormented son. He tried to chase those wings off (think of a dog chasing his tail) for like 5 minutes. All I have to say Logan is "your time will come...."
This was party #3. Maddie is giving Katelyn lov'ins to thank her for an awesome birthday gift (that Katelyn picked out herself no less). Last weekend we went to Maumee Bay, probably one of my favorite Ohio State Parks. We decided to just celebrate with Ryan's side of the family while we were there.
Opening presents
Asher being a cheese head.
Princess cupcakes, sorta. I made frosting and brought cupcake liners, sprinkles, etc with me to the park. I even brought cake mix. However, I forgot to get oil and eggs and we were no where near the store. I was going to buy cupcakes from the lodge, but they wanted $30 a dozen. Ummmmm.....no. So we improvised. I frosted the blueberry muffins I had already make and brought from home and let Madeline sprinkle them and put on the crowns. It worked great.
This lodge has a great play area with all kids of "soft" things for the kids to bounce around on. They has so much fun!
How cute is my little nephew Truett?
The kid table eating the yummy buffet breakfast. This was the first time that we put all the kids a one table (minus the littlest in each family). They did pretty good I thought.
The adult table.
Sweet pie Lucy and Asher at the "head" of the table.
Madeline riding her bike from Christmas last year. I am sad to say this was the first time she rode it. I put it together that morning. Very, very sad.
Gorgeous pears that I canned last week. These were gifted to me by our amazing neighbors. They are very time consuming to prepare, but they will be a real treat in the winter.
Ok, so here's the difference in what a free range egg looks like and a store bought. They yolks in the free range eggs are MUCH oranger and richer. I got a dz eggs for like .39 cents at our local store (they have some good weekly specials) and our hens are laying really low right now. Plus, fresh eggs are hard to peel when you hard boil them. So I bought 1 dz eggs, you should have seen Logan harassing me. I think he thought I was two timing our hens.
Last week was visitors week at gymnastics. Here is the little kids' group (go Gee, the only boy in the group).
Here are the kids showing off!
Gee.....
Anna Banana.......
Madeline...... Let me say here, Madeline held that V sit forever. She is competitive like her big sister.
Asher got a chance to hang around on the equipment. He loved it until he had to move for the class.
Ava, just chilling and waiting for Katelyn to get done.
This picture is from the party at our house the day after Madeline's birthday. My mom got Madeline make up and Aunt Chrissy and Uncle Nick got her princess dresses. Uncle Nick and Aunt Kristy helped the girls get all done up. Beautiful.
Maddie eating her birthday cake.
This is what happens when a 4 year old says "let me take a picture."
I thought this was so cute. Madeline giving Aunt Sue lovings for her birthday money.
Opening more goodies (check out Cadence on my lap, she was very interested in the present opening).
This was actualyy Madline's birthday. We ended up at Jami and Jason's house. We gave her our presents and Jason and Jami had a gift for her also. It was so nice and she loved her Pillow Pet. Here she is showing Sophie and Kayla the love.
Leah and Logan picked this out for Madeline and paid for it with their own money. Such a good big brother and sister!
Waiting like a princess in the dress she picked out.
Aunt Chrissy and Gracie (aka peaches) earlier in the day. How photogenic are they!?!
And finally, my poor tormented son. He tried to chase those wings off (think of a dog chasing his tail) for like 5 minutes. All I have to say Logan is "your time will come...."
And, that is all folks. Whew!
Julie
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Awww....finally feeling better.
Well, Monday night ended up being just the beginning a couple days of total ickiness. Definitely the flu, although I don't think I ever fevered. I really don't hardly ever get sick and this was probably the worse bout of the flu I have had that I can remember. The problem with me being sick is that life still has to go on. Ryan still has to go to work, the kids still have to eat, I still have to break up endless spats. Oh well, I still love my life, it is just easier when I feel well. I still feel tired and my stomach is still off, but I have more energy and no more aches. Yeah!
Praying the littles stay healthy!
Julie
Praying the littles stay healthy!
Julie
Monday, November 15, 2010
I have the sweetest little monkey's
I feel pretty poopie right now. We just got back from our 3 day weekend and I have felt worse as the day goes on. I am thinking maybe the flu? I don't typically get sick, but, well, I am now. Fortunately laying down with some Advil in my system has helped a bit.
Anyways, my sweet monkey's....... Ryan had to go up to Bellefontaine to do some work. So we bribed Leah and Logan (free electronics) to watch the other 4 kids while Ryan was gone. The more I move the yuckier I feel so now I get to lay in my bed with my laptop, my electric blanket and the television. Pretty comfortable considering. Well, Madeline came into my room before Ryan left and said, "Mommy will you be sick tomorrow?" I told her that I hoped not. Then she told me that she we going to keep an eye on me. She hopped into bed and laid beside more for a bit and then left telling me she would check on me every few minutes. Since then, a cute little face has popped into my room about every 10 minutes to see how I am doing. Maddie is tag teaming with Anna and Gee. Boy it is nice to feel loved.
Julie
Anyways, my sweet monkey's....... Ryan had to go up to Bellefontaine to do some work. So we bribed Leah and Logan (free electronics) to watch the other 4 kids while Ryan was gone. The more I move the yuckier I feel so now I get to lay in my bed with my laptop, my electric blanket and the television. Pretty comfortable considering. Well, Madeline came into my room before Ryan left and said, "Mommy will you be sick tomorrow?" I told her that I hoped not. Then she told me that she we going to keep an eye on me. She hopped into bed and laid beside more for a bit and then left telling me she would check on me every few minutes. Since then, a cute little face has popped into my room about every 10 minutes to see how I am doing. Maddie is tag teaming with Anna and Gee. Boy it is nice to feel loved.
Julie
Friday, November 12, 2010
A weekend away
Off we go to a long weekend, yeah! We are headed up to Maumee Bay state park for a couple days with the kids and Ryan's side of the family. I have barely packed, but I got a new bike. I am so excited about it! We decided to do some biking this weekend and my bike is old and not working properly. So Ryan and I headed up to good old Walmart last night and I got me a new Schwinn. It is so pretty and blue! Now to get the baby seat hooked up. It takes a two seater pull behind, a baby seat carrier and a baby backpack to get our crew on a ride. Oh and Leah and Logan have to pull their own weight of course. It is fun though and we don't do bike rides near as much as I wish.
I am starting to get excited for Christmas. I actually found the station on the radio yesterday that played Christmas all the time. It was a beautiful thing! I will say though, this beautiful Indian Summer we've been having makes Christmas a little farther from my mind. Not so far though that I haven't been doing a little more Christmas shopping. For some reason, buying for the kids is coming super easily this year. It is nuts. Fortunately I am finding great deals on line and haven't spent all that much really. Just little things here and there. Our poor delivery guys. They will be making their rounds at our house. Good thing they are such nice guys. They even bring our crazy 90 lb puppy treats. I am thinking that one of these good Christmas deals needs to be for them!
So, I am not sure I mentioned this before but we had our friend start digging our pond this week. We have been working toward this for a couple years now. You know, digging test holes and saving money. Every test hole we dug hit great clay about 8 to 10 feet down. We have a LOT of beautiful peat moss, but that doesn't typically hold water. Well, wouldn't you know it, the huge hole he dug didn't hit clay anywhere. It has totally left me scratching my head. So for now our front 4/5 acres is a muddy mess. We have a big hole and I think we are going to see how that hole keeps water and go from there. A little disappointing, but that is the way it goes sometimes.
Until later!
Julie
I am starting to get excited for Christmas. I actually found the station on the radio yesterday that played Christmas all the time. It was a beautiful thing! I will say though, this beautiful Indian Summer we've been having makes Christmas a little farther from my mind. Not so far though that I haven't been doing a little more Christmas shopping. For some reason, buying for the kids is coming super easily this year. It is nuts. Fortunately I am finding great deals on line and haven't spent all that much really. Just little things here and there. Our poor delivery guys. They will be making their rounds at our house. Good thing they are such nice guys. They even bring our crazy 90 lb puppy treats. I am thinking that one of these good Christmas deals needs to be for them!
So, I am not sure I mentioned this before but we had our friend start digging our pond this week. We have been working toward this for a couple years now. You know, digging test holes and saving money. Every test hole we dug hit great clay about 8 to 10 feet down. We have a LOT of beautiful peat moss, but that doesn't typically hold water. Well, wouldn't you know it, the huge hole he dug didn't hit clay anywhere. It has totally left me scratching my head. So for now our front 4/5 acres is a muddy mess. We have a big hole and I think we are going to see how that hole keeps water and go from there. A little disappointing, but that is the way it goes sometimes.
Until later!
Julie
Friday, November 5, 2010
Some Pictures
So I now have my diaper bag (and camera) back in my possesion (thank goodness). Here are some recent pictures of the monkey's. Some are a little old....
I was impressed at how well Asher could walk and kick Logan's soccer ball. It is like half his size, but he was pretty coordinated with it!
So, what do you do when your house is over-run with crazy kids? You stick them all in a dog crate. Actually, they put themselves in the crate and said "lock the door." I had to make them get out to make room for Patriot.
How pretty are these? Ryan has gotten super sweet about bringing home little treasures like this for me. I love it and think it is incredibly thoughtful.
A recycled sweater I made for Asher. I used an old Abercrombie sweater for the body and it is super heavy. I am happy with the end results, although the arms and the collar turned out a little wonky. It looks really sweet on him.
Aparently I was not paying enough attention to Asher because he got into the trash while I wasn't watching. I was however paying enough attention to grab my camera. The funny thing is that he wanted nothing to do with the spaghetti when we ate it the first time.
Here is Logan at his desk upstairs doing school. We have switched some of his home schooling this year to Switched On Schoolhouse. He is taking 3 computer subjects. He really likes them, which I like!
Asher's favorite drawer. For a while I just let him play in it because there's nothing in there that can hurt him. Now it is getting annoying to have to pick this stuff up from all over the house. Not to mention he has a play kitchen in the dining room that has tons of stuff to drag out. Yesterday he was getting into this drawer and I said "no, Asher" very firmly. He looked at me, shut the drawer, and walked away. No drama. Nice!
Anna, Gee and Madeline the first day of Kindergarden. Maddie is technically the only one doing Kindergarden work, but Anna and Gee are practicing their names and coloring some. Madeline loves Kindergarden and asks me to do it every day, although she only technically does school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
A couple weeks ago I did my Kroger Shopping before Ryan left in the morning. Asher was up (stinking early bird!) so we went together. It is impossible to put Asher and my coupons in the seat of the cart so I let him try the "big kid" cart. He LOVED it and was happy the whole hour I was shopping.
Gideon loves his dad so much and during soccer he would just follow him up and down the field while Ryan was coaching. It was so cute and I had to get a couple pics. On a little sad note, at Logan's last tournament game (the one they won), Gideon asked me to go "help" daddy and I said "sure." One minute later Gideon came back looking very, very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Daddy said go sit with mommy." The boy was temporarily defeated. I think Ryan was just very focused on the game (it was close) and needed Gee to be out of the way, which I understood. Gideon, not so much.
Well, there are some updated pictures. Now I need to get to my canning/dehydrating. Our WONDERFUL neighbors gave me some sweet potatoes and a bunch of pears and apples. I am trying to put them all up before they go bad.
I was impressed at how well Asher could walk and kick Logan's soccer ball. It is like half his size, but he was pretty coordinated with it!
So, what do you do when your house is over-run with crazy kids? You stick them all in a dog crate. Actually, they put themselves in the crate and said "lock the door." I had to make them get out to make room for Patriot.
How pretty are these? Ryan has gotten super sweet about bringing home little treasures like this for me. I love it and think it is incredibly thoughtful.
A recycled sweater I made for Asher. I used an old Abercrombie sweater for the body and it is super heavy. I am happy with the end results, although the arms and the collar turned out a little wonky. It looks really sweet on him.
Aparently I was not paying enough attention to Asher because he got into the trash while I wasn't watching. I was however paying enough attention to grab my camera. The funny thing is that he wanted nothing to do with the spaghetti when we ate it the first time.
Here is Logan at his desk upstairs doing school. We have switched some of his home schooling this year to Switched On Schoolhouse. He is taking 3 computer subjects. He really likes them, which I like!
Asher's favorite drawer. For a while I just let him play in it because there's nothing in there that can hurt him. Now it is getting annoying to have to pick this stuff up from all over the house. Not to mention he has a play kitchen in the dining room that has tons of stuff to drag out. Yesterday he was getting into this drawer and I said "no, Asher" very firmly. He looked at me, shut the drawer, and walked away. No drama. Nice!
Anna, Gee and Madeline the first day of Kindergarden. Maddie is technically the only one doing Kindergarden work, but Anna and Gee are practicing their names and coloring some. Madeline loves Kindergarden and asks me to do it every day, although she only technically does school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
A couple weeks ago I did my Kroger Shopping before Ryan left in the morning. Asher was up (stinking early bird!) so we went together. It is impossible to put Asher and my coupons in the seat of the cart so I let him try the "big kid" cart. He LOVED it and was happy the whole hour I was shopping.
Gideon loves his dad so much and during soccer he would just follow him up and down the field while Ryan was coaching. It was so cute and I had to get a couple pics. On a little sad note, at Logan's last tournament game (the one they won), Gideon asked me to go "help" daddy and I said "sure." One minute later Gideon came back looking very, very sad. I asked him what was wrong and he said "Daddy said go sit with mommy." The boy was temporarily defeated. I think Ryan was just very focused on the game (it was close) and needed Gee to be out of the way, which I understood. Gideon, not so much.
Well, there are some updated pictures. Now I need to get to my canning/dehydrating. Our WONDERFUL neighbors gave me some sweet potatoes and a bunch of pears and apples. I am trying to put them all up before they go bad.
This weekend is our last weekend before two weekends of being away. I was thinking it would be pretty laid back, but it is shaping up to be kind of busy. Tonight we are going to dinner with my mom and step dad. Tomorrow is Madeline's birthday so will try and make that special for her. We have an apartment warming party to go to tomorrow, plus we have church and Ryan's aunt and uncle are in town. Not sure how we will fit everything in, but I am sure it will work out. Plus, all my family is coming over on Sunday to celebrate Maddie turning 5. So there goes a laid back weekend, but that is ok. It will be fun!
Julie
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