Cider Pressing

Looking so cute!

Yum!

Doesn't Look So Appealing!

The cider

Fascinating!

Turning the crank!

Such concentration!

Crochet lessons for Mrs. Karman! :-)

This past weekend, we went to some friends' home to a cider pressing, harvest party!  It was great fun.  The hot apple cider was so very yummy!  There were goodies galore and great fellowship!  My children had so much fun making apple cider and we got to bring home 2 gallons of pure goodness!  Thank you, Karmans for hosting this event!

V Is For Victory....H is For Humility!

Ready to play?

Go, Julia, Go!

We had the privilege of attending our dear friend Veronica's birthday party tonight.  At her party we had a wii bowling tournament.  Robert is the king of wii bowling and he lets us all know it!  For his birthday, we did the same thing and he beat EVERYBODY!!  He has been known to bowl a perfect 300!!!  Well tonight he got to experience humility..... as our EIGHT year old daughter, Julia, beat him fair and square!!! Way to go Julia!!!

The score (proof)

Victory is Sweet!

Humility is a good thing! ;-) (love you Robert!)

Julia Is Eight!!!

Julia....8 years old!

I can hardly believe that it has been eight years since the Lord gave us our precious baby girl!  Julia is a delightful young lady who loves her family and loves the Lord with all of her heart.  Some of her favorite things to do are reading, playing, and just hanging out with the family.  Julia is in the third grade and doing very well.  She is also learning such home making skills as gathering, sorting, and folding  laundry, washing and drying dishes, setting the table, and dusting furniture.  I know this seems like a lot for a little girl, but she is in training to one day become a wife and mommy!  Don't worry, she gets plenty of play time as well!  She loves riding her bike and also her scooter.  Recently, she and her big brothers, Nathanael and Michael, caught over 40 frogs!  They love to catch gross slimy things!  While she may enjoy those yucky things, she also enjoys being a princess, dressing up all pretty and spinning around for all to see.  My baby girl is growing up all too quickly.

Today, she requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Red Robin for lunch, and a baked potato bar for dinner.

I love my JuJuBee!!!

Julia as a baby

Love the look!

Sisters

Julia and Michael enjoying a boat ride

Ezekiel In Pictures..Happy Birthday!!

Zeke in my tummy!

Just Born!

about one month

One year

Two years! Birthday Boy

Once Upon a Time.......

Once upon a time, six years ago to be exact, a precious baby girl was brought into this world.  We named her Lydia Grace Houston.  She is a sweet, tender hearted little girl who loves to please all she comes in contact with.  Her smile lights up even the darkest of days.  Though she is small in stature, her heart is big and filled with love.  Her desires for today include German pancakes for breakfast, Noah's Ark for lunch with Daddy and Mommy,  BBQ chicken with mashed potatoes for dinner, and chocolate cream pie for dessert.  Here are a few facts about her (in her own words):

What is your favorite color?  Red
What is your favorite thing to do?  spend time with mommy and daddy
What is your favorite food?  biscuits and gravy with bacon
What is your favorite memory?  when we went to Noah's Ark with our family
What do you want to be when you grow up?  a nurse
What is your favorite dessert?  pie!
What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
What are you most thankful for?  God, and for my family, and my mom and dad

beautiful baby

We love our Lydia Grace so very much!  It is a joy to have her as a part of our family!  We praise the Lord for allowing us this awesome privilege of raising her up.  We look forward to seeing just how God will use her in days and years to come.

COLD TURKEY?!!!!

Aaaahhh!  Zeke has lost his "DeDe"!!!  What in the world are we going to do?!  You know, the one that he sucks on as if his life depended on it, the one we can't be without for more than a couple of hours while it gets washed.  And we are headed out to a conference........WITHOUT it!!!

Hmmmm.....maybe this is both a curse and a blessing.  Maybe this is the way to get him to quit sucking on that bit of nastiness (by the way, he has been oh so healthy, must be from all the bacteria he ingests from that blanket). Well, we shall see how this "cold turkey" thing goes.

Where Oh Where Does Time Go?

A whole month has passed since the birth of our darling Selah Joy.  I haven't been faithfully posting...I wonder why?  Life has been a bit busy, as it is for everybody.  My recovery is going much better.  I turned a corner at about 3 1/2 weeks post baby.  My headache is gone, my neck no longer hurts, Selah slept for 6 hours last night so I slept for 6 hours last night, and so on and so forth.  With the gaining of my strength has come a strong desire to get back to a normal routine.  But what in the world is normal?!  I don't even know!  We are starting back up on our home education this week.  We went through the summer so we could legitimately take a month off during baby recovery time.  We are quite excited and a bit nervous as we venture out of our "norm" and begin with new curricula.  Leaning toward a more classical approach of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.  More curriculum needs to be ordered, but we have enough to begin.

Daniel and Zeke with swords Daniel made

Life has been, shall I say a bit interesting lately?  Or maybe I should say exciting?  But definitely not boring!  We have had much going on in ministering to others, relationships growing, anniversaries to celebrate, a baby dedication, learning how to deal with another little baby in the house, getting ready for school to start, an accident, and just day to day stuff to name a few things!

Zeke reading to Selah

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on September 11.  We had them and my sister with her family come up to celebrate (a couple weeks late).  They came up last Sunday, so we decided to have Selah dedicated that same day.  I'll post pictures of that later.  While my parents were here, my children were outside riding their bikes when Naomi came running into the house.  "Dad! Come quickly, Daniel's hurt really bad!"  she shouted.  My husband and dad went to the truck and drove to the end of the road to see what had happened.  My neighbor had already driven him home as he happened to be driving past.  Thankfully, Daniel wasn't badly injured, though he flipped over the bike.  He lost a permanent (front) tooth, and hurt his wrist.  The tooth popped clean out!  The roots and everything....no chips or breaks so we put it into a cup of milk and off he and daddy went to the emergency room.  X-rays didn't show any breaks in the wrist so it is a bad sprain with a possible fracture (hard to see in the growth plates), and the tooth was shoved back into the gaping hole and is being held there with resin, hoping the roots will reattach.

Abby holding the fattest, coolest caterpillar I've ever seen in these parts!

A close up of that very cool caterpillar!

Daniel with a missing tooth

Another picture of Zeke and Selah, this time she's calmed down!

I know you're in pain, but say "cheese"!

Zeke, learning to drive, Wait! Not yet!!! ;-)

I am looking forward to worshipping tomorrow in the Lord's House.  Listening to great preaching, fellowshipping with brothers and sisters in Christ, singing praise to my Heavenly Father.  And then I am looking forward to the beginning of yet another week to serve the Lord!!!!!