Candle By Night

From our short trip to Mom and Dad's. I know...I am bad. These are the only pics I took, but I know my mom took plenty that I can just get copies from her. :D My sister and Dad took turns pushing Little E for me. I tried for a while, but it's really hard to stay hunched over...can hardly imagine what it feels like for Dad to do that! And here is the reason you don't let your Hubby play with your son's toys and a camera. ;) He said they were good "fight" scenes. (I need a "roll eyes" smilie right here. )

No, I have not dropped off the face of the Earth. I know I haven't been around much. We went to my parents home last Friday evening and had the family dinner on Saturday. Then we came back that evening because on Sunday our family (along with another family at church) does a church service at a local retirement home on the 4th Sunday of ever month. Then on Monday evening we were invited to go to a candlelight service and then Tuesday was Hubby's get together with his family. Now I feel like I am just trying to "catch up". I feel that it is going to be a late night tonight. We have some friends coming over tomorrow evening for Pizza and I want to make sure all the toys are picked up and easily accessible tomorrow. It will be lots of fun. We will have a chance to visit and the children will have 4 others to play with! Well, hope to show some pictures very soon. Need to get them on the computer first. :D I better go check out my Quilt Bean soup to make sure it's not ...

It's amazing for me to think how long ago it was since any of my children were newborns. I know...Little E is only 10 1/2 months old, but his first birthday is coming up quickly. Why am I thinking of newborns you ask? No, I am not expecting. Brian's childhood friend, A, has a new baby girl. A and H (his wife) are first time parents. Their baby girl was born at the beginning of the month. She is 3 weeks old...I think. Anyway, A called me today because H is in tears. I guess the baby is fussing after she nurses. I remember how overwhelming it was with Big T. I had a VERY long labor, was in a LOT of pain for over a month, he had his days and nights flipped, it took him 1 1/2 hours to nurse, etc. H was just needing to talk to someone who had gone through it before. I remember how frustrating it can be at the time, but as they grow up..I would give anything to have one more day when they are that tiny. They grow up so fast....Okay....enough reminiscing...just had to share that. :D

I said I would show my birthday goodies...so here goes. Miss Ginny is not going to be happy with this...but here is a picture of the birthday cake she made for me. It was yummy!!!! It was a 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing (obviously). Didn't she do a wonderful job?! The top got a little smooshed because it was too tall for the cake carrier, but it made it the perfect spot to get a taste of the icing without anyone noticing. :D Next is a picture of all the gifts I received. :D Minus a gift card. Figured didn't really need a picture of that. ;o) This picture show my compost bucket from Marci . Isn't it cute? :D I love all of the things she paints. Next to it is a B**r Bread Mix and a Mushroom Soup/Sauce mix from my IL's ...they are the ones that gave me a gift card as well. Here is a picture of the items from my sweet family. The DVD you have already seen, but the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate was from Big T, the Cacao Reserve was from Sweet E, and the Alan J...

Yes, today is my birthday and I am 28 ! I was just thinking this morning about how much I have done in 10 years. 10 years ago I graduated from high school (well it will be 10 years this spring), went to college , had 4 different jobs (associate in gift shop, assistant in FCS dept, babysitter for 2 summers, and I am now a mother/wife), graduated from MVNC (now it is called MVNU), got married , and have had 3 children . At that is just the tip of the "iceberg." I have learned how to sew, crochet, make my own cards, bake my own bread, etc., etc. I have learned so much. The Lord has truly blessed me and I am so grateful. Maybe later I will update with the goodies hubby and the children gave me this morning. You all already know that hubby gave me the Amazing Grace DVD (he couldn't wait to give me a gift, so I got that early). So....look later with an update. :D

I don't think I took the time to show this picture and video. This wonderful young lady...who we will call Lady H.....is the one you came to my home one day a week to help me catch up on laundry, cleaning, and other chores. But now, she is in Columbia, South America working in an orphanage. She is such a sweet young lady and we miss her greatly....as with the others that went down with her. ;o) This video was taken a couple of evenings the group left. Someone started singing...they all joined in...and I thought it was beautiful. :D As I said, the children miss her greatly (as do I), but she is doing the Lord's work and that is wonderful. :D

I just wanted to share some pictures from the snow we had last week. Of course now it is all gone, but the children are hoping for more. The first one of Big T was taken on Friday and the others were taken on Saturday. Hubby and the children built 2 different snowmen. The children keep asking when more snow is coming. ;)

Alright......it probably isn't a good thing to have your 2 1/2 year old DD come up to you and while she is talking to you....you smell coffee. Yep, Sweet E was eating coffee beans. I had coffee beans as part of my fall decoration...I was getting ready to put it up and replace it with a winter decoration, but before I could...she snitched some to eat! I tell you what...that child is something else! :D

After reading this post I decided I wanted to make one. Since we rent I wanted something that we could take with us to remember/record the children's height. They grow up so fast that I want something that we could keep. Since we are the Snow family I am partial to snowflakes, snowmen, snowladies, and such. So this idea popped in my head today for the growth chart. I drew this in paint...in like 60 seconds...so just bear with me. I would want a snowflake to be at the bottom to start it off..and I was thinking of the progression going something like- snowflake-> flurry-> blizzard-> snowball-> snowchild-> young snowperson-> and then snowman and snowlady. What do you think. I was wanting to get others opinions. Now here is the catch....I don't draw well, but my hubby does wonderful work, but this time of year he is so incredibly busy taht I don't want to burden him with something else to do. Maybe this spring I could get him to do it. :) Oh...I would have t...

My wonderful hubby purchased this DVD for my birthday. The story is so amazing. I can't even imagine what it was like...It was a very good movie and I would recommend it. (I guess I should add that my birthday isn't until the 15th. This was an early gift.) :D

I had so much fun making this. It is a candy wreath for hubby's office door. These are pics of the wreath that hubby took with his camera phone after he hung it up at work. I tied a string to the wreath so when he got it hung up he could hang a pair of scissors from it. Them when someone wants a piece of candy all they have to do is cut it off the wreath. I think it turned out really cute for my first try. :D The last pic I just wanted to share. It is of some flowers that I bought for hubby over a week and a half ago and they still look great! :D

"I am giving us an opportunity every Monday to not only count our blessings, but to share them with others. This is a way that we can encourage one another. Make a post on your blog telling us about your blessing. Please put a link back to this post. You can add the URL of your blog post on Mr. Linky below. Many of our blessings we will have pictures of and we can share those as well. I think that many times we forget that it is a blessing to be able to breath, to get out of bed, to hold a baby... Share your blessings with us. They encourage others. We can share so many other things.... special gifts, recipes, let's take the time to share how God has blessed us!! - Marci " I think this blessing is pretty self-explanatory. ;o) Had to post the video in two sections because it was taking WAY TOO long to download. Nothing "outstanding" about these except he is the most adorable thing I have ever seen! :D