Mom, did you know that Cherrios are good for your heart?

Monday, August 30, 2010

The Church Search

In North Carolina we really felt that God was using us at Pleasant Acres, so coming back to Washington we want to be sure that we are attending the church that God calls us to rather than just attending Grace by default.

Don't get me wrong, we still love everyone at Grace and there is a high chance that we will attend there, we just want to be sure that that is God's will for our life here in Washington.

Yesterday we visited Northwest Baptist Church. It was actually pretty similar to Pleasant Acres and if you closed your eyes you could really pretend like you were in the south. The pastor is actually from North Carolina and for their christian school's fundraiser they were selling North Carolina BBQ sandwiches! Dr. David Gibbs Jr., Founder of the Christian Law Association, was actually the guest speaker which we were really excited about because we have heard his son, Dr. David Gibbs III, many times at Pleasant Acres and we have loved him every time.

Terri actually came with us to the evening service so that she could hear Dr. Gibbs since she had also heard his son before and it turns out that her cousin attends the church and his daughter was actually the first person who greeted us and was super nice to us. So how funny that we are all related!

Visiting this church made me miss Pleasant Acres so much! They even had special music during the evening service and the song that the men chose was from our Christmas Cantata! We still have other churches left to visit before we make a decision but I will let you know when we do!

Progress?

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Removing a wallpaper boarder is a pain in the booty!!

What is your...

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Favorite Paint Color?

I have a bathroom, kitchen, and master bedroom that are all awaiting new paint choices and I need some fresh ideas!

Audio Review

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

On our trip home from Quantico and then our move across the country we listened to quite a bit of audio books and podcasts. Here is my little review of them all!

1. Building Her House by Nancy Wilson- I give this one a big thumbs up! The woman reading this aloud places her emphasis on words weirdly and sometimes it makes the point come across a little cheesy but if you can get past her voice the wisdom in here is great! Its also broken up into quick sections so it is great if you are struggling and need a quick refocus!

2. The Pleasant Home Bible Study Series for Young Mothers- This one gets an even bigger thumbs up than the previous Nancy Wilson Audio Set! Brian and I actually listened to this together and we are both really glad that we did. It is nice for Brian to be able to hear where I am coming from and what I am striving for. Brian even made the comment that Nancy Wilson is a very wise woman! I especially liked the parts about discipline because we are definitely getting to that age with Kenley and it is such a confusing stage for new parents. I have re-listened to this whole set again and I absolutely love it! Each time you listen you come away with something fresh.

3. The Chronicles of Narnia Audio Book Series- I am going to give this one a 3/4 of the way up thumbs up. I have never actually read The Chronicles of Narnia books so I was really excited about these and I think maybe I had my hopes too high for them. I really enjoyed The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, and The Voyage of the Dawn Threader. I can see why those three were chosen for the movies! Personally though I felt that the other books were a little lackluster and they seemed to drag on. That could just be the voices that were used to portray the characters in those books though so I still plan to actually read all the books before I place my final opinion on the series. We weren't big fans of Aslan's voice either it just seemed so fake, in fact my dear husband still walks around speaking in "Aslan voice" just to drive me nuts :).

4. Triumph by Carolyn Jessop- I give this one a thumbs down, so much so that we actually stopped listening after 4 of the 8 cds. I really enjoyed Carolyn's first book, Escape, but this book was not like that book at all. I thought that this book would be much more about the raid that happened on the Texas Ranch run by her ex-husband but instead it turned from being about that to being a self help book about not relying on men. I understand that this woman has been deeply scarred by the FLDS and the men who were in her life until she escaped, but the way she spoke of it was almost degrading to me for relying on and loving my husband. The way she presented ways for women to help themselves was not Biblical at all so we just really couldn't stand listening to the rest of it. Its a shame because I really loved Escape and I was hoping that this book would be similar.

5. A Podcast by Pacific Baptist Church in Long Beach, California- Super big thumbs down! While on the trip we thought we would listen to some more Biblical marriage specific things since we had enjoyed Nancy Wilson's stuff so much but what we came across was borderline heretical. It was a series on the family but mostly about men.

Some of the jewels we heard were:

-If you give your 14 year old a cell phone you are a bad parent (yeah I totally disagree with that, in this day and age cell phones are becoming necessary especially if there is no home phone in the house).

-If you have boys you need to make them fight everything out even if its during church, just let them wrestle and be masculine (What?!?! Doesn't a true man know when he needs to exercise self control?).

-Women left to themselves will make their sons effeminate (I really dont think that that is true for Christian mothers who truly understand the Bible).

-Men don't like church because the women are aloud to decorate the church. (If you aren't going to church because you don't like that they have a flower arrangement in the sanctuary there is a different problem going on and its not the decorations).

-Men are to lead their wives (That is Biblical...just wait though), Women are not to have any leadership or input in the home (That is not Biblical, The home is to be our domain and women are still to express leadership over their children even if the children are boys). The speaker of this section even went as far as to share some of his wife's faults and times where she didn't submit to him (You should never share your spouses faults with anyone, let alone a whole congregation!).

Probably the most ridiculous part of the whole thing was how badly they took 1 Peter 3:7 out of context!

"Ye Husbands, in like manner, dwell with [your wives] according to knowledge, giving honor unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel as being also joint-heirs of the grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not hindered."

I highlighted the word that he based everything on, not even the whole word used in the Bible! He kept saying that the woman was weak and the man was to be strong! UGH!! It drove me crazy! This kind of man and what he speaks for totally makes women want to be ANYTHING but submissive to their husbands! Women were created with a different purpose than men! That is not a bad thing! It is a God-intended thing!

Okay, I will stop ranting :) The only reason that we continued to listen to the series was that it sparked fun conversation between Brian and I about how ridiculous their stance was and what the Bible actually says about those topics.

So there is my review of what we have listened to recently, Do know of any good audio that I am missing out on and need to listen too?

Arrived!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We are finally back in Marysville! Though if I am being completely honest I would like nothing more than returning to our house and life in North Carolina. I really feel like we are just on vacation and that we will be going back to NC soon. :(

Kenley and I caught nasty colds somewhere between Tennessee and Washington, so we are still down for the count right now. Brian is working hard as ever with my dad to get carpets laid and all of our furniture in place.

Oh and then my parents place (where we will be living) was robbed at gun point yesterday morning. Get this, my mom was told by the gunmen to get on the ground and she told them no. SERIOUSLY?!? Yes my mom is a brave crazy 90 pound woman! Praise the Lord that the gunmen decided to just leave once she refused to get on the ground! The gunmen took two laptops and a cell phone. We are really hoping that we can get the computers back just for the sake of the pictures that are on them.

So updates might be a little sparse until we are all set up at the new place and everything calms down just a bit! If you have been wanting to get together with us, give us a few weeks to get over these colds and get everything in its place and then give us a call! Thanks!

Washington!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Is this not the most pitiful welcome to our state sign or what? Haha

I win!

My sweet baby officially called me Mama yesterday! We had stopped at
an outlet mall in Park City, Utah and while we were in Motherhood
Maternity she reached out to me and said it plain as day!!

Right now we are stopped for lunch at a Denny's in Oregon located on
Goodfellow St!

Wind Power!

Friday, August 20, 2010

I didn't realize how huge these things are! It's pretty cool to see in
person.

We are driving through Wyoming right now, the sky seems so huge here!
It's a beautiful country that we live in!

Mississippi River!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

We have now seen the great Mississippi River!

Kentucky!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Travels

We are currently driving through Ohio on our way to the Creation Museum!

We have made it through the first audio book of the Chronicles of
Narnia, have made it through two discs of Carolyn Jessop's Triumph,
and are currently halfway through listening to The Lion the Witch and
the Wardrobe. Listening to audio books definitely makes the drive go
by much faster!

Kenley is doing great so far! We bought a gigantic box of Goldfish so
that helps! :)

Sent from my iPhone

We have the truck!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Drumroll Please....

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Baby #2 is a.....
Girl!! Meet Baby Claire!
I could not be happier! I have been pretty vocal this whole pregnancy about wanting another little girl since this baby and Kenley will be so close in age! Brian was hoping for a boy just because boys want boys but now he is excited at the thought of two little girls running around the house! I told him that next time I will try my best to get him a boy :).

We had the same ultrasound tech as we had with Kenley and she was so nice! They are only supposed to print pictures when you are between 18-22 weeks and she printed a ton of pictures for us anyways! Claire was super active during the ultrasound and she definitely wanted Mommy and Daddy to know that she is a girl!!

Progress!

Packing is coming along nicely! The moving truck comes in the morning
and Fred and Terri fly in Saturday! We signed our rental agreement
papers Tuesday night!

While I am working in the kitchen, I am soaking up some Nancy Wilson
audiobooks! I highly recommend listening to her! She is super
encouraging and makes me want to be a better Christian, wife, mom, etc!

I can't believe that this is our last night in our first home! Sad!

Stromboli

Monday, August 9, 2010

Ever since Becky gave me this recipe I have not been able to get enough of it! Its kind of pizza-y and bread-y and is basically just super yummy!

Stromboli
Serves: 1 Hungry Man + 1 Ravenous Pregnant Woman + 1 Baby

Ingredients:
Mozzarella Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
Prosciutto
Salami
Italian Seasoning
Pillsbury French Loaf
Marinara Sauce for Dipping
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Unroll french loaf
3. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese then add a layer of salami and sprinkle with cheddar cheese and then add a layer of prosciutto
4. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning and then roll everything back up
5. Rub outside of loaf with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese
6. Bake for 30 minutes

Serve with Marinara sauce for dipping. If you need a great store bought marinara sauce I highly recommend Newman's Own Organic Marinara. It is absolutely my favorite pasta/dipping sauce!

The Preggie's!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Emma is due January 25th
Jenny is having a boy due January 23rd
I am due January 21st



Next time the three of us girls are together again we will all already have had our sweet babies!

Kenley's Actual Birthday

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Kenley had to go in for her 12 month check-up the day before her actual birthday she weighed in at 15 pounds 6 ounces which is still way below 0% on the weight scale but they didnt seem too concerned any more since this is just tending to be her pattern.
She is such a big girl now! She has 6 teeth and loves to eat anything cold especially grapes and frozen go-gurt. She is also into everything now! I think that she will be walking really soon (now that Daddy is home I wont have to push her over)!
For dinner we took her to a mexican restaurant for birthday dinner because I wanted her to wear a sombrero. She hated the sombrero! It didnt help that we waited like an hour after eating for them to come sing. It was hilarious though, I wish that I would have gotten video of the whole mess of them singing and Kenley being freaked out by them and the "fried ice cream". Haha it was all hilarious! Ian, Kim, Brian, and I were laughing so hard!

Endoscopy Pictures

Friday, August 6, 2010

Kenley's endoscopy yesterday went great! We still will not find out the results until late next week, but the doctor said that everything looked good. Praise the LORD, Kenley did not have oxygen failure! Thank you so much for your prayers for her! The odds of oxygen failure are 1 in 3 so I am so thankful that she was not that 1!

Here are some pictures of the day:

Her hospital gown

Getting her IVI guess I didn't realize that they would wrap up her whole arm to keep the IV in!They gave her the sleepy medicine while she was in my arms and not even two seconds later she was out! I was wishing we could have had some of that sleepy medicine the night before when she would not go to sleep for hours! :) I guess she wanted to remind us what it was like when she was a newborn! And finally, here she is when we went to pick her up! She woke up probably 15 minutes after we were able to go in and sit with her. She was so funny when she woke up! She was super smiley and happy and totally still enjoying the medicine :). She has been great today! She is right back to her usual happy self!

Kenley's Birthday Party!

Finally Pictures of Kenley's Crayon First Birthday! These are a mixture of pictures taken by my camera, Becky, and Jenny!

I didn't get a good overall shot of everything, but in this one you can see that each of the tables had different colored tablecloths with white craft paper over the top so that everyone could color on the tables!
I think the tissue paper pom poms were one of my favorite details!
Here is the bow that I made for Kenley! I made bows that matched this one for each of the four littlest girls and then I made all different bright color bows for all of the older girls attending the party so that they could all pick their favorite color!
Cake Time! Kenley actually was totally freaked out when everyone started singing happy birthday to her.

Kim and Ian were such a help to us! I seriously could not have gotten everything done without them!
I am pretty sure that Kenley didn't draw that herself :)

Endoscopy

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Kenley's endoscopy will start in a few minutes, please pray for her
that the procedure would go smoothly and that she would not have
oxygen failure.

Ice Cream with the Friedleins!

Monday, August 2, 2010

 
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