One Man's Sled is Another Man's Frisbee

Anna

Anna is doing new things. She crawled up half a flight of stairs the other day and she has been pulling herself up to the standing position anywhere she can. In the mornings she now pulls herself up to the part of the crib closest to the door and calls for me.

Sammy

Sam is so cute. He still loves to help me cook, clean, and do laundry. I let him run the vacuum sometimes. He goes over the same spot a lot but I’ll take all the help I can get. I don’t think he is ever going to talk in full sentences but he has several words mastered. Juice, please, dog, and nug (which means thank you and your welcome). There are more but those are the most common.

Headed Home

The Scoop

Retreat was so great!!! I can’t remember a weekend I have laughed so much. God was good and cleared the snow the weather men predicted so I left my house about 9:00 a.m. Friday morning to go get Emilee. We drove to a parking lot near DIA, dropped off the car and hopped on their shuttle bus to the airport. We checked our baggage and one of the employees tried to hit on me, at least we think he did, he didn’t speak the best English. We giggled our way down to security after that and stood in line forever….. and ever… and ever. Then we walked… and walked…. And walked to the nice walkways that do all the work for you. Man I love those things. Then we finally boarded the plane and with a little help were able to sit together. Apparently, there are only four oxygen masks to a row so we had to have a row to ourselves. Emilee used her charm and bot-a-bing we had our own row. She only made one guy mad. It was so cold when we left they had to de-ice the plane. I got lots of cool pictures but deleted most of them after suffering constant ridicule from one of the three other people traveling with me. I won’t name names, you know who you are. Finally we took off and I breathed a sigh of relief because at that point I knew for sure we were going to Washington. Wahoo!!! The flight seemed to take forever, probably because we were so excited to get there. When we finally arrived we went to thrifty rental to get ripped off, I mean pick up our car. The guy at the counter gave us a price double what the one on the internet had been. So we called Sister Smith and she and Sister Bishop came and rescued us in their rented van. It was so great because they are so funny. We laughed and laughed all the way to retreat. Some of the highlights were Zips, a hamburger joint with great fry sauce, Wal-mart and Safeway who don’t carry black cherry vanilla coke and a field with turkeys and a deer in it.

Well we finally arrived and it was a great retreat! We had so much fun. There was arm wrestling, some counting game, kidnapping Mandie, and so much more. Mandie thought she wanted to nap Saturday but we convinced her otherwise, we made her take us up a trail in her truck. I love Ladies’ retreats! The devotions, music, and messages were all so good and God’s presence was so strong! TAP went good too. Thank you all who prayed for me boy did I need it. We had six babies at retreat and they all did really good too. Anna liked having so many friends her size.

The trip home was not nearly as exciting. We were tired. We did manage to take our picture with a Moose and an astronaut but other than that things were pretty dull. Oh wait there were also guys wandering around wearing sombreros and the Wendy’s incident but other than that, oh also the crazy shuttle driver who seemed to enjoy scaring us, but other than that really the trip home was dull indeed.

So Much Fun!

Spokan

DIA, The Way There

Washington here we come!

Hello everybody. So tomorrow Emilee, Zeke, Anna, and myself are flying to Washington for Ladies' Retreat!!! Yay! I'm so excited. Unfortunately Sister Bear will not be going so I am now a TAP (talk and prayer) group leader. Please pray for me and the ladies in my group. I normally like to be way prepared for this sort of thing but you can only be so prepared in a few days time unless the Lord helps. He has already given me the first two TAP session outlines but I still need Sundays'. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

In other news Emilee, myself and all of our small people went out to the V's for knitting lessons yesterday. It was lots of fun and Sis. V made this great fruit thing. Mmmm it was so good. Abbie got in on the lessons too. She is so cute. The kids both fell asleep on the way home. Oh please pray for Anna she has had a fever for the last couple days. I really want her to be well for our trip.

The last picture you will see when you scroll down is a raccoon I spotted in the neighbor's tree last night. He even posed for me. What a guy.

Chris was sick most of last week. Wednesday night he had horrible chest pain and couldn't sleep so he asked me to read scripture to him. We also prayed, sang and praised the Lord. At one point God just swept through the room and touched Chris’ body. He was finally able to go to sleep not long after that. I kept thinking that it reminded me of a home birth because there was a determination to trust God no matter what. It was such a blessing to me to hear Chris praising God when he was in so much pain. That may sound strange but to me it is a sweet reminder that when no one can help us God can. I actually read Chris some of the Scriptures that were a blessing to me as I was getting ready to have Anna.

Thursday, the kids and I headed to Springs to meet up with my Aunt Jan, Uncle Chris, and Dad so we could all visit my Grandpa. Chris stayed home and took advantage of the peace and quiet. After seeing my Grandpa we all headed over to my cousin Ryan’s to see the new baby. Her name is Ava and she is a little thing. She only weighs 6 and a half pounds. Anna looked so huge. Sam had a lot of fun. He spent most of the time with my Dad who if I remember right is lots of fun when you are small enough to pick up and toss.

Friday the kids and my Mom and I went to the Children’s museum in Layaffette. We got a little lost but stopped at a fire station and got some good directions. The museum was fun and adults are free. So are kids under fifteen months Sam was the only one who had to pay to get in.

Saturday Chris and I went to an estate sale and I bought some China which I am sending away to a replacement center tomorrow for a nice check. I am hoping to hit a few estate sales this summer. So far they are great!

Sunday we headed to the Van’s for brunch and Eater service around 10:00. The food was great and so was the service. After that we headed to my Aunts. It was a lot of fun. Sam and Anna were a big hit. We finally got home a little before 7:00. It was a long day. .
Here are the kids at the V's..

Ester fell on my cousin Colleen's Birthday this year. Here is her cake

Awww.
New family picture.

Great Sunday

On my way home from bible study/knitting class I saw this on one of the major roads. I'm not sure what happened to the other rider.

After Church Sunday our family went with the Smiths to the Armadillo. It was great. Caleb was dressed so cute but refused to pose properly.

After a great lunch we headed to the Smiths for some of Emilee's delicious birthday cake. It was so good. Here is Anna sitting with her little legs hanging through the railing.

Here is Sammy from earlier today. I know it's not a Sunday picture like the others but look how cute he is. His Uncle Adam got him a dump truck w/accessories for his Birthday and he had lots of fun with it all!