fog and frogs

We have had some awesomely pretty fog around here, usually it is happening while we are driving Faron to work, and by the time we get home it is burned off, but I did catch a couple pics a few days ago.







































The other night we were getting ready to put the kids to bed and when we walked into our bedroom we found a little visitor. Luckily he was on the outside of the screen, second story window mind you. We did have a good time watching him for a while though. We did have to keep Alexander from flicking the screen and sending Kermit plummeting to his death.

rain storm

Here are some pictures from our last rain storm, the kids had fun splashing in the puddles.

I don't know why I like this one, but I really do.  Faron said it was "interesting" so, I'm sure it's just me that thinks it's cool.  Maybe I'm trying to get in touch with my artsie side.

Messes

Alexander has developed a new habit of taking advantage of the situation when I am on a different level of the house than he is. In both of these instances I had run upstairs to print off some school stuff, leaving Alexander in the basement with the girls. When I come back down, he has gone to the kitchen, gotten something to make a mess with, and made the mess. The first time it was Cheerios, yesterday it was oatmeal. Neither time was it funny, contrary to toddler belief.

Babies and growing girls

Arianna loves this baby doll. If she sees it, she will smile and get all excited, then go after it until she gets it in her clutches. Once she has it, she crawls around holding onto it, the baby banging on the floor with each step. She also enjoys sleeping with it, as you can see.
Sophia actually got this baby doll from a scrapbooking friend of mine who was at Arianna's scrappy baby shower. This friend got Alexander his first Elephant (and started the inspiration of his Elephant themed room) and she got each of the girls a baby doll, not to mention the actaual baby present.
















































In the "growing girls" news, Isabella and Sophia had thier first classes with our homeschool co-op last week. We have so many homeschooling families at our church that once a week we get together and the kids have 3 classes. Sophia is taking: Making Math Fun, Crafts, and Constructive Play. Isabella is taking: Making Math Fun, Science Experiments, and Spanish.
They both had a really good time in their classes and weren't even nervous to go. Alexander, Arianna and I work in the nursery, watching the kids (under 3 years old) of the other teachers.
We took these pics before we left, they were really excited.

zoo trip

We went to the zoo last week, the kids and I that is.  It was a fun trip, though we were all very tired when it was over!  We were there for 4 hours, and only saw about 1/3 of the zoo.  

Alexander loves Elephants, so that was our first stop, we watched the Elephants spray water and dirt on themselves for a long time.  The first thing Alexander said was "Elephants!  Ride it?"

We also saw lots of monkey/baboon/whatever's, we walked through the "Africa" section of the zoo, so those are the types of animals we saw.

We also happened to lose a pacifier and a shoe at the zoo, so if you go to the zoo and see a monkey wearing one pink flip flop and sucking an a yellow pacifier, you are walking the same path we did!

We were there to have a fun zoo trip, but the underlying motive for me was that I needed some more pictures for Alexander's room.  He is going to have a safari theme and I have some cool Giraffe and Elephant pics, but I wanted some more choices.  So, these are some of my favorites.

God is faithful

from everlasting to everlasting you are God (Psalm 90:2b)

17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children,

psalm 103:17



Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the LORD!
Psalm 106:48

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:28

The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:

“ Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Jeremiah 31:3

Godhappenings

Most of you know that Faron had a  seizure a couple weeks ago, and all the things that we have been doing surrounding that.  

The Sunday after it happened, Faron went up after church to be prayed for (they actually had it arranged for people to come forward for prayer, I don't remember this ever happening before in the years we have been there)  The man who was there to pray for him said that he had just had a seizure 6 weeks ago, same circumstances, same lack of medical reasoning.

This weekend I was at a women's breakfast at church and at the end we did prayer requests, so I gave a couple sentence summary of our situation and we started to pray.  Well, as God would have it, the lady sitting on my left started praying for me, and said that her husband has seizures and her family (4 kids) has had to go through a lot of the same things we are now, the no driving, the doctor visits, all that.  So, she prays for us, and then the lady on my right starts praying, her husband also has seizures and she also knows from experience all the things we are going through.

I thought that was kind of a cool little thing God did, to put those people who understood right there around me.

Then Sunday we had a "different" kind of service at church where we did a lot of worship and communion and such, then at the end we were supposed to get into groups of 6ish and meet the other people and ask them what we could pray for for them.  So we gathered with the other family sitting beside us, who we are acquainted with but don't know each other very well.  Faron does his prayer request first, and it is basically the same recap summary that I gave at the women's breakfast.  Lo and behold the wife in the family we are praying with, well, that same thing happened to her about 6 years ago, seizure out of no where, no driving, being carted around by the family, etc.  Again, they understood exactly where we were and we were able to pray together in an understanding and easy manor.

I just think that is all cool.  When the first thing happened, I thought, "hmm, seizures are more common that I  knew".  Then as the other encounters started happening it became very obvious that God was arranging these "chance"  meetings and showing us how He has been faithful to other families through these circumstances, and He is perfectly capable of being faithful to us.  

God has taken care of us every step of these last several weeks, though it hasn't been easy, it has been obvious that God is providing.  

We know that God works all things for the good of those who believe and are called according to His purposes.  So we are on the lookout for "Godhappenings", ways that God is showing himself to us, or using these circumstances to change and teach us.  I know there have already been many, and I'm sure there are many yet to come.