Family & friends

We had an excellent and timely sermon for Mother's Day about Hannah's devout faith and her request specifically for a son to serve as a leader in the temple, not just a child to satisfy her own desire for motherhood. It is an important reminder of our often forgotten parental calling.

We celebrated Mother's Day and I have no pictures of our moms :(

Here are two old ones in their honor. Happy Mother's Day to both of you and thank you for your godliness and sacrifice!

A good part of our kids' lives involve cousins...

Joel, John & Tyrel: The Three Musketeers
(Don't let those smiles deceive you... they're sweet, but Joel & Tyrel are little rascals when they are together on the farm :)

Holly's fascinated with little Robert

Joel loves these little toads too much, poor things (little children's rambunctious and playful "love" for animals is a scary thing). At least a dozen live in a little tunnel right in front of our garage. We're going to have to find them a new home.

Painting the top of the chimney on a fully-extended extension ladder mounted on scaffolding was not Steve's favorite moment.

Our unglamorous lives

Looking at other people's blogs, sometimes I wonder why I bother publishing about our family at all... but we're pretty happy doing the simple things we do... Big events for us are Holly learning her first word (finally!), Joel's ground-breaking discovery that moms are married to dads, getting a side of the house painted (I've even been painting in my sleep lately), Steve trying to resist joining the union at work and being the only one, Emily and Marie catching on to playing Scrabble and getting a little absorbed with it. I've always been sort of fascinated by Ecclesiastes, and some of the mystery about that book.

"For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun? Because all his days his task is painful and grievous; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity. There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him? For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God's sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind." (Ecc. 2:22-26)

So we are happy and of all most blessed, enjoying God's blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ, covenant children, our church and a free and peaceful country.

Holly's first bike ride and the camera messed up the picture

Emily's "nature art" designs :)

She's a very affectionate baby!

Another gift of God!

Congratulations Greg & Jenn! We hope you gain health and strength soon, Jenn, and also lots of rest :) May God bless you as you raise little Genevieve.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, celebrating the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and His triumph over death and sin!

We had one beautiful summer-like day last week... hot enough for everyone to get in their bathing suits and make a big muddy mess of the lawn with the sprinkler! Holly was so excited and busy she wouldn't stand still for a picture, and then I ran out of batteries for the camera so I have no pictures of the other kids :(
Sandy & Luke were over for an afternoon... Holly was very interested in Luke but not so much the other way around. What a little sweetie he is and talking so well for 2 years old! Sandy really enjoyed playing with the other 5 girls around here.
Here's some pictures of the house progress for those of you who asked... The plumbing, roofing and garage floor were done this week and the heating is almost finished. Steve spend quite a bit of time installing the central vac and still has a few more evenings of work left on it. (I asked for central-vac rough-in and he is putting in a complete system instead.) It's been pretty crazy around here with all the decisions and work to be done with the house, and then the flu bug too. It's exciting to see the progress though. All the sudden it seems much more real.


The kids came up with this teeter-totter themselves :)