The Stuff Nightmares Are Made Of

Ryan's Birthday

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Ryan, Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to the king of our castle, the cream in our coffee, the spring in our step, the apple in our eye, the. . . you get the idea. We really, really like him. We would even go as far as to say that we love him with all our hearts (as Rylie often says).
He is the perfect one for us! He is the best father, friend, husband. We love his wisdom and his silliness. Not to mention, he's not too bad on the eyes!
We are so grateful to him for being the man of God that he is and for loving us. We love you Ryan! Happy Birthday!!!

Mariners Game

Baseball Buddies

Our friends, Allen and Sarah, won ten free tickets to tonight's Mariners game, so they invited us and Chris and Angela. Rylie was very excited that she got to come along and that her friends, Toby, Henry, and Keegan were coming as well. She also got to ride on the light rail train for the first time and loved that. It was a highlight for the kids. She also got to see the Mariner Moose and play in the kids area and her and Keegan got their picture up on the jumbo tron! And I can't forget the garlic fries!
I have more pictures I'll upload tomorrow, but for tonight, here is Rylie and her good friend Keegan (they have said for the last few years now that they are getting married when they grow up!)

Vacation Days

We had a nice, relaxing day at the mountain. Ryan made us breakfast and dinner and we had good family time. Ryan and Rylie played a rousing game of Candy Land and the girls and I did some crafts. We made these spiders (Ryan made the web for us), along with some other crafts that will be Christmas presents. We made Lego doll houses and picked daisies. And I had a nap! I love vacations!

Pictures from the church campout

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Pictures from Valley

Below is a slide show of pictures from our "old" church, Valley Bible. We merged with another church in January and moved up to their property. We have recently sold the Valley property. This was a praise, but was also hard for me because it was my home. Literally, it was my home. I grew up in the parsonage that was attached to the church. I have millions of memories there. I took a ton of pictures mostly for my family for sentimental sake, but I thought a few other people might want to walk down memory lane (especially you Stephanie B.!) also. A Korean church has been using the property and it is messy from having to move everything out, so it doesn't look quite the same, but it's still fun to reminisce.

Pictures from Valley

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Home

We are back home from the church campout. We decided to stay an extra night and were freezing! It was one of the longest nights ever! But, we are home now and clean and going to go to bed early! We are leaving tomorrow (after I unpack from camping and repack) for our trip to Mt. Hyack. I'm hoping to get camping pictures uploaded soon. We had a great time and made some new friends and spent good time with old friends! Too tired to add more than that right now.

Cowgirl Cousins

Going Camping

We are about to leave for the church campout. It will be Anna's first time camping! This will also be our first year with our own tent and camp things. We'll see how we do! I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures to share afterwards!

Do you want to feel old?

If you want to feel old (unless you're not old like me), read this list of characteristics of the college class of 2013 (those born in 1991). It's fascinating and made me feel very old! Thanks to Stephanie (of creaturebug) for the link!

Back From The Ranch

We got back into town last night from our week in Idaho at a ranch. We had a great time (thank you Mom and Dad for the trip!!!) and were able to relax some too.
My wonderful husband, made sure that I was able to feel like I had a vacation too. He helped make meals, wash dishes, take care of the girls, etc. It was very nice!
Rylie turned into quite the little cowgirl. She absolutely fell in love with the horses. Her and Abby fed them hay and crab apples and petted them everyday. They also fed the goats and gave them lectures on how they needed to be kind to each other.
Luke and Anna enjoyed the animals too, but they didn't want to get too close to them.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for Anna, she is back to normal now. Her fever broke on Thursday. We have an appointment in mid September with her primary dr. so we may know more then.
I have a million pictures from the trip, but I will try to pick a few of my favorites and post them.
Now to get ready for the Church Campout on Thursday!

Towel Sisters

Lately after baths, these two sisters have been running around the house in just their towels and giggling like crazy! I love watching them play and laugh together!

Together

Great Prayer

"Father, I pray today that you may count us worthy of your calling. Enable us to become increasingly holy, self-denying, loving, full of integrity, steeped in the knowledge of you and your Word, ever delighted and eager to trust and obey you. We are not strong enough or disciplined enough to live up to your calling on our own. But I ask that you will so work in our lives that we may grow in all things that please you so that you ultimately judge us to be living up to the calling that we have received....Lord Jesus, thank you that you are transforming us into your likeness with ever increasing glory by your marvelous grace. It is only by your grace that we can become fruitful. It is only by your grace that we can persevere. It is only by your grace that we can mature. It is your grace that enables us to love others more. It is your grace that enables us to cherish holiness and a deepening knowledge of God. Therefore I ask all these things on the basis of your grace.” (DA Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Chapter 3, 2Thessalonians) (from Girltalk)

Garage Sailing

I love garage sailing! It is like a treasure hunt. I recently found this tea set for the girls that I thought was kind of whimsical and fun. I can see many tea parties in our future!

Sweet Girl

My sweet Rylie girl is always picking flowers for me. She tells me they are my presents because she loves me! She is such an encourager and a joy to me!

Humility

"Preaching the gospel to myself each day mounts a powerful assault against my pride and serves to establish humility in its place. Nothing suffocates my pride more than daily reminders regarding the glory of my God, the gravity of my sins, and the crucifixion of God's own Son in my place. Also, the gracious love of God, lavished on me because of Christ's death, is always humbling to remember, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the Hell I deserve."
--Gospel Primer (pg. 28)

Anna's Fun In The Sun

guitar

I have been experimenting with still life photos. This is one I took of Ryan's guitar.
Ryan has had a few guitars since I have known him. At times I have liked this, at other times I have not. There have been times that I have called them his "mistress" or the "other woman".
I do love to hear him play with the blues chords and I love to watch him try to teach Rylie how to play.
And I love to see him use his gifts to lead worship and praise the Lord with his guitar. His desire is that the Lord is glorified. I am proud of him and his guitar!

Anna Update

I took Anna in to the doctor for her follow up appointment today. She had a fever of almost 104. They were concerned because they couldn't pinpoint the exact cause. They ended up having to do another cath today. I'll spare you the details, but she was not a happy girl. It made me cry.
The doctor said he could do further blood work and cultures to find out why she has had three of these fevers in the last few months, but he felt like she had been through enough today. She has her 18 month well baby check up with her primary physician in September, so he felt comfortable waiting until then and having her primary investigate. He told us she was fine to go on our trip as long as we keep her hydrated. Right now she is about 5% dehydrated. It doesn't get dangerous until they are 50% dehydrated, so I was relieved at that. She has been drinking some today and we're going to keep pushing the fluids.
I just checked on her in her bed and she is burning up, even with the Motrin in her and she's moaning. However, earlier this evening she was playing and had more energy. I'm really praying that she's on the mend.
Poor Rylie is crying and yelling a lot in her sleep tonight too, which is why Mommy is up at 1:30 in the morning!
I had to apologize to Rylie tonight for being grumpy. She told me that she forgives me and that she hopes I can know the Lord more and more! She is so right!
We are leaving bright and early in the morning for our trip. Since we will be staying at a ranch in the middle of nowhere, we won't have Internet service. I have scheduled some posts to appear during this next week, so keep checking back.
Thank you to all of you who have been concerned for our little Anna and have been praying for her!

Sick Banana Again

I knew something was up yesterday morning when I had to wake Anna up two hours after she normally wakes up. She just wanted to snuggle with me all during church and then she started burning up. When her fever was still high after Tylenol we decided to take her to the doctor this afternoon. A few months ago when she was so sick and had to go to the ER and all, the doctor had told us that for the next six months we had to bring her in whenever she got a fever.
Her ears and respiratory system looked fine so they wanted to do a blood test and cath her for a UA. Thankfully both of those came back normal, other than the UA showing that she was somewhat dehydrated. Since they don't know what exactly is wrong and because of the dehydration and her being so young, they want me to bring her back in tomorrow morning. They also want us to watch her closely tonight and if she doesn't produce any wet diapers or seems to go downhill we are supposed to take her to the ER. We really don't want to have to do that again!
Thankfully, she seems to be doing ok. She is feeling a little cooler and she ate a Pedialight Popsicle and drank some pedialight and some water. She hasn't had a wet diaper yet, but we are happy that she has been drinking and she is producing tears, so that is a good sign.
I also went and bought her liquid vitamins and got those in her tonight, hopefully that will help kill whatever bugs she has.
We are supposed to leave on Wednesday for our trip to a ranch in Idaho that we are all very excited about and looking forward too. I really want her to be better before we leave though, at least to be hydrated and for the fever to have broken.
If you think of it, please pray for the little thing. I hate it when she's sick, but there is the silver lining of more snuggle time.

Pictures from VBS 2009

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Abby's 5th Birthday Party

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Now if only I can remember this. . .

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time.”

—The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (20 December 1943), para. 5, p. 499; quoted in The Quotable Lewis, (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1989), 335.

Happenings

The girls and I had a great time at the beach last week. A few posts back, I put a link to all my pictures. There are some adorable ones in there. Some of the highlights of the trip for me was kayaking for the first time, playing in the ocean with my girls, and bonding time with my family, especially my nieces who I haven't seen in a really long time.
This week we started Vacation Bible School. Our theme this year is "Camp Creation". I am co teaching the four year old class. It has been fun, but we are all wiped out when we are done each day. Rylie's favorite part of VBS so far has been the puppet, who also happens to be her Daddy. This year he is "Aussie Bob".
Yesterday we took the girls to the park since it was finally cool enough to enjoy being outdoors.
It has been a busy, but fun couple of weeks with a busy and fun few weeks still to come.
It felt so good today to get a ton of housework done and to really feel like I accomplished something. I also have been doing a little packing because next week we are taking a trip to Idaho. It will be an eight hour drive so I'm trying to find things for the girls, especially Anna to do in the car. In the dollar section at Target, I found some Dr. Seuss magnets and mini dry erase boards. I put those on cookie sheets so they have a magnet/activity board. I also bought them cheap tote bags to put all of their car activities in. Rylie is very excited about it because I won't let her play with any of the things I'm putting in there until the trip. I could use ideas though, if anyone has any!

Great Prayer to pray for your children (thanks Dad!)

We commend our young to Your tenderest care

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

We commend our young to Your tenderest care. How deep, how abiding are early impressions! While the soil is yet tender--may seeds of godliness be sown.

Before Satan with his legion stealthily creeps in,
before the world with its bewitching vanities allures,
before corrupt examples beckon to destruction's way
--do, O blessed Jesus, enter and win their first affections, and mold their pliant wills. Show them in life's dawn--Your beauty and Your glory, the peaceful charms of godly walk, and seal them by Your Spirit as Your own forever.

May Your Holy Spirit be the great teacher, to instruct them that Christ is the mine containing all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. May they early learn that the fear of the Lord is true wisdom, that to depart from evil is right understanding, and that to be brave for Christ is the noblest heroism.

Holy Father, turn not away from the desire of our hearts, humbly presented in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Cousin Picture!