Ryan Proposes To Leah

Awesome church service!!!
Ryan proposed to Leah!! Click HERE to hear it.
Congratulations guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Chrsty, Chris and Tristan!!!

Well, this one's for you Christy!!! I couldn't make it post to the blog so...
I love you guys so much. May God bless you and Olivia in these recovery days.
So proud to announce the arrival of Olivia!!! 9 pounds 11 ounces and almost 23 inches long! Can't wait to see her. I am really surprised at how close Joni got with her guess on the baby poll! Congrats Joni! I love when someone is at least close!


Here is a great thought, I am arranging the meals for the family so if anyone would like to do one, let me know, otherwise I will be doing my regular calling anyway.

"I Have A Dream" Speech by Martin Luther King Jr.

Click HERE to see awesome video of the speech. I was looking for videos for my new Ipod video and remembered this one. I had always wanted to hear the whole thing. Didn't know you could see the whole thing. Rock on. Enjoy!!

Valentines Day, spreading a little love around!

As I said in my last post, we usually don't get too head up about Valentines Day. But our cell group had planned a much anticipated chocolate fondue for the occasion as no one had special plans for the night. Due to a hardship in one of the families in our cell, we postponed the fondue till some later date, unknown at this time. So, I had chocolate and thought, why don't I just go ahead and have a little fondue for the family. So, I invited my mom and Henny, but Hen had cell. My mom came over after school and we had supper. Adam's scumptious dolly varden that he caught about a month ago and I had frozen to have... well, tonight I guess. So, that and wild rice, peas, salad and then for dessert... YUMMY chocolate fondue. My mom had brought home these beautiful tulips for me and they just made it look so beautiful. So here are a few pictures of the occasion. Enjoy!
The table all ready for the eating pleasure! My mom bought a really good fondue cookbook for us to share and it is quickly becoming our "thing". I love it and it is absolutely wonderful for fellowship as it takes time and you sit around and gab the whole time. It was such a great time!
Joshua and Nana. Joshua always wants on Nana's lap for meal time. It is the covented seat of the house. I don't know how the kids function at all without her around. My mom is such a blessing to my children and me.
Annabelle says that this is her fondue dress, it sure shows the signs of chocolate all over it after this fun-do as Nana and her were calling it.
Joshua preparing to dip!
Joel looks upset but just after this picture her broke into laughter. He was such a mess, but a happy mess anyway. And there concludes a small amount of the pics of the blessed fondue! Success!


Adam has been wanting an ipod for months now. He was saving for it and then bought me the cross necklace for our anniversary with his savings. After that the saving was going much more slowly because of not so much $ coming in. We received a nice blessing from someone very special (thank you so much!) and we agreed that along with spending some of it on our night out... bowling and movie... we would order him the ipod. He put his portion he had saved toward it also and we ordered it from the apple store online. It was on sale for Valentines day and the shipping, gift wrapping and engraving was free! So... February 13th it arrived in the mail. Although I have been frustrated to no end at the amount of time that has been invested in the thing over the last couple days, I have come to the realization tonight that it is only the second day, and the novelty will lessen as the days go by. Sorry baby for being so frustrated. I love you! And I am so glad Adam appreciates everything he gets. So, he took many pics of the package that arrived when he was in a dead sleep. He was up in seconds and down stairs to open and observe. I think it is absolutely everything he hoped for! Now he will jog comfortably with non stop music!

The cute gift wrapping and personalized card that I had sent blank as he was listening to me order the thing anyway. Would havebeen silly telling the lady on the phone some love note with him sitting right there!
Inside the gift wrap... Johnny Depp, how wonderful! haha
Then the ipod... hard to believe this thing holds 30 gigs of stuff!
And daddy training his boys in the ways of a man!
Tonight, in between supper and fondue, Adam had to run to Walmart where he picked up the skin for the ipod to protect it. Now he is totally happy. And in the midst of his ipod excitement, he didn't forget the woman of his dreams and he came home with a sweet card and a tiger stuffed toy. The kids loved it! And of course I love it, too! So over all, for people who don't care much for the "holiday" we sure did go all out! hahaha

I hope you all had a wonderful day and that you were blessed with LOVE!!!

Where the love has taken us

Where has this Love taken us?

Love...
Well, some think that Valentines Day is overrated. We are some of those people. Our anniversary is February 17th so we have never really celebrated February 14th. But I thought tonight about how much I love my wonderful hubby, so I decided to make a post.

Here is where it all began. We were married on February 17th, 2001. I was the happiest I had ever been and this was the first dream that God gave me. I always dreamed of being a wife... here I was. The most exciting day of my life!

The love began. What a dream come true!

Then, this dream came true... I always wanted to be a mommy, God gave me a son... 2002

Then a daughter... 2003

Then another son... 2004

And God has blessed our family everyday since. I am so thankful for your love, Adam! Thanks also for helping make all my dreams come true. You are amazing!

Happy Valentines Day!

Rules for a Happy Marriage

My mom was going through stuff at her place and came across this. She was going to toss it but I thought that I would just post it first. Good thoughts!

1. Never both be angry at the same time

2. Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire

3. If one of you has to win an argument, let it be your mate

4. If you have to criticise, doit lovingly

5. Never bring up mistakes of the past

6. Neglect the whole world rather than each other

7. Never go to sleep with an argument unsettled

8. At least once a day try to say one kind or complimentary thing to your life's partner

9. When you have done something wrong, be ready to admit it and ask for forgiveness

10. It takes two to make a quarrel, and the one in the wrong is he one who does the most talking.

Dentist and rude awakenings!

There is Joshua, the most well behaved dentist kid I have ever seen...
Having exrays... that showed what I didn't want to see. The start of 4 small cavities. I was devistated. The dentist says if we floss regular they will probably not need filled and won't cause pain. I have tried to floss regular but never think about it. And then when we do, it hurts him becasue his teeth are so close together at the back. So it is between all his back molars that there is decay. I brush his teeth everynight and some mornings. I was feeling like such a bad mom for not being more diligent with the flossing, but now I will be!!! For sure! He won't miss a night of flossing, and the dentist showed me a little trick so it won't hurt him, so YAY! And I will do it with the other two, too. Poor kid, you know he is the one who turns down candy and pop and all sorts of stuff just becasue he didn't want any black things in his teeth... the dreaded cavities.
Duck lips, always a joy!!!
So, by this pic you would think the appointment would have gone good.
This is what we got for the rest of it. Last time she did great, this time she said everything hurt. They were brushing her teeth with that spinner thing and she was freaking out and decided she wouldn't open her mouth. We had had a really good talk about all this before hand and she still wouldn't open up. Arg! So the dentist made her a baloon poodle which I took away when we left and I didn't let her have a little treat toy at the end. The lady at the counter must have thought that I was mean, but I can't have her acting this way. It wasn't only that though, after she was done she was running around, wouldn't listen, being rude, yelling... it was not her best day!
Yet, now they are all playing like little angels, because they are my angels. I love them so much. Joshua was awesome and I just felt bad that I have not taken better care of things. Annabelle will be better next time I am sure. God bless you all!

Mommy

Hey everyone, my mom has a blog and has for a little while. If people would like the address comment or email me. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!

Amazing God!

So I wrote all this stuff below, just thoughts and revelations, then I went to Ruth's blog entry, Praise You In This Storm! God is just amazing! His timing is impeccable !

My heart...

I thank God for good friends who can somehow manage to speak life where there is defeat. I really thank God for friends who are honest, even when it hurts. I really needed someone to care for me tonight and God did send, as He always does. I read the study below after and was thinking, it is easy for me to aknowledge that God has given me all good things in my life, but it is the negative I struggle with. Can it be true that God actually preordained the fight, and through it His power will be shown. Is it true that it is in the times of hardship that He is guiding us, that he actually wants it, to help us come to a greater knowledge of Him? It is true! And I feel like, as always, God is working on my heart. Will I recieve and respond or will I allow pride to sneak in and push away the Truth. I will not allow that. I will recieve. I need to learn to lay down my rights and trust that God will do my bidding for me. I will trust that he is not going to let me fall, and he will not let my spirit be broken. I need to exalt Him above the situation as he is Lord over all and see the truth, not the lies. I need to see Him, not me, my hurt. Thank you Lord for your faithfulness and that you are the one who controls the wind and the waves in every storm, not me. Thank you that I don't need to be the one to save me. Man, I would just fail, but you will take me under your wing and I will find rest.
I Love you Ruth!

shelovesgod.com

The Antidote for a Dying Worldby Marnie Pehrson

We recently studied the unusual Old Testament book of Hosea in Sunday school. In this parable, the Lord compares Himself to a husband and Israel to an unfaithful wife. In the story, Hosea takes a wife who is unfaithful to him. She goes after other "lovers" instead of remaining faithful to her husband. Like the wife in the story, Israel has been unfaithful to God by going after gods of wood and stone.
The wife says, "I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink" (Hosea 2:6). She seeks after them, but she cannot find them. They remain elusive to her until she finally decides to go back to her husband because it was "better with him than now" (v 7).
Then the husband in the story says, "For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." In other words, Israel took all the things God had given them and gave them to idols. Then they attributed the good they received to false gods instead of the true God.
To prove his point, when the wife returns the husband in the story holds back his abundance until the wife humbles herself. He takes her into the wilderness and speaks kind words to her and then gives her back all the good things she once had (v14-15). Verse 16 concludes "it shall be at that day saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi (husband) and shalt call me no more Baali (master).
Notice that the Lord doesn't want a "master-slave" relationship with us. He wants a "husband-wife" relationship with us. There is a big difference between the closeness and love that a husband and wife share and a master-slave relationship.
So how can we apply this parable to us today? We aren't off worshiping idols of stone and wood are we? However, how many times do we look at all the good things we have and assume they came from our own hard work, or from the lotto ticket we bought, or from government programs? How many times do we acknowledge that everything  and I mean every little thing  that we have is from God?
How many times do we view His commandments as a hardship upon us? How many times do we see him as a Master and us as the slave instead of realizing that every command, request, or prompting through His still small voice are words of loving-kindness that will bring us to greater love and happiness?
In scripture we repeatedly see individuals and civilizations go through a pride cycle. They come to God, repent, are blessed, prosper, become proud and then fall. At the point of humility, they come to God and repent. His mercy returns and the cycle repeats. It is my belief that the point at which prosperity becomes pride is when we stop being grateful. It's when we do as the wife in this story did and stop acknowledging that every good thing we have comes from God. It's when we start attributing our success to our own ingenuity or to other false "gods" we put before the true Source of all good things.
At the point of ingratitude, we become proud, and pride surely goes before a fall. Humble gratitude is the antidote for pride and the cure for a fallen world.