What I Overheard....

Today I was witness to a very funny conversation between my 12 year old son and my 3 year old son. It makes me appreciate the fact that i really do not know what is going on in my children's minds sometimes. And even more, i am not sure they know what is going on in their minds either;)

Setting the stage.....

Noah was crying for no apparent reason.

COLE: "you cannot cry forever"

NOAH: "Oh! Yes I can!"

COLE: "But you would not want to"

NOAH: "OH! Yes I do"

COLE: "Why?"

NOAH: "So my teeth will fall out!"

HUMMM? Noah has stopped crying and still has all of his teeth, thought you may want to know;)

I love these precious gifts from Jesus! They are so fun!

What is New...

I thought I would take a bit of time to write while I am waiting for my "drowsy" allergy medicine to kick in. This past month I have been at war with bronchitis. At first I was simply thankful for it not interfering with the activities of my day too much, just was a bit irritating. But the last two weeks as it has been dragging out, it has kind of kicked by butt. restless night due to coughing up a lung, achy ribs and back from-coughing, weary from restarting my sentences over and over again because of-coughing, you get the picture. But with my second trip to the doctor this week, I think i am finally on the mend and starting to breathe again. So, there you go, that is why I have been absent here. As much as i love the blog, it is a bit of a luxury that I must let go of when other priorities leave no room on my plate.

But here are some highlights that I at least had pictures from.
Bell has been enjoying her art easel that she got from her GG(Great Grandma).


Joslyn decided she wanted a horse, so she hijacked my stash of boxes to create her mustang. So we now have a horse residing in our basement-sorry to my lovely customers, my studio is no longer pet free(Haha). Joslyn can bury herself in a project for hours when she gets an idea. I love hearing her say, I LOVE ART. She has been known to very dramatically claim she could not live without art.
Madison is my little lady who loves listening to old records and dancing around. I put together a collection of old record waltzes for her last Christmas. Talk about a fun treasure to hunt down. But this week, the waltzes got to her and she just had to have a partner to dance with her. So I found her digging through crates of Cole's old clothes that do not fit Noah as of yet. This is what she put together for Noah. It really was pretty darn cute! And Noah was quite the sport in it all. He loves hopping around to the music too.

We were able to finally dig up our carrots! They were excellent, kind of ruins it for me wanting to buy them from the store! Next year, there will be a whole lot more carrots growing in our gardens, that is for sure.
While Matt was able to take a vacation day to hang out with an old friend and catch U2's newest tour-which they were able to actually be in the inner circle , center stage for-I am so jealous. I spent the day with my folks, which was wonderful. We sat outside and had lunch and dinner on the deck while the kids played in the tree house my Dad had built for us kids when we were little. Noah took an awesome nap on Grams and gramps floor, thanks to Grandmas's great rocking skills! She has the touch! i can't remember the last time I was able to rock him to sleep!


And speaking of my folks! Dad has now been in his new job for 2 weeks-praise the Lord! After almost 2 years of searching for a job! If you know anyone going through jobloss or difficulty in finding a job, please remember to keep praying, I can tell you from watching my parents go through this, that it is so hard and so discouraging,words could never do it justice. prayer for the Lord's peace, and comfort, and guidance is always needed!

And we are still enjoying the Park across the street from our neighborhood. Our neighborhood is an older one, so it does not have a play ground in it like all the new developments do, but we are blessed to have something even better five minutes walk form our front door! We have Phillips park aquatic center, sledding hills, zoo, island, gardens, and playground and picnic site. Can't beat that! So we are enjoying that all times of the years.
And now, here are a few things I have been working on in the shop.
I love old books that have seen better days. So I have begun to cut tags from the pages of them. The kids love helping me choose what we try to work into the tags. Just a fun little extra to play with. I was blessed with a sizzix die cutting machine last Christmas that my husband brought home from a white elephant exchange!!! I have put it to use -a lot!
I have also had a chance to restock on patches. I enjoyed making them just as much as always! The perfect way to use scraps! I am hoping to begin framing collections of them soon. I will try and write up a post soon on how I make them.

Well, I am very sleepy and need to finally rest my head on the pillow. Toodles lovelies!

A Fun Day of Hiking

We finally made it out the door at lunch time! After almost two weeks of dad being away, all of us were more than ready to get out of the house to have some fun together! And, I forgot just how dirty kids can get!!! We should have covered the van in plastic for the ride home! We sure did laugh a lot though! Why did we all take showers before we left to go hiking!

Bell

Madi
Joslyn
Cole

Noah
The whole gang

We had an awesome time!

A Week At Camp ...

Many of you already know that my family and I are away at camp this week. I had meant to update each day with the blessings each day has held for us, but it has been one of those weeks where I have enjoyed just being in the moments and when I am not, I am snoozing! Wow, I can not believe how a change of pace and schedule can bring out how tired I am! But it is a very good and content tired.

Matt and I have brought campers up to Lake Ann now for two years and we have been blessed by the camp in the fact that they provide our family with a cabin retreat for the week, giving my husband, who is a youth pastor, the chance to refresh, rest, hang with his family and also get to know the camp and be a part of the activities going on. We bring our oldest child to be one of the campers, but the other four of our kiddos stay with us for the week in a fun little log cabin on camp grounds. For us, it is a slow paced week in God's beauty and time to enjoy sitting in on chapel services with the different age groups who are here at camp, but not have the normal ministry responsibilities of life back home. Matt has a chance to study, return messages, and prepare but on a more relaxing time schedule. I believe the Lord really blesses Him during weeks like this.

So, while he is down at the beach with our younger kiddos, I thought I would do one big blog update for everyone.

We drove up on Sunday, it is a 7 hour drive, and the trip went very smooth. We arrived pretty late at camp and had a few kinks to work out with lodging for the night. Normally Matt stays with the guys the first night until camp begins on Monday morning and i get us settled into our cabin for the week. But, this year our cabin was not ready for the kiddos and me, so we had to bunk it in a camp cabin. The thought "hotel" crossed my mind and we even called to get rates, because I had not packed bedding for staying in a camp cabin, but the girl's and I roughed it for the night. Let's just say it was an adventure! With no bedding, no cell phone(I realized I forgot it when we got to our cabin), and not knowing where my husband was staying with the guys, I was also unable to get into the van and trailer for our "stuff"- BUT-the girls and i survived and it turned out to be just fine, and I learned how to be flexible and laid back! I can definately use that lesson more often in my life-so thank you Jesus!

Monday morning started at 5:30 am with my lovelies wide eyed and ready to get out into camp. So we did our best to clean up and we explored around camp while everything was still hushed and the sun was still fresh in the sky. Once everything was abuzz with preparation for the first day of camp, we met up with our crew again and got everyone fed and registered. Cole, our son, and a friend from church, Andrew, were already having a blast. Cole was covered from head to toe on dirt before he was even registered-yikes.


My Coleman is the lovely man with the "Silent but Deadly" Tshirt on. I made the mistake of showing it to him as a joke when we were shopping for clothes. What was i thinking, he is an 11 year boy, like he wouldn't want that shirt! All the kids were busy collecting these caterpillars around camp, kind of creepy, I know!

Cole's age group of campers is bunking in the woods. Their cabins are up on stilts and they do a lot of thier meals over the fire. They even have some of their chapels out there as well. It is Wednesday, and I haven't seen him around, but my girls have and says he is having a great time and hasn't brushed his hair! I guess he is trying for dreds! I sent him a care package with the mail and included amongst the goodies-A BRUSH-since I have the sneaking suspicion he did not even bring one!

Last year was my first time as a mom, having to give up one of my children to a stranger to care for them. Ouch, did my heart ache. The lucky thing for me is that I was actually here at camp the whole time and got to spy on him and watch him having such a good time. By Friday though, I couldn't stand it anymore, and I had to go and tackle him for a hug. I behaved though, and waited until his buddies were not around, so I would not completely embarrass him! Well, this year, I am doing alright with it. But I did get a bit misty when I said goodbye to him. I actually ache more now for the disappointment he goes through when camp is over. I remember those times as a kid! He will probably be just like his dad was and work at camp all summer as soon as he is old enough. Camp really changed my husband's life as a kid and that is where he felt his call to full time ministry, so we have a very big soft spot for camp!

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Here is the kids bunk room in our cabin. All four of them sleep here, it is pretty sweet. The cabin is pretty much in the woods, but we have some great neighbors! It is pretty fun this year, another Youth Pastor friend and his family is up here for the week as well, and they are right next door. Our kids are having a great time playing together and it is so good to just stop and chat throughout the day!



Noah and i are taking a walk through camp and will show you a few sights. He is just so excited to be free of four walls, our little wild man!
Here is the beautiful center of camp, if you want to watch all the activities and kids running around, you can sit out on the swings and soak it in!


The next picture is of a super fun game that they play here called octiball. It is always fun to watch no matter what age group is playing, wether it be 5th graders or sr high!


Here is the lakefront. They have a waterslide, the blob(which is always hilarious to watch), and a few other things.








Noah is sacked out after a fun day of hiking and playing at Lake Michigan.

Bell fell asleep right on the floor after walking in the door after a day down at camp! Ah, the fresh air and lots of exercise!

We took the afternoon on Tuesday to swim at the beach on Lake Michigan. It was a very HOT day, but the water was still frigid, so only the girls braved swimming. It was a very fun afternoon! While i was a good mama and caked on the sunblock on the kids, i was silly in not putting some on myself-and OH HOW I AM PAYING NOW! Let's just say I flinch when anyone comes around me for fear that they will actually touch me! I can barely stand matt putting on the solarcane.



It is always a bit sad to be making family memories without Cole, and yet, I love that he is making his own memories!






There is a bunch more to share, and I will share it later. it is time for me to go find my family and get some grub! Have a wonderful week!

And yes, I brought my sewing machine, if any of you were wondering how I survive a week without sewing-I don't! It travels with me! I was working on a quilt late last night as Matt was studying. I t is pretty peaceful quilting in a cabin in the woods!

The Littlest Man is TWO!!!

Our littlest guy is two today! Noah arrived to us a perfect gift from God. A gift that was worth infinately more than any struggle or pain that came with bringing him into the world. He was the little man I always knew I had yet to meet, the little man who has shaped his brother and three sisters into amazing helps and blessings to their Dad and I. He is the fifth in a mighty little nation who I know God has plans for. He is the sweet boy who was so rolly polly that he didn't roll over till he was 11 months! And now he is the solid wild man who runs too fast for me to catch! He has a humor that causes most of the laughter in this house, and a curiousity that I know keeps the Lord's angels very busy! He is the brother Cole prayed for through three arrivals of sisters, each being God's perfect plan and perfect timing. He and Cole are the bookends, the protectors of our three little princesses, one to go before, and one to go after. He was the first surprise to Matt and I, and will remain the best surprise of our lives. He was protected safe in my womb during three surgeries to place new pic lines to my heart which kept me hydrated during my pregnancy, he was protected while I could keep no food in my body for almost 5 months, he was protected while I had to be medicated 24 hours a day for extreme nausea. He was protected from my depression which came from being so ill and loosing my ability to care for my family as I had grown accustomed to. He was planned by the creator and I was so privaleged to carry him. He brought new relationships to our families life, new friends, and closer old ones. He gave my kiddos a chance to fall in love with thier grandma, my mom, as she cared for us many days each week. He brought the joy of life to us just as we almost lost my Dad, and was a soothing balm and comfort during that time. He brought a calm and peace to the home that Matt and I have come to see as one of God's most amazing gifts to us. He keeps us young, hopeful, and excited about God's plans for our family. He has brought us to trust the Lord even deeper and see that His will is so much better than ours! WE LOVE OUR NOAH!