Christmas Pictures!

Each year the girls help make Christmas cookies. They help with the mixing (it’s getting where I don’t have to put quotes around “help” because they are actually getting to be helpful now!). And they each have a rolling pin to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. Our favorites are the nativity set of cookie cutters!

The usual attempt at getting them to all sit still while I take a decent picture…or ten. We are happy to get a “half-way” decent picture. :o)

Stan is running the camera this year. Can you tell? ;o)

 

 

Here is our tree!! I love it! Stan and the kids always go and pick out our tree each year. They did a wonderful job…as always!!

 

Jake…getting into the present-opening thing. )We always open presents on Christmas Eve, then Santa comes Christmas morning.)

Rebecca and her new jammies!

 

The girls are wondering who that present is for.

 

 

Stan did the Santa thing again this year…big hit! He grew his beard out and we whitened it for the occasion!

 

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

 

Santa and his little elves!

 

Stan got me a Kitchen Aid mixer!!!!!!!!! I love, love, love, love, love it!

 

Christmas Morning…

 

Jake got a remote control car…the Bounce Back Racer. It’s really cool! And it’s a little bit squishy so it doesn’t hurt feet or furniture.

 

Jessica got a baby doll that pees. Yeah, that’s what I thought too. She also got a jumbo pack of new born diapers to go with it. I thought we were out of the diaper thing since Jake is potty trained!

 

Rebecca got a Build-a-Bear Clydesdale horse and clothes. Yep, she’s still a horse-lovin’ girl!

 

Mackenzie got a crocheting kit. She’s been wanting to learn and she got some cool patterns to work on!

 

The girls all got a DS game…they’re absorbed!

The Little People Are Taking Over

 

Oh this is sad. I just realized that I posted 118 blog posts in 2008 and so far I’ve posted a measly 21 posts in 2009. Really? Only 21 posts and it’s November? Think I can post 100 more posts in the next two months?

Me either!

Mackenzie got her braces off and she’s SO excited. But then came the retainer and the ortho said she had to leave it in 24/7 and eat with it in. Oh yes! I was worried about the whole digging through the school’s lunch trash trying to find the darn contraption.

Rebecca wants braces…and she shall get her wish soon enough. She needs them.

Now Rebecca…you know, the sweet cuddly one…asked me the other day if she could take taekwondo. And Jessica…the rambunctious wild child…asked if she could take ballet. Just when you think you’ve got them pegged…

I asked Jessica if she knew what taekwondo was, which she didn’t, and after I explained it to her she changed her mind and now wants to take “kwae-ton-do” too. It’s so cute how she says it!

And I want to know just who shoved an Eveready up Jake’s butt! No one told me boys are SO busy. I need a nap just watching him. We’re in the midst of potty training now and it’s going pretty good, thank the Lord!

But to balance out his wildness, it melts my heart when he says things like “tank you, mom” and “I soddy, mom” (that’s “I’m sorry, mom”). So sweet.

Right now he has his sweat pants string caught in the armoire and can’t get loose. Should I leave him like that? At least I’d know where he is. LOL

Well, I’ll post the Halloween pictures soon…relatively soon. Mackenzie’s b-day is next week and we’ve agreed to letting  her have a couple friends over for a sleep-over. It may take me a while to recover.

Swiss Courier Blog Tour

 

Welcome to the blog tour for Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey’s Swiss Courier! Keep reading for how to win a signed copy of the book…and some Swiss chocolate!!

 

About the book!
It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich. When Joseph Engel, a German physicist working on the atomic bomb, finds that he is actually a Jew, adopted by Christian parents, he must flee for his life to neutral Switzerland. Gabi Mueller is a young Swiss-American woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) close to Nazi Germany. When she is asked to risk her life to safely "courier" Engel out of Germany, the fate of the world rests in her hands. If she can lead him to safety, she can keep the Germans from developing nuclear capabilities. But in a time of traitors and uncertainty, whom can she trust along the way? This fast-paced, suspenseful novel takes readers along treacherous twists and turns during a fascinating--and deadly--time in history.

 

My thoughts:

Prepare to be transported back in time and ripped from your cozy, secure life to a place of war and uncertainty. Swiss Courier will pull you in and open your eyes to the cruel reality of life during Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany. But it won’t leave you hopeless. Experience the selfless heroism of ordinary people who stand up and risk their lives trying to make a difference in the war. It is full of suspense, loyalties, and betrayal.

To be fair, during the first part of the book I thought that the history seemed somewhat forced into the story. The facts were interesting, but distracting the way they were presented.

By the second half of the book, though, I was thrown into the story and wondering how the characters were going to get out of each situation and hoping their missions succeeded despite unimaginable kinks thrown their way. Loved the ending! But I’m not going to spoil it for you.

Thank you, Litfuse, for providing a copy of Swiss Courier for me to review!

About the authors:
Tricia Goyer is the author of several books, including Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights, both past winners of the ACFW's Book of the Year Award for Long Historical Romance. Goyer lives with her family in Montana. To find out more visit her website: www.triciagoyer.com
Mike Yorkey is the author or coauthor of dozens of books, including the bestselling Every Man's Battle series. Married to a Swiss native, Yorkey lived in Switzerland for 18 months. He and his family currently reside in California.To find out more visit his website: www.MikeYorkey.com

 

 

 

CONTEST (and this includes CHOCOLATE!)
Pst...pass it on! Help Spread the word about #SwissCourier on Twitter and enter to win a signed copy & Swiss Chocolate!

Just tweet this: The Swiss Courier by @triciagoyer fast paced and suspenseful! Don't miss out!  http://tr.im/Ahjs RT #swisscourier and we'll enter you into a drawing for 1 of 5 SIGNED copies of The Swiss Courier!

Can’t wait? Buy the book here

 

Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour!

Pearl Girls Tour

 

About Pearl Girls, from Margaret McSweeney:

With His love and grace, God covered the unexpected pain in my life of becoming an adult orphan and transformed this pain into a pearl. We are all Pearl Girls. Each of us has been touched by God's gift of love and grace, and it's a gift that I want to share with others. That's why I am launching Pearl Girls.

Actually, my very first gift from my parents was a pearl. The gift of my name. Margaret means "precious pearl." So perhaps this is what I was always supposed to do. My heart's prayer is that Pearl Girls will be a blessing to others - to the women who contribute their literary talent to the Pearl Girls projects; to the readers who are inspired and comforted by the life experiences shared through these projects and to the women and children who will benefit from the proceeds given by Pearl Girls to various charities. This is a win-win for everyone, and each of us has a special part in making the Pearl Girls projects "blessed sellers."

After the first Pearl Girls tea in Atlanta, I went to my brother, Claude's home to help sort through our parents' boxes in his basement. It was an emotional experience and tedious process to discover what was in each box, to decide what to do with each item and to discard those belongings which we needed to let go. After several long hours of sorting, I received an incredible hug from heaven - a confirmation that Pearl Girls is something that is meant to be. I discovered a three strand necklace of painted pearls belonging to my grandmother from the early 1900s! Isn't that amazing?

Press Release

Read an excerpt of Pearl Girls!

 

My Thoughts:

We all have pain and hard times in our lives that can become a pearl if we let it. It’s easy to feel alone in our pain and that no one understands and even that God has abandoned us when we needed him. Pearl Girls is full of stories of women who have felt the same way, but found the pearl through the pain. I appreciate the wide variety of experiences covered in this book that reach out to the many different aspects of life. And if you’ve ever listened to a fantastic speaker or read books from amazing authors and thought, “If only my life were so put together like that,” then you’ll be blessed to hear from just such women who have struggled with hard times and sadness and see that you’re not alone and that good really can come out of difficult situations.

Thank you, LitFuse, for providing a copy of Pearl Girls for me to review.

 

 

It’s about Connecting Hearts and Souls to Impact the World.

Margaret doesn’t keep a penny of any proceeds.  100% of the royalties go directly to two charities:

WINGS (women in need growing stronger). The proceeds will help fund a Safe House in the Chicago suburbs. It costs $50 a night to provide safe shelter for a woman and her children. During this economy, WINGS is receiving even more phone calls for a safe place to stay. Already, the Pearl Girls have provided 60 nights with the advance royalties. www.wingsprogram.com

Hands of Hope. The proceeds will help build wells in Uganda for school children. Can you imagine a child at school without a water fountain in the hallway where he or she can grab a quick sip of water in between classes on a hot day? These children have to drink from puddles and other water sources which carry diseases and parasites.  It costs $12,000 to build a well in Uganda. Already, the Pearl Girls have provided funds to build ¼ of a well.  www.handsofhopeonline.org

 

Buy Pearl Girls here!

 

Pearl Girls from Michael J Garvey on Vimeo.

 

 

Inspired by the many women who opened their lives and shared their stories in Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace, we have created sister site, Post-a-Pearl. A place to continue the connection and encouragement the book began. I hope you will take the opportunity to connect through the Post-a-Pearl site. Please post your own Pearl story and reach out to share your own story with others. Collaborating is an important purpose of Pearl Girls. We connect to make a difference in the world.

 

Want to see what others are saying about Pearl Girls? Check out the rest of the tour here!

Sickies, Motorcycles, and Fire

I know, I know. I’ve been slacking in the blog department. The past two weeks have been filled with the sickies in this house. All four kids have been sick and so has momma. Not fun times, but we’re on the mend. Not everyone is all better yet, but we’re getting there.

 

I admit, I post everything to Facebook now. Somehow it’s just easier to do a quick little update there than to put together a whole post here, but I have missed being able to say more than a couple sentences at a time.

 

So if anyone is still out there checking out the blog…here are some pictures from recent weeks…

 

Stan got a new toy…and of course Jake likes it too!

 

 

The mountains behind our house have been on fire since July. It hadn’t been real bad until it blew up in September from the wind. But now that the weather has cooled and we’ve had some moisture it’s getting better.

 

This was at sunset one day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It got kind of smoky around here for a while.

 

So that’s it for now. I’m getting over a lung infection and am ready to be all better again. At least I’m functional now and can take care of the sick kiddos. Stan wasn’t too fond of playing Mr. Mom in addition to the stresses at work, but he took good care of all of us while I was down and out.

Catching Up

Yes, yes, I'm still here. I have been getting my pictures posted on facebook but not on here, but I'll work on that. But for now I wanted to share my kids' personalities (ok, namely Jessica's)...

We were driving along and the conversation went like this...

Mackenzie: "Hey! Look at that weird orange car!"

Me: "That IS a weird orange car."

Rebecca: "Yeah, that IS a weird orange car."

Jessica: "That guy is WEIRD."

It's all in perspective, I guess.



So here's a little update on what's going on in our household:

Stan is working double time right now because he is now without a boss for the second time this year. But hopefully they'll get someone who is actually qualified this time.

The girls have started back to school. Mackenzie is in 5th, Rebecca is in 2nd and Jessica is in 1st. So far so good, but it's only the second week of school. Soccer started this week, and so begins the crazy season. Mackenzie will be getting her braces off next month. Rebecca is next in line.

Jake is holding his own with his terrible three's little self. But he's so dang cute. Last night I was tucking him in bed and he smacked his lips, wanting me to give him another kiss. So I kissed him again. Then he says "one more" so I give him another one. Then he says "one more" again. After that kiss he says "last one" and wanted one more. Funny little toot.

This summer we had the distinct pleasure of replacing the entire septic system. Nice. So this past weekend we planted more grass. Hope it takes!

I got a shiny new purple laptop!!! And I love, love, love it! Stan got a rough and tough dirt bike (XR 400R for those of you who know what that means). Jake really likes it. And so does Jessica. The other girls - not so much.

So there's the Reader's Digest version of what's a goin' on lately. I'll try to be a better blogger now that things are back to crazy normal.

Welp - gotta go switch the laundry...

More camping and boating

We went camping last weekend...and I remembered the camera! Aren't you proud of me?!

Once again...in no particular order:

We went to the same lake as last time but camped at a different spot. The kids liked playing on the tube at camp:


It was warmer this weekend so we could go boating and tubing more:

Jake didn't do any tubing but he likes wandering the boat and swinging from the rails:

Jake is making sure the girls don't fall off:

And getting excited about boating:

You can see our camp in the background:

Here is our campsite from further out:

Packing up to go home:

We stopped at the top of McDonald Pass and took some pics while we were there:

On the way home:

Camping and Mowing and Swimming

We went camping a couple weeks ago and of course I forgot my camera so we stopped and got a disposable one to accommodate my brainlessness.



We went to Holter Lake, close to Helena. Here are the pictures in no particular order (because I can never seem to get them uploaded in the order I want and it's a pain to move them around after they're on here):

It was a little cool that weekend so the kids stayed in the bottom of the boat to stay warm.

This is at our campsite:

Also at our camp site...not a bad view to wake up seeing!

One of the kids took this:

Hanging out at camp:

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The girls took swim lessons earlier this month. Mackenzie is at the bottom of the picture. She was the only one in her class this time...usually there are around 5 or 6 in the class.

Rebecca and Jessica were in a class together...that is Rebecca floating on her back with the instructor helping...and Jessica is next to the instructor, watching:

Here Rebecca is helping Jessica float on her tummy:

And this is Jake who is mad that he can't swim too. I guess basketball will have to do for now.

After swim lessons. It was in the 60's and low 70's the whole two weeks they did lessons. Brrr!!

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Rebecca's turn to mow the lawn. We mow around the outside and have the girls mow the middle.