Bill and I were using Liam as our messenger from room to room one playful morning:

Me:  Liam, tell Daddy he’s a stinker.

Liam:  Daddy, you’re a stinker.

Bill:  (laughing) Thank you.

Liam:  You’re welcome.

Liam and I have started learning the sounds letters make.  We were working on the letter “A” with a coloring page of an alligator.  The  word “alligator” was underneath.

Me:  Alligator begins with “A.”  Can you find the “a’s” in “alligator?”

Liam:  It’s a crocodile.

Me: Crocodiles do look like alligators, but it’s an alligator.  Where are the “a’s?”

Liam:  Right here.  It’s a crocodile.

Me:  Don’t argue with mommy, Liam.  Let’s pronounce the “a’s” in alligator.  (following  the syllables with my finger as we pronounced) Aaaaa-ll-i-ga-tor.

Liam:  Aaaaa-ll-i-ga-tor.  But we could say (following the syllables with his finger as he pronounced) crooooo-co-dile.

Our sweet friend Christie babysat our kids on Halloween afternoon and was trying to prepare our kids for what to say that night:

Christie: What do you say when you knock on someone’s door?

Liam:  Heeeel–loooo

All the kids were sick one night, so we stayed home while Daddy went to a members’ meeting:

Me: O.K. we’re going to go read books and then go to bed.

(Liam quickly runs to his room to get his “drums” which are toy bowling pins)

Me: Oh, Buddy, we’re not going to have family worship tonight.  I don’t know how to play guitar.

Liam:  That’s O.K. Ariana’s got it.

(Ariana promptly walks in with their play guitar and they both start jamming and singing “You’ll Never Let Go” at the top of their lungs)

While Liam was playing with Miriam (7 months old) she scratched him:

Liam:  Miriam, you know better than to do that.

Another time when Miriam was crying:

Liam:  Miriam, let’s not whine.

One Mommyism (Bill made me add this one).  When my back was pulled & Bill was home I was taking it easy and at one point was playing legos with the kids.  They were making it difficult for me to finish my project:

Me: Can’t a woman get a moment of peace to play with legos?

For the past month or so, I have been experiencing unexplained sadness mixed with very dark nightmares.  Everything has felt like it has been hard.  We have been doing all we can think of, beginning with lots and lots of prayer.  I have shared this with four close sisters and Bill has shared with a close brother.  All have been showering us with prayers, scripture, and encouragement.  I have also been consistently exercising 6 days/week and am getting plenty of sleep.  Still, though, God has chosen according to His perfect will not to take this away for now.

Today Bill shared with me that he has been wondering about a medicine  I have been taking.  We decided a few months ago that I should take a very powerful medicine for my Crohn’s.  I give myself injections every two weeks, and there are many dangerous potential side effects.  As we researched today, we found out that one such side effect is depression.  The medicine takes about 12 weeks to take effect, and as we compared times, we realized the sadness started around the same time the Humira should have started making a difference.

I share this with you for a few reasons.  One, pray for wisdom from my doctor and us as we decide on the best step to take.  Second, pray that the sadness goes away, even if not related to the medicine.  Third, pray.  Are you seeing a pattern here?  Seriously, though, I need prayer.  Ultimately, this hopelessness is a lie coming from the enemy, and I am going to fight him with all that’s in me because I have the Holy Spirit in me, dang it!  And He can kick some serious tail!  Some of you who read are the godliest family and friends I know, and I know when I ask you to pray, you will.  Thank you all for loving me through this time.

So, since our house is currently on the market, we’ve done a few things to upgrade the place, namely painting and rearranging.  If such things interest you, feel free to check out the pictures of some of the updates we’ve made.  Peace out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40954929@N08

This is one of our favorite fall desserts.

1 c. sugar
3 beaten eggs
2/3 c. canned pumpkin
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 t sp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
2 T. margarine
1 c. sifted powdered sugar

1) Preheat oven to 375o.
2) Mix sugar, eggs, and pumpkin in a bowl.
3) Sift flour, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda in another bowl.  Combine with pumpkin mixture.
4) Spray rimmed baking sheet with Pam and line with greased wax paper extended over sides.
5) Pour batter in rectangular shape on wax paper.  Bake for 15 min.
6) Beat cream cheese, vanilla, margarine, and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy.
7) Sprinkle clean dishtowel with powdered sugar.  Flip cooked batter face down on towel.  Remove wax paper.
8 ) Roll loosely and let set until cooled.
9) Unroll cake and spread with filling.  Roll again without the dishtowel.
10) Wrap in foil and freeze.  Unwrap and slice while frozen.

Bill laid her down for a moment.  When he came back she was out.

Our little bib nun

Sweet baby

Playing with Daddy

Our little precious girl

So, I know there are some of you who read this blog who are not blog people.  So, for all you wonderful people out there, I’ve gotten us connected with feedburner.  At the top left of our blog, you’ll see a link to follow that allows you to either subscribe via blog reader or email.  By clicking on that, you can sign up to get an email whenever we put a new post on the blog.  That means you never actually have to come visit the blog and you’ll be notified in your email inbox if we post.  If we don’t post, you don’t get an email.  And feedburner doesn’t spam or anything, so it’s safe to subscribe (I can vouch because I’ve signed up for other people’s sites using the feature).

So, if it’s helpful to you, awesome!  If not, then don’t worry about this post!

Peace out!

The final day in Branson.  It was literally just a day of breakfast, packing up, and heading out.  Here’s a picture of the sign for our resort.  Exciting, I know…

This really has nothing to do with leaving, but I just thought it was darn cute to see all of our sandals side by side.

Liam and Ariana at breakfast (featuring the freaky fish-shaped fruit bowl on the table)

Esther eating with Court in the kitchen in the background.

On the way home, one of our stops was at a McDonald’s playplace so the kids could get some monkeyness out.  Here are the last pictures I took from the vacation.

Well, that’s it for Branson, folks.  It was an awesome family vacation with great weather, a fantastic place to stay, and a lot of great time together as a family.  A special thanks to our good friend (if you’re reading this, you know who you are) who blessed us by giving us a time-share for the week so that we could stay seven nights for FREE.  And as always, my greatest thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who gave me this amazing family and this great time to enjoy them and the world he made.

The sixth day (and final full day in Branson) was a nature day.  We ended up with some free tickets to go up in something called the Inspiration Tower. 

The kids checking out the view in the glass elevator as we went up in the tower.

I think Miriam was actually paying attention, too.

Up in the observation section, the kids are checking out the scene and, of course, all the historical/geographical material.  Right…

Ariana was all into pushing Esther around in the stroller.

The view from the tower.

We also found a nature trail to walk that included this rickety tower thing.

Court said she wasn’t interested AT ALL in going up the thing, but Liam, Ariana, and I decided to brave it together.  Check out my little troopers.

Saying “hi” to Court and the little girls down below.

After that, we went to Stone Hill Winery (which was super close to the resort) for a tour, but it didn’t really work out.  We ended up just walking around, pointing at grapes (as part of the nature day, maybe?), then heading out.  A little disappointing, but fun just to be together.

And tomorrow will have the last Branson post.  After that, onward and upward into new posting realms…

So, I know I’ve been taking FOREVER to finish the vacation pictures, but the last posts are finally all finished and are scheduled to post over the next three days so that we can finally get on to some other stuff on this blog.

Day five in Branson was a “stay at the resort” day.  It started with a little pool action (this is obviously the kiddie pool, in case you’re thinking that the resort had a sick sense of humor with their “pool”).

Here’s Liam with a little jumpin’-in action.

And a sweet little Esther-girl

Due to a bit of a mix-up with having a new bathing suit shipped to the resort for Court to use, she was without one until we left.  So, here was her interaction with the pool.

There were also 18 holes of miniature golf at the resort.  We decided to try it out with Miriam in the sling, Esther in the carrier, and the older two kids playing some mini-golf with Mommy and Daddy.  We only got through nine holes (and that was stretching it), but we had a good time nonetheless.

Check out that AWESOME putting form.

Essie on Daddy’s back

 Miriam’s usual disposition when in the sling against Mommy.

Some sweet close-ups of Ariana and Liam.

A couple of “out-take” close-ups of said children.

My sweet little family

Like I said, Day 6 of the trip will post tomorrow (Saturday) and Day 7 will post Sunday.  Again, sorry for taking so long!

Okay, so I know I’m totally behind on these, but there was more than just three days in Branson and I’m determined to log all of it here.  So, without further ado…

Here’s Court trying to get a good picture of all the kids together before we went out.  You can see how well that went…

Our ultra-serious driver for the morning:

Passengers of the previously aformentioned driver (and this also shows what four car seats in a van looks like, in case you were wondering):

We went to this strip mall by the river called Branson Landing.  There they had this outdoor play area like a pirate ship.  Here’s Court holding sweet Miriam and watching the other three play on the playground.

Liam and Ariana as train conductors:

It’s Essie the Sailor Girl (toot toot)…

Sliding away…

Not so exciting for little miss Miriam, but awfully comfortable.

We followed some play with a meal at Famous Dave’s and then back to the resort for naps.  The evening was an enjoyable combo of the following items:

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful day, but we had a blast together.