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.

So, after living in our house for two years, we have decided to sell and move into an apartment.  The reason–we had no idea how difficult it would be to do maintenance on a home when you have four children as young as ours.  Bill and I moved into our home knowing it was a fixer-upper and loving the idea of the whole thing.  We  had done some of this kind of thing in the past, but that was pre-children.  We didn’t realize (for whatever reason) that either all home improvements would have to be done after the children went to bed, making for late nights and more tired days, or that they would have to be done while the kids were awake (chaos!), making us miss out on time with them.  We don’t like either option.  Also, God has put us in some different roles with our church, which adds some time and responsibility on our plate.  Basically, we feel as though our home is interfering with our family and ministry instead of serving them, and that ain’t right.

Yesterday we officially put our house on the market.  The goal is to rent for three years or so to give us ample time to save money either to buy a house that is more “ready” for our family or pay someone else to do needed improvements.  Please pray for a few things for our family.  Pray that we have a buyer before the end of November.  Pray that apartments we desire to rent are available when we need them.  Pray that this will indeed free Bill and me up so we can serve in a way that pleases God.  And pray for wisdom in the decisions we have to make in the weeks ahead.  Thanks friends and family.

The big event for day three was a visit to Predator World, the zoo and aquarium in Branson.

There was a big tank inside that had several bull sharks (up to about 6 feet long) and a sea turtle.

Here’s Liam feeding one of the sharks.

Here’s Ariana feeding the sea turtle.

They also had a big tank full of sting rays.  Here Liam is feeding one by dropping the fish in the water.

Here’s me feeding the rays by sticking the fish between my fingers and letting the rays gently suck it out.

One of the zookeepers showing the kids the “smiley face” of one of the rays.

A kangaroo in the petting portion–though they said not to pet it because it tends to bite.  Not kidding.

Ariana checking out one of the big land turtles.

Another zookeeper laying down in the wolf cage, letting the wolves walk on him and lick him.

Liam and Ariana watching, probably wondering if the wolves were about to have a zookeeper snack…

My gorgeous wife holding little Miriam.

Esther’s just along for the ride and loving it.

The zoo/aquarium also had free arcade games.

Miriam wasn’t so interested in the arcade portion…

Court reading to Ariana after naps.

Essie being her usual crazy self.

Court dolled up our doll a bit.  Liam saw her and asked, “Is she a princess?”

Court also played with Ariana’s soft, pretty hair.

And you know it’s a good day when there are two ribeyes on the grill for supper.