HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY BEAUTIFUL QUEEN!!!

Thank you for how you have stood by me these 7 years we’ve been together! You truly are an amazing woman and I can’t imagine a life without you!

You have brought so much to my life and have really helped to change me into a totally different, better person! I am awed by how you care so much for others and give and sacrifice to do the job of a mother and missionary!

I am so very proud of the way that you can witness to people and connect with them and explain Jesus’ love for them. I learn so much from watching you interact with people and the way you care for the children, not only our little ones, but others kids as well! You treat each one as if he or she was your own and you have eternal patience with them. (Except for when Lily has one of her episodes…. you don’t seem to have patience for her then, ha!)

The Lord and you together have taught me how to be a father and how to lovingly raise our little ones. You don’t see me doing this, but I do watch you often and learn from you as you talk to the kids, reason with them and daily “raise them up in the way they should go” and the way that you put such an emphasis on their time spent studying the word!

You say sometimes that you think that you are not a good mother! Ha!! That is the biggest joke ever! Nat, you are tops in my books! I just hope that these few words can communicate to you, just how much I love and appreciate you for all that you have done for me and for how you have sacrificed and given to the Lord these 7 years we’ve been together!

You are the perfect wife and perfect mommy! I love you so very much!! I hope you have an awesome year, my love! Happy Birthday!!!

Your extremely fortunate husband
Chris

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Happy Birthday to my good friend Daniel! I pray the Lord pours many blessings on you this year and that you will continue to grow and be an even greater witness for Him! I'm very happy to have you as a friend!

I'm back!

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been a bit busy so I took a little break from posting. I just got back from the Youth Retreat which was very wonderful. I'll post photos from it as soon as I get them.

I've got a lot of photos of the kids piled up from the last few months that I'll be posting randomly so you can see them, and hopefully this way I'll catch up. Have a good day!

New Hair.... Again.

Yes! I did it! I got tired and bored of my hair so I decided to try something I've been wanting to try for a looooooooooooong time. (Chris finally said yes, Yay!) See for yourself:

Before:

Now:

It's not exactly what I had in mind but in a few weeks when it grows a little longer in the front it should be just right.

Fun in the kitchen...

I've had an epiphany: muffins are relatively easy and fun to make! (Those of you who really know me and my fear of the kitchen will appreciate the magnitude of that statement.) I have to thank Julie as she makes the most incredibly scrumptious muffins/cupcakes you've ever tasted, so when she was gone I wanted some so badly that I stretched out of my comfort zone enough to try baking some myself.

The kids love baking projects so this has been a fun, easy project that we've done a few times. So far we've made:

• Lemon muffin (VERY yummy but turned out kind of crumbly)
• Banana muffins (definitely NOT my idea of something tasty but the kids liked them)
• Carrot-bran muffins (had potential to turn out but we under-cooked them accidentally and they came out gross, ha!)
  
• And our very best: zucchini muffins (they were supposed to be carrot but when we'd mixed all the other ingredients we realized we were out of carrots, heh. Daddy came to the rescue and suggested substituting carrots with zucchini and voila! They were delicious!)

Another fun one: Peanut-butter balls!

More pool pics

Here are some more pics of Justin in the pool. We've taken him in pretty regularly so he'll get used to the water. For the past few days he's had a runny nose (please pray he gets better soon) so this week we haven't put him in the water. He loves it and gets really excited, splashing all around even though it's extremely cold.

At parent time Ben had hiccups...

Ben: "Mom, can hiccups swim?"

Mom: "No."

Ben: "Good! Then I'll go drink some water to drown them!"