girly night

Our college/career Bible study group had our very FIRST girly night where we were treated to Becky (and Ivy) doing our makeup, Sarah bringing and preparing her Arbonne foot soak stuff, getting to be encouraged in hearing why our walk with the Lord is like makeup, and getting to just sit back and relax and enjoy being ladies! Sorry, no boys were allowed! (Even Owen had to go to bed and couldn't stay up for it!) It started out being a very very VERY snowy night, but a few ladies braved the snowstorm and joined the fun.

Miss Becky did Ivy's makeup...

and then Miss Ivy did her own makeup!

Then, Miss Ivy did Mommy's makeup! (I must say it was quite relaxing!)

Once our makeup was done, we enjoyed soaking our feet in warm tubs of water!

So relaxing! So fun!

trooper ivy

If you asked our daughter what she does for work, she would tell you that she is a trooper (just like her Daddy). Here she sports her work outfit and poses for a picture before she heads off for a busy work day...

Can you tell that she created her uniform herself? I love her imagination and creativity. I'm sure her Daddy wishes he had a uniform belt like that instead of the heavy one he has to wear. Love it!

I'm not quite sure why she has to wear the bandana under the hat though, but she insisted it needed to be there.

daddy's hobby

Daddy has started a new hobby...

...vintage bike collecting...and it has now made its way into our home now!

I'm sure we will be talking about this hobby more in the future!

snow sculptures

This past Monday, we paid a visit to one of our favorite towns here in the Northeast...Jackson! Their ski resort had a snow sculpting contest over the weekend, and we went to see the work they produced on a very frigid Monday morning.


Here are a few of the awesome work these sculptors did...

I think we will be putting this on the calendar to actually watch the sculptors in action next year.

pranksters

One of the college students that attends the college/career Bible study we host in our home was having her boyfriend come to visit her for a few days over their winter break. There wasn't any room for him to stay at the college student's mom's house, so we graciously opened our home to him to stay in our guest room knowing that he would basically just be here to sleep.

While this boyfriend was staying at our home, it just so happened that we had invited two of the couples from the Bible study group along with another gentleman who is new to the area over for dinner.


The men of the group have sort of taken this college student (and a few of the other single girls) and adopted them as their own feeling like it is their job or duty to protect the girls and interrogate and/or scare away any prospective boyfriends. While over for the evening, the men decided that they needed to "break" this boyfriend in to all of the antics and practical jokes that would be coming his way. SO, the men decided to get a few pairs of his boxer shorts and sew the legs and flies shut and to sew in some "messages" and Scripture verses on purity!






This boyfriend perhaps will one day become a pastor, and now Nathan prides himself that this event and/or he himself will one day become a sermon illustration.

Meanwhile, we girls were innocently minding our own business and playing with the kids.


Needless to say, I don't think any more boyfriends will be staying at our house any time soon!

project: organization

I'm sure you have all heard of the saying..."If mama isn't happy, there ain't nobody happy."

Sadly, this saying does ring true in our house (sometimes).

I am the person who LOVES, THRIVES on, and just plain NEEDS structure and organization in her life. Sadly, I quite often allow the busy-ness, messiness, and chaos in my life to overtake my thoughts and downright control my entire life which in turn affects my whole family (meaning there weren't nobody happy here!). With two little kids under the age of 4 running wild in the house, I have found that our lives are VERY BUSY and VERY CHAOTIC. AND, now with another baby on the way, I have found myself tired, strung-out, unable to form a complete thought in my head or say a complete sentence, and becoming a wreck. Besides, renewing my mind daily with God's Word, I needed organization.

I had this HUGE plan for organizing our toy room/office/craft room/whatever room so I requested only money for Christmas to enact my plan. Although my plans were way bigger than our limited budget, we did what we could to get organized and put some sanity into our lives...AND, the best part...it worked!

I wanted to put up cupboards, have a countertop, and then bookshelves/storage shelves under the counter that ran the length of our entire wall; however, we settled for a storage shelf in our closet that pretty much stores all of the kids' toys, crafty items, games, etc.

Project: Organization was definitely a team effort, and we had a great team! Nathan and Ivy are here working on installing the storage shelf in the closet...

Ivy was then busy sorting all of the crafty items...

Markers in one box...crayons in another...colored pencils in another...etc...

Owen, of course, had to provide the entertainment to the day...

Believe it or not, but I did help too; however, someone had to stand behind the camera to take the pictures of this monumentus occasion!

And now, our finished project....

Thank you, Dad and Mom, for giving so generously to make this project complete!

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ~Romans 12:1-2

who needs toys???

when you have a BOX! (this HUGE freezer box...and, we didn't even have to buy the freezer to get the box!) :-)





The "treehouse" even has its own television! :-) (Do you see it?)

AND, who needs toys...when you have Daddy's legs to crawl through... :-)

silly cough

So, this morning, Ivy coughed, and she had to cover MY mouth so I wouldn't catch her cold! What a silly girl! :-)

Where's Owen?

Did you see where Owen was? We were having fun playing with ALL of the stuffed animals we have (isn't it something how MANY you accumulate???) and decided to do a "Where's Waldo?/Where's Owen?" picture out of it. (Do you remember the "Where's Waldo?" books?)


BUT, who needs toys when you have an open space and an imagination?!?! Here Ivy and Owen are having a ball just running around in a circle...(Now that I'm writing this over a year later...perhaps this is why Owen now loves to run around in a circle and to be chased by Ivy! :) )