A few of the First Pictures I Ever Took on My New Camera and Seth's Birthday

"So the Jews agreed to continue the celebration they had begun, doing what Mordecai had written to them."

Esther 9:23

I had taken some really cute pictures of Lydia (and other members of the family) a day or two after I got my new camera. I never had the chance to post them, but I had some spare time to upload them the other day and so I thought I would add them for you to see! :)

Caleb, Daddy, and Seth giving me "the lip!" :)

Seth, Daddy, and Mommy

Lydia

Don't do it Lydia!

Sleepy baby! :)

Smiling with big brother Caleb!

Well, those were a few of the first pictures I ever took! :)

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Seth turned 8 years old on Monday (the 23rd), but we celebrated his birthday Saturday night.

On the menu was seltzer, homemade pizza and Oreo ice cream cake!

The birthday boy!

At the dinner table.

Everyone went around and said one thing about what they liked about Seth. I don't think I ever said anything, but something I like about Seth is that he is a great servant. When it's raining and we need to go to church, he opens up his umbrella and leads the ladies to the car, so they won't get wet! :)

Some yummy, homemade pizza!

Praying over the meal.

We had re-positioned the table so that it was facing the computer where we watched The Rookie during dinner. We turned the lights off and everything! :)

When we were about half way through the movie we stopped and watched Seth open his presents.

Some M&M's.

Just a neat little thing on photography real quick...look at the above picture and then look at this one...

...see how great the color difference and lighting is?
I used a speedlight and bounced the light off the ceiling and the lighting is way different than the on-camera flash!

Enough with my photography...back to Seth!

He had wanted a watch for sometime and Daddy found a Rite Aid nearby that had lots of things on sale and so we bought him a watch!

Smiling

Some weird type of shark.

Now as we were watching Seth open his presents, Lydia had mischievously grabbed one of Seth's M&M's and popped it in her mouth.

So, Hannah went after it, and Lydia tried to keep the M&M in her mouth, baring down on Hannah's finger.

But Lydia had salivated it so much it melted in her mouth - she looked like she enjoyed it.

Maybe not so much...

(I never knew M&M's had an effect on people! :)

Seth finished opening his presents (he received lots of different things like a coloring book, candy, a drawing book, etc.) and so now it was time for cake!

Lighting the candles.

We ran out of candles (we had only 6 left) so Daddy figured that 2 matches would work as candles just great!

Blowing out his candles and matches! :)

Seth cutting the cake.

Mmmm...yum!

The recipe for the cake is as follows (homemade recipe):

1 gallon vanilla ice cream

1 gallon Oreo ice cream

(Recipe Note: you can use whatever ice cream you prefer - chocolate and vanilla, chocolate chip and mint, etc.)

1 package of Oreos

1 16 oz. container of Cool Whip (Mamma would've preferred much less)

A few drops of blue dye

Instructions:

Let the ice cream (both gallons) thaw for 30 min. - 1 hour. Take the 1 gallon of vanilla ice cream and pour it into the 9 x 13 pan. Using a spatula, metal spoon, or any other hard object press the ice cream down until it is evenly spread over the bottom of the pan. Stick the pan in the freezer (preferably a deep freezer) and proceed to crush the entire package of Oreos in a plastic bag. Once the Oreos are finely crushed (you can leave some big chunks) take the ice cream out of the freezer and sprinkle the Oreos evenly on top. Stick the pan back into the freezer. Pour the 1 gallon of Oreo ice cream into a bowl and mix it up until it is a nice consistency (easy to spread). [By this time the ice cream and Oreos in the freezer shouldn't be too soft.] Pour the Oreo ice cream on top of the Oreos in the 9 x 13 pan. Spread out evenly and then put back into the freezer. If your Cool Whip is completely unfrozen (we keep ours in the freezer) then add a few drops of colored dye, fold it in and then spread onto the ice cream cake! Let freeze for a few hours.

Enjoy!

We finished watching The Rookie while eating the ice cream cake and then went to bed.

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Daddy's been working on some of our land with a rented tractor. Last week we helped transport firewood from our woods to the side of our house for our Central Boiler (the source of our heat and hot water). We filled up over 6 truck-beds full of firewood and stacked it all. I couldn't find where I put the pictures so I just have one video of Daddy working on the tractor for you to see...

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Yesterday (Friday), Mamma, Hannah, Alexis, Lydia and I (Kimber) went to our Aunt Stacey's house in Rocky Mount, VA. We picked up our Aunt Megan and her children, Cadence and Justus. It took us 3 1/2 hours to get to their house. We went up to visit them because my Aunt Stacey had her third baby, Rachel Grace Lawhorn. She was born on Sunday at 6:11 PM and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces and was 20 inches long! She is an adorable little baby! Everyone got to hold her. Sadly Lydia caught a bad cold, so we hope we didn't give them anything!

We had Mexican for dinner and cherry pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert. We left near 8:00 with my Na-naw (my granmda - she had been there for the birth and had stayed to help out wherever she could) and we didn't get home until 12:15.

So, some of us slept in until 10:00 this morning! ;)

Overjoyed to be Jesus',
Kimber