Bowling, Birthdays & Baby

"Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials"

Genesis 40:20

Friday afternoon my grandparents and cousin-once-removed, Stefanie (sp?), came down for an overnight-stay. They came in town because they were going to be part of the pit crew tour guides at the Nascar Race on Saturday. As some of you might know, it was canceled so we ended up spending time with each other instead. Caleb had left before they arrived going with our other grandma (Na-naw) to shop and stay the night. (Na-naw takes us each "out" on our birthdays and gets us some things and then we spend the night at her house and leave for ours the next day) Saturday morning, after playing "31" with Skittles, we all left (except mommy who had to do some billing and Lydia) for the bowling alley. There we met up with Na-naw and Caleb and played 2 games of bowling. Daddy won once and grandpa and daddy tied once. We all had lots of fun! Afterwards we went to Taco Bell together. After a wonderful meal, Na-naw bought some of their cinnamon twists and then we went home. Everyone left about 40 minutes later. I forgot my camera for most of these events so, no pictures!

This is a really random picture of one of our gardens that daddy and the boys worked on one of the days last week. They did a wonderful job - even though we were supposed to help them (we did canning instead). I just took a picture because I wanted to show y'all what a wonderful job they did!

Back to Friday and Saturday...

This is Miss Stefanie reading to Seth, Eden, and Josiah.

We celebrated Alexis' and Caleb's birthday on Saturday night. Alexis' birthday is today and Caleb's is tomorrow. Lexi turned 11 and Caleb will be turning 9.

We made pizza for their birthday dinner and camped out in the den. We watched "Horton Hears a Who" and "Milo and Otis" while eating dinner and ice cream. We didn't have time to make their cakes so we did ice-cream. We're making the desserts they wanted today.

Sorry about the pinkish-red tinge. I'm working on figuring out different camera settings.

Lexi.

Lexi made her own hats for her own birthday! I think she did a pretty good job!

Dinner in the Den.

Lydia. (I know she always steals the camera - she's just so cute!)

Seth and Caleb - brothers forever!

Lexi and Eden.

Seth and Caleb.

Caleb. He got a Jonathan Park Audio Series and some candy. (Tomorrow he's getting a Bible cover) We also got him "Boyhood and Beyond" by Bob Schultz. Both of these products are sold at http://www.visionforum.com/.

Lexi with a card drawn by Eden. It's a Christmas Tree. Lexi got a Jonathan Park Audio Series too (a different one), a "Catch the Sewing Bug" book, a bracelet that says "Daughter of Christ" (she's wearing it in the picture) and some candy.

Caleb and Lydia.

Servin' up the ice cream! Our flavors were: Chocolate-Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate-Coconut Duetto (daddy ate that one!).

Bumblebee Lydia.

***

One day last week, after eating home-made salsa and chips, Lexi came to me and asked her to take a picture of her creation...

NEW!!! You can teach your kids history and use trash at the same time! Wow! Teaching your kids about Ancient Egypt? Now you can learn about and make a hat on - QUEEN NEFERTERI! What a deal! Just eat a bag of chips, cut off 1 inch of the bottom of the bag and place on head!

LOL! :)

***

The pictures below were taken Sunday afternoon.

Daddy. He didn't know I was taking pictures of him (I turn the sound off on my camera so no one really ever knows I'm taking a picture) and this was his look. Maybe I shouldn't take pictures of people without them knowing...:)

Lydia was being the sweetest little thing that afternoon. I just sat there and took pictures while she played with Hannah and Eden.

Looks so relaxed - doesn't she?

Mommy likes this one!

When daddy came in for our book time he played with Lydia for a bit before. She loved rubbing her hands and feet on his face.

Daddy laid her on the ground and she started crying and then he started playing "Peek-A-Boo" with her and...

...she smiled!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber :)

State Fair Projects

"Send me, therefore, a man skilled to work in gold and silver, bronze and iron, and in purple, crimson and blue yarn, and experienced in the art of engraving, to work in Judah and Jerusalem with my skilled craftsmen, whom my father David provided."

2 Chronicles 2:7

Yesterday Hannah, Alexis, Mommy and I went on the State Fair of VA site (statefair.com) and figured out how to enter some of the Youth Art & Craft Departments. Here's the list of all that we're doing (Hannah down to Seth):





Hannah:

Buttermilk Rolls (her really good ones!)

4019 Colored Pencil - Mounted (basically a hand-drawn picture using colored pencils)





Alexis:

4019 Colored Pencil - Mounted

1303 Sculptural Clay Non-Fired

2625 Children Pictures '5x7'





This is the picture Lexi is entering. This was taken on Resurrection Sunday this year. She did a wonderful job!

Kimber:


4019 Colored Pencil - Mounted
2625 Children Pictures "5x7"
2619 Scenic and Architectural Photos "5x7"
(scroll down to see my options..)









Those are all the pictures I've slimmed down to for the Scenic and Architectural Photos. (Acutally I have lots but I had to pick one - that was hard) I'm having a really hard time picking. Mommy and Na-naw (my grandma) think the butterflies with the blue sky in the background should be it out of the butterfly catergory. If you're wondering where I took those pictures..in our front yard, on our apple tree this spring. Next I'm going to ask daddy and see what he thinks.

*Update*

Daddy picked the butterfly picture with the blue background - so that's it!

I'm also doing humor. This is the picture we picked...



I think that one is a good one. Don't you? Something suspicious about those "extra" pair of ears back there...and those hands...




Caleb:

1303 Sculptural Clay Non-Fired



Seth:

4019 Colored Pencil - Mounted

1303 Sculptural Clay Non-Fired





We're all working on our projects some way or another. Caleb and Seth are in the same age group so they'll be going 'against' each other, Alexis and I are in the same age group so we're going "against" each other also but Hannah's alone. She thinks she might lose because her age group is 14-18. We'll let you know how things turn out.



Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Beach Trip 2008

"You rule the raging of the sea;When its waves rise, You still them."

Psalm 89:9

As I've said before, we had a wonderful beach vacation! The weather was beautiful, the ocean was the clearest I've ever seen and it barely rained. Lots of wonderful family time, superb food and more! Jesus truly was blessing our week together!

Paw-paw (our grandpa) made breakfast every morning but one. The food was wonderful - especially the blueberry pancakes! Mommy made Mexican for her dinner night (Every family has a dinner night where they make the dinner. We have Mexican, Italian, Chicken and more). My cousins, Erika and Allie slept in the same room as Hannah, Alexis and I (Kimber). We laughed a lot - it is a blessing to have the family we have!

The slide show I made of our vacation is below. Enjoy!

Willingly Jesus',
kimber

P.S -

1st Day of School 2008

"And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes."

Deuteronomy 6:6-8

Today we started up school again. We really didn't do any school though. Just planning, talking and making up ideas! Actually, NO school at all. But the pictures of everyone on the "1st Day of School" makes it at least look like we started school! I tried to keep the pictures in order of youngest to oldest but I forgot Seth so he's first. We are officially starting school tomorrow, mommy just has to finalize the schedule. I'll let you know how it goes!

Seth

Our Principal and Main School Teacher (only)! :)

Hannah

Kimber and Lydia. Lydia doesn't really qualify for the 1st day of school but she was so cute she just had to be in the picture! :)

Alexis

Caleb

Eden

Josiah

Sorry for the late post. We did arrive home safely from the beach Saturday afternoon. I took 300 something pictures, so I don't have space to put them all on here but I have made a 10 minute 44 second long slide show of our vacation that I'm going to post hopefully Thursday or Wednesday. All of the prayers I posted were answered in one way or another. I did get stung by a jellyfish but I never really felt anything (not saying that for self-edification or anything) :).

On Labor Day we did exactly as it says - "Labor!" Hannah and I (Kimber) peeled, chopped, soaked etc. a 6-gallon bucket full of pears. We got the pears from a lady's house in trade of daddy trimming all her fruit trees. Her husband has 2 diseases of some sort so he's not able to get out and prune them. They have pear (30 ft. tall tree), peach, apple and fig trees. (I guess for the figs it would be 'bush' instead of 'tree') Not all of the trees are mature enough to eat off though. Anyways that took most of the morning and then after lunch we made peach jam and peach sauce. The peach jam is really good (when you're the stirrer you get to lick the utensils when done!) The peach sauce is sour but mommy likes it that way, so...

I hope everyone of you had a wonderful Labor Day celebrating our God-ordained thing to do - work!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Daddy's 39th Birthday

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise: 'that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.' ”

Ephesians 6:1-3

Daddy's birthday was on Wednesday (August 20th). He turned 39! We all are continually blessed by our wonderful daddy! We love him so much!

These pictures are going backward. The pictures outside are from last night and the ones at the table are from Wednesday.

Daddy and his ice cream cake. We tried to light the candles with one lighter but it didn't work so we got another!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Blowing out his candles! (All 6 of them - don't ask me why 6 candles)

Mrs. Vaughan and Mommy. The Vaughans came over for dinner and dessert because they're watching our animals while we're at the beach!

This is on daddy's actual birthday. WE made pizza for his birthday because that was what he wanted even though to make pizza on a Wednesday night made it a little difficult. It was worth it though, when daddy took his first bite!

Here's a picture of daddy. I wanted to get a picture of him on his birthday.

Daddy's big piece of pizza! I made 1/3 of one of the pizzas for him! He ate all of it!

Here's a list of Names of Daddy that Hannah made:

Names for my daddy:
A Papa
A Daddy
A father (Malachi 4:6)
A Knight in shining armor (Ephesians 6:13-18)
A hard working man (Proverbs 14:23a)
A defender of his daughters (Numbers 30:3-5)
A soldier of my Lord (2 Timothy 7-8) (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
A man with visions (Proverbs 19:21)
A family man (Proverbs 20:7) (Galatians 4:19)
A learned man in the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16)
A Pastor of his home (1 Timothy 3:4)
A lover of his wife (Colossians 3:19) (Ephesians 5:25,33)
A man of talents (1 Corinthians 12:4)
A man in search continually of wisdom (James 1:5)
A trainer to his children (Proverbs 13:24) (Ephesians 6:4)
A lover of the Word (Hebrews 4:12)
A man full of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)
A man striving to be like his Savior (2 Timothy 2:19) (2 Corinthians 5:9)
A diligent man (Colossians 3:23)
A man worthy to be listed among the missionaries of the Cross (Philippians 3:14)
A man of courage (Hebrews 4:16)
An example to his sons (1 Corinthians 9:27)
A man deserving of all of our respect, love, and care (Proverbs 17:6)
A man of prayer (1 Timothy 2:8) (Colossians 4:2)
A self-less man (1 Corinthians 10:24)

By: Hannah Elysse Wassenberg
Date: May 30, 2008
Time: 1:00 p.m.

He has MANY more good qualities but I wouldn't be able to fit it on this post! I'm truly blessed to have the daddy I have!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Things to Pray for While We're at the Beach

"Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today:"

1 Kings 8:28

I'm going to make a list of things that I would like people to pray for while we're at the beach Saturday the 23rd - the 30th. (I will be praying too!) Here it goes:

1. No sharks nearby while we're in the ocean "riding the waves"
2. No one gets stung by a jellfish/stinging nettle or other pain-inflicting creatures
3. All of us will be a good witness to those around us
4. Have lots of fun
5. Not get into any arguments
6. Everyone get along as long as possible
7. Get our Bible time and devotions with Jesus every day
8. Have a safe trip to and from everywhere.
9. Very little rain so we can enjoy God's creation without the fear of being drenched

That's all I can think of for now! Thank you so much - ahead of time!

_________________________________________________________________

We've been packing pretty much all day. Up and down the stairs, outside, to and fro - we've been getting our exercise for sure! :) Hannah, Alexis and I did most our packing last night but we finalized everything this morning. We have 3 HUGE duffel bags waiting to go out to the car. The boys, Eden and Josiah are packed and ready to go...mommy, daddy and Lydia aren't. Seth pulled 2 of his bottom teeth today. Right on time for the beach! So you'll see some gaps in his teeth once I can upload some pictures to the blog!

Our family is in control of the fruit and veggies this year. That works out great for us because we have lots of produce from our gardens. We're taking watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, jalapenos, canary melons and...I think that's it...all from our garden! One of our watermelons was 20 lbs.! On the drive tomorrow we're going to stop at a large Farmers' Market along the way to pick up some more things. We're planning on leaving around 7-8 AM tomorrow morning. Our beach house is in Nags Head, NC. Here's the website if you want to take a look at the house we're staying in: www.joelambjr.com/rental/house.html?ID=323. There are close to 30 people in the house! Lots of family! Hannah, Alexis, Myself and our cousins Erika and Allie are staying in the room with the 2 bunkbeds. Mommy and daddy are staying in the bedroom with the seagull/ocean comforter on the Mid-Level. Our grandparents are staying in the Master Bedroom. Isn't it such a beautiful house? Nice view too! The 5 oldest girls (Hannah, Alexis, Erika, Allie and I) eat in the Ships' Watch. We have lots of good memories there! (Like the window breaking somehow....we were just trying to open the windows to listen to the surf...they did get that fixed)

We have less than 24 hours! We all can't wait!

Thank you again for praying!

Willingly Jesus',

Kimber

P.S - I don't think I'll be able to post for the whole week we're there so there will be nothing new while we're gone! (Unless I can borrow my uncles' computer...)

Eggs and Clotheslines

"For she leaves her eggs on the ground..."

Job 39:14

Well, the eggs and clotheslines are coming up - I just wanted to share a picture of Lydia sleeping on me.

Such a sweet little girl - as you can tell. Just a few seconds ago I was trying to rock her to sleep but she just kept up her high-pitched cooing and rubbing the snowman pillow beside us! :)

Here's our beautiful eggs - after they were cleaned! The boys do such a good job on the eggs! There's lots of different sizes in that egg carton!

This picture was taken this morning. We had lots of clothes to hang up - obviously - because we used a whole 75 ft. clothesline! We're trying to finish up laundry by Friday since we're leaving for the beach Saturday morning.

Another view to give you a good idea of just how long the clothesline is. (Oh, yes - daddy designed the clothesline! It works great!)

Outside today we did lots of things. Mommy likes to have the house clean before we go on vacation so that when she gets back it looks nice. I pulled weeds, Hannah, Alexis and Caleb cut down and stacked the dying sunflowers surrounding our house and did other assorted jobs, Seth, Eden and Josiah were used when needed! It was hot and everyone took a shower as soon as they went inside!

Daddy's birthday was yesterday but I'm going to post the pictures later because we haven't ate his cake yet because his birthday is on a Wednesday this year and we went to church instead. We're eating his cake tonight with the Vaughans who are coming over for dinner and a tour of the property. They're going to be taking cake of our animals while we're gone!

Have a blessed day!

Kimber

Sundaes, Lydia & Bowling

(Verse a few lines down)

Saturday night, after eating Chick-fil-a, daddy, Hannah, Alexis, Caleb, Seth and I (Kimber) headed over to church for "Sundaes on Saturday." We had lots of ice cream (wonderful stuff by the way!) and had lots of fellowship. I stayed and talked with Ms. Lee a lot - she's so funny and fun to be around! :) We listened to her wonderful stories, laughed, ate and more! It was such a good time of fellowship!

Here is Daddy conversing with someone (I'm security conscious :) - not going to say who!)

Caleb watching a chess game going on. (Caleb's in the sky blue t-shirt)

This is the moon on the way home! It was so pretty and vibrant! Lexi took this picture because Hannah and I had our noses in a book!

Lydia

While I am going to talk about Lydia, I'm going to tell you what happened yesterday first...

Daddy took Caleb and Seth to work with him yesterday. They spent the night at our grandparents house and continued working today. Hannah, Alexis and I made salsa (Lexi using her full gear - goggles, clothespin for nose and plastic gloves - while cutting up hot peppers) while mommy worked in the gardens. Eden and Josiah went outside also. After naps and Lydia's afternoon nursing we all went to Wal-Mart in our little Avalon our grandma gave us. After getting some things for the beach we went to our other grandparents house (Paw-paw and Na-naw Nash) and ate dinner that we brought along with us. Lydia tried a walker for the first time and loved it! She even figured out how to bang Lego's on her tray making a loud noise! :) Hannah, Alexis and I spent the night at Na-new house so mommy was all alone at home. :( She's still alive even after staying up 'til 12:30 and sleeping in Eden and Josiah's room on a rock hard bed!

I'll continue the story in a minute but here are some pictures of Lydia that I got while I was packing up to go over to their (grandparents) house...

Oh..I almost forgot. Today Lydia is 5 months! She has 2 bottom teeth already!

Not the best picture to start out with. (I didn't plan it!) Lydia loved touching the camera with her eyes and mouth WIDE open in wonder!

She rolled all over my bed and eventually found herself falling into the crack between my bed and Hannah's. She still smiled though!

Don't know what she's doing here!

Yawn. Sleepy Lydia!

Lydia loves scratching her head and ear. I think when she's irritated or tired she does it. Here she is scratching her head.

Smile :)

Grabbing her feet. Her favorite thing! Doesn't she look so sweet?!

"...He rolled a big stone..."

Matthew 27:60

(Just a note: The 'big stone' is the bowling ball...:)

Now, back to the story. After mommy left we watched T.V and a movie. We all slept wonderful, Alexis and I sleeping past the normal time we wake up with no problem but Hannah woke up at 7:30 because (she says) of an internal body clock. We then watched The Waltons and had a bowl of cereal before leaving for the bowling alley with Na-naw (my grandma). She had some coupons so she took us. Lexi has never been to a bowling alley before but Hannah and I had once or twice. We still had little experience and didn't know how to work the ball, where to put your fingers, what size shoe we needed etc. It was actually kind of funny - thankfully all the people there were nice and didn't laugh at our bewilderment! We eventually figured things out! Na-naw taught us how to bowl, since she's been doing it for quite a few years.

Mrs. Professional! This is Na-naw bowling. She got all 10 down 2 or 3 times! She also won both games!

Hannah bowling. She came in 3rd each game.

Me. I don't like that picture but, oh well! I got 2nd both times.

Lexi. Lexi got 4th each time. She got all the pins down once! Pretty good!

The scoreboard for the first game. L is "Lexi," K is "Kimber," H is "Hannah" and N is "Na-naw. We each knocked all the pins down once. We had lots of fun!

Then we went to Applebee's for lunch with our Aunt Megan and cousins Cadence and Justus. I got a quesadilla burger, Hannah chicken fingers and Alexis a HUGE grilled cheese (those are her own words!). We stopped at the Kohl's next door and got something for our cousin Gracie's birthday and then we looked at Flooring and Rugs at Carpet America a few miles away. Once getting home we had a quick dinner. We were planning to have daddy's birthday dinner tonight since his birthday is tomorrow and we don't want to miss church but since the boys worked hard the last 2 days they went to Splash Down (the water park Hannah and I went to) and enjoyed some time with each other. I don't know if any of our cousins went or not.


Willingly Jesus',
kimber

Greenbeans

"Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side."

Ezekiel 4:9

I was 'awakened' this morning by daddy and some little siblings who loved to yell in my ear (well that probably was their normal pitch but when you're used to gentle, quiet noises all night long a loud noise seems above normal) - not knowing that I"m still waking up.
This morning Hannah and I picked greenbeans, tomatoes and 1 ear of corn (the rest is moldy). It took about all morning. Mommy went to the store with Eden and Josiah. Alexis, Caleb and Seth went to work with Daddy. Lydia slept, ate, played and cried - the normal baby schedule. We snapped all the greenbeans while watching the Olympics. We watched water polo, beach volleyball (not for very long), rowing and trampoline. One guy on the trampoline had the name "Dong Dong!"

Here's all the greenbeans picked, edges chopped off and cut in half. That's a lot if you've ever picked greenbeans!

A view of the bowl so you know how deep it actually is!

Willingly Jesus',

Kimber