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

Bread Becker Pick-Up

"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

Acts 2:42

Last night (Friday) we had Bread Becker Pick-Up. Bread Becker Pick-Up is when people come over to our house and pick up their wheat and other products that we get from breadbeckers.com. We try to make it a time for food and fellowship with other Christians. We made Coffee Cake, Sugar & Spice Cookies, Mississipi Mud Brownies and Sausage Cheese Balls. All the food was really good! I liked the Coffee Cake the best (I made most of it :-)) even though it had finely chopped nuts in it. I resisted putting the nuts in there until mommy said she would chop it up so fine that I couldn't taste it. She was right! About 4-6 families came. We had lots of fun!

Sugar & Spice Cookies cooking in the oven.

A piece of the wonderful coffee cake! The mixture of finely chopped nuts, sugar, cinnamon and butter was put in the middle and on top! Yummy!

This was the table with all the food. We put out fresh cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupes from our garden. And, of course, we set out the cookies and sausage balls. We lit a few candles to give our house a more "homey" feel.

I know this if off subject but here's a picture of Lexi I took a few days ago.

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

This is the Day that the Lord has made!

"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Psalm 118:24

Well, today was pretty uneventful. We went skating this morning and came back, ate lunch, then we all took rests. Papa is finally coming home around dinner time tonight! He's been gone since Monday up in Northern Virginia. He has some lawn work he does up there. We can't wait to see him! Hope you all enjoyed the nice thundershower we got earlier this afternoon (we got some, sorry if you didn't :) ). What a wonderful day that He, our awesome Creator, Redeemer, and Friend made for us!

A Father's Daughter,

Hannah

Fingernails & Baby Carriers

"But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile."

Exodus 2:3

Last night as we went for a walk and were returning home Lexi picked some flowers. She gave them to Josiah who then gave them to mommy and mommy said he could hold them. I was on my (really daddy's) bike and he goes...

"Kimber!"

"Yeah, Josiah."

"Look at my fingernails!" he said excitedly.

These are what he meant by...fingernails...

Ha ha! He is so cute! Those are some long fingernails!!! :)

-

Monday morning we decided to let Lydia be pushed around. We used...Eden's baby carriage! See the below pictures.

I think she's outgrown this baby carriage!

Looks like she's having lots of fun! Caleb pushed her around once or twice before mommy said enough!

Willingly <><,

Kimber

Onions!

"We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic."

Numbers 11:5

So, umm... Lexi decided that wearing goggles actually helped in the process of cutting onions. We're making salsa so she had to cut up some hot peppers, hence the gloves, and onions.

She said it worked great so here is a new solution to a every day problem! But you have to risk someone coming to your house in the middle of all this! :)

Hope you enjoyed this!

A Father's Daughter,

Hannah

Lydia, Caramel and Sunday

"Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate."

Luke 15:23

Lydia and her big smile! :)

Lydia loves grabbing her feet. I think she could even reach her mouth!

Caramel. Our guard dog and family pet! I think he's 5-10 years old. I've forgot!

Sunday, after church, we went up to our grandparents house to celebrate the August and September birthdays/anniversary's. We had a wonderful meal of mashed potatoes (yum!), steak, hamburgers, corn and a HUGE cake (17 people ate 1/3 of it) with some Turkey Hill Party Cake ice cream. Everything was delicious! My uncle, aunt and cousins also were there.

Eden's birthday is September 29th. She will be turning 5. She got 2 baby dolls, a carriage for them, a dress and - I forgot the rest!

Mommy didn't have a birthday - just an anniversary! She got a book about how to can jams and jellies!
(You can see she's really enjoying it!)

Daddy got a Ped-egg thing for his feet with replacable blades and a t-shirt. His birthday is August 20th. He'll be 39. His anniversary is, obviously, the same as mommy's!

Lexi's birthday is September 8 and she will be turning 11. She got a shirt, and 2 dressy tops and a skirt.

Caleb's birthday is September 9. Easy to remember - 9/9/99 - he'll be turning 9. (Lots of nines!) He got a base set, ball and more!

(Sorry grandma if I'm forgetting anything!)

This is Lexi's new pet - Chili - which she got for her birthday also. He is a chinchilla and is 6 years old. Looks like a rabbit with elephant ears and a squirrel tail. He's so cute! Softer than any blanket, quick as lightning (not good when he gets out) and super cute! Lexi is already holding him as often as possible. She's told everyone younger than her to just touch him through the cage so he won't get out.

That's an overcap of what we've been doing. I"m going to post some pictures of mommy in her wedding dress (from Friday night) next. While I'm waiting, I"m doing picture albums. Mommy's organizing and doing the school schedule; Lexi, Caleb and Seth are cutting down sunflowers with their machetes and Eden on down are sleeping. Hannah's reading.

Willingly <><

Kimber

Mommy in Wedding Dress

"Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God."

1 Peter 3:3-4

Here's the pictures of mommy in her wedding dress. The background isn't that great because we took them in our room but mommy is beautiful!

Willingly His,

Kimber

P.S - If you push the pictures they will be magnified to their original size so you can see it better.