Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Flowers, Clothes, Cakes & Scuba Diving

The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with ornamental buds and open flowers. All was cedar; there was no stone to be seen.


1 Kings 6:18







Lexi went outside and took some pictures this morning of some flowers.






Morning Glory.






White Morning Glory.






I think this yellow, flowering plant is called "golden rod." I'm not sure though. The fern-like plants behind the flowers are asparagus.






I don't know the name of this flower either. Once the flowers die they produce these pods of seeds that pop open when you squish them.





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Seth and Josiah playing together last night.







These are Echinacae flowers in one of our front mulch beds.






One of our 2 cats. Her name is Halo and she has been the mother of many kittens! We gave those kittens away though.






This is Cali our other Calico cat. She is Halo's niece. (We had another cat - who died - named Angel that was Halo's sister and she had Cali)





I thought vacuuming bugs was weird. But putting panty hose on cabbage heads????


(mommy reads that if you put panty hose on cabbage heads it keeps off cabbage worms - well at least keeps them from laying their eggs)






Lydia helping mommy with the clothes!






Folding...






...and putting away in a basket.



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I made Boston Creme Pie last Friday. It ended up tasting great except for the filling. We think the pudding mix was bad.






The layers.






A slice of cake! We had some friends who came over for a little while Friday night so we ate it then.





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For 1-2 months our Na-naw had been planning to take us scuba diving. She loves scuba diving along with Paw-paw (her husband) and they go on dive trips all the time. So, wanting to let us experience scuba diving she signed us up for a free class at the Scuba Center (myscubacenter.com if you're interested). The date was set for Saturday, September 20th. She (Na-naw) picked us up Saturday morning at our old church (HEFC - friendlychurch.org) while daddy and Caleb cut the grass (see very last 2 photos). In the car with her were my cousins, Erika and Allie. Our Aunt Megan was also coming along (after much pleading) but she was coming later. We went back to Na-naw's house at a snack lunch, watched T.V and left once our Aunt arrived. Our class was at 2:00 PM. Our teacher's name was Ralph. We all had lots of fun staying underwater for more than 30 seconds! We actually put the official gear on also - BC, oxygen tank and everything! It was lots of fun. I never quite figured out how to get the pressure out of my ears (I think it's called "equalize") but I still had fun! Once the 1 hour class was over (it seemed really short to me) we went back to Na-naw's house. By "we" I mean Hannah, Alexis and I (Kimber), our cousins and our Aunt. Everybody, except my Aunt Megan, was spending the night. We had some really good mouth-watering pizza for dinner. Na-naw and Paw-paw went out to dinner with some friends and returned about 8:00. So we had the house to ourselves for awhile! We played "House", "blind" and then we watched "Ice Age" and had some popcorn. We all (the 5 girls) slept in the downstairs play room. Sunday morning, Paw-paw made us a WONDERFUL breakfast of blueberry/corn pancakes (he makes the best pancakes in the world) and sausage. After a couple of showers we all left for church.



Eating lunch. The famous cereal, nuts and crackers!







At the Scuba Center. Na-naw didn't want to be in the picture, hence the face.


Left to right: Na-naw, Erika, Kimber, Allie, Hannah and Alexis


(Aunt Megan didn't want to be in the picture so she took the picture for me)






The 4 scuba divers and photographer/videographer. The age was 12 and above so Alexis couldn't qualify but she went along to take pictures and spend the night.



Left to right: Erika, Kimber, Alexis, Allie and Hannah








The "Scuba Center!"






Putting on the flippers.



Alexis took lots of videos and I had made a slideshow/movie of it but for some reason I couldn't upload it to this post.








Our teacher "Mr. Ralph."






Erika and a fish.






They had a beautiful painting of the ocean floor and some fish along one of the walls. It was beautifully done.






Talking together. And yes, that is my Aunt Megan (light blue shirt) finally in a picture!





We're in the pool! It was a little cold at first but we soon got used to it. It was a salt water pool. Those black things floating around are the BC's that we put on in the water because they were so heavy.



Left to right: Aunt Megan and Allie, Kimber, Erika, Na-naw and Hannah








I'm (Kimber) in the water!



As I said before Lexi took lots of videos so I didn't have very many pictures. Sorry!





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These are the pictures of Caleb cutting one of the fields at Hanover, Saturday morning.






It was so funny watching my 9-year old brother bounce and bob across a field as he cut the grass! His head hardly went over the seat! Now for those of you who might be worried about Caleb, he wasn't hurt in any of these proceedings so don't worry yourself over him. Daddy was very proud of his son!








Friday, September 19, 2008

State Fair Projects Update and Lydia

"They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon's projects—550 officials supervising the men who did the work."
1 Kings 9:23
Time for an update on Solid Rock Ranch! :) Everyone has been working on their State Fair Projects and we officially finished them - tags and all - yesterday! It ended up that Caleb didn't do anything and that I just did photography. That's fine to all of us though! Here's the pictures of the finished products and their artists and/or photographers!

Hannah decided to be silly as I was taking the picture so that's what the weird look on her face is! :) She drew a horse. Not pictured is the Buttermilk Rolls that she's going to make next Friday.


Here's all my pictures matted and tagged.


Alexis with her projects. Left to right: Eden & Josiah in sunlight on Resurrection Sunday 2008, her drawing of a reindeer and last but not least her clay ballerina bear!


Seth and his drawing and clay creation! His drawing is of 2 penguins in Antarctica - :) - and his clay sculpture is of a bridge with a river running beneath it. He's so creative that he also added 2 rocks (those gray forms) with water splashing up on them! The green grass even has holes to make it look life-like!

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I'm letting Josiah and Eden help me make lunch every day and yesterday we rolled out some dough for breadsticks. Josiah ended up with flour on his shirt and pants!


Sorry for the unrotated picture, I tried to get it to right itself but to no avail.


We had the sun coming through the trees again one or two days ago. The rays spread across the whole backyard making a picturesque scene to gaze upon once we were awake! I couldn't get all the rays in one picture without having our hammock or swing-set in the picture.

***


Caleb, Seth and Josiah did their daily tackle and chase game a few days ago. That's what this picture is. Circling, stalking each other waiting for a vulnerable chance to spring upon their "opponent!" Don't worry about Josiah, he handles himself very well as he "tackles" his older brothers!


Little Miss Lydia and her brother, Josiah, who loves her alot!



Now, standing on the table isn't normally allowed but the younger ones love using it for a "stage" or something to spring off of onto the couch! Josiah is trying to make Lydia smile.


Lydia chewing on a tag! :)



Umm...maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all!

This is another video of Lydia in her walker. (Actually it was Josiah's walker but things get handed-down in a big family! :)



Speaking of Lydia, she has a fever today and isn't feeling very good. Mommy holds her most of the time and I've hardly heard her make a noise today, which is very unusual. We can't wait to have our healthy, smiley Lydia back. Earlier this afternoon her temperature was 102.9. Poor baby! :(

Now for an update on Daddy's tooth! He doesn't have any pain anymore and everything seems to be working okay. He can chew on both sides now even though he bites his tongue a lot from trying to use his cheek as a tooth! :) He's not sure if he's going to get a fake tooth or just be toothless in that spot forever!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Rain Coats and Lydia

"And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights."
Genesis 7:12
This morning since it started drip-dropping (raining) Josiah got out his cute little rain coat, hat and boots to go help Seth with the chickens.


What a cute little guy!

***
I took these pictures during my time with Lydia again. She's wearing her first Fall outfit now that the weather has cooled off!

What did you say???



Oh, that is something to think about!

Hmm...what do you think that metallic thing is - the one that's pointing at my face?

(camera)


Run!!! It's after me!

By the way she scoots across the floor all the time now!


Here's a video of her "scooting!"

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Friday, September 12, 2008

Canning Time!!!

Sustain me with cakes of raisins, Refresh me with apples,
Song of Solomon 2:5
Lexi left yesterday afternoon with Na-naw (our grandma) to go for her birthday shopping, dinner and sleep-over. She got some sparkly pink tennis shoes and stayed up until 11:30. On Wednesday night our friend, Ms. Miller,dropped off some things in our car. Alexis received lots of candy and a pretty necklace - Caleb, a ball and bat along with candy. (Thanks Ms. Miller, Ashlee & Sam!) Na-naw brought Lexi back this morning just in time for Balancing the Sword (balancingthesword.com).
Back to canning!
After they left yesterday afternoon (around 3:30) we all started canning. I (Kimber) did the greenbeans by myself for the first time with some instruction/overseeing by mommy! Everyone else pitched in with our HUGE bucket of apples. We got the apples from the lady who also provided us with all those pears.

The Apples.
It doesn't look like much from the picture - but it was a lot! We did about 3/4 of it. "Did" meaning peeling, soaking (in lemon juice for color), coring and cutting. After we did all that we had to put 2 of our big stock pots, full of apples, on our stove (let's just say the pots were a little big). After they cooked down enough to puree, daddy "went to town" and took out our potato masher and started mashing. We had previously pureed in our blender but it's not supposed to hold hot liquids so that didn't work out. Well, the potato masher didn't get all the bumps out so we did one stock pot full of apples pureed in a blender and the other by hand with a potato masher (an electric one). The pureed batch is really smooth and a lot thinner than the hand-mashed one. I had some applesauce (that's what we were making) this morning and it was really good! Now for the pictures!


Everyone in operation.

Daddy and Caleb peeled, Mommy cut and Seth worked the CD player (we listened to Alexis' Jonathan Park Audio Series that she got for her birthday). Josiah (that light yellow head by daddy) rolled the apples in lemon juice. After I finished the greenbeans I quartered the apples and cored a little bit. Hannah mixed in, helping wherever needed. She was also taking care of Lydia and making dinner.


Our peelers!


Cutting up the apples.


This is daddy hand-mashing the apples. His hand got really tired!

The finished product! Well, half. Altogether there are 14 quarts of applesauce, 12, 1/4 pints of applesauce (for Lydia) and 7 quarts of greenbeans! (Seth took this picture this afternoon)

After dinner we started finishing up our canning jobs. It took 'till around 9:30 before we were close to completely done. Everything was probably cooked, canned and cleaned-up around 9:40. It was a full night! The canning isn't very hard (I think it's pretty fun!) but the preparing the food is a little time-consuming and a great example of how to learn patience and willingness to help!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Tooth, Puppies, Birthdays & Pumpkins

"Like a bad tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in times of trouble."

Deuteronomy 25:19


Remember the post a few weeks ago (maybe a month ago) about daddy's tooth? Well, it started bothering him at the beach again. When he bit into a bagel (not a burnt one :) he felt something happen and part of his filling cracked and was on his tongue. Anyways, to make a sorta-long story short he got it pulled yesterday morning at MCV. He got it pulled for about $40 not counting the pain-relieving pills and a little bit of other things to help him. He took about a 4 long hour nap this morning before going out to work. He's doing okay now it just - well, he doesn't have a tooth. That causes a few problems like eating and stuff. It doesn't hurt as much as the last tooth that was pulled out but it does a little bit. Some prayers for a quick and pain-free recovery would be greatly appreciated! I'll keep you updated on his tooth - or lack thereof! :)


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I have "Lydia Time" at 1:00-1:30 every afternoon. I found some puppy ears lying around and decided to see what Lydia looked like...





Isn't she cute? I think she looks more like a rabbit than a puppy! :)


We celebrated Caleb's birthday pretty much all day yesterday. Mommy made a really good cake (thanks Aunt Steph for the Recipe!)!

Daddy and Caleb are holding their hands against Josiah's mouth because he normally blows the candles out - even if it's not his birthday!





Pretty good!









Breakfast. We had eggs and...





Cinnamon & Sugar Pop Tarts left over from the beach.



Monday night Lexi went on a hot-cold search for a birthday present from daddy. She found them in the laundry room. They were gel pens!


Looking for the gel pens.



Mommy graciously took this photo so I could be in the picture!



Tuesday night we picked a few pumpkins - our big one too!


That's one big pumpkin!!!




Hannah with our biggest pumpkin - so far!



Willingly Jesus',
Kimber