Lydia & Family

"A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world." :)

John 16:21

I was practicing some things on my camera. One of them is the "Black & White" setting, so I tried that one.

Lydia this morning before Bible time.

Happy Baby!



Not-so-happy Hannah! :)

I was just taking a picture of her and she just looked up at me with this regal, dignified look!

Josiah with his tractor (um, without a wheel).

Mommy snatching a kiss from Lydia's "chipmunk cheeks!"

Coloring and listening to mommy at Bible Time.
(Seth and Eden)

Lydia with a toy - I don't know what happened to her hair...

Are you looking at me???

~~yesterday~~

Caleb giving Lydia a kiss.

Chewing on a toy.

Sitting up all by herself!

Crawling in the kitchen.

Lydia has a habit of going under the chairs. She gets stuck, because she can't lift her head up to continue crawling under the chairs, so we have to rescue her about every meal!

Getting a chair.

Crawling!



--this morning--

Sun Rays coming through the trees....again!

Isn't that so beautiful?!

(That's the tree in the chicken yard)

Same tree, gorgeous rays.

I told daddy, after I took the pictures, that we must have the ideal yard for sun rays! (Or either Jesus is giving me the perfect backyard to work on photography :)

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Queen & King

"And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon."

1 Kings 10:10

When Mommy, Hannah, Caleb and Lydia left last night (and we had finished dinner) we played Queen & King.

Seth (King) and Josiah (Prince Titus)

King Seth

Queen Alexis
I don't know if you can tell from the picture but I (Kimber) curled Alexis' hair. It was really pretty!


Princess Kendall (Eden)

Queen and Princess

Alexis' dress was a dress that mommy (or one of her sisters) wore to a prom or dance. It doesn't even fit Hannah or I. It didn't really fit Lexi either but she made it fit! (And we'd never wear that outfit out of the house!)

Princess Kendall

Queen Alexis

Daddy returned home about 30 minutes ago from Northern VA. He was going to be away longer but since it rained all day yesterday (he left yesterday) he couldn't do all his Aeration or Overseedings but he did get to the tree job an lawn mowings done he needed to do! We're glad to have him home!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

Trinity, Lydia & Pets

"So all the people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration."

1 Samuel 11:15

Saturday afternoon we went to Trinity's birthday party at G-Force Karts, Inflatables (gforcekarts.com). For her presents she said for us to bring items to fill the Troops Christmas Stockings (operationgive.org click on Operation Christmas Stocking) instead of any gifts for herself.

Most of the children.

Trinity is in the middle holding up a sign that says "For our Troops" (pink shirt).

Trinity and the Cake.


Hannah and Josiah on an inflatable slide.

Josiah in the Jousting Arena

Eden sliding down the kids slide.


***

Saturday night Mr. & Mrs. Mercer with little Ruth came over. We played the "ungame" and had lots of fun together. They left Sunday night :(

***

Lydia is now 7 months old and happy as can be!

She loves showing off her new teeth but it's hard to get a picture of them, hence the close-up. She even grits her teeth now! Whenever she gets excited she smiles and sticks her two little baby teeth out.

***

These are 2 pictures of our 3 animals (that isn't counting chickens).

Our kitty, Cali, itching herself (on our picnic table).

Caramel (our dog): Oh, you do bore me!

Halo (our cat): Purrr, purrrrrrrrrrrr

--

This is....

....Lydia sleeping on Hannah at the Skating Ring on Thursday morning.

---

Daddy is in Northern VA and Mommy went to dinner with a friend and she dropped off Hannah, Caleb and Lydia at my great-grandma's apartment at Covenant Woods to visit. Alexis, Seth, Eden, Josiah and I (Kimber) ate dinner, dressed up and ate pie while they were gone! (That is with full permission from mommy ;)

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber :)

Mountain Trip: On the Way Home

"Your righteousness is like the great mountains;Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast."

Psalm 36:6

We all left "Celebrate the Glory" around 4:30. Mommy and Daddy decided to take a stroll down "Memory Lane" and so we drove through Farmville, VA - where they went to college. We had dinner at Pino's Pizza which is right across from Longwood College (the college they attended). They told us about how they would often come and eat here and then go a couple feet away to Char's Frozen Yogurt . They showed us where they each lived, where they sang (in the show choir) and where they learned. It was really neat!

Waiting for the pizza

Seth's Hand-Drawn Airplane

The sky on the way home

Tired Lydia (she hardly slept the whole day!)

This was my last post on our Mountain Trip. Tonight we're planning on moving our rooms around (that consists of moving all furniture into a different spot than before!) and it's one of our favorite things to do! Tomorrow we're going to Trinity's birthday party (a friend) and then having some other friends over Saturday night and Sunday!

Willingly Jesus',
Kimber

1st Place Winner!

Well, I seem to have some issues in getting Kimber to put herself in the blog posts sometimes so for once I'm going to post something. For all those who don't know, our family went on a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains for an event called "Celebrate the Glory" this past Saturday. There, at the base of the gorgeous mountains, we listened to different speakers and enjoyed seeing and meeting other large families. To get on with what I'm trying to say, Kimber entered a photo contest there and, you'll never guess…she got 1^st PLACE in the youth division!!! One speaker there was Ken Jenkins (he's a pretty famous photographer; a lot of cards and post cards have his pictures on them). He was kind enough to share his photos and experience.

To say the least we are very proud of her accomplishment and hope she will have many more!

WE LOVE YOU KIMBER! GO GIRL! And may God use the great gift He has given you to show other people His awesome power and beauty!

A Daughter of Jesus,

Hannah Wassenberg

Mountain Trip: Celebrate the Glory!

"But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven."

Deuteronomy 11:11

Well, Saturday morning dawned bright and clear! After clearing up our room and packing up the car we left for the 45 minute drive to our conference. We were supposed to arrive at 9 A.M so I could enter my pictures in the Photo Contest but we were a little late. Daddy and the boys entered me a couple minutes after we arrived though. Lining the "parking lot" (also known as an open field) were all these big buses and vans (plus some mini-vans)! That was pretty exciting; homeschoolers (and large families) ahead! There was actually a van 99.9% exactly like ours! They provided a small breakfast of bagels (blueberry, plain and cinnamon raisin), apples, bananas and teas of all sorts.

Seth and a Bagel

Alexis with some Tea ( 1 of 20) :)

It was a beautiful day but the wind was cold and piercing and since the event was outside most of the time (only 2 inside rooms - not counting bathrooms) we were all very cold. Alexis is what we call "cold-blooded" meaning she gets cold a lot quicker and in greater magnitude than the rest of us. She was constantly drinking piping-hot flavored teas!

Caleb with a Bagel

Talking together during a break.

Mr. Marc Jantomaso: director/coordinator of "Celebrate the Glory!"

simplydevoted.com

The Durocher Family (14 altogether).

durocherfamilyministries.com

The event site at "The foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains."

Unfolding Drama: Mr. Rozeboom acting out when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness when the poisonous reptiles came to bite the Israelites. See Numbers 21:4-9 for the whole story. While you were watching them act you couldn't help but be....

...enjoying it. Eden looks a little tired though!

As, Hannah has already mentioned (ahem) I entered the Photography Contest. The picture of Alexis standing in the sunrays in our backyard won 1st place. Mr. Ken Jenkins graciously donated all the prizes. I received a beautiful calendar of the Smoky Mountains, 2 postcards and a really cute picture of a baby bear putting its paw up against a little pine tree, all were shots that he had taken!

(And for you all to know, 1st place wasn't achieved by anything I did but by the gift the Lord has given me.)

Mr. Jenkins and I.

I attended one of Mr. Jenkins classes and I really enjoyed them! Mr. Jenkins is the most humble man I have ever met; gives all the glory to Jesus for his photography skills and none to himself. I know the Bible doesn't talk about men having a gentle and quiet spirit (that's for the women :) but something about him just pointed you to Jesus and His Word without a you-gotta-do-what-He-says attitude. Just a humble, gentle asking! He pointed to the Scriptures often and said the Lord leads him in his photography and shows him Scriptures later that give the pictures a greater meaning. I really enjoyed listening to him; his love for the Lord filled the room whenever he spoke.

kenjenkins.com

We would've enjoyed the day much better if it hadn't been so cold, but otherwise I think we enjoyed it! (I'm not sure if we're going next year)

Willingly Jesus',

Kimber