Today at Church . . .

the girls were asked to play their intruments for the worship time.

They played five songs and did great!

Songs played:

In Christ Alone

How Deep the Father's Love for Us

Be Thou My Vision

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Knowing You

Christmas Portrait

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Yes.....we are decorating for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving!

Joe is "helping " us un-pack Christmas tree ornaments

Us kids having fun! :-)



New lighted snowman in our front yard

Can't get much cuter than this!

In the process of putting up our tree, Daddy was suddenly attacked and forced to wear this hat

:-) :-) :-) :-)

Love you everyone!

Lydia

"Puppy Love" at Antioch Adoption Auction

On Saturday, our family went to Seattle for Antioch Adoption's annual auction fundraiser event. It was a good opportunity for us to help out, however we could, in raising the funds necessary to continue their ministry of helping foster children find forever homes. The children at "Crossroads Country Ranch":) donated a puppy to be auctioned off! Below are the pictures of that part of the auction.

On the right, standing with her husband, is our Antioch Adoptions caseworker. She and her husband have a yellow lab puppy, and would like to add a second labrador sometime soon (preferably in a year from now). The bidding got off to a slow start, so they jumped in to help it get going! It got to a point where they almost won the bid!
But in the end, a very nice dad and mom, of three kids who are very anxious for a puppy, got the winning bid. You can barely see the mom holding up her number right under the puppy picture. It was very exciting!

A Few of Our Favorite Things . . This Week

Our First Snow

Mommy put this snowman lawn ornament out on our front lawn as a surprise for Kyle while he was away helping friends move. He had been keeping a very close watch on the weather forecast all week, and was really hoping for enough snow to play in:(

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Valerie's Oat Pan Rolls and Meatloaf

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A Couple Slumber Parties

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Ten. . .

Getting-More-Cute-and-Fun-Everyday . . .

Puppies

They Heard us say "Christmas" . . .

So, it must be time for the "Christmas" train!!!

Fall Colors

Here are two reasons why I love fall so much!

These are two of the new trees we planted in our yard a year ago!

Aren't they beautiful?

Birthday by Candlelight . . .and Lantern

Last night we enjoyed a fun finale

to all the birthday celebrations we've had the past several weeks.

And we did so with a bang . . .

of sorts . . .

Around 6pm our first power outage of the season began!

It lasted for about five hours or so!

So, here in this photo, you can see Lydia

holding up a lantern to provide more light for the photo:)

Thirteen years ago today . . . .

It was election day!

Remember . . . . how we couldn't believe Clinton got re-elected?

Then . . . God chose to lighten our hearts,

brighten our day,

and change our lives and the world forever for the better . . .

so He caused something wonderful to happen!!!

And now, today, we are the proud parents of four more

awesome teenagers:)! Woo hoo!

Fun Chemistry

Lydia's dream of making soaps from her sheep's milk

is becoming a reality!

She has done so much research and gathering of supplies . . .

now the fun can finally begin!!!

What scent of soap would you like?