Daniel is 5 today!

Happy Birthday Daniel! We are blessed to be your Daddy and Mommy! You are sweet joy to us and we stand amazed at your precious spirit, serving heart and continued growth as you learn more about Jesus! We pray your next year is blessed. We pray that you continue to grow in Him as you gain wisdom and understanding through the fear of the Lord.
Happy 5th Birthday sweet, tough and handsome boy!
We love you, Daddy and Moma

What are you doing for Halloween?

We don't do it. Usually we hide in the basement, lights off out front, gate closed to the porch, eating candy and watching a clean movie! This year we had planned to host a Reformation celebration, talk about Luthers 95 thesis and eat good German food. However, my husband is working. We were invited to a bonfire out in the country where noone but God and those invited know where we are! So, we may do that or we may do the usual. Either way we have a strong conviction that light and darkness have no fellowship together. Before we had children we would pass out candy and tracks. No more. We do not even frequent the stores that are decorated. We have been known to not go into certain stores for the entire month of October. Instead I would drive a little further to pick up whatever we needed.

Our almost 5yo son has a birthday this Thursday. Last year we went shopping for fun plates for his party. Where do you think we went? Yep, to the dreaded, fully decorated, Party City! I wasn't even thinking about the fact that it too would be decorated (I had already driven 10 minutes pass the store we were boycotting due to their decorations). We took a step in the door and a human sized half zombie-half man yard ornament "spoke" to my then 3 yo son. I covered my sons face, turned around and hurried from the store. My son has talked about it for an entire year!

We need to be aware of to what we are exposing our children. For us, it is not enough to "play down" Halloween. We just have to call it what it is and do something else. I understand the shying away from the "what are you going to be" or "do you want to hear my best witch laugh?" UGH. Umm, no thank you and Jesus loves you!

She Likes Scripture

It was right after breakfast when we noticed she was missing. Someone must have let her out to "do her business" and there she remained while we ate our oh-so-yummy scrambled eggs, sausage links and apple butter topped toast. Breakfast was over and it was time to let 'Minnie' have a couple bites of leftover eggs. "Minnie! Minnie! Come here Minnie!" She was nowhere to be found. After realizing we had not seen her since before breakfast we decided it was time to find her. We donned socks, shoes and bike helmets and proceeded to cover The Island in two different directions. Girls one way and Daddy with boys the other way, all yelling, "Minnie!" Mommy driving the Jeep and checking with neighbors. Over an hour passed and still no dog. She never goes that far so this was highly unusual. We checked at Papa and Gramommy as perhaps she wanted better food? No dog. We decided to give up and just wait as we were hopeful she would return. Daddy looked downstairs, Mommy looked upstairs checking each room thoroughly...one...more...time. No dog. No barking. Nothing. We decided to start Family Bible Time and in ran the dog, straight to her water for a big drink and straight to the door to go out for her "business," then back in to curl up and listen to Isaiah (the prophet, not the son). If only we had started Family Bible Time sooner...

Daddy and Daniel project

Remember the bike Isaiah decided to try on a couple weeks ago?

Today it was revamped for our growing Daniel! Daniel bought it from John after trying it out yesterday. Today Daddy and Daniel sanded and painted it to make it brand new for our almost 5 year old. They found white, blue and glitter paint in the basement, so they went with it. The frame is white, the fenders and handle bars are blue (Daniel's favorite color) and the entire thing has a couple coats of gold glitter. They finished the look with some of Daniels favorite stickers from his collection. We consider it a good combination of Daniel and Go Navy! After all was completed the two of them reassembled the bike and hit the road for a long ride around The Island. Daniel tackled big hills and was so brave. Daddy and Daniel had a fun time.
What a sweet blessing to watch two of my favorite people have so much fun together...

Sanding and taping!

Thumbs up Dude!

Ready for our big bike ride!

We are giddy from giving!

Yesterday we drove ourselves to the Amish Market to have a hearty breakfast and pick up a new 50lb bag of Hard Red Winter Wheat. We discovered our Amish waitress was getting married in 12 days. Peter and I engaged her in conversation for a bit and then we both got a certain look in our eye. We were thinking the same thing. Just this past Sunday our Pastor decided to show Dave Ramsey's video about finance. He told a story about a couple who started their own Waffle House ministry. They decided to pray and ask the Lord to give them a waiter or waitress who really needed money and then they would leave a huge tip. Peter and I knew we were being told to give our waitress a big tip. It was so fun and so fulfilling to walk away seeing the huge smile on her face. What a blessing it is to share what is not really ours anyway! God owns the cattle on a thousand hills!

I challenge you to do the same. I promise, it feels so good!

A few photos from last month...

Peter took his vacation week at the beginning of September.
Besides the boat trip with Papa and Gramommy, we also did this:

Abi jumps from the piling in the front yard.

Ashley and Daddy building the drum bone.

The children jumped from the pier at Papa and Gramommy's as well
but the only photos I have are of the climb back up!

**John is here while I am posting these photos and we are both wondering where the photo is of him. He thinks he was too cold to jump so he stayed on the pier. :)

Swine flu vaccine

Isaiah, The Dude

No, he was not actually riding this big bike. Although he would sure like to! Our Isaiah loves the outdoors and is constantly asking (sometimes literally pulling me by the hand to follow him) to go out or ride his bike. The bike in this photo is big brother John's bike. It was a beautiful day and a bike ride was the just the thing. Peter strapped Daniel to his back and I had Isaiah in the baby seat on my bike. The kids loved it. We need to do that more often.

September Boat Trip

Here are a few photos from our boat trip with Papa and Gramommy.
It was so much fun. We really need to do it again.

The straws and lids can hurt the animals.

We took the kids to the zoo yesterday. The lion area was closed except for one section. The elephant house was closed for renovation. Supposedly there were orangutans somewhere to be found. The ape house was empty. The hippo had been sold to Minnesota. There were birds aplenty. We saw 2 zebras and 3 cheetahs. Mostly the cheetahs were pacing the pen watching the zebras. We never saw any feeding action. Not unless you count the time when we were going to see the lobster eat an oyster and we waited oh-so-patiently as the volunteer dropped the oyster right behind a rocky area where we couldn't see. We definitely saw our fair share of snakes. We caught a wild praying mantis but left it there as we didn't want to steal one of the main attractions of the zoo. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and the kids loved seeing the animals that were actually AT the zoo. We finished our visit with a yummy soda. We paid and they handed us 32 ounce cups. When we asked for lids and straws (after all we have five kiddos drinking from these big cups) they informed us without apology that the straws and lids can hurt the animals. Peter and I were shocked! Is this written on a sign somewhere? We feel cheated. We didn't know. We wouldn't have bought them...okay, we would have. But what we really wanted to know was...Exactly WHAT animals were going to be injured by straws and lids?!