Talitha at 10 Months

Talitha is 10 Months old. She is growing like a weed. She now has 6 teeth with two more very near the surface. Talitha decided to take a few steps this month, though she isn't walking too far yet. I think by next month she will be. Her favorite activity this month is to be pushed around the house in the Little Tikes cart. She does not lack for people to push her. There are plenty of little people clambering for the opportunity. There were two times she wasn't happy in the cart. One was when everyone rushed out to talk with some friends outside and she was forgotten. Well, I didn't know she was left stuck in the cart until I came back inside to find her crying her eyes out. Azariah was the one who "forgot" her. Then the other time was when Azariah picked the cart and her up, put them in the wagon, pulled them over to Gramgees, picked the cart up again with Talitha still in it. He climb the two steps into Gramgees house without a problem. The problem came when he tried to take off his boots before putting the cart down with Talitha in it. Thus he dropped the cart on it's side and Talitha received a rather nice bump on the head. I told Azariah not to do that again and stepped him through putting things down before trying to take off winter clothes. Talitha is full of laughs and loves to smile.

Mystery Box Night

Each night of AWANA we have a theme. Some of those themes allow the children to make guesses about something each time they say a section. For instance, we had M&M night and each group had there own M&M jar that the children had to guess how many M&M's were in it, the one closest to the correct number won the jar.

About a month ago Mystery Box Night was announced. It was December 16th, but they announced it and showed us the Mystery Boxes in November. Each week our Commander gave another clue about the boxes. There was a box for Sparkie Girls and one for Sparkie Boys.

Here were the clues:
Girls: Week 1: it is larger than most, Week 2: It is cuddly, Week 3: It licks and Week 4: It barks
After the clue on week 3, Tirzah just knew it was a dog. On week 2 I think she guessed a puppy dog, then on week 3 she had about 9 guess and each guess was different but the same it went something like this:

A brown and white dog with an electric licking tongue
A black dog with an electric licking tongue
A black and white dog with an electric licking tongue
A white dog with an electric licking tongue
etc.

It was rather comical because she was so sure of what it was and she stuck to it. Well on Tuesday when it was time to award the boxes Tirzah was given the box to open. This box was probably 2 foot by 1 1/2 feet by 1 foot. She opens the box and pulls out this huge puppy. You should have seen her face, it was priceless.

When we got home I found out that when Gil asked her what that nights theme was as we were leaving she said in her matter of fact way. "Mystery box night, and don't be surprised if someone comes home with the gift."

Tirzah with her beloved puppy.

What Child is This?

The great Christmas hymn "What Child is This?" states on the first line of the second verse:

Why lies he in such mean estate, where ox and ass are feeding?

This prompted a discussion with Tirzah that went like this:

Tirzah: "What are ashes?"
Daddy: "An ass is a donkey."
Tirzah: "No it isn't."
Daddy: "Yes it is, it's another name for donkey."
Tirzah: "Donkey's don't like being called asses, because they are used to being called donkey's."
Daddy: "Donkey's don't mind being called asses, they have been called asses for a long time."
Mommy: "Ass is used in songs instead of the word donkey."
Tirzah: "I don't like asses."

Christmas Tree Hunting

Today, we drove up the Grand Mesa to find a Christmas tree. It was a good time. Here are some pictures of our time.

The boys lying in the snow getting all wet.

Gramgee telling the boys to get up. Zeb would lay down and then ask for help. The only problem was that he only wanted Daddy to help him, so Gramgee kept walking.

Of course, when you have children and snow, the boots and gloves come off at some point and must be put back on. Here is Azariah after his boot came off. The good thing was that he didn't let his foot touch the snow.

Taneil and Talitha, Gil and Zebdiah
Azariah and Tirzah

Here is an action picture. Tirzah threw a snowball and it hit Gil on his coat.

Gil and the boys, cutting down the tree.

The tree falling down.

Time for Sushi

Friday night, we had a sushi party. At a silent auction earlier this year, my parents bought a certificate for a Sushi demonstration party. So Gil and I were able to go to my parents house and learn how to make sushi. A chef from No Coast Sushi as well as the one of the owners came. It was a really good time. They taught us about the sauces, how to put together the sushi rolls and taught us about raw fish and fish quality. Each of us made our own rolls. We tried eel, raw tuna, raw salmon, crab, musculs and other stuff. I had a really good time.

Adam the Chef, the owner of No Coast Sushi and Megan

We talked with the owner and she told us all about where they get their fish and the high quality that it is. The Chef explained all about it and surprisingly the raw fish was really good. Like my dear friend Mrs. B always says, by the best quality of ingredients that you can afford.

Some of the rolled sushi

Cough Spit

Azariah has the annoying habit of wiping his face, particularly his runny nose on the couch. Well this evening during family worship time, he sneezed into is hand. Gil had just told him not to wipe his nose of the couch and so now he was getting ready to wipe his hand that he had just sneezed into on the couch.

Gil said "Azariah, don't wipe your hand on the couch, wipe it on your pajamas."
Azariah looked at his hand then at his pajamas and back at Gil. It was obvious that he didn't want to wipe it on his pajamas. Gil then took Azariah's hand wiped it on his pajamas for him. Azariah immediately wailed in protest.

Tirzah and I were sitting on the other end of the couch and we both burst out laughing. It was rather funny. You kind of need to know how Azariah over reacts to everything. This was defiantly an over reaction.

A Six Year Old's Thoughts on Marriage

Tirzah has informed us that when she gets married, she wants her husband to carry her and dress her. Then she wants him to put her to bed with bouncing (this comes from the fact that after Gil puts the kids to bed he bounces the bed up and down with them on it.)

We think she is one of those women who wants to sit around and eat Bon Bons all day. She doesn't want him to cook for her because he might burn the food. She does want him to go to work to provide as long as he makes log houses. She also wants him to shave so he isn't pokey. I am sure there will be more to come at some point.

Merry Tossmas?

This is a great video, I have already had a Merry Tossmas.

Thanksgiving Day

We have had a good Thanksgiving. I will get some pictures of it soon, but we enjoyed a restful day and Gramgee and Papa's house. We played their Wii and ate lots of food, we were not gluttons of course :-). That seems to be one of the acceptable sins in the Church.

I am thankful to the Lord for the will to believe in Him. What a wondeful savior I have.

Talitha at 9 Months Old

Wow, nine months and still growing. Talitha now weighs a whopping 12 pounds 14 ounces. She gained a pound and 10 ounces this month since she is eating food. She loves to eat and she loves her mommy. We have finally started moving her bed out into the living room when we go to bed so that she doesn't wake up everytime I move in my bed. So now she sleeps through the night and gets up at 5 AM sharp ready to nurse and go back to sleep for another two hours.

Two more teeths are poking through and she stayed standing up in the middle of the room when I let go of her. She is a little sweet heart. By the pictures you will notice she has a bit of a personality.

A Potential Fire Hazard

Azariah received a model rocket launcher with some rockets for his birthday. The first rocket we launched was on his birthday but it was windy and went about 1,200 feet in the air. The wind blew it a good mile away and we never found it. Then daddy and Azariah built two more rockets that came with the launcher. We have launched them multiple times and have had fun doing it.

Yesterday, Azariah asked "Mommy can I look at my rockets." I said "sure" and continued to work on my project. About 10 minutes later Tirzah and Azariah have the launch pad with one of the rockets on it. They are hooking up the launchers clips to the fuse. I think in my mind...surely there isn't an engine in the rocket, they are just hooking the clips up to an old fuse. Wanting to be safe and to teach them to becareful around rockets I get up and tell them that it isn't a good idea to do that in the house. I look and behold a new engine and fuse are in the rocket just waiting for the electricty needed to ignite it.

I was very thankful that I had the presents of mind to investigate what they were doing. They would never have done it on purpose, but I could see Azariah thinking "Oh look the little light is on that shows it is ready for launch, let's see what happens when we do it in the house." That would have been a disaster.

Isn't the Lord good!

A few pics

Zebadiah bobbing for an Apple. The water was nasty!! About 15 people had already bobbed so there was gum and snot in the water.

Zeb finally gave up and grabbed one with his hand. He kinda looks guilty doesn't he.

Talitha eating beans...yuck!

Name Calling

I am innocently changing Talitha's diaper while my other children are supposed to be in bed going to sleep. Ha ha

Zebadiah comes in crying and talking with his thumb in his mouth so I can't understand him. I go into their room and ask "What is going on?"

Tirzah says "Azariah keeps calling Zeb a Democrat."
Zeb pipes in (with thumb in mouth) "I'm not a Democrat."
I ask Azariah "Did you call Zeb a Democrat."
Azariah just smiles. I inform him that he is not to call his little brother a Democrat anymore.

Where, why and how I do not know. Gil says it must be Papa.

Try and Bite Me...

Tonight as my perfect children, Tirzah and Azariah, are suppose to be laying down like good little children and trying there hardest to go to sleep. They start fighting. I am talking with my dad so Gil goes into to investigate.

"Tirzah did you hit Azariah?"
"Yes, but..."
Gil talks to Tirzah about how we aren't suppose to hit.
"Azariah what did you do?"
He wouldn't say anything
"He tried to grab me." Tirzah says
"Azariah, what did you do to Tirzah?" No response. "You need to talk to me or you will be disciplined."
Azariah starts mumbling something about Tirzah trying to get him.
Tirzah starts crying "Daddy I want to tell you what happened..."
"Tirzah, why did Azariah try and grab you?"
"He told me to try and bite him."
"So did you try and bite him Tirzah?"
"Yes"
"So, he tried to grab you to keep you from biting him?"
"Yes"
"And then you hit him?"
"Yes"
"Tirzah that was a really bad idea."

The joy of children...

Children's Church

Today during Children's Church, I was teaching on God's attribute "Worthy". One of the stories we talked about was the Pearl of Great Price. I explained that the man in the story sold everything to buy one pearl because it was so valuable. We related this to the fact that God is Worthy.

While I was talking about the merchant and how he knew the pearl was valuable, a little girl raised her hand and ask "Was he a mermaid since pearls live in the ocean?" I didn't actually hear all that she said at the time so it wasn't until after class that Gil told me exactly what she said. It was rather comical.

Life Without Limbs

This is a really inspiring story...

A Guilty Conscience

There are times as a parent that I am very thankful the Lord gives me a glimpse into my children's hearts. Today we had one of those times...

This morning we went to Wal-Mart to go shopping. I told the children that as a reward for obeying well and obeying the first time that I would buy them a candy bar. Tirzah, had some of her own money so she wanted to know if I would buy her something and then let her buy herself something also. I said yes, but that she could only eat one of them today. So Tirzah bought herself a Laffy Taffy and I bought her skittles. She chose to eat the Skittles in the car and save the Laffy Taffy until Tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, Tirzah comes in holding the Laffy Taffy in her hand saying in a distressed voice "Mommy, someone took a bite out of my Laffy Taffy." I saw the missing part and informed her that it wasn't a big deal and I would just put it on the counter for safe keeping. She was fine with that and went off to play. I didn't want to have to deal with lying boys, so I didn't even ask who did it.

Then as we were praying during family worship time it was Tirzah's turn and she turns to me with tears in her eyes and asks "Mommy if I as God to forgive me for something, will I get in trouble from you?" Desiring my child to ask for forgiveness, I assured her that she would not get in trouble. She then prayed saying "Lord, please forgive me for lying about who took a bite out of the Laffy Taffy when I was the one who did it."

This was very impressive to me. My daughter can be very deceptive which we are not blind to, but to see how the Lord convicted her of her sin and brought her to repentance was wonderful. There was no reason she needed to tell me of her deception because I didn't even suspect anything, yet the Lord brought conviction in her life so that she wanted to confess her sin. What a great God we serve. Tirzah has made a profession of faith, but we are still trying to determine if her profession is indeed a possession of faith. This little glimpse into her conscience takes us one step closer in believing that her profession is for real.

One of the reasons I think she prayed and asked forgiveness is that when we have our children pray at night, we tell them that they need to ask God to forgive them for their sins and we encourage them to be specific. Even Azariah tonight stopped and thought about what he needed to ask God to forgive him for. What encouragement we received tonight. Thank You Lord!

Salmon

Yesterday I was getting ready for lunch. I came inside and opened a can of Salmon, drained it and put it a bowl. Then I sat down to nurse Talitha. While nursing Talitha, Tirzah came in and said "What's that smell." I explained it was salmon and didn't think to much more about it. Tirzah likes salmon. A little while later, Azariah came in and asked "What's that smell?" I told him it was Salmon and he says "No, not salmon." He doesn't like salmon. He goes back outside soon after.

I was nursing Talitha and doing something on the computer, so I wasn't really paying attention. The next thing I know, Azariah comes back in and Tirzah says "Azariah, what are you doing with the empty bowl?" Now this brought me to attention knowing he doesn't like Salmon. I look up and sure enough he is hold the bowl and it is empty of salmon. I ask "What did you do with the Salmon Azariah?" He says "I don't remember, because I don't like salmon." I told him to show me where he put it, I am thinking the trash outside. He reluctantly leads me to the side of the house and there on a piece of plywood sits the salmon. I pick it up, put it back in the bowl and take it inside. Salmon isn't cheap, so I rinse it off, mix it with some mayonnaise and serve it for lunch. Azariah had to eat the Salmon. After about thirty minutes he finally ate his salmon.

The Caterpillar

Azariah, Tirzah and Zeb watch the Butterfly emerge.

12 days ago, Gramgee and Tirzah were on a walk and found a monarch catapillar. They brought it home to show everyone. Gramgee was going to let it go again, but I remembered we had a butterfly garden so we put it in that.

The empty crystalis

The next day the catapillar shed its skin and became a crystalis. What a neat thing to watch. Then on Monday, Tirzah was looking at it and said "Gramgee it's coming out." They watched it emerge from its cacoon and we had a butterfly. This morning we let it go for its trip to California.

The butterfly spreads its wings

Monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to California and Moncarchs east of the Rocky Mountians go to Mexico.

Eating some nectar for its journey.

Piper on Health, Wealth and Properity

I saw this on Daniel Bennett's blog and had to post it myself.

Talitha is 7 Months Old

Talitha swings for the first time.

Talitha is officially 7 months old. This past month, Talitha has had her four front teeth come in. She pulled herself up to a standing position all by herself and she loves her goat milk. Talitha also loves to eat anything we will give her and things she finds on the floor such as crayon wrappers, paper, legos etc. What a joy she is.

Talitha and Mommy

Little Boys and Little Girls

My sons are great kids. Zeb jumps and runs around like none other and Azariah is always trying to figure out how things work. Today the children went and picked Cherry Tomatoes from the garden. Zeb came back with his pockets loaded but he didn't want to unload the pockets. That is Zeb for you...he likes to hang on to things.

Then I saw Azariah and Isaiah (one of Azariah's friends) chasing a chicken. Azariah had a golf club wedge and Isaiah a squirt gun. I stopped the boys because I could tell Azariah was going to take off the chickens head if I didn't. (He can't hit a golf ball that is not moving, but I am almost positive he could have taken the head off the chicken with one swing only because she is one of my egg layers.) So why were they chasing the chicken? She had an apple core in her beak and they didn't know what it was so they were trying to figure it out. My son...

My daughters are also great. Tirzah helps take care of Talitha and Talitha loves to smile and be in someone arms. Tirzah loves school and she worked in a workbook all afternoon. She is getting good at reading also. Talitha likes to crawl around and find the tiniest little thing and put in her mouth. She also likes to keep me awake at night.

Thanks you Lord for my children...may I treasure them as you treasure them.

Does she really not sleep?

Every evening it seems my 6 year old, Tirzah, tells me she just can't go to sleep. I tell her to go in her room, lay down on her bed and close her eyes and she will go to sleep. Yet she always insists that it never works. I can not figure out why she doesn't think that it works. Every night she goes to sleep and every morning she wakes up. Usually she is asleep within a couple of minutes when she finally settles down.

It's funny how I, as a Christian, do the same thing to my Lord. Oh Lord, that doesn't work, you really don't want me to do that because it just won't work...Then I do what he tells me and it actually works. What about that? How stubborn I am to think that God's infinite plan won't work because my finite mind can't understand it or refuses to admit God is right. Oh Lord, help my stubborn heart to follow and obey you in all that I do.

Grandma is 85

My Grandmother turned 85 today. Yes, I know it is the anniversary of "9/11" but long before "9/11" referred to a terrorist attack, it was my Grandmother's birthday. She was born in the year 1923 in Salida, Colorado. The actual house where she was born is still standing today. She has many great memories of her life. I am very grateful that I had such a wonderful Grandma.

She always loved us grand kids and there were no favorites. She is getting up in years now and doesn't always remember things like she did or hear them correctly, but she is still my Grandmother and I am proud of that. When she still had her car, she was able to buy one of the "Pioneer" License plates because her family ancestors settled in Colorado before 1900. That means I can get the same license plate and I am proud of that fact.

Sometimes it is hard to get Grandma to cooperate with pictures...so here she is smiling for the Camera. I just love my Grandma.

Here are Tirzah, Azariah and Zebadiah waiting for Grandma to blow out her candles. Tirzah asked why there were only eight candles on the cake. Gramgee informed her that to put 85 candles on the cake would be too hard.

The funny thing that happened tonight was that I told Azariah to run over and get my Camera. I told him where it was and he left. While he was gone I said "I will be amazed if he actually finds it." Not because it was hidden, but because he is blind when it comes to finding things. Well he comes back with the Camera and Tirzah says "Azariah, mommy is amazed." It was rather comical.

To my Grandmother:

I love you Grandma
I loved it when we waded in the river while camping
I loved it when I watched you do your funny exercises rolling on the floor.
I loved the funny little cover you would put over your hair so it wouldn't get wet.
I loved being able to come into your room in the morning with you and Grandpa and lay in bed with you two.
I loved eating the cherry ice cream with nuts you always bought.
It was wonderful watching you and Grandpa washing dishes together, I knew you loved each other.
It was wonderful playing pinuccle with you and Grandpa because I was the only one around and you needed a third player.
It was wonderful hearing your stories about growing up.
It was hard when the two of us found Grandpa that day, but even in that the Lord was so gracious. I am glad we were together when he died, that will be something I will never forget.
Oh Grandma, you are such a good Grandma and now you are a Great-Grandma to my children. I pray that they would learn from you and enjoy you as much as I do.

Love, Taneil

Pyramids

Tirzah and Talith with "Pyramid" hats.

We have been having school. We are using a curriculum called "Tapestry of Grace". I like it and the first three weeks we studied ancient Egypt. We learned all about Pyramids, Mummies, and the area. This was all tied into what it would have been like during the Exodus. Well, Tirzah decided to make Pyramid hats. So here are the hats she made for herself and Talitha. Drawn on each hat is a Pyramid and Tirzah's have glasses on. I personally found it amazing that Talitha had not problems wearing the hat. Aren't the cute.

A Simple Conversation

Gil: "Azariah, don't wipe your boogers on anything except a kleenex."
Azariah "I got them out of my nose."
Gil: "I know you, that is where boogers come from. Now don't wipe them on me."

Tirzah's Prayer

Last night as we had family worship time, Tirzah prayed as usual, but a little bit different prayer.

"Lord I pray that you would have a good night and that you would have fun and have a good day tomorrow."

I glanced at Gil to make sure I was understand that she was praying this for God and not herself. He affirmed what I thought. It was a little comical, but then what a great show of the innocence of a child.

Labor Day

Taneil and Talitha, Gil and Zeb, Becky and Tirzah, Brent and Azariah

This last weekend we had the joy of Brent and Becky being with us. They are Gil's brother-in-law and sister. We helped Gil's other sister, Margaret, clean her garage and move things around. We did that on Friday and Saturday. Then everyone came to our church on Sunday. On Monday, Brent and Becky spent the day with us at our house. The children have been wanting to hike the National Park, so we went hiking.

The National Weather Service said is was going to rain all day Sunday and Monday. One of the men who works for NWS goes to our church and when he said it was going to rain on Monday, Gil was excited because that usually means it won't happen.

We hiked Serpents Trail and it never rained on us. The Lord was gracious. It rained in other areas of the valley but not on us. The wind blew pretty good and the temperature was not too hot. Azariah, kept saying that he wanted it to stop "winding". Serpents trail winds around, but that isn't what Azariah was saying. He was adding "ing" to wind. We would say "I wish it would stop blowing" but he said "winding" instead.

I had packed some umbrellas incase in rained, and the children wanted to carry them. The wind was strong enough that we wouldn't let them open them so they wouldn't break or blow the kids away. Thus Azariah's comment, he wanted it to stop blowing so he could open his umbrella.

Tirzah and Uncle Brent head back down.

We figured out how to get Azariah to not lag behind on the trail. Aunt Becky had Azariah hold the end of her walking stick. This allowed Azariah to walk behind her, but not lag behind.

Becky with Azariah hanging onto her walking stick.

It was a great day! The Lord was good and we really enjoyed our time with Brent and Becky. To top of the wonderful day, we had Gil's mom, dad and sister over to have Tacos and our last summer dessert of S'mores.

Making S'mores -- Gil, Tirzah and Grandma Lawton

God is good!

The Water Fountain

OK, it seems like this topic is coming up frequently, but I am sure it is the stage of my children.

As I was schooling Tirzah and Azariah this morning, I here the sounds of a fountain. Now I don't have a fountain in my house so this puzzled me. I decided I had better check the bathroom, since Zebadiah was no where under foot. I walk into the bathroom and Zeb is sitting on the toilet (yah) going potty (#2). However he wasn't aiming the other part into the toilet so he was shooting five feet out into the laundry room. Good thing we have tile floors in the laundry room as well. The bummer is that when he does aim himself he hits the little space between the toilet seat and the base which then causes his pants and underwear to get all wet. Somehow, no matter what he does he gets his shirt, his shorts or his underwear wet. He is getting good and going in the toilet though for which I am very greatful.

A Sorry Note

My daughter and I had a disagreement today over her attitude. She decided that she could complain and whine when I asked her to do something. I left her in my room for a while to think through her actions. This is what she wrote to me:

Mom I wo to tily yo I Em SRE

Translation is: Mom I want to tell you I am sorry.

I was very grateful for the change of heart that she showed. Tirzah is a wonderful little girl, she is quick to help with Talitha and her brothers. She is a wonderful picker upper. I so desire for her to grow up to be a young lady who services the Lord. My daughter has a very strong personallity at times. Strong willed you might ask? Possibably, but her change of heart makes it evident that the Lord is working in her heart. My prayer is that the Lord would to take hold of her heart and mind so that when she is a teenager she will be ready to serve Him with a whole hearted desire.

Our 8th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 8th anniversary. We decided to buy a laptop for our anniversary so we just went out to dinner. We went to a nice French restaurant. I decided to get the half duck and Gil ordered the leg of lamb. We also ordered an appetizer of meats and cheeses from France.

Gil said "Do I just tell the waiter I want #14?
I said "Actually honey, that is the price."
Gil's eyes then popped out of his head and I helped him put them back in.

I found it rather comical since the cheapest appetizer was $9 and all of the main courses were over $20. Gil has come a long way since we married and it didn't phase him like it would have a few years ago. The food was good and Gil said he wouldn't have added anything to his dish which means he really liked it.

We then went to Cold Stone Creamery and bought some ice cream. The evening was very enjoyable. And I thank the Lord for the privilege of marriage to my wonderful husband.

Talitha is 6 months old

Talitha at six months. Her sister was playing with her in the play house and put her in the cradle. Talitha enjoys being with her siblings. This month Talitha has started to crawl. She gets around very well, though her crawl is actually an army crawl. I will not be surprised if she gets up on her hands and knees to crawl pretty soon. We have also given her some goat milk and she likes it.

Butchering Time

Then this last Saturday (August 16th) we butchered 45 chickens with some of our friends. I raised them for 9 weeks and then we made a party of butchering them. I had never butchered a chicken before and so it was an new experience. Azariah wanted to watch one flop on the ground after its head was chopped off and he was not disappointed.

The butchering block that was actually only used a few times. The guys started hanging them up and cutting off their heads. Rebekah would put their heads on the ground, put a stick over their neck and step on the stick. Then she would pull their feet to pull their heads off. It actually worked very well. I must admit, I did not actually kill one of the chickens.

We decided to skin the chickens. So here, is a picture of Gil skinning the first chicken. We did pluck a few, but actually found it just as time consuming and I wasn't patient enough to get all the little feathers out. So Gil would skin, gut and hand the chickens over to me.


I would then take the chicken inside, cut off its feet and then either cut it up into parts or freeze it whole. I only cut myself 4 times with the knife. Isn't this a great picture of the chicken :-)


Our friends, Bough and Rebekah, who butchered half of the chickens. This is at the end of the day after all the butchering was done.

Gil and I after the day was over. Notice, I wore red so any blood would not be noticeable.

Would we do it again you might ask. Yes, we will probably raise chickens to butcher again, but probably a little differently.

Lots of Happenings

It has been a while since I lasted blogged. The summer has really kept me busy. I have made Jam for the first time in my life. Let's see, I have made Apricot, Peach and Raspberry/Cranberry freezer jams as well as Peach, Plum and Jalapeño cooked jams with a batch of Zucchini Marmalade worked in there also. The difference between the jams is that freezer jams you don't have to cook or process, you just put the jam in jars and into the freezer. Tirzah has been helping me with the jams.

Talitha turned 5 months on July 19th

Talitha at 5 months, chewing on the Table. Her two bottom teeth came in. She is a little doll.

I was also in charge of VBS at our church. The Lord was so gracious as He brought everything together in 4 weeks. We used one of the "Children Desiring God" curriculum's. It was based on the Kingdom Parables and was wonderful. The children loved the week and I was amazed at how the Lord worked through it. The children raised just under $1,000 for Africa and with the adults we raised $1,432 all together to help Orphans and Widows in a church that our church planted last year in Africa. What a great blessing to see the Lord provide through the kids. We encouraged them to work for the money and they did just that.

Then Mindy and George came to visit after they returned from Thailand. It was good to see them and the children enjoyed them. This was the first time they were able to see Talitha .

Azariah, Tirzah, Talitha, Mindy and Zebadiah

They were actually here the week that VBS was going on. It was good to hear about their trip and spend time with them again.

Princess is Dead

The above words were spoken by my four year old son. The words were spoken very calmly. Who you might ask is princess? It was a roly poly. He said princess died when he was trying to hold her. I guess that means that Azariah is the one who actually killed the poor roly poly.

Megan's Arm

For those of you who know my sister Megan, she has been racing her "Quad" which is a racing four wheeler. This last weekend she was thrown from her Quad during a race and now has a hairline fracture on her radial head. That is the same bone that Gil broke, but he totally broke it off. Here is a picture of her arm at its worst.

Notice the smile, a guess a broken arm isn't so bad when you get it racing.

Potty Training

So I have decided that I am tired of wasting money on human waste. That is to say, I am tired of buying diapers for my 2 year old, as well as my 4 year old (only for night). So when I went to cloth diapers for Zeb the 2 year old it was kinda grossing me out to rinse his yucky diapers in the toilet. Talitha's cloth diapers aren't bad, but Zeb's are nasty. So I have been working on potty training him. Understand that I am a very busy mom and am easily distracted myself. Well Zeb has gone poopy in the toilet a few times, but on the floor and in his underwear more.

Last night, Gil was talking to Zeb and praising him for having gone poopy in the potty chair that morning. However, when Zeb moved we noticed a nice little pile where he had been standing. While Daddy praised, Zeb pooped. Today no poop went in the potty chair, BUT he did tinkle in the potty chair twice, which he hadn't done before except when going poopy at the same time. And one of those times was this evening when he went into his room, came out with wide eyes and made it to the bathroom to tinkle in the potty chair. I was very excited because that means he is getting it. The only problem is that I don't have a guard on the front of the potty chair, so even though he is sitting down on the potty, I usually have to clean it up afterwards because it over shoots the edge. I am praying that the Lord would really allow Zeb to get it and be potty trained soon, that would be soooo nice.

Then for Azariah, he had been wearing pull-ups to bed, but since I have decided to "Go Green" he now wears some training pants and a plastic cover. Tirzah said something about it so after he went potty I checked to make sure everything was in place. He had put on a pair of is Mater underwear over the plastic pants. It was rather comical.

Observations of my Children

#1 Mommy, when I swing Talitha really hard in her swing then she stops crying. (Azariah)

#2 Questions: "Mom, do animals have bones in their tales?" (Tirzah)
Answer: "Yes" (Mom)
Observation of Sibling: "That means I have bones in my ..." (I'll let you fill in what Azariah said)
Mom Corrects: "No, you don't have bones there son."

The joy of living with children.

Modesty

We are working with our children on modesty. My four year old has the tenancy to take off all his clothes, run to the bathroom, run back to his room and get dressed. This causes problems when we have guests, since the path to the bathroom is through the living room. This morning Azariah took off his pajamas, ran to the bathroom, ran back to his room, shut and locked his door. Tirzah wanted to change and went to go into the room but it was locked. Azariah said he was changing. It was funny since he had just run naked through the house to go potty.

Sheep and Goats

On the 4th of July while we were setting off fireworks, my mom wanted to know what fireworks to buy next year. So she said we had to tell her if we liked them or not and the good ones would be placed on one side of the driveway and the bad ones on the other. This brought to mind the Great White Throne judgement to my husband. After each firework instead of just saying yea or nae, we would call out "sheep" or "goat". If it was good we would say "sheep" and if it was a dud we would say "goat". There was always some contrary person who called out the opposite of everyone else. It was fun though.

Grandma's Missing Prosthetic

My Grandmother who is 84 years old spent the fourth of July with us this year. We had the some friends with us from Texas, so we took them sight seeing. On the way, we picked up Grandma so she could enjoy the drive with us.

Grandma Barron

She had breast cancer about 8 or 9 years ago and they did a mastectomy on one of her breasts. Now she has a prosthetic. Well, she doesn't always get it placed correctly and I noticed that it was not where it needed to be. She asked me about it and we just took it out and put it in her purse. We were getting in and out of the van and walking around, so this solved the problem of it falling out and loosing it.

Near the end of our drive, we went to the visitor center and I stayed in the car to nurse Talitha. After about 20 minutes I see Gil and Grandma coming back to the van by themselves. Since they didn't have the other three children, I figured that something was up with Grandma.

They get to the van and she says "Taneil, I've lost my breast, it must have fallen out on a trail."
I reassured her that she hadn't lost it and reminded her that we had put it in her purse earlier. She was so relieved.

Gil had not known what we had done earlier so when Grandma went up to him and patted her chest saying "I lost it I need to tell Taneil." He brought her right out to the van.

Grandma and I were laughing as we walked back to the visitor's center because one of her friends had her prosthetic breast on the kitchen table and her little dog grabbed it and ran down the street with it flopping around. The lady was running behind him yelling as she tried to catch him. We were both glad that nothing like that had happened.

Later that day, my mom told me that Grandma told her that she had gone to the lost and found in the visitor's center to ask if anyone had turned it in. I would have liked to have seen the faces of those ladies when asked about this unusual missing object.

The Running of the Goats

Since our goats started having babies in March, it has been Tirzah's job to take them from the Barn to the pen in the morning and then back to the barn at night. She has also been feeding them their milk. This makes the goats very excited about following her. So, here is the running of the goats...

Swimming Lessons

Talitha is not happy

I was doing chores outside and Talitha was on the floor in the living room. She can roll over now, so when I left her she was on her back happy. Well, she rolled over and happened to grab a piece of construction paper that Azariah had painted with Tempra paint the day before. The paint was dry initially. However, because of the grab reflex, Talitha would not let it go and she was trying to suck her thumb at the same time. So her saliva made the paint come off and she became very mad about the whole thing. This is a picture of how Gil found her with orange paint all over her face and arms.

Going for Goats

O.K. I have a Raw Milk Goat-Share program which allows people to buy into my herd of goats, pay a monthly boarding fee in exchange for a share of the milk. I have Nigerian Dwarf goats which give me about 3 quart of milk/per goat/day. Well one of my clients wants more milk, so she and another lady are paying for me to get two more goats for the herd. So I am leaving on Wednesday evening, going to Denver with my dad, picking the goats up Thursday morning and driving home with three goats.

I will let you know how it goes.

Our Little Doll

Our little Doll, Talitha, is four months old today!

Talitha in the last month has learned to turn over from front to back and back to front. She likes to coo and is trying to cut some teeth though they haven't come through yet. She is a real charmer and has lots of smiles for everyone! She is now 10# 1 oz and 23.5 inches long.