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!