Quote of the day

Today's quote comes from Isabella. She came around the corner in to the kitchen holding some beads and announced to Zach, "I'm going to make you the princess of Africa!" He ran.

Quote of the day

Yesterday when we picked up Zach from Sunday School, we asked him who his Sunday school teacher was. The correct answer was "Mommy" since she helped in his class, but he answered with out batting an eyelash, "Moses!"

More Yearbook Pictures

Ever wonder what Liza would have looked like in the early 80's with Cheryl Tiegs hair?

How about Isabella as Olivia Newton John?

Or Zach as his great uncle Buck?

This one just freaks me out...

Yearbook yourself

Several of my friends have been posting pictures from the "yearbook yourself" website. I went there today and found it to be a wonderful way to waste time. :-) My sister Kelli and her family are over at our house since last night from Houston because their power has been out since hurricane Ike hit, so we had some fun. I didn't note the years for each of these pictures, but it is not too hard to tell the 50's from the 70's.

This one is my favorite- 1975 or so I think.

I thought this was a nice look too.

This would have been me in my Gene Wilder days.... :-)

And now for Kelli's family...

Kelli in the 50's
Jeff in the 70's
Naomi in the early 50's
Emmalie in an unknown decade ...

And we couldn't forget Indie as a grandma.

A big prayer

Yesterday evening as we were driving to AWANA, we were talking again about God’s perfection, and our sinfulness. She finally got that our sin separates us from God, and with a very frustrated expression, she asked “What can we do?” I explained that Jesus’ death on the cross is the payment and provision for our sin. All she has to do is trust Him for her salvation, and to help her become the person He wants her to be. I summed it up by saying that is what it means to ask Jesus into her heart.

She asked me to help her memorize what she needed to say, and when I told her she could say whatever she wanted to God, she asked me to turn down the radio so she could pray. Her voice was quiet, but I heard her express her thoughts and desires to God to go to Heaven, become who He wanted her to be, and thankfulness that Jesus died on the cross for her sin. What a precious day for a parent! Lord, please bring about fruit in her life...

Bath anyone?

On Sunday, we were asking Isabella what she talked about in Sunday School that morning. The topic was Jesus’ baptism, which apparently she didn’t fully understand from class because she asked what “bathtism” is. We explained it to her, and she asked if we had been baptized. Chris and I both described our baptism experiences. She then asked, "When am I going to be bathtized?" When we told her she had to go under water, she declared she thought she would wait until she was a little braver.

Pretend Jellybeans

I love pretend with the children. They are very creative—you never know whether it is bears (or hurricanes at this point) running around our house, I frequently am catching balls at mealtime, and Chris has written about Zach’s squirrels before.

Well, this morning, we were eating jelly beans (pretending to that is) at breakfast. I don’t like jelly beans, and told the children I didn’t want any. But I’m not sure how I feel about Zach getting upset when Isabella says she ate all of the jelly beans and there are none left for him. :-)

Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

Chris' Dad and step mom came to visit us last Sunday to Tuesday. We really enjoyed having them in town and so did the kids. There was lots of fun and lots of laughter throughout their stay. Here are a few pics from the time they were here...


Indy liked having them here as well. She spent most of her time on my dad's lap.

Here they are on the couch.

Liza took them down to the pond at the arboretum. Carla has pictures of all the grand kids with ducks, so they went to get a picture of Zach by the water. He did pretty well, but he wasn't quite sure what to do when a goose came right up to him...


Carla and Zach by the cows. They had fun playing there too... and Zach spent time trying to feed them the mulch. :-)

Introducing, Indiana

Not the state, but the dog. Indy for short. We picked her up from the animal shelter on Thursday and brought her home. She is a full blooded schnauzer and very sweet. They said that her previous owner had to drop her off because she had health problems that were making it hard to care for her. She must have been around kids because she is extremely patient with the kids and loves being around all of us. The kids lover her. Isabella fell in love with her when we first saw her on the 27th of August. I told her that her mommy had dropped her off there and Isabella said we just had to bring her home because she was so sad. Since being here with us, she has perked up and is already very attached.

When we went to pick her up, Liza saw her and said, "wow, she's an ugly dog." It was true. She was dirty, matted and flea ridden, but still very sweet. I knew that she would be beautiful once she had a day at the spa. I took her in today and when we picked her up she looked like a different dog. Here are the before and after pictures...

Zach still talks about Hoosier coming home, but he likes Indy a lot and is glad to have a dog again. So are all of us!

What did you catch?

Last night I was playing with the kids and a jump rope. Neither of them is big enough to actually jump the rope, so we found lots of other games to play with it. One of them was fishing. I'd throw out the line and one of them would grab it. I'd pull it in and say "I caught a Zach! I'll have to kiss him and throw him back." Eventually the kids wanted to do the fishing, so Zach threw it out and Isabella grabbed it.

He reeled her in and I asked him what he caught. "A whale!" he said. Isabella is not old enough to know she should have been offended. :-)