South Carolina

We had a nice little weekend away visiting some friends who recently moved to South Carolina. They have a beautiful new home, the weather was just nippy enough to feel like fall, and we all (including the kids) had a great time together.

The kids dressed up to go to a Zoo Trick-or-Treat Thingy. We had two cowboys (well, one of those was a "cowboy girl" as Phoebe puts it), a beautiful Indian princess, a beautiful Snow princess, and some kind of Jedi Venom Spiderman.




The kids also went to a Children's Museum the next day. These are the only non-blurry pictures I got. They spent a good 2 1/2 hours there with no complaining, and we didn't even make it to all the displays! They got along so well; makes parents happy.

Mom Home Alone

Dad took the kids to get ice cream at Target and look at toys. I am home alone with Harrison who is sleeping. I'm baking a new custard cake recipe and watching The Duggars: 17 Kids and Counting. I caught some of it when I was held hostage in the hospital with Harrison's birth. (okay, it felt that way. A new mom has many emotions; you'd better not mess with her!) I was fascinated with their family, so I checked out their book from the library and now have Netflixed their show. Very interesting.....

Circus

We tried out the circus a few weeks ago. The albino tigers were cool. The family that did flips and things was cool. The clowns weren't funny. And every other act was done by women dressed in just about nothing. Elizabeth wouldn't even look and we kept trying to distract the other two, so we finally left. So anyway, I got pictures of us!




And then we headed to McDonalds and the Town Center for some ice cream and a little fish-pond time.

Beach Day

We had a windy beach day (well, a couple of hours anyway) last week. Our homeschool group was supposed to get together at a beach about an hour from our house, but most everyone cancelled at the last moment. My kids had already been researching how to build a good sand castle though, and I really wanted to get out of the house. So I and one of the homeschool families met at a closer beach for a picnic lunch and sand castle building.

Sweet Harrison

Harrison weighs 13.5 pounds at 4 months old, and he's 25.5 inches long. He did not catch chicken pox from his sisters, thank goodness. But he does get a lot of hugs and kisses and holding and sometimes a little too much love (especially from Phoebe!) from his siblings.



I wanted to be sure and get a picture of him in his little shoes, Mom and Dad! Thank you!

Old House/New House

The kids play and lay at the old house.






The kids play and lay at the new house.





(Funny kids. They made bubbles out of dish soap and water and are using scissor handles as the bubble wands.)

Elizabeth's Most Important Decision

Elizabeth has been asking for over a year now if she could be baptized. She knew she wanted to be a Christian because being a Christian was a good thing, but she didn't seem to grasp the concept of needing to have sins forgiven or even that she was a sinner. We've had many good talks and studies; I told her to talk to God and read her Bible; and she went through Growing Strong for Kids at church (material we have kids go through who want to be baptized). Yet we still didn't feel she was ready. She found Phillip's Simplified Bible one day and Phillip challenged her to read through one of the gospels. She read all of them easily within a week. Phillip is in charge of baptisms at our church, so we often go with him when he has weekday baptisms. One Friday while we were at church for one, she asked more questions about baptism and what it means to be a Christian. I had her read some verses in Acts from the pew Bible; and a light seemed to go on in her head. A specific question we've asked is, "If you died today, would you go to heaven or hell?" She sheepishly said, "Hell". She had never been definite about that answer before. She also listed specific sins in her life. After more discussion and more Bible study that night, Phillip and I knew that she was ready for this important step of faith. So the next night (Saturday, September 11th), Phillip baptized Elizabeth into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is now her Lord and Savior and she can confidently say she is going to heaven!

Moving and Moving and More

Since last time I blogged, various and sundry happenings have taken place. Among them are:

Elizabeth making the most important decision of her life...
Moving to a new home....
Fighting fleas and cat hair left by previous tenant...
Enjoying chicken pox and horrible coughs....
Trying to tuck some schooling into nooks and crannies of life....
Discovering a new tooth for Harrison....
Baking for 60 high school football players....
Moving back to the old blog site....
Overwhelmed, yet learning to praise God through it all instead of waiting for life to calm down before I seek Him again.....

Pictures to come....


...at some point.