Sometimes I wonder...

...what is God thinking? The topic of "pets" has been a major issue with C and I even before we ever got married. I'm very much a pet person, C is VERY much not. Like, not even fish. I go through phases of trying to convince him otherwise and phases of myself not wanting pets (twins in and of themselves are very much like pets these days...). I'm in the "not wanting pets" phase right now fortunately. Saturday morning we discovered two adorable little rottweiler-looking puppies in our backyard. Probably not even a month old. So cute. No one in our neighborhood knows where they came from, so we assume they were abandoned. The funny thing is, a few weeks ago, thinking into the future about "Pets", I informed God that if we were to ever have pets He would have to arrange it for them to be dropped off in our back yard. Hmm. Well, fortunately He says in the Word that I am to submit to my particular "Head" who still says "No pets." So I don't feel too badly that we've found a couple new homes for them. It has been kinda fun to see the kids take some responsibility in feeding them and cleaning up after them. But it's also nice knowing that I don't have to be responsible for their health and training! Anyway, that's what's been going on with us over the last few days, along with the daily grind. :)

Frustrated Mamas

School has begun! Having a 3rd grader, 1st grader, pre-schooler and toddling, teething twins who have been taking early naps- waking up right when school starts- has really been testing my patience levels, never known to be terribly stable. The other day I was looking for alternative ideas for girls to play with besides princess-y dolls and fashionista-type stuff, so I decided to check out and see if Nogreaterjoy.org had any good ideas. It was started up by Michael and Debi Pearl- they wrote To Train Up a Child and Created to be His Helpmeet- they tend to be no-nonsense people who have some good thoughts, as well as some I don't agree with. At any rate, I didn't find what I was looking for, but I did find this article written by Michael Pearl back in 1996. Here is an excerpt and I'll put the link for it at the bottom in case you're interested in reading the rest! It is terribly convicting (at least for me!) and still very encouraging...

"Are you a frustrated parent? Is your brow drawn tight as if pulled by draw strings? If parenting is not enjoyable, be assured, you have a bad attitude. When your children look into your face what do they see? They are not fooled. They know what you feel toward them. Your face is a graph of approval or rejection. Verbal "positive affirmation" is not enough; in fact, it is worse than nothing if there is not genuine delight in your heart. Children can see through a parent who is made of muddy water. If they see disappointment and criticism they will answer in kind. Discontented parents breed discontented children. Your attitude is the root of the family attitude tree. A bitter root cannot produce sweet fruit."...
http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/1996/january/01/bad-attitude/

Peter Pictures

I thought I'd upload some pictures Peter's taken recently...

Our "new baby"- which incidentally just went to the compost yesterday...

My typical day- messy house, twins dividing and conquering...

Anne is constantly drawing

Monkey Monk sailing in a pirate hat with some squash (anybody want squash? we have plenty to go around!)

Peter figured out the timer function

Twins' birthday party from Peter's view...

Uncle Andy... well, need we say more? :)

"Freeeeeedom!"

"Grandpa" Trevor- a good family friend

"Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters..."

Good buddies...timer function again. :)

Uncle Caleb appears to not care for stinky diapers... :) He'd better get used to it before January!!!

And back to every-day life...

The amazing baby gate

Sleeping little Bubba

Time to get up, Berea!

Early morning bottles

Berea is Peter's new traveling buddy and happy to be facing forward!

And hanging out with A. Faith and U. Gary while we were away...

Amazing Auntie Faith helped the kids sew little bags

I don't think Anne ever smiles when I brush her hair...

Peter's great at getting good expressions out of Anne. :)

Upside-down swings!

How Uncle Gary felt at the end of the weekend. Hahaha! I think I feel like that at the end of just about every day!

And we're back home again...

A motley band of monkeys

And our four generations pictures hanging up in our hallway.

The end!

10 Years Video

The First Decade!

We just celebrated our 10th anniversary! Woohoo! We went to the north rim of the Grand Canyon for a 5 day get-away- many, indefinite thanks to Faith and Gary for taking care of all the kids! We had a great time and a great camp site that overlooked a side canyon a little ways outside of the Park . We spent our days biking, hiking, or just enjoying the general splendor of where we were. A short hike from our camp site we found a bunch of rocks with sea shell fossils in them- pretty darn cool. C is somewhat an amateur geologist, especially concerning the Grand Canyon, so it was especially cool to learn more about it while actually being there. The Canyon is always a great reminder of God's greatness, the great sin man is capable of and His great mercy. C also put together a slide show of our first 10 years together- starting with when we were dating, into our honeymoon (which took us traveling in a camper through some national parks, including the North Rim), through some key Bible verses in our marriage, and of course all the kids. :) I'll put that in a different post.

Oh yeah, the night before we left, Berea slammed her head on the corner of a cabinet (or rocking chair- not sure)- instant mammoth goose egg. She also hit it again while we were gone, so when we came back Sunday, this bruise was brown and her eyes were kinda black at the corners as well. So sad. :(

The old and new Navajo bridges at Marble Canyon.

Some amazing friends lent us their truck and trailer- what a cushy ride! Amazingly easier than tenting it.

Eating in style- grilled steak, veggies, rice, french bread with olive oil/Dijon dip, sparkling raspberry juice...

Christian at an overlook in the park.

Along the Widforss Trail

Cool shell fossils

C on some walk we went on... maybe Cape Royal? Cape Final? Not sure.

There were so many beautiful wildflowers- these ones are striking on the background of a burnt log from the big fire 10 or so years ago (the fire had just been put out shortly before our honeymoon trip there)

Christian laughed at me for looking for fossils on the trail- but I found one! While I was walking, no less! He was terribly impressed and spent the rest of the hike looking at the ground... :)

We saw plenty of wildlife! This is a "horned lizard" we spotted on one hike. We also saw lots of deer, foxes (or coyotes, not sure- they were a little ways away), and even some wild turkeys! But we didn't get any pictures of those. :)

C enjoyed experimenting with black and white

Bragging on Christian

This photo is found in the August issue of World magazine. This month they did a series on interesting places of worship. A friend of ours, Ruth Mortensen sent in this picture of the Chapel of the Holy Dove- a chapel our church stocks with free Christian literature year-round. Anyway, Christian built this door that's pictured. And I just think that's pretty darn cool. :)

First Birthday!

The twins are one! We celebrated by having over family and friends who were especially involved in getting us through the last year and a half. I think we counted over 50 people who brought us meals during the pregnancy and first couple of months after they were born, and some of those 50 brought meals more than once. We also had friends come twice a week to clean for me. One friend came every week, and other friends did every other week, with an occasionally other volunteers jumping in. C's parents also came and lived on our property for 6 weeks, and my mom stayed with us almost 3 weeks. We are just SO grateful for such a wonderful support our church and family were and still are! Of course the day of the party dawned VERY rainy and lasted up until about an hour before the party started. So God was still gracious and we were able to send the kids outside to play and have it available to escape the crowd inside. When Christian was designed and putting in the patio, his main goal was to be able to use it for this party. So we were VERY grateful that the rain stopped! Anyway, here are some pictures and I may perhaps gets inspired to add a couple videos at the end...

Tirzah greets guests

We gave Peter my old camera- he has been loving it! I'll have to post some of his pictures sometime. He and A and E all wanted to make "party shirts", so we did that a couple days ago and that's what he's wearing. :)

They got matching lamb coats from Marmie and Boppa- oh so cute!

...and Curious George books that I appear to be giddy about. :) The girls had to stay in their high chairs while their older siblings opened their presents for them. They were messy from dinner and we had to do presents before cake because people had to start leaving... Anyway.

The older kids also blew out the candles for them... But they like to look at them at least! 

"Oooh, this feels niiiiiice." -B.

"Tastes good, too!" -B.

"Let's do it again!!!" -T.

Tirzah the sheep. She loved wearing her coat, whereas Berea was much happier snuggling with hers. :)

Following are a few yard/garden pictures while I'm at it...

Our basil went crazy this year! Our first time trying to grow it outside!

Our squash appears to be taking over the world (on the right)- we just picked a 2 foot zucchini the other day that had been hiding.

My peach tree! C got me fruit trees for my birthday and they're all still alive! That's a wattle behind it, by the way- flood prevention measure.

Front yard

Our tomatoes love the side of the house!

And last but not least, Christian made this slide show of the twins' first year for the party...