Magic

While I was scaning some old family photos this morning I can across this one of Jared. It was taken in February of 2003, he was just three years old.

Can you see the wonder and the magic in his eyes?

It makes me long for those simpler days with him as my little buddy.

Jared is now almost 10! He is a great big brother and a wonderful helper. Jared is an avid reader and loves nothing more than to be reading his favorite books. Mostly about bugs and animals. His biggest dream is to become a bug scientist. Jared is a great help to his Mom and Dad and rarely complains when we ask him to help us or his brothers.

I just had to share the treasure I found hiding in the shoe boxes of old photos.

Lots of Love!

~Christina

At the Pumpkin Patch

We went and picked out our pumpkins for Halloween. There is a patch just in town. It was nice and dry but a little chilly as the sun set. We chose three really big pumpkins to carve into jack o lanterns. As soon as we get them carved up I will post more pictures.

Of course Jared would pull a face when the others have good smiles. Oh well.

Why must Aaron always make such faces when I take his picture? Honestly! What am I to do with these boys????

Today it is snowing. I will have some more pictures of snow to post next. Then Halloween with my brothers family. We are so excited to have them near.

I wish I was a more creative writer, I suppose I will have to work on that. :o)

Until next time then. . .

All our love!

Saturday in the Snow

It snowed.

You could see each individual snowflake, they were so beautiful. I wished I had a Macro lens. Someday perhaps I will and I will get some good pictures of those tiny beautiful creations.

We had such a wonderful time outside playing and being together in it. The earth was beautiful covered in white. I felt inspired and awed with every little thing. I am sad it is melting away so soon but I know this is only just the beginning of Winter.

Shane and Liam loved being pulled by their Daddy. Liam was a happy little guy until he got cold then I was happy we were just at home and I could take him inside to warm up and take a nap.

Dallin is making a snow angel. He was so excited to be out playing in the snow. He wanted to make a snow man but the snow was so powdery and dry it wouldn't stick together. He did make a cute little creation he calls 'snowy' with a bucket.

"SNOWY"

Shane and his cute little face. His cheeks turned bright red but he loved being out in the snow. His favorite thing was a spray bottle filled with purple liquid, he sprayed the snow and made it purple. It entertained him for a long time.

Jared is so handsome. All he wanted to do was throw snowballs. He got Dad a few times and me once for which his Dad repaid him for me by holding him upside down in a drift. :o)

More later, until then may God Bless and Keep you safe.

~Christina

Time flies

I took my camera yesterday and took some pictures of Liam sitting in the sunshine . Then as I was processing them this morning it got me to thinking of how fast this year has gone by. It seems like yesterday I was taking him home. It was Thanksgiving day and we went to a friends house the Patterson's for dinner. He was so tiny and we were so happy to have him. Recovery was difficult but he was and is such a sweet little spirit, and is just happy all the time.

The ticker on this blog says that Liam is 10 months, 1 week and 3 days old today. I catch myself cherishing this time just little more than I did with the other boys, seeing as he is the last of our babies. He will be a year old next month and I can't tell you where this year has gone.

He is an amazing little spirit, he smiles constantly and is very patient with his brothers and his parents. Liam loves to eat, that is the only time he is not the most patient. He has started to cruse around holding on to everything. I am sure he will be running around the house with his brothers very soon. He hasn't quite started talking but he does babble a lot. I think he will be like his brother Shane and be talking all the time.

Liam has 6 of his teeth and I will miss his gummy baby smile so much. But I will not miss the teething phase of life at all. He is my little buddy and loves to snuggle with me, but he also loves Daddy. Daddy loves to get down and wrestle with the boys, I do believe that it what Daddies are for. Liam has learned that if anyone is on the floor with him they are there to wrestle and you had better believe that he is good at it.

Liam is definitely one of ours, he loves the water and will stay in the tub until he is blue and shivering if we let him. He loves the new bath, its big enough to swim in.

I am so grateful to have Liam in our family, I feel so blessed that my Father in Heaven would trust me with such magnificent spirits to raise up to Him. I know that He will help me to raise them His way.

Writing this gives me an idea, I will take pictures of my other boys and write a little something about them too. I look forward to this little project. It will be a good break from unpacking. :o)

~Christina

A look at the new house! Finally. :o)

I have been meaning to write on the blog for some time now. I have so much to catch you up on. The first is pictures of the house. We are so happy here, we have 1 1/2 acres to play on. The landlord is very nice and is going to let us raise some chickens. The boys are very excited about it. Aaron and I both agree we love it out here and we will not willingly live back in town anytime soon. Unpacking is proving to be a chore but as I do it I am getting rid of things that we no longer need. We were shocked at how much stuff had collected in the 5 years we lived at the other house.

This house is big and spacious and I think if the Lord is willing we can be quite comfortable here for many many years. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, a large loft area that we are using as an office, a nice kitchen/dining and Living room area. The laundry is inside and the garage is large enough to park the car in and have space for all the tools we acquired doing construction. The Master is big and the bathroom nice with a large walk in closet. Aaron and I both miss our shower at the other house but this one has a jetted tub. So it kind of equals out. The boys are upstairs in two of the bedrooms and there is a guest room that has it's own bathroom that is just waiting for you to come and visit. It has a beautiful wrap around porch that goes almost all the way around the house. The one downfall to the house is that it has NO landscaping, the weeds have taken over. There is also an irrigation creek that runs right in the back of the house.

There are many different critters that live around here. If you look out the front you will see cows, if you look to the side the neighbor has horses, and at times when you look out the back there is a heard of Elk that graze in the neighbors fields. We have also seen fox, birds of all sorts, some really UGLY spiders, geese, tons of crickets, a frog or two. It is said that there are dear, bears, rattle snakes and even a mountain lion around here but we have not seen them.

The boys are adjusting well, they love their new school. The bus picks them up and drops them off right in front of the house. Dallin is pretty sure that is the best part of the day. They go to a little country school and I LOVE it. Jared is the 18th student in his 4th grade class and Dallin the 22nd in his 1st grade class. They study music and art and science and are loving it. They have field trips planned to go to the Rocky Mountain National park. They are loving it and we are happy.

Mr. Darcy is loving his new home, he rolls in the dirt and runs around chasing anything that moves. He is very interested in the neighbors dogs and horses. We hope he will be good with the chickens. And hope to someday soon get him a girlfriend, then we will have puppies running around.

As soon as I get the house organized and the boxes unpacked I will take pictures of the inside of the house for you. For now that is what I have to offer. I hope it is enough. :o)

Mostly thru all that has happened in the last few months I have a greater faith that the Lord has his own timing and plans for us. And as long as we do what we have promised then he will open windows that we didn't even see. I know that he loves me and my family and that he is blessing us even when we don't understand.

We love you all!

The Pickers

Seventy and a Thousand

Walking home from picking up Dallin and his best friend Scott from school I overheard the following conversation.

Dallin: We have to keep our house clean so someone will give us money for it.

Scott: I know we had to do that too.

Dallin: Did you know that someone will have to give us seventy dollars for our house?

Scott: I think that houses are more like a thousand.

Dallin: Yeah, like a thousand and seventy.

Here are some pictures of our clean house. We are asking for a little more than $70 or even $1000. :o)

The House

Master shower

Master Bath

Kitchen/Laundry rooms

Front room

Living room looking into Master Suite

Entry

Sacramento Railroad Museum

it so happened that our great friends the Harrison's were going to visit the Railroad Museum, I thought that would be a great place to go before we left, so we went. It was a ton of fun all the kids loved being able to board the trains and touch everything. I am always so amazed at how huge the trains are. I love museums where the kids can run around and touch everything, its so much less stress as a parent.

Here are some pictures I took.

Rail road spikes

Mail bags in the mail car. The guy said that as they were passing thru a town the mail person would have to kick one bag out the train car and at the same time catch the one being tossed at him. Talk about stressful jobs.

The boys looking thru the tunnel, actually its a mural painted on the wall.

Each train would have it's own china design. This is the California Poppy design. I love it.