So I have been on Pinterest a lot recently, getting ideas and inspiration for decorating my house. So here are a couple of pictures of letter crafts I have done.

Family Birthdays

I saw this craft idea on pinterest a few months ago and finally made it!   It was super easy and I am so happy with it.  Here Lilly is showing it off, looks like we have alot more birthdays in the fall.

So it has been such a very long time since I have blogged!!!!!! Lilly says, “Mom, I thought blogs were extinct, nobody uses them!” There is a lot of information on blogs and I lately have noticed how much I have been going to them for ideas and crafts. I am not starting a craft blog but I wanted to share some ^__^

  This is a super cheap and delicious summer dessert, yes it is extremely easy too! I have been making this dessert since the 90’s, it is from a Pillsbury Bake Off cookbook.

KEY LIME CREAM TORTE CAKE:
1 pkg. Pillsbury Plus Butter Recipe Cake
 Mix 2 tbsp. lime juice plus water to equal 1 c.
1/2 c. butter, soft
3 eggs
FILLING:
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
1/2 c. lime juice (key lime if you can find it)
2 c. whipping cream
Oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (8 inch) round cake pans. Combine all cake ingredients at low speed until moist. Beat 2 minutes on high. Pour into pans. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 15 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely. Combine sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 cup lime juice, mix well. Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Reserve 1 cup of cream. Fold condensed milk mixture into whipped cream just until blended. Slice each cake layer in half horizontally to make 4 layers. Spread 1 cake layer with 1/3 of whipping cream mixture, repeat. Top with remaining cake layer. Pipe in decorative pattern or spread unused whipped cream over top. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours. Garnish with lime slices. Store in refrigerator. Serve 12.

ENJOY!!!!!!

Cute

I am totally enjoying my summer vacation!
So I got this cute email that I am blogging:)
Southern women know their summer weather report:
Humidity
Humidity
Humidity

Southern women know their vacation spots:
The beach
The rivuh
The crick

Southern women know everybody's first name:
Honey
Darlin'
Shugah

Southern women know the movies that speak to their hearts:
Fried Green Tomatoes
Driving Miss Daisy
Steel Magnolias
Gone With The Wind

Southern women know their religions:
Baptist
Methodist
Football

Southern women know their cities dripping with Southern charm:
Chawl'stn
S'vannah
Foat Wuth
N'awlins
Ad'lanna

Southern women know their elegant gentlemen:
Men in uniform
Men in tuxedos
Rhett Butler

Southern girls know their prime real estate:
The Mall
The Country Club
The Beauty Salon
The Nail Salon


Southern girls know the 3 deadly sins:
Having bad hair and nails
Having bad manners
Cooking bad food

More Suthen-ism's:
Only a Southerner knows the difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit, and that you don't "HAVE" them......... you "PITCH" them.
____
Only a Southerner knows how many fish, collard greens, turnip greens, peas, beans, etc., make up "a mess."
____
Only a Southerner can show or point out to you the general direction of "yonder."
____
Only a Southerner knows exactly how long "directly" is, as in: "Going to town, be back directly."
_____
Even Southern babies know that "Gimme some sugar" is not a request for the white, granular sweet substance that sits in a pretty little bowl in the middle of the table.
____
All Southerners know exactly when "by & by" is. They might not use the term, but they know the concept well.
____
Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad. If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin!
____
Only Southerners grow up knowing the difference between "right near" & "a right far piece." They also know that "just down the road" can be 1 mile or 20!
____
Only a Southerner, both knows and understands, the difference between a redneck, a good ol' boy, & po' white trash.
____
No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.
____
A Southerner knows that "fixin" can be used as a noun, a verb, or an adverb.
____
Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines, and when we're "in line,"... we talk to everybody!
____
Put 100 Southerners in a room and half of them will discover they're related, even if only by marriage.
____
In the South, y'all is singular, all y'all is plural.
____
Southerners know grits come from corn and how to eat them.
____
Every Southerner knows tomatoes with eggs, bacon, grits, and coffee are perfectly wonderful; that red eye gravy is also a breakfast food; and that fried green tomatoes are not a breakfast food.
____
When you hear someone say, "Well, I caught myself lookin'," You know you're in the presence of a genuine Southerner!
____
Only true Southerners say "sweet tea" & "sweet milk." Sweet tea indicates the need for sugar and lots of it --we do not like our tea unsweetened. "Sweet milk" means you don't want buttermilk.
____
A true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 MPH on the freeway, you just say,"Bless her heart"...& go your own way.
____
To those of you who are still a little embarrassed by your Southerness: Take 2 tent revivals and a dose of sausage gravy and call me in the morning. Bless your heart!
____
To those of you who are still having a hard time understanding all this Southern stuff......bless your hearts, I hear they are fixin' to have classes on Southernness as a 2nd language!
____
For those that are not from the South but have lived here for a long time, all y'all need is a sign to hang on y'alls front porch that reads "I ain't from the South, but I got here as fast as I could."

Southern girls know men may come and go, but friends are fahevah !

Now...... Shugah, send this to someone who was raised in the South or wish they had been! If you're a Northern transplant, bless your little heart, fake it.


We know you got here as fast as you could.

Death

Grandpa Gaard with Rexford and Ethan.

Well, last week Rex's grandfather passed away. We made the trip up to S.D. for the funeral. The sermon at the funeral was good, it was nice to see our relatives but sad under the circumstances. It is so true what the bible says it is better to be at the house of mourning than feasting.







Beautiful stormy night picture from our backyard.

This and That

Here is a picture of Danielle and Lilly at our church's Mother/Daughter tea.

Hey Y'all:) Can you believe tomorrow is the first day of March? John Anthony's due date was in the beginning of Feb. I spent most of it in bed feeling sick, I think I just felt bad about it all. I really regret having my tubes tied. I can't go back and change it though.

The kids are all doing well. Rex has midterms here soon and I think he is looking forward to Spring Break, we had to veto his plans to go to Fort Lauderdale. Ethan is coming to a decision on college. Geneva lost her top front teeth this month and she looks as cute as can be. She and Rexford have a little competition on their grades going. When he gets home from school she has to show him her papers from the day and then he will get his out. I guess you have to be here:) School is coming along fine for the other kids.

My brother has had a flare up with his MS. He is doing chemo again for it. Please pray he gets the feeling back in his hands.

Last week at the restaurant where my mom and brother work a man came in with a gun and pointed at the assisted manager, my mom was a few feet away and he demanded everyone out of the restaurant, he wanted to kill himself. He ended up surrendering to the police later that night. It is bizarre what that one man did to all the businesses in the area for the day. Anyway this week my mom had 2 to go orders, one person called and asked for the hostage special and another called and asked if they had any specials on 9mm guns. Hopefully the jokes are helping the staff get over what happened there??????

So I have started a garden, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, rosemary, basil, cilantro, watermelon, eggplant and some other plants....to be continued (I hope)

We try and have pineapple on Friday nights:)

I am on a diet so all I can really do is look at food.
Thai Cashew Chicken, I made this when I was allowed to eat:)

Rejoice with those who rejoice

Please rejoice with us, Rexford, Ethan, Isaac, Lilly and Danielle were baptized in November. They went up before the church and gave their testimonies of their salvation during an afternoon baptismal service and upon their profession of faith in Jesus were baptized. It was absolutely wonderful. Our pastor had spoken to them all previously of course:) I don't want to put our pastor on a pedestal or anything but I can't begin to tell you how good it has been to be under him. The church here has really ministered to our needs and have been so supportive to us. I know this is the Lord's work through them:)

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We ate...I didn't overeat but this was our menu, turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potates in brown sugar, sage sausage dressing, cranberry relish (mom's recipe), spinach casserole, corn, whole wheat buns, pumpkin and pecan pie. Afterwards we played outside, tag football, ultimate frisbee and 500. One of the kids got bit by a mosquito..:) The weather is still so nice, we have covered up the pool though, the last day we swam was on hubby's birthday in Nov.

Last week on Rexford's way home from work he ran over 2 deer. The car is pretty messed up but he is fine:) This week is his last week of school before winter break. Ethan took the ACT in Oct and scored one point higher than Rexford, which was pretty tough to do. So Rexford's amazing score has been dimished by Ethan...lol we have to give him a hard time about it. Ethan is now applying for college and before I know it I will have 2 in college:)

Here is a portion of the baptism. I had to cut some of it out so it would fit better.

A Hug

It has been awhile since I have blogged. A lady at church on Sunday told me my face looked more peaceful. I told her I am still grieving and was able to talk to her about it. The Lord is teaching me many things. Scripture has never been more comforting and still there is not a day that I don't cry for John.

I can not begin to tell you how sweet the children have been during these weeks. I can hardly type this so this is all that I will share about that.

Life does move on, just from a different perspective.

Sunday night Lilly gave me this poem she had wrote.
A Hug by Lilly 11/8/08

A hug is one of the best things ever.
Because it always makes someone feel better if it is from the heart.

And can sometimes be the best way of saying goodbye.

You can give someone a hug anywhere at anytime.

And the only bad thing about a hug is sometimes it makes people cry.
But the best thing about a hug is it can get someone through the toughest times.

I found this all out on Sept. 18, 2008 the day I found out my baby brother John had died.

But Romans 8:28 makes me so very happy because I know that the Lord My God is always looking out for me. So whenever something bad happens I think of Romans 8:28 and I feel like the Lord is giving me a hug.

God shall be glorified

I have many photos of John but I think this one is so precious. He was tiny but he completely filled us with love.

Many of you know about the loss of our sweet baby John Anthony last week. A couple ladies came over on Saturday with food for family and a book in which one page was marked for me to read. At the end of the article was this quote.

Whatever thy grief or trouble be, take every drop in thy cup from the hand of Almighty God. He with whom "the hairs of thy head are all numbered," knoweth every throb of thy brow, each hardly drawn breath, each shoot of pain, each beating of the fevered pulse, each sinking of the aching heart. Receive, then, what are trials to thee, not in the main only, but one by one, from His all-loving hands; thank His love for each; unite each with the sufferings of they Redeemer; pray that He will thereby hallow them to thee. Thou wilt not know now what He thereby will work in thee; yet, day by day, shalt thou receive the impress of the likeness of the ever-blessed Son, and in thee, too, while thou knowest it not, God shall be glorified.

E.B. Pusey

Pineapple

Yes, we have a thing for pineapples. We are fans of delicious flavor if you know what I mean.

I can't believe how fast my pregnancy is coming along. I actually bought something for baby, Rex asked if I bought a blue sweater....lol nope I bought some diapers:) I have my big ultrasound soon, I plan on taking the girls with me, so they can see the baby. I think I am finally over the shock of getting pregnant after my tubes tied. When I had morning sickness and was basically sleeping most of the day away Geneva would pretend to be my doctor and tell me to close my eyes. After some time she would tell me to wake up and say," I have some crazy news for you, your pregnant, I opened your tummy and looked and your baby is the size of a seed." The crazy news phrase had me rolling, I know she picked up that from me. I remember calling Rex after I took a pregnancy test and I kept saying over and over, I am not joking...lol One of his replies was, "I am not surprised". I suppose with our track record we should give up on using any kind of birth control method. After ultrasounds and lots of blood work over a period of days to confirm baby, I still bought another pregnancy test.

On Monday I finished cleaning and moving from our old home. We had the best neighbors in the world over there. I have lots of unpacking to do. I painted one bedroom before we moved in and might paint the baby's room depending on what we find out we are having. Right now the baby's room is pink:) We only took one week and one day off from school. I was determined not to lose a lot of school days.

The homeschool group we belong to have a lot of activities to do. I don't feel pressure to go to many of them, just pick and chose what fits for us.

Happy birthday to my mom and sister!!!!! My mom's birthday was the 9th and sister's was the 11th. I have a couple girls who have birthdays soon.

School Days

Pictures of the kids at the Science Museum












Wow we had a couple days of cool weather this week with lots of rain. When it rains here it will rain for hours, that is how I remember rain when I was a kid. It is so nice:)

We have been busy with starting school and having company. Rex's parents came with our nephew for a visit. We went to a Science Museum that is very close to us. We also went swimming.

The kids go once a week to their friend's house for swimming. Geneva is such a fish. She is a an excellent swimmer already.

We have been enjoying the Olympics, last night Geneva told me she wants America to win and Korea because Grand Master Kim if from there and also Italy.

The older kids are going through Pilgrims Progress in youth group and Geneva has learned the books of the New Testament in her S.S. class. Our church has a time before service for memorizing Scripture, right now we are memorizing the Spurgeon Catechism.

Rex and I will be celebrating our 20th anniversary this month!!!!!! I wonder how many ladies get pregnant after they have been married for 20 years...lol My little bump is starting to be noticeable. Last Monday night I felt the baby move, I had my hand pressed on my lower abs and felt baby! It was very cool to feel the baby so early. I have had 5 ultrasounds and about 6 doctor visits already. Everything is normal so now I just go once a month:)

We are moving in the next couple of months to a larger home. We are pretty excited about it, but now I have to start packing...LOL It will not be so bad since we have really downsized our stuff and we are not moving across the country this time. We have plenty of time:)

Summer happenings

There is not much of this cake left:)


June has flown by, I picked up new charcoal grill for Rex. Our old grill doesn't work very well, the grates holes are too large and a lot of the food we like to cook on the grill falls through. We had a wonderful 4th together, Rex didn't have to work. We had apple pie, grilled chicken, hot dogs and spicy sausages, potato salad, guacamole, chips, corn on the cob. Rex was master on the grill and all the meat was delicious.

I plan on ordering school books early this year so we can start school in the beginning of August. I usually start school after Labor Day but since baby is due in Feb, I thought I better get a head start on school this year. I really don't have many books to buy this year, I will be spending more time organizing my books, we have most of them in storage right now. I have done all the Kindergarten books with Geneva, so she will be starting 1st grade even though she is very young for 1st grade. I will take it slow with her. I just can't see doing all K stuff all over again. She wants to do school:)

Rex made our baby news announcement to the church last Sunday after our fellowship meal. Our church (we have been members since Nov 07) have a fellowship meal every Sunday. Another lady and I at church make up the menus/sign up sheets for every week. Anyway a couple ladies at church said we should ask for our money back from the surgery I had in April...LOL There are 4 other pregnant ladies at the church, all 4 are having girls:)

I am exercising when I feel up to it there are some days when I stay in bed all day and sleep. If anyone knows me they know I don't usually take naps:) I am using a DVD called The Perfect Pregnancy, it is one of the toughest workouts I have ever done. Ethan bought Wii Fit so I have been having fun on that and also lots of walking!

Rexford will be registering for his classes soon, I am very excited for him! Lilly and Isaac make a newspaper of family news, I will make a copy of one and blog it, they are hilarious! Geneva likes to pretend she is a cruise director and set us up on a cruise, she feeds us and gives us pillows, we usually travel to Italy. She lost baby tooth number 3 this week, her smile is so precious:) The kids are pretty tan, Geneva especially.

I made Southern Chicken and Dumpling this week for the first time. Isaac helped me of course, he has been such a big helper to me lately. There have been many nights when he made supper for us. I know I should have my energy back in a few weeks. I know exercising is helping.

May Pictures

Family at graduation. Many people from our church came for Rexford's graduation. We had a pool party afterwards.














Evening church in the garage.














Coke museum.


















Cannon at Vicksburg

















Tunnel built by the South during the war.

May stuff

I suppose I need to blog since Rexford actually blog for the first time in many many months!



My mom came down to celebrate Rexford's graduation. We took a trip to Vicksburg, and visited a Civil War memorial. It was very large and we really didn't get to see the whole thing. You could easily spend all day there and not get it all in. In Vicksburg we ate lunch at Walnut Hills, so far the BEST southern cooking I have had. http://www.walnuthillsms.net/index.html We visited a couple museums also. My mom went to spend a couple of days at the beach in Florida and came back for a few more days before returning back up north.



I have taken a lot of pictures recently and hope to get them up sometime soon.



Lilly really loves to exercise, she will spend time working out with the exercise equipment we have. I have been lagging on my exercise lately, just taking long walks lately, anyway she has a work out she wants to give me, it has 17 exercises on it right now, one of the exercises is 200 jumping jack and another one 75 push-ups. I told her I could not do 75 push-ups, she told me I could do sissy ones and when I told her I didn't think I could do 200 jumping jacks she said we would do 100, take a break and then do the last 100! I like her enthusiasm!



We are finished with school, Isaac will do some math this summer and Geneva will continue with her reading lessons. I am not saying we finished all of our school books! We certainly had a sporadic school year.

Proof

Isaac's Birthday with delicious cake!






Well many of you know we had a major storm here on Friday. Here is a link to the local newspaper. http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Friday started out normal for us. I got a phone call from friends in Mississippi who we knew in Minnesota. They were coming over to visit after lunch. I was so excited to see them and their baby! Some of the kids had plans to go to a sleepover and the rest of the kids were going to a church youth meeting that night. God had other plans for us Friday:)

Well, after lunch the warning siren started going off(that happens about once a week it seems) Danielle is always prepared , she has a backpack with a bible, flashlight and she always puts her sneakers on. I didn’t think too much of the sirens, I had just started baking some pretzels. I thought it would be lovely treat for my guests:) I went outside to see what was going on and it was very calm. Our power went out and then the wind started to pick up. Rex got out of bed (he had foot surgery on Monday) and he looked outside, by that time we could see debris flying well over the treetops across the golf course. It all seemed surreal and about one minute later the wind was going completely the opposite direction it had been going. Hail came, we were listening for the freight train sound, and we didn’t hear it.

Our neighborhood had received some damage, our home did not. Our phone lines went down also. We have a generator but Rex could not get it started. One of our pastors came over that night and he was able to get it started for us, he can start anything that has a pull string, he is awesome. So we didn’t lose any of our food, and we were able to help our neighbors with our generator too.

In other news, Rex had foot surgery on Monday, he broke his foot in Oct and it still had not healed. He sought a second opinion on it, and the doctor suggested surgery since the break he had normally takes 6 weeks to heal and it still wasn’t healed, he also thought if it did heal it would break again. Rex had a 4.5 cm screw drilled into his foot. Our pastor said he was going to have to start calling him the bionic man! He is recovering extremely well. He has an air cast, but right now he has to use crutches.

Rex has been reading about Krav Maga, which means contact combat in Hebrew. It is not a martial art. Anyway I have been doing a workout dvd from a Krav Maga instructor. It is some good old fashion exercising. I have gained some weight since moving down south. I have lost some of it, it is very hard!

Here is absolute proof I am married to a red neck and I love it!

Rex and Geneva at bible drill.

Ethan at Bible Drill.

Red Necks!

Rex is really enjoying his new job. He works long hours and he is truly a red neck now, I can't remember his face ever being so tan, but his neck is definitely red! I bought him some sun tan lotion to use:) Rex says God had us stay up north so long so we could really appreciate the south. It is hard not to have wished we didn't move down here a long time ago but we know that is not what the Lord had planned for us.

The kids went swimming last Friday night at our friend's house. This is the first time they have ever gone swimming in an outside pool in March!!!!! Geneva jumped in where it was too deep for her and Danielle scooped her up, Geneva kept saying,"I'm going to live, I'm going to live". She is so dramatic. We have almost been here for 6 months now. Time has really flown by. When we go to the library or grocery store we usually run into someone we know. Last month there was someone looking at a house for sale on the block we live on and it happened to be someone Rex went to High School with, it's a small world after all:)


Rexford graduates in May! WOW. He will be measured for his gown and cap this week. Rexford got a promotion at his job. Isaac's birthday is this weekend. He is going to have an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins, they have the best ice cream cakes! Danielle reads a lot, she reads one book after another. She has finished her science book already this year in school. She has also grown a lot, she is a couple inches shorter than me and Lilly is only one inch behind. Isaac is 6 feet tall already. Geneva is coming along fabulously with her reading program in school, next year I will only have 5 in home school! Then the following year only 4! Ethan is getting over his queasiness and hopes to go into the medical/dental field now, he enjoys science/chemistry so much it just seems natural for him.











We have found this DVD of Pilgrims Progress called Dangerous Journey http://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Journey-Michael-Cramer/dp/B000A0GYFU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1205755546&sr=8-3 We were watching clips of it on answers in genesis website and decided to buy it off amazon, it is a few dollars cheaper there.

In Geneva's health class she has learned about junk food and healthy food, she asked if fish was a healthy food or junk food, when I told her fish was good for her, she was dismayed....lol she wanted it to be on the junk food list. LOL For a few weeks she was always asking if something was healthy before she ate it. Last week she had a couple of oranges she starting throwing up in the air singing "Vegetables and fruit are good for you" over and over and then adding fruits and vegetables to her song.

I threw in some recent photos of the kids outside in the winter! I am still not used to the weather, usually when I walk outside I am amazed how nice it is.

Are you a fan of delicious flavor?

Yes I am, so I made a pineapple upside down cake last week when we had company over. When the family was going through our food line in the kitchen Isaac got in line also and Rex said ,"Isaac you should be in back of the line"...well Isaac just so happens to be the name of one of our guests also...it was pretty funny. If you understand the title of my blog post then you know what show we like to watch.

We were talking about eating vension and how people cook it etc. and Geneva piped in that she likes deer too, but she likes them alive. I guess I prefer them that way too.

The high today is supposed to be 77, I think we might go play tennis. I found out you can start to plant at the end of Feburary! I probably will plant some vegetables.

Rexford has toured a couple colleges and we are leaning towards one more than the other. He got a new car, it is newer than the vehicles Rex or I drive. He got a really good deal on it from someone in our church.

Yesterday evening we listened to a debate on baptism, it was excellent, one of our Pastors recommended it.

http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?blogid=1&archive=2007-11

James White has been blessed with the gift of teaching.

Flowers in bloom

We have a few flowers that have bloomed on a bush outside our house. Does anyone know what kind of flower it is? I don't have a green thumb, I need help!

What I did with the leftover turkey. I made a Pampered Chef recipe, Turkey Cranberry Wreath. We had turkey on New Years Day. On Christmas Eve we had Spicy Citrus Chicken with Winter Vegetables and a side salad. For Christmas we had Perogies, Ham with my special coffee/kaula glaze, broiled green beans and Cranberry Plum Pudding with warm vanilla sauce for dessert. This year I made it a point to make everything simple. My Christmas Eve dish was something I threw into a pot and it cooked all day, for Christmas dinner I made my perogies in Nov. and froze them so I would not have to do much cooking the week of vacation:)

It's over 80 in here

Rex just turned on the air conditioner!
Yes today is Jan.7th!

2007 in review

Our family started out 2007 with making a big decision. After much prayer and seeking advice we decided to move south. Rex was offered a wonderful job working for a Christian friend. We had been praying for a couple years for a job change since the work he was doing did not have a future. It certainly seemed like an answer to our prayers. We put our house up for sale in February and it finally sold in August but not until we changed realtors. We moved in Oct. but first Rex had ACL reconstruction surgery. We are currently attending the Reformed Baptist Church here.

Rexford is still working for a major retail chain. He became a black belt in Taekwondo. Rexford is still playing chess and playing the keyboard. He loves video games and is a very generous brother. Rexford took the ACT in Dec and scored in the 99th percentile in the United States. He is still considering a career in law with the hopes of becoming a judge. One of our friends is trying to talk him into going into medicine We will be busy this month applying to colleges. He has already been offered a full scholarship from a college.

Ethan is also working for a major retail chain. He also became a black belt in Taekwondo last year. Ethan has his driver’s permit. He is studying for the ACT that he will be taking this year:) Ethan continues to sculpt with clay, he also is still working on his pastels. He is currently trying Chinese brush painting. Ethan got a book on bonsai and is looking into growing one. Ethan will study up a lot of the any subject he is interested in before jumping in to it.

Isaac became a black belt in Taekwondo last year. He grew so much last year that he literally grew out of his eye glasses. Isaac is dabbling in Wing Chun, another martial art. He continues to take care of his dog Wing Chun (Winnie) since we moved down here and she is an outside dog now. Isaac draws so much. One of his drawings I made into a t-shirt and have sold more of his design than any other t-shirts I have sold so far. He got a bamboo digital drawer for the computer for Christmas:) Isaac has shuriken and loves to throw them at targets.

Lilly has been a black belt since 2006:) She was part of a taekwondo demonstration team in 2007. She currently likes to skateboard and she loves to play tennis. Lilly also likes to knit. Lilly had her first babysitting job and certainly has a knack for it. She likes to play with spy gear and helps me out around the house. She is always trying to get her hands on soda.

Danielle became a black belt in Taekwondo this year. She loves to play on the keyboard and read as many books as she can get her hands on, especially Nancy Drew. She also loves to play video games. Danielle has started to cross stitch this year also. Danielle also likes to knit and play tennis. Danielle likes to help me in the kitchen and made Chocolate Italian Pitzels for Christmas!

Geneva misses Grand Master Kim from Taekwondo class, he was like her Grandpa to her. He played with her all the time. She loves to dance and do her taekwondo in front of an audience. Geneva is beginning to read and loves school. Geneva lost her bottom 2 teeth and looks as cute as can be. She also had her first hair cut, if you can call how much I cut off a haircut:)

Rex turned 40 this year! He broke his foot the day after we moved down here and the doctor told him last week that it is not healing. He is currently staying off his foot in hopes it will heal up and he can avoid surgery! He is taking to his new job very well and it looks like he will get his own truck and be on his own sooner than we expected…assuming his foot heals. Rex has taught S.S. a few times and recently he taught class sitting in the Pastor’s chair up in front of the church because he can’t put any weight on his foot. Rex lost his Grandmother in December and we were able to attend Margaret’s funeral in Iowa.

I am still homeschooling the children and can hardly believe Rexford will be graduating this year. I could not imagine sending him off to school when time flies by so fast and it feels like I haven’t had enough time with him as it is homeschooling him. I am enjoying the South and getting to know people down here. I am still struggling with my weight and determined to lose the rest of my fat in 2008.

All of the children except Geneva are professing believers in Jesus Christ. Praise God for His goodness to us. No black belt or academic award could ever be as important as Jesus Christ.