Our blessings

So about 2 weeks ago we found out we were expecting our 5th child. I became fearful of what was going to happen as I had miscarried not to long ago. The fear was just there even with all the prayers. I know it is a sin to worry but I am human and that is an area that the Lord is still working in me. By Wednesday of last week after I had told a few people and they were praying with us, I was finally at peace of knowing that if the Lord so chooses to take this baby too, I will be o.k. with that. It was such a freeing thought. It cleared my mind so I can focus on other areas that I needed to give over to the Lord. Friday night came and I showed signs that I was going to miscarry. At least I had never had those signs during my other pregnancies unless I was miscarrying. I thought for sure I was going to. Maybe I was just expecting it. Like this is what is going to happen. So I grieved with Dave Saturday night and then had a very quiet Saturday and Sunday. Sunday we celebrated Evan's real birthday. I will post on that next. He turned 8. I was fine to celebrate with him but I was just extremely tired. Monday morning, this morning, I put a call into my midwife and they wanted me to come in to have an ultra sound and see if the baby was living or not. Then we could discuss further if needed. My sweet mother-in-law came over to watch the kids so I could go and meet Dave, who was able to get off of work. We went and checked in and got prepared for the ultrasound. Side note- I had a good 35 minute drive to the clinic so I used that quiet and peaceful time, which is a rarity in a car with 4 kids, to pray. I spent that time praising God, asking God to continue to give me a peace with the final confirmation, and praising Him for always knowing what is best for us. He kept bringing scripture to mind as I was praying and I was praising Him for that. I just had a wonderful time talking with my Heavenly Father. I also got to the clinic with a true peace. As soon as I saw the picture of the baby I saw something beating. YES! I asked if that was the heart beat and she said it was. Beating strong. PRAISE THE LORD. HE truly does care for us and knows our deepest desires. Dave and I were in awe. Here we were thinking that we had lost our baby and God knew all along that it was still alive and with us. Who are we to question the God of our universe, the One who put the sun moon and all the stars in the sky. Who made every living creature and every human person. The God who knows everything about us. Praise Him Praise Him! I came home to a house full of people. A dear friend brought dinner over for us thinking that we were grieving the loss of a child, when I got share with them that our baby is still living. Our children were jumping for joy, where as 2 days ago, there were many tears of sadness. We are truly blessed that God has allowed us to care for His children and bring them into His world. They truly are His. And such a precious gift they are to us.

January Birthday Party

So we have a total of 8 birthday's in January in our whole family on both sides. A few years back we started to celebrate all the Jan. birthday's together and we have loved it ever since. I love the fact that we are not busy every single weekend and that we aren't eating cake or sweets every weekend too. We don't need that especially after Christmas. :o) My sister, Julie, lives in FL with her family so we don't get to celebrate her with us. We miss her and hope that some day we can do it all together. So we celebrated Grandma Turners, 

Dave's, Christina's, mine, and Evan's 8th at our house. It was a lot of fun and very loud with excited children. But it was so much fun to have both sides of the families together. 

Christina made the cake.

Taco's for dinner

little girls table

Ev got a bow and arrow, which he has been waiting and waiting for.

sister in law Christina and her oldest daughter

Ev got his sword and shield so now the boys can go at it.

Grandma and Dave celebrate the same day too. That makes it easy to remember. :o)

4th snow day, finally

So we started our forth snow day last week with a black out for 3 hours. It went dark at 7:00 in the morning. The kids were in a panic. It was quite comical. They were feeling there way all over the house for all the candles and battery one they could find. We have these lanterns from Ikea that they even got to use to help ease the nerves. You don't realize what you are missing until you cant have it. Hmmmm. Here we are eating breakfast but it wasn't really this bright. 

This is more like it. Kind of fun though. It did get lighter inside the house as the morning went on. Not sure why we lost power but it finally came on around 10:00 am. Not to bad.

Here they are once again. Mia was feeling better today and the all wanted to go sledding. We still didn't have heat though so I made sure they realized that before they went out. It did not stop them. 

It was a bit wetter this day. Still good for sledding and standing in it but Lily didn't last long until she was wet.

The boys trying to save some snow for water, cause we are on a well. They were worried that we would lose our water soon if the lights didn't turn back on. 

Still good for sledding. Good thing since she missed out on Tuesday. 

But a little bit colder and wetter.

Dave plowed the driveway on Tuesday but we got more so it took a few tries to get up over the bank of snow around his car. He made it down the hill by creeping though. Not to bad when you have a lot of good packing snow. That helps. 

Just some of our friends still enjoying the bird food. 

Gingerbread making

Here is another post I'm trying to get up. It was last months baking but the kids loved it. 

the finished product. I haven't made gingerbread cookies for a long time but these ones were so good and moist. Hmmmm! 

Snow Day #3

SO here we are. Day number 3 and we are still getting snow. This is amazing for the Portland Metro area. We woke up to 5 inches of snow. At least that's what was on our deck. Dave did not make it into work today. He was about to head out but then decided that it just wasn't worth the risk of getting down the mountain. We live up at about 500 feet. Just down at the bottom of the mountain and going into town probably wouldn't be that hard but getting down there was the problem. So we had another snow day here. Mia, though sadly, woke up with a stomach bug and has spent her day on the couch or in bed sleeping. But the boys, including Dave at times were out side playing, sledding and moving snow with the tractor or being pulled behind it on the sled. The afternoon was mostly raining or snow mix so it is very slowly melting away but there is another storm coming tonight possibly bringing more snow. I guess we will just wait and see in the morning if Dave gets another day here or has to make the trip into town.

it is the best kind of snow too. Great for packing down.

Dave plowing the drive way some

the boys made a sled jump which they were having a blast with yesterday and today. Dave said that they were getting pretty far down the hill too. 

Our honey bees. I sure hope they are staying warm. 

Christmas Day

Happy Birthday Jesus!!! Yes we did say that on Christmas day, not just almost a month later. Here is our morning on Christmas day. 

Glorious isn't it? To GOD be all the praise, honor, and glory, AMEN

After breakfast and stockings we went to church. What a wonderful way to celebrate Jesus's birthday. The kids were in a small kids choir at our new church. They sang Happy Birthday Jesus. There were only 7 of them this year cause a few families were out of town and some were sick. 

Afterwards, we hosted our family get together. Not a normal Christmas meal. But some really good Baked beans and cornbread and salad.

Fun memories with cousins.

Our Christmas tree hunt

O.K. so better late then never. I'm trying to catch up here. The older kids are out playing in the snow and the tiny tot is finally sleeping so I have a few minutes to get some things done. 

The last 2 years we have gone to a Christmas tree farm just about 5 minutes from us down the hill. They advertised $10 any tree. 2 years ago they had so many beautiful $10 nobles. We love nobles. 

This year it was a little bit harder to find a nice looking one that wouldn't take over our house. But we found one and we loved it. 

The tree was on a bit of a hill. Here is Ev trying to keep it upright. 

The annual hauling out the tree.

More pictures of today's snow fun

More sledding and snow eating. This is about 2 hours after the snow started. 

the kids built a snow bank/fort

our driveway

more of our driveway

Ev eating snow

building a snowman

getting cold after 3 hours in this

the finished product (Mia's comment after one of them said that it wasn't going to have any hair was, "let's call him daddy then!!!!") 

just a pretty picture