Part 2 of Randy and Raechel's Wedding

LOVE THIS ONE!  Flower girl and bride on the big day!  

Couple with the groomsmen.  Picture time after the wedding.  

 Randy and Raechel with Raechel's little sister, Abigail, and Clara and Hil

 Four sisters: Anna, Amy, Melissa and me.  We now have three sisters-in-love as well, so there are really SEVEN of us sisters!!!!  I'd love to have a picture of the seven of us!

What a GREAT uncle!  Fun times during clean-up after the wedding.

Clara and Uncle Caleb!

Aunt Melissa and Hil!  As you can see from the pictures, their uncles and aunts invested soooo much time in Clar and Hil during the short visit!  It meant FUN times for the kidos AND a break for Momma and Daddy!  :-)


The wedding was so lovely and visit with the family, such a wonderful treat!  It went so fast, but pictures and memories are such a blessing!  Thank You, Lord!

Finally... Part 1 of R and R's Wedding

After a long wait, we have picture from the camera to share!  As I mentioned before, some sort of a technical problem has developed and we haven't been able to download pictures from the camera to the computer.  We're still haveing the same problem, but I went down the drug store today and used one of the photo kiosks to put a bunch of pictures on photo cds.   So... are you ready for some pictures from the last several months?

We'll start with some that aren't that old, namely, pictures from the end of last month when we traveled to TX for my brother, Randy's wedding to Raechel!  We arrived Tuesday night and Wednesday we met up with the crew.  Randy and Raechel took us to the coffee shop where he surprised her when he came down to TX to ask her to marry him.  After surprising her at the coffee shop, he took her down to the harbor, and that is where he popped the question.  The following pics are from the tour of the harbor area:

Hilkiah and Aunt Anna

 Volleyball lessons from the pros!  Uncle Mark and Uncle Caleb with Clara!

 Now it's Hil's turn.

 The lovely couple of the hour!  Randy and Raechel

 Fun times with Uncle Caleb down at the harbor

 A day or two later, Clara and Aunt Sherry with their "matching shirts"!  Sherry is my brother Mark's lovely bride of almost one year!

Day before the wedding: me and Aunt Margie

The groom-to-be and ring-bearer-to-be.

Me and my lovely sister, Amy

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 Two handsome groomsmen working on the groom's cake: my brother Mark and my dear husband, Stephen

 Finishing touches: Mark

Raechel, the lovely bride!

 Melissa!  My baby sis.

 Flower girl!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Chilly Weather Cuteness

Yes, the weather has turned chilly, and with it comes the cuteness of little ones sporting winter hats!  Daddy captured this preciousness on his phone several days ago!

Welcoming Sabina Kaydence!

Friday night we received a phone call from my sister, Melissa, informing us that our brother, David, and his wife, Amity, had welcomed their precious little one into the outside world!  We were so happy to hear the wonderful news!  Our little niece has the beautiful name of Sabina Kaydence and has a lovely head of dark hair!  Welcome to the family little one!  We're so happy you're here!  And Congratulations David and Amity!!!  She's beautiful!

Our GF Journey: Report 1

So, the beginning of our Gluten Free journey has been a mixed bag.  After getting home from the wedding we began in earnest.  I went out and bought things I'd never bought before, like Xantham Gum, tapioca starch and potato starch.  I also took things that I HAD used before and started milling them into flour... things such as rice, millet and quinoa.

I've learned that crepes are super duper easy to make gluten free and be very happy with the results.  I've learned that yeast bread is NOT.  Thus far I've tried making yeast bread three times and haven't been thrilled with any of the results.  They actually all turned out quite well... none of them were flops... they were just such a far cry from good old wheat bread.  So, that's been the most discouraging part thus far.  Poor Clara even managed to gag herself on my latest loaf.

One of the most encouraging products so far: totally delicious pumpkin cookies that turned out so GREAT!  My man REALLY liked them, which made my day!  Here's the link if someone wants to give it a shot: http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/od/dessertsandsweets/r/glutenfreepumpkincookierecipe.htm.  They were extremely yummy.

Tonight we had muffins made with sorgum, quinoa and corn, and was quite happy with them - encouraging!

We've found a GF pasta that is excellent which, if you know us, was pretty much a necessity if this GF thing is going to last for any length of time.  :-)

So, like I say it's been a mixed bag.  Despite the not-so-great yeast breads, I'm feeling ready to keep going!  It's still a fun and interesting experience!  And it helps that the kids and I have not gone totally GF ourselves, just Stephen.  So though all of our baking is GF as well as cooking that he'll be eating, the rest of us still get our gluten here and there.  :-)

And there you have it, report number 1.

"Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart"... Already!

This video is just so precious and amazing!  A little 2 year old reciting all of Psalm 23!  May the Lord richly bless her parents for investing time and effort into helping her learn the most valuable thing in the world, God's Word!

Our precious little ones are capable of so much more then we realize!  There is so much more I could be doing to teach and invest in Clara and Hil... And when I am spending time with them, I need to keep evaluating whether the things we are learning and doing are the BEST, or of just mediocre value.   A big thanks to these parents for this precious reminder!  And, Way To Go Little, Andi!!!  May you learn and love God's Word for your whole life!

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Psalm 119:105

"I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you."  Psalm 119:11

Beautiful Fall

We've been blessed with some lovely fall days and have been able to get out some and enjoy them!  Yesterday... it was one of our favorite farms where we picked apples, pulled around one of their great wagons and visited the petting zoo once again!  Today it was simply time out of doors, some of which was spent in the leaves... as you can see!

Clara Speaks

The Clara-isms were flowing freely today...

While driving around in the car with Mommy, Clara noticed someone out in their yard "scraping the leaves with a fork."   :-)

This evening, I was putting herbs in capsules (to prepare them for being swallowed :-)) and Clara decided to help me (I was impressed that she actually managed to get some herb into a few capsules and get them put back together).  After the herb fell out of a capsule she'd been filling she exclaimed, with drama in her voice, "Oh dear!  I'm throwing a fit!  How I can do this?!"

At another point this evening I overheard her stating "I think gluten free is a better way."  You know what new phrase she's been hearing quite a bit in the last little while!