Child Dedication

We dedicated Mackenzie to the Lord on Sunday! This is quite different from the Lutheran background I grew up with, where you baptize your children as infants. For us, dedicating our children is saying that we are going to teach them about Christ, the Bible and how we are saved through faith, repenting of our sins and God's grace. We are Dedicating them with the help of family, friends and our church family to help us to raise them in a christian home.

When Keira, Caden and Mackenzie get older we pray they will be saved by a faith in Christ. Then they will be baptized as a public expression of that faith. We are grateful for the children God has given us and we strive to raise them in a way that is honoring to the One who gave them to us.

1 Samuel 1:28 "So I have dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord."

Happy Birthday "Princess"

Keira turned 4 today!! Wow...4 years has brought some trying times, crazy times, emotionally frustrating times, but mostly a lot of joy:-) Here are a few words that describe her:

Independent

Fun

Adventurous

Quiet

Sister Loving

No Fear

Smart

Cutie

We celebrated her 4th birthday with some friends on Sat. as she wanted to have "a lot of friends" over. I said a few would be sufficient. They came over and while waiting for others to arrive we picked out some jewelry to wear and decorated some princess hats!

Kayli picking out her jewelry, while Caden helps!

Sophie #1 picking out her jewelry!

Sophie #2 Making a princess hat while Caden decorates his crown!Sophie S., Ellie S., Sophie E. making their hats...I thinks Sophie S. could of played with the glitter all day, making hats for herself or helping others:)

Caden with his crown!

Then with glitter thoroughly in everything we went on a gem hunt. Each girl was to find 5 gems. Except, I had Dave hide the gems and he couldn't remember where they all were after the girls had found maybe 3 or 4. So some were a little bummed that they didn't get 5! Sorry!:-( Then we played pin the heart on the princess!

Looking for their gems.

Getting ready to play pin the hearts on the princess.

Everyone started getting hungry so we all sat down to eat, then had cake. Keira insisted on a princess cake. So I did the cake in three stages as I didn't have much time to do it all at once.

After cake we opened gifts...which I never realized how ?eager? little kids are to have THEIR gift opened first! Keira took a picture after opening up her gifts with the gift giver.

Keira and Sophie

"Foofie" and Keira

Maya and Keira

Ellie S., Keira and Sophie S.- These are my good friend LesLiegh's daughters. Les and I grew up together and are the same age apart as Ellie and Keira are.

Kayli and Keira

The best quote came from Maya. She is such a sweetie...as she wanted to wear some dress up clothes. We took her to Keira's closet so she could pick out something, but we were informed that none of it was adequate enough:-( Then when Keira was opening a gift that contained a glitzy skirt, shoes, tiara, necklace and earrings... Maya belts out "Now I have something to wear!!" It was just too cute!

Then after opening presents we still had some time so I read the Princess and the Pea with the intent of playing find the pea (which you stick a golf ball under 1 of 3 pillows and see who can tell which has the pea...but, I lost the golf ball. So the girls went to the basement and played!

Keira had so much fun and was so good at saying thank you. I on the other hand was exhausted:) Many thanks to those who helped out!!!

The Princess' and the Prince

Lets rock and ROLL!

All week Kenzie has been rolling to her side then crying. Not because she is on her side, but because she can't get over the rest of the way:) So last night she woke up at 2 am and decided to "practice" for about 2 hours...give or take. Giggling and squealing. Which would be soo cute if I wasn't soo tired! She never rolled over last night. Then this morning I set her on the floor to go clean the sink...walked back to her (Caden was playing with her) and she was on her stomach. WHAT!!! "You are only just 3 months TODAY, you are not suppose to be doing that yet." I didn't believe it. I asked Caden if he rolled her over. "No mommy I didn't." So I went to get the camera to video it. When I got back she was once again on her stomach. So instead of getting on video her FIRST roll over. I got her Third:) Keira was just as proud as I was, as she gave Kenzie many kisses and "good jobs"!

I will publish video when I get it to upload

Family Reunion

Saturday the 22nd of August we headed on over to somewhere near Sunburg and visited with some family that we don't get to see very often. The day provided sun and some fun! Here are a few pics from the day!

Dave and the kids out on party island!!

Keira and Grace waiting for the Sea Doo to be blown up! Grace is the 3rd born of 4 girls!! They are my cousin Becky and her husband Jamies' daughter. Grace is 2 months older than Keira.

The girls out on the Sea Doo. Ashton, Cortney, Keira and Grace

Dave taking Caden out on the Jet Skis!

Me taking Keira out on the Jet Skis...this was my first time ever driving one. What a blast!! Keira enjoyed it too, as when we were out, so was my cousins husband, and every time we came close to the dock she would say to me "But mommy, Jamies not going in yet!!" She did not want to stop:) That's my girl!!

My dad Harlie and Kenzie!

My brother Derek and Kenzie!

Other family members included my uncle Dave, my brother Derek, Grandma Irene, Grandpa Floyd, and my aunt Pam.

Grace on the Sea Doo.

Addison: This little munchkin always could find a pop sitting somewhere around and would drink what she could until her mom saw her!! She is the last of the 4 girls.

Cortney and Ashton

We actually spent the night there. We spent Sat. night sitting by the fire with my cousin, her husband and all the kids. We roasted marshmallows and had good conversation.

Then Sun. we got up went fishing, tubing and swimming.

Dave and Keira tubing, which right after Keira promptly said she could do it herself!!! So we let her be on one of the tubes alone, Dave on another. But, she was not heavy enough and when the boat started up, the front end of the tube went right into the water. She took awhile to let go!! Good thing it's the end of the summer cause she might not do that again for awhile:-S

Dave and Caden

Jamie driving the boat for us. It is his parents cabin that we were at... A big thank you to them for letting us use it, as we had a lot of fun.

Jamie throwing in his daughter Ashton, at her request!

My cousin Becky and her daughter Addison.

And this is pretty much what Kenzie did while out on the boat!

We had lots of fun and were thoroughly wiped out!! We can not wait to see them again. Thanks Becky and Jamie for hosting!

Tennis Anyone?

All summer long Keira has been asking me to play tennis with her. I like to play tennis...but teaching an almost 4 year old to play is a little beyond my scope of playing. We have been hitting the ball off and on some of the summer, but today she really wanted to play. So after a brief lesson on how to hold the racket and making contact with the ball she got some pretty good hits in:)





Caden wanted to play too. But lasted only 2 mins.





He 'd rather do this with the ball.

However Keira lasted awhile.

But, after about 15 mins of me telling her to watch the ball.....

This is where we ended up!

She is a good sport and did well:)

No ice cream or dresses!

No, this isn't in response to a punishment...rather two little kids who have baffled their mom. Yesterday was so hot that I thought it to be a good idea to have some ice cream...so I said to the kids "lets have some"! Cadens response was "No. I want to take a nap." WHAT!!!
Then today my mom came over and we talked about going to Wal-Mart, because she had wanted to buy Keira a princess dress for her birthday party. Keiras response..."No...I already have a dress."
???

I caved!

So I never thought I'd do a blog....but thought this is a good way to remember stuff the kids do. Seeming that I have mommy brain most of the time:)