Family Photos

Many of you commented on the family photos I posted last week. Thank you! We love how they turned out also. They were taken by a good friend of Mom Linda's. Here is a link to her website, Captured by the Lens. We also got some extended family photos that turned out great. Here are some of my favorites!

The Whole Family

Mom and Buddy

Liv and Abby

Ama and Cole - what a cutie!
Garr, Mom, and Amy

Amy, Cole, and Mom
Ama and girls

Olivia Shares

Olivia memorized John 3:16 at Awana. She is still learning to read. She has a small pocket Bible that she received for Easter last year. Yesterday, she found the book of John in her Bible all by herself. (We have been doing "sword drills" during Awana to help the kids find verses in the Bible.) She asked me to help her find chapter 3, verse 16. Then, she proceeded to recite the verse as if she was reading it from the Bible. This morning she brought her Bible to me again, open to the correct page, and asked me where verse 16 is. When I showed her, she took her Bible, skipping away, and said, "I'm going to read this to my class today." This just made me smile. My daughter will be sharing the gospel with her classmates today. Who says God isn't allowed in the schools? Certainly not my Olivia!

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16

Please pray for the Mck Family

Please take time to pray for this sweet child, Stellan, and his family.

The Owens Family

Mommy and Daddy with Emelyn, age 9 (gasp!)

Mama and Daddy with Abby, age 7

Mommy and Daddy with Daniel, age 15 months

Mommy and Daddy with Olivia, age 5

Garr and Jess

Savings at Walgreens

Well, I've been having fun shopping again. I can't tell you the rush it gives me to get a great deal! Last week at Acme, the guy behind me in line congratulated me on how little I paid for how much I got! Whoo-hoo!

Today's Shopping Trip to Walgreens

Item (price after coupons and register rewards)
6 Jumbo packages Huggies diapers ($31.00 total or $5.17 each)
4 - 12 packs Coke products ($10.00 total or $2.50 each)
2 - 25.75 oz. cans infants formula ($18.00 total or $9.00 each)
2 bags Hershey's kisses ($2.00 total or $1 each)
2 tubes Colgate toothpaste ($.98 total or $.49 each)
3 packs Orbit gum ($.99 total)
2 cans Diamond Almonds ($2.75 total)
1 bag beef jerkey ($1.99 total)
2 pkgs Hall's cough drops ($3.00 total)
2 Scunci hair accessories ($3.29 total)
3 bottles Fructis shampoo/conditioner (-$.03)
3 bottles Fructis styling products (-$.03)

Total cost: $178.16 (at sale price for items, I don't have regular prices written down)
I paid: $73.90 (after coupons and register rewards)
Total Savings: $104.26

Daniel and Emelyn

I was going through our photos from the last couple months and found some I wanted to share with you. They all involved either Daniel, Emelyn, or the two of them together. It's actually quite fitting because I've been wanting to blog about them. Eme is a fantastic big sister. She loves her brother (she loves her sisters too, but the novelty has kind of worn off :) )

She just said to me the other day, "Mom, I'm so glad we have Daniel." The feeling is mutual. Every day that I pick her up from school, he throws himself into her arms as soon as he sees her. That just warms my heart! She is very patient with him and enjoys playing with him. I think they will have a special bond as they grow up - being the oldest and the youngest.

Daniel helping Emelyn do her homework

Hanging out with big sister -

so glad to have her home from school finally!

EMELYN

Emelyn had the day off from school last week due to pink eye. She decided it was both good and bad. She was happy to have a day off when she still felt well enough to do stuff. On the other hand, pink eye wasn't so great. :) At least we caught it early and it never got too bad.

She is so creative and loves to do crafts. She pulled out a scrapbook and decided to decorate the front of it and make it a BFF scrapbook - EO and KK. She painted and cut felt letters and glued and had a great time. I love that she is getting old enough to come up with projects like these on her own, to do them on her own, and to clean up on her own! (with just a little prompting...)

DANIEL

Daniel has a serious love affair with a big, purple dinosaur. I don't know how it started. He saw one video and he was hooked. Now anytime he walks into the living room, he picks up the remote and carries it to the closest adult. All the while pointing at the TV for Barney! He is mesmerized by these videos. It really is cute. Honestly, Barney doesn't bother me like it does some people. There are other baby shows that drive me much crazier. :) We did have to go out and pick up a couple different Barney ones though -- you can only listen to the same songs just so many times! This is the only movie he will sit still for. He tolerates Little People and Baby Signing Time, and that is it. Everything else he could care less about. But he loves Barney.

Sitting still for a few precious moments :)

Virginia

We went to visit my MIL in VA this past weekend. My SIL came also with her little boy, Colton. It was her birthday on Sunday so we got to celebrate together. We had a fun time. The girls love to go there and Danny was enthralled with Mr. Buddy's kitties. I think these were the first animals Daniel has been around and he was so excited. He even makes a special sound for the kitties - it kind of resembles a hiss - hmmm, wonder where he got that from? :) We were able to go to the beach. The girls insisted on wearing their swimsuits and wading in the water. At first Daniel didn't like the sand at all, but after a few minutes, he was walking all over the beach and having a great time.

Colton having fun eating pizza

Still enjoying the pizza

Garr and Liv

Abby

Mom Linda and her foster son, Ricky

Amy carrying Cole after he fell down

Emelyn

Daniel, Garr, and I

Olivia having fun running in and out of the waves

"The crew"

Mom Linda and Buddy

My handsome man

"Uncle" Ricky :)

Colton jumping for joy :)

Daniel checking out the view

Look at that!

My beach babes - Abby, Eme, and Liv

Haircut

First of all, my dad came home from the hospital this morning. He seems to be doing much better! He is still really sick, and only gets out of bed for a short time, but he is on the road to recovery and we are so thankful! Thanks for all your prayers!

I got my hair cut the other day and thought I would share the photos with you. It's easy to manage and much better than me just pulling it back in clips! :)

Daddy

Many of you know that my dad was put in the hospital yesterday. Please remember him in your prayers as the doctors do not have any idea what is going on with him. Here is a picture of him and Danny snuggling yesterday morning before he was admitted. Daniel has an ear infection and wasn't feeling well either so snuggling with Grandad was the best thing in the world.

Please keep my dad in your prayers.

Book Lovin' Mama

Our library has interlibrary loan. I just go on my computer and order any book from the surrounding libraries and it's sent to our local library for me to pick up. I love the library. I love books. When I was a little girl, we lived kitty-corner to our local library. I spent hours over there pouring over every book. I can remember signing 20-25 books out (picture books) and carrying them home - barely able to see over the stack in my arms - and reading them all that night. So you can imagine how I'd hoped and dreamed that my girls would share my love for reading.

Guess what? Last week, I picked up the girls from school. It was a Friday afternoon and sunny outside. They had spent all week in the classroom. We walked through the door of our house and I mentioned that I had stopped at the library and the books we had ordered had come in. (Now, our librarians know me so well that they sometimes order books just because they know my girls will enjoy them.) That day the ones we had ordered on interlibrary loan came in and the librarian brought me a couple fairy books and a couple Fancy Nancy books too. So when I brought these books out, you can imagine my pleasure, when all three girls grabbed the books they were interested in and proceeded to plop down on the couch or living room chair and READ. They read for at least an hour if not longer.

It was a beautiful sight to this book-lovin' mama. Just beautiful.

Eme reading Little House -

she especially loves Secret of Droon and Goosebumps books right now

Olivia loves Fancy Nancy and Olivia the pig

Abby loves to read the Daisy Meadow's Fairy series and the Nancy Drew books

Fun with the Grandparents

It has been much too long since I have last updated. I guess the winter doldrums have kept me from blogging - just nothing interesting to write about! But after looking through my pictures of the last few months, I've found quite a bit to blog about. :)

For Christmas, my parents give the girls a gift of a trip. For Eme and Abby, they went to the PA Farm Show again (they also did this last year.) The girls have a great time. They stay in a hotel - with a pool, (the best part!) And on the way home, they stopped at the hands-on children's museum in Lancaster. For Liv and Justin, my parents took them for a day trip to the children's museum in Lancaster also. Liv brought along her bff Sammi. They had a really fun time, with a stop at McD's playland on the way home.

My kids are so blessed to have grandparents who enjoy spending time and hanging out with them - or "spoiling" them, as the girls call it! I'm glad they can get to know their grandparents so well. This weekend, we are going to visit Garr's mom and I know the girls are really looking forward to it. Hopefully this summer, we will be able to go up to NY to visit Garr's dad. Our kids are so blessed to have the love of so many grandparents!!

Livia - dress up time

Silly Sam

Justin - driving the tractor

Liv gathering eggs

Ladybug Liv

Alligator Justin

Horsey Sammi

Justin picking corn

Sam and Liv feeding the pig

Eme with the horses

Eme on the Carousel

Abby dressing the scarecrow

Watching the ducklings get a drink and then go down the slide

Getting a drink

chicks hatching