Beautifully Blessed Day

Annalina (stripes) and A (boots) in front of the home

we have come under contract for in Colorado!

What a day!! Today our final negotiation paper was signed for the house we picked in Colorado!! We have been watching and falling in love with that house for a LONG TIME! It is our dream home and Lord willing we hope to own it for a very long time. The home is in the mountains, which many know Babe and I LOVE mountains, and the windows look right at Pikes Peak! AHHH, AHHH, AHHH. Our closing date is June 8th. We are now going to be waiting to see how the home inspection goes. :-) I can't help but decorating in my mind and that has been so fun for me.

Another huge blessing today came to Babe and Gabriel. They went to a Messianic Passover Dinner. They came home so excited and obviously blessed by the experience. Gabriel really enjoyed learning the symbolism of the dinner. Babe was touched by the personal nature of the worship. The people were a blessing. They REALLY enjoyed the fellowship with the people. They enjoyed the Hebrew music and the unique food. I thought they would enjoy it but I didn't realize it would be the blessing it was to them! They got all dressed up for the dinner and Ross thought Gabriel looked like a Pastor in his suit and tie!

What a day. We have never owned a home it has only been a dream of ours. It is exciting to see that our dreams and prayers are coming to fruition.

Tomorrow will be so nice as we take time to remember what Good Friday is all about. I really look forward to it. We've been doing a 40 day Discovering Jesus children's devotional put out by Charles Swindol. It has been good. I'll have to write more on that later.

Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends

I don't even want to attempt to explain this book. I am not a talented writer and this book was just amazing. Not only was it imformative, thought provoking, and packed with Scripture it was also FUNNY and just a whole lot of fun. The kids really enjoyed it. It definitely impacted their minds and hearts. I still miss reading this book to the kids. We would just read a few pages after devotions and it took us a few months. It will be read again! This book is for all ages probably 4 and up! LOVE IT!

It is written by 3 siblings . . . 2 girls and one boy. They were gifted by God for this task! They are honest and fun!

The Secret Garden

"Two things cannot be in one place. Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow." --one of my favorite quotes from the book

Of course, this is a classic and well known book. We LOVED it! The kids would ask me to read more! We throughly enjoyed and looked forward to reading this book at lunch time!

Quotes from the book:

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

"Two things cannot be in one place. Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow."

— Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

"To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in, you may never get over it as long as you live."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett

"It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

"Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

"At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago."
— Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)

Ahh, Brotherly Love!

Some snap shots of Carson deciding to show Gabriel brotherly love while Gabriel was sitting at the table trying to color. Thankfully, Gabriel does still have two eyes and did not lose one to a colored pencil!

The other picture is of Ross (the dragon) and Carson having fun playing and hiding away.

Word Mix Up

Ross and Carson were playing with pretend food on the ironing board lowered to their level to put the food on. Actually, Ross was the one playing with the food while Carson was sitting on a stool enjoying the show I guess! Anyway, Ross had food plated up and said "Do you want some sabotage?" I thought "What? Sabotage?" I said something to the effect that I didn't understand and he said "What Indians eat!" I started laughing . . . he meant succotash! Just too cute! My budding chef!

House Hunting with Annalina

No, this is NOT the yellow car we rented! Although, when the lady in the restaurant started telling us about a yellow car outside Annalina and I paused in our minds thinking "yellow car, we have a yellow car!" This car was decked out in bunny rabbit disguise!

We got a kick out of the back of the car! Yucky Obama bumper sticker though! :-(

Annalina's and A's felt bracelets they made!

Annalina with her missing front tooth at one of our Starbucks breakfasts!

What a fun trip!

Well, Thursday Annalina and I took off from San Francisco to fly to Colorado to do the househunting! We were both so excited we were just about giddy the day before and on Thursday Annalina kept giving me high fives. Tooo cute! Carson was not a happy camper watching us leave. Almost the whole flight Annalina and I played either hang man or a word search. When we got to Colorado and picked out our bright YELLOW little car that was a riot. I told Annalina we were like a bumble bee! We stopped for a really nice dinner and Annalina got steak and a sweet potato! On our trip to Colorado Springs we sang hymns and chorus' and had fun doing that. We finally made it to our room late that night. We had a great day together.

Friday, we were able to get up at our leisure and have devotions reading in Proverbs on wisdom and seeking early for it. Prayed for our day. We were to meet the realtor at a Starbucks so we went early to get breakfast. Wow, we are living high on the hog a Starbucks breakfast! Anyway, it ended up being providential there was a sharp older man sitting very near us since Starbucks was crammed with people and he struck it up with us. He liked Annalina. I found out he was an investor and his business was taking peoples business' and turning them into franchises. I decided to ask him what he thought about the house we really wanted and he gave me a great response and advise. It was like talking to a wise older grandpa!! Very, Very long story short it was a long day seeing 6 very spread out houses. But we have narrowed it down to 3 really probably 2.

Now time for bragging. The realtor had one child that was grown and was in college and very soon after we met her she was telling me what she did with her son and how she thought it was important for kids to be able to talk well to adults, etc. Well, by the end of the day she was so impressed by Annalina she thought she quite something. I do too! She was impressed with her reading she was impressed with her intelligence and I think, above all, her actions. I already knew Annalina has insight beyond her years and would be great to bring on this trip. We had a blast!

I told Annalina as we were ending the trip I was going to take her to Claire's and I would treat her. Claire's is her all time FAVORITE store. She was so excited. She picked out 2 rubbery frogs that stretch and was talking and talking to them before bed.

For dinner tonight we went to a fancy and very busy Italian restaurant and again their was a very sharp older couple next to us that had to talk to Annalina! We had such a nice time with them. The people here are so friendly! We had great meals again tonight with strawberry lemonade with Real strawberries in it! We also had warm chocolate cake and ice cream! After dinner we had to take Annalina's picture outside with a car dressed up like a bunny!

Saturday was exciting because we got to see Quentin, Theo, and A (their foster daughter). Annalina and A really hit it off and we found them to be quite similar! Annalina LOVED her time with A and can't wait to go back to Colorado and be nearer to her. After looking at the last 3 houses again. Theo, A, Annalina, and I went to California Pizza Kitchen and then we went to a Marble Slab type ice cream place at A's request! Great idea! We also got in the making of a craft, playground fun, seeing their new baby chicks, toe painting, and popcorn and a DVD! A lot to cram into what was left of the afternoon and evening! We had a great time despite the fact that my mind was in a fog from 2 days of house hunting! :-)

Sunday we were able to make it to my brother's church in the morning. It is always a treat listening to him teach and preach. I wish I could listen to him preach every week. After church we had a super great Mexican lunch and Annalina and I were off to the airport.

The boys had a great time at home wrestling (Brian said the boys made up their own wrestling move called "the roly poly") and Gabriel and Ross got to stay up late at night 12:30 and 1:00 am to play the board game Axis and Allies. Gabriel and Babe play while Ross sits near and plays his own war with the pieces their not using then falls asleep when he can't make it any more! They also worked on a wood 3D puzzle of an air craft carrier which ended up being very difficult but it looks like an air craft carrier!

We'll see what God has for us for houses. Just don't know!

Sign of the Academic Times!

Babe is in the depths of writing his thesis and that is how his time is spent cloistered away in the only available room that one can work at a table and shut a door which is Carson's room. Gabriel made a sign for the door for us to be aware that Daddy is working for 6 weeks and Carson may be sleeping! My Mom made it through my Dad's 3 master degrees and 2 doctorates. She's a SAINT! I don't deal with it as well as my mom! I'm ready to be done already! :-)