MckLinky

There’s a great new “linky” service available and I wanted to let you know about it. It’s called MckLinky – www.mcklinky.com. After realizing the need for a new, reliable linky capability, Brent Riggs and MckMama got together to create a free, easy to use linky service for all their blog friends.

MckLinky is a free link list feature that allows you to do include lists of other blog links like MckMama does on Not Me! Monday. You can use MckLinky any time you want your blog readers to leave a list of links on your blog. It’s simple, reliable, free...and loads of MckFun!

Rainforest Directions

Gabe on the way home from Dad's work ( we went because his friend brought his Chocolate lab to work with him. The boss told him to. Way cool) :" Mom, I miss my friend Lion and Dragon.

Me: ok

Gabe: Well, I want to go see them. First we have to go by the blue park, then past Veterans Park, then by the McDonald's that we live by, then by dad's work, and then shooting stars and that's how you get to the rainforest.

Me: oh wow.

Gabe: So can we go?

Me: I don't know honey.

Gabe: But I knew the directions!!


I think we've seen Narnia a few too many times!!!!

Lord please give us a back yard to play in!! hehe

Mom's survey

I just got done filling out a mom's survey! I'm not sure when it will make it to the blog, but when it does, I'll link back there again. For now, just click here to go to the blog that it will be featured on. Hopefully, I have learned how to work the links! Another post coming soon.

Busy Weekend

Dad is home from work, and showing Gabe and Gini the finer points of eating Pop Rocks (compliments of the Clark Family ).



Elyana thinks that climbing to the top bunk is great! Even though she KNOWS she is not allowed to!


Thursday, I took all the children for a treat (McDonald's) and then to the park to eat it. We found a great park that has a little clubhouse.



Michael chewed on his toy for a little while during play time.




They love to climb on the jungle gym and slide down the slide. If it has to do with climbing, they love it.

As for the girls, along with their love of climbing all things huge


they love to swing! Elyana was having a day with a little attitude.

Of course, who doesnt' like to dig in the sand!

Elyana has also discovered she can slide all on her own!



Upon throwing away our garbage, we also found this nasty looking Spider. Black, with white spots, and very fuzzy.

Then we got the grill going fo dinner before dad got home. He's not a big fan of roast, so I took the roast that we got on sale at Sam's club ($1.98 lb chuck roast) and cut it to grill as steaks. Pork and Beans, with added spices and bbq sauce, and baked potatoes.

Daddy arrived home and Elyana woke up, and ran right to him. Daddy's girl.

She wasn't in a great mood, and wanted me. She had come out of the bedrooms with one of my tank tops around her neck walking around. hehe
As you can see she is thrilled with the fact that I wanted to take a

picture of her with her little brother.

Then dinner was finally done! It turned out so good!
Leftovers were refridgerated for Steak, Eggs and Potatoes in the morning.

After dinner the next night, clean up time, while baking cookies!

Gabe is such a big boy, and is starting to wear underwear to bed now! :)
Finishing up undloading the dishwasher, and as you can see, the children
and I are very neat cooks.


As you can tell, I keep a very clean house. *Ahem*
I have been told be many, that the mess will be there later, but the children grow up quickly. Most of the time I choose to make sure that the children are having fun, and getting my attention as I can clean later. This also means that I don't always get a lot of sleep. I am, however, blessed with a husband who helps me around the house even after a long day of work. I thank the Lord for giving me an awesome husband in Steve. He is Mr. Command, and is a very good provider. The Lord is teaching us to trust Him more and more.

Tortillas

Today I made tortillas again. Man, did these turn out better than the last ones! Soft, and everything. I cut some up and put a little salt on, then baked them into tortilla chips to go with the salsa I made the other day. Very yummy. I tried to make the others too big, and they weren't cooking right at the edges, I burnt alot of them. Gabe was upset that the tortillas that Hannah and Ruth made when they were here were gone. They were smaller. When we ran out I tried to make his wrap on the big ones, and he said " I want it on a kid tortilla" hehe It was so cute, so I made smaller ones today, and he said "are those kids tortillas?" hehe I love my little Gabe.


He took quite a spill on his bike today. Of course what child doesn't? I can remember some nasty spills of mine. Now of course I know why mom was always freaking out. :) All he did was scrape up his elbow though. Thank you Jesus it wasn't worse on that blacktop.

Gabe and Gini have been fighting like crazy! They are bored. They want to go outside to play. They can't by themselves because of our location. I still have not figured out how to keep up with the house and errands (I have a hard enough time keeping up when we're home all the time then add trips to town, etc) and make sure I get them outside to play as well. An hour or two a day is just not enough in my opinion. When I was little, we were outside all.the.time.. So, we're praying for the Lord to open something up so we can rent/buy something with a backyard, and other children around. We'd also like to get a dog again. We really miss our animals. I would LOVE to have an English Mastiff or St Bernard.. Steve says no. He really wants to get another Chocolate Lab. We just LOVED Gunnar, and he was so good with the children. If I couldn't find them, all I had to do was call him, and that was where the children were. They were always together. If they were in trouble, he was watching over them, and most likely in trouble with them. So, I suppose if we find another one like him, I'll be happy with that. The other two breeds are just my absolute dream dogs. "sigh"

Elyana fell off our bed early this morning. She was not badly hurt though. For some reason she was on the outside instead of in the middle. My fault. She pretty much sleeps with us every night right now. She is teething, and just needing time with usin general. It doesn't last long, so we don't mind. She's a big cuddle bug just like Gabe was. Just awesome. Michael is a cuddler too, but he is very good at juts being content. He is the best baby ever. He sleeps through the night, which I realize will come and go depending on knew things learned and teething, but it is a very big help for me.

When I found out I was pregnant I cried, and was depressed for a while trying to come to terms with it. We felt like the Lord was asking us to put our fertility in HIS hands. I know a lot of people don't agree with it, you know, the whole "God gave us brains we need to use them" . However, He asks us each to trust Him with different things, and this was one area, where we knew without a doubt that's what He wanted. So I just prayed and we did try to naturally keep from getting pregnant, and I prayed some more that we wouldn't have another child for another 2 yrs. and here Elyana was only 2 months when I found out! Well, just a tad bit over 2 months. I cried and was mad, and asked God why me? I prayed. God knows what He's doing! He sees the whole picture. I am so happy to have Michael in our lives. He is a joy. Yes, I am busier, but he is cute, funny, good natured, and most importantly a gift from the LORD! Thank you Jesus for each and every gift that You have bestowed upon us. Give us wisdom, and help us to remember that the children, the "things we own" , the money we have is not ours but Yours to do with what YOU would have us do, not what WE want to do. We are to learn to "manage" YOUR money that you have leant to us.

Steve is picking up quite a few over time hours this month, which is really a blessing. It means we won't see him as much, but the hours work really well for us right now. We are hoping to take this weekend and enjoy a trip to Benson to visit some very dear friends there. Please pray for wisdom and safety with Steve's job, and for peace.

Sibling Love

The children also love to play "Peek-a-Boo" while Elyana is in the highchair.

We frequently see this around our house. Our little bucket head. She has an orange bucket that she puts on her head, and wears around the house doing everything! She's our little Gini Bear. :)

Elyana loves her little Mymy (Michael )
Elyana loves her little Mymy (Michael )

Watching Little Einsteins Baby Noah. They love it! We also have First Signs, and Shapes

We also made bread today

And they all got to help just a little bit!

I had a piece warm, with butter. It was very good! I have found that if you don't put too much flour in, then it will stay moist and not be as crumbly.

Watching a movie

Steve's License

Congratulations Steve!!

all about our week

Last Friday night we decided to go have a family dinner at a place called the "OK Corral". I don't think we'll be eating there again. The deco is phenomenal, all the things I would LOVE to decorate my house with! I should go back just to get pictures. Anyway, I decided on the prime rib, Steve got a steak, Gabe and Gini got the chicken tenders. Elyana was eating my salad with Bleu Cheese dressing! I thought that was pretty good for a 15 mo old. Most children don't even want salad, and hate bleu cheese! hehe Gabe at half of Steve's Cesar salad. We ended up paying $50. for 4 meals. The prime rib was cold, and had to be sent back to warm up, the steak that was supposed to be med well, was well done and had no flavor. Steve doesn't use A-1, and he was globing it on. On the upside, the chicken was good, the steak fries were good and we had a great time out.

Last Saturday was considerably better than the last few weeks at the ball games! And....Virginia was actually smiling!YAY!! She still didn't run around the field, but smiling and kicking the ball on her own, and buddying up with the coaches daughter are things that say we are moving in the right directions! Gabe is doing awesome in T-ball, and he loves it. Next year he wants to do soccer though.

We are checking out preschools. Most are very expensive, and we won't consider something we have to pay for. So, I may be getting Information from my mom about the books she used for all the children. They worked very well, and most of the other homeschoolers have used the same ones. Fun fact, Gabe and Gini will be one year apart in school, but if we homeschool, may end up in the same grade! Gabe can write his name, so now he gets to sign all the cards that we send out. We sent Mom (my mom) a bithday card, and we did all the hand prints in a row. I painted their hand, and we stuck it on the card. Each had their own page, and Gabe got to sign his name on his. Everyone got to color a bit, as well.

Soo, I thought Elyana has been calling me all the time. Yeah.Right. She only calls me when she wants something. Everytime she hears Michael or sees him, she says "MiMi" (Mymy). She just LOVES him! She is always kissing on him and hugging him. They are our irish twins.

We received a wonderful surprise care package from a great family. A big thank you to the Clark family!! :) It literally brought tears to my eyes. In it was something from everyone. A dish set for Michael, a spatula and bags for me, doll and candy for Elyana, candy and basket ball hoop for Gabe he shares that, as everyone enjoys it! I'll have to post photos. Candy and coloring book complete with scented markers, for Gini! What fun! Last but not least, a family movie night package. Davy 1&2, complete with boxes of candy! :) I'll take photos when we use that as well. It was better than Christmas! You can view her blog at www.14gems.blogspot.com

I am working on some information for a post around Halloween. Most people do not know what they are really doing and what all of the activities signify when they celebrate, and so I thought I'd do the research, and put it in here, so that people could be a little more informed in their decision making. If you have any information to share, feel free, just send it to tazness03@yahoo.com.
(I still am not sure how to get the links to work, so work with me here. )

Who are we rooting for??

RED WINGS!!

I started giving Michael some cereal and sweet potatoes, he loves it! I don't want to give him a lot of food, as I want him to take as many calories from me as possible, so I'm not really in a hurry for him to have a lot of food. He does seem to be asking for it lately though. He gets very excited when I am eating, and if he sees his spoon and bowl.

Gini's soccer game, and Daddy got to play with her! She was excited.


We have been staying pretty busy this week, trying to keep up with housework, and trying to make sure the children get a chance to play outside as well.
I have been very blessed to be a part of the worship team at church. www.meadowspringwired.com We have been going through some teaching series that are pretty heavy, but very freeing. You can also hear them on the website. Our last series was Life.Money.Hope by Dave Ramsey, and currently we are going through Girls With Grit. Getting past your past Today was awesome!

Steve passed his Chief A test, so that is the highest possible license to hold here in Minnesota! Yay! No more testing, only renewing. I'll post those pictures as well. He was very happy, and I am very proud of him. He is very good at what he does, and I love his heart for the Lord and that he wants to lead our family in the ways of the Lord.
We are so blessed with our family and friends.