I overheard this conversation (It’s our tradition that on their 5th birthday, our kids can start having gum on Saturdays and a can of pop on Sundays):
Sydney (in an increasingly higher voice): I can’t wait until Mommy’s belly gets big ‘cause then it’ll be my birthday and then I’ll be allowed to eat gum! I’m so excited!
Kelsey: Sydney, we don’t eat gum, we chew gum.  If we ate it, that would be really bad for our bellies.  The gum is very hard for our stomachs to digest.
Jackson: Yeah, the gum would stick to your bones.
Sydney:  Eewwww, yuck!  Okay, I can’t wait until I can CHEW gum.

As Sydney was reading her collection of Beatrix Potter books, she asked Kelsey what one of them was called and Kelsey told her “Benjamin Bunny”.  Sydney said, “Oh, it’s just like my cousin Benjamin, ‘cept, he’s a human.”

After Jackson, Kelsey, Jeremy and I played a new game called “Stock Ticker”, Jackson said, “I can’t believe they call that a bored game, because that was really fun!”

Sydney: “Mom, my pants are dirty, you need to stain them.”

As we were walking through a store with a lot of fragile items, I told the kids to put their hands behind their backs to help them remember not to touch anything.  We approached some very cute little girl umbrellas and Elisa looked up at me and said, “Mommy, please go over there and don’t look.  I want to touch something.”

Sydney: Jackson, what is God doing when it rains?
Jackson: He’s taking a shower.
Sydney: Oh. What’s He doing when it snows?
Jackson: Him and his disciples are putting salt on their chips.
Sydney: Oh. How ‘bout when it’s sunshiny?
Jackson: In the spring, it means He turned on a light, in the summer, it means He turned on a whole bunch of lights.  And when He thunders, that means He’s really angry that people aren’t becoming Christians.
At first, I thought this conversation was just cutesie kid-stuff, then this morning I read in Job 40:9: “Can you shout in thunder the way I can?”

In case you can’t read it, it says:

Be nice to mom and dad on moms 35th bd

1. don’t yell unless your hurt

2. dont pinch

3. don’t bite

4. don’t upset uther people

5. do everything for mom

6. don’t be enoying

7. obay right away

8. when mom wants to be alon let her be alone

9. don’t ask anoying quesyons

10. LOVE HER (her means mom)

11. nomber 10 is the most inportant

Skagit Valley has an annual Tulip Festival (about an hour north) and the kids and I went there on a field trip on Friday and it was amazing!  It is separate fields within the town of Monroe totaling about 300 acres. You drive to the different fields and get out of your car and walk around.  One of the fields we past was solid one color at a time, just breath-taking.  Another field we visited had several rows of one color at a time, so when you looked at it from a distance, it was more like a rainbow effect. The pictures below show how much fun we had.

On Saturday, the 19th, our friends Luke and Terri and their girls Greta and Sophia came over to the Duck House for a visit.  It was raining/snowing out all day that day, so the kids didn’t get to play outside like we had hoped. Have no fear, Kelsey created a tea party to make up for it.  The day was saved!  Jeremy and I had a great visit with Luke and Terri of course.

Jerry and Janet have come and gone.  We had some nice meals and visiting time with them and they were able to dote on the Crawford kids since they don’t get to see him very much.  Sydney, Kelsey and I had the opportunity to join Janet, her sister and neice and Kami and her two oldest girls for a real live tea party at a tea house and it was really fun!  Before we left for the event I heard Jackson (who was very excited the girls had this opportunity to go to a REAL tea party) say to Sydney, “Now, I don’t want to hear about you wiping your mouth on your sleeve.  They’re going to have really nice napkins for you to use.  Remember to use your etiquette.”

I went and saw the midwife again and the baby sounds good and is growing.  We heard the heart rate loud and clear. I’ve been feeling the baby move, too.

About a week ago, Elisa slipped on some water on the bathroom floor and whammed the under part of her chin on the bathtub and split it right open.  She cried and it bled and we all loved on her and put a bandaid the owie and kissed her lots. Then, the next night at the gathering, she fell off the couch and whammed the same spot on the coffee table and somehow did a double-hit whacking her forehead.  As the days progressed, the wound on her chin didn’t seem to be closing, so we ended up taking her into the ER at Children’s Hospital to get stitches.  But, since the wound had been open for a week, they didn’t want to stitch her up, they didn’t even want a bandaid on it!  So, I learned for future reference that if a wound is gaping (ie – the edges aren’t touching each other) then it needs stitches.  She’s our 4th child and we haven’t yet dealt with stitches, so we’re both pretty clueless.

This weekend, Saturday was actually a little warm, so we went into the city with the kids and took them to Seattle Center.  There is a huge fountain there and the kids ventured down to touch it.  Of course Jackson got soaked.  Then Sunday, we went to the Botanical Gardens and had a great walk around outside.  Our walk got cut short by the rain, but hey at least we got a little bit in.

We leave 2 weeks from today, so that’s a little surreal! Not sure what we’ll be doing when we get back, but once the plan is formulated, we’ll be sure to pass it on.

Enjoy the pics!

This week, Kelsey led the Children’s Discipleship time on the Spirit, the Fruit of the Spirit in particular. As she was reflecting on it yesterday and today, she thinks the kids didn’t really get it. So, she got the idea to cut pieces of fruit out of construction paper and put one of the “fruits” on each cut-out fruit. She was hoping this would help the kids be able to remember better. So, she did that and then wrote the following cheat sheet to help her if she couldn’t remember what one of the fruits meant when she was teaching the kids. It’s too priceless to not get recorded. I haven’t changed her spelling so you can get the full effect.

PS – Dove is one of her cousins.

“Fruit of the Spirit

The Fruit of the Spirit is (put out the fruit cards) thes are what the Holy Spirit help us do. Ask what everything. Love is when you care for someone. Joy is when, when you are realy happy and nice. Peac is when everyone is calm. Pashents is when for instans your in a line for food and your realy hungry you have to have pashents. Kindnes is kind of like nicenes, its when your nice and kind. Goodnes is when you are good. Fathfulnes is when you are a man or lady of your word and people can have fath in you. Gentelnes is when the holy spirit helps you be genel. Celf control Dove is when you rely want to do something and you can’t do it in stead of crying you control your self.”

We’ve moved back into the Duck House until we leave, so we’re very excited to stay put in the same place for a few weeks straight. The kids seem to be emotionally attached to this place.

Jeremy and I had a wonderful get away in Leavenworth to celebrate my birthday. I’m officially old enough for it to be impolite to ask me how old I am. ☺ Leavenworth is a little Bavarian town nestled in the mountains. We stayed at a really cute Bavarian hotel that was small enough it was almost like a bed and breakfast. It was decorated European style. We had our first and only nice day of weather while we were there (in the 70’s!!) so it added to the magicalness of the day, so did the huge waffle cone I had that I didn’t have to share with anyone. Ford and Erin watched the kids and they all had a great time. They ventured out to the zoo and had a very successful time.

I’ve been feeling a lot better and since I’m at 15 weeks now, hope I’m over the worst of it. Now, I’m just tired all the time. ☺ Somewhere around child number 3, I stopped getting that 2nd trimester burst of energy.

We’ve done Sonship and The Holy Spirit week since I last wrote. This is the first time we’ve included the Sonship talk and it was such a perfect fit. It came on the heels of the Lordship week and being able to dive into our identity as sons and daughters after we’ve confessed Lordship has a profound impact. The Holy Spirit talk went really well and our training group was super excited to realize that we don’t have to do this life on our own. We don’t have to control our anger, be patient with our kids, make ethical decisions all on our own strength. It’s not just daunting, it’s impossible. Calling on the Holy Spirit, the helper that Jesus said we would be better off with than Him, is the only way to conquer our flesh. He is made perfect in our weakness.

School with the kids has been going really well. They’re keeping positive attitudes and are making great headway in Latin. Sydney is the farthest in that. ☺

Janet, Jeremy’s mom, arrived on Monday for a 2 week visit. Jerry should be arriving as we speak. I wonder if his flight is delayed b/c the snow is really coming down. I can hardly see across the lake!

Enjoy the pictures below!

This week finds us back at David and Chung Hee Crawford’s house, Ben’s parents. They’ve been very generous to host us again…this is the last time we have to be out of the Duck House until we leave, so it’ll be great to get back there and set up shop for like 4 whole weeks.

Last Wednesday, we had the “Lordship” night at the Story-Formed-Life which is always pretty intense. Challenging people to the call of a true disciple as one where we “drop our nets” so to speak, not just say a prayer for fire insurance. It’s usually a tough time of true introspection.

On Friday, I took the kids to Greenlake which is a huge lake in Seattle that has a trail around the perimeter. It was in the 40′s and drizzly, so it was fun to try to keep everyone’s spirit’s up by comparing pink hands. The views around us were breathtaking with huge daffodil flower beds and blooming trees at every turn. We lasted about 40 minutes, and that included the bathroom stop that all 5 of us were in need of, but it was good to get out in the fresh air which seems to help my all-day morning sickness.

Saturday, Jeremy and I took the kids to the Seattle Aquarium downtown. That was really, really fun. There’s something magical about going to an Aquarium that’s actually on the water…seems more realistic. When I asked the kids what they had learned when we were leaving, Kelsey talked about the whale’s “teeth” that aren’t really teeth and how the fish go through them, the the kelp gets caught, etc. Jackson loved getting his face painted (a shark) and seeing that one big humungo fat fish. Sydney said she couldn’t really think of anything she learned, that she pretty much had known all that already. Oh, and that it was pretty cool to see Nemo and Dory. Elisa said she saw a star fish, a jelly fish, a shark, oh wait, not a shark, just fishes, a sea horse, a Dory, a Nemo, a nemnemenemanee (a sea anemone), and a birdy with a long mouth (beak).

Sickness hit me pretty bad on Friday and Saturday evenings, so we were unable to attend the gathering on Saturday. Erin and Ford went to Hood Canal for the weekend to celebrate their 6-month anniversary, so it was just the Crawfords and Joneses. Colin’s family could use your prayer, it looks like his dad is running into some pretty significant health issues. We’ll know more after the tests they have scheduled this week, so we’ll let you know when we have an update.

Sunday was a really fun day. We drove the kids down to Federal Way, the town Jeremy grew up in and where we lived when we were first married. After getting a smoothie at the new favorite, Jamba Juice, we drove around to our first apartment where we got out and walked around. Kinda fun way to celebrate 10 years! Then we drove to 2 of the 3 houses Jeremy grew up in. One of them, we actually got to get out and walk around in the woods where Jeremy played as a kid. I think we all had a great time seeing these blasts from the past. I loved walking around in the woods where Jer had played as a kid…something we never did when we lived there.

Then we drove down a little further south to Tacoma and spent the afternoon with our friends Luke and Terri in their new adorable house. We had planned on going to Point Defiance together, but it rained surprise, surprise, so we stayed at their place which worked out great. It’s decorated so cool, like Pottery Barn. The kids had a blast playing with their kids Sophie, who just turned 7, and Gretta 4 1/2 and of course, Jeremy and I had such a wonderful time catching up with Luke and Terri. (Luke and Jeremy were childhood friends, was our best man, and they’ve been great friends during our marriage.)

We got back to Brier just in time for a delicious meal that Chung Hee and David had made and Ben, Kami and family came over to enjoy. Luckily, I wasn’t too sick that night to enjoy it.

Here are some pics of the last few days.

Okay, so I’ve been doing a horrible job of keeping you all updated on our blog and it’s because I’ve been so incredibly morning sick….except with me, it’s more like “all day sick.” So I apologize to you all, but I’ve been in major survival mode for the last few weeks…if they kids are alive and fed and we have a roof over our heads by the end of the day, I call it a successful day. ☺ I’m starting to feel better and now am overwhelmed by the 500+ e-mails in my inbox, the business things I’m behind on, etc. So, here’s to catching up.

Since I’ve last written, we’ve moved twice. We stayed at Ben and Kami’s for 4 or 5 nights and had fun days filled with lots of cousin time. We just got back to the Duck House from spending a week at Ben’s parents’ house. They are empty nesters in a 5 bedroom house, so they offered for us to come use up their rooms if we ever needed to. David, Ben’s dad, travels for work and is out of town 4 nights a week and Chung Hee, his mom, is a nurse and is gone most of the day, so we had the house to ourselves a lot. They have a little white lap dog, Petris, and the kids just went nuts over him. Everything was “Petris, come here boy, Petris, no! Petris, come! Petris, Petris!” Sydney sampled his dog food and Elisa licked his face. She said he was licking it, so she thought it must taste good. Our poor pet-deprived children.

Now we’re settled back into the Duck House and it feels great. It definitely feels like coming home. We only have one more interruption, so it’ll be great to get that over with and then be staying her for 4 weeks straight after that. Our kids are attached to this place. One night when Elie was saying her prayers at dinner time, it went something like this, “Dear God, fjidlsn fiefiljsdijf sdiflji Duck House fdsoif ducks fdoij Duck House dfildfj thanks for Duck House sdjifjids and the ducks. Amen!” and Sydney kept begging to go home to the Duck House. I guess it’s nice for them to have a place to call home since we don’t really have a home right now.

Jeremy and I picked up the game of Poker. It’s pretty fun and a great way to get to know people. Don’t worry ma, no money exchanged hands! ☺ We’ve had some really fun date nights on Tuesday nights. We hire a sitter and all 4 couples go out. Two weeks ago, we had Outback and then went back to Ben and Kami’s, put the kids down, played poker and ate dessert. Last week, we ate at this place called Claimjumpers known for their huge portions where it took us 25 minutes to decide if we were going to get a dessert, what it would be. ☺

As far as discipleship goes, things have been going really well. The Tuesday Koine training with the core team is productive. We’ve been studying passages about discipleship and why we should do it and we’ve also shared a lot about how Koine came about.

The Story-formed Life course has been doing it’s thing. The content is all Scripture, so to watch it come alive and transform people or at least cause them to question some deep-rooted lies, has been phenomenal. Next week is the big week…Lordship! So, pray for soft hearts. Jeremy and I have been trying to do one-on-ones with the Crawfords and the Joneses and we’ve also been helping a couple we met out here with some marriage counseling. I have been a little less consistent with my commitments than Jeremy has.

Erin has been doing Creative Writing with Kelsey and Jackson on Mondays and it has been really cool. They’ve been learning about metaphors, similes, parts of speech and using those to write non-fictional stories about their time here. It’s been fun to watch. We’ve been keeping up with Latin, spelling and reading, so all that combined with the Creative Writing, I figure it’s a pretty good “summer” as far as school goes.

Friday was pretty exciting for me. We got to go to our old midwife for a pre-natal appointment to check on this baby! I’m 12 weeks a long and we got to hear the heartbeat! We took Kelsey and Elisa with us (Jackson and Syd stayed with Chung Hee) and it was extra exciting b/c that’s the same midwife that tried to bring Kelsey into the world almost 9 years ago at the same birth center where mommy spent too many hours trying to get stubborn Kels to come out! That was pretty exciting for me and Kelsey…real bonding.

We actually had snow out here last week and it was gorgeous to see all the pine trees covered in a layer of huge white fluffy snowflakes. The last few days have been nice and sunny which is such a wonderful change from the overcast, dreary, rainy it has been since we’ve been here.

I’m attaching a lot of pictures to show you a few of the adventures we’ve been on in the last few weeks.

Uncle Ben had the great idea of taking us to the Reptile museum. Lucky for us, we arrived just in time for them to bring out the dead rats and baby rats to feed the reptiles. Here’s a picture of me trying not to loose it.

Here’s my crazy oldest child daring to allow a snake crawl around her neck!

The girls gather around Jack. The kids taking turns on the computer at Ben and Kami’s house.

Hanging at the Crawford’s with the Knowltons.

Yummmm! We had “Camper’s Roast” or something like that where you put steak, potatoes and all kinds of other delicious things in foil, add some seasoning and butter and put it on the fire and voila! A delicious meal!

We all got ready for bed and the watched the “Frozen Tundra” episode of Planet Earth. Very educational! How many thumb suckers do you count?

On Saturday, 3/22, we went on a hike. Uncle Ben talked us into it by saying it was a 1.5 mile hike. Well, 5 hours later when we arrived back at our vehicles….we were pretty tuckered out.

Elias got worn out with all the exertion. Colin and Jeremy had a nice visit on the trail.

Elisa had a little too much and just had to take a break. The trail got very snowy about 1/3 of the way up and it ended up being really difficult for the kids to walk on, not to mention, all their shoes were completely soaked and frozen. We were surrounded by so much beauty though, it made it worth it.

Here’s a nice group shot of everyone on the trail. This is the core team folks! Front Row: Jackson, Sydney, Dove, Kelsey, Back Row: Erin, Seven, April, Ford, Ben and Memory, Kami, Grace and Eden, Colin and Elias, Jeremy and Elisa.

Jackson and Kelsey got to keep going on the trail w/ Uncle Ben, Erin and Ford when the rest of us tuckered out.  They were rewarded by the amazing view of the waterfall!

We persevered that night even though we were all exhausted and had the gathering. Grace is an amazing hostess and whipped up enough enchiladas for the whole crew. If you’ll notice at the end of the table, there’s Andy and we had two visitors, Nate and Margot.

Jackson and his buddy Elias.

The Pryor kids on Easter morning. Grace made us all an amazing breakfast and then did an easter egg hunt for the kids in their basement. So thoughtful! It was absolutely pouring outside.

Jackson and Kelsey playing a game as Petris, the beloved dog, looks on. This is at David and Chung Hee’s house.

Kelsey in the same room where mommy tried to get her to come into the world 8 1/2 years ago! These are amazing rooms in the Newlife Birth Center with a wonderful Christian midwife.

Sydney in a brief moment where Petris actually sat on her lap. Very exciting!

Kelsey earned a tea set with her marbles and very generously put on a tea party with her sisters and mother. She made a whole meeting complete with chocolate pies, cinammon rolls, and icing covered marshmallows.

The four kids with the Seattle skyline complete with the Space Needle in the background. This is taken from Gasworks Park. Notice the beautiful expression on Sydney’s face. She was being photographed against her will.

“Hello, this is news reporter Jackson.  Turboman strikes again in his actions and destroying his worst enemy ever. He keeps coming back alive in his new energy.  His enemy’s name is Thunderboy. As he strikes again, actually kills Thunderboy. As Thunderboy continues to live his life in jail on the third day he’s going to be thrown into the bottom of the river. In case he comes back alive Turboman did not only have star powers, but he also had sensing powers.  As he senses into the woods, he finds Thunderboy’s cave.  As he freezes all his computers with a freezer pipe and then thank you for listening.  One more thing, keep your eyes out for Turboman in his disguise and his star powers. He may be anywhere.  Thank you for listening to the news. Goodbye, that’s the end.”

TurboMan

Well, there hasn’t been much to write about since Jeremy has had a fever for 4 days. I’ve also had 3 days of non-stop morning sickness, so that’s been fun. We finally took Jeremy to the Urgent care on Wednesday and he was diagnosed with Type A flu which the doctor said will soon turn from the fever to a really deep cough which could turn into pneumonia, so we got a prescription that should help avoid that.

The kids and I have been laying very low. A consistent part of our routine continues to be quiet time/stay-on-the-blanket time and imagination time. We all enjoy both very much. It’s been raining a lot, not just misting, so it’s hard to get outside.

Jeremy drugged himself up so we could go to Week 1 on Wednesday night.  It was an amazing discussion.  Ben did most of the leading and Jeremy backed him up.  There were 6 or 7 people there who hadn’t been at the dinner and about 4 or 5 people missing Week 1 who will be back next week.  That’s a bummer because Week 1, Creation, is so foundational.  Great questions were asked and many thoughts were provoked.  The training groups were very authentic.  I think the only thing we’re trying to figure out how to do differently is to end the midrash earlier so the training groups can start earlier.  We have several people who have to get up very early and therefore left before the training groups started. Bummer.

Well, since I haven’t been snapping many pictures lately, I’ll attach a few I took last week at the playground and then on the Mulkilteo ferry just for the fun of it.

Walking to the playground.

Sydney and Elisa “Hi Ho-ing” like the Seven Dwarfs.

Uh, Kels, I don’t think you fit anymore.

Daddy and his brown-eyed girl (well, one of them) on the ferry.

Mommy and Elisa on the ferry. What a smiley girl!