The Poor Family

Day 6- St. Nicholas Day

2011-12-06T20:23:00.001-08:00

I told the story of St. Nicholas the night before so the kids would leave out their shoes. If you don't know about St. Nicholas and the traditions surrounding him here is a brief synopsis.

The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
NIcholas Day
One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.

In several countries around the world children leave their shoes out and their shoes are filled with treats in the morning so we filled the kids shoes with a little toy, an orange, and chocolate coins. Autry received a little flashlight, Claire a little unicorn, and Addie a little bunny.

Around 10 we headed over to a new friend from Southwest's house and we made Christmas cookies. Since we first came to Southwest Bible Church Autry has become friends with a boy named Micah. Their friendship has been such a blessing to me. Leaving our last church was so difficult for us , leaving our friends and community has been the hardest of all, but from the beginning seeing Autry form this friendship with this little boy made me feel hopeful. I do feel hopeful now of starting over in a new community and thankful for the new friendships we have and the new friendships that will continue to form.

Advent day 4

2011-12-05T16:20:00.001-08:00

I realize this is out of order but we just hung up the star ornaments and I didn't want to post until we had a picture of them. Sunday we read verses that refer to Jesus as the Morning star and then we made star ornaments to remind us of Jesus. One of the ornaments even comes complete with a Jedi, I wonder who made that one :).

Advent day 5- plum pudding

2011-12-05T15:39:00.001-08:00

Today was Randy's first day of postman class. After a month of having him home I was a little nervous that I wouldn't get anything done today but it was actually a super productive day. We even were able to have a little fun.
I forgot about doing the verse today put the activity was make plum pudding and that's what we did. We listened to Christmas music, learns about Christmas in England, and Plum pudding. I even put a coin in it wrapped in foil for someone to find and receive something special. Claire's piece had it in it and she was thrilled. The pictures arn't in order but you can still see the fun we were having. Mixing, stirring, and a cute little Gibson yammering away. We had a lot of fun and the plum pudding was good too.

Pallets pallets and more pallets

2011-12-05T11:31:00.001-08:00

I have an obsession with Pinterest. Everything I cook, bake, and create is from Pinterest. Recently Randy has caught the fever and has been creating things and getting ideas from Pinterst. He is super creative so he doesn't need much help but he has made some super cool things as of late. I love things made from reclaimed wood (pallets) and since Randy found 6 pallets recently he has been making things from these pallets. Here is a picture of a bar he made in our garage and a shelf he made for the inside.

Advent Day 3

2011-12-03T14:21:00.001-08:00

John 3:19

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

It is so humbling to realize that Jesus coming to earth is a blessing for some and a curse for others. If we know Jesus we have been called to recognize His light but those who have not known Jesus have chosen darkness instead.

During the Christmas season we see our neighborhood come alive with lights and decorations. As we look around and enjoy the lights I want to take time to thank " THE light of the world" for choosing me so that I do not have to live in darkness.

We colored candles today to signify light, and are making them into Christmas ornaments. Autry has been busy masking new ornaments all day we now have a ty fighter, Yoda, General Grievous, and Mace Windu.

On a completely different note, other fun activities included killing our chicken who wasn't producing eggs. Fortunately I was at work when this all happened. I had already told Randy that I wanted no part of the butchering, not that I have a problem with it I just can't handle those kind of things. I love the idea of living off the land but when it comes down to it I am kind of a wuss. I always tell Randy that there is a reason that I was not born in a previous century, I just couldn't handle it. I can barely get myself to eat our chicken's eggs. The first time I collected the egg and it was warm I wanted to throw up. I Sound like such a sissy admitting all of this but I guess it's good to be honest :). Anyways, the chicken was killed tonight and here is a video. You can't really see anything in the video, I pit it on here because hearing the kid's reaction is the funny part.

I will download the video tomorrow because my blogger phone app isn't letting me put on a video.

Advent Day 2

2011-12-02T20:04:00.001-08:00

24 days until Christmas! Claire and Addie ask constantly if it's still going to be Christmas tomorrow? We are all loving this Christmas season.
Today was super busy with errands, and on top of that Randy and I have been having boughts with the stomach flu so needless to say we didn't get to our advent calendar but the activity was decorate the tree and we got that done. It may have happened right before bed buy we fit it in and that's the important part.
When you are looking through the pictures you will have notice our new collection of Star Wars ornaments made by Autry. They come complete with Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han Solo, and the Millennium Falcon.

Advent Day 1

2011-12-01T19:07:00.001-08:00

We had a fun filled day of getting out Christmas decorations, house decorating, and getting our Christmas tree.

Today we talked about Isaiah 11:1-2

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,The spirit of counsel and strength,The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. (NASB)

The kids and I talked about how Isaiah uses a tree to symbolize the coming of Christ. I told the kids that everytime we look at the tree we can remember that Jesus came to earth to save us from our sins.

Some of my favorite moments of the day where Addie over and over again asking on the way to the Christmas tree farm, "are we at Christmas yet?"

Second, today I told the kids that because we have a little terrorist at our house(Gibson), we are going to limit the amount of ornaments that we put up (I would like to say this is a good training opportunity but I have had so many ornaments broken since we've had kids, I really want to protect the ones we have) and we are going to make a lot of ornaments to put up this year. Autry got really sad and began describing all the ornaments that we HAD to have up. I conceded and said that everyone could choose three, including myself. I ended up choosing five. I love how sentimental Autry is about traditions! This reminds me of being a child and not letting my mom forget a single tradition ever.

Also if you look close at Gibson you will notice he has purple girl pants on, there was a small leakage problem and I wasn't about to let that stop me from getting our Christmas tree!

Here are some pictures of the day.

Advent Calender

2011-11-30T15:20:00.001-08:00

Our Advent Calender

Jumping back into the blogging world

2011-11-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

With the start of Advent I am jumping back into the blogging world. I have been putting of starting the blog back up because I felt like I had to get us all caught up on everything that has happened in the last 6 months. I realized that that is never going to happen so I might as well start up again so that my children have some sort of record of their growing up years.
I want to start by documenting our Advent celebration. I have activities planned for almost every day and I want to record most if not all of it on the blog. Last year I made an advent calender, and this year I am putting it to real use. To start off tomorrow we are going to get our Christmas tree! Stay tuned for a fun filled month preparing to celebrate the coming of the newborn KING.

Book Review

2011-06-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Money Secrets of the Amish:Finding True Abundance in Simplicty, Sharing, and Saving.
by Lorilee Cracker

This book provides a look into Amish culture and the ways that they have survived the economic downturn. The author translates ways that the Amish saves money and makes it practical for the average American family. Every chapter ends with a practical tip. Some of the biggest takeaways that I got from the book were buying used, using self discipline to avoid self indulgence, and being content with what you have.

I found this book a quick, enjoyable read (I sat down and read it in an afternoon). The author writes in a way that is easy to understand and represents the Amish people very respectfully. Although my husband is already very frugal in our life (I decided that he could easily be Amish), it was a good reminder of why we should try and save money. This book is simple and practical. I know basically nothing about the Amish and would have enjoyed learning a little bit more about their lives apart from their frugality. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants some light reading while still learning something very valuable. I think every American household could learn from the simplistic way that the Amish lead their lives, I know I sure did.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Brooks and Maverix

2011-05-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

This last weekend the kids and Randy and I were able to meet their new cousins for the first time. They are so itty bitty! It was so much fun, I can't wait to go down there in the end of June to see them again. However, it is a little bit crazy that our family has now grown from 4 kids to 6 kids. Family gatherings are only going to get crazier from this point on.

Easter

2011-04-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Its Time for Yankees Baseball!

2011-04-19T18:07:00.000-07:00

This was Opening Day Ceremonies, each team was announced and each player was announced by name.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures ever.

Playing shortstop. Autry told Nana before the game, "I am going to have to play outfield today and no one every hits it to the outfield but its okay I will just look at Gibbys the whole time." A quick sidenote: Autry hit it to the outfield twice. :)

I never thought I would be rooting for the Yankees but alas here we are. I would have to say that his is the cutest darn Yankee there ever was!

Oregon Coast Aquarium

2011-04-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

Over Randy's Spring Break we were able to go the aquarium. The kids loved it! We had the bought the Groupon so it was only $25 for our whole family which is a great deal compared to its normal price. Not only did we get to go the aquarium but it was also a sunny day on the Oregon Coast which is always a rare treat. Autry's favorite thing at the aquarium where of course the sharks. Claire loved seeing fish. Addie liked seeing the crabs and alligators. Addie was talking about the crabs (they were literally as big as Addie) all week. It was a great family day.

It's Opening Day!

2011-03-31T09:33:00.001-07:00

Around here we LOVE baseball. We love it so much that Randy is coaching both high school baseball and Autry's T-ball team. Autry's team this year for t-ball is the Yankees. When we first heard this I thought, "oh well, it is just the name of the team." I wish this was true. Autry and Randy now have Yankee hats and Yankee shirts. If they where them anywhere else besides practice people will identify them as Yankee fans. That is embarrassing!
Today is opening day for the Dodgers. I was watching a spring training game the other day and I was watching the players I told Randy, "I feel like I am being reunited with old friends." I love baseball season and I love the Dodgers. For all you Seattle people I still do like the Mariners and route for them in the American League. However, here in the Poor household it is Dodgermaina all year round. Lets go Dodgers, it is your turn to win the pennet this year! Don't let those "stinkin" Giants have another go at it!

When the Sun is Out They Will Play Narnia

2011-03-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

Gibson 5, 6, and 7 months

2011-03-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

5 Months

6 months

7 Months

Snow a little late

2011-03-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Normally January, February, and March seem to drag by as I anxiously await the suns reappearance. This month has been filled with too many events and activities to count. Here are a few of them Sarah's baby shower (I planned), a recipe exchange (I helped plan), Autry's brithday party, Randy's birthday and party, other baby showers, planning and going on a women's retreat, homeschooling, Randy coaching little league and Highschool JV baseball, Sarah's twins being born...
Needless to say it has been a crazy last three months. I am sure there were other things in there that I forgot. January and February were way busier for us than the Holidays. In the middle of it we had some snow. Randy works in Washougal and he has had a lot of snow days this year even though we have only had snow once or twice here in Beaverton.

Emilie's Valentine's Day Present

2011-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and Randy called to tell me to go to the computer. I went and got on and he sent me a link to this video. Hidden for me were three Valentines from the kids. They had made this video for me while I was at work on Saturday, I had no idea.

What I shared at my sisters shower

2011-02-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post what I shared at my sister's shower a few weeks ago. I don't want to loose it because it is such a good reminder to me of how God works in our lives as moms

To Sarah,

I am so excited for you to have these beautiful baby boys. I can tell you that the first few months are CRAZY. I can guarentee you that you will feel like you have no idea what you are doing, trust me that is a completely normal feeling. I remember calling Mommy and asking her if it was okay if I took a shower while Autry was sleeping. Just remember that everyone has gone through the feeling of hopelessness, everyone has struggled through figuring out how to breastfeed, everyone has wondered why won't their baby just fall asleep. You are going to have two precious little bundles of joy and at times you are going to feel completely wiped out, and at times you are probably going to feel completely overwhelmed. I have two things that if you don't remember any other parenting advice from anyone else remember these two things. That may sound a little self centered by I whole heartedly believe that if you can remember these two things then you will be fine.

In their first 6 months of life the best thing you can do is ask for help and accept help in whatever form it comes in. The main person that to be asking for help from our heavenly Father. In Philipians 4:8 it says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. " When you feel like pulling your hair out, when you feel completely overhelemd just sit down and talk to God. I remember one day when Addie was about 4 months old, Which would of made Claire about 19 mos, and Autry was a little over 3. Addie and Claire had both beeing crying all day, Autry had thrown several fits and I was about to loose my mind. I left everyone crying, I went in my bedroom, locked the door and sat down on the edge of my bed in tears. I was grumbeling in my heart and felt like I was at my breaking point and I just heard this voice in my head, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, present your requests to God." I told him I felt like I was going crazy, I told him I was in over my head an overwhelmed, I told him that right now I don't even like being a mom. I completely layed out my heart to the Lord. When I left my bedroom a few seconds later things weren't any better on the outside, but my heart was at peace. I knew that I had a heavenly Father who loves me and that he was getting me through and helping me through the day, a great big powerful God that is by my side at all times. A Father and powerful God that I can talk to and wants to hear (even though he already knows) what is on my heart. The kids weren't any better that day (it was a rough day), but my heart was different.

This brings me to point number two. Remember the cross and the significance of the cross.

Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Romans 3:3, "Non are righteous, not even one."

Romans 5:8, "but God showed his love for us while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Ephesians 2, "among whom you all once lived in the passions of your flesh, carrying out the desires of your body and mind, you were by nature Children of wrath like the rest of mankind, BUT GOD being rich in mercy becuase of the great love which he has loved, made us alive together with christ, by grace we have been saved.

We are sinners and there was no good in us that we should choose God, but God loved us so much that he died for us, if we accept his gift of salvation and ask for forgiveness of sins, in the richness of his mercy, by his grace he will forgive of of all our sins, so that one day we can be in heaven with him.

Sometimes as a believer we tend to forget the importance of what Christ did for us on the cross. We think that after we are saved the Cross has less importance to us. This could not be further from the truth.

Every morning we need to be at the cross repenting of our sins and asking Christ to give us his grace and strength to get through the day. As a mom I am hit with this truth over and over again. I cannot be the mom I want to be without Jesus. I get mad at my kids, I am selfish with my time, and most days I am thinking of myself and not how I can serve my family.

Almost every time that Claire sins and has to be disciplined we sit down and talk about her sin and how Jesus died for her sin. I ask her why did Jesus die on the cross for us and she exclaims, "Because he's rich in mercy! Because of the great love with which he has loved us!" Your children are the best tools for humbling you, and Claire reminds me all the time how much Christ loves me and how rich his mercy is.

This is the truth that we need to be clinging to every day! As a mom this is the truth to keep at the forefront of you mind every day.

Ephesians 6 talks about putting on the full armor of God. You will get discouraged and beat down as a mom. You will sometimes feel like not getting out of bed because you are just too exhausted. There will be times when you are just sick and tired of serving Andy and your little boys. These are the times when you need to talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself. For me this has been life changing, and I know we have talked about it before but I want to stress it to you again. When you start to have wrong thoughts in your head it is time to turn back to the cross. Instead of listening to the thoughtw in your head that are only meant to discourage you, talk to yourself and tell yourself the truth. If you think you are a bad mom, tell yourself that God has saved you and has given you the power to be an excellent mom. If you don't feel like serving your family, tell yourself of the awesome privilege God has given you to take care of these little boys and to serve Andy. When you find yourself getting mad at Andy for something that has more to do with your exhaustion than anything else, tell yourself Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted forgiving one another, even as God through Christ Jesus has forgiven you. When you are just feeling down, discouraged and frustrated you can tell yourself that there is reason to rejoice because Christ died on the cross for you and that you are saved by his marvelous grace.

Being a Mom is one of the best most rewarding things in the world. There is so many things that I could tell you at this point about raising and training your kids. I could relay countless funny stories and countless stories of when I have blown it. I could give you tips on how to train your kids and tips on how to be a great wife to Andy. As I prayed about what to say, I feel that the Lord wanted me to share the building blocks upon which all of that is built upon. Learning to turn to Christ daily and Learning to bring all my anxiety to Christ has been something I have learned and am constantly learning again and again and I know that if I don't have these things in place my life is going to be a lot harder and discouraging.

You are going to be a great Mom and I am so excited for this next journey of life that Christ is going to lead you on.

Love,

Your Sister

My Grandma

2011-02-01T07:19:00.000-08:00

Last Friday on January 28th my mom was going through some papers that she had found concerning my grandma's death. My mom found what I had written to share at my Grandma's memorial service, along with my Grandma's testimony and obituary. As she looked at it she realized that exactly 7 years prior my Grandma had died. I was on the phone with her as she found this and was struck profoundly by it. My first thought was I think this is God wanting someone to come know him as a result of my Grandma's life. My Grandma was an AMAZING women. She loved God with all of her heart. I saw the gospel lived out daily in her life. If you want to know the gospel go here. Every day my Grandma prayed that her family would come to know Christ as their personal Savior. Every person who know my Grandma knew of her great desire that all of her children would come to know Christ. At her funeral person after person stood up and told her family how she wanted them to know Jesus.

Here is a copy of her testimony and of God's great goodness in her life.

The Testimony of Philippien Hubeek

I am going to tell you about myself and how the Lord cared for me. I was born in Indonesia. There were 8 children in the family. My parents were Christians and we had a Christian upbringing. We went to a Christian school. We had a good and happy life. Then in 1942 the war with Japan broke out in Indonesia. It didn’t take long for the Japanese to come to Java, the island where we lived. We had to run to the bomb shelter now and then, but to us it was just a game because we lived so far from the action. Then one afternoon the Japanese police came to our house. He told my father, “get dressed and take one set of clothing and come with us.”

We were all crying when my father left. He turned around and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a couple of days.” We believed him because he had done nothing wrong. The days became weeks. The weeks became months. My father never came back. He died in prison. We lived in a company house so they told us we had to leave. We sold everything and moved from a 6-bedroom house to a no bedroom house. First we had everything and now we had nothing. So you see nothing is permanent here on earth.

After we moved my mother got very sick. The doctor came to our house and took my mother to the hospital. I still don’t know why he came to our house, who had called him? My mother died in the hospital. We had no money for the funeral but you know what? God took care of that too. There was no money coming in. Nobody worked. There were no jobs, but we never went hungry, we always had something to eat. God provided. The church we belonged to said is was not safe for us to stay by ourselves and they took us in one child to one family. I found a job where they made thread from cotton. I worked there for a short time then moved to Ambasawa, a town where the concentration camp was. I saw my father twice before he died. Then Japan lost the war. We thought we were free, this was not so. Holland gave Indonesia back to Indonesia and now the Indonesians put us [the Dutch] in concentration camps. We stayed there till 1946, then we were freed, but I still had no place to go. They transported us from Talo (central Java) to Jakarta. Jakarta was full and I had no family there, so I went back on the ship to Surabaya. I kept on praying for a place to stay. In Surabaya I stayed in a concentration camp again. God took care of that problem too. One afternoon I sat on the curb in front of the concentration camp with some other people feeling hopeless. A car drove by and it was my uncle. He was not looking for me, he did not know that I was there. He was looking for his aunt and uncle, but found me, his niece. After a couple of days we had to go to another concentration camp, but my uncle was getting the papers ready for me to come live with him and his daughter. See, now I had found a place to stay, God provided.

I found a job where I met my husband; we got married and had 6 kids. Life in Indonesia was not very pleasant after the war, so we left and went to Holland. The boat trip took 40 days. We stayed in Holland 3 years and had one more baby. We applied for a sponsorship in the U.S. and within 6 months we had one. The Presbyterian Church in Albany, Oregon sponsored us. Finally a church to go to. So thanks to the Lord for what he had done for us. We did not know how hard it was to listen to a sermon when you don’t understand what the pastor was preaching. We went because we were sponsored. There were no jobs for my husband because he was a mechanic not a farmer. We had some friends that moved from Corvallis to Seattle to work for Boeing. One day she was looking in the paper and found an ad in the paper from Kenworth. They were looking for mechanics. So she called us and my husband went to Seattle to apply for the job. He got the job and started working the next day. I stayed in Oregon with the children until the school year was over, then we all moved to Seattle.

We moved in with my friends and lived in their basement with seven kids. It was not easy to rent a house because there were no houses to rent, it was 1962, the World’s Fair was in Seattle. It was not easy to live with another family especially when you have so many kids. We were looking for a house to buy and the Lord led us to Kent where we found a cheap house, where I still live.

Soon after we moved in, the Lord sent somebody to us. Dan Amuland came to our door I invited him in. I don’t even know if he remembers, but I do. He invited us to his church. The next Sunday we went. That was August 1962, when I first came to Kent Alliance church. We didn’t know the language very well so my husband decided not to go anymore. I went by myself with the children, but very soon I found excuses not to go anymore. I was tired, as it was hard to get seven kids ready for church. So I just did not go. I stayed away from the church but I felt it was ok. I don’t have to go to church; you can still be a Christian and not go to church. We raised our kids and we didn’t really care if they went to church or not. I thought, I took them to Sunday school and now it is their problem. How sorry I am now.

After all the kids grew up and left I thought finally I could rest now. How wrong I was, God had other plans for me. In 1984 my husband (he was never sick in his life except maybe a cold sometimes) died of a heart attack. Now I was really alone. But God’s ways are so perfect. I still did not go to church. Then one day my daughter in law invited me to go to Bible Study Fellowship. Well, nothing else to do, why not go. So I went. When they divided they study groups, I saw somebody there that I knew from the church. She invited me to come back to church, but I still had a lot of excuses not to go.

My daughter went to bible study with Margie Echlof. She said to me, “why don’t you go back to church mom, the ladies are all asking about you?” So the next Sunday I went, and here I am. I know now that when you give your life to the Lord He will keep you in His hands and nobody can snatch you away from Him. Just listen when he calls. Come back. He forgives you.

Last Sunday was just the right Sunday for me. When Pastor John and Cliff Morton were singing a duet, where it said, someone slipped and fell, was that someone you? And when he comes with arms wide open He pardons you. They were singing it for me.

This is my second year as an Awana leader and every year Dave James asks us if we want to sign up for another year. This year I said I think I am to old for this but I can not say no. A week ago I asked the Sunday school class too pray for me that I will make the right decision. God gave me His answer, He said go, and I will take care of you. So I will be back again next year with the Friends club again. Thank you Lord for always being there for me.

When Dave James asked me to give this testimony I was not sure that I would do it. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it, because at my age I maybe don’t have much time to tell the people about God’s goodness to me. His love and care for me.

Here is a copy of what I shared at her funeral

This last summer I got married. About a month before my wedding

grandma got really sick. When I heard she was sick I was petrified

that grandma would not make it to my wedding.

I was driving home from work and I was praying, “God please

let grandma live until my wedding.”

Then it seemed as if God spoke to me in my car saying, “Why?”

It suddenly hit me how selfish I was being. What I was praying

was that God would keep grandma here on earth where she was

suffering in stead of being in heaven enjoying God’s presence.

Revelation 21 describes heaven in this way, “He will wipe every

tear from their eyes. There will be no more crying or pain, for the old

order of things has passed away.”

The passage also talks about streets of gold, fences with pearls, and

about how God is there.

I know that grandma looked forward to heaven every day of her

life. A week before Christmas I was talking to grandma on the phone.

I asked her how she was doing, she said she wasn’t feeling very

good and then said, “you know Emmie every time I start feeling sick,

I just sing to my self the song, ‘soon and very soon I am going to see

the king, soon and very soon I am going to see the king. Hallelujah,

Hallelujah, I am going to see the king.”

Grandma and I then began to talk about heaven. One thing I

will always remember about grandma is her love to tell jokes. Most of

her jokes she got out of Reader’s Digest, and most of them were

about Noah, Moses, or Elijah. I was teasing her that she was going to

have to tell them her jokes about them.

She then said, “Emmie we are going to laugh a lot in heaven

aren’t we?”

We laughed a lot that day on the phone. When I got off the

phone with her I began to cry. I knew in my heart that grandma was

going to be in heaven very soon. But I am so excited for when I get to

heaven because I know that her and I are going to have a lot of fun.

The greatest lesson that I learned from grandma was what it

means to anticipate heaven every day. Grandma has endured more

hardships then almost anyone I know but she never lost sight of

heaven. She lived her life every day knowing that heaven was just

around the corner and she was so excited for that day to come. That

is why I chose to read this passage. Because these few verses

personify grandma’s life.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

“For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down, when

we die and leave these bodies, we will have new bodies in heaven,

homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself,

and not by human hands. How weary we grow of our present bodies.

That is why we look forward eagerly to the day when we shall have

heavenly bodies which we shall put on like new clothes. For we shall

not be merely spirits without bodies. These earthly bodies make us

grown and sigh, but we wouldn’t like to think of dying and having no

bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying

bodies will, as it were, be swallowed up by everlasting life. This is

what God has prepared for us and, as a guarantee, he has given us

his Holy Spirit.

Now we look forward with confidence to our heavenly bodies,

realizing that every moment we spend in these earthly bodies is

time spent away from our eternal home in heaven with Jesus. WE

know these things are true by believing, not by seeing. And we are

not afraid, but are content to die, for then we will be at home with

the Lord. So our aim is to please him always in everything we do,

whether we are here in this body or away from this body and with him

in heaven.

Christmas!!!!

2010-12-26T07:28:00.000-08:00

Autry find his stocking

Claire find her chocolate first and had to eat that before
opening the rest of her stocking

Seconds after Addie finds her stocking

Autry got a new book and immediatly went to sit down and read it

Claire opening her last present with chocolate all over her mouth

Daddy reading one of the new books

One of Addies new animals

Making gingerbread with Daddy on Christmas Morning, one of our
favorite traditions.

Pretty Claire

The kids with their presents. This was the best one even if Gibs is half covered

This is what Claire did all day yesterday (she played with her new ponies)

Gibson 4 months

2010-12-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread cookies

2010-12-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

We made gingerbread cookies this week. Even though I made the cookies with very little sugar and whole wheat flour ( I know my kids are going to tell stories when they are older about how they never got to eat white flour when they were kids, just like we do about my mom). I broke down and let them decorate the cookies with real sugar sprinkles. It was so much fun. When we finished there was dough, flour, and sprinkles covering the floor and the table. It was completely worth it. When I was little making sugar cookies was one of my favorite Christmas traditions and I am so excited to start doing it with our kids. Next year I am even going to get the cookie cutters from my mom that I used when I was little.

Pearl's Birthday Party

2010-12-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

On Sunday after the Christmas program, after hanging out at the Beans, we headed over to Pearl's birthday party. The decorated gingerbread houses, it was really fun to see the kids personalities come out as they decorated the houses. Autry carefully and meticulously decorated his entire house from top to bottom, without eating a bite of candy. Clarabelle put random candies and marshmellow haphazardly all over the house, while probably eating more sugar than she has eaten in the entire year. Adelaide didn't care at all about making the gingerbread house and just wanted to eat the goldfish crackers. Gibson just laid on the floor or was held by Randy. It was a fun day full of good friends and fellowship.

Christmas Program

2010-12-22T07:57:00.000-08:00

Our Church did their Christmas program this last Sunday. Claire and Autry's class did "Away in a Manger", "Psalm 23", and "Joy to the World". It was really cute. Autry is the main one you can hear in Psalm 23 and is wearing a red and white striped shirt. Claire is wandering around in the back. She is wearing a dress with a black shirt and gold skirt. You can't really see her, except in the very end of away in a manger she peaks out her head.

I was so proud of Autry for knowing all of the verse and doing all the motions. Claire was just her normal self looking around and observing the older girls who were dressed as angels.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-11-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

We had a really low key Thanksgiving this year, which was fine with me. It was just our family and my dad. My mom went down to Santa Rosa, CA to spend time with my sister and Andy. Andy and Sarah also had their 20 week ultrasound and they are having 2 little boys. We are so excited for them! I am excited that Gibson is going to have 2 boy cousins around his age.
We spent Thanksgiving eating lots of good food and watching lots of football. I got the cartoon of "The Lion, the Whitch, and the Wardrobe" for this kids to watch this year. They watched it three times! Once again I see how they are a little obsessed. This year I was smart and got a lot of the prep work done ahead of time. This made for a very chill Thanksgiving. I was even able to sit down for an hour while I waited for the Turkey to be done. I enjoyed this because I was able to sit down and look at the black Friday ads. I LOVE shopping on Black Friday! I love it so much I even went by myself this year. I got up at 3:45 and got to target around 4:00. I couldn't find parking until around 4:15 and then going inside was a madhouse. I finally left their around 6:00 and headed over to the GAP. The GAP had everything at 50% off which was so much fun. For Christmas this year Randy gave me money to spend on myself for Black Friday. I was able to buy a shirt and a couple sweaters.
On Saturday we went and got our tree. I found a little Christmas tree farm that had nobles for $30. Every year I think that I can skimp and get a douglas fir, but when it comes down to it, I just love the way Nobles look. After getting our tree we went to Mcmenamins. The kids had a special treat at Mcmenamins and got their very first hot chocolates. Needless to say, the kids were thrilled! Autry said, "Mommy this is the best thing that I have ever tasted." We went home and decorated the tree. Normally I spend a really long time on the lights, but the kids were so excited to decorate that I decided to put up the lights as fast as I could. They don't look as nice as normal, but the kids got to decorate and that was fun. Looking over our ornaments I realized that we have so many ornaments that have to do with football or baseball. Over half of our ornaments have to do with some sort of sports. We definitely like sports in our family.
Our house is now completely decorated for Christmas and I am looking forward to the holiday season. I love everything about this season. I love Christmas music, Christmas decorations, and Christmas shopping. I love most of all that we get the privilege of knowing Jesus and knowing the true meaning of Christmas. I am excited to pass on this love for Jesus to my kids.

It is really safe to let your three year old hold a saw

We look really tall because the camera was on the ground

All of a sudden I know how to french braid, I am really proud of

her hair. Even if Claire's hair is so fine it was falling out almost immediately.

I am in the process of making an Advent Calender. It should be done in the next couple days, stay tuned...

Gibson 3 months

2010-11-23T16:09:00.000-08:00

Here is Gibson at 2 months and

now he is 3 months!

My cute chubby little boy. I don't know for sure how much he weighs, but I am guessing around 16 pounds. He is doing really well. He has started to go to bed around 6:30, and has started to be a very easy baby. I should say he is an easy baby as long as I keep him on his schedule. I wasn't super big on getting the other 3 on a schedule, but Gibson thrives on a schedule. He smiles a lot, and has just started to laugh. I am very much enjoying our little bundle of joy.

What Prince and Princesses Do

2010-11-03T11:19:00.000-07:00

Kids Playing "Prince and Princess"
Autry: "Claire I have 50 days off from battles"
Claire: "I have 50 days off from Weddings"

Zoo Day with Daddy

2010-10-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

The Polar Bear was swimming all over the place, and Adelaide

was wearing her cute new birthday boots (we had to make a

rule that new birthday dollies stay in the car.)

Autry is a scary bear and Clarabelle spots a bird

The dinosaur exhibit was done, so for some reason the zoo thought it would

be a good idea to have a decapitated taredactyl hanging out on the zoo path.

You add Gibson and I to this picture and you can imagine the looks

we get from people. Sometimes I want to turn and say, "Yes it is true

I do have four kids 4 and under"

The elephant was very exciting for Adelaide

Three cute kids looking at the elephant

Randy got an iphone a couple of weeks ago and is enjoying all the fun things that it can do. These last four pictures were taken with one of the cool apps on his phone. It is amazing what technology can do these days.

Addie's "Birthday"

2010-10-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Birthday Clothes

She was so excited about every present she opened.

Her favorite presents so far were her baby doll with a binky and bottle and

a new pair of pink boots.

The girls playing with Addie's new toys. We have to keep reminding Claire

that these are Addie's new toys.

She wanted all her new clips in her hair

Feeding her new baby

Grandpa "The Reading Maching"

Her Purple Blackberry Cake

Yummy Cake

We celebrated Addie's 2nd birthday today. Her birthday isn't until October 11, but all the grandparents were able to come down this weekend so we treated today like her birthday. Adelaide had so much fun today. She got a new birthday outfit, lots of new clothes, 4 new dollies, a horse from Autry, hair clips, and a new pair of boots. Addie had a lot of fun and was loving having so much attention.

A Saturday in Newport

2010-10-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Visiting the Dukes

2010-10-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

We recently went to visit the Dukes in Jefferson. The kids love playing with Isaac and Adrie. I love talking with Shannon. The entire time we were there I barely even saw Isaac and Autry. They were playing outside in Isaac's stick fort, pretending to hunt deer, and playing pirate. Autry and Isaac are boy through and through. Meanwhile Claire and Adrie are inside playing dress up and putting make up on each other. Then there was Addie just wandering around the house. It was a lot of fun. The kids want to go down to Jefferson every day and play.

Random Times in the Poor Family

2010-10-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

Gibson 1 Month

2010-10-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Gibson is 6 weeks old now, but here are his 1 month pictures.

Rooster Rock

2010-09-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

Today was our annual church picnic and baptism at Rooster Rock State Park. Unfortunately it fell on the same day as the first Sunday of NFL football. This meant Randy and Addie were at home watching the games, but Claire, Autry, Gibson and I enjoyed the sun at the park. Autry wrestled with the older boys, climbed in trees, received piggy backs from his new friend Averi, and ran around like a wild man. Claire colored, played ball and duck, duck, goose with her friends Pearl and Brynne. Gibson was cuddled and held by people or was with me in the ergo. We all had a fun time hanging out with our friends.

Brynne, Pearl, and Claire

At one time today these three girls wandered a little to far away. Brynn's mom Elisabeth ran after them to get them because I was feeding Gibson. ON the way back she was talking to them about how wandering away was dangerous because someone could take them. Claire responded, "Then Daddy wouldn't have his princess anymore and Daddy would be sad, but not mommy"

Autry getting a piggy back from Averi. Averi's mom Willow told her that maybe it wasn't a good idea to give him piggy back rides because she kept dropping him. Autry said, "It's okay, I'm tough"

Autry giving Claire a hug, and Claire trying to get away.

Gibson 3 weeks

2010-09-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

Labor Day with Grammy and Grampy

2010-09-06T20:39:00.000-07:00

Addie, who has no fear, wanted to walk into the pond

Autry and Claire fed the fish at Bonneville Dam

They love looking at the sturgeon. I didn't get a good picture of it, but

Addie was so excited about the big fish.

Play area in Hood River

Playing in the grass; she's an opossum. (Grampy told the kids a story about

an opossum the night before)

Playing with Grammy; she really isn't as scared as she looks like

in the picture.

Wrestling with Grampy

Family picture

Gibson is in the sling, he really was with us today :)

Gibson 2 Weeks

2010-09-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

We had a doctor's appointment and Gibson is doing great. He had lost a lot of weight before we left the hospital, so that was a bit of concern. However, the doctor's appointment today revealed that he is doing just fine. He now weighs 7lbs 10oz and is 21 inches long. He has gained almost a full pound since we left the hospital and grown over an inch!
We are all still smitten with our litter Gibbers. The kids all have colds right now, so they are having a hard time not hugging and kissing him. But right now that is our biggest problem. I went out with all four kids twice this week, then Thursday I had to stay home because I was feeling pretty wiped.

New Shield

2010-09-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

One of the main things that Autry thinks about is how to make his Narnia attire better. This morning the first thing he talked to us about was how we could make a case for his sword, and what it should look like. Randy told him he would make him a shield today. Randy cut it out of wood, we put duct tape on it, and put a Lion on it. He loves his new shield. However, the narnia thoughts never stop. Earlier today I had been looking online and found a Peter costume. So...tonight as he was going to bed he called me into his room and said, "Mommy, after you finish the dishes, can you and Daddy please have a conversation about the Peter armor?"

Daddy Made the Kids Swords

2010-08-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Autry and Claire play Narnia every single day. It starts first with getting dressed. Autry must have all his armour on, or he cannot play Narnia. This consists of jeans, a Carhart jacket, a ski mask, and boots. He will wear this even when it is 90-100 degrees out, until we tell him that he needs to change, so that he doesn't over heat. He also has a rope that he puts around his waste so that he can carry his sword around. Claire's clothes consist of a dress and boots. This is the must have attire for playing Narnia. Autry had a wooden sword that Paul Anderson made him when Randy and Paul were building our garden fence. Autry has played with the sword every day for the last 5 months. As a result the sword's tip had broken off and had quite a few dents and scratches. Yesterday Randy decided to make everyone new swords. Claire also needed a dagger because this is what Lucy had. Then of course Addie needed a sword as well.

1 Week Later

2010-08-30T14:25:00.002-07:00

Everyone Loves Gibson! Everytime I don't know where Addie is she is with Gibson. She constantly wants to kiss him and give him hugs, its is really cute. Claire is so gentle with her new little brother. She is always rubbing his face and giving him kisses. She has so many questions about Gibson, what does he eat? why does he cry? where are his clothes?. She is mainly concerned with the fact that Gibson doesn't have any shoes that fit. Autry is the always helpful older brother. He puts his binky in when it falls out, covers him with blankets, and lets me know when Addie is trying to crawl on top of him. We are loving having Gibson at home with us.

Going Home

2010-08-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

In the Hospital

2010-08-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

Gibson Job Poor

2010-08-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

Gibson Job Poor

7lbs 8oz 19 3/4 inches

8/20/2010 12:34pm

Autry Falls out of his Window

2010-08-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

Autry was in his bedroom today looking out his window, when he leaned against the window. The screen popped out and he fell out of his window. Thankfully, he just scraped up the side of his face. I saw it happening in slow motion and thought for sure he would have a broken arm or something. Praise the Lord he is okay. He sat with me for about an hour with ice on his eye, but for the most part he is completely fine.

It will probably look worse tomorrow, but this it what he looks like today.

Sunriver Day 4

2010-07-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

I didn't take any pictures on Day 3 of Sunriver. Mainly because we did the same thing as the day before, we swam and rode bikes. Grammy, Uncle, Auntie Sarah, Randy, and Autry went on a hike yesterday. Autry was such a tough guy. He forded the river, went two miles down, two miles back up, saw bear tracks, and didn't whine once. HE just loves doing big boy activities.

Sunriver Day 2

2010-07-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Addie played baseball with Grampy. She would hit the ball and

then run around the coffee table.

Addie on her scoot car

Claire holding the clipper box

Autry cut uncles hair into a mohawk to match his own hair

Claire kicks around the pool in her life vest and fishy floaty

This is how Claire and Addie get around Sunriver

Randy and Autry riding by after seeing their first deer of

the trip.

The girls and Grampy

Sunriver Day 1

2010-07-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

We are in Sunriver for the week. I love Sunriver!
This is what we did today...

Swam. Autry and Claire are doing so well in the water. Claire started out completely petrified clinging to Randy and screaming, but now in her life jacket and floaty kicks around the pool by herself. Autry swims around the pool in his lifevest and goggles. We got Addie a little baby boat and she floats around the pool as happy as can be.
Family Bike Ride
Randy, Andy, and Grampy played disc golf down Mt. Bachelor
A delicious steak dinner

Autry's First Baseball Game

2010-07-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

Autry's had his first baseball game on Saturday. It was so much fun to watch him play, he was so excited to be out there playing in his very own baseball game. He is the youngest person on his team by about a year and a half, but he could care less, he just loves to play.

the girls playing with a new friend

Big Brother

2010-07-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

Claire gets a bike and Autry learns to ride

2010-07-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Claire's First Day on her new birthday bike.

A couple days later on her bike with basket and doll in her basket.

Autry has learned to ride without training wheels. It took him about 4 days in a row to get the hang of it, but now he is riding like a champ. It is so much fun to watching him zooming around on his bike.

Addie on her ride of choice

Beach Trip

2010-07-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Randy was going to the beach today with the Basque kids. I wanted to go, but I didn't want to be at the beach by myself all day with the kids because I knew this would completely exhaust me. Thankfully my dear friend Stephanie came along with me and I am so thankful we were able to go. The beginning of the day was a little cold, but we all still had a lot of fun together.

4th of July

2010-07-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

We had a laid back 4th of July this year. We just hung out at home and enjoyed each other. It was nice for me because lately I have just enjoyed being at home and doing nothing. We also got a new porch swing on craigslist for FREE once again. I spent $4 on fireworks at Target and we lit those off, which were just perfect for the kids.

Garden Girl

2010-07-02T15:39:00.000-07:00

Publish Post

The Day After...

2010-07-01T08:27:00.000-07:00

They campout was fun the day that followed was a little rough. Adelaide and Claire were super tired all day. Claire cried the entire way through dinner. She was eating a hot dog and she was sobbing that she wanted it red. I have no idea what this means. I kept offering her ketchup but this isn't what she wanted. Needless to say she went to bed immediately after dinner and feel asleep almost instantly.
On another note Autry and I went on a date to play memory. Autry would have won, but I had a late run that pulled me into the lead. Being pregnant has killed my brain. I would look at a card, know that I had seen it before but have no idea where. I would also flip over two cards and not be able to remember what they were when I flipped them back over. I beat a four year old in memory by only one match.

Everyone was a little tired yesterday after sleeping outside :)

Backyard Campout

2010-06-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

We camped out in the backyard last night, it was a lot of fun. Everyone did well falling asleep. We brought Addie out just before we went to sleep so that she wasn't in the house all by herself. Addie didn't sleep well, but the rest of us slept soundly all night. In fact Addie was put back to sleep at 8:00am. The kids were so excited about it they could hardly handle themselves. I am so thankful we have Randy home all summer so we can do fun things like this.

our new fire pit that we got for FREE on craigslist

(this is another activity that Randy does during the summer time, stalking

the free list on craigslist. We have gotten some cool stuff :))

My garden Blog

2010-06-29T16:48:00.000-07:00

In case anyone wants to take a look here is my garden. I wanted to start a blog to document how my garden grows.

Claire Bear's birthday

2010-06-27T10:56:00.001-07:00

Claire Bear is 3!!!!

2010-06-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

Clarabelle turned 3 years old today. I can hardly believe my little baby girl is 3. I remember being so excited that we were going to have a little girl, and to be able to buy pink things. Now some days i wish I could buy something besides pink (sometimes I can get away with purple)
Claire is my little girly girl. She wants to pick out her clothes every day, loves shoes, and everything pink. She also loves monkeys, princesses, and anything to do with Lucy in Narnia. The majority of her day is spent pretending that she is in Narnia. She makes me laugh every day with her cuteness. She is always coming up with the funniest things to say. The other day we drove out to hood river and were watching the kite boarders, Clarabelle's response to this was, "Holy Moly Cow!" Claire's best friends are her brother and sister. She goes in between the two of them playing all day. We are so thankful for our little Claire Bear!

Randy and Autry on the Trampoline

2010-06-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Randy and Autry decided to sleep on the trampoline the other night. Claire opted out, it was a little to scary for her. They were out there about 30 minutes before they decided it was still a little too cold to sleep outside.

Fun Together

2010-06-24T14:14:00.001-07:00

The kids have been dying to use the slip and slide since they received it form Nana last Thursday. Friday when it was just on the cusp of being hot Autry kept saying to me, "Wow Mommy I think it is getting really hot out here." and "I am really hot, it would be really fun to play with a slip and slide" I told him that we weren't going to set it up until it was over 75. Monday was the first day of summer and it has been getting hotter every day. They are officially now enjoying their new slip and slide.

I am so thankful it is summer. Here are a few of the things that we have to look forward to

Randy is home all Summer
Randy is home all Summer
Randy is home all Summer
Basque kids here throughout the month of July. We don't have a Basque student staying with us, but Randy is going to be hanging out with them all month long
Trip to Sunriver with Grampy, Grammy, Auntie Sarah, and Uncle Andy
Claire's Birthday and Birthday Party
Autry playing T-ball
Hopefully a couple trips to the beach and up north to see Nana, Papa and Auntie along with a Mariner game
Baby Gibson coming at the end of Summer

Wild Autry

2010-06-24T14:08:00.001-07:00

Crazy little Claire Bear

2010-06-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Fun in the Sun with Addie

2010-06-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

I figure I owe the grandparents and aunties about 6 months of pictures so I better start posting like crazy

Hooray for a new Camera!

2010-06-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

I havn't posted in almost 6 months because our camera's been broken. When I got home yesterday from work all three kids were outside in their swimsuits playing in the sprinkler/slip and slide it would have been a perfect time to take pictures and cell phone pictures don't quite cut it. So soon after that we got the kids dressed and headed to Costco to buy a new camera. Hopefully this mean a lot more pictures and a lot more blog posts. Here are some pictures that we took last night with the new camera.

Snow on Autry's Birhtday

2009-12-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

My Little Boy is 4

2009-12-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Autry turned 4 on December 29. It was a really fun day. Him and I woke up early in the morning and made pancakes. When the pancakes were ready he got to go wake everybody up so he could open his presents. He got a Caspian book, a bible (it is the best children's bible I have ever seen), a pirate ship he could make, and this little dinosaur thingy. Autry and I went on a date and read almost the entirety of his new bible. Grammy and Grampy came over after nap and he got a few more presents, including his present that was "his best part of the day", His Prince Caspian, Peter, and Edmond figurines.

It started to snow so Grammy and Grampy had to leave. Autry and Randy played outside for a few hours, making a snow many and making a huge snowman. Then we had birthday dinner (hot dogs) and his Susan's Magical Horn Birthday cake.

It was such a fun day, I cannot believe that my little boy is 4. He is such a kind boy. Whenever his sisters wants something, he almost always gives it to them. He loves his sisters and his mommy an daddy so much. His favorite things to do is to have books read to him. When he knows how to read I don't think he will ever stop reading. He is full of information about everything and loves to learn. For his birthday we were able to go to the seaside aquarium and he was able to feed the seals. He thought this was the coolest thing ever. He gets so excited about everything. Autry loves people, and always wants to be around people. He loves his friends and all of our friends. We are so thankful to have such a kind sweet boy.

Christmas Day on the Beach

2009-12-30T10:42:00.001-08:00

Christmas Day Making Gingerbread

2009-12-30T10:37:00.000-08:00

Christmas at the Beach

2009-12-30T08:15:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas at the beach this year. Instead of doing Christmas presents this year we decided to have Christmas in a small cabin in Cannon beach. It was a perfect Christmas. We had the beach and town basically to ourselves on Christmas Day. On Christmas day it was almost 60 degrees and we were able to play on the beach almost all day. It was a lot of fun. Throughout the course of the day we also read through the entire gospel of Mark. We had so much fun together as a family. Christmas Eve we had our traditional gumbo, gingerbread for breakfast, and a huge turkey dinner. We had a lot of fun and Randy and I were even able to sneak in naps in the afternoon. In Randy's words, "This was the best Christmas ever".

Our Little Christmas Tree

2009-12-29T20:05:00.000-08:00

We moved at the beginning of December. It was sad to leave SE and the proximity of many friends, but we LOVE our Beaverton home. WE love the backyard, the color of the walls, our huge garage, and the closeness of all the places that I do my grocery shopping.

The move at the beginning of the month severely pushed back the getting of our Christmas tree. We weren't able to get it until the 16th, and we didn't want to pay for the regular price for a tree when it was only going to be up for a little while. So we drove out to our traditional Christmas Tree Farm Loch Lolly, and cut down a small little tree, then we went out to our favorite after Christmas tree Mcmenamis, Rock Creek Tavern, and enjoyed ourselves some happy hour hamburgers.

It was so much fun to watch the kids decorate our tree, it was just their size. They were able to put all the ornaments on themselves. We weren't able to fit all of our hundreds of ornaments up, but most of my favorites were put up. Having a tree the same size as the kids also has it downfalls, in that a lot of ornaments were broken this year. All in all it ended up being a perfect tree for our family, I think a little Christmas tree that the kids can decorate may be a new family tradition.

Halloween (cont.)

2009-11-01T08:35:00.001-08:00

Halloween

2009-11-01T08:29:00.001-08:00

Addie and the Pumpkin

2009-11-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin (cont.)

2009-11-01T08:16:00.000-08:00

Playing with Daddy

2009-11-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

NOT IN HIS UNDERWEAR....IN BASKETBALL SHORTS

Addie turns 1

2009-11-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

This is Addie on her 1st birthday. So cute. She is such a big girl, and such an easy baby. She loves playing with her brother and sister (except when they hurt her). She is such a happy and content baby, I can't hardly believe that she is one. Grammie, Grandpi, Nana, Papa, and Auntie Mollie were all came over to celebrate our birthday girl.

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkins

2009-11-01T08:03:00.000-08:00

We went to the pumpkin patch and it started downpouring about 10 minutes after we got there. The kids played under the covered area for a little while, while the parents talked and hung out. It stopped raining so we decided to go outside to get our pumpkin. Then it started raining again, we got our pumpkins at New Seasons this year.

Random end of Summer Pictures

2009-11-01T07:59:00.001-08:00

Since I didn't post for months and months here are a few summer pictures

Autry's swimming lessons.

2009-11-01T07:55:00.001-08:00

The first couple weeks of September Autry took swimming lessons. He loved it so much. He can now put his head in the water and blow bubbles for 5 seconds. His teacher's name was Allison and he asks to pray for her every night at dinner.

Family Pictures

2009-10-21T08:01:00.001-07:00

I think we are watching to much baseball

2009-10-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Autry said to me this morning, "Mommy, can you please find in my bible the story where David struck Goliath out"

Emilie's Mother's Day Birthday at the Beach (cont.)

2009-05-10T21:33:00.001-07:00

Emilie's Mother's Day Birthday at the Beach

2009-05-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

Reading with Grammie

2009-05-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Sick Clarablle

2009-05-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Claire was sick for two weeks with various ailments, and was as pitiful as pitiful gets

Where can we find the answers to all our questions?

2009-05-06T12:53:00.000-07:00

Autry: Daddy who in the world was the catcher at your baseball game?
Randy: I don't know
Autry: We better look it up online

Autry riding his bike

2009-03-31T22:25:00.001-07:00

Sunriver

2009-03-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun in Sunriver this past week. I am pretty sure that Sunriver is my favorite place to vacation. Every time we go (we have been twice) I have so much fun. I am not sure why, but I just love it. We went with our friends the Eriksons. They have three boys similar ages to our kids. The kids played together all day long. Diane and I hung out and tried to do as little as possible. Erik and Randy went to the Deschutes Brewery, took the kids sledding, played frisbee golf (of course), went bike riding etc. The adults had a lot of fun playing games when the kids went to bed. The first morning we were there, we woke up to five inches of snow, the kids had a lot of fun playing in it.

UPDATE FOR MARCH

2009-03-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

After not posting for a long time I posted a lot of pictures to get you caught up. Life around here has been a little crazy lately but I am making it through.

Here is a little bit about each kid.

Autry-He is as wild as ever. He has a nickname for everyone and always something funny to say. He know his ABC's and loves doing school every day. His favorite things to do are read books, do puzzles, and play make believe.

Here are a few questions I asked him

What is something mom always says to you?
"no"

What makes mom happy?
when I obey

What makes mom sad?
"when I disobey"

What is your mom really good at?
doing the dishes

Whats your daddy good at?
building stuff

What is your mom not very good at?
not spanking me

What does your mom do for her job?
new seasons

Whats your daddy do for a job?
I don't know-work

What is your mom's favorite food?
hamburgers

Whats daddy's favorite food?
beer and coffee

What makes you proud of your mom?
hugging me and proud of dad for kissing me

Whose your favorite book?
my magnazine

Whats your favorite game?
chutes and the ladder and no shirt wrestling

Whats your favorite food?
Hot dogs and Hamburgers with sauce and french fries

Whats your favorite toy?
a toy

Whats your favorite thing to watch on tv?
baseball and george

Clarabelle "Clare bear"

Claire is as independent as they come. She still loves clothes, shoes, babies, and anything girly. She picks out her clothes and shoes every day, but almost always wants to wear a dress. She has started getting in trouble because she wants to do things her way and no body else's. She sits on the potty every day because she wants to wear undies, but she never goes. She loves to read, Jeeder and Autry are her best friends, and she copies everything that Autry does and wants to do everything he does. She carries her blanket everywhere and can often be found cuddeling Jeeder with her finger in her mouth and blanket in hand. She is starting to string words together and seems to know another word ever day.

Adelaide
Adelaide is just plain cute. She bounces in her jumper all the time and squeels and smiles whenever someone looks at her. She loves peoples and is so content. She roles over, smiles, laughes and knows her name.

The kids together

2009-03-20T11:28:00.001-07:00

Autry

2009-03-20T11:23:00.001-07:00

Clarabelle

2009-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Adelaide in the last two months

2009-03-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Randy

2009-02-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

It is Randy's Birthday today, and I wanted to post 10 things that I love about him.

1. I love that he takes his responsibility to lead our family literally and does such an amazing job at it
2. I love what a good dad he is, and how the kids adore him
3. I love how hard he makes me laugh and how much fun we have together
4. I love that he studies the bible and wants to do what it says, no matter how hard it is
5. I love that he is so good at teaching
6. I love that he always wants me with him, doing the same thing that he does, and enjoying things with him
7. I love that he loves my cooking and brags about it to everyone
8. I love that he is obsessed with sports and has gotten me addicted as well
9. I love how he really loves the things he loves and really hates the things he hates
10. I love that he loves me

FOr Randy Here's number 11. I love how competitive you are

Autry's true calling

2009-02-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

To see Autry as an MMA fighter click here

Christmas at Grandparents House

2009-01-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

Autry's Birthday Party

2009-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Our little boy is three! We had a birthday party for him last saturday. Autry loves having his friends over so he was so excited.

The Poor Family

Day 6- St. Nicholas Day

Advent day 4

Advent day 5- plum pudding

Pallets pallets and more pallets

Advent Day 3

Advent Day 2

Advent Day 1

Advent Calender

Jumping back into the blogging world

Book Review

Brooks and Maverix

Easter

Easter Egg Hunt

Its Time for Yankees Baseball!

Oregon Coast Aquarium

It's Opening Day!

When the Sun is Out They Will Play Narnia

Gibson 5, 6, and 7 months

Snow a little late

Emilie's Valentine's Day Present

What I shared at my sisters shower

My Grandma

Christmas!!!!

Gibson 4 months

Gingerbread cookies

Pearl's Birthday Party

Christmas Program

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Gibson 3 months

What Prince and Princesses Do

Kids Playing "Prince and Princess"Autry: "Claire I have 50 days off from battles"Claire: "I have 50 days off from Weddings"

Zoo Day with Daddy

Addie's "Birthday"

A Saturday in Newport

Visiting the Dukes

Random Times in the Poor Family

Gibson 1 Month

Rooster Rock

Gibson 3 weeks

Labor Day with Grammy and Grampy

Gibson 2 Weeks

New Shield

Daddy Made the Kids Swords

1 Week Later

Going Home

In the Hospital

Gibson Job Poor

Autry Falls out of his Window

Sunriver Day 4

Sunriver Day 2

Sunriver Day 1

Autry's First Baseball Game

Big Brother

Claire gets a bike and Autry learns to ride

Beach Trip

4th of July

Garden Girl

The Day After...

Backyard Campout

My garden Blog

Claire Bear's birthday

Claire Bear is 3!!!!

Randy and Autry on the Trampoline

Fun Together

Wild Autry

Crazy little Claire Bear

Fun in the Sun with Addie

Hooray for a new Camera!

Snow on Autry's Birhtday

My Little Boy is 4

Christmas Day on the Beach

Christmas Day Making Gingerbread

Christmas at the Beach

Our Little Christmas Tree

Halloween (cont.)

Halloween

Addie and the Pumpkin

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin (cont.)

Playing with Daddy

Kids Playing "Prince and Princess"
Autry: "Claire I have 50 days off from battles"
Claire: "I have 50 days off from Weddings"