A Deep Breath.....

Winter days can seem dreary and long, which makes it a great time to take a deep breath and count my many blessings.....


Kendra Ruthie is 2 1/2 and ADORED around here. Every single person who lives in this house thinks she's the cutest baby alive!:) And I said every "person", because the kitty cat who lives here thinks differently.....but Kendra definitely adores him! She just goes about it in her unique way of sitting on top of him and choking him at times. Kendra is mostly quiet and plays well by herself, but she also has the 2 year old temper and can scream with the best of them. She loves playing with her older sisters and can't wait to turn "tree" so she can get her ears pierced by Auntie Kimie just like her sisters did.

Karis Kathleen is Karis Kathleen:)! She is so unique and fun to live with. She is High energy all day long!!!! She always has a plan and never seems to be idle, nor let those around her be either! She just learned to write a K for Karis and does so on everything she can! This was a big accomplishment because she informed me several times before that,"I am too young to write a K". I guess 4 is finally the right age:). Karis' life is one big musical. She sings about everything she does and seems to be extra expressive in her songs when she is sad or mad about something. She seems to have genuine desire to love and please the Lord.



Kiera Lynn is 8. She is all about being social! Friends, jokes, and having fun seem to be her goals in life right now. She is very smart and is as the top of her class in reading and math. She is super creative and draws pictures every day. It has been neat to see her skills in art grow over the years. She can draw some really cute pictures now. If she had her way our table would be full of markers, scissors, glue and paper all day long. She loves to get dressed up, put make up on, and make over her sister's too. She's naturally very good at hair and putting cute outfits together for her sister's...with accessories of coarse:).


Rinie Roo is just over 2 months away from being 10. Ten! She is our reliable first born. Helpful and caring of her little sisters. Her days are full right now of school, violin and piano. She had her first concert last week for violin and did very well, but piano continues to be her favorite instrument. She got glasses a few weeks ago for when she needs to see far away. She chose fun red glasses:). She also went to her first Retreat at our church last weekend. She had a lot of fun and seemed to take what she was taught to heart. Rinie's favorite thing to do continues to be just hanging out as a family. She is a good reminder to Eric and myself to take time to just be a family without an agenda. How thankful we are for those reminders.

These years of being home with my girls are slipping away! How I want to treasure every single moment we have together!

Love in Action...

Galatians 6:10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Our love in Action as a family this month has been to donate and pray for the people of Haiti. My heart mourns with the rest of the world at the horrible devastation and despair there.

Our pastor is there right now. His heart was heavy with doing something not only for the people of Haiti but for the Christian Churches of Haiti. What the survivors need is hope...hope in Christ. So as a pastor, James decided to pull together leaders of many churches to create..Churches Helping Churches. If you want to donate to the re-building of the churches in Haiti, please visit the web site and donate. Let's give the pastors of Haiti the resources they need to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Deut. 15:11
For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’

I pray that the Lord uses this horrible time in Haiti's history to bring many to Himself. That they not only find their needs being met physically, but that their spiritual needs would be met too. That many men, woman, and children of Haiti would come to know and love their savior...Jesus Christ. And that the church of Haiti would grow strong and be a mighty light that can brightly be seen by all.

2009 in pictures....

January

My Birthday Cake:)

Lego Land

February
Uncle Bill and Aunt Lori's Wedding

March

Spring Break

Great Wolf Lodge


April

Easter Eggs

May

Corinn and Kendra's Luau

Softball

June
China Town

July

Summer Fest

Oak Street Beach

August

Smokey Mountains

Back to School

(some of the biggest news ever)

September

American Girl Doll

October

80's Party Celebrating Kiera and Karis

Apple Picking

Trick or Treating

November

Family Pics

Kojak:)

Jupiter Florida Trip

December

Christmas

Lots of Snow

This year has brought us lots of ups and downs....and God has been Faithful through it all!

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to and end; they are new every morning great is your faithfulness. Lam. 3:22-23

Happy New Year...2010 looks very bright:)!

2008 in pics 2007 in pics

Christmas 2009 in lots and lots of pictures;).....

What a fun week we've had! Time with family, lots of great food, presents and celebrating Christ Birth.

We started the celebrating Christmas Eve morning with our traditional Santa Claus pancakes....

Eric's is more like a Santa Monster Cake:)

We had an appetizer lunch and then we open our presents from each other on Christmas Eve. Corinn and Kiera's school has a Holiday Shop where they are able to buy gifts for all of us. This year it was in the evening so Karis and Kendra were able to pick out gifts for everyone too. It's so neat to see how excited they each get to give a gift:). I love that part of Christmas Eve:)!

Eric and I buy our girls ornaments and a movie each year and they open them on Christmas Eve too. The movie we picked out was the Christmas Classics DVD...with Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and a few others.

Then we just hung out. It was relaxing and such a nice time to just be together. We watched several of the Christmas Classics and played a little Wii.

Before bed we watched the Nativity Movie, thanks to some good friends who bought it for us this year. It was a great way to focus on what the next day was truly about!

Our morning begins each year with Eric reading the Christmas Story to the girls from the Bible. Then the opening of gifts begin.....

Once the gifts are open we Celebrate Jesus' Birthday with a Breakfast Cake...

Then for a little bit the girls get to play with their new toys...

Karis and Kendra with their new blocks from Santa..

Kendra and Kojak enjoying a cuddle. (ok so Kojak "might" not be enjoying it:)

Then we get ready to head to Indiana to celebrate with family at my sister's...

There is SO much love to go around for each of our girls....

Rinie and Aunt Shari

Kendra and Bevie

Kiera and Daddy

Karis and Auncle David and Kimie:)

The yearly Cousin Picture

Kendra Ruthie and those chubby cheeks:)

My sister and brother-in-law do a wonderful job of making it fun!:) Everyone gets a bit worn out...the ride home was quiet with sleeping little ones.

The next day we woke up planning to go to Milwaukee to celebrate with Eric's side of the family, but instead we woke up to a BIG snow storm. So unfortunately we weren't able to make the trip:(

But with all the snow we've been able to have some fun with it....

All of us at the sled hill.

Rinie in front of Daddy's famous snow fort:)

Kendra, Kiera and Rinie in the fort.

Karis working on digging it out.

Our girls have had endless hours of play time from all their gifts...

Kiera's new legos.

Rinie and Kiera enjoying their Chixos.

Kendra cuddling her water baby.

Karis Cuddling her water baby.



Our pretty girls in their new dresses from Papa and Grandma Kim...

This week is one of my favorites. The busyness of Christmas is behind us and the girls are still home. I love having extra time with them. Corinn and Kiera have 2 friends sleeping over tonight and tomorrow we are all going skating and to Chucky Cheese....and even Daddy gets to come:) Fun times.

I've been truly blessed this Christmas!

Catching Up.....

I'm getting a bit rusty at this blogging thing, but today one of my lil' day care kids is sick and one is at pre-school, so it's just me and my 2 littles. They are in their own world of caring for all their baby dolls right now.This makes for an unusually quite morning around here, so I thought I'd get caught up a bit on this blog of mine.

Eric and I had a wonderful time in Florida! 4 days of just the 2 of us. It was very relaxing and so much fun to just be a couple for a while. We walked on the ocean, had several nice dinners (one on the ocean as the sun was setting), visited a Sea Turle Rescue, caught up on some reading, talked and dreamed about our future, hung out with some great people from the HBC there, and missed our little girls a lot:).

Eric did an AMAZING job preaching there! You can listen to his sermon here. I am so proud of him! I can't wait to be taught by him every week.

We were sooo thankful to not have to worry about our girls at all while we were there. They were being loved and spoiled silly at their Uncle David and Aunt Kimie's:). (Thank you Aunt Kimie and Uncle David for caring for them so wonderfully!)

We've had so much fun packed into this past month. So many blessings from being in ministry even besides the Florida trip.......


We were given tickets to the David Crowder concert! It was sooo much fun and awesome to praise God with them and can they ever Praise God!!!!

We were treated to dinner down town and a Christmas concert at Moody Church with the training center families.

We've been invited to several Christmas parties which make for fun dates for Eric and I.

The older girls and I were given tickets to their first ever Concert....
for Mandisa, man can she sing!!!! She also has a powerful testimony of God's grace in her life. How thankful I was to share the night with my sweet girls and let them see such a wonderful example of a Godly woman!

How fun it's been to be blessed in these ways as we work towards full time ministry. We appreciate all these opportunities so much!

While all that has been happening, our house has begun to look and feel more and more like Christmas...

We've gotten some baking done...with little helpers of coarse. I'm hoping to make fudge and cherry kiss cookies today.


We've gotten all our in door decorations up:). This year Corinn and Kiera decorated our tree just about by themselves. I can't believe how helpful they are the older and older they get!

We have a few more things to do to prepare for Christmas like wrapping gifts and preparing some home made ones. Corinn and Kiera, on their own initiative, made some neat gifts (I hope to post about their gifts later this week) for friends and family members. Eric and I are really proud of their thoughtfulness and creativity!:) I am hoping to spend some time this weekend and next week to do our Adornaments and reflect on the true gift of Christmas!

And right in the midst of all the preparing our little babies just keep growing. We no longer have a crib in our house. That's right Kendra Ruthie is officially in a Big Girl Bed:).....


She has some proud Big sister's. Corinn and Kiera had to come in and see her the first night too:).
Life doesn't slow down. I'm trying to still my heart and take it all in one minute at a time! What a gift each and every minute is!

I couldn't write this post and not mention that amidst all these many blessings I've been struggling with Bronchitis. I've had it since I was a little girl, tending to get it each winter. But this winter it's been pretty rough! I've had it for a month now. Interrupted sleep and coughing, coughing ,coughing is a bit wearing. I can't help but think that this little affliction of mine can be a wonderful reminder that my hope is not in this world. Not in all these blessings and gifts, but in Jesus and my eternity in Heaven with Him! Everything will never be perfect here, but it will all be made right one day. No more bronchitis..... and for that I am truly thankful!

Merry preparing for Christmas everyone;)!

Full Speed Ahead.....

(our family at HBC Davenport)

My days are flying by. Eric has been in the Harvest Training Center for about 3 months now....Wow that seems impossible, yet it also feels as though I can't remember life before all this.:)

We are still feeling so blessed to be a part of God's work at Harvest and are praying for the launch of Harvest Bible Chapel Joliet in the fall of 2010. Eric is learning so much. If you haven't noticed the link to HBC Joliet's website on the side of my page here it is...

http://www.harvestjoliet.org/

Eric worked with iMinistries to put it together and I think he did a great job:)!!!!!!

This past weekend we traveled to Harvest Bible Chapel of Davenport Iowa. They welcomed all the training center families (6 of us + 1) and let us in on what God has done there. Their hospitality was refreshing and their love and support of us so encouraging. It's so wonderful to be part of a team of church plants that have a heart to help each other.

This coming weekend Eric and I are traveling to Jupiter Florida so he can preach at the HBC there. (I know tough gig:):) I'm excited to hear him preach once again and to see another Harvest at work. (I'm also excited to hang out at the beach with Eric:)

Many of our days our long and we work hard....but it is SO very exciting to see God at work first hand! To Walk by Faith and see God provide again and again.

Will you continue to pray with us for Harvest Bible Chapel of Joliet. Please pray...

• We would sell the building that we were given in Joliet.

• Our Core Group would grow with Godly men and woman (and kiddos too:)

• Eric would learn well and retain all that he is learning at the Training Center.

• That God would be working in many people's hearts in Joliet and be drawing them to Himself.

• That Eric and I would have all the Faith we need to walk this journey with joy.

• That our precious girls would have joy and peace in this journey too.

• That Eric and I would be protected as we travel to Florida this weekend and that his sermon would bless those at HBC Jupitor and that our girls would do well while we are gone.

There are many many more things I could ask for prayer for, but I think those are good for now:).

I'll leave you with our newest family picture we just had taken.....

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Love in Action...

Finally!

I am 2 months behind on our Love in Actions, but I'm hoping to get caught up! I love doing them and want to continue to make them a priority. They help us to turn our focus outward and to learn about others in need around us. Tonight we did 2 love in actions....

First we packed 2 Action Packs for Voice of the Martyrs. One for Sudan and one for Pakistan. Eric read to the older girls about the ministry of Voice of the Martyrs and we explained how these packages would be an encouragement to a suffering Christian.

Here we are with our kitty Kojak and the 2 Action Packs ready to be mailed off.

Also tonight I had to run to the Family Christian store to pick some things up. I pre-ordered the new Casting Crowns CD because when you do they donate 10% of the sale to feed 2 children through World Vision for a day. Their CD comes out on the 17th so you have until then to pre-order it and feed the 2 children:).

How blessed we are to live a life of abundance. How I pray we never take that for granted and that we never forget to care for those with less.

"...let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:18

Catching Up.....

This past month has been full.

In October we celebrated Kiera and Karis' Birthday's with an 80's Party......

That's Eric with the tacky orange shirt and blonde mullet:) and I'm right next to him in the tacky black and purple dress (with shoulder pads I might add) and neon green tights:).


Our family played along well and had fun with the styles of the 80's.


It was a fun theme to plan for!

Auntie Kimie made a Castle cake for them.

We had fun Trick or Treating too:). Here's our lil Cinderella, Snow Princess, Edna Mode and Bride. They all have sooo much fun dressing up.

I wonder who they get that from?:)

Brrrr! It was a cold day though!

And then on to some sad news. Earlier this week we decided it was time to put our cat of 13 years down, Cinnamon. She had been sick for about a month, but the last 2 weeks she was rapidly declining. She wouldn't eat and was week and uncomfortable. It was very sad! She was a spunky cat who wasn't always pleasant, but we loved her! And in her later years she really got attached to me. I miss her a lot.

But God has a way of bringing healing! The day after we put her down our girls bus driver told her about a kitty her daughter found and that it needed a home.

He found one!:)

Meet our wild, sweet, cuddly, full of energy, daring, adorable kitty Kojak!

The girls are giddy over him. They love to play with him.

Life is full....and we are so thankful.