Great Giveaway!

My family loves The King's Blooming Rose. This would be such a great bundle to win :)!

I, Bri, am hacking Tori's blog...

...to wish her a happy 12th birthday!!!!

And in honor of this special occasion, here are twelve things about Tori......

She is very good at...
1: Putting Peter to bed.
2: Making us laugh!
3: Art :).
4: Giving hugs :)...

This year she has...
5: READ THROUGH THE WHOLE BIBLE IN SIX MONTHS :)!!!! Yay, Tori :)!
6: Learned how to make bread.
7: Grown to be almost as tall as me...
8: Helped raise money to bring several orphans home :).

And some of the things I *love* about Tori are...
9: Her wonderful sense of humor.
10: The late nights she spends talking to me :).
11: Her fun and creative ideas :)!
12: Her love of (and sharing of, ahem..) chocolate ;).

I love you, Tori! Happy birthday!!

Happy Seventh Birthday, Andrew!

I am very excited to see how the Lord will use you in this next year! You are such a sweet gentleman to all of us, and such a good big brother to the little ones, it has been a blessing to see how you are willing to help, :)

I love you, Happy Birthday!

'It Is Well With My Soul'

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”

It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin—O, the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin—not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,
“Even so”—it is well with my soul. 

 It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

 Horatio Gates Spafford (1828–1888)

Abbi-Girl's Frogs...

Tonight we all went for a walk around the neighborhood.
Not too far down the road there is a playground. Almost all the time we were there, Abbi was watching for frogs, because last time we had went, she had found one, and had been very excited about it. (It was really a toad.) As we were starting to leave, Abbi says: "I found one! I found one!"
She picked it and put it in a shell she had found, using her hand as a 'lid'. She was told that she could take it to the house, but that she couldn't take it inside.
Before we were even half-way home, she found yet a another frog, picked it up and added it to her 'collection'. (She also found two more, but could not fit them in her shell.). She said "My talent is being a Frog-Catcher Girl!"
When we got home she was trying to persuade us to let her keep it in the house. She said "I could ask Mommy to go out every minute, and give it bugs, and then we could keep it outside!" She was told to put it in the yard by the creek.
She went to put them there, but when she got back, she asked again if she could have them. Daddy again told that we have no 'froggie food', and she said; "Well, we could just call the Gramma that has fishes, and ask her to send us some froggie food!"
She really, really, really, wants a frog.
Emmi, however, wants...
A Gopher.

Another Little Laughables Post... As You Can See, We Laugh Alot :)

This one is from quite awhile ago...

Bri and I were staying up with Mommy for an Ice Cream night, and suddenly we hear Bethi knocking on the door.
Bethi: "I just wanted to tell you... I'm done."
All: *Start to laugh hysterically*
Mommy: "With?"
Bethi: "You know..."
Mommy: "Noo, I don't... With what?"
Bethi: "I have no idea... ummm..."

And this is not the first time she has talked in her sleep!

When she was four Bri and I hear: "Aye, aye, skipper. Bye, bye, skipper... Don't touch my window..."

And earlier this year: "I'll be there in a minute."
Bri said: "What?!"
"Just talking to Grandma..."

On the 12th, it was Bri's birthday... Emmi and Mommy went to the store the day before, to get some things for it. Emmi got in the car and said; "I know what I'm going to get Bri! Angry Bird stuff!" Well, as they were walking in to the store, Emmi said "I see Angry bird fruit snacks! We'll get those!!!"

At one point she forgot that she had got her anything and said that she would have to give her a kangaroo that Gramma had given her. When we reminded her, she was very excited to give them to her and Bri loved Emmi's thoughtfulness, :).

Yesterday I hear Andrew: "Who removed my birthday from the calendar?!" (It was a tile calendar that has a birthday cake tile that you put in instead of the date that the person's birthday is on.) 

Yesterday Bethi was making muffins, when we hear: "Ummmmm... were we supposed to grind the wheat? It didn't say... but I just put it in... without grinding it first..." (Of course I have never done things like this before. Why, no, I have never buttered the back of my hands while cooking! Why would you ask such a thing? And I have never ruined two batches of  chocolate chip cookies in a row by putting the wet ingredients in with the dry before I was supposed to. Never! would I do such a thing!)

Okay.

I confess.

I have.

And worse. 

I am ashamed.  

Happy Sixteenth Birthday, Bri!!!

Happy Sixteenth Birthday, I love you! You have been a huge blessing in my life, I'm so glad God allowed me to be your sister!!!

'And Can It Be?'

AND CAN IT BE

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my Lord, shouldst die for me?

He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace!
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race!
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For, O my God, it found out me.

‘Tis mystery all! th’ Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
‘Tis mercy all! let earth adore;
Let angel minds inquire no more.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke—the dungeon flamed with light!
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

                                                    ~Charles Wesley (1707–1788)~

I thought I Would Just Put This Up Real Quick...

Read Through The Bible In Six Months
Mommy and I have been doing this, Bri is doing it with a friend, and Bethi has been doing a year long one. 

Grace...

That's something I really struggle with. I get irritated easily, and then I am very ungraceful.  Especially on the days when nothing seems to be going right. When I'm in the middle of making bread, more laundry needs started, Peter is playing in the toilet, Emmi is playing in the soap, making a huge mess with it in the bathroom, "Hey, Tori! I forgot! We need to mow today!", Bethi wants to do clay and needs my supervision, Abbi breaks her balloon animal I made her, and "I weawwy, weawwy need a new one! Pleasssssssssseeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!", the washer is beeping, and it's lunchtime, and I still have not finished the bread for lunch, and we need to make an unexpected trip to the store (no, it has never been this bad, and only a few times has it been close ;)!), I need to remember to pray for grace. I'm "just too busy", but, truth is, if I want to ______ (fill in the blank), I make the time for it! Yes, I know we all have a human nature, but that is no excuse! I need to pray for God to help me be graceful, humble, and forgiving throughout the day. And I need to do my part in making it happen, remembering not to just pull my hair out and vent, because I do that a lot (no, I have never pulled my hair out, lol! Though I have come quite close before... hahahah!:P), and I need to remember that I can't have grace on my own, because...

       " He gives us more grace." James 4:6a.

Little Laughables...

Emmi was looking for her brown cupcake dress and she could not find it. She said; "Guys! I can't find my dress! This is very 'concerting'!"

Later Abbi was being silly and Emmi said; "That is very "instructions"!"

Abbi's birthday food wish list was: "Waffles, bacon, eggs, donuts for a snack, pizza, cake, ice cream, popcorn, and M&Ms. Oh! And I can't forget syrup for my waffles!" Wow... 

Bethi was wondering why we worked on a Sunday, and Bri was explaining it to her; "...like, even though the bible says not to eat pig, that was for people before Jesus came. So even though it's healthy to follow the Mosaic law, it's not mandatory anymore." Bethi got this blank look, and said; "Um... I wasn't talking about the pig. I said nothing about the pig!"

Bethi, while reading her bible a while back... 

"Moses wrote Exodus?! I thought he died in the middle Exodus!"

Bri and I answered, "Yes, he wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy."
"O...kay? (Trademark of Bethi, :). She has her own unique way of saying 'okay', "Ooo...kay?" :).) I thought he died."
"Not in Exodus, but he does in Deuteronomy."
Blank look.
"Someone finished it for him, probably Joshua."
Bri says: "I should have told her that Joshua dead before his book, duly named Joshua, was finished, also..." Haha! (Oh, and the other day she was wondering "How in the world did Moses know how God made the world, 'cause, like, he wasn't even born when He made it!", :).)

 
The other night, Abbi asked Emmi what Emmi's name was. Emmi said; "Emmi.", really quietly. Mommy said "Say it loud. Say 'Emmi' really loud." Emmi said "Emmi, really lou- I-I mean Emmi!"


Lol! I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Fifth Birthday, Abbi!

Happy Birthday, 'Buddy'! I love you so much, and I have enjoyed watching you grow! I look forward to seeing you grow into a young woman for Christ! I pray this next year will be very blessed, beautiful, bouncy, Abbi-girl!

Happy Birthday!

Hello from VIRGINA!!!

  We're in Virgina for good! The house is so pretty! So is the yard, and, my, you should have seen the look on Emmi face when she saw the swing set out there! Abbi thinks that having "two stairs is so great!" (We have a downstairs, upstairs, and an attic room). Andrew is excited that he and Peter will get their own room "really soon'', and that the room they will be in is green, :). I think that Bethi is most excited about outside, :). Before we moved she was scared about not having woods, :). I like the kitchen, but I'm most excited that we have moved, ;). I think that that is Bri's favorite thing, too. Peter likes the fireplace, :). It's just the right size for him to sit on, :). We didn't have one in the old house, so it's new to him to have one. Our house in SC has not sold yet, though, so please continue to pray!
Bye!
                                
                                                       

                                   Tori               

Yeah!

Daddy's home! It has been such a blessing that he has been able to come home so often (well, comparatively)!
Please pray that our house sells quickly, and that we find a house in Virgina! Thank you!
In Abbi's words, when she learned that Daddy works at a bookstore, "Oh, I just wish that Daddy could sell all his books, so that he could come stay with us always!".
Emmi says that "When we get to Virgina,  we will lock the doors, so that he won't ever go to work again!"


One last thing- when I wrote the title, I accidentally pressed Enter, and it posted! Oops... ;)! So, if you get this on Google, just the title will show up, haha!

Happy Birthday, Emmi!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little 3~year~old! You are such a blessing in our life, and I can't wait to see how you grow and draw close to the LORD! 
Happy Birthday, Emmi!

PETER'S story...

vvvvvvvvvvvvvv                   cccccccccccc0````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````                                             vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvb bbbbb bbbbbbb5641+56677888784454554584555 c g0210220.0.0.0..0..........hhhj2111111111111111111111111111111o9999999999

12qwqqqqqaaqqqq


Hi! I'm Peter! Sister took over the writing, since I'm speaking a language she doesn't understand half the time, and she thinks that you might not know it either. I told her that it's baby talk, everyone has spoken it at  least a few times in their life, but she still does not believe that you will understand what I said! I was showing you how to do a hard math problem, can't you see?    5641+56677888784454554584555 c Does equal  g0210220.0.0.0..0..........hhhj2111111111111111111111111111111o9999999999, does it not? Tori thinks I'm a Genius to have figured that out! Mommy thinks I do like a bit like Einstein...
 
Anyway, I've be doing a great job of walking, Tori says. Everyone thinks that it's sooooo cute when I walk around the kitchen, and when Mommy asks, "Can anyone see Peter?", to make sure I'm not in something I'm not supposed to be in, I run into the room because I heard my name.

I just love fruit, and Mommy and Daddy made me a 'Fresh Fruit Cake' for my first birthday. As you can see...

...I think that it was...

...Delicious!

                                                                                      Bye!

  

Laughing very hard here...

Bri and I have a habit of writing notes back and forth to each other using our email account all the time. I was using my blog to do so today, and I accidentally posted it :P! So, if you saw the post earlier that made absolutely no sense, that is because it wasn't finished, and not to mention... most of the things that Bri and I write don't make sense anyway, heeheehee :)... We sometimes have to ask each other what it means when we get it ;)...

First post on the 'new blog'... and how we set it up.

Well, a couple weeks ago, Bri decided to sit down and export my blog to Blogger, in hopes that I would have a new site 'tomorrow'. Well, actually, that night. Yes, that night we had a new... problem. It was not loading the posts! So... we left that night, after having to restart it three times! When we got up it was, finally!... nothing! So, we had Mommy look at it. And, five minutes later, she found our problem. We were trying to export WordPress on Blogger! So, once she fixed that problem (changed the file to a Blogger file), we set out to design it! That took a while, but we finally have a up and running blog! Yeah! I love the background we found, just what I wanted, :). We got from Plumrose Lane, as the little button thing-y says, haha. The lady who runs it has some really pretty stuff up there, so you are ever in need... haha, ;P!

Short post...

(Or in which we cut the baby's hair, and we find out how much he really has!)

Working so hard...

"What are you doing?!" (And Emmi photo-bombing...)

Handsome little guy...

Love it!

Claymation is done!!!

 "Doll movie-finally!" Hee-hee! Yes, that is what we named it! We had to start over sooooo many times, and name it something different each time, so that it would save our changes! LOL!

Sooooo... After all this time of it not saving!, we got it to work. Well, Daddy did. He showed us how to save it, but we had to make a few changes, and if you have it as a movie file, you have it as a finished product. So, we had to do it all over again! But, thank you, Bri, for being loyal to the end! Thankfully, it is the end!

(Yeah! )

This 'n that...

Hi!

First, I would like to say, this will be a long post! It began on the 26th of February, and it ended on the 2nd of March!

Sooooo... Let's get started...

Yes! Our house is on the...

Ground, of course! Did you think it was in space?

Oh, that!

Yes, the pictures and such are on the...
computermarket, as of the 18th!

Thank you, Jesus!



Things we have done this week...

1. Went to church, and went clothes shopping.


2. Kept the house clean.


3. I have practiced "Canon..." Thank, Katie, for the lesson! (She is our friend from church... she agreed to give me piano lessons.)


4. Loved on babies!


5. Had some people look at our house! Yes, on the very first week!

Have you ever seen sand in a microscope? I have! I had seen some pictures, and they were beautiful! I went to look at some sand in my microscope. Though you can't see what color they are in mine, they are each different and beautiful! It just goes to show how amazing our God is! Also, some people think that the sand we walk on is 'millions of years old'. If it was, how is it there? Would it, or would it not have eroded? That just goes to show that the world is not 'millions of years', just, like, six thousand! Our God is great!

If you have sent a friend request, I'm not ignoring you, just I click on the notifications and it disappears, so I don't know what's going on, just I wanted you to know, I'm not ignoring you on purpose!
!!!!
And, remember that post titled '!!!!!!!!!!!!!'?... It goes to the wrong thing... the first little girl with down syndrome shown now has a family! She's four, and her name is now Anna. She kinda looks like Abbi! I went to that post and clicked on the link and thought "That makes no sense! It's the wrong thing!" Ha-Ha! I have it fixed now... sorry I left you in the dark ;). http://theblessingofverity.com/2012/07/newsflash/ This what it's supposed to go to, :).
Peter has been doing really well... at cruising! He is ten months old and he is showing no signs of walking... I hope he'll walk before he's a year, though! Mom said that he may be getting a hair cut on the weekend. Sniff. . He has sooooo much hair! It's just too funny!

Andrew wants to say that he likes to fly toy planes a lot, and he likes to play with cars. He wants to thank anyone who reads me blog for reading it.

Abbi says "I like to play kites, go outside, and ride in a cars, and to play cars. Sometime, I'll ride on a little toy car!"

Emmi likes to watch 'Animal crackers in my soup!" The other day, she asked when she would get "Turls wike Shurwey Temples''. Well, if she would grow hair (!), we may curl it... once .





Pictures... I hope you enjoy...

But then, how could you not enjoy them?!

She's so flexible!

He's climbing the stairs... and he really did it!

All ready nine months?!

Goose-y girl :).

Emmi and her... friend?, the crayon box... (it's stuck!)

Andrew was excited to cut his own hair!

Bethi, Emmi... and a poor lil'  lamb...

Emmi...

Peter loves leaves!

.

Hee-Hee!

Aww...

Geocaching with Grandpa!











Emmi's 'sea' :).





Swings!




Well, Andrew saved the fair lady, but she wasn't too terribly in a hurry to get off... :)





Yum! Homemade donuts! Thank you Bethi and Aunt Tessa!

And  next up... claymation!

Well, that's all, so, God bless!

Abbi's story... (she would like you to know she typed her own name :).)

Once there was a tiger, and he was lost.

He said "I was lost".

The bird heard him. "Why can't you find your family?"

"Because I'm lost!"

So the bird helped him find his family.

So he said "Thank you! I will give you something. A... CLEMENTINE!!!"

And so the tiger gave the bird a clementine.

The End.

Abbi



Note: Clementines are Emmi's favorite food... she cries when she eats the last one!
This was a story Abbi told me a few nights ago... I told her it was time to go to sleep, so I couldn't tell her a story... so she told me one!

Tori

'bout done!... and the Lord's work

(This was written over the course of a week.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have a door to touch up with paint, and we'll be done! Yeah!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Lord has definitely been in this whole process, down to the very place he's moving us to! We've wanted to move to Virgina for awhile, but Daddy's old job made it so we couldn't... and now his new job makes it so we can! We are very thankful, and we are about to get the house on market. YEAH!!! The realtor dropped by, looked around, and we think Daddy found the new church we will be going to... so we are very excited!

Anyway, would you mind praying that our house would sell quickly, and we would find a new one in Richmond?  (And that we can get the house on market soon?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One more thing we're 'bout done with... "Claymation" video! It's 'kinda' being a pain... ;) But- I hope- it will be up this week! =).

God bless your week and have a restful Sunday!

Update on "Claymation"...

I promise that I am working on the "Claymation' video... but it's taken a while, I was working on it before I put the last post up! Bri has been helping me... we had it done... and then...

We went back to watch it and...

THERE WERE NO PICTURES!!!

Needless to say... it is not done yet...