Welcome to Blogland!!!

I just wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Brandy, who fiNally got a blog!!!!! Woo-hoo, welcome to blogland Brandy!!! I love ya girl and I am so glad that you will be sharing in our adventures. We will get to know each other even better through our crazy little posts. Everyone out there has already learned a lot more about me: like that I am a little more competitive than even I realized!!! (and Bethany is still kicking my tail!! - go Bethany!!!) ;.)

Anyway, I really am glad that you have joined us and I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do. We have all come up with a rule - you must post at least once a week, LOL. No REALLY!!!!

New 'Do

I finally did it! My friend Brandy blessed me with a gift certificate to get my hair cut for my birthday (which was 3 months ago) and I finally went and got my hair cut!!!! I am such a procrastinator. Anyway, I absolutely love it and I just wanted to share the news with everyone. Thank you soooooo much Brandy for a wonderful birthday present!!!!

Look at those lips!!!

OMG!! Look at what I found! We were in the grocery store last night and I spotted these at the checkout line. I loved these when I was growing up - do you remember them, the ones you play with and then you can chew them up like gum and spit them out when you are done. The kids loved them. It's the first time they have ever seen any. So we are walking out of the grocery store and the kids are looking at everyone who passes with these giant red lips. Everyone just kinda looked away, but I bet they were wondering?????

Word Works

We had Word Works again last night and it was awesome, as usual. I am working on training up a couple of new table leaders and they are gonna be awesome!! They are so full of the Word of God - I am excited to see what all God has in store for them!


Our Bible study this week was on Bathsheba. It's funny because I never looked at the story of David and Bathsheba from the perspective of Bathsheba. I think most people would agree that we all concentrate on David's side of the story. But our Bible study required us to think a little more deeply about Bathsheba's motives and to examine our own motives in life. It really made me think about how my state of mind can affect the decisions I make. I mean, think about Bathsheba. If her husband had been at home, available to her and making her feel like a wonderful wife and woman, she might have made a different decision. Or if she had been focused on God instead of feeling sorry for herself because her noble man was out fighting the king's battle. But instead, she was probably feeling vulnerable and insecure about herself. So when King David called for her, she jumped at the chance to feel loved. (This is all my interpretation, some people saw her as the victim). Regardless, it made me think about how when I am not keeping my eyes focused on God, it is so much easier to fall into sin. Just like David, if he had been out on the battlefield, where he was supposed to be, instead of bored out of his mind in his castle - he wouldn't have called for her in the first place. Then this whole situation could have been avoided, the baby wouldn't have died and there wouldn't have been curses on David's house. Thank God that He is so merciful and forgives us when we make stupid decisions. Once David's sin was revealed and he repented, God was able to use him. Ultimately, God uses David and Bathsheba because Jesus is one of their descendants.

It really made me think about how we need to be so careful to remain focused on God. The times I fall into sin are the times when I have let my eye stray to my circumstances instead of God. Instead of looking at how huge my God is, I am focused on how scary the storm is. If I will just continue reading the Word, meditating on it and speaking it out, all the while praying to God and maintaining that relationship, I won't be as likely to fall. But every time I get sidetracked, satan is right there to steal, kill and destroy anything he can get his hands on. It is so important to be led by the Holy Spirit and allow our footsteps to be ordered by God. There is NO storm that is too big for Him to calm. And there is nothing more peaceful than abiding in Him in the midst of the storms of life.

Homemade Potato Soup

I just made one of the best potato soups I have ever tasted!! I got it off of RecipeZaar, this is the first recipe I have ever gotten from this website and I am very pleased. I copied and pasted it onto my page exactly as it appeared on the website. Here it is:

Easy, Creamy Potato Soup Recipe #15165
Easy and very creamy soup with taste! Great served with grilled cheese sandwiches. Will satisfy even the meat lovers in your family.
by Karen From Colorado
30 min 10 min prep

SERVES 6 -8

5-6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size pieces
1/2-1 lb bacon
1/4-1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels or whole kernel corn, drained
1 medium onion, diced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup butter (optional)
salt and pepper, to taste
Fry bacon until crisp (see recipe #242966 for homemade bacon bit tips). Remove to paper towels to drain. Reserve bacon grease.
Meanwhile, boil potatoes in a large dutch oven in water; do not add salt! Drain.
Pour reserved bacon grease into empty dutch oven; saute onion and garlic in reserved bacon grease until onion is lightly browned.
Add flour to the sauted onion mixture, stirring to evenly brown; add cream and stir constantly until mixture thickens; add chicken broth and stir until bubbly.
Stir potatoes, corn and crumbled bacon into the soup; add butter, salt and pepper to taste. (you may not need salt. Bacon is very salty) Simmer until butter is melted and stirred into soup.
Add milk at little at a time if soup is too thick for your tastes.

© 2008 Recipezaar. All Rights Reserved. http://www.recipezaar.com/

This soup was so creamy, different from others I have made in the past. And it was just a really heartwarming soup for the cool weather. I did a few things differently, simply b/c I was trying to use the stuff I had in my own kitchen without going to the store. I did not use bacon at all, so to saute the onions I had to use shortening and butter. I also didn't have garlic, so I used garlic powder. I used creamed corn instead of kernel b/c that's what I had. The last thing I did differently is that I added a five cheese blend b/c my family loves cheese. I think that this made a big difference in the flavor, so if your family likes cheese I would suggest going with it! I think that this soup could be made into a spicy southwestern style soup and be really delicious (minus the bacon, of course). I can't wait to try it with bacon, but even if we don't like the bacon, I will definitely be doing this soup again. I might try some mexicorn next time and maybe some spicy cheddar cheese.

More funny faces....

Ok, the last post got me to thinking, some of my favorite pictures are of my family doing silly faces. So I thought I would share some silly faces with everyone. Come to think of it, I would love to see some silly faces from all of you bloggers out there!!!! Don't be embarassed, it's all in good fun!!!
Some of these are recent and some are older. This first one is not too long ago when we were outside playing in the mud.

This was also pretty recent, just me and Mahala goofing off.

This one was about 2 years ago, when we first moved to California. We were in the parking lot at Target and it was raining. I think we were in the car waiting for Shawn to come out and I was bored, so I started taking pictures. Then Shawn came out and he took this one of me. I took the next one after of him. He's gonna kill me for posting it!

These two were taken about 3 years ago at Thanksgiving in GA. It was the year before we moved to California, so Mahala was right before 2 years old. These were some good memories. We were at Granny McNeal's house stuffing ourselves full of the best Thanksgiving food ever!!!!! Boy, I miss those days!!

This was Colten being all tough with his Transformer sunglasses that his Granny bought him.

This was another Thanksgiving picture. This is Colten and our cousin, Kay-Kay, whom we miss dearly!!!! Love you Kay-Kay!!!!!

This picture is old, but oh so cute. This is Mahala's first bite ever of chocolate. She was barely a year old and she thought it was so good. She's always made some silly faces, I have tons more of her - she rarely takes a serious picture.

Wow, I enjoyed doing this post. Looking back through all of my pictures, brought back some memories. Made me long for our family back in Georgia. We love all of you and miss you so much!!!!!

Funny face

I told Brandy that I would post this on my blog. She took it at the Pumpkin Patch and she said "You have to post this on your blog!" So I said I would, then I forgot about it. She gave me the CD of the pictures this past weekend and reminded me that I had a picture to put on my blog. So here is my goofy self. I am not sure why I made this face, but I think it had something to do with her husband Nick teasing me about taking so many pictures. So I made a face at him and Brandy told me to do it again so she could get a picture. So laugh away at my stupid face, it's ok, I can take it!

Homemade Clay

We did a really neat project today that I have never done before. We made homemade clay dough. It's kinda like playdough, but different. I found the recipe online and it is used to make Christmas ornaments, so it dries kind of lightweight, instead of heavy like playdough. You can add food coloring to it to make different colors, or you could add pudding or jello or kool-aid if you want it to be good tasting (for those who have little ones, this might be a good idea). Anyway, we didn't color the dough b/c we plan on painting it when it is completely dry. We like a variety of colors, so we wanted to be able to decorate it ourselves. The kids liked the way it felt. You could use cookie cutters to cut it out, then punch a hole in the top for the string and 'voila' you have extra special ornaments!!! Here is the recipe if you are interested:

2 cups baking soda
1 cup cornstarch
1 1/4 cups water

Mix the ingredients together in a medium pan and cook over medium heat until the mixture resembles soft mashed potatoes. Remove from heat and cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until you can hold it. You can play with it and then seal in an airtight container, or make ornaments and leave overnight to dry.

We actually put it in the oven for a while on 250 to speed up the drying process, but the bottom was still not dry, so we will have to let them dry overnight anyway. After we paint I may post pictures of the finished products at a later date.

Mahala's cooking

Mahala wanted to help me cook supper the other night. So I let her go to it! We were making meatloaf, so I let her crack the eggs and crush the crackers. I had already done the onions and seasonings, so all that was left was the mixing.


The first touch she said was slimy, so she was a little hesitant at first:


But then she dug in!!!

She was so proud of herself.

I even let her put it in the oven all by herself!

Mahala was so excited that she had cooked supper. She told Daddy that she had done it all by herself!!! These kids are really getting into the cooking thing, I am amazed. Mahala is the perfect little homemaker! Before long, they will be running the household, LOL!

Fall Explosion

We spent our halloween at the Fall Explosion - it was a blast!!! We had over 10,000 people come thru b/t the Fresno and Clovis sites. How awesome is that??? I cannot wait to see some of those faces again very soon. We prayed ahead for many souls to be saved, many people to be touched by the Spirit of God during that time and I believe that God answered that prayer. I am so excited about the impact Celebration is having on the Valley and just as excited to be a part of that.
This is my little giraffe. She was so cute. I had 3 different people come up to me and say "Oh my gosh, I thought you were holding a stuffed animal" when I was holding her in my arms. It was really funny. She didn't even seem to be bothered by the big stuffed head on top of her head.



Here is my pirate captain. I was a little skeptical about this costume, I am not big on pirates. But Daddy loves Pirates of the Caribbean and so does Colten, so majority ruled. He really was handsome in his costume. He even had an "earring." He thought he was cool!

And here is my sweet little bride. I called her the "bride of Christ" cause Daddy was not happy about his little girl being dressed as a bride at 4 1/2 years old!!! So that is how I convinced him to let her dress up like this. The costume was a handmade by Brandy's mom when Brandy was about 7 years old. It was so special and I was so nervous to have Mahala wearing it, but she did pretty good. Right up until we got home and I found out that she had chewed a hole in her glow bracelet and the ORANGE liquid had leaked all down the dress. Wanna know how I figured it out? She was GLOWING in the dark when we walked into our house that night!!! Leave it to Mahala, that little girl is so much like her mama. I yanked the dress off of her and threw it in the wash immediately. Whew! It all came out. That's the last time one of my kids borrows an heirloom for their halloween costume!!! (or anything else) Big thanks to Brandy for being awesome enough to risk her special outfit being ruined. That was so sweet and thoughtful of her, cause it was way better than the store bought versions we found.

On to less drama...the Fall Explosion really was a lot of fun. The kids waited in the line to get candy - trunks were amazing. Everyone worked so hard on their trunks to make them extra special for all of the visitors. This was the Noah's Ark trunk. They had several "animals" in or around the ark. It was my favorite.

Then we went to the rock climbing b/c that is Colten's absolute favorite thing to do.

Next, we took a break to get Anastacia out of her costume b/c she was getting hot. As Daddy was trying to get her out, she puked on him. I got this picture of it before we got it cleaned up. I thought it was funny cause it wasn't me getting puked on!!!

Mahala going down the huge slide:

This was our stage for the announcers - it turned out really pretty. Brandy and Pastor Terri (and all of the others who helped them) did a great job with the decorating!! This was our final picture for the night at Fall Explosion.

Finally, the pumpkins are done!

So, remember that my kids all got some kind of icky virus the day they were supposed to be carving pumpkins? Well, they finally finished them. They actually got them done the day before Halloween, so we left them out for a few extra days. But I just got around to gettting this posted. They look all gross inside b/c we couldn't get all of the guts out after they sat in the fridge for almost a week. And these suckers were hard to carve!!! Colten was so excited about his b/c he was a pirate for halloween, so he wanted his pumpkin to match. I thought it was really creative!

Four year old shots

Mahala had her four year old well baby checkup today and had to get some shots. She was supposed to have 4-5 shots total, but I told them that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do all of them at once. Boy am I glad I made that decision. We ended up only doing 2 and it was all I do to keep her still for those two!! She did really good just before and did ok with the first one, but when it came to the second she put up a fight. I had to wrap my arms all the way around her and hold her very still. Two down, two to go!!! Plus she has to have blood work done. UGH!!! I'm waiting on Daddy for that one. I don't know if I could hold her still long enough to get two vials of blood!!!

Actually, I'm really proud of her. When I was little it took a doctor, two nurses and my mom to give me just one shot! I was a fighter. I hated needles with a passion!! I still do, but now I have to act like a big girl. To tell you how much I hate needles, I have had three children and never had an epidural. With Anastacia, I didn't have ANY drugs at all, not even an IV! That's how much I hate needles. I would rather deal with the pain than have a huge needle stuck in my back! Of course, Anastacia was a supernatural childbirth, but the first two were definitely NOT!!

OK, so this post wasn't supposed to be about me, but I wanted to let you know why I am so proud of her. Even though she fought a little, she got over it really quick (which I never did) and she walked out of that office with her head held high and an ice pack on each arm, LOL!! So here are a couple of pictures of my big girl:

Playing with toys

Anastacia has been grasping toys for a little while and maybe even shaking them by accident, but this is the first time she has "on purpose" shook a toy! And I caught it on video!!! I love it when that happens! I know there is a ton of distracting ME noise, but every time I said "yay Anastacia" she would smile and do it again. So I kept saying it to keep her going. I took a second video that I didn't post here because I stopped saying "yay Anastacia" and she got really mad!!! The little munchkin has found her temper over the last few days and it ain't always perty!!! Anyway, I was excited about this new skill that she has learned and I wanted to share it with everyone!

It's onnnnnnnnnnnnn......

Okay, I don't have time to sit down and upload photos right now, my daughter has a well baby checkup, but I am sooooo gonna be doing some posts over the next few days, so get ready!!!! Thanks to Pastor Sheri, I now have some incentive to do so! In case you haven't read her blog, she has set up a challenge: the blogger with the most posts will get a surprise mailed to them personally by the Queen of Cute!!! I can't wait to win! (You hear that Cortnee???) I have so many pictures I have been wanting to post, so I might have to sit up a few late nights to do this, but I am pumped. I love a good competition!!!!