Little Ones and Technology

You know you are living in the 21st century when your 3 yr. old is doing an art page on Nick Jr. before dinner, Daddy walks up to her, and she says, "Are you gonna log me off?"

Always Fun Visting Grammy and Papa

The girls really miss their grandparents! It was fun to go back to S.C. and stay with them. They got special gift bags when we got there. My parents converted a closet under their staircase into a little play area for the girls a few years ago. They were excited to be back there! I think they feel as though they are little princesses when they are there. :-) They even get to stay in their own very nice room. I'm including a couple of pics. My mom has done a great job with the rooms. This was the first time for our girls to sleep in the same bed. After a couple of nights of Daddy showing his seriousness about them being in there to sleep, we didn't have problems. :-) Well, here are the royal subjects and their accomodations. Ha ha

More Pictures of Jonas and Family

Jonas With an Interesting Question on His Shirt

Mom and Dad With Their Grandkids

Back to the Blog!

Well, it has been a while, but I am back to posting. I was unable to go to Gary Campbell's funeral due to continued recovering, but Kris said that it was amazing--God-focused, great testimony, very moving, etc. We were encouraged once again to think of our own lives and what kind of testimony we will leave behind. By God's grace, may He be lifted up and seen!

I was very excited that my doctor gave me permission to go on our trip to S.C. It was great! I will be working on posting lots of new pictures. We had a great time loving on baby Jonas, spending time with family, seeing our dear friends, and just relaxing as a family. I unfortunately spent part of Tues. at an Urgent Care because of some stitches not wanting to hold. :-/ Thank the Lord that wasn't serious, and I can still wait to see my surgeon on the 29th for my post-op. I was a bit sad though. We had a day planned with my parents and Sarah and Joe to go to Charlotte for the day (Cheesecake Factory, IMAX, a little shopping. . . .). Obviously I was already doing too much, so the Lord kept me from making things worse by doing more than maybe I should have. We did get to go to our friends', the Bells, house that night and have a wonderful time with friends, nearly 20 of them (kids included). I also had a couple of lunches before we left with girls that were in our youth group when Kris was at Grace. It was neat to see what God is doing in their lives.

I have to praise my wonderful husband for making my birthday so special. He picked up the girls and me for lunch (surprise!) and took us to a wings place we love here in town. It was awesome! He wouldn't tell me what we were doing later, but I knew I needed to be ready. He came home from work with beautiful flowers, and then we packed up the girls, took them to some friends to be watched, and then went to Outback Steakhouse on a date! Since surgery, we haven't had time like that, so it was very special. Both of us had incredible meals too. :-) We did some shopping afterward at stores in Saginaw that we don't have here, and then I got a great card from him that included a certain dollar amount for me to go shopping for clothes/jewelry I might want. 8-) He said he will watch the girls whenever I want to go. He's wonderful!!! Thanks, sweetheart--I love you!

Prayer Requested

Last night we received the news that Gary Campbell had a heart attack and passed away in the early evening. The news was shocking to us, and the response was emotional. Gary has been at Calvary for many years, and just in the last couple of years (almost) that we have been here, he was an amazing blessing to us. This man served the Lord and people all the time. He was always helping around the school/church fixing things, driving the bus for field trips, etc. He greeted us every Sunday morning in the hallway as we headed to our SS class. He was always smiling and joking with us. I don't know exactly how old he was, but probably in his 50s. He seemed to be around my dad's age, and his daughter, Barb, who is our preschool secretary, and I are close in age. Kris and I had many thoughts of what it was like in those first hours and days after losing his own Mom and then Dad. It helps us to pray for the Campbell family in specific ways and empathize with them. We pray God will use us to encourage and be there for them if we can, especially Barb and her kids, as this is where we relate most of all. Please pray for them and for the funeral arrangements being made today. We thank God for Gary's testimony and influence in our lives.

Another New Baby

For those of you who don't know her, Jenny Muth is like a sister to me here in Midland. I could go on and on right now about how God has used her in my life. She and her husband Michael reached out to make us feel at home and welcome in Midland before we had ever even met face to face--neat stories I don't have space for. :-) They have servants' hearts like you wouldn't believe and, without question, have a deep love for God and desire to serve Him. Kris and I are so thankful for their friendship! I just wanted to celebrate the birth of her first baby here with this post. How exciting it has been to have Jonas, my own nephew born and see him last month (seeing him in a week too! :-) ) Now my "sister" here is celebrating her first baby, and I am privileged to celebrate with her as well.

Summer Fun!

Well, for you family members and friends in the south, we are feeling the same type of heat you have been having. We actually were even warmer than places like AZ, FL, and SC yesterday. Our heat index in Mid-Michigan was 110 degrees! Kris went to play an 8:45 PM softball game last night. It was 90 degrees at that time of day with a heat index of 100 still. Unbelievable! Today and tomorrow are predicted to be the same. The girls are loving the pool. I unfortunately can't go in still because of my type of surgery. We had a girl from church come over this morning with a couple of other kids she babysits, and they all had a blast. Olivia doesn't usually last long in the pool for some reason. Today the issue was that she didn't want to be splashed by the older kids. As you will see below, she found her way to have fun them. :-)

Emma having fun with the Ouderkirks

Emma ready to jump in

Olivia ready to attack

Olivia spraying the kids in the pool

Olivia looking pretty proud of herself

Our House With An Unwanted New Look

Okay, I don't know what it is about this. In all the years of Kris' being a youth pastor, we never once got our house rolled. We haven't even lived here for 2 yrs., and we've had it done two times! Last year after graduation night, our house, the principal's house, and someone else's got it. We laughed until we found out that 80 rolls of toilet paper had been stolen from the school/church. That's just ridiculous! Hopefully that is not what happened this time. We never found out who did that. We woke up this morning though to quite an awful site. The front yard is one thing, but we keep our gate in the back locked 'cause of the pool, and whoever got us this time, climbed our gate and got the backyard. Kris and the girls spent the morning cleaning up the at least 86 rolls of toilet paper used last night (just what he needs as he has enough to deal with while I am down) and is a bit worried about the pool and the filter (thankfully turned off) now. I am reminding myself of all we say about God's sovereignty, because I have not been a happy camper this morning because of how this adds to Kris' pressures! Of course, my wonderful husband says, if that's why I am upset, than I should just relax, because he's not (not too badly anyway). :-)

Introducing Butterscotch

Well, I figured if I gave Daisy, Sarah's dog, a spot on our blog, then I certainly should give honor to our own pet. :-) We became pet owners for the first time last year (well, we did have fish in S.C.). After Emma's regularly asking for some sort of pet, and much discussion on our part, we decided a guinea pig would be good. She had been around the classroom guinea pig at school and really liked it. I did not seem to have any allergy problems when I was playing with it, so we agreed on getting one of our own. Butterscotch is coming up on 1 yr. old and is a fun little guy to have around.

Butterscotch likes to run around in our foyer area. We keep our bedroom doors closed. It's not fun trying to get him out from under the bed or dresser.

The girls loving on Butterscotch

Butterscotch LOVES his hay. He eats pellets and yogurt drops during the day and chews on bark bites. His most favorite thing in all the world is getting carrots in the morning. He squeaks for them as soon as we are awake.

Butterscotch plays in and with his chew tunnel.

That's all folks!

Never Would Have Guessed, Would You?

Check this out: http://www.honda.co.uk/civic/

My chorale director in Midland sent this link to us this past year. I thought this would be a fun post for our blog. It is amazing to me what is making every sound in this commercial. Click "Watch Civic" when you get past the intro., and it will take you to the commercial. For those of you more curious, continue by watching how they made the whole thing. It is fascinating!

Fun With Money!

You want something fun to do? Emma and I just ran across this site that shows how to make a shirt with a dollar bill. We tried it out, and here are the results. For your own directions, including photos for each step, visit:

http://members.cox.net/crandall11/money/shirt/

Queen Daisy

I don't know. Sarah may have gone too far on this one. Ha ha Check out the web site for her DOG!!!! She really is a fun little dog, definitely full of energy. I just didn't know you could basically do My Space type pages for your pets. Maybe I will get our guinea pig, Butterscotch, his own. . . .

http://www.dogster.com/pet_page.php?j=t&i=353754

Emma getting Daisy to play

Olivia in a tug-of-war with Daisy

Jonas Charles Barker

Yeah!!!!! I have a nephew! Little Jonas took everyone by surprise and came 5 weeks early. We are so glad that he is healthy and growing well now. God gave me an unexpected opportunity to go to Greenville to meet the little guy and help my sister for a week. I was able to drive down with a couple of college students from our church who already had a trip planned to leave the night Jonas was born. They heard about his coming early and my wishing I could be there and offered to take me. I knew nothing of their plans to be going to Greenville! Kris had extra time off that week due to the holiday and stayed with the girls. The neatest thing was that I didn't tell Sarah I was coming. We left late on July 3, drove through the night, and I showed up at the hospital after lunch on July 4. It was truly emotional!

What an awesome head of hair, huh?

Silliest Picture Award--Part 2

Well, I've discovered you can have only so many pics in a post, so I divided the silly pictures into two posts. I am learning. . . .

Emma after losing her first top middle tooth--Excited?!?

Emma after losing both top middle teeth--Yikes!

Olivia wrapped like a mummy after a bath

Olivia ready for her birthday party!

And there they are. . . .

And the Silliest Picture Award Goes to. . . .

Just wanted to show some of the silly sides of our girls that they have exhibited so far this year. They definitely keep us smiling and laughing!

The girls enjoying Christmas cupcakes (in January :-) ) at Great-Grandma Hottle's house

Having fun playing dress up at my cousins house in January

Olivia fell and couldn't get up out of the snow.

All I said was, "Show Mommy some silly faces." We got the "NO WAY!" pic and the Godfather.

Girls with spirit! Faces were painted for the Homecoming game at our school.

During our AZ trip to visit Kris' Grandma, we went to his cousins house. I tried to get a nice "4 generations" picture. Thanks Emma for your help!