A New Creature In Christ

This year has been an amazing year. A lot has happened. I'm going to share what has happened in Ben's life. I asked Ben if he wanted to write it but he decided he was going to let me do it. Here's a little bit of the back story. Ben and me come from strong church families. When moving to Traverse City, we had a hard time finding a church that we liked. Our jobs at the time required us working Sundays and soon gave up the search. When Riley was born, I felt the need again to find a church. I wanted her to have the great experiences that we did growing up. I started going to West Side Community Church with my sister and anytime Ben had off he would go with us. Ben would go but it did it more for the social part of it and for Riley. Skip forward to last fall, I encouraged Ben to go to Grief Support, a small group that our church was hosting. (Ben lost his brother in 93' and his dad in 05') You could see God starting to work slowly in Ben's life and Ben opening up to it more. Ben had never fully dealt with his brother's death and I had worried that he would do the same with his dad's. Guy's Stuff started shortly after Grief Support and after the first couple of weeks, God moved in amazing ways in that group. It really opened his eyes and Ben decided that he could and didn't want to do it alone and gave his life to God. They ended the first year of Guy's Stuff with a retreat. He came home from that weekend a changed man. He told me he had had closure to alot of issues he had with his childhood and with his dad and wasn't doing his job as husband and father. At this point I was a little confused. Ben is a wonderful husband and father. When I questioned him, he said that he wasn't taking on the role as a spiritual leader and wasn't setting a good example for the girls but planned to do so from now on. We have always had a good relationship and family life but things are even better. We try to do when we can devotions and include the girls too. The girls love reading from their Bible and are always asking questions. Which now brings us to this past Sunday night. Ben with commiting his life to Christ, showed his faithfulness by being baptized in water. It was an awesome night. Ben, you have made so many changes over the course of this year and I am truly proud of the man of faith you have become. I thank God every day for you and look forward to seeing what God has in store for you and our family!

I Don't Wanna Take a Nap!

All my girls have such different personalities. It truly amazes me. From day one, Aubrey has always put in her opinion. She is no doubt a Mama's girl. Its gotten to the point that if I put her down for a nap, I need to make sure she is sleeping because if I go into the room and she sees me, she won't stay in her crib. On my day off I had alot of things I wanted to accomplish and Aubrey was due for a nap. She is cutting teeth and was getting cranky but she knew that we were going to make cookies and didn't want to be left out. S0 I put her in her crib and then discovered Duchess, our new kitten had darted into our room and was hiding under the crib. So I went in to grab the cat and discovered her at the other end of the crib, near the door waiting for me to come in. The poor thing was so tired this is how she fell asleep. I couldn't resist taking her pictures.

Fish,Bugs, & Frogs Oh My!

To my husband's delight, we went fishing today. Like most men, Ben loves to fish and hunt. After the girls came along there wasn't alot of time for him to go. We went and let the girls pick out their poles. Princess for Riley and Dora for Piper. They all were so excited to go. So this afternoon we went out to a lake in Interlochen. Riley kept telling me she was going to catch the biggst Fish I ever saw and was going to eat it. Ewww. For those who don't know, I don't eat fish unless its fish sticks. Then she was going to put in the popperdaddy.What is a popperdaddy, you ask? It took me a minute to figure out what this was. She was saying it so fast. Its a pot for Daddy. Luckily we were doing catch and release today. I honestly didn't think we would catch anything. Within minutes of getting there hooks baited and lines cast they caught something. Aubrey even got in on the action! Ben caught live five fish, Riley caught at least four and Piper caught three. Me, you ask? I caught quite a bit. Sticks,seaweed and lilypads. I know, you don't need to tell me I'm a great fisherman or woman, whatever. It was really bad. I would hang on to one of the poles and as soon as I handed them over, someone would catch a fish. I just bring everyone else luck. I was really surprised Ben even caught anything. He spent more time baiting hooks and untangling lines from the tree stump ( Sorry honey, its been awhile since I last fished Great legs though! ;) )Towards the end the fish quit biting and Riley sat down on a log and said "I didn't order a fish" then Piper sat down next to her and said " I didn't order a fish either." They were too cute. They were soon distracted when Piper discovered a frog. Who needs to order a fish when you can chase a frog?! Here are the pictures from our adventure!

Ribbit Ribbit says the Daddy?!

Our nightly routine this summer has been hanging out next door with our neighbor Lorraine. She has a really big trampoline and lets the girls play on it. She even lets 'the big kids ' play on it too. Ben is amazing when he gets up there. I think he is reliving his second childhood or maybe never left his first?! Just kidding honey! He can do all these crazy stunts and Riley is starting to pick some of them up. I'm going have all whites hairs by the time I'm thirty. They really are rough and tumble little girls. Their favorite game is Daddy the frog. They stand on one side with Ben on the other and he rib bits and leaps to the other side, trying to catch them. It only takes a half a leap for him. He is all arms and legs. This brings on non-stop giggles and "Catch me Daddy!" for a good portion of the evening. Then Aubrey puts in her two cents and she gets up there just long enough to realize how crazy her Daddy and sisters are and its back into the safety of Mama's arms. Enjoy the pictures. They are hilarious(esp. of Daddy the frog)

The New Family Pictures

We finally went and got more recent family pictures of the girls. plus a current family picture.
Apparently being pregnant with Aubrey doesn't count as her being in our last picture. Some people are soooo picky. I'm glad we only do this once a year. Three kids under the age of four,trying to get them to cooperate. Fun times! Riley loved every minute of if. ( she after all is my superstar) Piper didn't want anything it do with it. ( I kept hearing her coin phrase right now. "I don't like that!") Aubrey really could have cared less. I will admit that had to bribe Piper with a toy duck. The lady taking our pictures had one there. So in order to get Piper to kiss Aubrey and sit for her pictures have to be bribed. I'm hoping this won't be a continuing pattern otherwise I may be in trouble. So here they are.......

A New Addiction

I have finally gotten my family to start eating a little healthier. When Riley was born, I really wanted her to eat healthy and not have any sugar. I had forgotten one very important thing. Her father has a large sweet tooth. So the last four years have been a struggle with creating good, healthy eating habits. A couple of weeks ago, I started 'The Biggest Loser' at work.' I decided it was time to lose a few of these extra baby pounds that insisted on sticking around and I wanted to get into better shape. (it really takes alot of energy to keep up with Ben and the girls) Ben surprised me and said he would join me in eating healthier. Not for him to lose weight. ( I just wanted to clarify that. The boy doesn't have an ounce of fat on him).In doing this, I discovered a new peanut butter. Let me tell you, this stuff is worth every penny. Its not as sweet as say Jiffy. The girls will eat it straight from the jar. I highly recommend trying it out. Stay tuned to see if the healthy habits stick. Chocolate chip cookies

are a major staple in our household!