TIMBER!!!

Maple tree in our backyard

The climberTrunk & StumpStump (not ground out yet)

Large pieces of maple for Chester/Cara!

For those of you who have been over to our house you may recall that there is a lot of shade in our backyard. This shade is mostly due to a big maple tree sitting smack dab in the middle of the yard. We've enjoyed this tree for years however we began to notice a significant amount of "sawdust" gathering around the center where the tree forks into to large sections. After a visit from a tree-hugging arborist who strongly suggested we either cable the tree (bolt large sections of the tree together with cable) or remove it due to significant rot issues. He thought a heavy rain storm or ice storm, both common in our area, could put extreme stress on the section of tree that was rotting (and leaning towards the house) possibly causing the tree to fail (translation - fall on our HOUSE). So Gary and I scheduled the removal of this great tree which happened today. It was an amazing process to watch beginning at 8am sharp and ending around 1:30ish. Three guys, one being the "climber", wielded chainsaws, hydraulic lifting machines and a huge chipper took down our tree. Here are some before pictures, during pictures and after.

10 YEARS!!!

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary! It sure doesn't feel like 10 years - boy did it go by fast. I'm so blessed to be doing life with such an amazing guy.

For those who attended our wedding and friends we have met since, we want to thank you for your prayers throughout the years for us, our marriage and for our family. We truly believe that our marriage cannot survive without our constant seeking of God's plan and putting Him above all else.

With Love

Gary & Erin

"Colossians 3:14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Ephesians 5:31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”"

Sew much to learn...

My latest "hobby" the last few years has been to learn how to sew. What I love most about it is that it accommodates my short attention span and provides countless opportunities for me to try new projects. I am self taught therefore how I sew is probably incorrect in many ways yet it "seams" (pun for my mom!) to work for me. Awhile back I checked out a great book from the library that had some simple quilts patterns and well written instructions showing how to piece the pieces together. I modified this one pattern to fit my interests and the result is my first quilt project. I call it the Pink Baby Blanket. Since I have a lot of scrap fabric (mostly with pink in it) this project was a great way to use up some of these pieces rather than throw them out or let them continue to collect dust. Here is a picture of my finished project. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and hope to try something like it again in the future.

Genuine Prayer From a Child

...."God please teach my mommy more about you so she can teach me more about you....."

Baby Steps

Drew has been taking steps here and there but he is still quite wobbly. Just recently he has gotten a little braver and instead of scaling the perimeter of a room he is now starting to walk directly to someone/something. Here is a short video of the little guy in action!

Happy Birthday Drew!

Drew turned 1 on April 30! He enjoyed his party - especially the cake! Thanks to all who helped make his first birthday so much fun. By the way the "football" cake was decorated by Heather (aka aunt heddie) who is Gary's sister. She let the girls help and taught them how to use her decorating tools and pastry bag.

Crafty Kids

The last time the kids and I went to the library I checked out this great kids craft book, "Green Crafts for Kids" by Emma Hardy. The book had a lot of easy, creative and quick projects that used many basic household items that didn't require a special trip to the craft of fabric store (bummer). The first was homemade play dough. I had never made it before but I remembered from childhood playing with home made play dough that had a very strong smell that I wasn't too fond of. I decided to add a little vanilla extract to the dough mixture and boy did it smell GOOD! So good in fact that Rian, overwhelmed by temptation, took a little nibble....then spit it out! I guess she forgot how much salt she helped me add to the recipe!

The second craft we tried was making cardboard sandals. We had some leftover cardboard boxes from some newly installed outdoor lights (thanks Gary) which we cut up to make the sandal soles. The straps were made from an empty cereal box and then embellished with some cutout flowers from the latest Martha Stewart magazine. Here are some pictures of our crafty sandals.

Oodles of Noodles

For one reason or another the girls have recently decided that they don't like to eat spaghetti (which happens to be one of Gary's favorite dinners). Kami claims that the sauce is too "spicy" and Rian is still just picky. I tried adding meatballs since they were into the "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" movie which worked for one round of spaghetti and meatball dinner. The last time I made it for dinner I promised I would give the girls their own "long" plain noodles after they ate their spaghetti/sauce/meatball dinner. Here is what happens when you give long plain noodles to my silly girls!

Green Grass

This wonderful weather has really been enjoyable! Rian, Drew and I sat in the grass this afternoon waiting for Kami to get off the bus. This was Drew's first time sitting in the grass and he was a little apprehensive about it refusing to touch it. He did however accept a single blade of grass from his big sis Rian which he, like most babies, shoved it in his mouth before I could grab it from him. After a short battle trying to pry his lips open I realized the little guy swallowed it - oh well! Just then Kami got off the bus and Rian greeted her shouting "Kami guess what? Drew just ate his first piece of grass!" A look of great concern spread across Kami's face as she asked "Mom will he get a grass stain in his stomach?" :)

Kick - Chop - HI YAHHHH!

Kami recently finished an 11 week Tae Kwon Do class. Here are some videos of her in ACTION!

Kami is the one in the purple pants

quick kick!