A City Life For Me

I just completed part four of our 2012 year in digital scrapbook layouts, and I ordered the pages printed in a Photo Book from Shutterfly .  After trying several different photo book websites, Shutterfly is the only one I use now!  I think their site is the easiest to use, their prices are the best, and the product is superb.  They have a widget now that lets me share my completed book in digital form, so take a look! Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to view this photo book larger Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Today I’m thankful for good friends!  Last weekend we had the blessing of spending some time with college friends.  Our friends Donny & Erika live in Connecticut, and Samantha and her husband Doug live in New Hampshire.  We all met at Erika’s house for a fun day!  There was lots of yummy food, quite a few babies, toddlers running all over, a couple games of Settlers of Catan, and a plate of delicious Samoa Brownies!  It was a great, relaxing day.  The kids even did well in the car! Elaine is really into the Lone Ranger.  Erika made her day when she brought this dinosaur down from the attic.  It looks much more like a horse than the rocking chair does! Kevin didn’t want to be left out of the fun! Kevin, Erika, Donny, and Cassie The “big” kiddos – Nolan (2), Cassie (21 mo.), Kevin (3), and Elaine (3.5)   Samantha, Erika, and I were friends in college. This was the first time I met Sam’s husband Doug.  The...

:: Elaine washed the breakfast dishes {I only helped a little at the end} :: Nehemiah helped put out the fire :: Nehemiah loves playtime! :: Little Man – working hard on this “potty chair” thing

All of my kiddos really like bath time, but Liberty and Nehemiah particularly enjoy the water!  Liberty can be screaming her head off one second, but as soon as her toes touch the water she is smiling and calm! It would seem like a good idea to bathe both kiddos together, but sometimes it is just more of a mess!  Twice as many clothes to remove, twice as many opportunities to get peed on, and twice as much screaming because the baby is cold after they come out of the water!  It didn’t take them long to start “fighting” while I prepared the bath water today! “Truce” And this was before she got in the water! Love her eyes! Bath time done!

When Elaine was about 18 months old, I printed off some uber basic memory verses to teach her.  They were short, partial verses like, “Be ye kind” or “God is love.”  I put an icon or picture on each verse to help her learn by association and understand the verses better.  I think we had 8 or 10 verses to learn.  She did very well, and now I am using those verses with Nolan. But this summer Elaine was encouraged several times to learn longer verses.  She got to participate in our Summer Adventure Club at church, and she learned a verse each night (trying to win the grand prize for her age group).  I was impressed with how easily she learned the verses.  Then she learned all of Romans 6:23 for a friend’s VBS program.  She then quoted it to Grandma, Pastor, and her Sunday School teacher too.  And now each Sunday she wants to go to Sunday School and know her verse. For a while I have wanted to do ABC memory verses.  But all of the ones I...