say a little prayer

If you think of it can you please say a little prayer for Aaron and I. We are sharing at our church's Thanksgiving service about T's adoption. Will you pray that God gives us the words HE wants us to say and that people will feel encouraged by our story. OH and pray that I'm not too long winded and that I don't cry the whole time. It's so hard to talk about something so close to your heart and not cry. I mean it's Ok to cry a little, I just don't want to get to ugly cry. You know. It's really late I need to go to bed.

Thanks for praying!

Podcasting - a new frontieer

I am Valerie's husband, Aaron, and I am putting a new podcast of Jonah and Lydia reading their books. This is my first post on here and one of very few until Valerie learns to do this. I don't know if that will happen but I am glad to guest star on here. Just click on the mp3 at the right or the title of this post and download it or press play for immediate satisfactions...and that's it. Enjoy!

Aaron

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Nicole to tell you 6 quirky things about me. Quirky is such a hard word, so I"ll just go  for it and maybe some of you will learn something about me you never knew before. The rest of you will just nod in agreement. 

1. I almost always leave the last swallow in the glass of whatever I'm drinking. I"m not sure why, but It has driven those I live with (past and present) crazy.

2. Whenever I'm driving down the road and I meet a motorcycle coming toward me I have this irrational fear that I am going to lose control of my vehicle and run into the poor sap on the motorcycle and send him flying into the air. 

3.I have always wanted to be a cowgirl. Now, to some of you, you may think I was a cowgirl because I grew up on a farm and we raised cattle, but we never had horses. Even though I always wanted a horse and do all the cool cowgirl things like ride a horse, rope calves and all of that. But,  my dad always said "no". poor, poor Valerie.

4. I love, love, love to talk on the phone. It's how I get my dishes done, my kitchen cleaned, my problems solved. 

5. I always have something to say. (This was the quirk my husband wanted me to add) But it's true, wether good or bad I love to visit and share my opinion, sometimes complain but most of the time hopefully be an encouragement.

6. Some women have a shoe fetish or have to buy a purse every time they go into a store. My weakness when it's comes to shopping is . . .  are ready. . . wait for it. . . SCHOOL SUPPLIES! I have been known many times to buy all kinds of school supplies that I do not need or can not think of a need for. It's just when those cute little cardboard bins come out with all the latest pens, pencil, notebooks I just can't help myself. 

And so just for fun I am going to tag Shannon and find out what her 6 quirky things are, and find out if I can learn anything new about my favorite sister-in-law!

check it out

Just in case you want a sneak peak of some beautiful pictures, check Susie B's blog.

These are some of my favorite things about adding the latest member to our family.

-The darkest most soulful eyes I"ve ever looked into.

-"Show me your funny face!" with a little snort that goes with with it.

- Two little girls giggling in a tent about who knows what.

-Curious little fingers that can reach the tops of bathroom counters and tables and even knock down the cricket cage ( our gecko's food). Have you ever hunted 30 crickets in your house and tried NOT to kill them?

- Hearing "Da-Da" again

- A one year old who does the best sumo wrestler stomp you've ever seen. And she can get everyone in the room doing it!

- Watching the world in the wonder of a 1 year old's eyes. Even a drinking straw is cool to them.

-The most sincere six year old's prayer thanking Jesus for the baby He sent us and all the things she can do.

-Being hugged so tightly it involves both arms and legs. It feels like you could let go of the child and they would just stay clinging to your torso, I've never let go, but the girl knows how to squeeze. She is the best squeezer ever!

-Falling in love.

Princess T you have stolen my heart, you are such a wonderful addition to our family and I thank God for every part of you.

I'm calling it Rainbow Alfredo

Today we were getting back from a photo shoot/play date with my very talented friend  Susie B and it was supper time. (I promise beautiful pictures at a later date!) Anyway it was the dreaded decision of what to make for supper. I scanned my cupboards, checked out my fridge and got a little creative. I came up with this great recipe from all the things I had on hand. And I'm writing it down just so I don't forget it. If I were really cool like the pioneer woman I would have a pictures of the process and the finished product on here, but I don't think that far a head so I'll just share the recipe. Oh and the best part is my kids ate it. Here it is:

Rainbow Alfredo

1/2 package of bacon

1/2 box of penne pasta

1/2 carton of grape tomatoes

handful of frozen peas

a couple hand fulls of frozen carrots

1 jar of Alfredo sauce

a little (like 1/2 cup) spaghetti sauce

Parmesan cheese

Fry the bacon, cook the pasta according to the box, bring you frozen carrots to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes. After the bacon is finished, pour the drained pasta in the drippings, add the vegetables, Alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce to the skillet. Mix all together and put in a casserole dish, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. 

Yummy and pretty too!

A sense of accomplishment

I have a 100 other things I should be doing right now, but I just had to share with all of you that I just did something I have never done before. It gave me a great sense of accomplishment. Those of you with big families will laugh but I just took 4 kids to the grocery store and survived! My 3 plus my neighbor girl who is 4. We had a talk about how you act in the store and it went beautifully. It was even kind of fun.

The best part was when we were in the checkout line and the bagger guy asked if I wanted to carry my eggs out or if they could go in the crate for drive up. I looked at him and then at the 4 little ones around me and said they have just as good of a chance out there as with me. He said yeah I guess you have your hands full! It was great. Hope you all have a happy Monday!

Well, we were blessed with fun friends and nice weather for trick-or-treating. We walked around our block and showed off our costumes. The neighbors were all out and everyone had a great time visiting one of the last times before we all go into hibernation for the winter.

"T" the duck

Jonah the knight

And Liddybell

Our cousin cowboy Leighton and Horse Maverick came to get some candy too!