Exciting Giveaway!

UPDATE: The winner is Walter! Thank you for participating, everyone.

A contest! A contest! Vision Forum is giving one of my blog readers the opportunity to receive one of their five brand new conference albums for FREE. Wow! The picture above shows you the whole collection of all five albums; the winner will get one of the five--whichever one he or she chooses.

All you have to do is CLICK HERE to read about their five new albums (follow any links you want from there to read more details about a particular album) and then leave me a comment telling which one you would like to win. Your name will then be entered in my drawing, which will take place at 10:00 p.m. EST this Friday, February 27th. It's that easy!

If you want to get your name in the hat twice, leave me an additional sentence (after you tell me which one you'd like to win) about WHY you want that one. You must start this extra sentence with the words "I would like this album because . . ." So that's two chances--pretty easy!

And finally, to get your name in the hat THREE times, post about my contest on your own blog. (Be sure to tell me if you did this, so I'll know.)

That's it! Have fun, and thanks for entering!

Catching Up

Our February so far . . .

A kiss through the window.

The brand new bathing suit. All ready to go to Grandpa's beach!

Hmmm. Not sure what's going on here.

Sisters in the snow.

Standing with sister.

Standing with brother.

Standing with Daddy. Now this is more like it!

Sisters at homeschool Valentine party.

Brothers at the party too.

David in front of my new sewing closet.

David and girls in our new bathroom.

Beautiful, fun, and delicious. Thank you, Grandma J!

Training to be stunt men, I think.

Sour candy.

Green beans.

Mutual admiration.

Would you care for some breakfast?

Boy Four's Big Month

Whew! It's been a busy month for me and my body.

I learned to sit

and play rolly ball.

I learned to crawl

and eat.

I learned to stand my own self up,

and sometimes I even let go.

And I've also reached a few mental milestones, some good and some not so much.

For instance, I've learned to covet

and terrorize like King Kong.

I've observed how it must feel to not get your way,

and I've yearned for freedom.

I've witnessed the thrill of the game

and the agony of defeat.

But most of all, I've started working on spelling. And the way to spell LOVE is m-y- f-a-m-i-l-y!

We're baaack!

We're back from our almost two-week-long Christmas trip. It's hard to just hit the ground running after such a busy season and long trip, so I'm rather behind on everything. Sorry it's taken so long to update the blog. But here we go with some of our favorite pictures from the trip.

Here we all are at S's house in Souderton, PA. S is like a grandma to me, as we lived for a few years on her farm.

And here she is with Boy Four. What a nice picture!

Next we went to visit Aunt P in her nursing home in Lansdale, PA. I don't even know what to say. She really didn't know what was going on around her. I hear that sometimes she has better days, though.


The staff pulled up extra chairs so we could sit with Aunt P at her Christmas party. It was kind of them to give out gifts and hot chocolate and ice cream.


Now here we are at the church my parents attend, right after the Christmas Eve service. It was an interesting service, with Girl Two wetting all over during a nap and then rolling off of the pew, and Boy Three catching his hair on fire during the candlelight part at the end. Other than that, it really was a lovely service!


Now it is Christmas Day, which is also my dad's birthday. Here he is, just starting to cut his cake. I love this picture because it shows what a happy couple my mom and dad are.


Here's the whole gang of us Christmas night--my parents in their Lancaster County home with all their children and grandchildren present.


All of the cousins in PA.


Grandma N reading to some of her grandchildren.


Now we have moved on to Knoxville, TN. Here's most of the gang at Grandma J's house. As you can see, we're having a happy time.

I snapped this while Cousin E was in a tickle war with her sister, Cousin A, all over the floor. I can't help but notice--man, that girl has some beautiful teeth!

Uncle J and Aunt L. This is their family's standard pose, which they even require their children to do. LOL

All the Peterson cousins.


Girl Two just adores her Cousin K. She was practically glued to her side.

And what holiday would be complete without whipping up a bit of sofa-cover clothing?

This one has even more flair.

And here we are back home. It was snowing few and far between, but the flakes were very large. See?

We thank the Lord for granting us safety and joy on our trip. It was so good to see those of you whom we did see. Thank you for everything!!! We hope we brought some cheer your way.

Here we come! / Merry Christmas!

Here we come, Grandpa, Grandma N, Grandma J, and family! See you soon!

To everyone else who may read this, Merry Christmas! God bless you, friends.

Now a few photos from yesterday, our present-opening day. Three of our cute little Santa, and three of the whole quiver. The robes & pillow & blanket were my homemade gifts to them. My favorite part is how little Boy Four's blanket is made from the leftovers of each other child's gift. He's so blessed with of the love of each of them, it just seemed right.