G-man is 6!

This...is a happy boy.



This...is also a SIX-Year old boy!  HOW can that be?

Loving the birthday card Lao Lao and Papa sent him

Gabriel's love of drums has not abated.  We gave him a little kid's set for Christmas when he was 2...

It physically hurts my heart - like I feel it squeezing - when I look at this and see how impossibly little he was here.

...but it was time to move him up to a real drum "kit".  (I have learned lots of drum lingo...but I am sure there is still lots to learn!)

The night before Gabriel's birthday, Jason set the kit up in our family room, so G would see it first thing in the morning when he awoke.

 We had to google how to set up all the different pieces of a kit.  Where does the floor tom go?  How about the crash cymbal?  And the ride cymbal? And the hi-hat?  And WHERE is the snare supposed to be situated?

Jas and I were up early (it was a Saturday), itching for G to wake up and see his new drums!

But he slept in some, still recovering from a nasty bug.  (He was the 5th of 6 children to get sick...we think it was the flu.)

We covered the kit up with multiple blankets, but apparently didn't do a good enough job, and from the top of the stairs G started giggling excitedly.  

But when he came down he got more somber.

And then he was oh-so-serious for the next HOUR while he played non-stop.  

Yes, he slipped onto that "throne" (and here I had been calling it a "stool", silly me!)...and played away for an hour.

I tried to get him to smile for me for some pictures...but he wouldn't have much of that.

The kit is now situated in the garage, where it is (a little) more quiet.  But it is so neat to still be able to hear him playing his little heart out.

He was born with this in him.

It is so amazing to see how all the children are different...all have their unique talents, giftings and interests...from the Lord.

We pray that Gabriel uses drumming - along with everything else in him - to praise the Lord!

Family Pictures - Fall 2017

It's that time of year again - time to try to catch some good family pictures!  This thought makes me happy, and strikes fear in my heart...simultaneously.

First, I have to start by figuring out what the 8 of us will wear.  No small feat.  I don't want to go out and buy anything new.  It always takes me at least two weeks to coordinate this part - with approximately 20 outfits hanging on the front of my master chest during the whole two weeks.  I usually end up texting pictures of different arrangements to friends who are good at this (unlike me)...like Amy and Vicki.  This year I figured it out all by myself!

Next, we have to figure out where to take the pictures.  We fell back on an old stand-by: the location we had (big) family pictures taken (with all 19 of us) when we were just visiting in 2011 and 2015.  We had never taken pictures of just our family there, so I thought this would be nice.

Finally, we sweet talked Nai Nad and her friend Homer into taking pictures for us...with the promise that we'd all head back to our house for supper as soon as the snapping was finished!  They fell for it!

So on Sunday we grabbed my DSLR, Linda, Homer and headed out.

There was a whole lot of tomfoolery going on...

...but we managed to end up with some good ones!

Mother's Day - 2017

I am blessed beyond measure!

Mother's Days just keep getting better and better.

We went to church, then out to eat for lunch (at "Souped Salads" as A calls it), had naps/rest time, and then all of Jason's family came over for supper.  (When we all get together - which we thankfully do very often - there are 20 of us.)

Here are the children's cards for this year...love their heart and creativity!

Noah:

Abigail:

Elisabeth:

Gabriel:

Lily Kay:

Daniel:

Daniel and I are going to sit down soon and play this game he made...and I am determined to win some "rubs"!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Recent sayings from Abigail and Gabriel that I sure don't want to forget:

I was one of four of us who took a turn being sick last week (just a cold, apparently).  When it was my turn, Abigail clambered up into my bed, squeezed her eyes shut, bowed her head, clasped her hands together in front of her and said, "Dear Lord, thank you mama feel better.  Amen!"  It was the first time she had spontaneously prayed like that...and it was precious.



This is a big - if somewhat sad - development:  Abigail has started pronouncing "banana" correctly.  She has always called them "banas."  As in, "May I have a bana, please?"  But the two days ago she busted out with, "May I have a ba-NA-na, please?"  (And she emphasizes the second syllable like that.)  It is so cute!  And so sad!  To my knowledge no one specifically corrected her, she just spotted the difference and fixed it herself.  Yay!  And (sniff)!



Gabriel was #4 to succumb to the cold last week.  It had him sneezing a bunch for a bit there, and he asked me, so perplexed, "What keeps sneezing me?!?"