Prayer Request

Just sharing some news that got passed on to me.  Nathan Junker is the Youth Pastor at Faith Baptist, he is the father to 3 or 4 young children (sorry I can’t remember for sure, if it is only 3 the 4th is due soon I believe…)  He was out on Pokegama Lake for a youth event for his church.  He went swimming and is now missing.  The divers were out looking for him tonight, but they have been called off until tomorrow morning.  Nathan’s father is the Pastor at another church here in town, the name of which escapes me right now. 

Please pray for him and his family and those searching for him. 

Some stuff down…

I have been getting ready for Nevaeh’s birthday party.  I finally have a date nailed down.  And because of that date and time I am planning some stuff for some older boys as well!  I think it is going to be great!  I am not too stressed out yet.  I do think I bit off more than I can chew at times, but over all it is going well.  I have two of the 7 skirts done…

I do know that there are three pictures there, but there is only one skirt!  I just wanted to give you a few different angles!  I got the idea for the skirt on this blog, with a few adaptions to suit me!  I used sparkly green and white tulle.  Two different thickness and color green ribbon.  And a ribbon waist instead of the elastic that she used.  I think they are going to be adorable on the girls!  I still need to figure out if I am going to make anything for the two little boys that are might come. 

 

The girls that come get to take this skirt home as one of the party favors!  I also dyed some tank-tops green and they will get to take them home too.  I am hoping they will put them on at the party and let me get a cute pic of them all together!  Other party favors for the girls include a tinkerbell chapstick, and a small purple clutch bag.  And a candy necklace/bracelet that they are going to make.  Tinkers like to build/make things, don’t you know!!! 

I have the invites done finally!  At the reminding of a reader (thanks erin) I “waterfalled” out our address and phone number, just in case!  So the bottom where it looks like a bar code is just for showing you guys purposes.  The real one says “the party will be at…” and “please RSVP to…”

This is the one for the girls that are getting invited.  I got the pic of Tinkerbell off the internet.  Then used Picnik.com to add the text and the green frame.  The envelopes each have the girls name on it (in a Walt Disney font of course!!!), surrounded by flowers.  There are three different colors of ribbon for the tops.

 

Same thing for this pictures, I “waterfalled” our number out…

This is the one for the boys.  Two of the main characters are Clank and Bobble, two of the funniest guys you will see in an animated movie I think!!!  I used green and blue ribbon on the boys, and printed their names out in the same font as the girls names, but don’t know if I am going to put an stickers around them or not.  I am going to have to look next time I am in Walmart…  I guess I am going to have to go tonight because I am passing them out tomorrow at church!!!

 

I finally figured out what I am going to do for the cake too!  A cousin (of some relation, sorry Mikki not totally sure how you are related) posted a pic on Facebook and I LOVED IT!!!  Does this not look like FUN!!! 

Here how she did it…

She used a red velvet cake recipe, with out adding the red.  Then separated the cake batter into 6 different bowls.  Using gel food coloring she tinted it.  Then “stacked” it into the cake pan.  I am going to try to do this, only in a round cake pan.  The cake I am going to try to make is going to look somewhat like this one.  (Go check it out.) Only I am hoping to have richer colors.  I was also having a hard time finding a cake topper.  We were just going to order a small cake from walmart and then eat that cake and use the topper on the cake that I was going to make.  Well wandering around walmart the other day, I found a totally perfect cake topper!!!  And you will never guess where I found it… 

(don’t pay any mind to the fact that my bed isn’t made! or that my sheets and quilt don’t match…) This wonderful figurine came off of a……wait for it……wait for it………wait for it……..wait for it……A BUBBLE BATH CANISTER!!!  For cheaper than what I could get the cake, or the topper in the store!  So I took it off the bubble bath right away, washed it well and it has been sitting in my birthday stuff pile since!!!  I am getting excited.

 

So I think this post is long enough, and there aren’t even any pics of the kids!!!  Oh well I had fun, hope you enjoyed reading this!!!

Finally!!!

This morning John couldn’t find his sunglasses and debit card.  He needed both because he was going mowing.  What he did find though was my CAMERA CHARGER!  What a relief.  Even though I did go ahead and order another battery and a charger off of ebay, and they showed up today too!!!  The wonders of modern life. 

Anyways, we had a lake date (like a play date only at the lake!!!) this morning, so I plugged the camera in and we were back in business!  Until I left it here and had to turn around to get it.  Good thing we were going to a lake a short distance from our house.  So here are a few pictures from our morning!

 Wyatte was the first one to jump off the dock!

I was able to put Aubrie in the floaty/ring and she stood there for a while.  As you can see she isn’t the happiest of kids but she did do it for a while!  She even took a couple of steps, until she lost her balance just a little and then she just wanted to be held.

 

nevaeh loving the water!  Such a smile on her face!!!

 

One of wyatte’s jumps!  I tried to get one of him in the air, but that is going to have to wait for our next swimming trip.

 

Neveah just lounging in the water.  So nice to have her comfortable in the water this year.  Last year she was pretty scared of it, especially if you weren’t holding on to her.  THis year, now that Aubrie likes is still able to force into the water, it is nice to only have to have one hanging on you!

My chicken kids as we went for our water walk!

Wyatte looking with interest as we walked deeper and deeper and deeper farther and farther and farther, without the water getting any deeper!  Such as nice place to swim with small/young kids!

 

Nevaeh wanted to come with us for our water walk, but thought it was too deep for her.  Such a sad girl...

 

Wyatte and Sam filling up a squirty thing that miss Heidi got at a garage sale.  The kids loved it! 

 

Wyatte found a huge rock and this is the result of that rock!  I only let him throw drop it a couple of times!!!

 

Nevaeh playing with one of sam and seth’s boats.  she is finally getting brave enough to go in the water alone.  Most of the time she has her floaty (ring) on but not always!

 Her little butt was kinda hanging out of her swim suit and I couldn’t pass it up!  You can’t really see it in this picture, but…

 

Sam, seth, Wyatte and Nevaeh playing after they got done eating.  I think they were making a fire pit or something like that!

 

        Aubrie getting into our food!  Or maybe this was when she was putting it away!!!

Nevaeh and Aubrie enjoying some lunch after we swam for a while.

We decided that since our family, and now the Barton’s like this lake and landing soooooo much that we are going to share it with some of our other friends!  So hopefully someday in the future we will have more lake date pictures to show you all.  RIght now though I am going to enjoy the sun drying my clothes!  Have a great day

Alphabitty Moments, brought to you by the letter R

Head on over to 4 the love of family to see what Mama Bear and other did this week. 

This week was fun for me!  I know I have been remiss in doing these pages, but I am getting back in the swing of things.  Wyatte’s pages are first with “Rides”

The text says “1st: Wyatte and Nevaeh getting ready to go to the underwater adventure. 2nd: Wyatte and Nevaeh giving daddy a ride in the big rigs. 3rd: Going up in the big balloon ride 4th: Daddy pulling the stroller up the stairs to the ferris wheel because we couldn’t find the elevator! 5th: Wyatte and Nevaeh by a huge statue of a turtle at the end of the underwater adventure.

 

Aubrie is next.  Hers is pretty cute I think!!!

 

Nevaeh’s is pretty much the same as Wyatte’s I did switch one of the pictures in Nevaeh’s because she wasn’t in the one of Wyatte and John on the log ride!  So this is her first page, and her second page will be the same as Wyatte’s, the one with the five small pictures.   

Katie’s Quillow

When we lived in AZ I made quillows for John’s two nieces that live down there, Kateland and Leigha.  That was over 4 years ago, and when we were down there to pick up the truck they showed me what was left of them!  So I told them when they came up we could pick out fabric and I would make them a new one.  A couple of weeks ago we picked up fabric, and I was hoping to have them both done in a couple of days.  But life has changed since I made them before, and it took me a little longer than I thought it would.  Katie is leaving for camp tomorrow and wants to bring her quillow with her.  So today after church I smashed it out!   Please dismiss the mess that you see on both side of the blanket!  The girls came over to help clean up so that I could do the blanket, but it was pretty messy!  This is one side of the quillow.  For those of you that haven’t ever seen or heard of a quillow it is a quilt and a pillow in one.  The whole blanket folds up into the camo pocket at the bottom.Katie picked out camouflaged fabric for the pocket and the back of the quillow, and orange for the front.  Now that they live in the mountains she is pretty woodsy!  I think it turned out pretty nice looking, if I do say so myself!  I know you quilters would nitpick at a couple of things, but it is good enough for me and Katie.  I do have one more step to do, but that is going to have to wait until Katie gets back from camp.  I have to tie it.  Katie picked out camo yarn too.  I will just pick spots about 4 or 5 inches apart all throughout the quilt and then we will be done.Here is a picture of the whole quilt folded into the pillow/pocket.    

just a shot of the other side of the pillow.  Anywho… This was my fun today.

Autumn Lane, Aubrie, and Idella

A few days ago work had a barbeque.  It was the first one that I have been at, let alone working! It was fun, even though it was a little bit more work.  Getting all 10 residents situated at the table is a little harder when you are outside on the grass!  For those of you that don’t know, I work for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  They own an adult care home called Autumn Lane.  Leanne, Dave, Mazie, Hannah, David, Noah and Asher were all there getting ready when I got to work.  The first thing Noah asked me was if Wyatte was coming!  So I called John and told him to bring the kids down to play and eat.

Here is Aubrie with one of the residents, who is also Aubrie’s Great Grandma! Grandma Idella moved into Autumn Lane just recently and the family is loving having her close (we only live a couple of miles down the road!!!)

Aubrie figured out that she fit under the table and went under…

And came out over and over and over!  I had to take a picture, or a couple of them I guess!!!

I really need to start taking more pictures of the older two kids when we do something.  I was just looking back and saw that I don’t have any of Wyatte and Neveah.  Sorry about that.

And right now my camera battery is dead and I don’t have any idea where the charger is for it, so not sure when I will get around to getting more pictures.  I WILL have it before Nevaeh’s birthday party for sure.  I don’t care if I have to buy a new camera, I AM GOING to have pictures of that!  So for now, you are just going to have to enjoy Aubrie and Great Grandma Idella and look back at other posts for pics of the other two!  Oh wait, I still have to put up a post about the party that Nevaeh went to last Sunday.  She was invited to her first birthday party for another little girl in her Sunday School class.  So look for those pics too.

 

 

 

Fridge emptied out, cleaned, and reorganized…  Check

Kitchen floor swept and mopped… Check

Table cleared off and clean… Check

Dead camera battery so I can’t take a picture to show for proof…  Check

14 Million…

I was checking out MckMama’s blog tonight and realized something.  She was very close to hitting 14 million hits.  Very close.  So being the wonderful wolverine that I am I hit refresh a couple of times to see how close I could get!!!  This is what happened…

Do you see that!  I am pretty excited about that number!  I am more excited about this post that she did earlier today I believe.  It is so honest and meant alot to me.  I did make a comment on the post if you feel like reading through a few.  I think I was in the first 20 or so to comment, so you shouldn’t have to read very far if you don’t want to!

A blast from the past! In present form!

I got a text from my mom yesterday during church that said, “Hana and Carla are here.” I guess I had forgotten to tell her that they were going to be here.  Hana Jo is one of my best friends from my before marriage and kids days.  We did a ton together when we were younger.  Hannah, who we nicknamed Hana (!), is a couple years younger than I am, but we were in youth group together, and our families did alot together. (I think!) I had a crush on her brother, and we “dated”for a short while.  Any who…  Her family moved to Ohio a number of years ago, and I have only seen her once since then.  Two years back another close friend of ours got married and Hana came back to be in the wedding.  If I remember right she had just found out that she was pregnant, and was super excited about it!  A few days ago, Hana, her mom Carla, and Hana’s daughter Aliya started the trek from Ohio to Minnesota.  They made a few stops on the way but arrived this past weekend.  Yesterday I called her or she called me and we made plans to visit today.  I was super excited to see her and meet her daughter, who is about a month and a half older than Aubrie. So enjoy some of the pictures that I took today. 

This is Carla, Aliya, Kris (my mom) and Hana

Hana, Aliya and Aubrie headed down to the lake.

Aliya and Aubrie playing, or fighting over a book!  Depends on how you look at the picture!!!

Aubrie sat down in the little chair and Aliya wanted in a chair too.  They looked so cute sitting there!

 

  Aubrie and me, Aliya and Hannah.

I had a bag of swimsuits packed and ready to go to Grandma’s but as you can tell I forgot them, and the kids didn’t mind at all!  They were soaked in about 2 minutes after we got down to the lake. 

I took Aubrie’s diaper off and let her stand in the water.  At first she thought it was a little too cold, but she didn’t think that for long!  She loved it.  She was splashing around in the water here.  I was sitting on the dock and she was holding on.  I took her out when she started getting brave and started walking around.  She got mad at me at first but then she sat down with Grandma and was fine!

Grandma Kris with Aubrie after Aubrie got done playing in the lake!

 

Aliya Ana-Jo, Isn’t she beautiful!

Map…

Ok so about the map!!!  You can totally click on the map and see where is it that I put the push-pin.  So no prize for someone who can figure it out, sorry.  If you want I will do a give-a-way next week sometime! 

Trying something new…

Ok, so one of the blogs that I read was talking about this Windows Live Writer and how great it is, so I am going to try it and see if I like it.  So I am going to mess around and see about it.  Let me know what you think about this post and maybe check it out for your self.  It works with any blog service, so download it and see for yourself.

original picture…

color pop effect…

This is a picture I took, with a “frame” in Live Writer, called Reflection.  Isn’t that neat?!?!?!  I totally like it!  Can you tell!!!!

You can make a picture look like it is a picture taken when I was younger!  All in the same place that you write your post!  This is totally amazing!

You can add borders, like this one, to make the picture look like a Polaroid picture!  Look at the detail in the border, looks like it was scanned in.

You can even have the map showing where pictures were taken.  If anyone can tell me where that push pin is I will find something to give them!!!  No cheating though, I don’t know if you can click on it to find out or not!!!

Ok, enough for now, but I think I am hooked on here.  Way easier to move pictures around to where I want them!  I can upload individual pictures, and whole albums if I want!!!  I guess now is the time to see what it looks like on the blog.  Here goes nothing!