Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

The Lanyard

Here's a special "Mother's Day" poem for all you mother's especially to mine who graciously accepted all the "lanyards" I gave her. We're even now right Mom?

Happy Easter!

He is risen, alleluia! We couldn't have asked for a better day to celebrate the day of our Lord's resurrection! We rose early for a 7 o'clock sunrise service. Our neighbor came over to help me get the girls ready which I was not looking forward to, thinking they'd be so cranky, but everything went so smoothly and they were both very well behaved during the service. After church the three of us went to Leanna's for a delicious lunch (dinner as they say here) while Phil took a nice long nap (he was worn out after three services!). In the afternoon we went to another friends house for the girls' first Easter egg hunt and so many little gifts and candy it felt like Christmas! It was a perfect Spring day and so nice to have such sweet friends to spend it with.

I'm working on adding more pictures of our Easter on our family photo page here. I hope to have them all up soon.

The treats I took to the party turned out pretty good but I know now why folks always just cut rice crispy treats into squares!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday!

Easter Portraits

The girls looked so pretty in their Easter dresses! On Saturday I was going to take pictures outside in front of our Blue Spruce tree but unfortunately we had 25 mph winds (what's new?!) so that idea had to go. We headed over to the church to get a few. I think we got some good ones.


As usual, asking for a picture of the girls together was too much for Lily. After a little fit I decided it wasn't worth it.

Easter Eggs

Saturday we went to Leanna's to color eggs with our friends Makala and Denise.




And tada!

We call this Friday Good!

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

I've started a new tradition at our house for Good Friday, making hot cross buns. Appropriate and delicious but they take for ever to prepare!

A blessed Good Friday to you all!

Maundy Thursday.

When You woke that Thursday morning,
Savior teacher, faithful friend, Thoughts
of self and safety scorning, knowing how the day
would end; Lamb of God, foretold for ages,
Now at last the hour had come when but One
could pay sin's wages: You assumed their dreadful sum.

Thy Triumph Now Begin.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die!
O Christ! Thy triumph now begin
Over captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
The wingèd angels of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;
The Father, on His sapphire throne,
Expects His own anointed Son.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we had fun with green!




Kiss her, she's Irish! It's hard to believe "this" was Lily just one year ago!

Then...

and now!
She's Irish too, but didn't want anything to do with getting kisses!

I also made cupcakes for our Jr. High Catechism class.

And here are 100 pictures of Lily eating one of them.

This is the girl who wouldn't touch the cupcake at her first birthday party!




Finger licking stamp of approval!




Yes, St. Patrick's Day is a great day to celebrate our heritage, wear green and maybe dance a jig but it's also a good day to remember to pray for our missionaries.

An excerpt from St. Patrick’s Breastplate

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

San Patricio!

Here's something for my little "Irish Nachos". You know who you are and I thought of you two when I heard this story on NPR this morning!

With St. Patrick's Day just ahead, an unusual musical mash-up has surfaced. Paddy Moloney and his legendary Irish group The Chieftains have joined forces with Ry Cooder and various guest artists on a new album called San Patricio — Spanish for St. Patrick.

The recording comes out Tuesday and commemorates a little-known connection between Mexicans and the Irish. During the Mexican-American War of the 1840s, a group of disaffected Irish-American conscripts led by Capt. John Riley crossed the border to fight with the Mexicans. Riley put together a battalion named the "San Patricio," deserted the U.S. Army and joined the Mexicans to fight on what he saw as the side of justice.

"They fought five very heroic, wonderful battles," Moloney says. "I'm afraid the last one was at Churubusco, which was the finisher-upper, as they say."

The Chieftains' album features a long list of guest artists, including narration by Irish-born actor Liam Neeson of a poem in tribute to the San Patricios.

"It is, as Paddy is saying, a great story," says Cooder, co-producer and guest on the album. "I was never taught this in Los Angeles public schools."

Moloney says he wants this to change.

"It's not right that such an event took place and that it's not in the history books," he says. "It's a great piece of material for people to know about."

To hear the full interview go here. It was very interesting.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124333729

And to hear their Mexican/Irish CD click here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124333729

San Patricio!

Valentine's Day.

I celebrated Valentine's Day by putting a red bow in Lily's hair and that almost didn't happen. I had such a busy week getting ready for an open house we hosted on Saturday that by Sunday I was worn out and had no valentines to exchange or mail or even think about. I was too worried about Phil driving to his vacancy church that morning in "white out/blizzard conditions" and whether or not we would be getting to church that day to do anything for my sweeties. Oh well.

But I did make some cute cupcakes for our open house that I topped with cherries in honor of Valentine's Day. That counts right?