Always set a Timer

In all my years of baking I rarely use a timer, it is almost a
tradition for me to forget about the last batch of cookies until I
smell them burning. In our (almost) 4 years of marriage Coy has tried
to retrain me, but failed apparently. I was using a timer for awhile
but have stopped, maybe I will start again.

Happy Fathers Day

I wanted to say happy fathers day to all you dads out there.

I was thinking this morning how much I love being a dad.

I'm so blessed to have two wonderful daughters. 

They astound and humble me everyday and 

are moment by moment reminders of God's grace towards me.

I was also thinking how much I love my dad. 

In a world where so many families have absent or uninvolved fathers 

my dad was alway there. So much of what I have learned in life

I learned from him. He is a wonderful role model for me, even to this day.

I have a high standard to live up to as a father. The supreme example of 

my Heavenly Father and life of sacrifice of my earthly father... big shoes indeed.

I was also thinking that, I don't tell him how much I appreciate him, enough.

So Happy Fathers Day Dad! I love you very much.

Odd Couple

Emma and Zachary are great friends, they balance each other out well.
Emma is more of a free spirit, she is loud and doesn't stop moving.
Zacahry is quiet, and will sit and play with one toy for 30 minutes
and be content. As you can see from the picture Emma's desire is to
climb the fence when Zach is ok with just shaking it.

A Dog Named Grace

The neighbors have a dog named Grace, she is a sweet, well mannered
golden retriever. Emma loves when Grace is outside, she will sit with
her and feed her grass, or run back and forth along the fence while
grace does the same. It's like we have a dog but without all the
responsability, it's great. For awhile Emma would tell people she had
a dog named Grace and now finaly I think she realizes she is not her
dog, but she still loves her and enjoys playing with her through the
chain link fence.

Yummmmm!

Coy wanted to make cookie the other night but we ran out of flour, he
was so disappointed and so was I. But I didn't want to bug the
neighbor so I got creative. I thought what else do we have.....cake
mix! Yes but no frosting...boo! Well then I got even more creative and
googled "other uses for cake mix". I found exactly what I wanted, a
cookie recipe....yay! The recipe was so simple I have it memorized
( cake mix, 1 stick butter, 1 egg, and 2 tblsp of water if using
chocolate cake mix) I also added chocolate chips.
As I baked these cookies I told Coy "these would work great for ice
cream sandwhiches," he immediatly got up and went to the store to get
ice cream. I was right they were amazing!
I am so excited about this new recipe, I wanted to keep it a secret
and just make them for people but not tell them how, but it's so
amazing I must tell everyone!

More babies!

No I don't mean Coy and I, but Emma's fish. Apparently her mickey
mouse platy is a boy and dalmation fish is a girl, and they love
eachother. Let me tell you the story....
A few days back Manna (girl fish) started acting weird, her tail would
float up like she had no control of it and she would spin in circles.
I thought she must be dying, and a few times I thought she was dead.
She would be completely still with her tail up completely vertical.
This went on for 3 days.
Well today she seemed to be swimming normal she just seemed weak. Emma
and I were looking at her when I noticed a few tiny little fish
swimming around, I freaked out and then realized why Manna seemed to
be dying, she had been in labor. So we have 9 new fish making a total
of 11. Apparently the mommy and daddy fish will eat the babies so they
are currently in a seperate tank, all I have to say is I did not sign
up for this....
You can barely see the baby fish but there are 2 in this picture, they
are the orange dots in the center.

2 Crazy Girls!

Ella is getting to the age where she can actually play with Emma, this is pretty much what they do.

Napping

On days that we're busy and Emma doesn't get a nap she has quiet
reading time instead, she still has down time and I can still do the
things I need to do. Well today I guess she was a little more tired
than normal, because this is the way I found her.

Off To A Good Start

I'm so thankful that we get to raise our children up in a Godly home,
that from a young age they can know Christ. I love when Emma walks
around the house singing worship songs, or when she reminds me that
"Jesus died on the cross and came back to life". The other day I was
studying outside while Emma played, and on her own she decided she was
going to read her Bible, and journal. These are such precious moments
and I hope she continues seeking the Lord as she gets older. Her 2
favorite Bible stories are Noah's Ark and the story of Jacob and Esau.

Another Climber

Ella is about 8 1/2 months now and she has been crawling around for
awhile now. Just a few weeks ago she started walking along furniture
and now climbing. Yes she has discovered the step stool next to Emma's
bed, she still doesn't understand that you can't just walk off the
stool without falling but she will figure it out.