Pecan Torte

My Grandma's birthday was this past Saturday and I made this yummy Pecan Torte- although instead of corn syrup I substituted maple syrup to make it a Pecan Maple Torte. Everyone liked it and grandma said it was 'one of the best cakes she had ever had'. This is a picture of the cake below. Enjoy! Go HERE for the recipe.

Bella!

Isn't she adorable?

Over the past weekend Ri watched a dog for her aunt. She's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy, only 2 months old and her name is Bella. As you can see, she is so adorable! Her floppy little ears and big brown eyes are really cute and her fur is so soft, the minute you see her you want to hold her! Excuse the scrap of me in the background; the zoom in wasn't working on the camera.

Here's Ri holding Bella. No, she's not choking her, merely petting her!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go e-mail these pictures to Ri.

Awww... Cute!

The other night, Sam was in his high chair eating dinner when Mommy said to him, "Sam, show Daddy your shoes." Sam, who was wearing a new pair of tennis shoes, proudly stuck his feet up in the air and said, "Look, Daddy, shoes!" Before daddy could even respond, Sam continued, "Aww... cute!" His sincerity was so adorable that we couldn't help but laugh. He's just started to put words together to form sentances and it's so fun to hear him talk. In the words of Uncle Pete, 'little people' are a lot of fun to be around! I love our Sam!

God is so BIG!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day! The sky was a deep blue and the clouds were so white and fluffy. I was driving home from the grocery store when I heard Viv in the back seat say to her sister, "Did you know that God stands on the blue, Lil?"

Immediately I knew that she was talking about the sky so I asked her, "Why do you think He stands on the blue, Viv?"

In Viv's characteristic scratchy little voice she replied, "Mommy, He stands on the blue because He is so big!"

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord God, Thou art very great; Who maketh the clouds His chariot: Who walketh upon the wings of the wind!

Psalm 104:1,3

You're a Mouse!?!

Prince Caspian finally came out and I was able to go see it yesterday! I really liked it, the acting was superb, and I loved the extras such as the storming of Miraz's castle.

The movie had a lot of funny lines such as when a Telmarine first saw Reepicheep and exclaimed, "You're a mouse!?!"

To this Reepicheep replied, "You people have no imagination!"

Lots of action made it very exciting. If I had to give my favorite

Narnia character though, I would have to say it is still Lucy.

Lego Land

Si and I have been at Grandpa and Grandma's this week. While we've been there we started building the Lego sets that used to belong to our uncles. We built a lot of them. It was a lot of fun. These are the Robin Hood, Knights and Pirate series. It took us 3 days to build them. My favorite so far is the Viking Ship. We still have more to build.

Lego Land Continues

When we first started building the Lego sets, we had Lego pieces all over the family room floor.

We enjoyed building the Legos so much that I think it is even more fun to build them than to play with them (although that is a lot of fun, too!).

Another Viv-ism

For a while Viv was having trouble going to sleep at night so my mom would lay her down in my parents' room until she would go to sleep. However, this soon became a habit that Viv enjoyed and mommy had to break. Since then, come bedtime, Viv has come up with some interesting and often hilarious reasons why she can not go to sleep in the bed that the two of us share. For example, just the other night she informed mommy that she couldn't go to sleep with me because, "I have a disease and Hanna will get sick from it if I sleep with her." Needless to say, life will never be dull with Viv around!

Bruchko

What happens when a nineteen-year old young man from Minnesota leaves his home to go to the Native Indians of the jungle in South America with a desire to bring the Gospel to them? This is what we found out recently as our mom read the book Bruchko to us. Bruce Olson left the USA to go to Brazil with a heart to evangelize the Indian tribes in South America. While in Brazil, Bruce learned about the Motilone tribe and felt quickened that they were the ones that God wanted to send him to. The Motilones were an ancient tribe of Indians living deep in the Columbian jungle; they were known for their fierceness to outsiders. Oil company workers testing the soil on Motilone land had either been shot at with long, sharp arrows or had mysteriously disappeared to never return. Bruce knew all this but still wanted to go and minister to these people. After traveling for days, weeks and months he finally contacted the Motilones - but not on pleasant circumstances! Bruce was shot in the leg by a five foot long arrow and then surrounded by tribal men. He was taken to their communal home where, surprisingly, they kept him alive and fed him. When he told them his name, they could not pronounce it properly. Instead, what came out was ‘Bruchko’ and this became his Motilone name.
This book is so fascinating and I encourage you to read it if you haven’t already, and even if you have, read it again because you will surely be blessed!

Bake Sale

Things have been so busy for us that we have not been able to post about all the things that have been happening here as we would have liked to! A little over a week ago our church had a bake sale at the local grocery store. Our family made cherry pies, cinnamon rolls, zucchini and pumpkin chocolate chip bread.
At the sale our tables were loaded with so many yummy looking things - just looking at all the delicious things made my stomach start to rumble! To name a few, there were brownies, cakes, wheat breads and sweet breads, cookies, bars and pies. We stayed fairly busy as many people came to the store and there were so many exciting things going on at the store's parking lot at the same time (check out the post below). It was a really fun experience to see lots of different people and help sell baked goods - I would definitely help do it again!

In The Army

It was such a busy day at the local grocery store when we had our bake sale. A group of soldiers in the Army and another group in the National Guard were there along with their hummers, trucks, and other vehicles. They passed out t-shirts, hats, stickers, pens, and other paraphernalia (Chris' favorite word :). They also grease painted kids' faces - one of which was Si's! We were able to talk with them and they even let me take their picture. It was a good reminder for us to keep all of those who are in the armed services in our prayers.

A Beautiful Promise

Isn't this absolutely gorgeous? The picture isn't of the best quality but last Monday Ri and I were outside after it had rained and this is the sight that met our eyes. When I looked at the rainbow I was reminded of the verse in Genesis 9:12 that says, And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations. Isn't it marvelous how God's promises are everlasting!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Today is our mom's birthday! To us, she is the best mom in the world and we love her very much! Happy Birthday mommy! Love, Hanna, Si, Chris, Soph, Lil, Viv and last but not least, Sam

Tagged... Again!

My friend Ri (http://joylikeanocean.blogspot.com/) tagged me. The object of this "tag" is to:

1. Write your own six word memoir.

2.Post it on your blog, and include a visual illustration if you so desire.

3.Link to the person who tagged you in their post.

Since most of my friends have already been tagged, I will probably leave it at this!

My six word memoir is: I'm the oldest of seven kids!
(p.s. as an explanation of my visual illustration, I used to be a thumb sucker :)