The Year's First Birthday Celebrations!

-The aspiring hunter-
Even though he came out of the season empty handed, mom thought to honor his efforts by making his cake in the shape of a ten point buck!


Faith beautifully created this short sleeve button shirt out of a slightly fishy fabric.


A very nice new dress shirt and tie.
(slow shutter speed - interesting effect)

Today we celebrate John's 19th birthday and pray that this next year God will clearly guide and show what His will is for this special young man!

What would our family be without John?

A continuously maturing disciple and leader for His King Jesus Christ; a loving and entertaining friend; A swiftly growing debator, landscaper and businessman; a thumb-digging back rubber, deep bass singer, and third helping food eater - all these and so much more are what makes this handsome young man such a unique part of our family!

Happy Birthday John!


There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light,
that all through him might believe.
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
John 1:6-9

The Squirrel and the Coyote... An inspiration for success!

This (slightly short of beautiful) aspect of God's creation was displayed right in our back yard (or rather on the other side of the 6 ft fence) to all our amazment. It seemed to give Baby some inspiration as she has been trying for some time to catch the silly squirrels that come in our back yard and almost succeeded this morning when a slow one was given a scare, but Baby was only left with a mouthful of hair! I don't think she was discouraged though and perhaps in the near future we will be posting a picture of her with her long awaited prize!

Pizza, Fun and Fellowship

Sorry this is late but the large task of going through all my photo files and ordering pictures from 2006 for our family scrapbook has been first on my list and this blog has been slightly deprived of the latest happenings of our family!
Anyways... Last week we had the great pleasure of having the Klaty family over for pizza dinner and time of fellowship. The kids sure had fun dressing up, building a marble tower and bringing out all out marianettes to play with! What fun! Our church just wouldn't be the same without this wonderful family and we thank God for all the great blessings He has given us in being able to fellowship with these dear friends!





Carmen found this adorable little girls dress in Faith closet and it was the perfect fit! Add the crocheted snood and she was an adorable swedish princess! (The dress was actually part of her Aunt's childhood wardrobe that Faith had gotten from Mr. Klaty's mother's garage sale).




The marble tower!


Spence is quite the musical little guy and really enjoyed sitting at our piano, flipping through the hymn book and playing his favorite tunes. Here he is giving John some tips!

Moon Halo - The Heavens declare the Glory of God!

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Psalm19: 1-3

The other night we had the awesome opportunity to observe a Moon Halo. Dad noticed it when he took the dog out for a quick before-bed-walk, and called us all to see it. Soon we were all standing (or laying) on the driveway, (whichever posture provided the best view) exclaiming over this brilliant phenomenon. A beautiful, perfect ring of light encircled the moon. (To quote from www.nasa.gov – "The circular halo is produced by six-sided ice crystals in thin high-altitude clouds, which refract the moonlight and give the halo a characteristic radius of 22 degrees."
Now I do not even pretend to understand how all that works, but what I can grasp about it gives me an even greater appreciation of the glory and omnipotence of our Creator! The Heavens declare the glory of God - indeed!

New Year Weekend at Eddy Acres

On Thursday last week, John, Joshua and Grace along with Dad and Josiah, headed up North to our dear friends the Eddys, the first three to stay for the weekend (the rest of the family came up on Saturday) and try once more (for the men) to obtain some kind of harvest before the hunting season ended. Unfortunately, yet again they were unsuccessful but have many a tale to tell of all their experiences out in God's beautiful creation! Grace also enjoyed her time spent with Theresa as they did many things including restoring an old oil lamp.

Checkers anyone?

Monday afternoon John, Faith, Christianna, Josiah, Theresa and I (Grace) headed out for a walk down the road to check out this farm we had seen for sale around the corner and just enjoy the beautiful (even though it was extremely cloudy) country side!

___________________________________________________________

As the following posts show, (see also our Church blog) I think I can say for all of us that we truly had a blessed last weekend of 2006 as we enjoyed fellowship with likeminded believers in singing praises and worshiping our great and almighty God and spending time as families together thanking our Lord for all He has done for us this past year.

Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation!
Psalm 68:19


Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
Let them exalt Him also in the assembly of the people,
And praise Him in the company of the elders.
Psalm 107: 31-32

Laughter is Good Medicine...

Think of a predicament, then it's remedy and write both down on two separate papers. Now pass the predicament to your right hand neighbor and the remedy for it to your left. Once you have received your own set, read them aloud and experience the emotion that God designed in you as you laugh till your belly aches and tears are streaming down your face!
(interspersed are some of our most hilarious game results -enjoy!)



P. What would you do if you walked into a swarm of bees?
R. Try to keep my blood pressure under control.

P. What would you do if Clark's Deli was out of meat and cheese?
R. Eat your own words.

P. What would you do if an Anaconda grabs your ankle in the river?
R. I would replace it with a spare.

P. While jumping off a bridge, what would you do if your bungy cord broke?
R. Scream at the top of your lungs!


P. What would you do if you got stuck in sinking sand?
R. Just stick back in and hope no one notices.

P. What would you do if you fell into a well?
R. Sit in a bucket of water.

P. What would you do if you are riding a bike and a bear steps out in front of you?
R. Pick him up and check for broken bones.


P. What would you do if a gigantic deer buck walked in front of your tree stand?
R. Pray for a soft landing.

P. What would you do if your house caught on fire?
R. Lick it off.


P. What would you do if you were in between two huge Bucks getting ready to fight?
R. I would make camp for the night.

P. What would you do if a pheasant flew up right in front of you when you were hunting in a field?
R. Get the fire extinguisher.


P. What would you do if your car was stolen while at work?
R. Smell some peppermint oil.

P. What would you do if your piano was out of tune?
R. Kick it hard!

P. What would you do if your dog ran out and started chasing your neighbors horse?
R. Let out your cat to tree it.


P. What would you do if your beard caught on fire?
R. Step on it!

P. What would you do if you dropped a 20lb stone on your foot?
R. Go cross-eyed looking at it!


The first night we played this game that Theresa had found in this old book of Parlor Games, our stomachs hurt so bad and every single one of us were reaching for the tissue box as we could not stop from laughing at how the predicament and remedy from two different people could fit together so well! Forget about comedians, cartoon clips and joke books, you can make up your own amusement by playing this unpredictably hilarious game!

Biblical Structures - Graham Cracker Designs

New Years Eve evening we gathered in the Eddy's basement for some architectural creating out of graham crackers with the assigned subject of Biblical structures. Several small teams were created with a few individual designers and the construction quickly commenced as floorboards were laid, frames were built and cement was poured.
Early on a few peeks and inquiries were made as to the subject chosen of other creators, but soon everyone settled down to the tasks at hand as the structures were slowly but surely coming in to view.
In the end, when all was finished and the designs and creative points admired, the one amazing thing that we noticed was that we had unknowingly covered the majority of Scripture starting with Noahs ark and ending with the Apostle Paul in prison!

Below are some pictures of the builders and their creations. Enjoy!



Faith and Christianna and Noah's Ark.

The intricately designed Mr. and Mrs. Noah and friends made out of Graham Crackers by Faith!

Grace and Theresa working on the Tower.


The tower builders! John, Grace and Theresa Eddy.


Josiah and Abraham's altar and offering of the sacrificial lamb.


Shawn Eddy and Joshua and their masterpiece - The Tabernacle of the Lord.


Sacrifice.


Charity and Elisha's upper room.


Mr. and Mrs. Eddy and the Empty Tomb.


He is Risen!


Mom and Dad and the Roman Prison where the Apostle Paul was held.


Fritolious - Roman Soldier.

Baskets, Baskets and More Baskets!

Baskets, boxes of stuffing, breads and chocolates, spice nuts, teas and cocoa...Our library was invaded last week as we were given the opportunity to make 18 (plus 4 for this week) gift baskets for a friend of ours who is a therapist and wanted to give something in thanks to all the doctors that refer people to his clinic. We had a most enjoyable time baking tea breads (Cinnamon Raisin, Cranberry Orange, Banana Nut, and Zucchini), finding stuff to put in them and putting together these baskets full of goodies!

Grace and a finished basket.

We delivered all 18 in small batches, mainly because it was impossible to bake all 54 breads in one day and because we were not able to obtain all the supplies at the beginning. We hope that these were a blessing to those who received them and above all that God was glorified!

Concert Results

The benefit concert for Mariah Kirby went well on Friday night. Though the disappointment that not many people showed up was felt, we quickly tried to over look all the empty pews and went on with the performance for the praise and glory of our Lord!

Please see Mariah's blog for more information and pictures of this event and please continue to lift her and the family up in your prayers that our Great and Almighty Lord would bless them with His strength through these trying times and to touch and heal this little girl for His glory! Also as God leads you, please give to the medical fund set up for Mariah as the expenses for her treatment are anything but small! Thank you.


Due to the assumed mass of people that would come to this event and the thought amount of desserts needed, Faith and I (Grace) and some of the other ladies in our Church were baking like crazy on Thursday making well over 1000 cookies and 'Dulce' delights! Needless to say we had over and above all we could ever need on Friday evening and were practically forcing the goodies on our few guest, taking some to compliment our Sunday meal and either freezing the rest or giving the remaining abundance of our stash to friends!

Cookies, Cookies and more Cookies!

The Choir singing selections from Handel's Messiah. Glory to God! 

Mrs. Wagner and Lindy 

Eunice Van Bergen - Our Pianist and Organist