Thanks Nana and Papa...

I love my Valentines card! I do wish it was a real lollypop...but my mom and dad say I can't have suger like that yet...what do you think, Nana??
I love you and hope I can see you soon.
Love, Katie Grace
PS that bite of Banana Bread that I got over Christmas...my mom and dad don't think so, but I think that kind of bread is very super healthy-don't tell them that there is a cup of sugar in it. That will be our secret!


 

What Katie has been up to or into!

Yeap, Katie is standing everywhere she can. I caught her doing all of these in the past week! The one by the toilet-she crawled to the bathroom while I was taking a picture of some beautiful tulips that Justin had given me. And by the time that I got to her she was "playing" in the water-thankfully which was clean! I had the camera in my hand so I snapped this shot. And now I just keep the bathroom door closed!
But she is 8 months old and going to walk soon. Look out world, our world is getting faster with a crawling/standing baby!!!!!!

 
 
 
 

4 boys and 1 girl...

We had a house full of kiddos this past weekend, 5 total kids! We watched the Mckenzie boys for Friday night and had a ton of fun.
Friday night the boys played sticks outside with their selected hidding spots behind bushes...We also played Uno, I Spy, and Mancala. Noah did a wonderful job doing I spy, and played game after game! And Uno was a favorite for those waitng to play Mancala (-a game with marbles and a simple wooden board, one tries to collect the most marbles one can)...Micah was the overall champ in Mancala, though he was finally beaten by his brothers later on Saturday morning! You can tell by the first picture that Micah was winning then! We watched Underdog and ate popcorn after Katie went down for bed. The boys slept like champs and Saturday morning it was on to pancakes and watching the DVD Underdog for the second time! It was so fun to see them laugh and repeat the funny lines! You can tell by the picture of Katie she was a bit unsure about it all...though she had a blast trying to get into everything that was on the floor from the boys! Joel was so thoughtful and nice to Katie as he tried to carry her and get her to smile! Noah kept the stories going, Josiah ate the most popcorn and Micah, the oldest, kept everyone polite!
And lastly, Justin took them back to meet their parents at their Upwardbound Basketball games. They are true players of the game. :) Noah is still a ball boy, but next year he is going to join the fun!
McKenzie boys you are welcome to come and stay anytime! I know your Mommy and Daddy had a good time with a quiet house!~ PS Happy Birthday Tracy!!!



 
 
 
 

Noisy toys, crazy hair, and falling!

Katie got this wonderfully noisy :)leap frog baby toy for Christmas from Nana and Papa Green. She loves it! Her favorite thing to do is hit the buttons all at once so that every possible noise can happen simultanously. :)

And as you can see in the second picture her hair is long enough now to be crazy wild in the morning. I am sure it will only get more crazy!

And the last photo is about her first fall. I think she was doing well since almost 8 months had passed and she hadn't fallen that hard yet! But the story is...She was standing up, holding on to the leap frog toy, lost her balance and fell...hitting her top tooth through her little lip on the inside and causing immediate blood! Justin scooped her up quickly, and I cleaned up her mouth. Katie handled it like a champ crying only for a few minutes. We gave her this teething ring to help with any soreness. But it is amazing that the mouth heals itself so quickly! She was better and off to play in about 5 minutes! :) And not much to report the next morning-her mouth looked fine!



 
 
 

A book Blog...by Katie Metcalf

Hey all,
Here is another woman's thoughts from the book, Heave at Home Thanks for sharing Katie!

Hope everyone enjoys, it is encouraging to see the Lord at work in the Homes of Wives and Moms!

In the beginning she talks about the woman setting the tone for the home. That my attitude will be reflected in my family members actions. If I am stressed out then I will take it out on them and they will in return reflect that attitude. I have noticed this at school, so I am sure it is that same at home. The sad thing is that the stress that I feel is due to my lack of getting things done or planned. I can point to Derek all day long, but in the end there are so many little things that I could have done to have made the situation better. And more importantly it is a lack of trust in God. Instead of just stopping and thinking that there is a reason I am in this place I choose to have a horrible attitude.

There was so much on the leadership of our husbands and our submission to them in that. One thing that I have been trying to work on is to follow Derek in all areas unless it is obviously sin. This may sound easy to you, but it is oh so hard for me. Esp. with the little areas. I tend to always voice my options, even it is something so small as to whether or not we should leave the porch light on. Sure isn't a sin to turn it off, so why do I argue it so passionately? Those are the silly things I struggle with. And yet again it is showing my lack of trust in God. It is me doubting that He is big enough to work in Derek and that I must step in and make something amazing happen. Yikes, I am quite the prideful person!!

I like how she said that when we are upset about something we should think about 2 things.
What I did wrong in the situation (not the other person)
Things about that person that we love and that are praiseworthy.
The importance of focusing on things that are good and true and not all the reasons that I think it is ok for me to pout about the situation. My pastor always says that we need to Preach to ourselves and not listen to ourselves. I so often what to convince myself that I am the person who has been wronged and it is ok for me to act the way that I am. But in all honesty I need to be preaching the gospel to myself and thinking of all the sins I have committed against the Lord and how All of them have been forgiven. It is sad when I do this and still find it hard to forgive. I am such a stubborn person!!

I enjoyed all the chapters on parenting as well. I didn't realize they were there so it was fun to come across them at a point when I would know that I would soon be needing them.

My favorite chapter far and beyond was the last one. I loved her thoughts on hospitality. I loved how she realized that the picture she once had of what hospitality looks like has so drastically changed. It honestly brought me to tears as I read about her friend's home that she found so much comfort in. How often I worry about the silly things with my house that mean nothing to others when they come to visit. I would love for our home to be a place like she described. A place where people just know that they can stop by anytime of day and know that it will not bother us. That we would love to be able to have them anytime and not just when everything is put in order etc. It was very convicting to me when she talked about not ever hearing her friend apologize for how her home looked. She just welcomed them in and said nothing more about her home. I am so quick to say "sorry for the mess." I do it so often that I will catch myself saying it even when things are not messy at all! After reading this chapter I asked Derek to keep me in check in this area. That I would not only say that we can have people over when the house seems orderly, but that anytime it could Serve Others, that we would jump on that occasion. And that he would tell me when I allow the awful words " I am sorry about my house" to come out. That I would not apologize, but instead be so grateful for all that the Lord has provided. And sometimes it will be a good reminder that I am slacking in the area of a homemaker and needing to be back on track with that. God is good at keeping us inline in very creative ways :)

Katie is eating and loving it! Plus good baby food site!

Hi all,
Katie is loving her foods! Yes, she has always loved to nurse and is passionate about it, but now that we have introduced a few solids she has found something else to become passionate about! :)
The foods that she has tried, liked and doesn't have any allergic reactions to are:

Sweetpotatoes-her favorite
Peas
Bananas-her second favorite
Avocados
Green beans -not her favorites, though she will eat them
Pears
Applesauce
Peaches
Butternut Squash
Brown Rice

She is totally a ham when it comes to eating and I now know what it is like to change my clothes after feeding her. She tries out new sounds, makes funny faces, sneezes all while eating and consquently (Beth Mckenzie word) her food ends up somewhere on my clothes! Good thing "Shout" Stain Remover works!

And if you are interested in a good baby food site with recipes check this out.
www.wholesomebabyfood.com

There is also one for toddlers
www.wholesometoddlerfood.com

:)


 
 
 
 

Happy Belated Birthday Dorian!

Hi Uncle Dorian,
Happy 17th Birthday! You are growing up like a weed; that is what my mom says I am doing too!! Boy are you tall. :)
Love, Katie Grace

And...Katie loved playing with you over the holidays with all 150 of the plastic balls. Justin enjoyed watching you play basketball. I enjoyed your skill at playing solitary. :)
Simply...we love you!
Happy birthday and come out and visit us anytime!
Love, Justin, Gi and Katie



 
 

jokes of the moment...

1. What do you call a rap star that studied classical music?





1. answer--Yo Yo Ma Ma




2. My mother always used to say, "The older you get, the better you get." unless you are a banana...



3. Woman goes to the beach and takes out her bathing suit... "That's strange. This suit wasn't a thong last year."


Hope they made you laugh! :)

New Years Eve-just a bit late! :)

For New Year's Eve, we went to see some friends for a few hours. Justin, Katie and I didn't make it until midnight but from what I heard everyone else did! They played spoons and had a blast...I have to admit I was jealous, since I think I could have taken everyone in spoons! Did anybody else play this growing up?? :)

There also was a pinata which Justin finally broke open, after all the other kids tried, causing candy to spill everywhere and the kids to start diving for it too. Tracy did do a good job at moving the stick so the kids couldn't get it to often though!

Grandma Julie McKenzie (Tracy's mom from Virgil Kansas) was there too. It was so nice to see her and have Katie meet one of our adoptive extra grandma's. She is so sweet. :) She got Katie a book by Noel Pipper called, Remember Jesus Loves you. We are lucky to have known her in college! :)

I loved Beth's pants that night, Noah giving antlers and also Katie wearing her flashy earrings. (she was shirtless because we were changing her to her pjs!)
Overall we had a good time. We hit the bed about 10:30 and it was late enough for us!

My Friend Catie Beth Muse

So I got to go and see my new tiny friend Catie Beth. Boy was she cute! I mean girl was she cute! Her parents did a good job! I think that I can take her though...maybe someday you won't even be able to tell that we are 7 months apart, but right now I dwarf her... But I know that I am going to have a lot of fun getting into things someday with her! :)
Isn't she so cute!
We love you Catie Beth,
Justin, Gi and Katie

 
 
 

A Another Nutrition Moment By Gi

So Justin has strongly encouraged me to go through some papers and get rid of them! Within that stack I found a paper about Kefir that I was going to blog about back in October. Well here is to getting things done!

Within the scientific community there is support that Kefir, which has been around for bunches of years and which is similar to yogart, is the base for a "balanced intestinal eco-system". This tart, fermentated dairy product also provides great calcium, protein, vitamins-especially B vitamins and fiber. If one were to go to Europe and talk about Kefir it might be refered to as, "the champagne of dairy products". It is also widely used in Russia. It is prized because it has so many beneficial nutritents! I pretty much think of Kefir as Yogart on steroids. Kefir has at least four more friendly bacteria and two more friendly yeasts that yogart has. Kefir is strong enough to build cities in your intestines of good bacteria and yeast, yogart just helps to keep your cities clean.

I decided to give this a try after Justin had his 11th stomach surgery last January. The Dr.'s were sure that something was going on again in his intestines making them tighten into knots or pinch or his small and large intestines were telescoping into each other...something was causing intense pain. But even after going into his stomach for surgery they didn't find the problem. I don't know if Kefir has made a incredible difference and I can't say that Justin will never have stomach isses again. But we have seen some good results with digestion. We make Kefir, from Kefir grains and then add it to our fruit smoothies with a bunch of other things, bananas, honey, cranberries, strawberries, fiber, super foods etc...

Anyway I found some of this info at Helios Organic Kefir, Wikipedia and Kefir.net... Though there are many other sites too!

Happy Healthy O8'

A Nutrition Moment By Gi

Hey All,
So it has been a very long time since I have blogged about nutrition!
Here is a brief snapshot of an article that I read about the importance of water to the body. It has been amazing to see how potentially when I am in pain for numerous things it could be my body calling for water. Maybe with a lot of issues of the body it is actually our bodies being dehydrated! ...And if you were to read the whole interview not everything I read I agree with...
But I have copied and pasted a few lines from this online article that I read. Hope you enjoy and it helps you stay healthy!
:) Gi

This interview is from Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of Water For Health, For Healing, For Life, taken from Mike Adams with Truth Publishing...
http://www.newstarget.com/Report_water_cure_1.html


Dr. B: That's right. So, basically, this is what's going on in medicine in America. Joint pain, back pain, arthritis cause by chronic dehydration. The human body also has its emergency calls for water. These are localized emergency calls. We call these heartburn, rheumatoid joint pain, back pain, migraine headaches, colitis pain, fibromyalgiac pain, even angina pain -- signs of dehydration in the body.

And the mechanism is very simple -- when there isn't enough water to be evenly distributed and certain parts of the body are working but not receiving enough water to deal with its toxic waste and metabolism, and the toxic waste builds up that area, the nerve endings in that area register the chemical environmental change with the brain. And the brain translates this information for the conscious mind in the form of pain.

Mike: So it's just the interpretation?

Dr. B: It's an interpretation, yes. So the conscious mind gets the information that, hey, this area we can't use anymore, it has a shortage of water. Of course, the conscious mind should have known that, but bad education has robbed us of that information. We think this pain is a disease.

Mike: The predominant diagnosis of this, of course, I think in the minds of most people, and especially in most M.D.s would be that there is something physically or structurally compromised in that area.

Dr. B: Well, of course, the compromise is when the tissue is dehydrated, it's changing structure. The plum-like cells become prune-like. Prune-like cells do not function in the same manners as a plum-like cell. So, that is how symptoms are produced. These symptoms mean, okay, let us get the ingredients that the body needs into the system. Now, when we say dehydration, water also brings a lot of other goodies to the cells. When we are dehydrated, these goodies are not delivered either. So, we need not only correct dehydration, but also to supply the minerals and vitamins and so on so that the body can repair itself.

...

We should not wait to get thirsty, because water is the main source of energy. By the time you get thirsty, you will have lost energy from the water that you should have drunk and made available before you get thirsty. So, if you don't allow the gas tank of your car to come dry before you stop and take some gas, then why should you let your body become thirsty so that it stalls on the roadside before you drink water?

So, first thing, people should never allow themselves to get thirsty -- they should drink throughout the day. An average person needs two quarts of water a day. Average person really needs four quarts of water a day. But two quarts we have to supply. Two quarts we get from food metabolism and water content in foods. We need this amount of water to manufacture at least two quarts of urine. You know, not to put pressure on the kidneys. When we drink enough water so that the urine is colorless, that is a good sign. When the urine becomes yellow, it means that the body is beginning to become dehydrated and when it becomes orange, then the body is truly dehydrated and some part of the body is suffering from that dehydration.

Me: His conclusion is that if I was to drink at least 2 quarts of water, not soda, coffee, juice, etc, I would actually see an increase in my health...that makes sense to me! I know that I should drink more water, but if I knew that it would help my bodies get rid of pain or ward off diseses wouldn't I drink more? Yes I would! So I am off to drink some water...! Cheers!

Looking like a big girl!

Hey Aunt Brandi,
Thanks for the outfit! I feel as if I look about 1 year old and not my little 7 1/2 months? Mommy and Daddy think that I will be 16 before they know it! Anyway thanks for the big girl outfit!
Peace Out
Katie Grace

 
 

Low Ride Er...

I didn't know that dipaers came in the low rider version...Look out all you peeps, Katie is keeping it real......
:)
Though I am sure that Justin won't let her out of the house like this as she gets older!



 

The Best Day Ever

So I know that most of you mommies out there will agree with me that when there is an excellent, above the clouds day with your children, you feel like writing or telling somebody about it! So I guess it has been 7 months (very exaggerant, I know) since I can say all these things happened all together in one day...I got things done around the house (chores, cooking errand), played with Katie, Katie played by hersef and was very content, she slept pretty well for her naps, loved the stroller ride down the street to the grocery store, had a bunch of smiles and laughs and I love being a mommie today!! Of course I love every day, just in different ways. Somedays the Lord has planned for a "remolding my vase", other days he decides to reshape it and start over. Today was a very grace filled day from Jesus.

Lord, Thanks so much that you gave me a breath of fresh air! I had no idea that it was coming and I am simply going to just rest in today, not worry about tommorrow (which you command)and give you all the glory. Thank you Jesus.

Hi Mimi and Grandpa Stein!!

Dear Mimi, Grandpa Stein, Aunt Jessa, Uncle Dustin and Uncle Tommy!
We had such a fun time at your house!~ Katie loved the fact (and so did we) that it snowed when we were with you all! We can't wait to see you guys again and thanks for all the food and presents! We had many laughs...especially when Tommy, my brother played take 2 with the scrabble pieces...he is a word smith!
Love you all,
Justin, Gi and Katie

Christmas with Grandpa Hime!

Hi Grandpa Hime,
We had such a fun time with you!!! Your 12 ft tree with amazing as was as all your generous gifts for each of us. :) Thanks also for coming to the airport when our flight was canceled to bring diapers, food, water and your company!
We can't wait to see you soon!!!!!!!!
Love, Justin, Gi and Katie

Happy Belated 7 month Birthday Katie

Even though this is late (it should have been on Christmas day) I still wanted to post her 7 month pictures. She is growing like a weed! She is crawling everywhere and starting to pull up on things! We are going to need to put in the plugs for the electrical switches soon! She has a new car seat, eating everything that we put in front of her with her two bottom and TWO TOP teeth (which she got over Christmas!...look out nursing!) and loves to be chased up the stairs! :)
We love her bunches and bunches,
Love you Katie Grace
Mommy and Daddy


 
 

Me and Cousin Camiryn...

Hey Camiryn,
We sure do love you! We know that Katie had a blast playing and being held by you. YOU make a fantastic cousin!
We'd love to have you come visit soon!!! Maybe when you come next we can go to the beach!
Later Gater,
Justin, Gi and Katie



 
 
 
 

Christmas at Nana and Papa's House

Hey Green Gang,
We LOVED hanging out with you all! Can't wait to see you next time. Thanks for all the love and the NOISY toys!
We love you guys,
Justin, Gi and Katie