Please, Be Our Guest!

Katie loves this song...though as you will see can only sing a few parts....

"Be our guest, be our guest, put your soldiers in your nest. Tie your napkin around your neck, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee" :)

And she sings it about 4 times on this video!

Lunch on Campus

Thanks sweet girls for inviting us to lunch with you on campus. It was fun! We will have to do it again. :)
Melissa, MaryAnn, and Jennifer I will be praying for your summer plans and hopefully the Lord will do great things in and through you.
Finish strong in your course work!

 

 

 

 

Beautiful

 

 

Around here the weather, including the clouds, has been a wonderful display of the goodness of God within his creation. He is orchastrating everything to show his Glory.
Whew...it has been beautiful!

"My feet are walking to you"

We were outside and I asked Katie to, "Come" as we were going inside to make muffies.

She was a bit slow and so I asked her what she was doing...knowing that it might turn into a discipline issue if I didn't help teach her through her slowness. We obey, right away, all the way and with a happy heart.

She replied, "Mommy, see my feet? They are walking towards you."

Ummmm...I thought, yes, you are obeying, but very very slowly are those feet walking towards me and away from the sandbox.

Ahh...there is a pharisee hidden in us all.

What does a rubber horse, airplane, bucket of strawberries and number 6 all have in common?

It is all at Vollmer Farms! We went on a field trip to Vollmer farms to pick some delicious strawberries in field number "six" and play at their little park area-including a rubber tire horse, airplane, chalk board and "growing up" strawberry. Then we ate a bit of lunch and headed home. Owen was fast asleep within 5 minutes of our car ride and Katie was out a few minutes after being home.
Ahhh...I LOVE strawberries and spring time.
Thanks for helping me Katie and Owen! We will have to go again to get some to freeze. The bucket we picked this time will be gone in 3 days, guaranteed! They are SOOOOO good.

 

 

 

 

A Few Good Teachers....

What a blast! We had a play date with some teachers that I used to teach with at FA; it was wonderful (I was sorry that more former teachers couldn't have joined us! We are spread out all over the country/world!). It is amazing that in a few more months all four of us will be either in some other state or continent! From Africa to Europe to SC and NC. But we had a great time playing, eating lemon pine nut muffins and cinnamon bread, drinking coffee and catching up. ...Though I don't think we finished one conversation, (or sentence for that matter!) before being interrupted by a child. Oh well, it was fun. :) Though we may never play together all again, know that each one of you LOVING the Lord and following Him ministers to my heart and life. And for that I am thankful! It is also great that my kiddos and I can keep up with you all over blogs.
Thanks for playing girls (and boys)! I miss you and may the Lord use you mightily!
PS--we missed you Mattie! Hope your ear infection is better little girl. :)

He's on the move...

So O is almost in a full crawl! He is a determined little boy that is on the move!

Our talking boy.

So...Owen is talking up a storm these days. He loves to say, "hey" and "hey Dadda". Then he also moves his mouth without saying anything and it is, Oh so cute!
When he is happy after a nap he can roll all around his crib and he and I both love it!
Enjoy our almost 7 month old!

She said, "YES!" and He said, "WOW!"

 

 

 

 

My brother proposed to his girlfriend, Ms. Julie last night! Whaooohooooo!
WE ARE SUPER EXCITED! :)
Julie, we are glad to welcome you officially into the Stein family. As Katie said and we all agree you are "really nice" and Tommy is one lucky guy! It seems that you two have great fun together and will prayerfully have a "till your 80 years old plus" wonderful life together. We hope to get more time with you two in the future...you are ALWAYS welcomed to come out here.
Can't wait to see the ring and your two smiling faces in June.
Love,
The NC 4
PS I think it is a destination wedding and a beach might be in order?! Last summer's photos might inspire that direction even more. :)

A zebra, frog, puppy, crocodile..

Katie was finishing her lunch and told me she was, "distracted". Interesting I have never heard her say this, though we say it to her. :)

I asked, "why?".

"Because Momma, the zebra, frog, puppy and crocodile are distracting me from eating", Katie replied.

"How did they get in here?" I asked.

"They climbed up to the porch and jumped through the window. They are right over there and they are distracting me".

So as every good mom does, I told them to wait patiently to play until Katie was done eating and to please hush as Katie has three more bites to eat.

Katie finished up and is now teaching them how to play the game memory.
Got to love her imagination!

Journaling-8 Questions and their subquestions I have been asking myself

Learning to ask good questions...

1. What character traits to we want our family to pursue?

2. When my kids "inconvenience" me, how do I respond?

3. Does the budget drive my ministry or ministry drive the budget? (areas of ministry-food, hospitality, giving, discipleship, etc...) Are we eating food that gives us energy and life or are we eating it simply because it is cheap/easy?

4. What things do I need to reconsider/change when being a wife, training my kids, and keeping a home? In what ways have I become complacent?

5. Do I really believe that Prayer works? Does it have the ability to change my life and those around me?

6. When I need to ask for forgiveness, do I ask whoever I offended? Or am I to proud?

7. Do I take care of myself (do my hair, change out of pjs, wash my face, try to get enough sleep) only when I am going out to run errands or have something on the calender for the next day? Do I make sure my husband and kids have a wife/mom that looks nice for sometimes only them?

8. Am I trying to live in the tension of a Grace filled life, abiding with Jesus and yet working with all I am to live well-pursuing God in all things? Am I falling to hard to one side or the other?

I got some Katie time!

Katie has been needing and I have been wanting some just Momma and Katie time. But with Owen still so young and not a great napper, time is limited. And as you can see from the last photo...he didn't last long playing by himself.
I decided to jump into muffin making with Katie and she was SO excited. We made banana ones and they were Delicious!

On an side note, Katie has had reoccurring "runny noses and colds" these past months and I have been so frustrated for her. We finally saw Dr. Kelly who is a chiropractor specializing in advanced kinesiology-LOVE HER! Her thought...Katie is not tolerating dairy-she did this through muscle testing-amazing! Duh, the intolerance is still there! Her body does well for a while and then it is overwhelmed and makes a snot factory and coughing fest. She had such a fierce reaction when she was a baby while I was nursing and eating dairy...duh, it is still here. Not to mention I don't tolerate it well and Justin doesn't either-runs in the family I guess.
That said, I have been on the search again for good dairy free foods. Here is the recipe that I used that is wonderful. :) * I did use Whole Wheat Flour and honey granulars for the sweetener. yummm...

And the last photo album is me trying within about 30 seconds to get ONE good shot with my little girl. What a difficult task! :)

 

 

 

 

Katie's garage sale finds and my Journaling about Garage Sales.

 

 

 

 

At the garage sale Katie was on the hunt for a new game. She found one and was SUPERB excited. She actually bought two-Disney Memory and Stacking Elephants. She paid the lady her dollar and couldn't wait to play when we got home. As you can see by the photos, even Owen like it (grab piece, open mouth, insert game).
And what is a day with Daddy without wearing his hat. Glad when we get Daddy home on the weekends. :) Boy, these three are cute!

Journaling-Garage Saleing...
We went to the local neighborhood garage sale this past weekend. The subdivision is huge, made up of cottage style homes, plantation homes and craftsman bungalows. It is one of those neighborhoods that is SO inviting with its colors and play spaces. We brought the stroller for Katie and Owen napped in the Ergo. It was a nice relaxing morning. Justin and I went to be outside and watch the faithful people that garage sale, every Saturday morning...looking for that one terrific find. It doesn't hurt that this area is well to do and so people think they can find something cheap that once might have cost a small fortune. But really it is an interesting people watch.

Here's who you see...

1.You have the folks like us that are strolling around looking for things that might be neat or fun for the kids.

2.Then there are the Hispanics and other cultures that look like they are out doing their daily shopping.
Story-we were at a house and a Hispanic lady was looking at a nice dishwasher for sale. They lady selling the dishwasher wanted $200. The Hispanic lady offered $150. Selling lady said, "No". Hispanic lady again said $150. The selling lady said, "No!". The Hispanic lady said again $150. The selling lady said, "No don't ask me again!". The Hispanic lady AGAIN said $150? The selling lady in a very loud annoyed voice said, "No, DON'T TALK TO ME ANYMORE!". Whew...the dishwasher was still sitting there when we left.

3.The flea market folks that look for something they can resell. These people literally RUN up to a sale and grab something right under your fingers.
Story-I saw a cute little pink and a cute little purple chair for Katie to use outside. Both were $5 each and so I asked if they would take any less (always fun to barter). She said she would do $3 and I said I'll take one of them. As I was going to ask Katie which color she wanted a lady ran up next to me and said, "Are you buying those chairs?". I said I was buying one of them. She said in a breathless voice, "Can I buy the purple one?". And within a few seconds I was left with buying the pink chair. :)

4.The older folks that power walk from one sale to the next with their fanny packs tightly zipped and smiles on their faces.

But as I walked about the garage sale, Justin and I thought of two thoughts. One, isn't it sad that people are so hungry for a good deal. If they can just get a bargain...surely they need that third basket or 10th picture frame. :) Stuff has taken the place of God so often in our pursuit for joy. We keep looking for that "other" thing to fill the place that only God can.

And second, like the lady and the dishwasher. We really think our stuff is worth more then it is. We think more of ourselves and our things then we ought. That dishwasher probably didn't sell. But for $50 less they could have both been happy. One to have a dishwasher and the other to get it our of their garage where it was sitting collecting dust.
We are a stubborn prideful people. If we could just grasp the reality that we are dirty rags, but priceless because of the blood of Jesus and the imprint of God on our lives.

Finally please don't hear me that we shouldn't shop for deals or to take our time finding that special thing. And we should price things at what we think they are worth. But our hope is found in Jesus as is our joy. Things won't make us happy, only a person will.

Thank you Jesus!

Owen's first...

 

The jury said, He LOVED the sand!