T-io's Birthday!

Tylar just LOVES T-Al

Look who woke up from their naps!

Someone's asking for a SQUEEZE!

Happy birthday to you!

Vavo, T-Io, Tylar, Logenn, Mom and Hannah

Awww... Logenn!

Finding out we had never played a Wii before, T-Io pulled his out and let us have a go at it.

She's not competitive is she? :P

Tabitha the sword fighting a go...

While Chariti tries it out...

Stephanie plays hide and seek with the boys :)

Snow tubing

 In the midst of winter Dad got a hankering to go snow tubing so we picked a day and we all went snow tubing and we enjoyed a day with just having fun together.

Snow tubing for the day 

Sisters and best friends

Going hunting

A visit from the Moyers

 What better time is there for coming together for tea and fellowship than in the midst of the cold winter?
We so enjoy fellowshipping with you ladies! 

Alisha and Ashley

Ready for tea! :)

Skiing

Because of the Thomases sad move to Oklahoma we northeners were left without someone to plan ski trips for us! Felicity really wanted to go skiing for her birthday so Mom looked at me and said, "Do you want to plan a ski trip?" With a tinge of nervousness I said "OK" and so with LOTS of advice and information from Matthew Thomas, the previous coordinator for Lighthouse Learning Center's ski trips, I planned three ski trips to Crotched Mt this year. The pictures from the first one in January are henceforth posted. :)
Just for the record, we had 96 attendees for the January ski trip, 215 for the Feb. trip and 63 for the March trip.

Seth's first time skiing...

He loved it!

To the top of the bunny hill on the magic carpet...

LUNCH!!!

For us anyway ;)

Beth :)

Snowman #1

Snowman #2

Back at the Murray's...

The Murray's were so kind to host our small group overnight and feed us a delicious dinner!

I think Noah wants to try snowboarding!

Tosies!

Chatting...

Monopoly!

Going sledding

How many people can we fit on a sled?

A Visit to the Maira's

Long ago back in January, the Maira's came up to Mass and invited Stephanie and Tabitha to go back down and spend a week long visit with them, to which invitation we joyfully excepted!

The enjoyment of each other's company began immediately

Mmmm...guacamole!

Taking pictures at the theater after dressing up like princesses to go watch the new princess movie, Tangled
We missed you Malena! 

Feelin' famous :D

We love you girls and can't wait to visit again, hopefully sometime soon!!!
♥

Sewing with the Littles

Our little girls LOVE to sew and constantly ask Stephanie to teach them how to, so finally Stephanie had a day which she spent teaching them how to become little seamstresses.
Chariti working on her duckie quilt

Helping Felicity

Even Hannah sewed a little!

Learning together

Making blocks

Seth loves his doggie quilt!

I know we say this all the time but we just love this little guy!

Seth's School Work

It was a cold wintry day and while the girls were all diligently adding, subtracting and multiplying at their desks this little guy was walking around asking where his schoolwork was so I gave him a mission. Seth, your schoolwork is to build a nice big castle for your army men to defend! Taking his mission seriously he created this adorable castle and was so very proud of it I had to get a picture!
Now isn't he the cutest little guy on earth?

  Battle in the jungle?
 

~Spurgeon

The Lord was and is my chief portion, my well of comfort, the rock of my salvation. If we make props of our outward joys, we shall fall when they are taken away; but if we rest wholly upon the foundation of divine love, altogether apart from external things, we shall never be moved. Happy is the Christian who can practically enjoy delight in the Almighty by making him to be his all in all, all the day, and every day.

Young Men Should Seek Mentorship

I frequently meet men who say something like, "Poor me, I have no mentors." One of the things we tell our interns during orientation is that if they leave here and say, "No one mentored me," we will have no compassion on them, but rather rebuke. Why? First of all, you simply don't want to be one of those men bemoaning the fact that no one mentored them. A young man should position himself for something better. Second, seeking and having mentors is a basic quality of manhood. One of the important agendas of manhood is to take initiative and "get wisdom" (Proverbs 4:5). Happy is the one who "finds wisdom" (3:13). Solomon says that you have to "take hold of her" (3:18). A young man has to "seek" it. Proverbs 20:5 makes it clear that counsel is available - "deep water" is there, but a wise man will "draw it out." The treasure is there, "on the lips of the wise" (Proverbs 20:15). If a man has no mentors in a place with wise men, he has failed to seek wisdom.
 ~Scott Brown

NCFIC 

Cabela's

Here's for the final post for the Love the Church Conference! 

About an hour or so after we left West Virgina(?) on Monday morning, Hannah began to suffer the effects of a stomach bug and Lilya (who was sitting next to her) started crying, she answered our inquiries of concern saying, "I want my Daddy" So Mom walkie-talkied the Fournier's, we pulled over and Mr. Fournier came to ask Lilya what was the matter. We thought perhaps she was grossed out by Hannah's sickness and didn't want to sit next to her but to our surprise she touchingly cried "I feel bad for Hannah!" with tears streaming down her face! That child is priceless! 

-Continuing our Journey-

While driving north on the highway, approaching Pennsylvania, and discussing the different lectures we had all heard via the walkie-talkies, we happened to pass by a guide sign saying "Cabella's such and such exit" Now last time we went to Cabella's was about 8 yrs ago in Texas, our Uncle had brought us and Mom had stayed with my Aunt and Felicity and Chariti who were then too little to go. Thus Mom and the Fourniers had never had the pleasure of visiting Cabella's. After asking Mom and gaining her consent under the condition "If Mr. and Mrs. Fournier don't mind going then I don't mind" Thus began the pleas to Mr. Fournier. 

Objection #1: "Well, I would love to go but the adult here(Mrs. Fournier) says if we stop we'll get stuck in NY traffic on the way home." replied Mr. Fournier

Objection #1 Solved: "What if we stay long enough at Cabella's so that we're behind the traffic instead of in front of it?"

Bingo! Problem solved and right around the corner was the desired exit, thus ensued a visit to one of our favorite stores in the US with one of our favorite families, the Fourniers. :)

Neat looking statue or as Michael would call it "Art"

Seth with sparkling eyes and a delighted face holds a REAL gun for the first time in his life!

"If you take everything away from a boy, he will make a gun out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich" 

~Paul Washer

These words have proved true, just a few days ago Seth was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and lo and behold he chewed it into the shape of a gun and said "look! it's a gun" and pretended to shoot with it.

Pink!

That's Stephanie's kind of gun :)

“I would like to see every woman know how to handle [firearms] as naturally as they know how to handle babies.”

~Annie Oakley

That's my beautiful, tea-sipping,Victorian, loves to dress up, ultra-ladylike Momma!

Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the *real* object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 9 1788

"A lot of children know absolutely nothing about guns other than what they see on T.V., and those are the wrong things."

Of course, seeing a group of people (especially young ladies) looking at and touching all the guns as if they had never seen any place like this drew in a crowd.

The dialogue went something like this:

So, where ya'll from?

Uh, well, ummmm...Massachusetts. 

Reeeaallly. So whatya'll doin' out here?

Well, we're on our way home from a conference.

It seems like everyone knew each other at Cabela's.

In this picture, you can see the people we met and talked to, the lady in the red is the wife of a retired police officer (pictured below) and the other man is currently a police officer. We greatly enjoyed speaking with them, being older and from a different generation they had much to share about their experiences, especially so on the topic of gun possession. Mom laughingly remarked, "We should move down here where the gun laws are better" The lady replied "No you stay up there, we need people like you in Massachusetts!." The retired police officer strongly urged us to not forsake our 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
~

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good"

-- George Washington

This couple had served in the military, the lady told us: "I carry mine everywhere. In fact, it's right here!

We felt VERY safe here! If some criminal had been there who decided to try something, we were surrounded by people who would not hesitate to use their guns to defend and protect. Now wouldn't that make you feel safer too?

 Here to the left was another retired police officer who informed us that back in his day it was illegal for a police officer to carry a gun with him when he was off duty but he still illegally carried it anyway because just in case anything happened he was armed and prepared. Now if someone like a police officer who knows (to a large extent) what's going on in the world, is taking the risk of illegally carrying a gun then I think that's a good indication that there's a very good reason for it. Makes me think perhaps I should be carrying one. :)
~
‘‘The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the underdog is a sine qua non ["something essential" lit. "without which not"] for the overthrow of any sovereignty."

-- Adolph Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938
~

 "One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms."
-- Constitutional scholar Joseph Story, 1840
~

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

-- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788