Hockey Night

A few weeks ago, the local hockey team hosted a free night for my work. We decided to take the kiddos and see how it went. It went ok, although all of the loud noises scared Noah pretty bad. Mina just sat in her stoller and ate her hot dog without a care in the world. Jamie loved every minute of it. He is so athletic and loves all things sports. Linda liked pretending to be a cheerleader. Jake and Jamie both got almost gleeful everytime somebody would get slammed into the glass. It made for some good pictures to share with you guys.

Linda enjoying her hotdog, she is so pretty.



Noah seeking safety from Daddy



Whoa...



Still not too sure about this..




The other three kids thought it was great fun.

Binkys and Potty Training

We are moved into the house and getting settled. Along with getting settled came two woes. One, it is time to take away the pacifiers, and two, the dreaded potty training. Both are going aw well as can be expected. The babies have been only using the pacifiers at bedtime, but now we are trying to wean from that. There is an interest in potty training, but it is more miss than hit. We have not moved them into underwear yet because we want to give them a little more time to adjust to the new house, but we do take them everytime they say they need to. We have one to two successes each day from them, more from Noah than Mina, but it is a good start. They just turned two in December so I think we are right on track.

Jamie and Linda are much happier in their own rooms. They have already made friends in the neighborhood. The house to the left of us has three boys, and the one on the right has two boys. We actually hit 50 degrees on Saturday so they spent the whole day outside playing. I thought maybe Spring was on the way, but I guess not since it is sleeting and snowing today with highs in the twenties and thirties this week. That is it for now, Noah just announced he needed to go to the potty. More next time.

Poor birds

Jake has been living it up in the great North. He has made friends with men from my work and recently got to experiance the joys of pheasant hunting. Now I just have to learn how to cook pheasant, or at least try it. Here are some pics of Jake on his recent quest.

Our New Home

After months of living in a temporary apartment, we are finally counting down the days until we move into our new home. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to my company for providing the apartment, but four children in an apartment is just for the birds.

We are so excited about our new home. We cannot believe we found one in our price range that is this nice. It is four bedroom and one full bath and one partial bath. It has a beautiful fireplace and sits on three lots with lots of trees. The neatest part, we could literally throw a football and hit the lake. Yes it sits right on a back street with a view of the lake across the street. It also has lake access. Too bad we don't have a boat, but I know a great place to get a boat motor if I ever do LOL. Here are some pictures of the new place.

"Tactor Dad, Tactor!"

Of Snow and Sturgeons

Here are some of the pictures I have been promising from our time here so far. Jake got to go Sturgeon Spearing this past weekend. He had a blast! Sturgeon spearing is unlike any other fishing you have ever done. For starters, you are not allowed to use a pole or a line. You have to spear the fish with a Triton. Second, there is a season to it, just like deer hunting or things like it. The sturgeon can weigh as much as 190 lbs., and be 6-8 feet in length. The ones in the pictures are over 100 lbs. and about 70+ inches long. One person in Jake's group caught a 67 inch, 94 lb. sturgeon. The fish and game here send the fishermen a card in the male that tells their sturgeons height and weight, and how old they are. Some of them are well over 100 years old. The pictures of the fish were taken as Jake and I went to the local hang out where the men hang up and compare their catch. It was amazing. Jake has several family members booked to come next year.

The rest of the pictures explain themselves. Lots and lots of snow, and bundled up babies. I hope you enjoy them because it took me forever to post them so it may be awhile before I do it again.


My Snow Babies





The Snow is Almost to the Roof!




The Hole in the Ice.




The Shack about two miles out on the ice




Sunrise on the Lake



The Giant Sturgeon

Happy Valentines Day, My Love

Today is one of those holidays to celebrate the ones you love. I am truly blessed to have the husband that I have. I love him with all of my heart and soul. He is truly my soulmate, the other half of me. He loves me more than I deserve and fights for me whenever he needs to. I come first in his life and he in mine. I like to think it is truly the kind of gift God had in mind when he ordained marriage. He and I have been through one of the worst losses a wife or husband can go through other than the loss of each other, the loss of a child. While very few people understand the level of grief that it brings, and the strain it puts on a marriage, somehow we came through intact and still in love. I love you with everything I am Jacob.

How He Loves US

I am a firm believer that music speaks to your soul, that music can affect your mood, and that the right music can touch you in ways you never imagined. You know the effect when you smell a certain scent and you are transported back in time to a memory? I am that way with music. Certain songs take me back and invoke strong feelings good or bad.

On the way home tonight the song "Cry Out to Jesus" by Third Day came on. That is one of the songs that we played at Mason's funeral. We picked it because we wanted to show that no matter the problem, you can Cry Out to Jesus, He is there and willing to hold us through our sorrows. But, no matter the intent, the song still brings feelings of despair, grief, and the most intense soul-wrenching sorrow I have ever felt, and hopefully will ever feel and the feelings that instantly came over me were so intense I almost had to pull over. My eyes instantly welled up and a pain came over my heart. I wept. I wept for my son whom was gone too soon, I wept for the fact that I am several states away from his gravesite, and I wept for parts of my heart that were shattered when he died in my arms three years ago. Just as I was sinking into my own grief, the song ended and another song came on.

How He Loves

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
And all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me

Oh, how He loves us, oh
Oh how He loves us
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
And all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

Oh how He loves us, oh
Oh how He loves us
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us
Oh how He loves
Oh how He loves

We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking
Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves
Yeah, He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves

Yeah He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves us
Oh how He loves

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, think about those words. I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory. Oh my God, you loved me so much that the weight of your love had power of the deepest grief. Oh my God, you loved me so much that even when I wished deep inside that I could just give up and be with my youngest son, the power of your Glory raised me from the emotional grave, you held out your hand and pulled me up back into the world of the living. I was drawn to redemption by the grace in your eyes. I found not only the will to survive, but joy again all because the weight of your love made by afflictions become eclipsed by your glory. Your glory....your glory...YOUR GLORY.

How He loves us....how he loves us....Hallelujah, he loves us. Praise you God for the love and grace you show us. Thank you Jesus for holding me in my grief. Thank you Jesus for your sacrifice that has power over death and allows us to have hope of being reunited. There will be no more sorrow, no more pain, and no more suffering. Those things will have passed away. And finally, thank you my Lord for loving me in a way no other being could. How He loves us, was there ever a greater gift?

Boredom

If you know me, you know I love to talk...a lot. I love socializing with people from all walks in life (unless you are a jerk, arrogant, mean, snotty, stuck up, or a host of other unflattering terms), other than that, I don't know a stranger. I love my new coworkers, but we hardly ever get a chance to talk, we are too busy. I think one of the things that I miss most are my hours long talks with my friends and family in person. We still talk over the phone, but it is not the same and much shorter. I know I will make friends, I already have friends, but I miss my friends back home. The whole point of this blog was just to say I love and miss you, oh, and keep calling!

Chatter Boxes

The babies, especially Noah have started talking about everything. They have been talking for a long time, but now they talk non-stop and are putting together sentences. Noah even says "Dadgumit!" when he is mad. Mina uses her speech to tattle on Mom and Dad a lot. If I swat her she goes running to tell Jake on me and vice-ersa.

Jamie and Linda are for the most part, great older siblings. They are very loving and protective of Noah and Mina. There are a lot of times where I will come out in the living room and find all four kids snuggled up together watching television. It is very sweet to see.

We are getting very used to snow since it seems to snow almost every day here. Jamie and Linda love to climb the snow mountains left by the plow after they plow our parking lot. They also love to build forts with the other kids. We are all adjusting well and life seems to be pretty good for us. Everyday seems to confirm that this was the right choice for our family.

Christmas Photos

Wow look at me, I am on a roll. I am finally posting the Christmas pictures. We had a great last Christmas in our former state. My SIL and BFF Dianne came to visit us for the holidays and brought my nephew Zach. Those of you who are faithful readers know that my brother-in-law Jeremiah is doing yet another tour of duty in Iraq so we were very blessed to get to have her spend the holidays with us. For those of you who do not read my blog regularly, that will help explain the presense of a 5th child. Here is a hint-my nephew is the toddler that actually has a good quantity of hair. Although I swear my babies have grown a ton of hair since we moved to the great North, probably to keep warm. Anyways, as promised, here we go....

Finally, the birthday pictures.

So I finally have a few minutes to post the pics from Noah and Mina's birthday. I do not, however, have time to post my comments about them, so feel free to make your own. Comment me if you have any questions.