Looking forward to Christmas?

This year has been an interesting one. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of blessings! Lots of mixed emotions with trying to witness to those around us. We get just a small taste of what Jesus did when people rejected Him and wanted to have nothing to do with Him. Sadly, those same people are ones who go all out to celebrate Christmas. Many changing it to X-mas or Happy Holidays, lest anyone think they actually believe Jesus exists. So many have forgotten the reason that we have a celebration this time of year. It would be rude if we had a Birthday celebration for one of our friends and gave presents to everyone else that came, but then had nothing for the "birthday friend". This is exactly what happens to Jesus year after year. He isn't even invited to his birthday celebrations! May we, as Christians, never forget the REASON for the SEASON! May we always remember Jesus and share Him with others. Not just at Christmas though! All year long:). Praying all our friends, family and neighbours have a wonderful Christmas!

Thankful for dentists?

I'm not sure how many people would admit that they "like" dentists. Most are afraid of the pain that is associated with fixing their teeth. However, when you have a little one that is crying about tooth pain, you really have nowhere else to turn. Kiersten had her first dental appt, due to a tooth that was bothering her. I'll say that I'm thankful that we were able to get an appointment and that they were able to identify the cause of the pain. She will need several visits after Christmas to take care of the troublesome teeth. I think that's about all for this post.

Brrr... It feels like winter now!

We're now living in our winter wonderland. The snow gives a beautiful covering to all the trees and is starting to form it's protective covering around part of our house. We can't see out our bedroom window, due to a thick layer of ice and snow. The patterns are quite lovely. The Lord has given safety as we traveled to town and back several times this week. I am ever so thankful to have completed the monthly grocery shopping trip. We are just about finished with all our Christmas baking and look forward to sharing it and enjoying it with family and friends! We've already savored several cups of cocoa and look forward to many more, as it is a wonderful way to warm up through the winter. I'm going to treasure the next couple months especially as it is the one part of the year where there's very little pressure to travel about. Treasuring Lillian's last couple months before she turns 1. How quickly this year has passed. Our little one is 9 months old tomorrow and standing up unassisted. She is quite close to taking her first steps without the furniture and once that happens, she's going to keep us on our toes:).

Girl's Room

Priceless

We are in awe of the beauty that God creates each and every day around here:

Vacation Album

I'm just putting up a link for the Facebook Album that contains our vacation pictures. We had a wonderful time with old friends and new. We REALLY enjoyed our time at the Yakima Preacher's Conference and thank the Lord for allowing us to go this year. We made lots of memories as a family and are so thankful for all of the amazing preaching and fellowship during our trip.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153894508965976.1073741875.653210975&type=1&l=b221b85d3f

and another link for the pics I put up from my phone:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153902542580976.1073741876.653210975&type=1&l=dbb426bbf2

Hope anyone that visits "Hidden Hollows" enjoys the pictures!

I'm Back!!!

Not sure anyone still reads our blog anymore... I haven't had a great deal of time to write lately, due to the busyness of life around Hidden Hollows, but I'll start posting again anyway. It's always nice to have the memories about Hidden Hollows for us to look back on when the kids are grown. It was actually one way that we were able to find many of our favorite pictures when our computer crashed a couple years ago without being backed up. We've learned our lesson and have an external memory to save things too every so often.

ANYWAY...

Happy November!!! It's already the 20th and we've finished yet another round of birthdays for the year.

First:

Kiersten turned 7 on the second day of our family vacation to the United States. We enjoyed a special treat at Jack in The Box. Real Oreo Milkshakes. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and get another one:). She had already made a special Butterfly shaped cake that she decorated about a week before her actual birthday, plus another one that I made for her.

Second:

Elyssia turned 12 a couple days after we got home from vacation. I am SO thankful for this amazing girl! I really don't know what I'd do without her. She is quickly changing into a young lady.


Third:

Garrison turned 10! When we were on vacation he asked if he could get a Bible for his birthday instead of the gun he had been waiting two years for! We agreed, but also decided that we'd still help with part of his BB gun purchase:). He also requested a Pioneer Woman Ice Cream Cake for his Birthday. We ALL enjoyed helping him eat the finished product.

Fourth:

Adelaide turned 5!
She was telling people everywhere we went that she was 4 and that she would be 5 soon. It was hard for her to wait for her Birthday, but she made it:). She wanted a "purple cake". I made a Southern Pecan cake.

Throughout the Birthday Season we were busy ripping out carpet and building bunkbeds! We are all taking a breather now that they are all complete.

These are pictures of the boys bunks. I will post pics of the girls bunkbeds later, as well as other room renos.

End Of Summer

I wanted to take some pictures to mark the end of summer for our kids. It's been an amazing summer, in spite of all the mosquitoes. We've had an incredible amount of rain, which has resulted in an amazing garden this year! We give all the credit to the Lord for this abundance and pray that we can use it for his honor and glory! We don't look on the end of summer as a bad thing. It is the start of another wonderful season in our lives. We are always learning, but this is a time set aside for focusing on that. My mom bought the girls matching dresses when I was in Georgia and they will be remembered forever:).

Life Lessons Part 2

Two days after this picture was taken was very unusual. Garrison woke up on Sunday morning and his thumb and first finger were extremely swollen. It made me think back to the time when I was his age and had a spider bite. He'd gone to sleep the night before and there was nothing unusual. We called the health nurse and she said to give him benadryl. We tried to get some when we went in, but it is locked up at Walmart on Sunday and is not available until Monday when the pharmacist is back. We tried the one pharmacy that is usually open on a Sunday and it was closed. We tried after Sunday School and it was still closed. By that time the rest of Garrison's hand was swelling. We tried Benadryl as soon as we got it, but it didn't seem to help. Scott took him into the E.R. and they put an i.v. in and started antibiotics. They think that it started with a bite, but somehow turned into an infection. 3 times each day one of us needed to take him in for the next couple days. It made our Caleb Village Hymn Sing more interesting:). He got it out on Tuesday and has been taking oral antibiotics since then. He also had a bit of swelling in his one cheek. Another bite, but thankfully that one didn't get any worse. Some of you may know that Garrison doesn't like to go to the dr., is not a fan of needles and starts shaking at the thought of it. Well, he was starting to respond that way and the Lord helped us to share with him that he didn't have a choice of getting it in or not. The only thing he had a choice in was whether he would respond in a good way that brought the Lord honor, and made the experience not so bad. Or, he could react and leave the hospital staff with an unpleasant memory. We are very thankful that he chose the first option:). Since then he has realized that it's not so bad. It might be unpleasant, but it's something that needs to be done in order to help a person. He also commented the other day that although some people may not like certain things that happen; God can turn those things that we don't like into something good. Was it worth it to go through all of that for Garrison to learn these things. Definitely! It shows that the Lord is working in his heart and life and there is some fruit showing.

Life Lessons

The past month we had two unexpected "adventures". Most would not be happy to take these journeys and many would only see the bad aspects of them. However, there are many things to be learned from them and many things to be thankful for in having gone through them. The first one I didn't write about right away because it took time to tell family about. We were in the midst of a wonderful visit with Scott's parents. The kids had been enjoying the following activities:

Playing outside and Making Lots of Applesauce!

Painting For The Fair and Making Crowns!

Picking Cherries With Grandad and Pitting Them!

Tea Parties, Etc...

It was after a busy day of work and visiting Great Grandma at the Manor(pictures to come in a later post) that the "accident" happened. We had eaten a wonderful supper, followed by the kids favorite Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Grandad had bought a large tub of it to share with us:). The kids went out to play and we sat around the table to finish up our dessert. I looked out and felt led to pray for the kids safety as they played. They've played in the treehouse ever since Elyssia was big enough to climb up in it. It's been up for at least 30 years. I had just gone down to get a book I was planning to read when Addie ran in. "Caleb's Funny!" He's Pretending to Sleep In The Grass". I said, no, he's not. She said, yes, come see! I went out to door and immediately saw that Elyssia was trying to do mouth to mouth on him. That has never happened before. I ran over and laid the baby in the grass while I tried to assess what had happened. The kids had been playing and when Caleb tried to catch Addie he "fell" out of the tree house. That's about a 9 foot fall. He was knocked unconscious and was moaning. My mother in law called the ambulance and we "tried" to get Caleb to stay still. "Tried" being the operative word:). Caleb's a go getter and doesn't like to stay down. He was uncertain about where he was, what had happened and kept assuring us that he was "fine" and wanted to go inside. It took a good 15-20 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. They checked him out and it was amazing! The Lord had spared him of any broken bones, dislocated collarbones, etc. He has a small bump on his head and seemed to have a bit of amnesia, but he seems to remember everything other than the time surrounding the fall. We took him in to see the dr. just in case and he said he probably had a mild concussion, but was otherwise good to go. Praise the Lord! He said the next couple days Caleb might feel sore and have some headaches. He took it easy the next day and had 2 mild headaches. Since then he has not experienced any other symptoms and thankfully has taken things a step down from his usual crazy whirlwind style:). We thank the Lord for sparing Caleb's life, since I've mentally pictured the worst case scenario in my mind. It is a reminder to treasure each day and never take our children's lives for granted. It is also a way to remind Caleb that God isn't finished with him yet. He must have something that He wants Caleb to do for Him and he doesn't want to miss out on that!

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. Psalm 37:23-24

Goodbye Summer! Hello New School Year!

The 2016/2017 school year officially started for us this Monday. It's been another exciting week. Full of ups and downs, but lots of great memories too! It's always a challenge figuring out how to keep the younger ones occupied while the older ones are doing school, but we're getting there. The first day was the hardest on Samuel because he just wanted to do everything that the big kids were doing. He was much happier once he started working on his puzzle and had his "reading" time. The next couple days he was occupied with "building houses" and vehicles for his Lego Men.

Our Favourite Fishing Hole and Ice Cream!

Canada Day!