Maternity Showers

We've all heard of baby showers. They are such a wonderful American tradition!! Our church makes a point to have a baby shower for each and every baby born. 

But you know what else? We also throw maternity showers! Whenever I tell people about that, they wonder what in world I am talking about, or if maybe as a foreigner I just don't know that's it's supposed to be called a baby shower. But there is a difference, you see!

 "Mother to Bee" party theme courtesy of Pinterest (yes, again!)

December Birthdays

John and Anna celebrated their birthdays in December - John turned 8, and Anna turned 2. 

Anna is a very musical little creature. She can hum tunes of many songs perfectly on pitch, and she also loves to "play" on her kazoo. She is just now barely starting to talk, so the only song she can actually sing (with words) is "Jesus loves me" - it is so precious! :)

 I still can't believe WE gave her this box of NOISY instruments!!! There are enough in there for our entire band of children to play with one at the same time - sooooo loud!!!

Merry Christmas!

The presents are wrapped and under the tree, the traditional family dinner of my childhood of hot dogs and potato salad is ready, the children are bursting with excitement, and we are about to turn off all phones, computers and other gadgets for the next 24 hours ~ which only means one thing: Christmas is here!!! YAY!!!

Our Christmas card

If you did not receive a Christmas card from us this year (we only mailed out 75 of them), please consider this your card. :)

Smile with me

There are a million things I should be doing right now, including feeding the family dinner. But I put it all on hold to share these sweet photos with you all.

Can you guess who is in here?

Yes, that's right! :)

The doll bed belongs to the girls, and Miriam came up with the idea of rolling baby Stephen around the house in.

 He plays along nicely, and smiles at all her doting attention.

Yesterday, the girls decided to change the mobile out for a (non-breakable) Christmas tree ornament.
 

Some people worry that with a large family, the children are not getting the attention they need. I find quite the opposite is true. They may not have my undivided attention all day long, but there is always a sibling to dote on, play with, or love on.

Lots of smiles around here! :)

Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Only 2 more days until Christmas! Which to moms of many means one thing: only 3 more days until it's time to get started on gifts for Christmas 2013! Yay! :)

If you were relying on the world ending this past Friday to get you out of gift shopping/making, and now find yourself short a present or two, here are some simple, quick, but super impressive gifts to whip up at the last minute. 

Peppermint Bark

I used this Wilton cookie pan, a gift from my mother-in-law

Gourmet Coffee Creamers

I'm not a coffee drinker myself, but these tasted simply fabulous.

Oreo Truffles

Who know that just three ingredients could combine into the most tempting treat ever? Here, packaged in little gift bags with peppermint bark, are the white and dark chocolate varieties. 

Aromatherapy Shower Disks

These are scented with just eucalyptus, but of course the sky is the limit with essential oils. The boys tested some with lavender and eucalyptus and were instantly hooked. 

Three of my four suggestions are food based... hmm... but who's counting, right? :)

"After The Tribulation" now available on YouTube!

For those of you who have been waiting, the documentary "After The Tribulation" is now available, full-length, on YouTube!!!

Please share with your friends, families, and most importantly, pastors, to get this false doctrine of the imminent return of Christ debunked.

Please click here to order DVDs, charts, posters, and T-shirts. There's something for every pre-tribber you know! :)

What In the World are They Spraying?

More "crazy conspiracy theory" to brighten your weekday morning... just what ARE they spraying???





From the producer of What In the World are They Spraying: "This pilot went in hidding after he video taped this... originally he gave my co-producer Paul permission to use this footage in his film What In The World Are They Spraying."

My thoughts on the Conneticut shooting

My first thought was: another inside job. "They" took some easy victim that could be manipulated and mind-controlled, and had him do this. The goal: more freedoms lost, gun control, public terror, and their enjoyment in taking human life.

My suspicions grew when there were initial reports of two gunmen, one who was dead and one who was in custody - only the second one has never been mentioned again. It's just like John Doe #2 at the OKC bombing. 

But - there's more. I am quoting from another website:

I believe this was a PLANNED event- specifically to get the UN Small Arms Treaty signed.  The father of the shooter is Peter Lanza, rumored to be scheduled to testify on the international LIBOR scandal.  Guess who else is rumored to be scheduled to testify on the LIBOR scandal?  Father of the BATMAN theater shooter.  Amazing coincidence?  We will see.  The LIBOR scandal is a massive, worldwide network of banks, the Federal Reserve and highly position individuals such as Tim Geihtner and Ben Bernanke that are being accused of manipulating LIBOR rates to gain better market positions.   Just some of the Banks involved are:  the Canadian branches of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Bank, and Citibank, as well as ICAP (Intercapital), an interdealer broker.^[37   It also mentions Bank of America & Barclays.   It is ugly to its roots and VERY powerful people are involved.

Are we supposed to believe this is a coincidence? What about Robert Holmes being scheduled to testify in the same exact case???? What about the CNBC executive, whose children were murdered one day after CNBC reported on a $43 trillion bankster lawsuit?

The forces of evil will not stop at anything, including young children. Which should come as a surprise to nobody considering that they fund the murder of thousands of children daily.

We live in scary times.

Edited to add: I fail to understand how my believing this was not a random shooting by one crazy person makes me any less compassionate of the victims and their families. These young children and adults were murdered, as nobody is denying. I am simply saying that the person(s) behind the crime are not who we are being told they are.

Edited to also add: Evidently, I am guilty of being heartless and callous, unless I can prove otherwise. For the haters, here is a screenshot of my facebook page after finding out about the school shooting. 

Yes, there's a typo - it should be ***victims***.

No mention of any sort of conspiracy, though "tragic on so many levels" was a hint at that. 

Any anyone who thinks that Obama's nonexistent tears were sincere has a hole too many in their head. The speech was so pathetic and fake I kept thinking I must be looking at the wrong clip, not the famed "president shedding tears over this tragedy" one.

Christmas Fun

Are you ready to be photo-bombed? Because it looks like the next several posts are going to do exactly that! Only halfway into the month, and we have already taken over 300 photographs. No worries, I won't be uploading them ALL here ~ just most of them! :)

We are on Christmas break, which typically runs from Thanksgiving through New Year's for us. For the first time, this year I planned to do school work for three weeks in late November and early December, just so the kids could finish up the school year by May. We did complete one week, but then threw in the towel in light of all the fun things there are to do to truly enjoy this happy season to the fullest. They are only little once! We will tag the other two weeks onto the end of the school year, no biggie. 

First up: this year's advent calendars. These are a countdown from December 1 to Christmas, with one little gift/treat each day through the 24th to help pass the time until Christmas. My family exchanged these every year growing up, and our family has continued the tradition every year since then. You can read about past years here, here, here, and here. I couldn't find a post about the calendars from 2009, but found this post instead, which is full of super cute pictures of the kids when they were younger. I can't believe how quickly they are growing up!!! GASP!!!!

My husband's, made by Solomon

Fake Kent Hovind Messages

(mirrored from sanderson1611)

The facebook page called "Kent Hovind - public figure" claims to be "the OFFICIAL KENT HOVIND page." However, Dr. Hovind has no control over the contents of this page. He constantly sends out messages that he says should be posted to facebook, but they never get posted. Instead things are posted that he never actually said or approved. Here is an example:

Someone seeing this post would obviously assume that this is something that Dr. Kent Hovind is sharing, approves of, and wants everyone to watch. However, that is NOT the case. Dr. Hovind has REPEATEDLY demanded that he be in control of the contents of his facebook page and blog. Here is what Dr. Kent Hovind actually says about people posting things in his name.

Kent Hovind:

One more thot on the face book page issue you sent me this morning- I can already predict the response, "Dad! You love Ray Comfort and sell his stuff and recommend him all the time! You have stayed at his house and preached with him! You sold his books. What is the issue? I never dreamed that would be a problem!!"

Eric, and some in the family, will NOT see, recognize or admit the real issue in all this. The above will be the 'cover story' for why it was done as was. They REALLY don't see it brother and they REALLY will have (feigned) indignation over my statements on this. I thot I'd wait a few hours to add this so my prediction will get there AFTER he responds (if he does) or at least has the above internal reaction in his heart. Paul made it PUBLIC in II Thes 2:1-3 that he did NOT send that letter about the Day of Christ being past already. There are BILLIONS of copies of his proclamation in print today!

All this sort of goes along with those who feel complete freedom to change God's Words with new 'bible' versions and still call them "God's Words" or "Holy Bible" right on the cover. It's just I Tim. 6:10 again! Neh. 8:8 gives the three clear steps we should take with God's Words- 1. Read the Word as is, 2. Explain the Word, 3. Cause the people to understand. We are NOT authorized to change God's Words but we ARE authorized and encouraged to read them as is and explain them and teach them (#2-3)! No one is authorized to put words in my mouth, alter my words or sign my name under things I did not write of make it appear that it came from me if it didn't. No one is authorized to claim to speak for me or claim to have "The Official Kent Hovind page" etc. without my permission. I hold little hope this message will be understood or acted upon. :((

I'm NOT trying to cause trouble or make people mad! I'm just trying to point out what I see and some others don't. :) I'm the innocent victim here. I'm really a very nice guy! Actually, I'm the nicest guy I have ever met in my HUMBLE totally unbiased opinion! :)) We will see what God thinks about that one day soon! I HOPE He agrees and says, "Well done..."

Thanks.
I'm Kent Hovind and I approve this message! This message may be shared if unaltered.

 

Here is what the "Kent Hovind - public figure" page says:

 

This is the OFFICIAL KENT HOVIND PAGE, under the operation of CSE & God Quest Ministries.

Well, there you have it. It is under the operation of GQ, and NOT Kent Hovind.

Need I say more?

My apologies for not blogging much this week. We are on Christmas break, which means we are busier than ever with all the exciting things going on this time of year. 

In the meantime, I would like for you to consider the following comment I received on an old, but still popular blog post called "The Sin of Daycare."

God bless you, ZhuZhanna for this article! (You are so smart and a beautiful child of God). Well, this is my story.

Though I have a master's degree in reading education, I was forced to take a job at a daycare due to a sudden, unexpected financial crisis.

This is a Christian daycare. I would strongly advise parents to not put their children in a daycare. First of all, everyone there (including the pre-k teacher) is paid minimum wage, which is $7.79 here in Florida.

Everyone admits to HATING the job (except for the center director who lies and tells us, "it's all for the kids," while she pushes one down in their seat and screams at them. Again, we are all believers in Christ! We pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to get us through the day, but child care work is TOUGH! It is the female equivalent of construction work!!

It is SO NOISY - every minute of every day. It is SOOO DIRTY! The children in daycares are the most misbehaved children in the world. Even the best of us cannot escape the temptation to want to MURDER your child! Yes, we all yell at them. Yes, we ALL are at times way too mean and aggressive with YOUR KID.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING, parents of daycare kids? Are you insane? Your kids are being raised in FILTH by overworked women earning min. wage (or close to it).

And everyone gets sick. This is the most miserable time of my life. Child care is the worst job ever. It was rated the #1 most depressing job by a news article I read recently. Nobody is really in a good mood, and guess who pays the price for that? The kids!

What else... I don't know. What I do know is daycare is AWFUL. The angels of God aren't happy about it as they watch the kids they guard being mishandled. And parents of daycare kids should all be burnt at the stake (kidding) should be, well, we'll leave that up to God. By the way, many of the mothers are unemployed (yes, they are THAT lazy) and others are just selfish.
God bless.
Love,
[...]

Need I say more? Thank you for your honest, candid comment. I hope it is a wake-up call to many. 

AFTER the Tribulation

My husband has been working with filmmaker Paul Wittenberger (What in the World Are They Spraying? and The Great Culling - Our Water) on a documentary about the end times. "After the Tribulation" is coming out on December 21, 2012. 

Also featured in the documentary are Pastor Roger Jimenez and creation scientist Dr. Kent Hovind.   The voice-over is read by Dr. Roland Rasmussen, pastor emeritus at Faith Baptist Church in Canoga Park, CA), who published a book debunking the imminent return of Christ.

You can pre-order the DVD here - it is guaranteed to arrive by Christmas! Go ahead, get one as a gift to give to your pre-tribulational pastor and church friends. Let's get this hoax of "Jesus can come back at any minute!" and "Christians will not suffer any persecution!" cleared up!

Winter in the Desert

It's getting to be colder around these parts. And that can only mean one thing...

... footed baby sleepers! I love bundling Stephen up like a cuddly little teddy bear. Babies are so squeezable!

We might even need to break out the cute hats!

Of course, colder than 115 F can still be pretty warm. Especially now that I spent a day and a half switching all the kids' clothes from summer to winter. Or what we call "winter" - just yesterday, we got up into the high 80s again.

Simple truths to living in our climate: if I run the sprinklers, it will rain, and if I put away the shorts and T-shirts, we get another heat wave.

 Yes, that was in November.

And we might have to dress baby in nothing but a onesie to keep him cool enough.

Time flies - kiss your sweet babies!

Next stop: Christmas

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. Truly, it does keep getting better and better each year. 

Two things I learned this year: 

- How to get the turkey perfect: brine, stuff with apples, oranges, and onions, keep the oven door closed and don't baste, and don't use the pop-up timer because it WILL overcook the turkey. Thanks to friends on Pinterest pointing me in all the right directions, this year's turkey was absolutely fabulous!!!

- Precook as much as possible the day(s) before Thanksgiving, including Thursday's breakfast. So much easier than trying to cook that much food in one day with excited kids around. It was 1:30 am on the night from Wednesday to Thursday when I finally went to bed, but I managed to: brine the turkey, wash and cut potatoes for mashed potatoes, make cranberry sauce, make fried onions, make green bean casserole, bake shells for pumpkin pies and get the filling mixed and ready to just pour and bake, made pecan bars and cheesecake, prepared cinnamon rolls ready to just finish rising and bake for breakfast, and did all the prep work for throwing the spiced cider in the crockpot first thing in the morning. I am tired all over again just thinking about it all.

Thankful for Life

Every year, like families everywhere, we like to reflect on God's blessings in our lives. There are many more than we could list, but of earthly blessings, I would have to say that children are God's greatest gift to us.

With baby Stephen being a new addition this year, we have so much more to be thankful for. Whenever we have a new child, it seems unimaginable to not have had him or her.

Some have told me, "With that sort of mentality, you would just keep going and going, and never stop!", referring to having children. Yes! Guilty as charged! My point exactly! In all honesty, I always wondered about how much parents love their children if they have this, "Thanks, but no thanks" attitude toward more babies. God's word tells us that children are a reward and a blessing. God promises to provide our needs and not give us more than we are able to bear. So why put a limit on how much we allow God to bless us?

The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. - Proverbs 10:22

Would those same people, if offered a pay raise at their job, turn it down? What if they inherited something big, like a large mansion? Nobody turns those things down, because when it comes to good things, more is always better.

Camping

Back in October, we went camping overnight at a nearby lake. This is an artificial lake in a canyon that was created by putting dams along the Salt River. As such, the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. The pictures below do not do it justice.

That's Solomon in the red kayak across the lake

 Becky and Anna playing in the shallow water

 

 Stephen snoozing in the fresh outdoor air

 Dinner! These are the best!!

 Late October in Arizona - lol!

Solomon's 11th birthday

Solomon turned 11 at the end of September. I just realized I never had a chance to upload pictures from his big day.

I had closed the boys' bedroom door, taped over it from the outside, and filled the space in between with about 5 dozen balloons that came cascading into the bedroom when they opened the door. The boys all loved it. I was slightly bleary-eyed from having to get up at 4 am to pull this one off in time.

You can leave your headdress on

Reading the news is always very entertaining. Such as today, when one of the top headlines on the Yahoo News page was about a Victoria's Secret fashion show. Evidently, the model representing "November" wore a "floor-length feathered headdress, fringed bikini and turquoise accessories."

 

Image: Getty; Black dress courtesy of Yours Truly

Turns out, "Native American leaders and women rose up to say that Kloss had misrepresented them and their culture." No wonder - who would want to be represented as a floozie by someone whose body is for sale (which it is).

So that was not the funny part. 

I laughed out loud when I read how the model, Karlie Kloss, tweeted the following regarding the headdress: "I am deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone. I support VS's decision to remove the outfit from the broadcast."

Karlie, that's very sweet of you. But just between the two of us, your floor-length headdress is not nearly as offensive as the rest of your clothing, or rather, lack thereof. You can leave your headdress on, but why not add an Indian dress of some sort? Your future husband and child(ren) will thank you.

P.S. I had never heard of Karlie Kloss before. When I googled her name, these were the  suggested auto-searches:

Looks like she is known for disordered eating and social media.

Karlie, are you still there? Maybe also add some Indian fry bread to your revised image.

P.P.S. Wikipedia says her hobby is baking cookies. This is getting funnier and funnier.

Fall update

Note: Please excuse the quality of the photos. The lens of my camera had to go in for repairs, so these were taken on my phone. 

Is anyone else surprised by how quickly this year has gone by? Here we are, just one week away from Thanksgiving! The old saying "The days are long but the years fly by" is so true. 

The days and weeks around here have been a blur. I am just so thankful for all the time we get to spend with the children. As it is, we do not get around to doing half of the things we would like to do with them, let alone if I had to work outside the home, and they were off at school most of the day.

Each day, it is the little things that are the most precious. Like when Anna pushed the Learning Tower over to help me with the breakfast dishes, but instead discovered magnets for the first time. She has played with magnetic letters and animals before, but these magnets were much larger and stronger. 

Family Portraits

Did you notice the new pictures in the side bar? Only 3 months after his birth, I finally managed to add a little blurb about baby Stephen. :)

The fabulous Kris Steele, the lady who did all the murals at our church buildings, took these pictures of us at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

 Six kids out of seven - no babies on the wall!

 Love Stephen's face in this one...

Homemade Baby Wipes

You may read this and go - "Make my own baby wipes?? Forget about it!!!" 

And if that's you, I don't blame you. I know all too well how many things are pulling moms in all directions day in, day out. My goal is not to add to the never-ending list of your obligations. 

But before you completely dismiss the idea of making your own wipes, let me submit to you that making these wipes is easier, quicker, and healthier than buying wipes at the store.

Ready-made baby wipes contain many harmful chemicals, most notably questionable preservatives. Since the vast majority of body care products are absorbed through the skin, I try not to put anything on my skin I would not consider food-safe.

Baby love

I am, yet again, head over heels in love with my baby. There is just no greater blessing in this life than these little people.

 Snoozing at the lake

You may laugh, but whenever I have a baby girl, I pity moms who have a baby boy. Whenever I have a baby boy, I pity those who have a girl - because I am convinced that whatever baby I have is just the epitome of perfection. And they all are, each in their own special way.

 In the swing

Stephen is 14 weeks old now, and as such, pretty easy-going. His one great need is to always have someone's undivided attention, or to be held. Miriam will sit by him, bouncing him while chattering and playing with him, indefinitely. It's her favorite "chore." We are not spoiling him, he is spoiling us.

 My favorite time is going to bed each night and finding this little cutie asleep in my spot, all warm and cozy. It is the best possible ending to any given day, good or hard.

At the zoo

And, of course, I love going to church for every service, giving me more time to do nothing but sit and hold Stephen, soaking in all his deliciousness while rocking him comfortably.

Going to church

He is such a little man

We should all be so blessed!!!