Halkirk & Amy & Annelise's Birthday

But first a photo I forgot to post...(sorry Sharon I didn't take many at all!)

This is John & Jett.

A week ago or so we were in Halkirk, Caithness (which is more or less a farm community so much like home). Annelise (Flora & David's girl) turned 4 on July 23rd, and then Amy turned 4 on July 24th very neat! :)

The kitchen is nice and large, so large little kids can fit neatly in cupboards now they will be not seen but likely heard! ;)

Amelia writing her name (she had to ask me what letters would finish her name but this is her handwriting).

Every little girl needs a nice dolly...so that is what we got her. Meet Baby Anna (rarely called Annabell.)

She took a liking immediately. :)


The cake unfortunately was store bought and was an awful cake in comparison to the cake Annelise's granny made!! I hope I never have to buy store bought again!

Monday, we went to Dunnet where Christina & John Logue live. Had lunch with Christina and the kids lounged around on the rug...

...and read on the fluffy rug...

...and they tried swimming on the rug too.

And that was Halkirk...well, not really I should have taken a whole lot more and I wish I did because you would've loved seeing Yvonne's children, and Granny Elsie. I'll try better now that we are in Skye...no promises though!

Still busy!

Mom has left, and arrived safely home. It was sad saying goodbye, I had to shed a few tears as I shut the door.

But Jett is back!

And the busy-ness doesn't end! Tomorrow we are heading up to Halkirk, Lord willing. Likely, we won't have internet access for the next three weekends, sorry, but that also means this blog will have to rest for a time too. :) But, it will be so nice to be somewhere where the kids have LOTS of room to run around...this should be fun :D ok and slightly hectic for the first while as we "resettle". And as usual there is so much to get done (packing etc) and I am being lazy writing this post...but, the clothes are all packed. A toybag is packed, lunch is already made and the snack bags are done, diaper bag is filled, and the toiletries are nearly packed as well... so I guess I have been somewhat productive. :D I just hope we can take the double stroller or else taking walks will be completely impossible (or extremely hard and therefore quite unenjoyable).

So hopefully you will hear from us (here) when we get back during the second week of August. D.V.

Oma's visit (part 2)

Just a few more pictures of mom's visit here with us. This again was taken at Deep Sea World. The place is situated in an old quarry. You can also see the railway bridge that goes over the Firth of Forth (try saying that over and over really fast!)

The next day we popped off to Scone Palace. This is where the kings of Scotland were crowned. Mom really liked this palace. I did too because they let all three kids go free (Amy should've been paid for).

This is the top of Moot Hill, here Mom is sitting on a replica of the Stone of Scone. They crowned the Kings on the real stone of Scone, I think? (Yeah, I was paying "alot" of attention... :D )

It was a good spot to get pictures, however the stone needed a good clean.

Wednesday Mom went to town and spent money at Markies (Marks & Spencers). That place has a lovely selection of skirts.

Thursday we went to the Library (Mom has pictures of that) it was a rainy day, so it was great to have a place for the kids to go to play and read.

Friday we went shopping again (but I only bought a book for Amy for only £2.99) and then we had a lovely coffee at the Mustard Seed cafe (it is also a Christian bookshop hence the name of the cafe, but both Jett and myself were surprised how many good sound books were there.)

Oh, and now it is Saturday and we aren't going to do too much besides maybe a walk to the park. :)

Oma's visit

Only a quick post here, as I need to be getting ready for the prayer meeting tonight. Here are a few pictures and a clip of our time with Oma!

Poor Oma had to read and reread the three books she brought for the kids.

Taken at Deep Sea World, Edinburgh.

sooo...we've been...busy?

Or maybe tired is a better word, perhaps. The three little pigs got colds last week and still are battling them. I think they are nearing the end because they are 1. Sleeping thru the night rather than crying because they have stuffed up noses...and 2. They are eating better, and constantly asking for food and 3. Acting their normal hyper, screeching, laughing selves. So yes, we are doing better...but still wiping noses every 5 minutes (or so) on 3 littles. :(

Anyways, everyone should know we had John and Sam for two nights...and we got no photos. They are supposed to be coming Friday again and possibly staying the weekend but whether I get photos...well, I'll try!

In other news, we went to Drummond Gardens yesterday afternoon. We won't be going again just due to the lack of flowers when you actually walk on the grounds, and the greek statues are just not very modest to say the least! But from a distance it looks neat eh?
Or perhaps looking out and away from them is the real beauty...fields :)

I snapped one of Daddy of course.

But I like him better with a few kids I think.

This pic was taken looking up at the stairs (where I took the first photo) yes it is a castle but not viewable to the public.

A little pond.

A beautiful funny baby.

Father and Son.

I should have taken photos of the driveway into the estate as that was probably the BEST part of the whole trip! It was a loong drive way with massive trees on both sides all along the way. Of course, the trees made a lovely canopy of leaves over the lane so it was very pretty.

But, we had to go home, and that is where my work began... :( Owen decided to spill his milk everywhere...but Amy was there to help clean up. :) They all had baths that night due to overall dirtiness.

And yes...the kitchen was preetty bad. Someone (child) turned the oven to broil/grill rather than the fan...and well, I had to scrape the beef pie's top off...anyways it turned out okay just rather a late dinner. (You might be able to see a bit of the "black" stuff on the counter. Ooh, but look theres cake :) a vanilla fudge cake to be exact (topping was a failure...but oh well).

And I had better give the kids something to eat. :)

summer warmth & sun = lots and lots of fun!!

Oh and chocolate cake...Yum...glad it is nearly gone though!

The past week I've been trying to get out of the house for Jett's sake...so, I actually finally with all three kids and a dualbuggy/stroller went to the high/main street of Perth. I came back sort of frustrated that the shops are so small and do not have the selection as Dillards and Macys (to name a couple) but of course I've been spoiled in Texas right? :)

We also finally went to the Library...yes, pretty sad after 3 summers here! But you have to pay for parking so...I was kind of saving money not going if you know what I mean. Amy & Aaron *really* liked the library...partly for the little aquarium of fish, and little table, chairs and colouring things, and there is a little fort of sorts there, and of course lots of books! I read a few that I knew and a few that looked decent. Fun but tiring!

And then...I bought a cheap £3 pool...was worried there was only a £10 pool but I spotted this at Tesco and was so happy! oh, the littles were too :D they were very tired that night!

But, nothing else to report just now. Just that J is busy preparing for Wed.

play!

Cuteness! I think my lil son is just cuteness (next to wildness of course).
Why do people think he is so "good"?They really do not know this boy I think!

But he is still cute, and of course excellent entertainment! People who do not have children simply because they do not want children have no idea what joys these little people are!I set up a little fort for the older two this morning and popped a wee couch in it too...

Let's just say they played for at least a couple of hours in here drinking tea... :D

It was so much fun I had to video them enjoying themselves.

new blog design

Always liked Sam's new designy blog, but thought how did he do it? Until today when all of a sudden this "new template" thingy appeared...oh soo this is how he did it. Anyways, sorry if you've been seeing a few changes here over the course of a week! I've changed and didn't like it and then rechanged it again...this, I "think" I like. It looks clean...lol which is very much me.

Ok, besides that what is going on in our little family? We just had the communion season here in Perth and it was very nice. Miss Dickie stayed with us over the weekend and let me just say I want to keep her. But I don't think she would be very happy to be a pet eh? ;)

I've been busy running errands for Jett (bank...printer ink...buttermilk to name a few) and also reading his exegetical exercises, and his essay (I have to reread the essay again...). Which has been interesting and profitable, except when I try to pull out my very litttle Greek skills...hey I picked out a few words I remembered and some that almost sounded like English words. I think I should learn Greek...I really do. Infact Jett wants the kids to learn Greek and Hebrew, and I say why not? We'll see though, right now we'll just concentrate on them learning how to read English.

The 23rd is coming very soon. It marks two things on our calendar, 1. Jett's Licensing/trials and 2. The arrival of two outlaws (John and Sam) Jett is due to be in London for the 27th Sabbath of this month. And Skye the following Sabbath...I can see this being a *very* busy summer. My mom has booked her flight and hope to comes just the day before Jett flys to Canada which is in the beginning of July.

And seeing how a post isn't the same without a picture I show you mr owens.

And a huge flower...so pretty it was. :)

Diaper duty calls... :)

singing and more singing

Can't help but let you guys hear some more fantastic singing...Texan Rose click that to find a few more psalm recordings... absolutely lovely even caught Amy singing along. Now if y'all could do psalm 1... :)

life goes on...

...and so this weekend we hope to have the communion season. I'll be busy, but hopefully the services will be good!

Lets just hope these littles behave themselves :D

btw, eating whilst on the kitchen floor is a everyday occurrence.

something from the kitchen...

it was missing lettuce but it still tasted real good.

Till next week...I hope, and why is this underlining all of a sudden?! :)

beauty

Someone had mentioned in conversation that she couldn’t believe how gorgeous my children were. I asked why? But I answered for her “oh, you couldn’t believe I could have beautiful children…” She was a bit embarrassed or so she looked but I knew I nailed it on the head…yes, that ever hurting voice “your ugly, your ugly, your ugly” came to mind. I didn’t say anything about her admittance but just smiled and somehow the conversation was changed.

This has been something I’ve had to deal with mainly in my teen years. It is also one small reason I (we) are choosing to homeschool our children. I won’t tell you all the times I’ve been told how ugly I looked and so forth; the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is not a true saying (at least in my experience!)…words hurt very deeply. How can a child grow with this kind of sneering, mocking going around him or her? Seriously, it makes one extremely self conscious, intimidated and has these scars that she or he is really indeed ugly!

But, what is beauty? People measure beauty in looks. But this kind of beauty as some put it is only “skin deep” and age will lessen it eventually anyways. And then I think, ah, God has made us this way, and surely we ought to be content with the way we look and not feel pressure from others that we do not look as we ought to.

What is more important though is not the facial beauty, but the heart beauty. If we looked on someone, who the world would describe as the prettiest person on earth, and we could see into that person’s heart we would be horrified to see how ugly, putrid and defiled that heart was. I speak, of course, of the spiritual heart. We very likely would think differently of that person whether or not he or she was beautiful outwardly!

Now what is beautiful heart but one that has Christ in it? A heart that is pure, filled with the good things of the Lord. Surely this is much more desirable than a goodly appearance!

Sour cream chicken

Ok, I've decided to share a delicious recipe! It used to be Alice's Sour Cream Chicken from All Recipes but I wanted to slow cook it in obviously a slow cooker...and well I changed it soo much that it really isn't Alice's chicken any longer :D! Jett gets excited when I make this recipe...heehee not too excited now of course! :)

So...here are the ingredients (basically...sorry the spices are not measured
but I just season to taste)

- 1 cup & 1/4 cup sourcream
- 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (I used fresh)
- 1/3 cup of white wine (lol we buy probably the cheapest thing but still works great for this recipe)
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 1/3 cup of chopped onion (approximately!)
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- pepper
- salt
- 5-6 pieces of skinless boneless chicken thighs (you probably could use different pieces of chicken but these stay moist best.)

So you pop all the ABOVE ingredients in a slow cooker/crock pot and mix together. I think I usually cook it on low for about...4-5 hours so you could probably put it on high for shorter time.

Now I always thicken this stuff with just flour...I pour a bit of the sauce into a bowl or mug and whisk flour in it...not exactly sure how much I use. Scrape into the crock and stir. I usually do this a couple of times to get the sauce in the crock to be quite thick like stew. This tastes great over noodles or beside mashed potato. Hmm...this does our family so probably this is only 4 servings- double if needed. :)

I like slow cooking recipes because it makes dinner easier to make at that part of the day when your tired and sometimes stretched for time! So, try it, and let me know how you like it if you do that is! If I can I'll try to measure how much flour I use for my own recipe card.

just days after his 1st bday and he starts this...

Owen turns 1

This morning I woke up about 6:30 (thanks to J's alarm) and realized what a HUGE difference it was from last year!! Last year at 6:30 I had given birth to Owen and was recovering with horrible afterbirth pains (which lasted for a good hard 3 days). I was bothered by the midwives thinking I could just get up and shower...still bothers me now when I think of it and it makes me want a homebirth next time (if the Lord is pleased to give us more children). It also doesn't help that Mr. Owens came just as the midwifes were supposed to change shifts...ah well I had Jett next to me and we hope the Lord was with us too. I remembering singing Psalm 121 whilst in labour I think I was just at transition and it was soon Owen would be with us...we only got to the end of the 3rd stanza before another contraction came...but I'll never forget that moment, it was peaceful and the words encouraging.

So fast forward a year and we get this ... :)

Happy Birthday Mr. Owens!!

I decided against a cake but thought cuppies would work well and especially for a caterpillar :)
I think you can see his top teeth in this picture

Opening up his first present

Not at all enthusiastic eh? Well he was actually do for a nap, but I figured if we got the gifts out so the older kids could play while O had a nap then by the time he gets up they would be more willing to share. And so it was!

Yep, completely uninterested

the second toy

Amy of course took the pink cuppie...but she didn't eat it all!! It looked like a crown...!

And last of all the traditional song...