A quick riddle for you.

What do you get when you mix 1 four year old, 1 six year old, a box of costume makeup, and a closed door in the bathroom, with permission from mom to play?

I don't think I need to say anymore. Just look at the pictures if you cannot figure out the answer.

Only 7 months to go!

We found out the due date for our new baby today. He/she will be coming into this world on or around July 19, 2009! Brooke is 9 weeks along, a little farther than she thought she was.

So this ultrasound picture is still not our baby, and is actually a little smaller than our baby actually is right now.

This ultrasound is what our baby would look like at this stage(9 weeks).
If it were twins!

But it is not twins, there was only one in there. This ultrasound picture is actually very close to what our baby looked like today at our ultrasound. It is not a picture from our ultrasound but this is about what it looked like. We did get to see the heartbeat too! I do not understand how anyone can look at this and come to the conclusion that this is not a life yet! Nor can I fathom how anyone can see the miracle of conception and development of a child and think that it is all just random chance and it all developed by accident the first time. I thank God once again for the evidence that God has put in our lives and our world that confirm intelligent design and contradict the theory of evolution.
Stay tuned for updates on the new baby.

If God is for us, who......

I just finished my morning devotions. A couple days ago I finished reading through the Bible after starting last January. This time I started in Romans. Today was convicting and encouraging. I sometimes feel like I let life and things get in the way of my walk with God, it becomes stagnant and I am not growing closer to Him. I know the things I should be doing or should not be doing, but through laziness or business I either do not do what I should do, or I do what I know I should not do. This is just like what Paul wrote about in Romans 7:15-25. So it is encouraging to me that even someone like Paul had the same type of struggles and then he explains how to get through them with the strength of the Holy Spirit that resides in us. I really like what he says in 8:31, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" All we have to do in times of trouble and temptation, is to call out to God, because He is always there and is always for us. The last two verses of chapter 8 shows what can separate you from God:

"For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What can separate us from God? Nothing! This is very encouraging in times when you feel like you are falling away. Just trust in Him and He is there for you.

At last, I got one!

And I thought hunting season was over. A couple nights ago, I was able to get a deer during a special hunt! This hunting season is usually from the week after Thanksgiving until the week after Christmas. The hunting area is inside the city limits but once in a while you will find one outside the city. There is no bag limit, so you can go all season. The best time to find these special deer for this special hunt is at night, or at least in the dark. They are not as easy to spot in the daylight. You cannot use a rifle or a pistol for this hunt. It is knife or arrows only. And the ability to unplug an extension cord! I was able to get mine across the street in my neighbors yard! Here is a picture.

The most exciting part of this hunt, is the enjoyment you get while watching the person that lives near the deer discover that his/her deer has been hunted! This part of my hunt was somewhat disappointing as this person walked past the deer 4 or 5 times the night of the hunt and did not notice that its lights were out. But I got the satisfaction of a successful hunt the next morning when I got a text message stating, "All right, who killed my deer?" This is probably the most inexpensive successful hunt I have ever had. The arrow cost $2.50. And I did not need to buy a hunting license or a tag. So it was nice to end the 2008 hunting seasons with a successful hunt and I am looking forward to next year.

Accidental Discovery!

I was playing around with our 1 year old daughter Sarah the other day and found her 7 year old sisters sweater nearby. I thought lets see what she does with this. So, I put it on her and turned her loose. Little did I know that I was about to discover a wonderful new tool for house work and childcare!

Not only did she think it was great fun and took off through the house playing. There was several side benefits that I had not considered before putting it on her. It was great for keeping her out of stuff she was not supposed to be into. She could not grab anything through the sweater. Secondly, now Emmas sweater was no longer laying out on the floor where it did not belong. It was not put away, but it was not laying in a pile on the floor!

The next benefit was that she has enough energy and explores every nook and cranny in the house that she made a great broom. She swept everything up nicely! If you wanted to take it further, you could have a squirt bottle and just squirt a little water on the floor in front of her and she would make a great mop as well! Who knew a child could be so productive at cleaning the house? We also let her crawl around on the carpet and she was able to collect lots of lint. Then, when she would walk along the furniture, like the coffee table, it was great for dusting and as she walked down the hall rubbing her hands along the wall, she was keeping the lower part of the walls clean.

So lets recap all the benefits:
1. She is entertained
2. She cannot get into things
3. The sweater is not in a pile on the floor
4. Broom
5. Mop
6. Vacuum
7. Dusting low furniture
8. Scrubbing walls
9. Makes for great pictures and blog topics.

Sounds like a win win situation. Now I just need to find a sweater for the older sister that is made out of a good material for cleaning! Any recommendations?

Good news!

No, this blog has nothing to do with the Beavers, or even college football. Although if you want to buy us tickets to a bowl game in El Paso, TX that will be played on Dec 31, 2008, feel free. It has nothing to do with my hunting success or even any Gawkers! All the hunting seasons for 2008 for me are over. It also has nothing to do with the Harley that we have been waiting for donations so we can buy. No, Emmas two front teeth have not come in yet, and she is not old enough to start working to support us, yet! Although we are waiting for that NASCAR contract to come through! Don't worry, Riah is still as funny as ever and still keeps us entertained. Sarah has not started talking in full sentances yet.(at least in our language.) And even though the best good news of all is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, giving us a way to eternal life with God, I am not talking about that either. I have not become rich by finding a million dollars hidden in a geocache out in the woods, but I am still looking. I have checked 358 so far but have not found anything close to a million dollars in one yet. I have also not found a way to reverse the aging process, or even slow it down. My birthday came again this year, about 365 day after the last one. I have not been able to retire and have them still send me a paycheck.(I will be going to work tomorrow.) And as much as I hope everyday, I come home and no one has shown up to completly finish the landscaping and remodel the house.

But, todays good news, is that my wonderful wife is pregnant with our 4th child. Due sometime between the early part of the middle of next year and the middle part of the middle of next year.(We are not yet sure of when the baby will be due.)

This is not our baby, but this is what he/she may or may not look like at this time, depending on how far along he/she is. (we are hoping for a boy.)
Stay tuned for further updates.

Our Tree

It must be the Christmas season. All the stores have Christmas stuff out, my wife got up at a rediculous hour the day after Thanksgiving to go shopping with 3 million other crazy sleep deprived people fighting over the door buster sales, some of my lights are up on the house, and we now have our tree. Here is a picture of it after I packed it to the truck. I know it is not like those fancy expensive full trees that you buy in the stores or tree lots, but this is the kind of tree we like. (at least me anyway!) I like being able to hang things on it and the branches hold up. It is a Noble fir grown out in the forest instead of in a big field crammed full of trees that are shaped and manicured for 5-10 years and then sold at a rediculous price. But to each his own. Yes, it is a little tall, but thats what all those saws in the shop are for. We will be putting it up and decorating it tomorrow.

Cool Cache Container

Today we went out to find a Christmas tree. On the way we stopped to find a couple of brand new geocaches that had just been hidden this morning. We were the first to find on both of them! The girls were really excited about that and then they really liked this container. This is a little "micro" cache container. People get pretty creative sometimes with these. The cache is named "Spit it Out" and the log sheet is located in the sharks mouth. It has a magnet on it to hold it in its hiding place. The girls thought it was really cool.

Sarahs Prison

I put Sarah down for her morning nap the other day and she went to sleep and all was well. I waited to hear her when she woke up so I could get her up. After she had been in there for about 2 1/2 hours and I had not heard anything, I decided to check on her because I thought that she would have woke up sooner than this. Here is what I found. I do not know how long she had been awake, but she was wide awake and as happy as could be. She was just sitting there with her legs sticking out of the crib, playing with her blanket and stuffed animals. She was perfectly happy just sitting there kicking her legs. So I had to snap a couple pics to remember it. A couple nights later she did it again, only this time it was before going to sleep and she did it on the end of the crib that had a bench next to it. She discovered that if she pushed the bench with her feet and then let go, the bench made a nice big bang against the crib. She thought this was great and was able to do it several times before we figured out what that noise was and moved the bench. Kids are so much fun!