Rowen and Janet portraits 3-22-14

Pictures from Emily's 16th birthday

We celebrated Emily's birthday at Randy and Joy's house on March 16.  Quil and Micah helped decorate Emily's chair and the walls to honor her.  

 Emily loved having her dear friend Joanna to celebrate with her!

 We had mint dirt cake for dessert!

 This was on an evening walk around Johnstown Reservoir.  It was a beautiful sunset.

 The jacket Emily is wearing was one of her birthday gifts.

 She also got a very nice journal and a big box of Hershey's Cookies 'n Cream candy bars.  It should last her quite awhile!

We had plans for another family to join us for Emily's birthday supper, but the plans fell through.  So we played Mexican train and had a fun evening together.

We ate strawberry cupcakes.  They were yummy!

 The girls had a look-alike picture made.  It was special for Emily to match with Joanna and Mother for her birthday.

 On March 21, Emily had her 4th orthodontic appointment.  Now she has to wear two rubber bands.  Her teeth are making excellent progress.

We feel very blessed to have a sweet sixteen year old in our family again.  This is our last one!  How did time fly by so quickly?  Emily is a blessing in our home.  She is helpful, cheerful, fun-loving, a good friend, and desirous of pleasing the Lord most of all.  We love you, Emily!

Baby Emily pictures in honor of her Sweet Sixteen birthday!

This pictures are scanned from our albums--not the same quality as we get digitally now, but they will definitely show how especially we were blessed by Emily being added to our family!

 Emily joined brothers Randy, Timmy, Jeffrey, and Jason, and sister, Beth a few minutes after midnight on March 17, 1998.  We went home later that morning--before lunchtime if I remember correctly.

 We were waiting for Rowen to bring the van around, but he had to take a picture first.  Beth remembers that the sun was really bright that day!

 Hanging out, watching the baby was the main activity!

Our big kids made "0" birthday brownies for Emily, complete with candles in the shape of 0.

 This was the first Sunday after Emily was born.  Everybody loved her so much!

Daddy and his girls in July 1998

This picture is from October 1998:  Mommy and her sweet girls!

 These two pictures are after Emily is a year old, but they are too sweet not to share!  Beth and Emily in matching dresses, sitting on the changing table.

A couple months later, Jason and Emily on the changing table.  It was a good place for a picture right after getting hair combed!

We have been blessed with all of our children being added to our family one by one.  God knew Emily would be our last one, so He made her extra special!  Happy 16th birthday, Emily!  We all love you!

Our sweet 16 year old!

"For this [sister] I prayed, and the Lord has granted the petition that I asked of Him!"

When I was four and Mother was expecting Emily, I prayed every day in family devotions "that it will be a girl: for me to have a sister!"  I am SO glad God saw fit to give us Emily.  She is so precious.  My big sister heart REJOICES exceedingly as I see her walk with God and grow in her relationship with Him.  Her strong friendships are an outflow of not only her "butterfliestic" personality, but that friendship with Jesus; and her friends are SO blessed my her encouragement.  The Lord has gifted Emily in so many, many ways, and she has chosen to give those gifts to Him by blessing others with the violin music, the beautiful photography, the personal sketches, the loving care of children and creativity in means of entertaining/helping them, handcrafted gifts, helpful service, a listening ear, word of support or blessing, and any other thing I may not think of at the moment!

Here's a bird picture that Emily drew for me.  She sent it to me here at school (love getting mail from her!!) and I pinned it up on my wall right above my desk, at eye level, where I look at it several times a day.

I guess I should mention the reason for the timing of this post: Tomorrow will mark sixteen (16) years since Daddy took us five older kids to the hospital to pick up Mommy and meet baby Emily.  (But, I'm not the one with photo albums here in the dorm, so, you don't get to see a picture of us doing that.)

Happy Birthday, sweet sister!  Wish I could be there with you for your celebration.

Hymn Sings

I know everybody must think we quit doing anything interesting or fun because I have not been blogging much recently.  This is not true.  We have been busy and having a good time in the Lord, just not much that is photo worthy.  If I have pictures to put in, it saves me writing 1000 words per picture...  So here is a picture of something we have done twice lately--gone to a Hymn Sing at Reformation Baptist Church where some of our good friends attend church.

This is a picture stitched together from two pictures.  This was the February Hymn Sing, which was not as crowded out as the January Hymn Sing.  Rowen caught me texting one of our kids during this song.  I was recovering from a cold that affected my voice, so I had to take breaks from actually singing part of the one- hour singing time.  We have really enjoyed going to these Hymn Sings.  

Quilt for Charissa

 This is the quilt top that I made for Charissa recently.  This was the first time for me to use a kit to make a quilt, but I did add on to it, and change the blocks' orientation from the pattern instructions, just to make it more butterfly-ish.  Look for the yellow and green butterflies which share the pinks.  When it was done, it was too yellow, so I added some pink to bring it back to pink enough for Charissa.

The quilt has been quilted, and picked up by my mother and daddy.  It is waiting for a trip out to Colorado, so I can get it finished by binding the edges.  Today, Charissa got to see it when she went over to Great-grandma and grandpa Scoles's house for Sunday dinner.  Her daddy sent me this picture, entitled 

"I wike it, Grandma!"

A Stillness of Chimes by Meg Moseley Book Review

A Stillness of Chimes by Meg Moseley

This book introduces the characters Laura, Sean, and Cassie as twelve-year-olds picking blackberries in Prospect, Georgia.  They are great friends and promise to protect each other forever.  The next chapter is 18 years later.  A lot has happened in the intervening years.  At 14, Sean was rescued by Laura and Cassie's dads from his abusive father.  When Laura was 18, her father, a Vietnam veteran who had "spells" of darkness in his life, was presumed drowned, though his body was never found.  Laura and Sean, who were childhood sweethearts, broke up their relationship in the pain of losing Laura's dad.  Laura went to college in Colorado and became a teacher there.  Cassie has married and moved to California where she and her husband are struggling to make ends meet.

The three have met up again in the hometown because Laura has come home to settle her mother's affairs after her sudden death.  Cassie has come home to help her father figure out what is wrong with her mother, who seems to be losing her mind.  Sean has stayed in Prospect and is still single.  He wants Laura to know from him before she hears the town gossip, that people are claiming to have seen her dad alive!  Laura doesn't know whether to hope her beloved daddy is still alive or not.  The implications of him having staged his drowning and abandoning her and her mother is too staggering to consider.  Had he loved them, despite his PTSD, or not?

Sean and Laura have to figure this out:  find out if he is alive, and support Cassie as she deals with the strange things her mom is doing.  Is there a connection in the strangeness?

Questions I asked:  Will Sean and Laura rediscover their love for each other?  Will Laura's father be found? Why is Cassie's mother 'losing it'?  What are the secrets that their parents have hidden from them?  And what kind of trouble will Sean's alcoholic, hateful father cause to all of them?  Will Laura be able to recover her faith in God that she lost when she lost her daddy?

This book was a page turner for me.  It is a pretty fast read, and very enjoyable.  The title was cleverly chosen, as the night the wind chimes were stilled, the mysteries began to be solved.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.

Read the first chapter now.