Wishing all our readers....

A Blessed and Christ-filled Christmas!!

The King's Child authors

Places to hide Christmas presents from nosey kids

Christmas is almost here! But where to hide those presents so no one will find them? Here are a few places that should work....

1. In the oven. Just please make sure that you take the gift out before baking!

2. Up the chimmney. This is an especially good spot; if you don't mind a little bit of soot on your gift.

3. Inside the turkey. Come on, who on earth would think to look inside the Christmas turkey for their present!

4. Underneath the cat. Just give him lots of food and try to keep him in one spot. You can't go wrong!

5. On top of the mantle. No one would look there because it's too easy.

6. Underneath the car hood. I guess it would have to be a smaller sized gift to fit in there....

7. Inside the piano. Just don't let anyone tune it for a few weeks.

8. Inside a tissue box. If you try this one, let me know how you managed to get the gift in there and then put all the tissues back in. ;D

Merry Christmas!

~Caitlyn

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's day, as y'all know. I'm suddenly finding myself thinking about our veteran's more and more. As it's been said, I'm indebted to them and I can never repay them, both to those who laid down their lives for their country, those who lived for it and those who are fighting for it yet. I'm beginning to realize just how much I owe them. They are in my prayers daily.
THANK YOU, VETERANS, FOR WHAT YOU HAVE GIVEN!

As an aside (for those of you who care about this sort of thing), Guess what happened today, ninety-one years ago at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month?
You got it! On this day, ninety-one years ago, the armistice was signed, ending World War I!
I know, I'm kinda weird.

~Megan

Father's day....

My whole family had so much fun celebrating father's day! This year we suprised my dad with a fishing tackle box and a fishing liscense. Then we all went fishing at the St. Louis fishing ponds (*note*: Everyone fished except me, mom, Carver and the wee babe). And oh joy! I got to bring Copper with me! Although the poor dog would get so excited every time we stopped because he thought he was finally going to get out. ;) The weather was super great and, while we didn't manage to catch any fish, we all had a lot of fun.....


It was soooo quiet and peaceful there....



Makes ya' just want to sit still and rest awhile...

Or stand and wait for a silly fish to bite your hook. (personally I think the fish have wised up and know that there is no such thing as a free lunch)

Father and daughter...

I sure thought he had a fishing pole in his hands for this shot.

Megan, the world champion, um, er, pondweed catcher. ;D But at least she has proved that there is more than one use for a fishing pole.

The land was studded with Hawthorns, black willows, lombardies, quaking aspens and cottonwood trees (LOTS of cotton woods!)

I love my dog. He was such a good boy the whole time and had a blast. There were signs all over the place saying that dogs had to be leashed. I followed the rules very carefully and never once did I remove that leash. But the rules never said that the leash had to be in your hands. Gotta love those loopholes. ;D

A future fisherman?

Did I already say that I love my dog?

After fishing, we went home and watched 'Journey to the center of the earth' (the old version). Dad didn't know that we had rented it, so he was pleasantly suprised.

Happy father's day to all the fathers out there!!

~Caitlyn

Did you know?

Did you know that there are actually two verses to our National Anthem? I myself just learned it a couple months ago. :)

Saturday, June 6th, was the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Our brave men fought hard and long for their homes, family and freedom. Many lost their lives, but they knew that they were not dying for nothing.

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to write both verses of our National Anthem....


O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Verse #2

O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


~Caitlyn

God Save the Flag

Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,

Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,

Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,

Flash its broad ribbons of lily and rose.

Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it,

Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;

Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,

Emblem of justice and mercy to all;

Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,

Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,

Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,

Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.

Born on the deluge of all usurpations,

Drifted our Ark o'er the desolate seas,

Bearing the rainbow of hope to the nations,

Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!

God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders,

While its broad folds o'er the battlefield wave,

Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,

Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

May you all have a blessed Memorial day....

~Caitlyn

In memory of.....

In memory of those who fought so valiantly for my freedom, and your freedom.






Who gave all they had for their country....


They will never be forgotten...

~Caitlyn

The end results

Here is where I give a great big sigh, in gratefulness that we managed to get everything finished in time for Easter. :)



Okay, remember the picture that looked like a hurricane hit our table? (the one below) Well, I will now reveal just what we were doing.



With all that fabric, lace, thread, scissors and paper, we made table decorations for Easter. Observe:

I made one dozen 12"x12" handmade, cloth napkins with the colorful fabrics (the pic doesn't show them all). While they were simple to make, they were very tedious and it took me two days to finish them all.

Together, Emily and I made a white, linen, 12'x6', tablecloth. She cut the linen to size and hemmed two sides, while I hemmed the other sides, then added the lace. It took me forever to finish that tablecloth, but to help pass the time, I put my headphones in and listened to music while I sewed. I've learned that I enjoy sewing, if I have music going...


Then there is our traditional Daffodil gathering. :D Every year at Easter time, Meg, Emily and I go up into the 98 acres and pick a huge basket full of flowers. We got more flowers this year than ever before, and we were able to make a large bouquet for our table centerpiece. (the white things in the vase are hard-boiled eggs for extra interest)

Meg and I had fun playing around with the napkins, trying to decide which shape we should do...

Perhaps a rose?

Or maybe a Bishop's Mitre?

In the end we decide on the "ice cream cone" shape. Then we had to attach the namecards to them. Emily labored endlessly to get these finished; and they turned out beautifully. :D

The end result for all our work was a beautifully set table. (sorry about the dark picture) Oh, and Megan also made some cute little nests out of spanish moss, which we put chocolate eggs and a scripture verse into.

The meal was fantastic as always, and when the day was over, and the little ones were in bed, we ended our Easter Sunday watching 'Faith Like Potatoes' which is a powerful christian movie. I would recommend keeping a lot of kleenexes handy if you watch it though. ;D I somehow managed to not cry during it, although I felt like bawling. I can't say the same for a couple of other people watching it though....

It was a good day. :)

~Caitlyn

Happy New Year!

I wonder just how many people around the world have used that same title...Well I won't think too hard on that right now. :D

Happy New Year to all of you who visit here! I can't help but wonder what 2009 will bring us. Will it be like 2008? Most likely not. But, one thing is for sure, no matter what happens in '09, the Lord will still be with us, watching over us, weeping with us when we hurt, rejoicing with us when we rejoice, and changing not.

I can't believe 2008 is over forever; it's been a good year, filled with ups and downs and moments when we felt that we were upside down. Through this year we have had dairy goats and alpacas for a time, but decided that they were not for us; we have increased our flock of chickens to somewhere around twenty birds (give or take a few), our rabbit herd is at a managable twelve, we still have our not-so-smart Golden Retriever, and we are down to six cats.

The Lord has blessed us throughout the year, while we didn't always understand why certain things were happening, the Lord always showed himself strong.

I am excited about this new year, for what it brings in our family. We have the new baby due in April, Chris is graduating and will be starting college, I will be seventeen in the summer, I'm getting geese and hopefully honey bees in the spring, I might get to volunteer at the local veterinarian clinic, and once I get some use restored to my left hand (I'll get to my wrist in a minute) I get to begin taking some herbal college courses (maybe).

Okay, update about the wrist, I went to the Portland hospital yesterday and the doctor thought my wrist looked really good, the fracture is almost completely healed and I get my cast off on monday the 5th. He also said that my wrist will be slightly crooked beacause of the way my wrist joint was broken and I will have to have a year's worth of therapy before my hand is back to normal.

I can't wait till I can once more hold a pencil and write again! I have missed writing, and doing school.

Here are some pictures that give a tiny glimpse of what our year was like....

Have a happy new year and God bless!!

The gift of giving

I think every year we say that it's been the best Christmas ever; I guess they just keep getting better. :D

This Christmas has been really fun for us all. We all got really nice gifts from each other as well as from our relatives. Since I could not knit my gifts I had to go to plan #B.

For Jessica, I gave her a dozen homemade paper doll horses, some spurs that I don't use anymore, an old horse magazine that she could cut up and a glass horse figurine.

I gave Jacob a story. Last year my sisters and I each wrote a story about himself for him. He was ecstatic getting to read about himself going on adventures, so we decided to do it again this year. In all he has a story about him being a fire fighter, a hunter, a scuba diver, a sea captain, a skier and a detective. We'll do more stories next Christmas. :)

Emily got a turquoise bracelet that she's been eyeing for a while. It was mine but I never wore it so I gave it to her.

Megan was interesting to do. I knew exactly what she wanted and I had both of the items in my closet....but, I also really liked them myself. Nevertheless, I gave them up willingly and it was so much fun watching her open them on Christmas morning. So what was it? I gave her my second favorite skirt that I had, a beautiful, dark blue, plaid skirt....And, my leather journal that had been handmade in India. I had only written a few entries in the journal before I broke my wrist, so I just tore those pages out.

I couldn't think of anything for Chris or for dad so I just gave them a heartfelt 'Merry Christmas!'

I was soooo excited about mom's gift. I've been working on it since late October.

As kind of a hobby, I enjoy making 'collage cans'. I take those really, really big cans that tomatoes come in, then I glue pictures all over it (which is harder than it sounds). After that comes the most tedious part; I then have to apply five coats of Modge Podge...Do one coat, wait twenty minutes...do another coat, wait another twenty minutes.... You get the idea. ;)

So for mom, I made a chocolate/coffee collage can. In the can I put a cute Ghirardelli coffee mug, a coffee card, three homemade coffee jackets and lots of Ghirardelli chocolates. Mmmmm. :D

Oh yeah, I gave little Carver a pint-sized broom and mop. He's so cute to watch, going around the house sweeping. LOL.