How Great is Our God? . . . A few simple reminders . . .

"How Great is Our God?" I have been singing this Chris Tomlin song for most of the day and it occurred to me ~ once again ~ that God's "greatness" is not only seen in the BIG things . . . Like an incredible Kansas thunderstorm . . . but He reveals his power in the everyday, seemingly small things we experience. Who, but God, can bring forth hundreds of beautiful strawberries from a small strawberry patch that came from much smaller seedlings? Who, but God, reveals his awesomeness (is that a real word?) in the birds of the air? How do they know how to build their nests? How do they know how long to sit on their nests? How do they know what and how to feed their babies? Did someone teach them? No . . . Only God can give living creatures life and they are born knowing how to sustain that life. God was also shown to me today in the joy of an 8 year old little girl revelling in the fun of shopping for flowers. What care she took to pick out exactly what she needed for her own mixed pot of annuals. What fun for me to watch her arrange them and plant them. How great is our God? I'll tell you! Just take the time to look around, you'll see His Greatness everywhere . . . you needn't look far.

Claire and I enjoyed our time together picking strawberries from our strawberry patch this afternoon. Some are "swimming" in sugar-induced juices and some are now in the freezer.


I know this isn't the best picture, but I was up quite high and couldn't exactly see what I was doing. We have a pair of Eastern Phoebe's that nested on our porch and these are their babies that were born yesterday. From what I can tell, there are three. You can see their little heads pointed straight up waiting for mom or dad to bring them another tasty bug. (I'm so glad I'm not a bird!)


Claire's flower pot. She absolutely loves to pick out flowers every year and arrange them in a pot. Another great job!

EASTER WITH THE RIDDLE'S

Easter at the Riddle's. We had a very nice lunch and a wonderful time together. My Aunt Cathy and Aunt Janice joined us.


The girls with Grandma and Papa.


Claire - prior to ripping into her basket of gifts.


Emili ~ VERY HAPPY ~ to have a received a Star Wars Droideca figure.

Claire with her Webkinz Cotton Candy Bunny and McKenna - THRILLED - with her Star Wars figure!

Claire with her "Flower Fairies" book. The kid LOVES fairies and Tinkerbell!


Papa Al resting after a big meal!

EASTER MORNING

Here are the girls Easter morning before church. They look so grown up!

EASTER WITH THE FOLSTER FAMILY

We were able to get together with Chris' brothers and their families the Saturday before Easter. We enjoyed a nice brunch and the kids had fun with an egg hunt. Looking at the pics, you can tell Little Sarah was the star of the show!


Cousin Taryn with the gyroscope we gave her for Easter.


Sarah checking over the Easter-themed Little People was gave her.


The hunt is on!

Taryn showing off her basket of goodies.

Here is Sarah - very proud of what is in her basket!

Emili finding the "BIG" prize! Whoever was the first to find the BIG pink egg got $5.00!

Uncle Dane, Aunt Becca and Sarah

The Folster cousins! Yep - They're ALL girls!

Baby Zavian after a long day of excitement, is resting on Grandpa's shoulder.

MISS TARFFUL

Here is Tarfful! McKenna's new Djungarian hamster. She is just as sweet as can be. I am picking her up from "sick bay" this afternoon. She had some problems with her eye and coughing, so she's been back to the pet store for some "babying." Her report is great and she is ready to come home to her mommy!

EASTER GIFTS!

Well, here I am again . . . behind on my blog. I love Blogger, but I wish I could load more than one picture at a time! Anyway, here are photos from the Easter gifts Chris and I gave the girls. They each received the EXCLUSIVE Webkinz guinea pig only available through Justice stores and they each also received one of the new KinzClips and a chocolate bunny - of course!

McKenna will NOT be happy that I'm adding this one to the blog. She was being silly!

Claire named her guinea pig "Shirley," after our sweet pig that died this past September.

McKenna - logging in her new pet and KinzClip at the Ganz website.

McKenna's New Hammie!

Yesterday, McKenna purchased a new hamster. She has named our new little girl "Tarfful" after a Star Wars Wookie. Tarfful is a Djungarian dwarf hamster and is very polite and sweet . . . constantly on the go, but not anti-social in the least. In honor of Tarfful, I've added an interactive hamster on the sidebar so nobody feels left out! :-) Go ahead and feed this virtual hammie (clicking anywhere) or put him back on his wheel by clicking the middle dot. Enjoy and I'll post pic's of McKenna's new furry friend soon.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

5th Grade Structures

Every year in the fifth grade, the students at HCS build their own structure. McKenna chose to build a castle and Emili is diligently working on a pyramid. Here are some beginning photos of McKenna working on her castle. We'll keep you updated and post pictures of both the girls' finished projects. These will be on display on April 24, at the HCS Academic Fair.

SPRING BREAK FISHING TRIP!!!

During the girls' spring break, we took them fishing at Lake Shawnee one afternoon into the early evening. Here are the photos from that excursion. We caught several trout and enjoyed our time together as a family. The kids didn't particularly like having "little kid" poles any longer, so Daddy had them all brand new poles the very next week!

McKenna - desperately trying not to snag her line.

The monotony began to wear on Claire a bit!

Emili with the first catch of the day!

Em's was caught off guard when her fish began flipping around. I snapped at just the right (and funny) moment!

Nessie wasn't "allowed" to fish, so she kept herself busy with an empty water bottle . . . and barking at every other dog that walked by!

The angler of the day!

Finally, Claire's patience paid off!

And then, so did McKenna's . . . .

Chris got in on the action as well. Here he is showing the girls how to pose for a fishing picture. Apparently, one should stick the fish out in front - toward the camera. He told them "it makes the fish look bigger!"

Dinner! And yes, they were tasty!

Team Work

Emili and Claire enjoy working together to get the pine needles cleaned up out of part of our driveway. At the beginning of March, they headed out - unprompted - to surprise their daddy by cleaning up. We watched them from the window for a little bit and then, unbeknownst to Em and Claire, Chris went out and took some pictures. So cute!

Spirit Week!!!

Spirit Week at the girls' school. I didn't get pictures of every day . . . it was kind of a rough week. Below is "Little Kid Day."

"Fake an Injury Day"