Harrington Family

St. Louis Zoo Day one

2011-06-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

This caused lots of confusion. They had to make a safety stop for Jeff because he was on the giraffe with Noah. It had to be stopped after going one time around. Everyone got off not knowing what was going on. While the lady on the loud speaker kept saying " stay on this is for a safety stop". It was confusion.

The kids had a lot of fun. The animals were very active. Our favorite was a baby elephant that went swimming. The weather was warm but a not too hot it was wonderful!

One Year!

2011-06-08T05:07:00.001-07:00

Visit from Mom

2011-05-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

We took the kids down to the old mill to show my mom how neat it is. We tried really hard to get pics of the kids with out any luck. This also shows off their hair cuts.

2011-04-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

Just recently as official and as set as stone as it can get at this point in time we got notice that Jeff has a deployment coming so we have decided to make a ton of new memories before he leaves. I have to take pictures so the kids can look at them and try to remember them. Good Luck to me!

This past weekend we went to a state park to camp. We hiked a trial. The kids walked and we back packed Joseph. Noah had no fear and although it doesn't look high these little cliffs were high and he had no problem leaning over the edge to look.

This was our destination. There were lots of little waterfalls leading up to this one. We went back the second day and played around at the bottom throwing rocks and relaxing. That is Jeff and Noah on the other side. They had fun crossing the water and exploring.

Joseph loved playing with the sticks and dirt. Not pictured but when he left his shirt was soaked from picking up rocks out of the water.

The posing just comes natural. Here lily is outside our camper. She slept in here with Jeff, Joseph, and I both nights. Noah and Jeff's mom (gabu) slept in the tent both nights. They might have had the best sleeping arrangements.

We waited to take a picture till right before we left the last day. we all looked pretty rough. The camper was such an unusual shape and folded down in such a neat way that it got attention from the other campers around.

Some other random pictures of us out around the city at different parks enjoying the weather.

Here is lily and I at a park taking a picture together. She loves to have her picture taken and to look at it.

Last here is Joseph on the sidewalk downtown playing with beads his sister gave him. I took the kids to a saint patricks day parade while Jeff was at drill one weekend. We had lots of fun.

Christmas

2010-12-30T20:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Noah

2010-12-21T13:18:00.000-08:00

Winterwonderland!

2010-12-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

A church here in town puts on a a winter wonderland carnival. We went and rode

on the airplanes...

Rode a train....
and a hayride pulled by horses
Joseph saw this...
So good he doesn't even get upset.

And stayed warm by drinking hot chocolate

2010-12-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

Santa is that you?

2010-12-06T04:27:00.000-08:00

Noah told a friend whose family does have santa visit on Christmas eve that he wasn't real. Noah used all the passion he could to convince the kid that santa wasn't real..."he is like Bob the builder". The mom didn't look so happy with me....
The picture is at Jeff's armory. The kids enjoyed seeing Santa and even got a treat from him. Noah thinks he is real just like bob the builder because he can see them with his eyes....we have just had to explain that he isn't coming to our house.
I think that we made the right decision in telling Noah that santa wasn't visiting our house. To us Santa was a distraction from the birth of Jesus. It is hard to compete with Santa and sleigh full of toys. As a believer I know there is no competition, Jesus is victorious, but how in the world do I convey that to Noah with all the distraction. We will celebrate Christmas with gifts and I hope to create an excitement for Christmas in my children. An excitement that hopefully one day leads their hearts to accept Jesus and maybe hopefully God will just work through Jeff and I in that process. In saying all that, through all our decisions and lack of decisions concerning our children we are waiting and praying for God's Grace in the lives of our children.

A day out....

2010-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

Baby Joe!

2010-11-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

a day in the backyard...before a pistachio

2010-11-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

Squinting because of the sun....

swollen the morning after because of a pistachio....

Random Pics.

2010-11-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

We think that Joseph looks like his daddy...what do you think?

2010-11-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

I do not have a picture of the children together. Why? Because of this......

Does this baby look 5 months old....Next week our tiniest (ha! can't help it that cracks me up)baby will be 5 months old!

BUGS

2010-10-26T12:36:00.001-07:00

We ate bugs this weekend. Here Noah is eating a chocolate covered grasshopper. Lily was the first one to eat it and Noah followed. I'm not sure they knew or fully understood. They asked for more. We also ate a rice dish with caterpillars, interestingly enough it was Jeff who initiated the eating of the caterpillars. They were crunchy and had no taste. The kids ate the rice too and really loved it, again I don't think they knew what they were eating.

Jeff was insistent on taking a picture of me petting this bug. I think it was some sort of roach. I really don't like seeing bugs in my house but this seemed okay to me!
Of course Joseph didnt do much but sleep. He is 4 months old now and is 21 pounds. He also wears 18 months old clothes. He is a gigantic to say the least.

2010-10-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

My parents visited. Here are some pictures from the park that my mom and I took them to.

My mom brought lily her Halloween costume.
Here is Lily on stage at CBS singing the B-I-B-L-E....where is Noah? Sitting next to me.

Lots of Daddies

2010-10-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

We headed out to the air show....the kids loved riding the shuttle bus from the parking to the air field.

Sitting inside a C-130. Jeff enjoyed telling Noah about how soldiers ride on C-130s. Lily wasn't to impressed that is why there aren't any pictures with her. She wanted to just jump on the bouncy.
Joseph spent most of the time in stroller just sitting around. Look at those thighs!
This was the neatest thing. 10 c-130s dropped 400 airborne soldiers. They flew from Ft. Bragg got on buses and flew right back to Ft. Bragg. The air was filled. This doesn't really show how much the air was filled with "daddy". Jeff is not airborne but any soldier is a daddy to the kids. We told them that the soldiers had babies at home waiting for them....Noah asked "with their mamas?"

zoo

2010-10-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

At the zoo a couple of weekends ago!

Commander

2010-09-14T05:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning we got bright and early to travel to the Armory that Jeff drills at. It is about an hour and half away. The kids were great in the car! Including Joseph who I did not get a picture of.

We attended a change of command ceremony for Jeff. He is now a commander of headquarters battery.

Here is Jeff being handed the flag of his unit from his commander

Jeff is handing the flag back to his 1st. Sergeant.

We are really good at this but I got all dressed up and the kids were all dressed up and no pictures! The kids were great during the ceremony not a peep out of any of them.
Noah like to salute now and Lily likes the marching!

Jeff has a ton more responsibility. I was told to expect him back with head full of gray hair! He already had wrinkles from the last deployment that weren't there before he left so I'm sure he will look older!

Random things...

2010-09-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

Here is my sweet Joseph in my favorite outfit of his
Here is my dad. He took Lily fishing while we were at the lake. We stayed two nights at Lake ouachita.

Here she is with her Halmoney...Noah had a fever and was resting in the cabin.
Poor Joseph all he can do is sleep and sit in that seat all day! He is such a good sport!

These were all pictures from the park. Lily is filthy from playing in the dirt.

Here are Jeff and Noah. We went to Hot Springs for a conference Jeff had to attend for the Guard. We rode a horse drawn carriage one night. It was fun. I don't have a picture of Lily but she probably loved it the most.

Attack of the ducks!

2010-08-05T10:05:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the past couple of days.

I was out on of the many 100+ days this week. Joseph needed to be nursed. So I pulled over to a park to nurse and let the kids out to play. It was hot. I sat out a blanket under a tree and here came the ducks!

Lily got scared and grabbed up all the shoes and ran for the truck.

I had to chase them away to make them leave. They were pretty persistent on getting food.

Pictures

2010-07-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Our day downtown at the museum

2010-07-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

So here is lily at the end of the day mad because she can't do this like her brother....
Who takes pictures of their children crying? Not us and we didn't laugh about it either...that would be bad parenting.

We walked across the river bridge to downtown....it was HOT!!! We rode the trolley back over the river...the kids didn't mind.

We had lots of fun and the kids were great. One melt down... (the picture at the beginning of the post). We are trying to lots of things together before Jeff leaves to Michigan for two weeks.

A day at the park

2010-07-02T22:47:00.001-07:00

Today was a bit cooler but still a hot summer day. We got out and spent about two hours in the park. Came home and took long naps!

At the Library

2010-06-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Library. This is a fountain outside the library.

This is how Joseph spent the outing in my sling. Here he is sitting in my lap. He looks little but he is 12lbs now. Still a very calm baby. I have not had any problem taking all three children out.

Just like His Daddy?

2010-06-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

2010-06-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

Joseph James Harrington

2010-06-14T22:42:00.000-07:00

The newest Harrington addition!

Our biggest baby yet. We were expecting a small baby but he surprised us! He was very healthy. He scored a 10 on his apgar. So far he seems to be a very calm baby!

Pinnacle Mountain

2010-03-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Jeff had drill this weekend... so we headed to a local state park to take advantage of beautiful weather we are having.

Lily is a really her own little self...she is not two yet but is potty trained. I was completely against it but she insist on wearing "big boy" underwear everywhere these days. We have not had an accident yet. She also dresses herself. She can put almost all of her clothes on by herself...way surpassing her three year old brother. She also picks her own clothes out. Look at this outfit!
Noah is always taking his shoes off....we sat down on a blanket for a picnic lunch and he started running with no shoes...His feet are so soft I don't know how he does it.

This is Lily's favorite thing...she could swing forever.

It is so hard to get a picture of them together!

Fun Weekend

2010-02-23T19:44:00.000-08:00

This last weekend my dad came in and spent a day with us. We ate downtown and then spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown.

I am perfectly blurred out of this picture...not sure how that happened. Here we are downtown at a place called flying fish. Here is Lily enjoying her shrimp and fries.

We burned off our lunch by walking to a small aquarium and then to a park. Lily is eating her animal crackers while walking.

more snow...

2010-02-22T10:51:00.001-08:00

We have received sooo much weird weather this year....we got snow again and this time is was more!

Snow

2010-01-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Noah has been talking about snow all year...about how he was going to need to shovel it for me...Here is shoveling away. It was way too cold for me...I went out for a bit but lily and I headed in pretty quickly.
The littlest snowman. Jeff is so sweet he made it for Lily. She wanted one.

Barely snow at all. But here in the south this is it. We get ice more often then snow I think. Anyhow this was Lily's first snow. Noah had seen snow in Washington.

Lily's Fur Jacket

2010-01-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2009-12-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Noah help make and decorate Jesus's Birthday cake. We sang happy birthday, blew out the candles and then ate it with some ice cream. We headed out to look at Christmas light after that. We tried in the midst of everything to teach Noah and Lily that Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Savior!

Here is Lily with her daddy on a run to Walgreens on Christmas day. She is loaded with the goodies that my mom and dad showered her with. She just couldn't leave it at home. A new Hello Kitty book bag and her new baby doll. We were thankful my parents got a lot of clothes and shoes for the kids.

Catch up...

2009-12-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Things have gotten back to normal around here. I am not as sick as I was. This baby did a number on me. By far the worse... If each one gets worse.... I'm not sure how I feel about that.

These two are great. They are really playing well together now. I have been waiting. People either said how horrible it was to have two so close or they were positive and said how great it would be because they would entertain each other.

They have their of fights over toys...but for the most part they play all day together and leave me with little entertaining to do. They are really lost without one another. We are trying to teach them to love each other and take care of each other. Noah will even pray for lily or remind her that God will protect her when she is crying. God was good to us when he made Noah the way he did...so sweet and loving. God almost made us believe we had some part in that... Lily is a fun terror her favorite word is no and to jump off the couch. We love her so much....God was good when he gave her to us because then we learned we can't take credit for our children or believe our parenting skills are perfect but instead give our children to the Lord and ask for wisdom daily on how to raise them.

Noah turned three on the 20th. He doesn't understand it all yet. He thinks a birthday has something to do with a cake. We just told him it was day to give God thanks for his life... maybe he thinks it has to do with cake because I was a cake boss and made this! I was so proud of myself.

Martin came to visit last month before going to Iraq. He will give me inspiration to post more...anyhow...here we are the morning before he left.

Into the woods we went....

2009-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I are absolutely crazy. We have been really busy and felt like we needed some time away. We thought this would be the cheapest vacation. It was but I'm not sure if we relaxed. We did get to make some good memories. That is what was most important to us is making the memories especially since Noah is getting older. And for those you who don't know....To God be the Glory....baby number three will join us in June. We probably won't be able to camp for a while after that.
She is so stinkin' cute- I can hardly stand it!
Noah has mastered his tri-cycle pretty well now. He loves to ride it.
Roasting a marshmallow.

The Fair

2009-10-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry that the picture is side ways...Here are the kids enjoying a corn dog. Noah ate every bite of the corn dog. Lily gave up on the batter and just ate the hot dog. They ate this at 1030 in the morning.

Here Noah is feeding the goats he absolutely loved it. I was surprised that he wasn't scared. The Goat ended up taking away his cup.
Noah was too scared to ride any of the rides. I'm not sure why...He has done fine on them before. Who knows? Here he is just watching his friend from church go around around.
I thought for sure this would make him ride. I choo choo train but he still didn't want to. He said he didn't like that it went around and around.

Fire Truck Night

2009-10-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday we went out to see all of the firetrucks. They were all parked in the Krogers Parking lot. We got balloons and fire hats. We had lots of fun.

This is why I like I having kids....

2009-10-05T19:28:00.000-07:00

Along with other reasons....

I love having lily because it is so cute to watch her put shoes on all day long even though it gets tiresome changing shoes all day for her. There are moments like this with her bib on that she will not take off and her hand-me down boots from Noah that just make me so happy! She is such a goof.

This picture of Noah I can't even explain the feeling of this one....He has grown up soo much...It reminds me of a picture I took of him when he was little wearing Jeff's Army stuff. He loves pretending he is a fire man. The Army gear just added to his Fireman outfit for him.

And then this moment makes it all worth it... they were so quite and in his bed for such a long time reading books together. I love my babies. God has blessed us.

"Oh no the sky is falling!"

2009-10-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

We have been avoiding crowds lately...because of the flu. Noah was able to get the flu shot this week. He did great...I thought it was going to be really horrible...they gave him a third of the dose waited 20 minutes and did it again and again. He didn't even flinch getting that many shots.

We went to the children's museum. I was hoping no one would be there and I was right just us! It was great fun!
A moment of team Harrington working together! This lasted all of one second. Noah is really starting love puzzles.

This was so cute to me. I turned around to see Noah covering his eyes...."Oh no...."

This is what he was fascinated with....window washers....He was covering his eyes from the sun...so cute.

2009-09-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

1 Lt. Harrington

2009-09-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

I pinned Jeff's new rank on this Saturday. There was a family day at a stadium here in town so they did a little ceremony.

Little Lily squished in between us. She has a grape in her mouth. Noah hated it all....It was way too loud for him. The soldiers in formation, the music, the motorcycles even the engines of the buses. We didn't stay long. Jeff's mom took us to lunch and then we headed home.

Airplanes

2009-09-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

Noah has been pretending that he is an airplane for a little bit. Here they both are pretending! If you spend time with us or have small children you know why my kids don't have clothes on...Lily wearing the bib...She just wanted to. She probably hasn't worn a bib in 6 months and when I want her to wear one she won't! She usually pulls on it and acts like it is choking her.

Labor day trip to Nashville

2009-09-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

Sunday after church and after lunch we headed to Nashville to visit my Aunt and Grandmother. It would was the first time Noah and Lily got to meet them. Here they are...I told them they had to take their naps...
They slept for 45 min....! We stopped once in Memphis to walk around a Target and get some drinks. Then we headed to Jackson, TN. Here they had a Museum of Trains. It had a gift shop with tons of Thomas stuff. Jeff's mom was nice enough to send money along with us so they each got a train. It poured rain and thundered as we left the Museum. The kids were terrified so they just sat covered with their blankets in the seat. We prayed that God would stop the rain....and when it stopped Noah said "God is soo good"...we agree! We made it all the way to Nashville with no more stops!

Noah and Lily enjoying the cookout...My cousins, and grandmother came and joined us for lunch on Monday. My cousin has a baby girl that is almost exactly a year younger than Lily. We had fun playing and holding a such a cute and good baby.
On Tuesday morning we left around 9 and headed to the Nashville Zoo. It had a neat atmosphere not a ton of animals but ton stuff we had never seen! Here is a little tunnel that Jeff crawled into with them. This allowed you to see the meerkats. The tunnel was really little. It doesn't look it in the picture but it was a tight squeeze for Jeff to get in the viewing area. Jeff is a good dad like that....he plays in the Mcdonalds play places with Noah.
Where the zoo lacked on animals it made up in the playground area. It was so amazing I can't describe it all. It had a castle theme and was maze. It was so neat. You would think you had seen all there was to see and then there was more!
Noah smiling!
This was neat it was a huge covered area for toddlers to run and jump. It was a trampoline but it had a very soft landing.

After we left the zoo we drove all the way to Memphis without stopping. We stopped in Memphis at a children's museum. We played for 2 hours there and got back in the car and drove back to Little Rock.

This little light of mine

2009-08-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

Noah started Puggles last night the toddler club of AWANAS. He came home with a packet of stuff...I read through it and that is all it took for me to tear up. It doesn't take much. The thought of Noah memorizing God's word to build his beliefs excites me and make me just mushy! I am crazy I know. Anyhow...Noah is learning about creation. This morning we were looking at the sun through our kitchen window. I was telling him that God made the sun so we could see the people we love....he held up his pointer finger and said "On the first day God made number one". I was still touched...hey.... Its a start! We have it cleared up he knows now it is day one and on that day he made light. Enjoy the video of him singing this little light of mine.

Hold my hand Sissy

2009-08-27T20:20:00.001-07:00

Noah is the best brother...okay minus the hitting and biting. Really for a two year old he really does love her and try to take care of her. He kept saying "hold my hand sissy". She wouldn't do it the way he wanted to so he would arrange their hands just so and start walking.

A fun filled Friday!

2009-08-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

Lily ready to head off to the park...

Playing in the park...they played in the sand for most of time. Paying little attention to the playground equipment.

Lily has stolen our hearts. She is starting to talk and it is so cute.
We had a small snack and headed for the swings...
Went a played down by the creek...

Got in the creek...2 months ago Noah wouldn't have even touched the water. He is now all boy!
His pants got too wet...
Here are our heads crammed together on our date sitting at sonic. Jeff's mom came and watched the kids and let us get out of the house for a bit. We ate Mexican food, bought jeff's school books, went to sonic, to Krogers, and then to Whole Foods. We were completely amazed at all we could do in a short amount of time with no kids!

Africa...?

2009-08-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

I still have two days to post....I am horrible blogger.

So much for every night.

I got worn out...Jeff made me tell my story to everyone....which was good because It is good way to tell people about how God is working in my life....but I just couldn't bring my self to write about it for the 14th time in one day.

Two more days to come.

The best day is the 7th day...so if there just happens to be anyone hanging on to the end of their chair to hear the whole story. Hang on. I have really ruined any suspense that could have been had by not posting!

I could never be a professional blogger.

Day 5, Nswawm

2009-08-08T19:51:00.001-07:00

We had a late start to the day. We used our time to pre-make bracelets hoping this would ease the congestion when sharing with a large group of people. We made a ton of bracelets.

We came right around lunch time. The school children followed us...

They just kept coming...
Then they came down the street after the bus... It was like a scene out of a movie for me.

Here are some boys alongside the bus...we are waving for them to go back to school.

The vegetation here was different then what was in Accra. It took us about an 1 hour to get here. Huge palm trees everywhere.
Fields of banana and plantain trees. Neatest thing, I had never really thought much about how banana's grow. These are plantain, I only know because I was told. I couldn't see a real difference between the two types of trees.

As soon as we arrived we hit the ground running. We took little paths like these off to the streets and to peoples homes. We were able to talk to many people. Everyone was so welcoming. Most people brought us out a bench to sit on and wiped it off for us before we sat down. This day my partner and I had three interpreters. We shared the gospel by using the beads. The neat thing about this was that our interpreters took names and addresses and will follow up with people who made decisions after we left. We really only had to share a couple of times before the interpreters would be able to share their own testimony using the beads. Which I think was more effective coming from someone of the same culture.

As we would see in all the towns some people were suspicious of the beads thinking that they were fetish charms. We got set in our place on one occasion by a lady we intended to share with that a bead doesn't save anyone. I loved it. Even though we were out sharing the gospel most everyone we talked to had a knowledge of it. We were there giving the local pastors encouragement and giving them a reason to get out in the community to show off their new "obrunis", whiteman in their in language.
I got to play a game with these kids they taught me a foot game, it involves jumping and crossing of the legs...too confusing to explain but it is odds and even pretty much.

This was much the scene when we did a mass presentation at the medical clinics swarmed to get a bracelet. We had already learned our lesson from the first day so we came prepared with pre-made bracelets and we were much more firm and made all the kids stand in a line to get the bracelets. It worked well. I loved it....I love this picture too!
After a short meet up and mass presentation at the clinic we went back out. This little boy was terrified of us. He cried and cried. I'm sure it was probably the first time he had seen white people.

This was the boy's little scooter.

Goats everywhere. This one is baby goat. They were so cute and would come to you acting as if they were making sure you weren't its mom. Goats are also really loud. The noise they make can get annoying.
Directly behind him is the entrance into this group of houses. Like a little village almost. An open area in the middle with goats and chicken and then these concrete houses fortifying it. Here he is making FuFu. It takes two people to make. One sits on the stool and folds the mixture while the other smashes it with this long pole.

Of course I had to try. I got laughed at. They couldn't believed a woman of my age was not skilled in this kind of cooking. Ha! The one teaching me did ask if I made this at home and I told him I had never done anything like that.

This is our farewell. Chasing the bus as we left. A good day and one of the best of the whole trip I thought.

Day 4, Sunday Morning Worship in Mandela

2009-08-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning our group all split up and went to different locations. My partner and I went to a region called Mandela. I did not bring my camera so I did not get any pictures but a friend let me have her pictures. These are from a different location but she got to see a little bit of the childrens church.

Aren't they so cute?

Here they are having snack. Probably goldfish just like in here!

Attending the service was awesome! Loved every minute of it. Here is where I started to learn that church members were committed and mature in their faith. It was an awesome experience to be able to worship in another country across an ocean and realize that even though we seem worlds apart our lives really aren't different - material things I would say is the biggest thing that set us apart as Christians. I found out soon if not on this day that the American Christian has a huge distraction and it is the idea of Gaining Materials.

For me I realized even more that our God is the same, he doesn't change, the same spirit the dwells in me is the same that dwells in the African Christian. Our walks of course look a little different because God made each of different but since we are each indwelt with the same spirit we are no doubt brother and sisters in Christ. I never really felt that kind of bond before until now.

How neat it was to be in a different country and feel at home in the church service. I will preface by saying that this was one of my biggest worries...being separated from the group being picked up from someone we had never met and then being taken off to a place unknown to me.

The music of course was great. They sang a lot of familiar hymns in English. (English is the official language of Ghana). It was lively and unlike our quiet stoic singing. We all found out that you can hold a mic, lead music and not be in key. It was great. Next time I will just sing a solo when asked after learning they are not to critical on the singing talent. The pastor replied with I know Americans don't like to be put on the spot. Next time I will be ready!

The offering was taken twice and the second time they put it out in the middle of the aisle and people danced to it as they put their offering in. Also neat.

The sermon was great and could have preached at our church. It was translated to another language because about half the people were of the Ewe.

We were asked to give a short greeting. They all laughed when they heard my name. and I was asked to talk slower! Imagine that!

Sunday school was awesome because this is where I started to realize that young people in Ghana are serious about their faith! Everyone answered when called on and gave more than the
"Jesus" answer. I also learned that when bibles are short people have more knowledge of it, so it seems. As we saw here and would see later with our interpreters people have knowledge of the scripture and have it memorized. I loved listening!

The service, all of it, was moving for me. I get emotional at about anything...the music, a testimony, someone coming forward, so it didn't take much for me to be completely in awe of how amazing our God is. I loved seeing it first hand that God created everyone to worship Him. I think we sometimes forget that God created it all!

Day 3 Prayer Walking Adabrakka

2009-08-05T18:56:00.001-07:00

On the bus traveling around...we had a comfortable bus and a great driver!

This day we walked the streets around the church and prayer walked. I had never prayer walked before. I liked it and can see how it would be a great thing to prayer walk for my city. While we were walking two of the deacons from our church were doing some deacon training with the local church as well as our leader doing some small group training. From what I gathered it was a neat exchange between the two groups learning from each other.

This was a scene everywhere that we went. The babies wrapped on the back. It was so cute. The mothers hands are completely free allowing for her to continue with her work.

Just a neat picture of all the ceramic pots.

Sorry that these are out of order....another baby and mommy.

A soccer field from a distance.

The trees were so different than what we have here.

Overall this was a good day. We got to go shopping after our prayer walking. That was an experience. I did get some neat stuff to remember Africa.

Day 2, Akoto Lante

2009-08-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

For some reason the text got deleted yesterday so here it is updated with the text....

Day 2 we headed out. The medical team set up shop while we headed out to the streets.

This part of the trip was the most amazing sight for me. I had never seen a fishing culture before. The boats were amazing and to see so many on land and in the ocean. We saw men mending nets and fish everywhere in all its stages....just caught, being cleaned, dried, and fried.

Even though it was the most amazing sight for me this is the place where I felt most like we were not welcomed. We were asked to put our camera away. We were able to take these pictures after we walked up tons of stairs off the beach. Here on the beach the local pastor hopes to start a church just for these fishermen. They are unable to attend church on Sundays but instead Tuesdays are their days off. We prayed with him on the future building sight of the church.

After making our way back onto the streets. We decided to do an hour of street evangelism. Our presentation was going to be a bracelet with beads that each symbolized something...

Black=sin
Red = Blood Of Christ
White = Pure and holy, The cleansing power of the blood
Yellow = Streets of Gold in Heaven Eternal Life
Blue= obedience baptism
Green = growth

This presentation lasted one second we were swarmed so much that we could barely move we had to be carried out of there. We knew we would have to have a new plan for the following days.

I loved this picture with the red wall.
Here is a sight we saw often...the fish being fried in the oil...over coals.

Did I mention I went to Africa?

2009-08-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

In the midst of two kids a husband, and packing I forgot that was I due to leave for Africa on Wednesday, the 22nd. Not really...but I forgot enough to be hurried for two days surrounding my departure and enough to not post it.

Anyhow, I will try to post for every one day that we were in Africa each night. Sorry if I bore you or disgust you with my horrible writing skills. This will help me to remember the experience and remember what God has done for me!

Let me first start and I may share more on this but... God provided a way for me to go on this trip by providing the finances. God overflowed us with an abundance to be able to come on this trip. Over the last two months God has shown us money we didn't know we had and matched my trip expenses with 5 dollars to spare! He provided by allowing Jeff to stay home with our kids. Also when we didn't think Jeff's mom was going to be able to help us He gave her good health to be able to help take care of the kids. God is so good!

I will write about the pictures under each of the pictures...

This is the first place we came after a long flight across the ocean. The church is in Accra, Ghana, Here we learned the structure of the church and got an orientation of the cultures do's and don'ts.

Here is our group walking on the first day to eat Chinese food. Crossing the streets may have been the scariest thing for me in Africa. The people of Ghana are the nicest people in the world. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. About the Chinese food....they also love it. We went to this particular Chinese place twice while here.

After eating we were put on a bus and given a tour of the city.... the streets are so different of course.

I will probably have a ton of these pictures to show of women and men balancing things on their head. It just kept getting more and more amazing!

Accra, is right on the coast.
Here is the old light house in Jamestown. Once controlled by the British this is where slaves would have been shackled and walked down the streets to be put on the boats to be sent to the Americas. This is where our first day of evangelism took place. The local pastor shared with us that as the slaves were walking away onto the boats they cursed the ground. We would find out the next day the spiritual warfare was very real here.
Another look at the light house. I will post day two tomorrow.

Free bible Giveaway!

2009-07-09T08:36:00.001-07:00

Logos Bible Software is celebrating the launch of their new online Bible by giving away 72 ultra-premium print Bibles at a rate of 12 per month for six months. The Bible giveaway is being held at Bible.Logos.com and you can get up to five different entries each month! After you enter, be sure to check out Logos and see how it can revolutionize your Bible study.

fourth of july

2009-07-08T21:06:00.000-07:00

We were super busy on the fourth but on the night of the fourth we met our old neighbors downtown to watch fireworks. We came about an hour early and listened to patriotic music from the Arkansas Symphony....I think that is who they were.

My firework picture I know is horrible but I don't have a camera or the knowledge like you do.....(you know who you are!)

Don't mind Jeff's funny faces....This was Noah by the end of the night. but he started out like this...

The blanket was not all necessary it was muggy and hot.

Noah monster

2009-07-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

Noah has learned about monsters. He likes to pretend he is one by roaring. He is still scared by the idea and does not like to be roared at. He will ask me if there are monsters. We tried to teach him not to play games that make him scared but....Jeff and I are not really sure yet about this yet....being a parent has more details then just changing diapers and feeding! I think we thought it was going to be easier!

Romans 8:15

"For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!

Where have we been?

2009-06-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

Before summer started we bought season passes to a water park here in town. The summer's here in Arkansas are pretty grueling going outside takes your breath away. We have had heat index of 105 so far and the humidity is the worst part. We also had a very rainy season so the mosquitos are bad. Working in my garden at night comes with great risk!

Of course Lily loves it. She is so good. Plays by herself and does not need my attention. Noah on the other hand need me. He is timid in the water and take a minute to warm up to it.

We break for lunch and then keep going.

Silly Lily

2009-06-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

Here she is being so silly. Trying to do the splits, stomping around yelling! She has so much personality.

We have decided that the "kimichi squat is a genetic" both of my kids sit like this. I'm not sure how they learned to sit like this I don't sit like this. I don't think that are around my mom enough to learn this squat.

Sushi

2009-06-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

Isn't my mom great. She made my mom tiny kim-bap rolls for my kids. Lily popped them like they were candy. It had avacodo, cucumber, carrots, and radish in it.

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

2009-06-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

We practiced fishing in Hominy's fountain....

Then we geared up and headed out...

We waited....

and waited...

broke for a photo shoot...

then we caught a fish...

and another....

he threw him back in and said "I want to go home." So we did.

Swinging with Hominy

2009-06-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

Stealing Watermelon again...

2009-06-15T22:39:00.000-07:00

Lily pulled this chair up all by herself.

The poor flowers don't stand a chance here...

2009-06-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Rio Grande Aquarium and Gardens

2009-06-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today I took the kids to the Bio-park. The aquarium and the gardens were together. It was tons of fun and I think the kids liked it more than the zoo.

This is the entrace into the children's garden.

The garden reminded me of Honey I shrunk the kids. Everything was really big.

We stayed here in this train garden for 45 minutes at least. This garden was huge. It had several trains running through.

Here is Lily letting it be known that she was done looking at the trains.

They had a farm in the gardens. Here they are chasing chickens.

Climber

2009-06-09T22:40:00.001-07:00

Noah is very cautious...until lately. He is climbing climbing and then jumping. It is fun to see him be a little boy.

Swing

2009-06-09T22:35:00.001-07:00

She is almost 15 months old now. Crazy to think that when Noah was her age I had a new born baby! She can do pretty much anything she wants but to me she is still such a baby.

Hunting for worms, snails and anything else that crawls

2009-06-09T22:28:00.001-07:00

Martin and Doug

2009-06-05T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have been using my mom's camera to take pictures of everyone. All have been with out editing so far so hopefully they look even better after editing. I will post them if they do.

Rio Grande Zoo

2009-06-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

Caught you!

2009-06-05T20:22:00.000-07:00

Caught you! Stealing Watermelon!

Hair Cut

2009-06-05T20:19:00.001-07:00

The finished product after getting a hair cut.

He was good and sat still.

bubbles bubbles bubbles

2009-05-31T21:18:00.001-07:00

Hey you in there...

2009-05-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

Hey you!

Here Lily is eating....She does alot of this. This is how she maintains her baby figure.

At Hominy's house the food is even better...packed with sugar!

This is in direct correlation to the sugar

Good thing my mom was ready with this bouncy toy for them to jump all the sugar off!

Lily doesn't do much jumping...she like to stick her head out of the windows on the tunnel.

The static inside the thing is crazy. Noah's hair goes straight up as soon as he gets in.

This is my brother's dog. Noah told me today that this is his "best best friend"

This is my parents dog. She is good with the kids but would rather them not chase her and pull her tail like they do Doug.

Here is some safe entertainment for my kids...a Ladder.

Safety goes out the window when they are happy, right?

Fun At Hominy and Papa's House

2009-05-29T21:06:00.001-07:00

Noah, Lily and I traveled on Thursday to get to Alburquerque. Jeff is away for the next two weeks with the National Guard so we decided to take an extended visit to Hominy's new house. We are so excited about being here.

We are started the morning off by working on our golf swing...

We moved on to a bigger ball. Maybe that would be easier.

Lily didn't do much...

I tried to take her picture in my mom's flowers but she wasn't happy...

It didn't bother Noah he just kept on...

Which one is the baby again?

Maybe she is fetching a bug?

Isn't Hominy great? She blew up the kiddie pool and got right in with him. It was cold water.

Laid back.

I wish those thighs were still cute to have at my age.

The pool was too big so we moved to the fountain in the front yard.

Noah was happy about it.

Lily has her game face on...playing is a serious business.

Firemen and Watermelon

2009-05-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

Here Noah is as a fireman. For not even being two and half yet he has the best imagination! He is so much fun. Can't you tell?
Here is our little girl eating watermelon. She loves it. No surprise she loves food. Her hair is getting so long and light but the most exciting part it that I think her hair maybe curly!

Five years!

2009-05-23T13:15:00.001-07:00

Here we are at the church we got married at five years ago! We drove out to Little Rock to visit it on Friday night. We ate dinner at Outback and then headed over to little rock.

Okay so I know I have been a horrible blogger. I plan to start up again. We are going to have an exciting summer so stay tuned if there is anyone still out there....

Here some pictures

2009-05-03T17:51:00.001-07:00

Eating lunch by the River

Always new things at the zoo.

At a nature trail. Lily is a good runner now and Noah can climb almost anything!

Visit from Papa and Hominy

2009-04-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Noah insisted on the sign. He even thought we should make one for Hominy's departure!

We drove about two hours out to a diamond mine. The World's 8th Largest diamond reserve. The park averages 2 diamond finds a day. We didn't find anything!

Lots of dirt and people!

This is where you can pan the dirt out.

Is there a Korean under there? (That is my mom)

Our claim to the dirt

Where is Noah?

Noah loved the hole in the ground. He was content just sitting in it!

Lily was happy walking around with me. She dug a little and was ready to go!

Noah running!

Monday before my mom left we went to Chuckie Cheese.

Where a kid can be a kid or a grandmom and kid?

Noah was so happy to play air hockey. I can never play with him because of Lily but he had so much fun playing. He was very serious about it. He didn't understand the game he still looked for tickets to spit out of the machine somewhere.

We had a good visit. I have no Easter pictures. We didn't do much. Jeff preached at a retirement center and my dad lead the music. Then we went
to our church for the service. It was good to be with family.

sinks...bridge...garden

2009-04-08T18:53:00.001-07:00

Lily loves to play in the sink. I can put her in, hand her a toothbrush and I can put my make up on! She looks like such a big a girl to me in these pictures. My baby is growing up fast!

We walked over a bridge the other day. I use to run this bridge before I had kids and even with Noah I pushed him. I have double jogging stroller now that I can run with both of them. My shoulders and chest get more of a workout than my legs do pushing 40 pound Noah, 22 pound lily, and a 19 pound stroller! Ha!

Today I decided that I would start a garden. I had no shovel as of this morning but a trip to Wal-mart fixed that. The yard is on a hill so I have to terrace it off. Digging is a lot of fun. A good work out. I was sweating!

I found this little shovel on sale for Noah at Wal-mart too. When I put it in the cart he said "Thank You Mama!" He is so sweet.

Lily is a good walker but not good enough for the slant in the yard. She was not crazy about putting her feet in the dirt so she just played with Jeff's mom. I won't be able to do much work with her around even with Jeff's mom she still wanted me to hold her most of the time.

More pictures from the zoo

2009-04-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

What do you think? Do I have chance of Lily having curly hair?

She is so cute-a handful. She keeps us moving more than Noah

Noah insisted I take his picture with the lion. I couldn't get him to stop the fake smiling.

Fireman Noah

2009-03-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember a post about Noah wearing his fireman pajamas every where! He did wear them for about six weeks. He wore them pretty much everywhere except Sunday morning Service but that meant I let him wear them on Wednesday night and Sunday night church. So you know I got some sneers and parenting advice from more professional mamas.

This pair of pajamas was our alternate for when I had to wash the other ones. This is his new tool set. I bought him this after he cut his finger with Jeff's tools.

Noah without me saying anything finally just decided to wear real clothes. I found this fireman hat at the dollar store and he has not taken it off since. He wears it the wrong way but he is happy.

We are at the zoo in this picture and Noah removes his hat to look at things and run because he says it will fall off he doesn't. He talks a ton now and being my obedient first child loves to tell me the rules and especially when we break them! Like "daddy no running in the store!" this is after Jeff chased after lily in the store.

Two hats.

Even in the bath.

Pictures

2009-03-24T20:40:00.001-07:00

These are pictures from a month or two ago. We spent an evening at a friends house and these are the pictures that they captured of Noah and Lily.

One year Celebration

2009-03-21T22:22:00.000-07:00

I worked on this cake most of the day. I know it doesn't look like it. I am not a cake decorator but I wanted to make her cake. The purple icing was too much of a task. I will stick to the colors already made and not try to mix anything!

Because I worked on the cake and other party preparations all day Lily looked like this as people arrived to the party!

And because I was preparing things all day she ate a feast because I had also neglected to feed her. She can't expect food and a party! HA!

Here is the cake with one candle on it.

If you notice I bribed her to be happy with a binky and a lollipop.

The guest got a kick out of the knife I decided to use to the cut cake so I hammed it up for them.

She wasn't thrilled with the cake.

Doesn't she look so sad to be getting all of her toys.
My friend Denise made Lily that raggedy Anne doll. Brown hair for Lily I thought that was so cute.
These our are friends that came to celebrate with us. Jeff's mom and grandmom came to celebrate with us as well.

There is Noah in the bottom of the sc'reen playing with Lily's gift a interactive play purse. That silly boy.

Lawn mower and birthdays...

2009-03-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday on a Jeff's day off we went helped Jeff's mom with some lawn stuff. Here Noah is on the "tractor".

Saturday after family pictures and a nap we went to a friend birthday party. It was held at a gym. Noah had a ton of fun running and playing!

Lily is not so amused.

Of course Noah loved it!

A ton of kids! Lily didn't want to sit for the picture but Noah did. Noah did so well he lined up with all the kids and walked into another room with them. I think he would do so well in pre-school.

He was too little to understand the concept of the game but he still played along with the kids.

Lily enjoyed the sight of herself more than anything.

This weekend we did nothing! Sunday night I started to feel like I was getting sick. Monday I knew I was sick. Tuesday I had a high fever and headed to the doctor he gave me tami-flu. It worked great for one day. Then it did nothing for me. I took the kids the next day to the doctors, they got tami-flu too. Lily tested positive to influenza type A. Tami flu didn't help lily at all. Noah is running fever but it is manageable so I think it worked on him. We missed our free weekend at the embassy suites paid for by the guard because we were so sick. I was thankful Jeff didn't have to go he got to stay here and tend to us! He did a great job! I am just now feeling better after 6 days of being wiped out. I will never miss a flu shot ever again is the lesson learned it was horrible!!! Jeff didn't get sick because he had the flu shot in Iraq. Noah can't have the shot because it is cultured in Eggs. We will see about Lily. I think after this week of rest we will be running back close to normal.

family pictures

2009-03-07T21:38:00.001-08:00

Today we went to Bill Clinton presidential library and took family pictures. The scenery around the library is really nice. Go here to see the pictures. Look in the gallery and then the pictures are under Lanhee. Enjoy.

www.kristenpacephotography.ifp3.com

Weeks in review....

2009-02-19T12:37:00.000-08:00

Over Valentines Day weekend my parents came to visit. My mom and I had a nice day together while Jeff watched the kids.

Wednesday we went to the zoo. It was unusually warm in the high 60s. Noah wore his fire pajama top of course and then his black work boots with no socks. He ran all over the zoo and of course ended up with a blister on his toe. I brought an extra pair of shoes for him.

Lily is such a good walker now. She walked all over the zoo. Here she is pointing at the monkeys. Crazy to believe next month she will be a year old.

Look closely at the bottom of the picture towards the brick. That is Lily's pacifier she threw it into the bears cage. She was so happy about it after wards that she just squealed and squealed as loud as she could.

Here is the bear that she so lovingly shared her binky with.

Lily just sat on the ground while Noah watched the Gorilla's for at least 20 minutes.

Noah watched this little gorilla the whole time. This Gorilla is two years old just like Noah. Noah kept talking about this little guy last night.

This is our time out corner. It is in the kitchen. Noah put all of his trucks and his boots in time out last night. I asked him if they dis -obeyed Noah and he said "yea".

Park, Pond and Friends!

2009-02-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

Today we played in the park!

The best caption for this is "I'm not giving this bread to the ducks, I will eat it!"

Look how cautious he doesn't get as close as the other kids.

Eating the bread.

So cautious he goes back to the bench with his baby sister to eat bread with her.

Chomping away on the bread

This is our friend Allyson. She rode out to the park with us today. Don't they all look like they could be siblings?

Excuses...

2009-02-05T19:19:00.000-08:00

I have been such a bad blogger. I don't even take pictures anymore! I just go go go now and really have no time to stop and take pictures. We still stay very busy doing one activity outside of the home a day. Here is Noah at story time at the Library. He really loves it. He loves all the songs, rhymes, and the finger plays. He just watches not moving or singing. When he gets home is when he rehearses all that he learned. He can sing his ABC's now. It is so cute. What a handsome profile! I see my mom in him, my mom say she sees Martin.

There is too much to say about this crazy gal! She is all over the place she is 10 months now. She walks everywhere. Nothing to daring for her. She has climbed a bunk bed all by herself and attempts to walk off ledges! She is also so loving. I really thought no baby would ever love on a mama as much as Noah did but this girl stays in my face with kisses and hugs all day. She is very jealous more than Noah. Screams if she sees me holding another baby and attacks Noah if he is in my lap. Here she is laying in bed with daddy.

Here Noah is with a family friend. They are exactly two years apart. Notice that Noah is still clinging to his fireman pajamas. Hopefully I will be able to post another post about just how crazy this fireman dress up is getting. It is like he is a girl playing dress up with fireman clothes. He will be my kid that wears his halloween costume for a month after halloween.

Jeff has now been home for a little over a month. We are just not getting into the swing of things. Jeff has started seminary. So far he is excited. He has tons to read. Between me, the kids, and his work I am not sure how he will ever read all of it! He goes to classes all day Monday, 12-7. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday he works at the church. He has been given some pretty neat task. Maybe I will write more about them later.

It is so neat to me , Jeff is not unique in this situation at all but, that less than two months ago he was leading missions in a war zone and now he is leading bible studies in a nursing home. Who would have ever thought. I met one of the other leaders that Jeff worked with doing the same missions. Jeff told me that this other guys group was attacked more than his group. He was young like Jeff and had a boy the same age as Noah and I thought how crazy that young guys are in command. I asked Jeff what he did before going to Iraq and with out thinking it was unusual said "he is a first grade teacher". I am not sure if I could come back and so quickly change careers but Jeff makes it look easy and is doing very well.

Lily eating

2009-01-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

Okay. So I didn't explain that I usually don't serve grapes on the kitchen floor. The kitchen floor was clean. Pulling grapes off the vine is her favorite thing to do. She finds the bag in the groceries bag and starts pulling. Here she is acting like we starve her and never feed her.

Pajamas for three days!!!

2009-01-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

Noah has worn these pajamas for three days! He is a mess. I finally told him that they needed to be washed, so he cried while they washed. He says he is a fireman in these pajamas. We went to Target in these pajamas! Crazy kid.

What a mess

2009-01-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

I will smash your head like a grape!

She is so intense about eating the grapes. Look at her shoulder, a grape hiding from her wrath.

Gotcha!

Yummm....

Since Jeff's homecoming I have been a horrible blogger. Believe it or not, and you other Military wives know what I am experiencing, I had more time when Jeff was gone! Ha! I never really understood the adjusting back home. I thought that was a pretty crazy, I was for sure things would have picked up right where they left off. For the most part they have except for the part that we have two kids now. So me like thousands of other wives are fitting a husband back into the mix trying to schedule him in. I am thankful that I have a husband, I also know that God's calling on my life to my husband is greater than to my children. The bible says that Jeff and I are one flesh. I know that only with Christ will he perfect me in this challenge of learning to be a wife again!

Choo choo

2009-01-19T18:02:00.001-08:00

First she gets the blocks out then...

She puts them down the chute! She loves this little train.

Tubes

2009-01-18T21:33:00.001-08:00

Lily got tubes in her ears on Friday morning. She has had fluid sitting behind her ears for a while now. The ENT that we saw thought it was the best decision since I was not going to give Lily anymore anitbiotics. The procedure happened very quickly. I had time enough to walk from the OR prep to the waiting room and the doctor was back out leading me to the OR Recovery. She wailed for 15 minutes opened her eyes once and they let us go home. She slept for another hour or so and was fine. That night she took six steps. Jeff and I were convinced that the reason she had not walked before was because all the fluid in her ears did not allow for her to have good balance.

She found her tongue

2009-01-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

Lunch at the Museum

2009-01-14T11:28:00.000-08:00

His new fake smile

Mustache

2009-01-09T07:51:00.001-08:00

Chocolate Cake

2009-01-07T10:40:00.000-08:00

Another day at the Zoo

2009-01-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

Watching the sites go by on the train

Waiting for the train to leave the station

Construction Worker

2009-01-03T18:43:00.000-08:00

Couch Critters

2009-01-02T19:19:00.000-08:00

Jeff made this little fort for them today with the cushions from the couch. They had tons of fun! I don't think this couch will see many years the way we use it.