life offering

I love the Life Journal's verses from Romans 12:1 today. Here's what the Message translation says:

So here's what I want you to do: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

I love how we are supposed to take even the "mundane" and "ordinary" experiences of our life (sleeping, eating, going to work and walking around life) and use it as an offering before God.

I love knowing he cares about all aspects of our lives, even the things we don't always give him credit for or think he'd care about.

I love knowing that he cares about what we care about-he is our creator, after all.

And I love how we can ask him for help in giving those "ordinary" things to him each and every day.

my sweet 5 yr old

Kamrie 17 months, Hunter 5 1/2 yrs, Parker 2 1/2 yrs, Chloe a few hours old
Happy Birthday to sweet Chloe Abigail.
May 31, 2003
12:51 p.m.
6 pounds, 10.5 ounces
19.5 inches long
What a blessing you are to us, your family, and to others you meet. I know God has big plans for you sweetie.

I remember how excited Hunter, Parker & Kamrie were to meet you in the hospital. Parker kept saying, "Baby Chloe came out of mommy's tummy. I'm so happy to see her."

baseball

We have baseball 7 days a week between the 3 kids practicing & playing games. June will fly by!

Hunter's team is in a tournament in Holdrege today & tomorrow. They won their first game & play again in the morning. This will be the only weekend tournament,

speed racer

hunter & cooper played speed racer for about a 1/2 hr in the driveway this afternoon.

that stroller has seen many miles & is about to be officially retired. we rarely use it anymore (hard to believe since we used it constantly with parker, kamrie, chloe & cooper).

kamrie's new bike

kamrie took off by herself on her bike after some pointers from parker & after daddy took her training wheels off. she did great! we didn't even have to run behind her holding on. so here's her on here little bike & now on her bigger barbie bike.

who colored on you?

notes to self:
1. don't leave markers out unsupervised.
2. continue to purchase washable markers.
3. don't assume older siblings will act responsibly with their little brother.

p.s. i remember parker doing this same thing to kamrie when she was a baby still sitting in her high chair.

1st game of season

hunter did a great job as catcher & had a couple really good hits during his first baseball game of the season.

dillan & burpo kids photo shoot

whenever the burpo & dillan families get together we have to have a kids photo shoot. this is no small task mind you. i love looking back at the past photos & seeing how much the kids have changed so quickly. we didn't know them when cassie was born, but otherwise we have shared the births of each of our other kids. sweet friendships are so important! we love you guys.

summer fun

snake patrol

brad could hear me scream over the sound of the mower as i nearly stepped on a garter snake. I ran to the street & he came to my rescue with a shovel.

the snake was long gone however. my scream and jump around dance must have scared the little crawler away. actually he was about 1 1/2 ft long--1 1/2 feet TOO long for me. no snake is a good snake as far as i'm concerned.

the next day parker spotted the snake fugitive go into the front rose bush. so here are the boys on snake patrol. they didn't find it but they sure hacked away at the rose bush! we'll find you yet mr. snake.

oh & check out the shutters on the house. don't they dress it up & add a bit of color? good job brad! he could see it in his mind's eye how it would help the curb appeal...

baby abraham

welcome to the world baby blair christian abraham! 7 lbs 12 oz, 22" long, 1:23 pm. can't wait to meet you sweet little boy. congratulations twy, brennon, taylor & bode!

I want to be a teacher.

Here's one of Kamrie's assignments last week (she wrote this completely by herself, sounding out each letter). So sweet. She has thoroughly enjoyed kindergarten & her teachers. Thanks for the great year Mrs. Norgaard & Mrs. Woodward.

coupons

the mother's day coupons the kids made at church were cute.
check out hunter's:
















we don't have a dog.
i watch approximately 10 minutes of tv each week.
thanks so much to my firstborn...

happy mother's day

to my mothers. you both are a shining example of how to love your children. thank you for your unconditional love.

my mother's day card from brad & the kids...i love it. and i remember very specifically the day hunter did nearly the exact artwork at our chocolate milk house in imperial. i can laugh about it now but then not so much. i need to dig out that photo of him crying by his artwork...

sweet time

we got to spend some sweet time with our imperial family and friends this weekend. what amazing people in that town! we love all of you.

13 people were baptized at church on sunday. what an amazing testimony as to what God is doing today in people's lives. and what a sweet time it was to see 6 sonshine gardens kids making the choice to be baptized! many tears were shed as we shouted "praise the Lord!" as they each came up out of the water.

i am so proud of those kids! they are making such good choices and learning early on how to trust Jesus with all their hearts. it's so much easier to learn that while you are young. i can't wait to see what amazing things God will do through them.

5th grade band

we were discussing hunter's getting to play in band next year as a 5th grader at lunch. we were talking about which instrument he should try, trumpet, saxophone, etc. when parker pipes up & says...

"you could play the harp. all you need is a diaper and some arrows."

our laughter encouraged him to keep pestering hunter about possibly playing the harp.

cream & salt with your coffee?

saturday i sat drinking my coffee doing my life journal wondering why the coffee tasted so bad. i wondered if it was the dishwasher not getting all the soap off the cup, or the water softener malfunctioning. come to find out someone put salt in the sugar container! we think it was little cooper who managed that little trick without even probably knowing what he did. he really did think it was sugar. he was just trying to be helpful around the house.

breakfast conversation

as chloe, cooper & i were talking about going on a walk this morning...

chloe: can we go to the park on a walk?
cooper: maybe an elephant can take me to the park.
chloe: they can't! they're huge!
cooper: maybe a teeny one can ride me to the park.
chloe: yeah! but we've never even seen an elephant before.
cooper: (trying to get my attention) mom. mom. Mom! MOM!! i can ride a big elephant! you ride a big one. and you ride another big one. cuz you're a glirl and you're a glirl and i'm a boy.
chloe: i'm going to ride a mommy elephant. even elephants can touch the clouds with their trumpets.
cooper: mom. mom. Mom! MOM!!! i think we can use a ladder. we need to find elephants. birds! chloe look birds!!

wow! did you catch all that? i wish you could've heard it all. i was doing my best to be the court reporter & write it all down, but i'm sure i missed some elephant comments before they moved onto discussing the birds. gotta go. i just heard: "let's go catch a bird. be very quiet." and the front door opening & shutting.

Ready for Spring

Kamrie sums it up extremely well...I like the flower. I like the sun. I agree completely Kam!

House Pictures

Here's the outside of the house after a few fix-ups (or shall I say tear-aparts). We're gaining! Do you miss the wagon wheels??

tired guys

Their day's activities caught up with them as they sat to watch "Cars" this afternoon.

little friends

chloe and her friend abby at soccer. they were so cute walking around holding hands.

super speed

the daisies we planted yesterday afternoon definitely have super speed! they are already sprouting. that's fast germination time! we also have some sweet william, bachelor's buttons & marigolds that we're trying to sprout.

parker also has a lima bean attached to the window to sprout. maybe we'll plant that & start serving them for supper later in the year.

i've also got a 'seven sisters' rose clipping in a jar of water for my favorite mother-in-law...:)

p.s. update the next day...i should have known that this was impossible. hunter just confessed that he "transplanted" a couple of tiny plants into the spots i'd just seeded. he thought they needed more room. hmmm. and i was amazed at their super speed.

blogging uh-oh

i tried to change my template to a really cute "happy spring" one late last night. all my little add-ons disappeared, no more guestbook, no more photos. blogging uh-oh. i was up until about midnight trying to put back those items. it wasn't that difficult except that i couldn't remember what page elements i had where. i may be missing some but for now it's ok. i'll stick with the regular blogger templates for now until i'm a bit more blog savvy.

April Showers

Bring May flowers! I've been outside moving some lilies & other green stuff around this week. I'm not really sure what it all is, but it's kinda pretty leafy stuff. Could be weeds for all I know...

I also took off the iron railing from our front step & took off the old crummy looking house numbers. It looks so much better already! I also got the trim painted & the excess paint scraped off the windows--yikes my arms were tired! Some of that paint was from whenever it was painted last--several years old. It really looks better with the trim cleaned up & the windows washed.

Yep, I actually washed our windows. I think I only washed our windows in Imperial 1-2 times in 5 years. So, I'm good now for another 5. :)

Awana End

Ahhh. We can get to bed on time on Wednesday nights. Maybe the last few weeks of school will be easier to get up on Thursday mornings.

Awana ended with "Pie in the face night." Any clubber who said a section of their book during the month of April got to put their name in for a drawing. The winner got to choose which leader's face to throw a pie into. The winner? A fourth grade girl from Hunter's class. Who did she choose?

Herself! She picked one of the leaders to smash it into her face! You should have seen all the other kids cheering them on!