eat sleep and farm

To us, Rachel and Kara's age gap seems quite big. Only because Ethan and Rachel are 10 months closer in age. For the past 12+ months, I've wondered when they would start playing together and when their age gap would seem like it was closing in.  And that time has come :)   Its so fun to watch the girls play together and to see them interact well. Kara loves to watch and copy Rachel. Some days she just follows behind her, trying to do and say everything her big sister does and says. She also allows Rachel to treat her like her own personal baby doll and Rachel is thrilled with this. Pushing her sister around in the doll strollers, dressing her up in baby clothes and having her sit, stand and walk where she wants. Its all funny to watch. Kara does have a mind of her own though and it cracks me up how she puts her foot down when she doesn't want to do something.  this was quite spontaneous and I thought, very cute  I love having daughters... I imagine we'll al...

**Just so you know, if you don't request to be put on the reader list, your name won't be on there. I haven't taken up mind reading just yet ;) Also, for those of you with blog lists... even though my blog is set to private, my updates will still show up in your list. So no worries there. I'm going to be setting my blog to a private setting - I'm sorry to those of you who are greatly annoyed by it. I know its rough; I often forget to check the private blogs myself, but I think its best for me to do so at this point. I like to post lots of pictures and daily activities for family members, since we've moved far away... and I think I'd feel much better knowing exactly who's checking the blog, with all the personal information I put on here. If you don't know us personally, but have found our blog through a mutual friend's blog, please feel free to email me and be put on my blog list. I don't mind at all! stef@jastef.net is where you can ...

Are you passive and spontaneous with your giving?                              or.... Are you active and intentional with your giving? **Thoughts taken from Pastor Tim Keller

Earlier this week we decided to take advantage of this amazingly sunny (warmer) weather and take the kids to a fun looking park we've seen, across the street from church.  They were very excited. Thrilled, actually. I think they ate all their breakfast super fast and even got dressed in lightening speed. Hmmm... I need to make a mental note that they DO in fact know how to do those things in quick time. Rachel has begun a new trend, when she doesn't want to do something, she tells us "my tummy doesn't want to...." Its not a trend I will allow to stick around much longer.  I'm famous for firing back with "I don't care what your tummy wants." Mature, I know.  Anyway, we loved the park. Loved it! It has two fun playgrounds, a huge lawn area, an awesome looking soccer field and a pond with ducks! All bordered with huge, beautiful evergreens. Reminded me of a park we used to go to in Mt. Hermon when I was little. Actually, most of the area we liv...

They were playing a racing game with the kids across the street. I was on our side of the street yelling "ready, set, go!" Kara "helping" Daddy organize the garage she's getting so big :( she likes to push it... not ride in it. he loves his new Secret Agent shirt (and wears the snow boots everywhere) (these pictures are from about 2 weeks ago)

What I'm thinking:   About s implifying my life. Not because its necessarily "godly" but because it will help ME to personally focus on what's important.  What I'm reading:  I didn't do any reading outside from my Bible this week. I read Genesis 3, many of the Psalms & Proverbs, 2 Corinthians, Job, Romans 8&9 and Hebrews. Yep. I was all over the Bible !  What I'm listening to:  watching 24 with Jase. I've found this is the best time to do my "Tuesday's Thoughts"  (okay, now you all know the show is officially boring to me)  What we're learning:  This week I feel like we learned SO much as a couple, in so many different areas. Great things. Our kids learned about hide-and-seek in the dark (so fun) and Ethan is learning how to add. He's having fun making a game out of it; constantly asking us "If I gave you these 4 things and took away 1, then how many are left?!" Very cute.  What I'm watching:   24 right ...

here is the actual personal testimony from one of our Pastors.

Anywhere the kids are... if they hear music.... they dance... and they don't stop... until the music stops... and then they beg for more :) and when they dance, my heart dances... 

This might just be the cutest story I've ever heard. Read it for a good/cute laugh. Its adorable.

I've had a bunch of random and not so random thoughts running through my head this past week. You're going to laugh, but I think reading all the crazy storm posts on FB from my California friends has made me miss "home". I do love that weather, as wacko as it might sound to some of you and we've been surprised by how much rain our area does NOT get. We have a lot of night time rain (in the middle of the night) but its extremely rare for us to get day time rain more than maybe once every couple of weeks. I love the rain, I love winter and I think its because all my life, I've lived in a drought state, that continually needs more rain. Then I started catching this cold earlier this week and so since Tuesday I have not left the house. Been doing a lot of resting, reading, catching up on blogs and such. Its been nice, but I think its led me to feel very nostalgic and miss home. I didn't have a ton of friends in Cali that I spent every day with or even ever...

I saw this on another website and loved it! Enjoy... (also, take a look through the website - you won't be sorry!)  A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... And YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes. A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows  tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food. Grapes   hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food. A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrum and lower cerebellum. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function. K...

Before heading to the Aquarium, we had lunch at a yummy place on the Sound. Its called Ivar's fish market and we sat in the outdoor area (with heaters). The kids were quite inthralled with the seagulls :) Kara liked the seagulls... but kept a close eye on them :)

we like to think this is the real Nemo :) the kids love the felt board, where you can make your own coral and play with all the fish! oh... this is Ethan's new smile. He announced it this day :) after I measured him, he said "Oh, so I'm almost the size of the shark!" my <3 she says we're best friends... and I agree.

and here is proof that we sometimes don't see the sun :) the Space Needle is just outside the Museum (Ethan kept saying he wanted to get away from it, because he worried it was going to fall on his head)  So I started looking online for all the fun stuff to do in our area. We had a week of very winter-like weather last week and so we wanted to get creative and still enjoy life; not feel all shut up in the house all the time. We took the kids to The Children's Museum in Seattle and had a blast! So much fun, we bought a family pass! Jason was with us, but sadly, he had the camera almost the whole time and so he's not in any of the pictures :( We need to get better about taking pix of each other. The Museum was very age appropriate for all 3 of our kids. I think my favorite part so far (we actually didn't have time to see the entire museum) was the different villages and homes that are meant to look like you're in different parts of the world. Very cool and ...