Brave little Alan
Poor Alan has inherited his teeth problems from the Rose side of the family (this is according to Tom). He get's cavities really easily. Last week he complained of a toothache, and I had to bring him home from school. We went to the dentist that afternoon and found that he had a tooth that was on it's way to absessing! Poor little guy! I never knew that could happen in a mouth that young. I guess it was from a cavity that was never taken care of. It's been about 18 months since they last went to the dentist. Too long. Anyway, yesterday he went in for a "pulpectomy" on the painful tooth, and then got it covered with a stainless steel crown. I don't know much about crowns, since my parents never took us to the dentist when we were little. I've personally never had a crown. I guess that's why I was so suprised that Alan, being only 8, would have a tooth in such bad shape. He said he was scared of all the tools, but the dentist said he did really well. They normally charge over $50 for "behavioral management", but they didn't charge anything because he was so well behaved. Now Alan feels much better, with no tooth pain. That was his 3rd crown. He brushes every morning and night, and he even just recently started flossing on his own. It's so tough having a mouth like his!! I hope he's not on his way to a mouth full of metal.

How did the bunny do that?

The kids all dyed the eggs one color, but the next morning they found many of their eggs with more than just the color they dyed it! The easter bunny must've added stripes to them. Sarah knew this was the same egg she orignally colored all pink because she also had drawn with crayon on it before she colored it. How did that bunny do it? She must be a genius!!

It's easter morning and I found eggs!!

Easter Story Cookies

The last thing we do before bed the night before Easter, and the first thing we do when we wake up on Easter morning is read the scriptures and do our Easter Story cookies. It makes us remember where our priorities lie with Easter.

1cup chopped pecans
1tsp vinegar
3 egg whites
pinch salt
1 cup sugar
tape
Bible

Preheat oven to 300 degrees (this is important, don't wait till you're half done with the recipe!)

Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1tsp vinegar into mixing bowl.

Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross, He was given vinegar to drink.

Read John 19:28-30.

Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life.

Read John 10:10-11.

Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin.

Read Luke 23:27.

So far, the ingredients are not very appetizing. Add 1 cup sugar.
Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and follow Him.

Read Psalm 34:8 and John 3:16.

Beat with a mixer on high speed for 12 to 15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the color white represents the purity of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus.

Read Isaiah 1:18 and John 3:1-3.

Fold in chopped nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

Read Matthew 27:57-60.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed.

Read Matthew 27:65-66.

GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. Read John 16:20 and 22.

On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter, Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. Read Matthew 28:1-9.

T'was the night before Easter..

And all through the house,

All the children were stirring their eggs in the dye...

Tonight we did our easter eve festivities of dying eggs and making our Easter Story cookies. After dinner and baths, we all sat down around the table and had fun dyeing a dozen hard boiled eggs. A dozen is all we need since the kids don't really like to eat them, but they love to dye them. I use them for potato salad, and Tom and I like to eat them for breakfast... Anway,

Have you ever thought of what a great science lesson egg dyeing is? Our kids always have fun seeing the "science" of the color tablet mixing with the vinegar and watching it fizz. They asks questions about what makes it fizz, and they form an hypothesis about what the color will be (based upon what the tablet looks like)before we pour the vinegar in, and then afterwards see if their if their educated guesses were correct. Then there's more science in seeing how long it takes to make an egg lighter or darker. Of course there's always someone who wants put the eggs in multiple colors to see what it will look like. It's so fun having little children around because they're always learning and discovering things that we take for granted.

Spring Dinner Party

I bought this easter lilly Friday morning when I was shopping for a dinner party we were having that evening. I've never seen a pink easter Lilly. It was so pretty! Anyway, we invited 3 other couples over to have a casual "cook-out" in our backyard. We set up a table on our deck and I put this on the table as a center peice. It was alot of fun. Each of our friends brought some meat to grill and a side dish. Two of the couples had 1 little boy, and one couple was pregnant. So the kids had fun playing on the trampoline, in the yard, and in the play room that I'd just made the kids clean up. It was kind of funny to see the men all congregate around the grill as they cooked they're various meats to perfection, and the women sat and talked on the deck. The kids all got along really well too. Everybody went home around 10:30. We love socializing like that.

Rose Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Familytrees - Free family tree

Painting the Pathway

Kaitlyn and the little girl I babysit every morning wanted to paint outside. So I got out the big roll of butcher paper I got from Sam's club (I bought the paper not for meats, but for the sole purpose of letting the kids draw and paint on it), and rolled the paper down our pathway that leads to our front door. Then I got out the washable fingerpaints and let them have at it. They enjoyed it, but kept wanting to wash their hands.

Building the PVC pipe tents

With a little help from Daddy, PVC pipes, and some sheets around the house, the kids built forts in the family room on Sunday afternoon. I had a whole stock of PVC pipes and joints from the Fall Festival where I used them to build booths at the school, and so we decided to put them to use making some "fantastic forts". Alan even found a use forthe blanket Tom got from India when he went to the Military World games.

Baby Doll needs spaghetti too!

Kaitlyn was enjoying her spahetti dinner tonight so much that she thought that she should give some to her baby doll.

Under the Rainbow umbrella

Last monday there was no school, so I had a house full of children! I usually watch a little girl every morning, (she's the one who's trying to crawl away), but today since there was no school I had to watch her brother also. And of course Alan and Sarah were home too, so there were six children in the house that morning. It was fine because they all played together.

We had just bought a beach umbrella for an upcoming beach trip we're taking as a family vacation, and I thought the kids would have fun playing underneath it. They did. Notice how the boys have their trusty guns with them. You'll never know when you'll need them! :)

This is a cool looking Noah's ark puzzle that I'd like to make and sell on ebay. I just can't find the design anywhere, so I'll have to adapt it and make my own.

Yesterday was somewhat stressful. I had been asked to sing at a funeral in Alabama (only about 25 minutes away) I couldn't find a babysitter for Kaitlyn and William in the middle of the day, and so I had to take them with me. And when I got to the cemetary, I realized that I didn't even know the name of person whose funeral it was. Thankfully it was a small cemetary, and I was able to find the family shortly.
Now, I've sung at several funerals, but this time I didn't know the music at all. So, the night before the funeral, they faxed me the music of the old song they wanted me to sing. Unfortunately my fax machine is old too, and it didn't print out the music very clearly. I tried to find the music on the internet, which I did, but it had a slightly different tune, and slightly different words. So, I decided to combine the two songs, which would've worked great if I could've actually remembered the tune of either one of them when the time came to sing. It was a graveside service, with no musical accompaniment, and when I opened my mouth to sing, I realized that I couldn't remember the tune. That has never happened to me before. Of course I don't think I've ever learned a song good enough to sing as a solo in less than 24 hours before either, but none the less, I should've done a better job. It was a new most embarassing moment of the worst kind. I could do nothing but sing whatever tune I could make up that went with the words. I was staring at the notes on the page trying my hardest to remember the intervals and how the notes went, but for some reason it just wasn't working. I guess it went ok, because the people seemed pleased and got a little teary eyed. Hopefully they weren't sad because I'd butchered their song. Ok, that's really not funny. Thanfully I was able to sing the closing song, and it was a song I knew very well, so I did that just fine.
Then when I got home it was time to get the kids from school, and get ready for the missionaries to come over for dinner. That wasn't so bad, it was just alot to do in one day.

It's Snowing!!

You can't tell from the picture, but there's actual snowflakes falling from the sky that my kids are trying to catch with their tongues. It was in the 30's and there was a freak cold front that moved in and blew around some snowflakes Saturday morning. It's the first time they've ever seen snow fall, and they didn't care that it never actually accumulated on the ground, because the snowflakes were just so neat to try to eat!

Sarah's Flowers

Sarah also loves to draw, but thankfully she enjoys drawing colorful pictures of flowers and rainbows and other happy things instead of war things like her older brother. This is a picture she drew when she was 5 and I kept it because I loved all the colors she used and how she colored the whole picture. Tom and I both like to draw, so it's no wonder we have kids that like to.