So much fun to have a partner in crime!

Whew! Life has been so crazy lately, it feels good to just sit here! My wonderful sister got engaged to her wonderful man just over a month ago. They are going to be getting married on February 13, 2010. I am so excited!!! To catch up on their amazing story, here is the link! http://graceisblessedbygod.blogspot.com/2009/05/old-fashioned-romance.html




So, being the devious person I am, I saw this as a perfect opportunity to snag an unsuspecting victim! One afternoon while she was at my house, I got to talking about how much I've been enjoying canning this summer, how fulfilling it is to see those jars lined up on the shelves and how wonderful it is to feed that food to my husband. *Wink*

Well, she bought it! And I'm so thankful! We've have had so much fun this past week, pickling our lives away. We also went and picked 250 lbs. of peaches that we will get to later this week. It has been so much fun doing all of this with my sister and my best friend as we both look forward to providing for our families.

Here is a small sampling of what we've done so far this year. Pickled Beets, Dill Pickles, Dill Beans, Bread and Butter Pickles, Cherries and Cherry Jam. I'm still hoping this year for some tomatoes to can and make sauce from, pears and apples. If you know of any great deals please let me know!

This will be our life for the next few days!

30 days of Surprises

I had been noticing lately how easy it was for me to just get caught up in the day to day. Each day there was so much to get done, so much to think about, so much to stress about. It is so easy for me when I feel that way to simply want my children entertained and out of the way. I was deeply convicted about that train of thought recently and came up with a plan to help keep me focused on loving my girls. So here it is....

30 Days of Surprises!!! It has been very beneficial for me to make sure that I am focusing at least some amount of time and energy each day on thinking of something that will delight and excite my girls. It has been great in shaping my attitude too! I think that I will post our "surprises" in chunks so as not to write a book in one blow.


Day #1~ Water Balloons~ The girls had so much fun throwing them at each other (though never successfully catching them!). It was a hot day so it was very refreshing and cost almost nothing!

Day #2~ Pedicures~ The girl soaked their feet in water then I scrubbed them with a pumice ( kind of tricky with ticklish girls!). After that I rubbed them with lotion and painted them pink. Even Havilah got in on the painting which the big girls loved!

Day #3~ Blueberry Smoothies~ I wasn't feeling very well that day so I decided to keep it simple. I also didn't get any pictures which is sad because their purple faces looked hilarious. They were even cracking up at each other!

Day #4~ Chinese Lunch~ We were out shopping all day yesterday so our surprise was stopping by the Safeway deli for some Chinese food. Eating out is always a special treat and it only cost $5.00 for all of us. Havi loved it!

Please feel free to give me some future ideas. We're only on day 5 so we've got a ways to go. Feel free to jump in with your children however you would want to. I've found it to be such an encouragement to all of us!

And the winner is.......

First of all I wanted to thank all of you for your fabulous ideas and for taking the time to post!!! It was so fun and encouraging to see how many of you actually know I exist and took the time to help us come up with a name for this little one. Your ideas were very creative and helped me come up with a good list to talk over with my husband. I'm really excited! We don't usually make the name public until after the baby is born, but we'll have to see this time around!

Now for the moment you've all been waiting for.........






I numbered all of your names and put them into a wicker basket we had. I chose Bethany as the official number picker (because she was the only one who had finished her breakfast!). After much digging around with eyes closed ( she doesn't know her numbers yet so I don't know that it mattered!) she drew...............







RACHEL!!!!!!!


Now, I realize the fact that out of all the names in the basket, Bethany Rachel picking the person she was named after seems a little suspicious, but please trust me when I say it was all fair and above board!

I just wanted to thank you all again. This has been so fun for me and has made me even more ( if that's possible) excited to meet this little one! I loved hearing from each of you and hope that you will come visit again ( and maybe leave a comment so I know you're visiting!). Have a great day!

Coffee for a name idea!!!

Some days it feels like it's flying and some days it feels like it's dragging, but either way, here I am at 16 weeks! It seems like I never get any pregnancy pictures until I'm HUGE so I decided to try and catch a little more of the progression this time. Lydia was my fabulous photographer and kept wanting to take more and more pictures. I finally had to say we had enough!

I'm definitely showing sooner than I have before, but I'm okay with that! I really love looking pregnant (of course only if I actually am!).

For those of you who missed the original announcement, we are expecting Baby #4 January 20, 2010. This pregnancy has been great for me. I've felt really good, just extra tired! We are NOT finding out what we are having (sorry all of you who can't stand secrets! We really aren't trying to be mean!). No deeply convicted reasons. We simply love the thrill of the surprise!

When I was expecting Lydia I was p-o-s-i-t-i-v-e she was a boy. That was definitely a surprise! With Bethany I was about 50/50. With Havilah I was pretty sure she was a girl.

This time around I go from being around 98.7% to 99.6% sure that it's a girl. Here is where I need your help! We have a boy's name list nearly a mile long that we both love and agree on. I think that we could successfully name about 94 boys. With girls, it's like pulling teeth to come up with one we both like, let alone want to name our child!

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE give us your ideas!!! I'm so desperate that I'm going to do my first little give away.For everyone who leaves a comment during the next three days, on Thursday (the 13th) all of your names will go in a hat (or possibly another handy drawing receptacle) and the winner will receive a 5$ Dutch Brothers or Starbuck's gift card. I know, not dreadfully exciting, but this is my first time so humor me here!

For those of you who do not have a Google account I need to apologize! I have told you in the past to simply post under "anonymous". Today as I was checking my settings I realized that I wasn't set up to receive anonymous comments! If you could only feel my shame! Never fear though, the situation has been rectified and now it's as simple as clicking "anonymous" to leave me a comment. I would be so thankful to hear from you. Just please leave your name so I know who you are and I can put you in my drawing!

To finish things up, let me give you a little background on our name choosing process. The one rule that we stick with is "It has to be a Bible name". Other than that, be creative!

So far~

*All of our girl's names are places in the Bible

* All of our girl's names have three syllables

* All of our girl's names can be shorten to end in a eee sound (Lydie, Bethy, Havi)

We are looking at breaking probably all of these "so fars" s don't let them hold you back. I thought I'd just throw them out there. Thank you all! I'll be back on Thursday!!!

A post from Lydia!

Today Mommy made us a treasure hunt. It was for Bethany and me. We found the clues on the stuff, like a horsie and a butterfly bush and a fan and a bench and a rose bush. We ran to get the clues off of the stuff. We shared the clues. And at the end we had two candies on the table because we found our treasure!

Updating, or maybe not!

I was looking through my blog the other day and as I read through the introduction of my third daughter I just had to laugh! This is what it said:



"Havilah Kathryn is our precious little angel. She is one year old and is already growing up so fast. She is filled with a sweetness that is straight from heaven! Her smile cheers up even the gloomiest of moments. She already enjoys being with her sisters and likes to talk to anyone who will listen."

For a little background, we know only one other Havilah, a sweet, gentle and dear young woman. That was always my mental picture of "Havilah". I remember saying soon after she was born, " Lydia and Bethany are such live wires, I think that Havilah is going to be our quiet one.". Boy was I clueless! By five months old we began to see that this child was different. Without a doubt the most strong willed baby I had ever seen. And this was at five months old!!! She describes "strong-willed child" perfectly.


So you may be thinking, "Why did she write that intro about her in the first place?". Well, if you go back to the very beginning of my blog you will notice that I started it when Havilah was five and a half weeks old! I wrote the intro and have only updated it during this time to change to the age as she got older.


The funny thing to me is the fact that as I read that intro it's strikes as so "not Havilah". And yet the more I look at it, the more it feels right.


Her "sweetness" that is "straight from heaven" is not always that easy to see, ( I've had to get up from writing this post three times to deal with her screaming!) but it's there. Every now and then she crawl over and lay her head down on your lap, or she'll lean over with her mouth wide open asking for a kiss. Her smile continues to shatter any grumpiness or cloud that hovers over me at times. Getting her up in the morning is like basking in a bright ray of sunshine. And yes, she certainly likes to talk to anyone who will listen! ( Maybe the "angel" thing was a little over the top!).


So why do I not think of these things as my thoughts go to my daughter? Maybe I need to readjust my thinking a little. Be a little more patient and a lot more thankful for the precious gift of my precious daughter. I'm so thankful that our children are not merely for our personal enjoyment, but are tools to help shape us as well! Boy does she ever!

Just a little life!

Well, we are all still alive here! We survived a week of being without Daddy and really had a marvelous time with my sister Anna, but we are VERY thankful to have him home again and get life back to normal (although we are going through Anna withdrawals!). I found that I have a whole smattering of random pictures so I thought that I would just lump them all together at once so that I can move on from here with my blogging and not spend weeks filling in the past!


This is us at the 4th of July parade in Monmouth. It's really a very bad shot of us, but it's the only one we have! I grew up going to the Falls City parade which lasts for about ten to fifteen minutes, so this Monmouth parade still blows me away!


Fear not, they got enough candy that day to last them approximately seven and a half years!

This is Lydia, our bag lady, after a fabulous 4th of July at my parent's house.

This is my irresistible troublemaker at her favorite pastime : "Decluttering" the shelves.

David's brother, Benjamin, had a birthday of the 5th so the whole King family came down to our house for a BBQ.

Great thing about having a big family #746~ You can play volleyball even if there are about six of us still watching!

I know that you won't believe this, but Bethany got hurt that day. She has since recovered.

For those of you who don't know Bethany, she was abundantly blessed with no hair until she was about eighteen months old. We have had so much fun watching it slowly grow in and with curls!

To continue on with Hair news.....

Yes she has more than Bethany!

Enjoying homemade popsicles made from frozen blueberries, bananas, milk and agave nectar.

I've just got to say, all of this may not mean much to you, but it sure has been good for me! There is nothing like stopping for a moment to focus on life's little blessings to refocus a day! I'm off to kiss some little sweeties now!