This is a dinosaur egg:
It hatched a baby pterodactyl! ("POP!" says Joshua)
My handsome big boy
Photo by Sarah Stucky Photography
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Joshua!
Here's kid picture set #3. Joshua Lennertz :) He's 4, going on 5 in July. Joshua speaking, "I like dinosaurs. I like games. I want to be a paleontologist when I grow up. Today is Roary's birthday (a big stuffed apatasaurus). I love God more than anything. That's it."
This is a dinosaur egg:
It hatched a baby pterodactyl! ("POP!" says Joshua)
My handsome big boy
This is a dinosaur egg:
It hatched a baby pterodactyl! ("POP!" says Joshua)
My handsome big boy
Monday, May 24, 2010
Comfort
Meet kitty.
She is Kathryn's favorite thing. Kitty is the definition of comfort to this little girl. In fact, the other day the boys were talking about how old they would be and what they would do when they grew up. Kathryn said, "I'm not going to grow up, I'm going to stay little". When I asked her why she said she wanted to "Stay little and play with Kitty". She sleeps with her, sneaks her outside, throws her, calls her "Baby". Kitty is comfort and her favorite.
And this is "White B":
When William was a little boy, this was his favorite. He would carry it around everywhere. Even now, this is a reminder of comfort for my big boy. He still has it in bed with him... he loves the softness.
Sometimes we can find comfort in the moments of pure joy, like the laughter Matthew brought us when he was walking around like this..
Or the love my Joshua has for dinosaurs
Last night I took my precious Matthew to the Emergency room. He had a high fever with no other symptoms other than he was acting like he wasn't feeling well. As they ran the millions of tests to figure out what was going on, Matthew was really upset. He kept reaching for me. All he wanted was to be in my arms. And as soon as I could, I picked him up and held him close. There is nothing more precious than the hug of love from one of my babies. Matthew will wrap his arms around me, lean his head on me, and wiggle. It's pure contentment, and love that holds nothing back.
You see, this is the love that our God has for us. Isaiah 66:13 says, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem." Imagine that! We can reach out and crawl into the arms of God. And he will comfort us. In fact, the Lord loves us even more than I love my kids. (And that is a lot!) "Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Isaiah 30:18.
How hard is it to wait for the Lord? Sometimes... it seems impossible. But if we think of this, the Lord LONGS to be gracious to us and show us compassion. It is in Him that we can find our strength to get through whatever we are facing. It is through Him that we can receive his great comfort and love. It is because of what He has done that we can have pure joy. It is because of His love that we can love others.
"who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:4
Like my baby, at this moment I am reaching out to God. Everything in me is struggling. I'm done. Like me (but exponentially more), God longs to be gracious to me. To lift me in His arms as I cling to Him.
I would give everything to make my boy healthy and strong. God did give us everything. He sent His Son to die for us that we might have life. And when we are fearful, or weak, or just tired and worn out... remember that God is always there. "Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones." Isaiah 49:13
When we put our trust in God, it is more than enough. There is absolutely no room left for us to fear. In Him is where we find true comfort.
She is Kathryn's favorite thing. Kitty is the definition of comfort to this little girl. In fact, the other day the boys were talking about how old they would be and what they would do when they grew up. Kathryn said, "I'm not going to grow up, I'm going to stay little". When I asked her why she said she wanted to "Stay little and play with Kitty". She sleeps with her, sneaks her outside, throws her, calls her "Baby". Kitty is comfort and her favorite.
And this is "White B":
When William was a little boy, this was his favorite. He would carry it around everywhere. Even now, this is a reminder of comfort for my big boy. He still has it in bed with him... he loves the softness.
Sometimes we can find comfort in the moments of pure joy, like the laughter Matthew brought us when he was walking around like this..
Or the love my Joshua has for dinosaurs
Last night I took my precious Matthew to the Emergency room. He had a high fever with no other symptoms other than he was acting like he wasn't feeling well. As they ran the millions of tests to figure out what was going on, Matthew was really upset. He kept reaching for me. All he wanted was to be in my arms. And as soon as I could, I picked him up and held him close. There is nothing more precious than the hug of love from one of my babies. Matthew will wrap his arms around me, lean his head on me, and wiggle. It's pure contentment, and love that holds nothing back.
You see, this is the love that our God has for us. Isaiah 66:13 says, "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem." Imagine that! We can reach out and crawl into the arms of God. And he will comfort us. In fact, the Lord loves us even more than I love my kids. (And that is a lot!) "Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Isaiah 30:18.
How hard is it to wait for the Lord? Sometimes... it seems impossible. But if we think of this, the Lord LONGS to be gracious to us and show us compassion. It is in Him that we can find our strength to get through whatever we are facing. It is through Him that we can receive his great comfort and love. It is because of what He has done that we can have pure joy. It is because of His love that we can love others.
"who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 2 Corinthians 1:4
Like my baby, at this moment I am reaching out to God. Everything in me is struggling. I'm done. Like me (but exponentially more), God longs to be gracious to me. To lift me in His arms as I cling to Him.
I would give everything to make my boy healthy and strong. God did give us everything. He sent His Son to die for us that we might have life. And when we are fearful, or weak, or just tired and worn out... remember that God is always there. "Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones." Isaiah 49:13
When we put our trust in God, it is more than enough. There is absolutely no room left for us to fear. In Him is where we find true comfort.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Our new play kitchen!
Today we completed this project, and I can't help but share it!
I've been really wanting a play kitchen for the kids, but we didn't really have space... and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a toy.
So, I started dreaming-- I saw a couple of examples of people converting old entertainment centers and the like into kitchens. I thought I would visit the local consignment store and I came back with a tiny shelf with hearts. Cute, but falling apart and faded, for $1.95.
Then I thought of the little storage unit that was already in the kids closet. They used it for stashing toys. ( in little bins or just thrown in), and I decided to use it!
The project began. I removed one door, the shelves, and hardware. I needed one long piece to separate the "fridge" from the "stove", so I used a piece of particle board saved from William's old bed. Using a hand saw I struggled to make a straight cut, broke the blade, ran to my brother's garage to borrow a planer to fix my crooked cut. My dear brother took mercy on me, and made perfect cuts with his amazing power tools! He cut all the shelves I needed, and then even made a cute little sink for us. We used an old faucet, a little bowl of mine, and 4 pieces of the particle board to make it
Johnny also got this great idea to make the oven have a window, and so he used a piece of plexiglass he had left from some other project, and created the oven door.
After securing everything in place with nails and screws, we took it outside and ALL the kids helped to paint the entire thing white.
A little touch up, a second coat, stenciled on burners, hinges and handles on the doors, contact paper as shelf liner/wallpaper and some cute curtains later; here is the finished product!
I LOVE IT! I cannot believe how fun it is to create things :) And the other best part? I used all recycled things/things I already had. Total spent was about $7.17 (The heart shelf, the hinges. The rest was spent on accessories at the 99 cent store= trash can, towel hanger, towel, led push light. )
So fun :)
I've been really wanting a play kitchen for the kids, but we didn't really have space... and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a toy.
So, I started dreaming-- I saw a couple of examples of people converting old entertainment centers and the like into kitchens. I thought I would visit the local consignment store and I came back with a tiny shelf with hearts. Cute, but falling apart and faded, for $1.95.
Then I thought of the little storage unit that was already in the kids closet. They used it for stashing toys. ( in little bins or just thrown in), and I decided to use it!
The project began. I removed one door, the shelves, and hardware. I needed one long piece to separate the "fridge" from the "stove", so I used a piece of particle board saved from William's old bed. Using a hand saw I struggled to make a straight cut, broke the blade, ran to my brother's garage to borrow a planer to fix my crooked cut. My dear brother took mercy on me, and made perfect cuts with his amazing power tools! He cut all the shelves I needed, and then even made a cute little sink for us. We used an old faucet, a little bowl of mine, and 4 pieces of the particle board to make it
Johnny also got this great idea to make the oven have a window, and so he used a piece of plexiglass he had left from some other project, and created the oven door.
After securing everything in place with nails and screws, we took it outside and ALL the kids helped to paint the entire thing white.
A little touch up, a second coat, stenciled on burners, hinges and handles on the doors, contact paper as shelf liner/wallpaper and some cute curtains later; here is the finished product!
I LOVE IT! I cannot believe how fun it is to create things :) And the other best part? I used all recycled things/things I already had. Total spent was about $7.17 (The heart shelf, the hinges. The rest was spent on accessories at the 99 cent store= trash can, towel hanger, towel, led push light. )
So fun :)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Kathryn
Being a mommy of four.. you have to try to make things equal at all times, so here is the second picture set :)
Here is my princess. She loves Ariel, and I really love sewing things for her. This pillowcase dress was super easy and fun to make. (Sarah Stucky made her one this Christmas, and we love it!) She loves playing in it, and it would make an adorable dress to throw on over a swimsuit for the summer.
And with her best friend/cousin Ellen
Cute one with Cousin Nathan, William and the kitties.
Here is my princess. She loves Ariel, and I really love sewing things for her. This pillowcase dress was super easy and fun to make. (Sarah Stucky made her one this Christmas, and we love it!) She loves playing in it, and it would make an adorable dress to throw on over a swimsuit for the summer.
And with her best friend/cousin Ellen
Cute one with Cousin Nathan, William and the kitties.
Matthew pictures
I try to get updated pictures of all the kids from time to time, but this time I wanted to take a bunch of him... he seems to change the quickest these days! Maybe I'll do a post on each kid over the next few blogs... hmm
My brother has a tractor that Matthew loved posing on! He really wanted to drive it ...
Then we ate loquats... the kids all love them!
With William and one of my moms kittens:
And some more.. (Lots of pictures... I know... I'm hooked on my kids)
My brother has a tractor that Matthew loved posing on! He really wanted to drive it ...
Then we ate loquats... the kids all love them!
With William and one of my moms kittens:
And some more.. (Lots of pictures... I know... I'm hooked on my kids)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Kid funnies
I'm having fun with this blog thing!
Some things that have made me laugh in the past couple of days.
Joshua: (in baby voice) "I'm a baby sharptooth!"
Kathryn: "I'm a Spinosaurus that eats babies!" (Loud SLURP sound)
Matthew walks around blowing into the recorder and gets a kick over the fact that he can make it play! He also gave Mommy a black eye on Mothers Day. Thanks, cute pants.
Some things that have made me laugh in the past couple of days.
Joshua: (in baby voice) "I'm a baby sharptooth!"
Kathryn: "I'm a Spinosaurus that eats babies!" (Loud SLURP sound)
Matthew walks around blowing into the recorder and gets a kick over the fact that he can make it play! He also gave Mommy a black eye on Mothers Day. Thanks, cute pants.
Matthew's Birthday Party!
As always, we were running a bit crazy and late getting everything ready.
It has been so beautiful that we planned to have a BBQ and eat outside. LO AND BEHOLD!!! It was drizzling rain and freezing cold. So, I told everyone that we would try to eat outside, but feel free to run in the house and pack like sardines if it started raining.
We had a blast, however. Wes BBQ'd his amazing chicken, and we had all sorts of foods, with cupcakes and various ice creams and cookies for dessert. Matthew loved his cupcake, and looked in kind of an awed stage-fright as everyone stood around singing the Birthday song and looking at him. He started waving at everyone. So sweet!:) Then he started to enjoy his cupcake.
My favorite part was seeing everyone there. Some dear friends and family who braved the cold to come and celebrate one year of blessing in form of our Matthew. We spent time in prayer over him, for complete healing, and thinking about his upcoming surgery. God is faithful, and in control!
Happy Birthday, Precious Boy!
It has been so beautiful that we planned to have a BBQ and eat outside. LO AND BEHOLD!!! It was drizzling rain and freezing cold. So, I told everyone that we would try to eat outside, but feel free to run in the house and pack like sardines if it started raining.
We had a blast, however. Wes BBQ'd his amazing chicken, and we had all sorts of foods, with cupcakes and various ice creams and cookies for dessert. Matthew loved his cupcake, and looked in kind of an awed stage-fright as everyone stood around singing the Birthday song and looking at him. He started waving at everyone. So sweet!:) Then he started to enjoy his cupcake.
My favorite part was seeing everyone there. Some dear friends and family who braved the cold to come and celebrate one year of blessing in form of our Matthew. We spent time in prayer over him, for complete healing, and thinking about his upcoming surgery. God is faithful, and in control!
Happy Birthday, Precious Boy!
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