Luke's first game

Our little Cardinal did a fantastic job in his first ever baseball game. I didn't realize, until Joel told me this evening, that Luke is playing Tiger ball, not t-ball as Liam did. In Tiger ball they actually keep score and pitch the ball to the kids. Luke hit most of the time with out the tee. Many of the other kids needed it. After the game, which they won, he wanted to go out in the yard and play catch with Daddy. You'll notice his shirt is a bit large for him. Most of the other kids were ordering mediums and seeing that there were no examples to show the sizing, we just went along with everyone else. Needless to say, we should have gotten him the extra small....

Nora & Joel

We had a wonderful time this weekend getting to see our nephew Joel. He's growing up so fast and changes so much every time we see him. I snuggled him for at least an hour. I even got some giggles out of him. What a cutie with his chubby, chubby cheeks. We popped over to Grandma Nora's house for a quick visit. She beamed as she held Joel. It was so neat to see the two of them together. Nora is 98 1/2 and Joel is 4 months old! Nora's kitty got a bit jealous of all the baby attention. As soon as Joel was off her lap, she wanted her spot back. The kitty is sooooo fat. We've thought kittens were coming since December, but apparently she was JUST fat then. Now she is actually pregnant and going to have kittens in a few weeks. After our visit, we went to dinner with Darrell and Willa Rae. Luke requested Ollie's which is a train themed resturant. The boys like it there, but Lily was amazed. She kept yelling, 'Whoa! Big train!' when one would come by. It was a really fun evening!

14 things about me

Most of you know that I've recently started digital scrapbooking. There are so many aspects to this hobby, I can't begin to list them here. One of these aspects are challenges. The free kit I can earn by doing this particular challenge is so cute, I just had to give it a try. So, here is my layout for the 14 things about me challenge. I was having a hard time coming up with things about myself. I petitioned many of you for words or phrases that you felt described me. I think every list had 'organized' in it! Am I really that bad?! Anyway, it was heartwarming to get all of the positive feedback. I guess I can add 'fisher of compliments' to my list! Love you!!! xoxoox

P.S. For the designers looking at the layout, my real name is Stefani, but friends call me Fani!


Credits for layout:
Paper-TracyAnn Peekaboo words papers, Frame-Just for You from New Life Dreams, Drop Shadow from Traci Murphy Designs, Font-Bodoni MT, Blue Flowers-Lauren Reid Recipe Challenge, Green flower-Kara Perrin Little Dreamer Apprentice Week 2, Stapled tag-AManning PTM, Hanging tag-Flergs Deacon's Closet, Branch- Twitterpatted Passion Kit. Grandma's pressed flowers from Weeds & Wildflowers Designs.

Easter! He has risen!

Easter services were fantastic! Lily did a great job. The boys and I had been practicing at home with her. We would hide the eggs and she got the idea to put them in her basket quickly. Easter weather stunk! It was so cold while the kids gathered eggs, we couldn't wait to leave. I wasn't feeling very well anyway and dinner was in the oven. After everyone left, I really started to feel crummy. I thought I might have strep throat. A visit to the doctor (I hadn't been in almost a year)confirmed I had strep. Antibiotics and some sleep and I was cleaning under the oven and the fridge the next day!

Tidal School Winery

For nearly two years, Pam and Joel have been planning for us to go on a tour of the Tidal School Winery near Drumright Oklahoma. We finally got our chance. The kids didn't enjoy it as much as the adults, but it was interesting none the less. We found out that most of the wine made in Oklahoma is from imported grape juice. It gets too hot here in OK for the grapes to grow. Shirley, Pam, and I were really pleased with how thin we looked in the shiny wine vats. Apparently, they have to watch carefully while running the juice through their filters or even the color will be removed! After the tour and wine tasting, we sat out on the deck and visited with one of the owners while Joel and Pam listened to the Flamenco guitarist inside. It was a beautiful day!

Spring Break Camp Out

We had so much fun camping out with my best friend Janie and her family one night of spring break. Her dad was so gracious to let us camp out on his land. And her step mom, Janice, was so nice to let us camp out on her living room floor... but more about that in a minute. The boys were in heaven playing in the creek and exploring. Lily caught her first fish. (Lily wore a life jacket the whole time we were there. The girl has no fear of the water!) She walked over to Joel's fishing pole and picked it up just as a perch took the bait. He ran over and helped her reel it in. She kept saying, "Daddy, I wanna beeeesh!" (I want a fish!) after that. Later we walked over to look at the remnants of an old school house. Of course the boys were most facinated with the creepy cellar filled with water underneath and the remaining portions of the outhouse. We told ghost stories and embarassing stories around the camp fire while we ate s'mores, of course. Flash light tag was the ender for the evening. Janie found Liam hiding face down in a old dried cow pattie. All went well until bed time. As soon as Joel and I lay down, Lily woke up. The wind was howling and the boys' tent broke a pole. Janie and I took all 5 boys, Hannah, and Lily and went up to the house. Lily didn't go to sleep. From about 11pm until 5am she was awake. I have to say it was one of the most miserable nights I've had in a long time. In the morning, we made breakfast. Then the kids rode the 4-wheeler and we closed up camp. All in all, we had a really great time. Next time we'll go when it's not windy and hope that Lily will sleep through the night!

Lots to blog....

We had a great time on Wednesday the 19th. I took Mrs. Sheila's place with the 5th & 6th grade girls. Mrs. Michelle & Mrs. Charla always make each night extra special! Luke, Liam, & Anthony (our neighbor friend) really enjoy themselves. Currently Wednesday nights are all about Summer Camp. This particular night we had a camp fire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores! The previous Wednesdays there was chocolate syrup tug o war, Safari Joe brought all sorts of animals, water fight, and soon to come slime night and maybe a water slide!

Ask and you shall receive!

I have been overwhelmed (in a good way) lately with opportunities to give to those in need. Recently I have been asking God for ways to be a help to those in need. Boy did He ever answer! Here are a few of the opportunities we have been presented with in the past few weeks:

Church of God Missionary projects
Campus Crudsade for Christ
One of our church families
Long time friend going in to missions

A missionary couple our church supports talked with us last week about what they are doing in the Ivory Coast. One of the things is starting a radio ministry in French. My mother-in-law shared some of her favorite charities with me including an orphanage in India and helping children in Ecuador with schooling. A great friend of mine is on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, she is the reason that I aske Jesus in to my life in the first place. She sends me a monthly newsletter to keep me up on all her travels and training. Being on their mailing list, I received a letter from their headquarters concerning 41 of their staff memebers who were imprisoned last year in a Christian hostal country. Many of these folks have young children left with out parents! All for the sake of spreading the gospel! They need prayer and financial help! It also came to us that a family in our church has needed some help. It has been a blast working on blessing their socks off! And most recently, the other day I got a phone call from one of my friends that I hadn't talked to in a LONG time. She and her husband are going in to full missions and are taking classes in Texas to be Bible translators! Wow! God is moving and working! The best part is that He gives us a part to play. It is truly better to give than to receive, if you don't believe me, just try it once!I've included these links to my worthy causes in the right hand column. I've posted an excerpt from one of the Campus Crusade newsletters below. The one that I referred to above was removed from their log due to the sensitive nature of it's content.

""Dear partner in reaching the world for Christ,

I originally wrote to you about this particularly urgent situation several months ago-sharing how, despite the strong possibility of persecution, interrogations, and even worse, 67 men and women from extremely sensitive nations were ready to join staff with Campus Crusade for Christ.

Thanks to the generosity of people like you, those men and women are even now in training to become full-time staff members! I wanted to pass along this "from the trenches" report as it shows how your prayers and investment are already bearing fruit. This comes from the genocide-torn nation of Sudan:

"The new staff's lives are in danger physically. Sudan is a cruel, war-torn country. Some of the new staff recruits are going into the toughest parts of Sudan. Several are going into the Darfur region, which is in the news so much for genocide ... They will start five to eight new churches in their first year as new staff in some of the hardest, toughest parts of Sudan ... There is war, guns, fighting. The health care in this area is very difficult, so some new staff get very sick. There is not very much clean water, no medicine, they minister to many people who are displaced by the war.

"[The new staff work in] areas controlled by guerrilla leaders [and others strongly opposed to Christianity]. Some new staff will probably suffer from being persecuted, beaten, and scorpion bites ... They will average exposing six to eight people to Christ each day through personal evangelism. From the people who accept Christ with them, they will start small group Bible studies and eventually challenge some of those believers to go through [further] training ... One new staff and their disciples will train over 14,000 people."

War, guns, beatings, scorpion bites, little clean water ... Hard to imagine, isn't it? But this is what these men and women are willing to endure in order to proclaim Christ to hurting people. Praise God with me for their perseverance and bravery!""

All I can say is, WOW! These are brave people! They surely are storing up their treasures in Heaven!
xoxoxo, Stefani

Soccer pics

We had a fun, freezing cold time this morning at Liam's soccer game. I thought last weekend was cold when it was below freezing. However, the sun had been shining and there was little wind. Today, the temp was around 45 degrees, but the Oklahoma wind was roaring. Burrrrr!!!!

Liam did great in his second game. He is really getting the hang of it! However, all the boys were running a little sluggishly in the end. Luke always makes a cute picture. I had Luke to take a shot of Lily and I too. It was a little difficult with mittens on! Liam is number 8 in orange....

Baby Jaxon

Here are a few pictures of my new nephew Jaxon. He was born in February. What a cutie!

Weekend of Fun

Last weekend was jammed full of fun. On Saturday, my mom came over. The kids were so excited. They love it when Nana comes to visit! Later that day, Auntie Pam showed up too to spend the night! The kids really enjoyed teaching them both to play on the Wii. Pam was great at boxing and Nana got the bowling down. Sunday morning we got up and left early for OKC to attend Neil & Mary's church for baby Joel's introduction. He's getting so big, holding his head up and really smiling! What a cutie pie. But really, did we expect anything less?! Lily enjoyed going to Dollar General to spend her Valentine's Day money. She picked out this baby doll and didn't want anything else! We named her Ebony. She's just the right size for Liy's premie clothes that we kept. Mommy is having fun playing dress up. Ebony can suck her thumb, a binkie, or a little bottle and her eyes close when she lays down. She takes a nap with Lily. Lily loves to push her around in her little stroller. It's so cute to watch her take care of her baby!

A Wii, a weird smile, el libro, and a fat lip

After about 4 weeks of calling Wal-Mart (almost) every day at 10am (when they unload their delivery truck). We finally got a Wii! The kids had saved most of their Christmas money to get one. I'm not a big fan of video games, because I think they can turn kids in to zombies, but this game is different. You have to get up and move to play it! Here they boys are bowling I think. We've really enjoyed it as a family. For Valentine's Day, I gave Joel 'Guitar Hero'. This is a game that comes with a 'guitar' and you have to play the notes as they come down the screen. If you miss too many, you get booed off the stage! He loves it. I got a brand new flat screen monitor for the computer. Those of you who've seen our old one will know it was about time!

Lily has become quite sassy, dramatic, and a camera hog lately. I can't get a picture of the boys with out her running over to get in to the picture. She has just started using this weird little smile when a camera comes out. She pulls back the corners of her mouth and bares her teeth. It's cute and hideous at the same time. Pictures don't do it justice.

The kids all sat down one day for Liam to read books to them. He and Luke can write down all the books they read on a log for school. They can earn a free Pizza Hut pan pizza when they read enough. They all looked so cute lined up with their books! Yes, Luke is wearing a helmet. Joel bought him a new bike helmet the other day (his was falling apart) and he wanted to wear it everywhere!

Poor Liam had a little accident at church the other night. He was playing tag in the gym and ran right in to the metal cart used to haul around the round tables. One of his front top teeth was hurting him and bleeding around it. He had a pretty good fat lip too. He must be growing. He's been eating two of everything at dinnertime, he's clumsy, and his pants are looking too short again.

I'd love to hear from all of you. Miss you lots!!! XO, Stefani

Someone special

We received a photo in the mail from our dear friend Carolyn yesterday. A photo of her husband Jim. He got to go be with Jesus in December of 2003. As Carolyn wrote, this photo is so 'him'. He lived simlpy, honestly, and worked hard. No one could ask for a better friend. He is missed dearly to this day by everyone who knew him!

Tag I'm it, again.... I must be the slow kid....

Okay, I've been tagged again. Let's see... I'm supposed to go by these rules:

Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, or share the 5 top places on your "want to see or want to see again" list, or share 5 things you never pictured being in your future when you were 25 years old. Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. The tagees have a choice of which they want to do.

The first choice is easy since I've already listed all the reasons I'm a dork on one of my earlier postings. So, I'll tackle the 'when I was 25' issue since I'm just a BIT older than that whippersnapper Mary.

When I was 25, I never pictured that:
1. I would be excercising on a regular basis, because I hated it so much.
2. I would be doing something called digital scrapbooking.
3. I would be driving a mini van.
4. There would be something called a Wii and I would be great at Wii bowling, I beat Joel with a 197 last night! Take that sucka!
5. I would have my own cordless drill and know how to use it.

Okay, I only know a couple of people who blog, so my list is going to be much shorter than 5 I'm afraid! So, help me Heather, you're my only hope! (Yeah, it's a quote from Star Wars, see 'reasons why I'm a dork')

Weather predictions

Yeah, we were supposed to get 4-8 inches of the white stuff, but we only got about 1.5 inches. Never mind, Joel and the boys had a nice time making a snow family. Luke was a little disturbed that the momma snow person lost her head and torso in the evening. First thing this morning he had to go out and fix it, which meant that I had to go out and fix it. Lily looked cute in her boots checking out the progress.

I got a much needed break and went out with Diane, Janie, and Charla for a girly night last night. We ate and went to the movie '27 Dresses'. It was pretty good for a chick movie.