Safe arrival

We arrived in Hobe Sound, Florida tonight at 6:35 safe and sound. Very tired, hot and sick of riding in the van! LOL!
Here are some trip highlights:

~We left our house around 3:15 Thursday. We got ready to leave and I could not find my keys and had several anxious moments digging for them! I un-buried them from my packed diaper back-pack and we were off...

~Two hours into our trip and we were forced to take a detour in a small town that completely turned us around! We lost about an hour trying to figure out how to get back on track!

~Ben accidentally dropped his Transformers coloring book out the window into the middle of the street! Guess who retrieved it?! I was able to get it before it got ran over!

~We drove until 5am this morning before stopping to rest. Completely exhausted, we slept for a few hours and then got back on the loong road....

~Sad discovery: When we stopped to rest, Becca and Ben had changed places and somehow or another the van seat was flung a little too hard and smashed into the dvd player strapped on the back of my seat! You guessed it....when we went to put in a dvd later on, we discovered that the screen was cracked and totally un-usable! After many tears, we moved on and survived without movies the rest of the trip! LOL!

~ We crossed Florida state line at noon!
We are staying at the Collins families very nice and cozy house! More updates later......
Keep us in your prayers!

Bakesale results and Abby's 5th Birthday

Our God is truly amazing! I am happy and thankful to report that He has provided more money we needed to make our TLC trip! The bakesale was a success! We leave this week for Florida. Please pray for protection for our family as we travel. We will be at Boot Camp for a week and then flying to Haiti on the 9th of June. Please pray for our family and our team as God brings us to your mind for strength, endurance, grace, protection and culture shock! THANK-YOU!

Here are some pictures:

Here are some of the baked goodies I made.

I baked around 20 different recipes. I was in the

kitchen all day Mon. from early in the morning

until midnight that night! God gave me a nice,

cool day to bake!

Here was our set-up at Walmart. We sold quite

a lot! Well worth it! A BIG thank-you to Aunt

Becky for making noodles for us to sell! They

went fast!

Ben was our sign-holder for the first part of the

day! The girls and the Quakenbushes came and

helped later on in the day. Thanks to everyone!

It got pretty warm and the kids found a great

shady spot!

Abigail's 5th Birthday-May 24th:

Abigail Joy is now 5 years old!

Her birthday was this past Sunday.

She looked so pretty in her dress that

I just had to take pictures!

Celebrating with Elli:

Sorry that this is a little blurry! Elli and Abby

usually celebrate their birthdays together and here

they are with their cake I made them.

Cute personalities shining! Elli will turn 5 on

June 2nd.

Abby with her BIG DQ icecream cake

at G-pa and G-ma Hirschys! She loves

ballet stuff!

Opening her presents. Lots of coloring books

and a BIG purple ball!

With all her fun presents! Including a

gift card for Walmart!

I leave you with the little man all set to travel!

Bakesale Fundraiser

We have decided to hold one last fundraiser before we go on our TLC trip, this coming Tues.(26th) at our local Walmart here in Bluffton. We will be there most of the day starting at 9 am. So those of you who live around here locally are welcome to come and buy some delicious home-made baked cookies,cakes,breads, muffins and more! And those of you who live too far away can keep us in your prayers that God will bless our efforts and it will go well! Thank-you! I will post later of how it went! We leave next Thurs. for Florida and we are getting excited and I am trying not to get too overwhelmed with the packing and planning! Pray for us! ;o)

Caleb James is 10 months old and everywhere and into everything! LOL! He is one of the orneriest babies I have ever seen! He even has an ornery little grin to go with his adventures! He is also very clingy and is attached to me like paper to glue! It is sweet at times and highly annoying at others! He has learned to crawl quite fast and amazes me how quickly he gets to "no-no's"! We are all having fun watching and playing with him as he learns new things everyday! He is so much fun! He says "momma", "mom", "ba"(bath), "bu"(buddy-his lovey) and "Beppa"(Becca) and "bye-bye". He loves to take a bath! he crawls into the bathroom and pulls himself up to the tub and yells "ba"! It is funny because Ben did the same exact thing when he was his age! He is just like his big brother!

Ben and Becca are in their last week of school! Do I hear the Hallelujah chorus?! LOL!! We are all more than ready to be done! Abby has been enjoying playing outside with her neighbor friend Hannah, who is just a little younger than her. They play with their babies, with bubbles and play-doh. I also made cornstarch Goop for all the kids this week. It is so easy and fun as well as non-toxic and washable! You can not get any better than that! We simply mix cornstarch and water together and play with it! You can make it thin or thick, use it as a play-doh or as paint. Ours was thick at first and then got too thin when I added too much cornstarch. The kids did'nt mind and proceeded to 'paint' our deck! I even let Caleb play in it and of course, he tasted it! He made the awfulest face, I do not think he will be eating it again! They all made a major mess flinging it around and they had a BLAST! They washed off with no problem and so did their clothes. Here is random pictures from our days..............................

Grinning from his 'nest' that the kids made!

Waving and blowing bubbles from their 'train'.

Caleb sporting his ornery grin!

The KING OF THE HILL!

Discovering nature......

(Becca took this and did a good job!)

Ben loves to play with Caleb.

Eating his first corn-on-the-cob! He loved it!

Best buddies in their CARS t-shirts.

Our ornery little stinker!

Discovering the 'other' baby in the mirror!

The Cornstarch Goop Wars:



The fun begins!

Abby dives in but Caleb isn't too sure!

Ben lets it drip onto the deck..........

Having a blast with cornstarch and water?!

Who knew?

Trying to crawl off the couch to mommy.

After his bath chewing on ducky.....

Majorly cheesin' with ducky!

Posing pretty for the camera.....Caleb was

more interested in the football!

Rebecca Grace-4th grade-9 years old

Benjamin Daniel-1st grade-7 yrs old

Abigail Joy-almost 5 yrs. old

Caleb James-10 months old

Catching up....!

Okay, I have seriously got way behind on this blog! It seems like it takes so long to blog and I have not had the time or the energy! Anyway, I will try to "catch up" on what has been going on around here! We are in our second to last week of school and it is crunch-time as the kids are trying to get all their work done by next friday our last day! I am excited and very ready for Summer vacation! Although, I doubt that a TLC trip will be much of a vacation! LOL!

Support money has continued to come in and we are sooo close to our goal! Thank-you to everyone who has contributed to our TLC trip! May God RICHLY bless you! God has also supplied some jobs for Danny to do to help bring in more needed money and we are so thankful!

A few Sundays ago, the lesson in our Ladies Bible Class was about learning how to wait on God. The verse was Psalms 27:14 "Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!' I copied this verse down on index cards and put one on my bathroom mirror and on our refrigerator. I have a Wesley Bible and it often has notes about certain verses and I looked up about waiting on God. Here is what it said: Although waiting contains an element of time, there is more to it than time alone. Waiting expresses that COMPLETE DEPENDENCE on the Lord which does not run ahead of Him making its own plans and relying on its own strength. To wait on the Lord is an expression of COMPLETE TRUST. It is better not to rush into something today if the doing is an expression of dependence on our own strength and our own sense of timing. Very often God asks people to wait precisely as an excercise in trust. Wow! Does that speak to you like it has to me?! There have been some disappointing things that have taken place this last week and I have found myself saying "Why?'

and wondering why God does not do such and such and just work everything out. Then I see the verse that I wrote and it speaks to me fresh and new again! Yes, God has been teaching me to truly WAIT on Him! No, it is NOT easy, but with His grace, I am learning!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my family. Beautiful flowers from my sweet husband and a homemade card and bookmarks from my kids! We went to my parents for sunday dinner and Danny made a unique dessert that I have pictures of below. We attended our churches Mother-Daughter Banquet and had a fun time. The theme was 'Aprons of Love' and we all wore our favorite aprons and shared how they were special to us. The food was delicious and I have pictures below as well.

Caleb also has turned 10 months since my last post and he is so ornery! He crawls everywhere and is learning to pull himself up on things as well. We all have so much fun playing with him and making him laugh! I am a blessed mother!

Becca, Presley and Abby at the banquet

My Mom, my sister and I wearing our aprons.

Mom made hers and Rachel's. I already had my

Pampered Chef one to wear.

Here are the little girls getting ready to play

Becky Linkletter like the old TV show Art Linkletter.

My Aunt Becky held a microphone

and went down the line asking them questions about

their mommies. I held my breath when she came to my girls

wondering what they would say! She asked Abby" what is the

one thing in the world that your mommy does better than any

other mommy?" Abby answered " the dishes!" LOL!

The girls with Mary Jones, their cousin and Jaelyn

Biberstein their friend.

My beautiful Mother's Day Bouquet!

Danny assembling our yummy dessert!

The finished product! He did a nice job!

Mom and I in front of our special dessert! Mom was

laughing because my dad kept tickling her!

Dad, Danny and Matt fixed Sunday dinner to

give us ladies a break! Barbecued ribs and grilled

chcken were on the menu! Mmmm! Thanks guys!

Abby enjoyed every bite!

Caleb and grandma sharing a tender moment

with Jenny their dog....awww!