A Beautiful Sunday!

Sabra and her beautiful birthday dress she picked out. She loves purple!


I love taking pictures of my girls sleeping. They look so peaceful and they can sleep in such awkward positions!

Jania looks like she was sitting up and just leaned over to the side and fell asleep!


Cora looks so tiny in her bed! She likes to curl up on the pillow for some reason.

This winter, Chad discovered a natural spring not far from our home while out snowmobiling. Since we boil our drinking water, we thought it would be nice to drink the natural spring water instead of paying to boil the water (propane) and then paying to cool it (refrigerator). Chad would take the couple of gallon glass jugs we had and head over there with the snowmobile. We requested glass jugs (gallon or 1/2 gallon) on Freecycle and received some more so now he takes the broncostar over there and we get 6 gallons at a time. Because today was such a nice day, the whole family went. This was my first time seeing the spring so I took some pictures.

The spring is where the light sand is. You can't really see it in the picture, but you can see the sand bubbling up where the water comes through. I think it is awesome how God designed the sand to filter the impurities from the water.

Someone at some point built a cement drop from the spring. It looks really cool. The girls like playing where the water drops off.

Chad filled the jugs while the girls played.


Here is the broncostar. After getting the water, we decided to have some fun. We went down a trail that takes you to the top of a big hill. About 1/3 the way up the hill, we got stuck in the snow (almost 2 feet deep in the woods on that trail!). When we went to back down the hill, Chad realized the reverse was out! The girls prayed and we were able to get down and then headed home.

Happy Birthday, Sabra!

Sabra said she wanted stir fry for dinner. We all enjoyed it. I made it a little more special than normal by putting in snap peas and mushrooms. I decorated her chair with four balloons.


She asked for another Snow White doll, so her sisters got her a little one, a new coloring book, and a slinky. We got her a birthday dress as we do for all the girls on their birthdays. I take them shopping and they get to pick out their own (once they are 2 and above). She will be wearing the dress to church tomorrow so I will take pics and post them later.

When I asked Sabra what kind of cake she wanted, she said chocolate. When I asked her what color frosting, she told me she didn't want frosting! I asked if I could just make a brownie then and she said, "Yes!". Here she is with her Birthday Brownie with four candles in it. The brownies were still warm and the candles started melting from the bottom up!

It took her a few tries but she was able to blow out all four candles.

Chad took Sabra on her Daddy/Daughter date after dinner. He had some errands to run and she got to go with him all by herself. He took her to the store and let her pick out something she really wanted. She wanted princess stuff! She also asked him lots of questions like, "Will you ever be a girl?" and "Why don't you want to be a princess?". Chad says he should win a medal for all the questions he had to answer!

When Sabra got back I opened everything for her and she wore it all for about 5 minutes and then she took it off and shared it with her sisters! She has such a kind and giving heart. God sure made her special! I am so thankful He blessed us with her. Although she can be quite a handful and I often joke that she will be the death of me, she blesses me with her smile, hugs, and kind words every day. I pray that she may continue to grow to be a beautiful young lady.

More Happenings

Jaina and Martha received more gifts! They each got a dress from Cousins Gary & Marta. They are going to be so cute in these dresses and they look extremely comfortable!


Martha fell fast asleep at her cousin Madalynn's first birthday party.


Chad and Martha weren't feeling well on Friday (he stayed home sick) and they took a nap on the couch together.


The girls were playing outside on Thursday and found carrots in the garden! This is the first one they dug up, but they got more on Friday. They ate them all right after washing them.

Sewing Help

Do you sew? Would you like to? Do you have minimal experience or even a lot? If you answered yes to any of these, then I have the site for you! Squiggly Twigs Designs is a blog that was started by someone who write patterns and offers them for low prices. The best thing about her patterns are she tells you how to adjust it for numerous sizes! You buy a pattern once and you can adjust it to fit a 3 year old and a 30 year old!

If you decide to visit her site, you can try a pattern for free if you enter her contest for one free pattern of your choice! What you do is visit her site and leave a comment telling her that I recommended the site to you. Then you go and tell others. When they leave comments saying you recommended them, then you will be entered into the drawing. The person who recommends the most people will win a free pattern!

Even if you don't sew or don't want to enter yourself, you could help me out by going and mentioning my name. Thanks so much!

Happenings at the Carmichaels

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping as updated on life around here as I should. I have been busy. I thought it was going to start slowing down, but I guess not! Here are a few pictures that have been taken since the babies' birthday party. Enjoy!

Martha loves wearing sunglasses. She giggles when we put them on her.

Martha is so happy!

Eva lost her second tooth! She had a tooth growing in behind this one for a while. It was starting to get really loose so I tied some floss around it. I told her to just play with the string and in less than 30 seconds, she had it out.

Her tooth.

Her "new" smile.

The girls got a present for their Aunt Tanya. Goodies for the pool!

Jaina is just too cute!

The girls hate having Daddy leave for work. Martha and Jaina are finally becoming Daddy's girls as well and started crying when he said good-bye.

Dara got a gift for her baptism from her Aunt Tanya. Skirt purses with things to decorate them with.

I just thought Cora was too cute when she was taking her nap. I hated having to wake her up, but we had to leave for Dara's piano lesson.

God is good!

I just want to share the miracle God gave us yesterday. I need to give a little background info first.

About a month ago, our van was making a funny noise and acting weird. Chad discovered that fan clutch had gone out of it. He ordered a new one and told me in the mean time to not let the van sit in idle for very long and to have the heat on high if I needed to so it would help keep the engine cool. The part came in about 1 1/2 weeks ago and he has been working on "vehicles" almost every night. I assumed that he had put the new clutch in, but I guess he didn't.

Friday night when I came home from grocery shopping, I stopped by my neighbor's house to drop something off. I left the van running because I wasn't staying long, but they talked to me a little longer than I had planned. When I got home, Chad's Broncostar needing to be jumped so the van sat again while we hooked up the cables and took care of that. When I pulled the van back up to the house so I could unload the groceries, there was a lot of smoke coming from under the hood. Since it was dark, Chad couldn't look at it until morning. He said that I may have blown the engine. I immediately went to the Lord in prayer and prayed before going to bed, in the middle of the night when I woke up, and in the morning.

Saturday morning he ran to town to get some antifreeze so he could check it out. After he put the antifreeze in and started up the van, he said that I had gotten lucky. Well, I had to correct him by saying that it wasn't luck, but prayer!

Yesterday during his sermon, our pastor talked about a time when he believes his guardian angels pushed his car to a gas station because they should have ran out of fuel long before getting there. I told Chad that our guardian angels were mechanics Friday night and fixed the van!

Praise God; He is good!

Giveaway on Gracious Daughter to the King blog!

I just wanted to let everyone here know that I am holding a giveaway on my ministry blog (Gracious Daughter of the King). Check it out!

Two Peas in a Pod

The theme for Martha's and Jaina's 1st birthday party was "Two Peas in a Pod". I made a sheet cake and put a pea pod on top (my friend who makes cakes made the pea pod--if you need a cake made, I can get you her number!). Martha and Jaina each had their own "pea" cake to eat.

Martha dug right in!

Yummy!

Jaina couldn't figure out how to fit it all in her mouth!

Yum, that was good!

Of course the girls received wonderful gifts from everyone, but the best gifts were just everyone's help in celebrating such a joyous day. The gifts they received were just extra icing on the cake (no pun intended!). Some people who couldn't make it sent gifts with others and they received more dresses on Sunday from Tracy. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Sherry sent dresses from Nevada for them as well.

Jaina loves her new girly cars! I got one from Eva and one from Dale, Adriana, and Grant along with a dress and onesies.

Grandpa & Grandma Carmichael gave Martha lots of new clothes.

Jaina got new clothes from Grandpa and Grandma Carmichael as well.

Uncle Doug, Aunt Charity, Lil' Charity, Cole & Claydon gave the girls Noah's Ark toys as well as giving Jaina a shirt and Martha some socks.

New shoes from Grandpa and Grandma Smith (both girls got some)!

New dresses and dolls from Pastor and Cheryl.

Eva gave Martha a girly car.

Connie gave the girls new coordinating dresses as well as more dresses!

Uncle Jim, Aunt Amy & Madalynn gave them each two dresses. They couldn't make it for the party and we missed celebrating with them.

Dara got the girls bunnies (stuffed of course!).

Dave, Mel, Kylar, and Jesse gave Martha lots of new clothes!

Martha & Jaina both received a special dollar coin from Jack & Marilyn.

Jaina in her new car seat from Grandpa & Grandma Smith.

Martha enjoying her new car seat from Grandpa and Grandma Smith.

Jaina loves her new clothes from Dave, Mel, Kylar, and Jesse.

Jennifer made these beautiful dresses!