Dara's Portrait Shoot

I took lots of pictures of Dara to see if I could find one worthy enough to put on the wall and make copies to hand out to family. I am still debating if I will use one of these, but I am thinking I will use the first one. If I decide I don't like them, then I will have to take her to Walmart's portrait studio to get some done. She enjoyed being a "model" and striking different poses! These are a few of my favorites out of the dozens I took.

VBS at Liberty Baptist Church

Our church, Liberty Baptist Church, held Vacation Bible School the week of July 21-25 in the evenings. I was in charge of the kitchen/snacks so I wasn't able to take a whole lot of pictures, but on the days that had little prep for food, I was able to get out and snap a few. We did a science theme this year and it was a blast! They earned points for being there, bringing their bibles, bringing guests and saying their memory verses. Dara won second place and Eva won third place. They both got science activities to do at home (things like making barf, snot, volcanoes and the such!). Allyn and Sabra didn't get to go every night because of misbehavior during the day, but they enjoyed when they did go!

Happy Birthday, Dara!

Since Dara's birthday fell on a Thursday this year (and during VBS), we had her 8th birthday party on the Sunday afternoon following. We usually only have family over for birthdays (except for the big ones like 5, 10, 13, etc.), however, since my parents were the only family that were going to be coming, we invited over some of Dara's friends as well. I didn't get as many pictures as I should have because of being busy with babies, but here are a few. She opened the presents from her friends after I was busy so I didn't get pictures of those, but she got money, Polly Pocket dolls, a journal, pencils, paper, more pool stuff, and a Hannah Montana wig. Since she loves receiving mail, we ordered her a subscription to Focus on the Family's Clubhouse magazine which is for kids ages 8-10.

She received pool toys and new shoes from Papa and Nana Smith!

She wanted a Bronco birthday cake. I did a lousy job of making it look like a Bronco, but it still tasted good! My dad said it just looked like it was perched on a rock! I thought the cake crumbs in the frosting looked like mud splatters (which is usually on Chad's truck anyway!). We also made chocolate chip ice-cream per Dara's request. It was all very YUMMY!

We're still here!

I know I haven't posted in a long time, but things have been very busy. I need to post pictures from Dara's birthday and updates on Martha and Jaina, but won't have time until next week. We are headed to Muskegon to go to Michigan's Adventure tomorrow. My dad's company picnic is there. He gave us their tickets and said they would stay home with the babies in the air conditioning! We are taking Dara, Eva, and Allyn as they are the ones who are tall enough to ride the rides.

Be on the lookout next week for lots of posts!

Thanks Aunt Tanya!

Chad's sister, Tanya, got a new, different style pool this year. She had asked us if we wanted to buy her old one. We told her we would think about it. Well, after looking at our budget, we couldn't find a way to fit it in, so we told her we couldn't buy it. She was kind enough to let us have the pool! The girls were so excited! It took us a while to get it set up as Chad was busy with other project as well as not knowing exactly where we were going to put it. Saturday Chad worked on leveling out the ground in the front yard and we started filling it. Sunday after church, the girls wanted to go swimming even though we told them it was going to be REALLY cold. We invited their friend, Jasmine, over and they went in. Chad went in, but you can tell from the picture that he was hurrying to get out! We took the thermometer from the fish tank to put in the pool to see what it was, and it was only 62 degrees! The girls played in it for hours. I got in a for a little bit, but I couldn't handle too much of it.

Allyn, Sabra, and Cora weren't allowed to go in the pool because of the stunt they pulled on Saturday (see post "Scripture of the Day") but they watched us for a long time.

Carmichael Reunion

The Carmichaels have a reunion every year in July. We used to take one big family picture, but the family is too big to do that now. Instead, we take pictures of each "family" within the big Carmichael family and then put them into a college for everyone to purchase. Here is the Gordon Carmichael family. Well, at least this is who came to the reunion. Chad's sister Donna is in PA so she didn't come and her daughter didn't come. His sister, Diane, nor any of her kids or grandkids came and his sister, Tanya, didn't come and her son is stationed out of state for the Navy, so obviously he wasn't there. We were still the largest "family" there despite so many people being gone!

Scripture of the Day

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
--1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

This scripture came at just the right time. I needed to be reminded to rejoice always and give thanks in everything. We need to remember that even the things we see as "bad" events in our lives happen because God allowed them to happen. It may not be comfortable, but we need to experience it because it may help us to grow in our faith, it may be a consequence of a sin, or may help us better understand what someone else is going through. No matter what it may be, big or small, we need to thank God for allowing us the experience.

Yesterday is an example--Allyn, Sabra, and Cora took a whole container of oatmeal that I had just bought and was playing with it in their room when they were supposed to be napping. I went in their room to get after them and remind them that they couldn't go in our new pool until they took a nap and all I could see was oatmeal everywhere! Actually, it took me some time to figure out what the mess was because I was definitely not thinking about oatmeal. I couldn't even see their carpet because it was covered in oatmeal. They had oatmeal in the window, on their beds, and even the some of the drawers of clothes! I had to completely tear apart their room to clean (mattresses off beds to make sure I vacuumed it all up under their beds, tear clothes off the shelves and wash them, etc.).

Although I definitely didn't thank Him while I was in the midst of it, I am thankful now because their room is the cleanest it has been since we put the second set of bunk beds in! I was also able to go through and throw out a number of things I have been wanting to get rid of for some time. It took me an hour and a half to get everything cleaned up, but I didn't have to cook dinner because I used up my time I would have spent making dinner so the three girls had to contribute $5 each to buy a pizza! I wish I could have been thankful enough when it happened to take a picture, but I was too upset and appalled to think about grabbing my camera at the time.

So, I guess the old adage that every cloud has a silver lining is true. We may have to look hard in some cases, but we can (and should) give thanks to God for EVERYTHING!

EDITED TO ADD: I shouldn't have said anything about learning something from this scripture. God chose to test me on whether or not I did learn something! Today, Chad and I were out in the new pool with Dara, Eva, and a friend of theirs. The babies were sleeping and Allyn, Sabra, and Cora were supposed to be taking a nap because they are grounded from the pool for a few days because of what they pulled yesterday. Well, today they got into the pantry again and got out a bag of sugar and was eating it and in the mean time spilled it all over Allyn's and Cora's beds and the floor surrounding it. It wasn't as big of a mess as yesterday, but it was a lot stickier! I didn't yell today because of what I learned, but I am finding it hard to see what I am supposed to be learning from it!