God's Delays Can Be His Way of Protecting Us

    Yesterday evening Matt told me he'd be home late from work...again.  He's been carpooling with a friend and his friend is the one that has to stay late to finish things up.  Sure, it's a bit of an inconvenience at times, but it saves gas and they have someone to talk to on the drive so it really doesn't bother me when he's late...except on Wednesdays.  On Wednesday evenings we have church.  Well, last night Matt was an hour late getting home.  I knew it wasn't his fault, or really his friend's either.  So we waited while he hurriedly got ready and set off on our way to church.  We're not even a couple minutes down the road and I see flashing lights ahead...and life flight landing near the intersection ahead.  We had to take a detour that took us a little out of our way.  Then I got to thinking...if we had left at the time we normally do, that could have been us in that horrible accident.  I believe the delay at Matt's work was God's hand of protection over Matt and his friend because I had specifically prayed that morning that God would keep them safe on their way to and from work.  Delays are not always a bad thing, they can be God's protection from something far worse.  I do pray that whoever was involved in that accident will make a full recovery.

Pizza Party- and More

     It's been a bit of a crazy week, weather wise.  Last week we had snow/ ice.  This week we were in the 70's and the kids were wearing shorts.  And last night we had tornado watches and ended up with three of four kids on the floor of our room because they were scared of the storm.  Here are a few pics:

     This week in school we studied pizza!  That was fun for the kids.  We learned all about the history of pizza, how cheese is made, famous Italian places, listened to Italian music, learned all sorts of pizza facts, and ended the week with a pizza party!  Here's a few pics from today.

Toppings (the carrots were for a snack for the kids to munch on while waiting for the pizzas to cook)

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My helper

Notice our little pizza decorations in the background

We made fresh squeezed lemonade to go with the pizza.  It was SO good!

What a great way to end the week!

     The kids have been adjusting well down here.  Jacob was all excited tonight because he now has 30 Twitter followers.  Evelyn has been busy creating things with her new birthday presents.  Aiden's bump on his back has come back and is bigger.  I was praying over him tonight and told him Jesus is healing it. He said, "He's coming down from the sky now to fix it?  Maybe he can take it away and fill in the hole where it was."  I love the innocence they have and love hearing how they perceive things like that.  Claire has really been enjoying playing outside, and when she can't be outside she loves watching Flushed Away.

Evelyn Turns Eight

     On Saturday, Evelyn turned 8!!!!  How crazy is that?!?!

This was the breakfast she requested...strawberry stuffed crepes.

She made her own decorations

Present time!!

Gifts from her siblings- one of her faves was CHOCOLATE!

From Aunt Christina and Cerianna

She specifically asked for kiwi!!

Big gift from Mommy & Daddy

A couple of the presents from Grandma and Poppo

Birthday Girl with all her presents

A yummy salad at Papa's Pizza

Her bday cake- chocolate, of course

And she has already built her Lego Friends cruise ship!!

     What a fun day it was celebrating with her!  She chose to go shopping at the outlet mall and spent some of her money on a giant stuffed panda.  Today we stopped at Target after church and she bought another Lego Friends set and an Easy Bake Oven mix.  I would say she had a great day!!

A Celebration of Love

     We had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day today.  

I made the kids spinach and cheese frittatas for breakfast.

When they were done with breakfast, they got to open their gifts from us.

At lunchtime they got to open cards that came in the mail from Grammy & Poppy.  After lunch, we went to the Mount Berry Square Mall in Rome.  We had a great time shopping, playing, and then ate dinner in the food court.  Matt got a huge tool set at Sears on sale!!  He's excited about that.  On the drive home, we drove by the mountains.  I still have to pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming.  I absolutely love living down here.  It is beautiful! 

When we got home, we got out the surprises Grandma & Poppo sent.

We ended the night by playing several games of Valentine's bingo.  Everyone won several games, except me.  Yep, I won ZERO games.  Oh well.  

And here's a picture of me with my Valentine!!  I love him!!!