Welcome....Here's a glimpse of our happenings!

The verses that have REALLY spoken to me (Sarah) lately....



"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25



Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9



From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Acts 17:26-28



May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14



So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deuteronomy 5:32-33



God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 (The Message)

About the Friesen's....

We are Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate Friesen. We were married June 5, 2004. We have one son, born July 21, 2008, named Luke Andrew -- now 4 years old. We also have a daughter named Kate Christine -- born June 6, 2012. Marc is working at Cessna as a Senior Accountant, and Sarah stays home full-time with Luke. Sarah also gets to work very part-time at home for Graber Backhoe -- an excavation company AND VERY part-time at our church. We LOVE being a part of Grace Community Church here in Newton, KS. We lead a Community Life Group of other wonderful couples. Marc thoroughly enjoys long-distance running and Taekwondo. Sarah thoroughly enjoys walking -- especially when the weather is nice to take Luke and/or out in the stroller. Thanks for reading our blog!

Friday, December 18, 2009

A Little Lighter, Perhaps????

O.K., so I know my last post was a bit heavy, but that's what was truly on my heart. But, for today, I'll post a bit lighter and more fun at the same time.

I haven't mentioned Oliver and Lily for awhile (the two children I watch once a week), and so, here it goes....

It's been cold outside here for the last several weeks, and so, while Lily takes a nap, sometimes I have to be creative in keeping Oliver and Luke entertained since we can't go outside -- keep in mind that these two boys are at different ages and obviously at different skill levels.

I decided that generally speaking, Luke can be fairly independent and entertain himself for a bit (that would a trait he received DIRECTLY from his parents). So, I attempted to bake cookies with Oliver -- I must say that is fairly bold on my part seeing how I'm not really one to try anything too risky. AND, Oliver is a very active 2 1/2 year old boy who is not my own.

But, Oliver was excited when I mentioned it. He immediately moved a chair to the counter and asked to help with something.

Oliver did very well at helping me "dump" ingredients into the bowl. However, he didn't necessarily like it when the mixer was running. He said it "made too much noise."

However, as soon as I pulled out the chocolate chips, he was certainly willing to taste the chocolate chips to make sure they were O.K. I gave him a few to eat by themselves....He approved.



It was at that point that Oliver didn't just want to watch anymore...since all of the ingredients were "dumped" in. So, he offered to help stir the cookie dough.



He did also help place the cookies on the cookie sheets, though I didn't get a photo since I was up to my elbows in raw cookie dough. We did have a lesson, tailored to a 2 1/2 year old, about not licking our fingers after EACH cookie was placed on the cookie sheet. But, I also figure that cookies are baked at 375 degrees in the oven. That should kill off snotty germs, right?

During this whole process, Luke did fairly well finding toys to play with. A couple of times, he came walking in the kitchen -- putting his arms up to me to be picked up. If I picked him up and showed him what we were doing, he was happy. He just wanted to see what we were doing :)

I usually don't like to resort to DVDs all of the time, but Luke L.O.V.E.S. the Praise Baby DVD Collection. So, he did watch one of those DVDs while we were finishing up the cookies. I love this photo -- if you can see it O.K. on this blog. He's leaning against the coffee table, watching the DVD.



After finishing the cookies, I let Oliver put some in a take-home pan. He said he wanted to take some to his Daddy. I hope he shared with his Mommy as well????? I did tell him he needed to do that.

After cookie-baking, we pulled out the MegaBloks -- you know, the cheaper form of Duplos.

Luke has recently figured these blocks out, and I truly believe that watching Oliver is what helped Luke figure them out. So, these two different-aged boys actually played together without annoying each other at all. Granted, they had different projects, but I did capture a photo to remember the occasion. It really was quite cute to watch.



Later on, Oliver found a bunch of new books he hadn't yet looked at. He was perfectly content sitting on a recliner, reading the books. I noticed that his "reading" consisted of a combination of a bunch of stories put together. It looks like a nice place to read with the sunlight coming in the window and all, doesn't it? It's an even better place to read in the evening when Marc has a fire in the fireplace going -- right next to it!



All of these activities were going on when Lily was taking a nap. But, to not leave her out, here's a photo from earlier in the morning. It's Lily -- hanging out on a shelf in our kitchen. And don't worry -- this shelf is completely empty because of Luke -- perfect for Lily!

4 comments:

Kendall Smith said...

Thanks for sharing those again--he loves being at your house!!! And I can't do a single 'cooking or baking' thing in the kitchen without his 'help'. We OFTEN have the 'you can't eat that food until it's cooked' talk...that one may take a while to master!!! :-)

More than just okay said...

Love the chair in the sunlight. Looks delightful.

And I know sometimes I get heavy as well.

The Sieberts said...

cute pics! the one of Luke leaning is so cute! And YES i think the oven totally kills off all kiddo slobber germs, but does it kill off adult germs? ;)

Anonymous said...

I read your Wednesday post, but at the exact point I was going to comment I was interrupted. I was going to tell you not to be so hard on yourself... we all have those moments of thinking our frustrations are so bad... and then someone else's problems shows us that ours is a little thing. Your Christmas letter was simply that... a letter of you telling about your family. Yes, the world is full of others who may have bigger frustrations than ours, but you can't live your life - nor write your Christmas letters - always worrying about it. We'd have to re-write our entire lives then! Ugh!

The day with the kids looks like days I have with our grandkids. So many age differences and interests. LOL! But so much fun!

Hmmm... I wonder if the snot germs are relaed to the dough-drop-on-the-floor germs. I've often wondered if the 5 second rule counts if the grandkid picks it up quick enough to put on the baking sheet. *wink* LOL!

(Been reading your blog for some time now... but hadn't gotten around to posting until tonight. :-) )

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