she's home

praise the Lord!! we were able to bring gemma home from the hospital today! what a great responsibility that the Lord has given eric and i...

we are so excited about what the future holds for us!!

hardest thing ever

i can honestly say that one of the hardest things that i have ever done was to leave our baby, Gemma at the hospital. She is doing well, except for jaundice. they have to keep her there another night to keep her under lights. eric and i have not gotten any sleep since i was admitted to the hospital on monday. we decided that the best thing for Gemma and for us was to leave, get a good nights sleep and, Lord willing, bring her home with us tomorrow. i just keep telling myself that the God has already gotten her through so much and i know that the nurses will take care of her while we are not there. we had aready decided this morning that we should leave her at the hospital...i didn't however plan on it being so difficult. once we dropped her off with the nurses that's when i realized how much i would miss my little girl this night.
eric and i are so excited about this exciting new time in our lives and are trusting God to help us raise and train Gemma Jaye in the way that he would have us to raise her. we know that this is best for her...and we are learning more and more to trust the One who gave her to us!!

storytime with uncle eric

we were at ryan and a's the other night and eric became the guest speaker...

each night they do devotions with the kids and ryan told the boys that this particular night eric was going to be telling them their bedtime story.

they have heard alot of the usual bible stories, so eric tried to pick one that they had maybe not heard before.

he told them the story of nebuchadnezzer being prideful and the Lord making him live like a beast for 7 years. to help them pay attention everytime he said the kings name they had to make a 'crown' on top of their heads.

eric is a pretty good story teller and he kept their attention really well for quite a while... they kept wanting to hear more stories. so he gave them an encore performance and told them about the hand writing on the wall.

thanks uncle eric... you're awesome!

game day

soccer season is here and it has been so fun to go to nolan's soccer games and cheer him on.

one of the funniest things to watch is adrian yelling at nolan from the side lines telling him to watch the ball...he tends to get a little sidetracked.



and, of course, we have our little fan club yelling nolan on...

granola

i have been craving granola for oh so long... not just any granola however, it had to be my mom's granola.

i finally broke down, got the recipe from her, and went to the store to buy all the things that were needed to make it...pure heaven.

Granola:

*bring to just boiling (do not let it overflow)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups honey

1 tsp. vanilla

*mix the following in a large bowl

4 cups old fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups coconut- eric really likes coconut so i added a little extra

1 cup raw sunflower seeds (optional)

1 cup toasted wheat germ

1/2 cup poppy seeds- (i only used about 1/4 cup)

1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup sesame seeds (again, i only used about 1/4 cup)

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flaxseed

*pour liquid over dry ingredients and stir well. divide into 2-4 batches and spread on cookie sheet. bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until nicely browned; stir frequently (10-15 minutes). after it is baked add raisins. Stir-cool-store- and enjoy!!!