Turtle emerges into a World of Sounds...

I know. Could he be any turtley-er?


I do not pull his hat down over his eyes. Turtle naturally likes the "shell" look.
Juliet's first time running "loose" in the yard...
What is that over there up in that tree...???

Is that? Is that...
Silas!!!

I promise I'll be nicer next time, Byron....One of the little children I was watching colored me this beautiful portrait before he left. At one point he looked at it quite dismayed and said "aww... is it starting to look scary?" I assured him that I thought it was very bold art... and that I was so glad to have a new pair of earrings.

Doh!

Caught stealing their library suckers out of mom's purse... (Ohh yeah. It buys a lot of time in one of my favorite places.)

Too late Mamma... I just bit the whole top of off!

I heard some thumping and discover the four year old handy-girl proudly displaying her art up on the dining room wall... Gemma in her new fun dress up clothes, cleaning up before Daddy gets home...

Daddy is home and teasing Gemma about how perdy she looks in her dress up clothes.

He's trying to make her laugh by pretending to be a nervous, goofy, little smitten boy...

It's working.

Prayer & Fasting for a Loving husband and Daddy...

A good friend of ours recently had a stroke and is still at the ICU. Barry is pictured (left) at a church potluck here at our home last summer. He leads worship faithfully at our Church and this stroke came as a big shock for everyone. He and his family are very dear to us all. Please pray for this devoted husband and father of five little ones. Pray for strength for the family, protection, healing and a quick recovery. I would also like to extend the invitation our pastor emailed the church body a little while ago:

"If you can, would you please join with us tomorrow to fast and pray for Barry? Let’s ask God that he would restore Barry’s mobility so he is able to continue playing piano and fulfill his duties in order to continue receiving all his lines of income."

The prayers of the righteous availeth much.

James 5:16

If you feel God directing you to join us in prayer and fasting,

thank you and God Bless you immensely.

To Train Up a....mob
Ahh... but what a delightful mob they all are! So we picked up a few "hitchhikers" leaving church yesterday and ended up with quite a party back at the house.

Turtle is juuuust about asleep...

Thank you Crystal for not letting Juliet get left out...

I'm guessing Silas was in a really good theological debate with Dean here... it looks like he's got him stumped.

We finished the night with a little concert, some Psalm singing and a prayer for Barry.

Juliet the flirt! I'm starting to get a little worried... She really likes men! She gets this demure little look... I don't know what it is. Her Daddy is certainly her main man but...there are...others....

Some welcome news! Little Byron's smile spreading across his face as his Mom tells him that Daddy has improved today! After he got off the phone he did this cute little victory jump...This little girl looks like a miniature Momma! So cute!

They'll sleep good tonight!!!

The Brave Little Turtle

Once upon a time there was a very brave little Turtle. His name was Owen. He was always a very happy little turtle, but one day Turtle's Momma discovered that something was missing... and even though she was very protective of her little Turtle... Turtle's Momma loved him far too much not to help him find it...Turtle loved his world (quiet world though it was) and generally went with the flow, never causing anyone any trouble...even when it involved big, strange, yellow hospital socks...or that tight squeezy thing the nurses kept putting on his arm... Even with his tummy growling something terrible, when asked to remove his brand new special Cars jammies from Momma and exchange them for a silly hospital gown, Turtle never fussed or snapped... Turtle loved his brothers and sisters, his food, color crayons, his funny Daddy...
...and even though he hadn't had any of his beloved food in his tummy for over 12 hours, (unheard of for Turtle!) he behaved very nicely and made his Mommy and Daddy proud. The nurses and doctors said they'd never ever seen such a sweet turtle.

Turtle's Daddy made him smile when he started a crayon fight with him!

And when Turtle's Daddy put a crayon box on his nose and let Turtle stab him in his belly...Turtle laughed... in turtley delight.

Turtle had such a nice Daddy. He only got mad on those rare occasions that he was forced to watch grown men in striped shirts singing about Blues Clues. Daddy did not understand those men. Turtle wondered if Daddy might beat up the strange man in the TV...This was taking long! Turtle stretched his little legs... He didn't know how much longer he could last...But then Daddy found something very special in the bottom of the diaper bag. Turtle said: "Kenks Dat!"

(which in deaf turtle means "Thanks Dad")

Then they gave Turtle some medicine that was supposed to make Turtle sleep. It made his head very wobbly but his smile still very smiley.... And they whisked him away to go see if they could help fix what was missing...

That's when Turtle's Momma prayed and prayed. She didn't like Turtle being whisked away and she asked God to remind her that He was still in control and taking good care of His little one. And after a loooooong wait...Turtle woke up!

And was HUNGRY!

Turtle wasn't even opening his eyes yet when he was grabbing for any food in sight!

This was a new side of Turtle...

Momma felt a very sad for her hungry little Turtle struggling to wake up and make sense of it all.

It wasn't until Turtle was safe at home, and back in his own jammies, that a big smile spread across his little face...

Something seemed different?

Better...

Turtle was so happy, he started doing crazy things!

He was dancing!
Singing! (and yelling)...Wearing unconventional new head wear...

He discovered it was WAY more fun to terrorize little sister when he could hear her SCREECH!

He was delighted with the new town his sister had drawn for their cars to drive around in...

All in all, Turtle was very happy with this new noisy world. He is as happy as can be and we are all very thankful for everyone's prayers and to Turtle's great Creator for "wonderfully forming him" in the first place, continually protecting him and now blessing him with such a fun, new, noisy world.