Ferreira Family

2009-08-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

Summer is over! Well, for us anyway. We are off to Hawaii tomorrow!! YEAH! We, being, myself, Rich, and Ellie. Jaron is staying here at Hume with some staff girls. We didn't think he would appreciate the trip or the plane ride. Well, the summer went really well for both Rich and I, very separate, but well.
Anyways, we are hoping to blog while in Hawaii, so keep checking. If you don't see anything then check Facebook, and if you don't have FB, e-mail us and remind us to blog. :-) HahA!
Much <3

At Last

2009-07-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I know it has been forever since I wrote a blog, and I have three excuses for you. One-Very Busy, Two-Facebook makes me feel like I blog everyday, and Three-Everytime I've tried, I have not been able to get on the site. Lame, I know, but there you have it.

So to catch you up on the highlights of the last couple months: Running Huckleberry and Day Camp is a Blast! I seriously love my job and am having the best time! I get to bring my kids to work, and I have the best staff! Downside, Rich and my schedules are pretty much opposite, but we're makin' it happen.

Ellie is a big help at Huckleberry, when she's in the mood, and is doing really well at being there eight hours a day! She talks like a little grown-up, loves pretending and coloring, and her friends.

Jaron is our monkey. He climbs on anything and everything and loves to stand on things he probably shouldn't. He does pretty well at Huckleberry, gets a little sad when he sees me but can't have me. He can run, play, dance, sing, color and...wait for it...sleep through the night!
Our latest adventure was going down to Rob's for the 4th of July. Rich's parents and brother Steve flew up and so we decided to go meet them down there. Then, they watched the kids while we went wakeboarding, which made me a very happy camper. There are two things I ache to do, sing and wakeboard. I know it's weird, but I really do get almost queasy when it's been too long. And I'm not even that good, ha!

Ellie has been taking and loving swim lessons with her friend Hannah, so that has been fun.
Rich has been busy with Wildwood as usual and of course, putting on the traditional Pizzookie production at the end of camp. And he performed his third wedding yesterday for a couple who grew up here at Hume.

Well, hopefully I will find the time to jump on here a bit more often, if not I'm really sorry, I love you all just the same!

Ballet Pictures

2009-05-07T14:38:00.001-07:00

Dedication and Ballet

2009-05-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

This was a really fun week to be back with our kids! On Sunday Jaron had his dedication at church. It was really special, they read Deuteronomy 6:4-9 for us and then had the Joshua students recite the beginning of it in Hebrew. They do this at every meal, it is called the Shema. We raise our pinkies as a reminder of God's power, because there is a Hebrew tradition that God made the plagues with just the power in His pinky, so imagine what He could do with His whole hand. Jaron would have no part of sitting still or being quiet the whole beginning of the service but did really good when it was his turn. He just made one squeal while the elders prayed for him and us. But what would you expect, everyone stopped looking at him!
Then Monday was Ballet dress rehearsal for Ellie. Tuesday was Ballet Pictures, and Wednesday was the Recital. So fun and so cute all those little minis are! The older girls came out and "woke up" all the little ones, and they just got up and did free dance, precious! Then they were suppose to all come out to the front, hold hands, and curtsy. But Ellie stood in front of all the other girls and just smiled and curtsied on her own, it was awesome! She did really good too, at sitting still and watching the rest of the show, which was the part I was most nervous about. :-)

The Joshua students graduate on Sunday, so that should be fun!

Oh, I have to do the Ballet pictures in the next blog, because I can only do 5 at a time.

Israel Song

2009-05-05T14:45:00.001-07:00

So I would love to tell you every single part of my Israel trip, which was AMAZING!!! But really, you'll just have to go. But I will give you one of my favorite places and moments and then I wrote a little song/poem that I put at the end.

Hiking Mnt. Arbel. Arbel is a mountain on the Sea of Galilee, it is in the city of Tiberias, it is very likely that Jesus spent time climbing it possibly to have some quiet time with God, maybe preach the Beatitudes or even feed the 5,000. When we were on the top there were several special moments. First, Rich talked on the feeding of the 5,000 and how in Jewish culture they think in pictures and how numbers represent different things, and so when Jesus asks His disciples to use the 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed them, readers could be thinking, hmm, 5=the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah, and 2=The 2 Tablets, or Ten Commandments. And when there are 12 basketfuls left over, they could be thinking, hmm, Jesus is for the 12 tribes. And when he later feeds the 4,000 in the pagan area, there are 7 basketfuls left over, hmm, 7=7 Pagan Nations, Jesus is for the Gentiles too! Just a cool thought.

Then while we were up there, we heard an alarm that is set off all over Israel on the day of remembrance for those who died in the Holocaust. The whole country stops what they are doing, stands up and has a minute of silence, they pull over their cars and everything. It was really special to see how they honor their lost, they do the same thing the day before their Independance day to honor the soldiers, we got to do this as well, on the way to the airport. I pointed out that all we seem to do in America is have sales, in Israel, they close the stores all day to just be in remembrance.

The next super cool thing we did on Arbel, was to just spend time in small groups praying. This was a really neat time.

And to top it off, the actual experience of hiking up, and especially down, Arbel was phenominal! Almost the entire way day we walked on about a foot wide "trail" holding on to staples on the rock face. It was SO RAD!

Okay, I hope that gives you a little picture of our trip, I will try to write more, but I don't want to have it be too, too long, so maybe I'll just do another favorite on a another day.

But now, I will leave you with this:

Can’t Help
Looking over this valley, where a boy killed a Philistine, I can’t help but think of you.
You use the weak, oh you are strong, that is why I sing this song, I can’t help but think of you.
Walking through this desert place, kicking rocks a smile on my face, I can’t help but think of you.
To think how you provided, and to think how you provide, I can’t help but think of you.
Looking out from this Sea shore, thinking of a calming storm, I can’t help but think of you.
How your power made it still, how your power is unfathomable, I can’t help but think of you.
Climbing up this mountain side, where you may have come to sit and hide, I can’t help but think of you.
Praying over this sweet view, on my knees thinking of you, can’t help but think of you.
Standing in this garden of trees, picturing you on your knees, I can’t help but think of you.
Hoping I will not be, a disciple who falls asleep, I can’t help but think of you.
Walking on these city streets, taking in the smells and heat, I can’t help but think of you.
Walking where you surely walked, carrying that wooden cross, can’t help but think of you.
Watching prayers touch a wall, to be near you when they call, I can’t help but think of you.
So glad you are in me, and you hear my every praise and plea, I can’t help but think of you.
Israel 2009

Shalom

2009-04-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

Going to Israel for two weeks! Keep updated with us on JoshuaWilderness.org
Love you all, keep us and our kids in your prayers!

Proverbs 3:5-6

2009-03-26T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well this a tricky blog to write because it has been an emotional week. Last Thursday I was outside playing with the kids and one of our neighbors drove by and asked if I was coming to the meeting. I didn't know that there was a meeting, he said yeah, it's at 4pm and the wives are invited. This is very unusual and not usually good, so I made it happen. Luckily some of the older neighbor girls were up for last minute babysitting. The meeting started with one of our directors introducing the new chairman of the board of Hume. He proceeded to read the resignation letter of our Executive Director Jeff Lilley. Which included little details of why, but some conflict and struggle with the board for the past year and that he just realized he was not the guy to take Hume to the next stage. This was effective immediatly and Bob Phillips the 68 year old former Director was put in as interum director until they could find someone for the job. They made it very clear that, although this was very fast, that there was no moral or integrity issue, but that it was just time for a change. Jeff came to Hume as a Wagon Train camper, then came on staff almost 30 years ago, met his wife, Eugenie, here, and only left for a few years to attend Multnomah Bible College in Oregon. They had their 4 children here and adopted their 5th. We have absoutely loved working for Jeff and have admired both his leadership, his vision, and his integrity. His wife Eugenie has been an amazing example of a Godly woman, she has been helping in Ellie's ballet class this year, and having us moms over to hang out and play with the kids in her home during the winter months, which has been really special. We will miss them dearly and covet your prayers for the Lilley family, for Hume's staff, leadership, and board of directors. Thanks a ton!

Make Shift

2009-03-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this is not going to be a long blog. Hopefully I will fill you all in soon on the latest, but I'm just not up for it yet. But I did want to show you this sweet video of our little chatterbox! Enjoy.

My Little Promised Land!

2009-03-07T14:13:00.000-08:00

Okay so I know it's nothing compared to Heaven, but Jaron slept through the night ALL WEEK!!

I know I shared with some of you that when reading Deuteronomy I started comparing my pregnancy with Jaron to the desert/wilderness of the Old Testament, because it was just long and scary and a time that God brought us to our knees to trust Him to provide each day. Then, that the birth of Jaron was like coming to the Promised Land only to find Giants there and have it be really hard to conquer. (Since he was just a little tougher, okay a lot tougher, with the colic and the not sleeping or eating well, with his ecsema etc.) But I knew that God would be faithful to go before me as He would the Israelites and that He created the "giants" and could easily destroy them if He wanted to. Now I feel like I am coming back to the Promised Land and feel like God is providing blessings each day! Giant One: Eating-when I stopped nursing him and he learned to drink from a cup (skipped the bottle completely) and eating solid food, he seems much more satisfied and content as well as growing better. Giant Two: His Skin- Well after trying to cut out milk and wheat and that not working I finally discovered that carrots made his skin act up and got a prescription for trouble spots that works really well. Giant Three: Sleeping- After a year of getting up multible times a night to eat, last week I got really sick and Rich was leaving for Vegas, so I prayed and prayed and begged God to let him sleep just one night so I could get better to take care of them while he was gone. And he slept 8 Hours, it was phenominal! I praised Jesus all day and asked again that night and he slept like 10 hours! God just kept blessing and I kept thanking Him! He has now slept everyday this week since Sunday and I couldn't be happier!

Thank you all for the prayers through these last couple of years from miscarrying to getting pregnant to complications with the pregnancy to having Jaron to having Jaron get mean :-) It has been much appreciated and I am giving all Glory to God for His provision, care, comfort and strength to do it!

I know there will be hard times to come, and who knows this may be only a week of sleep and then back, but I don't think so, but how great to know How Great Our God is! He is So Worthy of our Praise!

One, Solitary, Step

2009-02-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Yeah, Jaron took a step today, yes, just one, and as soon as we try to get him to go again he curls his little legs up and refuses, so stubborn, ha! But he is pro at finding things to push around the house for practice! He's such a cutie, other new tricks of his are: giving an attempt to say "please" in sign language, getting a molar and a front tooth at one time, waving hi on occasion, drinking cow's milk, pointing the remote at the TV and stacking blocks! :-)

Ellie had a great morning, we had fun cleaning and playing, and she randomly told me she loved me, which is always a favorite, then a while later, (while she was in the bathroom) she told me I was her best friend So Sweet, I almost teared up. Of course, apparently she doesn't treat her friends that great because all through lunch she was naughty. But I have to give her the benefit of the doubt, it is super hard to stay with mom at the table or go with mom to the car, when there are all these fun Joshua student around showering her with attention. But...she should still obey. A nap fixed that and she was good the rest of the day.

Rich has been in Texas for the last couple of days and we are looking forward to his return tomorrow night! Unfortunetely, he leaves for Las Vegas on Sunday for a week, so we will be flyin' solo again. Thank goodness I have such a great community up here, that looks out for me.

I, am thinking of giving up laundry and dishes for lent, oh, is that not how that works, hmmm, I'll have to stick it out then. Boo. But really, I am trying to wear my hiking boots regularly to break them in for Israel. We just had Bible study here tonight and it went well. My partner in leading it was there for the first time after having her baby last month so that was fun.

Okay, that's all for now. Enjoy.

Horsey Ride

2009-02-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

We just had the best couple days, we went to visit Rich's old college roommate up in Manteca. He is home from Israel where he now lives and goes to school. So you know they had a lot to talk about! Then we headed to Oakdale to our friend Bailey's house, and her family are so sweet, they just welcomed us in, made us home made lasagna and let Ellie ride their horse Lil. She was so excited and she wasn't even nervous to get on her. She had so much fun, Bailey just walked her around the property, and at one point Ellie started singing "Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up let's go, let's look at the show" She's a doll! Then she got to help brush Lil's hair and get her hay and everything. We slept great, despite a small bed and a cat in the house. I think God was just protecting our little family time away. We had a pancake breakfast, then got on the road to Fresno where I got to get a haircut and then we headed to the last Hume Vision dinner. It was really neat to see Hume's "vision" for the future of this ministry.

Silly Jaron

2009-02-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

Oh, Jaron, he's so silly! He still has his moments, for sure, and he still doesn't sleep through the night, even though he will be a year in two days!, but he sure is fun when he is in a good mood. He cracks me up. Today, he was "dancing", and he is getting better at standing and pushing things around, every day. He was even "singing" the other day on the Kareoke microphone, and lovin' it! He also has developed a sweet tooth, immediatly after having his first cupcake, and grunts for the cupboard with the dried blueberries in it. (Those are his new favorite)

I'll leave Ellie out of this blog, because she has been a pill lately, and no one wants to hear about that. It's much nicer to picture her as the obedient, sweet little angel that is inside her, instead of the feistyness that has been shown lately. :-)

Hope you have a happy day!

Almost One!

2009-02-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has been so long since a blog. We have had a fairly uneventful couple of weeks. Although, it was fun to have Dan and Kristen, Kaia, and new baby Elijah come to visit, it was great to have the little cousins playing together and meeting each other. And Jaron has been learning a lot. He has been standing for little chunks of time, which is so cute, and last night he finally learned to clap. We’ll see if he remembers today. He has been trying more table food, which is fun and usually kinda messy. We are busy planning Jaron’s 1st Birthday party. Him and his friend Corin, who is 3 weeks older, are going to have a joint party. We put out a ton of invitations, so we will see how big a turn out we have tomorrow. Rich has been in LA all week with the Joshua students, and we have been doing okay here without him, mostly just meal times are tricky. You should check out the joshuawilderness.org site for updates on his trip, they have added some cool features.

Ellie's 3 year old spoiling!

2009-01-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

Our sweet Ellie just turned 3! It has been quite the week too. Tuesday morning we had her "friends" party here at our house. It was so fun, there were like 10 kiddos here, running around everywhere. They colored and decorated cookies, and ate their creations, and played with all Ellie's toys, it was so fun! Then Wednesday morning was her first Ballet class, and she had lots of fun there. And then Wednesday night was her Joshua Party. Now the week before the cooks had asked her what she wanted to eat on her Birthday and she said Macoroni and Cheese and Corndogs, so that's what they served. Then Rich asked her if she wanted it to be a theme night and have people dress up, and she said yes, like Princesses. He asked, what about the boys, and she said they should dress up like ducks. Ha! I think because in her mind she remebered Halloween when she was a princess and Jaron was a duck, so it made perfect sense to her. Well, the Joshua students love her so much and everyone dressed up. In fact, when we arrived at the building, probably half of them ran out to greet her and wish her a happy birthday! Rich played all her favorite songs, you know, Stuck in the Middle by Lenka, Are we Human or are we Dancer by The Killers, Glamorous and Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie, some Coldplay, you know, all the normal songs that 3 year olds love. BaHAhaha! She was so cute, she would get kinda nervous and shy, then she would here one of "her songs" and run to the middle of the dance floor and jump and dance, then run back to her seat. I don't think she even had one whole bite of her food because she was so excited and nervous. Then we brought out her cake, which I had attempted to decorate a crown on but ran out of frosting and I had forgotten the candle, so they just sang while I brought it to her, and then I took it and cut it. It was really yummy despite the unpolished decoration. Then as the students cleaned up and got changed for their meeting we had some family time (Rich's parents are up) and Ellie opened her presents. Thank you one and all, she absolutely loved everything! It was so cute as she opened them and would realize what something was, at least three times, she was like, "this is what I wanted". Well done! Then Thursday morning we had her 3 year old Doctor visit and she had to get shots, sad day, but she was a trooper, as soon as they gave her a sucker, she got over it. It was just her and me who went down together, so it was special. We went to Chevy's and they sang to her and brought her the sombrero and ice cream treat, so fun! She was very confused why they did not sing the normal Happy Birthday song, I told her it was complicated. Anyways, that was our week, well besides the baby shower I hosted on Monday night, Bible study on Tuesday night, a women's event and then Broom Hockey on Wednesday night, the Passover Sader at Joshua on Thurday night and dinner with the family at the Hospitality House tonight, whew! What a Birthday Week!

A Good Night Sleep

2009-01-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

Rich and I got brave and decided to leave the kids here at Hume with some very sweet and willing Joshua girls, while we went down to LA for our friend's wedding. We had a great time and had a late anniversary dinner at the amazing Ruth's Chris. Yummy! Steak, Lobster, Creme Brule, and NO KIDS! Whoo Hoo! Okay, so we love our children dearly, but it was so fantastic to have a whole nights sleep, all in a row. It was very timely, since my brain had begun to quickly deteriorate with the little sleep I had been getting. All refreshed and back at home. Oh and the wedding was great too! The bride plays Belle at Disneyland and played Jasmine at Disney, Tokyo, so the special music was phenominal and of course, she looked gorgeous! If they made a "Belle gets married" Barbie this is the dress she would wear. And they are a very sweet couple who have been dating for several years. The groom runs Reflect ministry. A ministry to the poor children in Mexico. Very cool. Anyways, the girls survived and gave us hope for the future, particularly the Israel trip. No pictures, sorry.

So many things

2009-01-11T21:51:00.001-08:00

Okay, so first, Happy New Year! We went to our friend's house and just ate and let the kids all play, while occasionally checking in with the ball drop. Pretty low key, we left before midnight, wow different stage of life. But the best part of the night was by far, when I randomly said "Happy New Year" to Jaron in this funny voice and he just thought it was absolutely hilarious! The next day, nope, he was over it, but that night he would just laugh and laugh. I hope you enjoy the video.
Well first event of 2009 for us, was going to Pine Valley for the week with the Joshua kids. The trip went fine for most of the students, but for our little family it was rather tiring. We were all sharing a room, which is always interesting, and our sweet little Jaron must have not felt very good because he spent most nights crying/screaming for several hours of the night. I took him driving one night and Rich took him the next. It was pretty sad and exhausting but luckily Ellie slept through most of it.
The students got a lot of work done at the camp and then had a free day in San Diego. I took that day to do a little shopping and then head up to mom's to visit with Josh and his family and mom. (And to let Rich get a good night's sleep before driving all day) Saturday, I met up with all the vans and grabbed a couple girls to ride with me. They were a big help in the car and the trip up went really well.
We are home now, and tomorrow should be interesting. I'm taking Jaron, hopefully, to the doctor, and Rich will be back in the office at Joshua. The whole class and staff start a fast tomorrow, so hopefully that will go smoothly. And it is the first "normal" week since the students Christmas break, so there will be a lot of catching up to do.
We are looking forward to having Rich's parents up next week and for Ellie to start Ballet and have her birthday. All very exciting!

Christmas Fun

2009-01-01T00:03:00.001-08:00

Some of the fun times of our Christmas festivities

The Long Awaited Christmas Blog

2008-12-30T23:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, Where to start?! Most of my family came up on Tuesday before Christmas and the fun started. We had lunch in the dining hall, got settled in the cabins, then headed up to Joshua to hang out and have dinner. The kids played in the snow and in the big open spaces of the Great room and Joshua dining room. We enjoyed each other's company and looked forward to having Josh and Heather and Jeremy show up. Then, the snow started falling, and falling and falling. Everyone had made it for Christmas day, where we had a fantastic breakfast, opened gifts, played, had a wonderful lunch, played some more, had a nice dinner, then the kids acted out the Christmas story while I read it and we had a time of sharing. Because of the weather, we had moved everyone to either Joshua or the lower cabin, so as we cleaned things up and were getting ready to take off for the night, the power went out. This is not uncommon in a storm, so Rich went to start the generater at the cabin. Everyone headed home and planned on meeting for breakfast at 8:30 so Jeremy could get on the road at a decent time. Well, at our house, we slept just fine and about 8am went to pick up the crew from the cabin. Rich went in and then came back out and said they were all sick. So we went up to see the Joshua crew to see if anyone up there was sick, well, no one was, so we began to brainstorm. It must be something with the cabin, for everyone there to be so sick, but no one else. Clearly not food poisoning like we had initially thought. Rich and I headed to the cabin to help out, when I walked in, everyone was strewn across the house, laying on the floor, huddled in blankets, with bowls near by, no one could stand, they all looked so miserable. I tried to make everyone comfortable the best I could while cleaning things up, and Rich went to seek help and get a CO detector. When he brought it in, it went off immediatly so we had everyone crawl to the open door and windows to get some fresh air. Rich returned again with help and the news that we really needed everyone to go to the infimary and probably down to Fresno to get checked out. So we began to get coats and boots and get people down the steep, snow covered stairs in their foggy state. Most everyone had some time on the oxygen in the infirmiry and then a couple went down in the ambulance and everyone else road down with Rich or Dad to the hospital. Only the ones with remaining symptoms went in, and the rest either came back up or hung at Rob's house to rest and wait for the 3 to get released. Everyone was back up at around 10:30pm when we decided to have a little birthday party for Josiah, (my nephew, some birthday so far!). Then we settled in for the night, cleaned up in the morning and everyone left just as they had planned. Whew! What an adventure, what a crazy, memorable Christmas! Everyone says that they had a fun time, despite the almost dying, and that they would even come back to Hume Lake again sometime. Such troopers! I loved seeing every single one of them, only wished Jonathan's family could have made it, and that I had taken more pictures!

The Cold Brings Colds

2008-12-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

This week was full of fun, snow, and a couple colds. We started the week with a ton of snow, which is beautiful and quite cold, it has been below freezing daily, so no walks for us. We are all terrain, but not all weather, moms! But it gave us a chance to play in the snow. Ellie was not much for sledding, but she loved using my snowballer to make snowballs and throw them! Jaron, he didn't love it as much. Then Tuesday was our Program Christmas "Party" down in Fresno. So we dropped the kids at the Sees house and went to dinner with the Program department and then headed to a minor league hockey game-Go Falcons! It was a good learning experience, I think they must have a fight quota they have to meet, because within the first couple minutes they had two fights, which seemed to come out of nowhere, but then that was it, the rest of the time, they just played hockey. Weird. But we got some good broom hockey ideas, which is really our sport. Well, that morning the kids had woken up with runny noses, but Erin said to still bring them, and they were good for her, but at around 11pm poor Ellie started waking up like every hour. The crazy part is, she was staying upstairs and we were staying down, so she would walk in the pitch dark all the way down to our room each time. At about 5am I decided to just stay and sleep with her. Good decision, we finally got a couple hours of sleep in a row. Wednesday, we did some shopping and errands and then headed back up to the chillyness. The kiddos are getting better it seems and we just had a fun evening where Rich pulled out his guitar and we sang together. First Ellie had her microphone and would do her best to sing along, even if she didn't know the song, then she switched it out for her guitar, so she could rock with dad! So Cute!

Joshua Events

2008-12-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday was the Joshua formal Christmas Party, where everyone gets all dressed up for dinner and they come in to a nicely decorated dining hall and then they are served Pizza! It is really fun. Then after dinner, all the Pause families are invited up to help build GingerBread "houses", as has been tradition for several years. But last year we decided to add an "Ugly Christmas Sweater" competion, Caroling, and a Story read by Nathan Pearsey, (He has a great reading voice), while the staff judges the gingerbreads. As a staff we put together a Wildwood scape to remember the fire that the Joshua student started. It was quite a masterpiece. We had a helicopter above dropping "water" and everything! I hope to have some cute pictures of the dress nice portion soon from someone else's camera, but I hope you enjoy these.

Then on Wednesday was a regular monthly theme dinner. The theme was How the Grinch Stole Christmas. So Ellie and I dressed as Whos. She just wore jammies and had some funky hair and I went a little different direction. All to say, it's been a busy, but fun, couple of days!

Random Facts

2008-12-09T13:38:00.000-08:00

Not much to say, really, but I thought I'd try to jot something down. I'm loving my house decorated for Christmas! Jaron has successfully drank out of a cup with a straw and a sippy cup a couple times now. And it was with formula and he didn't spit it out on purpose or scream at me like I was giving him poison. (Which is what would happen in the past) So there is hope yet, that I can leave the child for more than 4 hours at some point! Yeah! Ellie got dressed by herself today without even being asked so that was exciting. I put together little Christmas Smore packages for some of my friends that I am excited to hand out. And I've finished my Christmas letter, I just need to print it and mail it. (If you think I might need your address, please e-mail it to me) The floor is covered with pretend food, but I am noticing that some of it is seperated into color groups, cute. The kids are napping and I should too, but then again, I "should" do a lot of other things too. The daily dilemna! Okay, I'm off, sorry, no pictures, just an update of randomness.

Tractor Parade!

2008-12-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

Reedly is a little town outside of Fresno. It's a farming town, and every year they have a parade for Christmas where the tractors are all dressed with lights and decorations. We have been wanting to go for the last couple years, but it has never worked out until this year. We met a bunch of people for dinner at this little mexican place, then headed over to the parade. It was pretty fun, highlights were the bus, the mini bus, and this cool thing that only had two wheels. Ellie's friend, Lily, was there, so she loved that. Rich wants to join next year with the weapons carrier.

Back Home

2008-12-03T13:58:00.001-08:00

I know, I know, it's been forever, but I've been out of town for two weeks and am still trying to catch my breath. To recap the two weeks, we went to Mexico with the Joshua students, which went mostly good, except for, uh, Jaron not sleeping, Jaron getting a rash, Two students getting injured and being rushed to San Diego's emergecy rooms, where one of them had to have surgery on his head!, and the Baja 1000 taking out one of the jumps at the beginning of the race. But, we did eat some amazing carne asada tacos daily, got a ton of work done at the Ranch and were not attacked by the drug cartel! Then we sent off the students with the other staff and our family stayed in San Diego for the next week. We stayed with Rich's parents, but did get to have a hang-out/birthday party at my mom's which was nice to see everyone. Thanksgiving was nice and fairly low key with the Ferreira side, then Friday we got to go shopping with no kids and go on a date to dinner and a movie with no kids all in the same day! Thank You Grammy Moo! Saturday, we headed home, picking up a truck for Hume in Temecula and picking up Rich's Grandma in Santa Clarita to bring her to be the Catalyst at Joshua for the next two weeks. Jaron only cried for like half the trip up, so that was fun. So, we got back Saturday night, Sunday tried to unpack as well as put up Christmas decorations, then did the nursery at church. Monday I took Jaron to the Doctor to see if he had an ear infection or something, but he checked out fine. (which is good of course, but it would kind of be nice to have an explanation for the screaming and pulling at his ear and what not, but, it's really better that he is fine) Tuesday I got back to walking with the mom's, then cleaned and baked for Bible study Tueday night. This morning we had our WON Wednesday, which is a monthly get together with mom's of young kids with coffee, a speaker, and small group discussion. Tonight is the Hume Family Christmas party. I am a judge for the bake off and other food entry competition. Tomorrow, we go down the hill again to get a Christmas tree and to go to a tractor show with the Joshua staff. Then I think Friday my friends might have a birthday party for me. Whew! So you can see why I haven't had too much time to blog. Oh, did I mention that Hume got an all new phone system so we haven't had phones or consistant internet. If you need our new number, please e-mail my gmail account, which is ferreirafour@gmail.com and I will reply from that, because my regular hume account is not working at the moment. Love You All- Thank you to the faithful readers of this! Oh, so the pictures are of bath time at Grammy's and Thanksgiving at the Ferreira's (Rich's aunt and uncle) both Jaron and Ellie loved the dog, she was so good with them.

Ohh Mexico

2008-11-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

Mexico is going great! We drove in on Monday and crossing the border went super smooth-no stops, yeah! We spent the first day just getting settled and getting tacos. Once before dinner, then once after putting the kids to bed, I mean, you can’t beat ‘em! Well, today was the first work day, and it has been going really well as far as I understand. The only mishap, was poor Rich, who when opening a five gallon bucket of primer, it splashed in his eyes, not too fun, that stuff is sticky! So we tried to rinse them best we could, then he had to toss his contacts and move to glasses for a while. The kids are doing pretty well, schedules are a bit whacked but they’ll survive. Also, Jaron’s skin is kind of freakin’ out. I don’t know if it’s from the heat or what, but I’m sure it will mend as well. All to say, it’s going pretty well, I mean, I just love Mexico so much and it feels like home when I get here, so even if things don’t go great, I am just happy to be here. (And eat tacos daily) Ellie's still taking pictures, which is cute. If you've ever been to the Ranch, you'll appreciate the picture of Snoopy Rock. Okay, well since both kids are finally asleep, I am going to try to catch a nap too. Oh, the joys of skylights-no sleeping in for anyone.

Ellie takes Pictures

2008-11-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

So , you know how Ellie loves to take pictures. Well, we decided to give her a digital camera that we never use, and see what would happen. First of all, she absolutely loves it! She went around taking pictures constantly, I mean, literally. She took pictures of every room in the house, the carpet, the couch, people, chairs, breakfast, anything she saw, she took a picture! Fabulous! So, I thought I’d show you a few of my favorites, I love so many, but here are just a few.
(A Slidewhow is in the blog below)

Little Photographer

2008-11-12T14:55:00.001-08:00

Some of Ellie's first work

Bounce Bounce

2008-11-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

So there is a family up here who has a trampaline, and after Ellie and Hannah went on it last week, the mom decided she would invite all the little girls over for a trampaline jump time, then a tea party- So Cute! She decided to do an age at a time- 2s then 3s then 4s. This morning was Ellie, Hannah, and Ellie Mae's turn. It was so sweet. Bunnie,(Hannah's mom), took Jaron and her little boy Isaac on the walk, and I kept the girls at the party. They loved to bounce, bounce, bounce, then we went inside, played with some toys, decorated cookies while having some fruit and cheese and "tea" which was actually warm apple cider, played with play-doh, then went back out to bounce some more! The boys soon arrived and Peter wanted a turn to bounce too. (Of course, he just learned to walk a couple months ago, so he just sat there while the girls bounced around him) All went really well, considering there were 3 two year olds involved.

Yard Progress

2008-11-09T21:49:00.001-08:00

Here's a slideshow of our yard from start to almost finished! Enjoy!

All for a Cell Phone

2008-11-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

I know it's kind of long, but this is what Jaron is doing these days to get around. It's pretty cute. And just like Ellie, his best motivation for a good crawl is a cell phone. And he does like to chat it up when he gets there, as you can see. Enjoy!

ahh man!

2008-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

So Saturday night we started to get some rain. So the boys (Rich and our neighbor Joel) were checking out the yards to see what they needed to do so we could keep our hillsides and not become a duplex! Well, at about midnight they stopped checking on things and we just went to bed. Well after a night of heavy rains, lightning and thunder, we woke up to the sad realization that the precautions were not sufficient. Now, we are not duplexes by any means, but all the water from the two houses above us channeled down into our yard bringing inches of mud from the hills onto our freshly laid sod. So Rich and I began to shovel it off. We were able to get a couple Joshua students to help for about a half an hour which helped a lot, but we know we will have a lot to do to make it really ready for next time. Which, as I just read the weather report, is probably tonight, and we for sure are not prepared. But we will just have to meet that tomorrow. Of course, we are going to Fresno in the morning, so we won't really be able to do anything about it then either, oh well. Rich was pretty sad, of course, it could also be because he turned 30 today! It's great, when people ask Ellie how old he turned, she says, "he turned old today", classic!

One Good Dad

2008-11-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

The celebrations continue! The Joshua students got to have their own dress-up night on Thursday. So Ellie got her chance to be Annie from the Little Einsteins. Of course, no one knew who that was and it's not a super obvious costume anyway, but she got to carry a microphone, and she loved that. Jaron was a duck again, but learned some cool tricks, like balancing a spoon on his nose, and I dressed up as Rich. I was not alone in dressing as a staff person, so we took a picture of the "staff". And poor Rich, had great intentions of dressing as a gorilla, but Ellie was so scared that she almost did not go up to Joshua, and then once there, wanted to stay in the car until I checked to make sure he was not wearing it. So he sacrificed and did not dress up, all for our little Ellie. Of course some of the Joshua student's costumes were pretty freaky, like the Joker from the most recent Batman, but they were good about avoiding Ellie so she would not get scared. And it worked, because we had no meltdowns while there. It was a fun night.

Trick or Treat

2008-10-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here at Hume Lake, we sometimes move things around to be convenient for us. Like Daylight Savings, we wait a day sometimes so it falls at the end of camp, instead of the middle. And like Halloween, we always have the trick or treating on the Wednesday of Servants week, because they know to bring candy and love to pass it out around the tables at the dining hall. So that was last night for us and it was so much fun! I had finally decided Jaron would just go ahead and be the monkey because it was so fitting for him. Then yesterday morning I had the foresight to try it on him one more time, and good thing, because he totally grew out of it. (which is still funny to me because it was a 0-9 month costume and he still wears 6-9 mo clothes, sometimes even 3-6- oh well) Luckily I had this duck costume in the shed that someone had given Ellie a couple years ago. And it turns out, Jaron makes a pretty cute duck too! Now Ellie was a fairy princess, and she wanted me to be one too, so I slapped on some wings and glitter and some fake eyelashes and called a day. We went to the dining hall, ate dinner, then came together for a picture of all the dressed up kids, then went around to the tables to "trick or treat, then we got a list of all the houses that would have candy to pass out and chose between riding with the masses in the shuttle or driving ourselves. A couple of us decided to drive ourselves, but in the same van. It ended up being three princesses- Ellie, Hannah, and Ellie Mae- SO Cute! The daddies took the little brothers home and the ladies went neighborhood to neighborhood in the "royal coach" of Bunnie's van. It was a blast, and it made me appreciate where I live, being able to just walk the streets with our little girls and not be nervous that freaky people were going to be out there. Plus knowing exactly what houses to go to is really handy!

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-28T11:27:00.001-07:00

Here's a slidewhow of all our pumpkin patch pictures

50's Night

2008-10-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well last night was another fun theme dinner at Joshua. 50's Night. We got all dressed up and went up for a diner style meal, where we ordered burgers and fries from the counter, along with flavored sodas, it was a blast! Ellie loved dressing up, especially since I put her tu tu under her dress to make it puffy and she got to wear a neclace of mine and a scarf in her hair. She picked out her "fancy" shoes, but wore different shoes until we got inside the Joshua building, then changed into them. It was hilarious, I don't know where she got the idea. But she didn't want to ruin them. I'm all for that, I mean they are play shoes, but she may as well keep them sorta nice. Then Jaron, sported the jeans and white T-shirt with the gelled hair, "converse" and jean jacket. He actually loves getting his hair done, so that is always fun. I mean it only takes a second, but he just looks up at me and smiles, and is somewhat still, which is quite rare for him, so it's great. Then I decided to go for the beehive instead of the usual ponytail, everyone loved it, I think they just love that we get involved in it with them, and it's fun for us, so why not.

2008-10-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

This week was full of work on the yard. It was so great, some Joshua students helped out so much and we were able to get steps to the back yard placed, a fence built, stairs to our lower lawn built, sprinklers finished, sod layed, and wood chip and gravel spread! Whew! I have to say that Rich and the students did a ton, my main job was to bring drinks out, watch the kids, and make a few dinners for our workers. One day even Rob and Katie came up for the afternoon to hang out and Rob ended up working on stuff. (you can't keep that boy off a tractor) But seriously it was really sweet for him to jump in on his day off. Plus they brought Tori and so Katie and I took Ellie to throw ball with her on the lawn around the block, and couldn't help but gain a few neighborhood kids, since they don't get to see dogs that often. (Did I mention that Tori is their dog) All to say, it is pretty exciting to see it coming together! Especially the grass-yeah!

Ghiradelli Square

2008-10-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ode to Maggie

2008-10-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

Well, there we were in the Vons parking lot to meet up with Rich and the Joshua class to head to the Bay area for the first offsite Joshua trip of the year. Starbucks and GPS in hand. Grande light ice chai and the Magellen GPS to be exact. We called her Maggie. I was driving this sweet Hume van that had seen better days, but actually it ran really well for a Hume vehicle and we had no break downs on the whole trip, that is rare for a Joshua trip. But the roomyness left much to be desired. Especially with two carseats. Ellie was behind me and Jaron behind the passenger, so everytime anyone was riding in the back, which was quite often, we had to pull Jaron's seat out, have them climb over the base and squeeze into the back, then put Jaron back in, shut the, not so light, door and be on our way. That was one smart person who thought to make mini vans with a door on each side. Anyway, good ole Maggie took us a farely windy, round about way, to the church where the kids were staying the night, then almost all side streets to the hotel where we were staying. It was pretty special. But she really pulled through bringing us from the suburbs, (antioch, oakland area) to the big city of San Francisco on Monday. We had a fun day there to start the trip before working with Habitat for Humanity the rest of the week. It was so fun, we walked from Pier 39 to Pier 1 for lunch, (Thank Goodness for the BOB stroller!) with the staff, then just our family walked back and went to the aquarium, then to Ghiradelli Square and back, where we met the staff for dinner, then met the students to drive back to the church. The aquarium was really fun, we got to walk through tunnels of sea life, first to represent the bay, then one with deep sea creatures like sharks! I wish I could show you Ellie singing "baby shark doo doo da doo doo, baby shark" on her daddy's shoulders, so cute! Then you get to pet sea rays, starfish ,sharks and other little sea creatures, Ellie was not much for that, but she liked to watch. Then we headed down to Fisherman's Wharf where the sea lions hang out, there Ellie got to bark like them and do a little dance. Then we headed to Ghiradelli where we got to taste a little chocolate of course, on the way back we got a little peak at the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. Anyways, all to say, it was a fun day, and I love the big city. The next couple days the kids and I just hung out while the students worked in Habitat's warehouse then went to a work site to do landscaping. All in all it went pretty well, except for one kid stepping on a nail and having to go to the ER with Rich. It actually ended up being pretty entertaining because this kid , who hardly ever takes advil, was on Vicadin. He got pretty lupy and left many sentences unfinished as well as at one point talking to his sandwich, besides confessing his love for nearly everyone. Hilarious. So like I said, we were staying in a hotel, yes all four of us in one room, we figured out if we put Jaron in the bathroom, life was much better. Of course when we stopped to listen and heard a little banging, Rich was like, "Is he fixing stuff in there?" and I was like, "no, he's banging his pacifier on the toilet" Now that's sanitary, but there was no way we were going to disturb the little monkey. Then came the last night, we packed up and put the kids to bed, then went to sleep ourselves until about 12:30am when Ellie started throwing up. Oh the Joy! Sleeping bag, pillow, pack n play, floor, baby red, you name it, it was covered. So I put her in our bed while we began to clean. Probably not the best idea, she threw up again, so off came a sheet and pillow case from our bed, and we continued to clean. Of course Jaron was in the bathroom, so no shower for us, luckily the sink was seperate, but it's not like we had extra blankets, trash bags or any other nice ammenity of home, but we made it. She learned the art of the trashcan throw up and tried to get some sleep. Then the way home came, I left earlier than the rest of the group and just brought one girl with us. Well, it started a little rocky, I was sure there had to be a better way than Maggie was taking us, but we figured she'd get us there eventually, then Ellie threw up again, so fun! So we made a stop to Walmart for papertowels, ziploc bags, and pedialite for the rest of the trip. Luckily that was the last time she got sick, but it was so sad to eat lunch in front of her and not let her have any. But once we were on familiar freeways, and both kids were asleep, the ride went really smooth. So, I know this was a long one, but it was a fun adventure, and I'm so glad I went.

More Pumpkin Pictures

2008-10-18T09:39:00.001-07:00

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Oh, it was so fun! A bunch of the moms took our little ones down to a pumpkin patch in Reedley. (a little town outside of Fresno) We got to walk across a rope bridge, and up a trail up to the top. Then there was a cool little train they could watch go around a little track. Then we got to ride a a big train, it was so fun, it went all around the farm, where we saw groves of Christmas trees, lots of corn and mostly just the thrill of the ride. Then we got to hike down and see a ton of tractors and little farm tools, some they were able to sit on. They of course, pretended they were driving to Target- so cute! Then, we went on a hay ride, which was great, except that Jaron kept eating the hay. Finally, we got to see all the pumpkins, a lot of the kids got to pick one out. Ellie loved sitting on this tiny John Deere and pretending to drive her friends around. We finished off the day by driving to Bear Mountain Pizza for lunch. The kids and I went straight from there to Fresno where we met up with the Joshua class and Rich to go to the Bay area to work with Habitat for Humanity. But, you'll have to wait for that blog to hear about that fun trip.

Chair Delivery

2008-10-10T13:57:00.001-07:00

Yeah, Dad and Judy, (or Grampa Dennis and Gramma Judy), came up yesterday and brought me an amazing chair from IKEA that I had wanted. It had gone on sale for like 3 or 4 days and since the closest IKEA to us is LA or Sacramento, I enlisted my San Diego family to pick it up for me. And then they were so kind to actually drive it to us. It is beautiful, I love it! And we got to visit with them, which was so nice too! It was nice for the kids to just have some quiet, exclusive time with the Grandparents. Well, quiet, I suppose, is relative. Dad and Ellie played hide and seek, did flips and had all sorts of fun. They also got to experience a Joshua theme dinner. It was 80's night and it was quite exciting, and not quiet, I bet you could check out the joshuawilderness.com website to see some good picts of that! Before they left this morning we also got to have some more visiters, as I was babysitting Kai and Kale, so I guess I really don't know what I was talking about with the "quiet" comment. Ha!

Rainy Days

2008-10-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

So what, you ask, do you do with a toddler on a rainy day?

Well, easy, first, you get your raincoat and boots on and splash in the puddles, then you find a secret stage in the bathroom and do a show dressed as a princess, then you take an imaginary boat ride in a laundry basket with your little brother, then you finish the day off by painting a masterpiece at the dining room table.

Life is good.

What to Wear, What to Wear?

2008-10-03T13:57:00.000-07:00

We are trying to figure out what the kids should wear for Halloween. I saw this monkey costume for Jaron, and I thought, "perfect, he is a monkey", but when I tried it on him it fits really weird so we may be returning it. The funny thing is, it is small on his body and big on his head, which just doesn't seem right, because he kinda has a small body and a big head already. Ha! But I also kinda wanted to do Jack Jack from the Incredibles, because everyone says he looks like him. Then for Ellie we've been wanting her to be Annie from Little Einsteins, she kind of looks like her and she loves to sing like her so we thought it would be good, but, the outfit would just kind of be normal clothes, so we are not so sure that's very festive, so she thinks she wants to be a princess, but maybe with wings, and maybe with a microphone, and her face painted, so, we'll have to see what happens. Stay tuned to see what we decide.

Free Labor

2008-10-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

Since it is still early in the year, the Joshua students are jumping at the chance to volunteer and help us out, so we put them to good use digging trenches, laying sprinkler lines and working on the deck. They were troopers, it was a lot of digging. Here are some pictures of the progress, it's getting there, slowly, but surely. Rich stained the deck last weekend, then we got some rain on Tuesday, but as you can see, he did a great job. One of these days we will have proper steps on to our deck and I will not have to sneak around the side balancing a carseat in one hand and holding Ellie's hand with the other, tip toeing over trenches. It's pretty funny to watch. Well, today they are suppose to lay the concrete for the steps to go on so hopefully it does not rain until tomorrow as the forcast says. Although we are having a neighborhood bbq tomorrow, so I kinda hope it doesn't rain then either. Speaking of neighbors, Little Jonathan, (3) and Joshua (6) live two houses up. They are pretty funny and love to play outside. This is Jonathan with Ellie on her motorcycle riding on the not quite finished deck. Cute for now, crazy scary for later! Well, thanks for reading, hope to update again soon.

More Pictures

2008-09-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Allan Schuler captured these.

Not Just a Day in the Park

2008-09-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Some moms put together a thing at the park on Wednesday mornings that we just went to this morning. It is a time for the kids to play together and have a snack and for the moms to hang out. Well during our time there, a helicopter kept flying over, and the kids were all excited to see it. And since there have been fires in the distant area, we figured it was for those. The kids were having a great time playing in the sand, sliding, swinging and just being kids. What we didn't know was that just a little while before, Hume had gotten a call from the Buckrock lookout that there was a fire in Wildwood, they thought it looked like someone had lit the needledump. Oh, did I mention the Joshua students are staying at Wildwood this week. So when one of the maintenance guys rushed by Rich to the needledump, Rich followed, well, no fire there. So they continued around the camp to see if there were any firepits with fires in them, nope, but that's when they saw it, just over the hill. So Rich and Kirk ran to it to start clearing brush with their hands until more help could come. The students were out in the woods having solo time, and when one ran up to him, Rich's first question was, "did you start this?" and the kid was like, "no". Then after several minutes of clearing, the kid said "is this going to be out of control?" and Rich was like "maybe" and the kid was like "I might have started it." The fire crews were there, the helicopter was there within like 10 or so minutes to dump water from overhead. It turns out that during the students extended solo time last night, this one kid had decided to build a little fire, of course he insisted that he had put it all out. Well, apparently it was not ALL out, because now he has had to be investigated and will probably be very heavily fined. Well by lunch time, when I was mosying to the dining hall, I got some strange comments, like, "busy morning, huh, well they just have some mopping to do" I was like, "what are you talking about" Then I was told that there was a fire right outside of Wildwood. Then I was told that Rich was the first one there and had been fighting it all morning, but that it was under control now. My heart was pounding with this strange mixture of anxiety and relief. So after lunch we drove up to Wildwood, only to find Rich in the high ropes course, carrying on with business as usual. Figures! In a couple days we can probably go out to the site and hopefully take some pictures, but here are a few that someone got. So as Ellie was going to bed tonight, I whispered to tell her daddy, "goodnight hero" and she translated that as "Super, super job dad". Get it, super hero, she's crazy! But really, it's kinda funny, but he really is a hero, and really did do a super job, and we love him! His favorite part by the way, was when all the other fire fighters were like ,"duck" and he and Dallas looked up to see the water being dropped from the helicopter and it was so awesome and surreal, only to be followed by gallons of water dumping on them.

All Dolled Up

2008-09-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the Etiquette Dinner for the Joshua students. It is a semi-formal banquet to teach the students etiquette for formal and everyday use. Some Hume friends came and decorated the dining room all shnazzy, everyone dressed up and all the students had "dates". Rich was helping serve with the rest of the staff, so he was not as decked out, but he was able to join us to eat occasionally. Our good friend Cliff Carey worked with a company that taught etiquette and dance to well to do people. (Some pretty famous people's kids, actually, but we won't name names.) So he runs the evening every year, showing them how to walk your date, seat her, how to eat and cut and which silverware to use and all that good stuff. One thing that they teach is that when a lady leaves or comes to the table the gentlemen are to stand up. This is something they encourage the guys to do all year long. This year, Rich actually gave the kids a heads up on this one and they have already started. I still have to remind him to do it, but I think this is the year he's going to learn it. Hee Hee. Well, all to say, it went off beautifully and was quite fun. And the kids looked stinkin' adorable!

The Last of the Blue Tape

2008-09-14T15:06:00.000-07:00

So I finally picked up the blue paint to fill in those rectangles in Jaron's room. So the lovely blue tape is finally down, yeah! We are also making quite a bit of progress on the deck, I am so looking forward to that. (not neccessarily shoveling it when the snow comes, but it will be worth it to enter on the side of our house to our laundry/mud room) Don't worry I still have those dreaded two last boxes that I really need to open and orginanize, then it will really feel like we are moved in. Oh, the lack of motivation that is so prevalent in my life. I mean, who wouldn't want to play with these cute kids instead of doing almost anything? Of course I have been itching to go on a motorcycle ride, so that my happen before those boxes get opened, but we'll see. Hee Hee! So, the jacuzzi very excitingly made it's way over, and today is the day to start rebuilding that deck, yeah for projects! But you should have seen it, 29 brand new Joshua boys all carrying the jacuzzi first and then most of the deck, it was quite a sight! Thank goodness for free labor, (lol). Okay, well, that's all for today, Ellie should be waking up soon.

2 Hard Days

2008-09-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

So I have no pictures with this one, because, there was no time to take pictures, nor would it have been appropriate. Well, Sept 10th started out with me smashing Ellie's finger between her seat and the table when I pushed her in. Then it got better, because we went to her friend Lily's birthday party, yeah for cupcakes and friends and playing at the park. But my body was just tired, I think the 7 months of not getting a good night sleep had just caught up with me. Then we went to Joshua for lunch had naps, played, then went to Joshua for dinner. It was when we were getting ready to leave that we had our sad minute. Ellie had her helmet on, all ready to ride on the motorcycle with daddy. Well, Rich and I were putting Jaron in the car, Ellie climbed on the motorcycle and it fell on her. We both ran so fast to her. Praise Jesus, she had her helmet on and that He protected her from getting seriously injured, because she only had a cut toe a scraped knee a pretty smashed foot, that we at first thought might have been broken, and a couple bruises. It was for sure more scary than anything. We got some ice on it, and took her home. A little neosporin, Elmo band-aid and a good night sleep and all was much better. She limped a little in the morning, but by the afternoon, while we were down the hill shopping, she was hopping and running just like normal. PTL! I say two hard days, because, while the kids did fabulous down the hill with me, it was September 11th, and they kept playing this thing on the radio that would make me almost cry, so by the time we were driving up the hill and Ellie was asleep, but Jaron was screaming, and they played it again, I was in bad shape. I had the worst headache from being all emotional. I think it added to it that Sept 10th was my due date with the baby we lost, so they would have been one years old, and it was just sad to think about. Well, when I got home I realized Jaron had just had really bad gas pains from coming up the mountain and so once he was able to release some of that, he felt much better and actually slept like 7 hours in a row last night, so that was excellent! We are all doing better now. Sorry for such a sad blog, but some days are just like that, hope to have a super fun one next time.

A True Gorbet

2008-09-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

So not long ago, I realized the fantastic fact that my Ellie can now pick things up with her toes, just like her old ma. And her grandma and great-grandpa and so on. It made me so proud the first time I saw it, so when she was doing it today, I just had to take a picture.

I also thought I'd add to the blog today, a video, of my dear little chatter-box. Hope you enjoy.

Deck on Pause

2008-09-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

Well, we had to take a break on the house and yard because Joshua started yesterday, yeah. I'd love to say that we started with all 56, but we are trying to find a couple last minute replacements due to some very last minute drops. The staff is looking like they will be great. A new girl to Hume named Jen is the women's director. She has done several years with Young Life and is super cool. Keri is the administrative assistant and this is her third year with us. The two RA.s are Dallas, who did Joshua 3 years ago and Rachelle Ferreira, Rich's cousin, who has worked at Hume for the past couple summers. The two cooks, who also help out with the program side of things are Big Paul, who did Joshua two years ago and Hillary who just did Joshua last year. It's a great crew and we are very excited to get to know the students and see how God works in their lives! Please keep the Joshua program in your prayers and check the website often for updates and JoshuaWilderness.org.

Well, we are off to the first meal at the building, we'll be in touch.

Bedtime

2008-09-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Bedtime can be kind of stressful at times, trying to get the kids fed and bathed, changed and actually asleep. And usually this is a solo mission due to Rich's schedule. But sometimes it is just pretty fun, mostly because I have like the cutest kids ever. So these are some pictures of some of the bedtime routine. They take a bath together now, which is cute. Of course I still have to sit and hold Jaron up or he'll inevitably fall over, face first in the water. Ellie's really good though with him and shares her toys. He especially likes to chew on the abc's. Then Jaron gets out and dried first while Ellie plays. And usually I get his diaper and jammies on pretty quick but tonight he really wanted to play naked and was loving it. Then Ellie brushes her teeth, gets her jammies on and goes potty. We read a Bible story or a few actually while Ells drinks her milk, then it is off to bed, to pray and say nigh night. If Ellie prays first she says "Thank you Jesus for our food, our family and then trails off for a minute then says, Amen." If I pray first, she will add more things in her prayer that are more relavent. Like if I pray for a good trip down the hill tomorrow she will pray that daddy does good at the doctor. It's really cute. And of course we always pray that Jaron would sleep well. Hee Hee. Anyways, I just thought I'd give you a little glimpse into my nightly duties as mom.

We Moved!

2008-08-30T22:43:00.000-07:00

We finally got the go-ahead to move to our new house, yeah! It has been an exausting, but very exciting process! We started on Saturday and finally have everything here and almost everything put away. But we still have the dreaded task of cleaning and painting our old house, boo! Hopefully we can get some friends to help with that, but we'll see. Anyways, Ellie loves her new pink room and running around the house finding new spots to hide, and being able to open all the doors, (because they are the kind of handle that our safety handles don't work on)! Jaron, well, I would say that he loves his own green room, but really he just gets up and cries just as much as ever, but I love that I don't have to jump out of bed to get him so fast. We are enjoying the extra space and staying busy dreaming about and working on landscaping plans. Rich's brother Rob came up the other day and did TONS of work with the yard, moving dirt for drainage and landscaping. We are planning on building a deck and digging sprinkler lines and planting grass and...any volunteers. Ha! We hope you can all come and see it. But, for now, there are still some boxes to be unpacked, so I should call it a blog and get going.

Upside Down

2008-08-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, you'd think I would have more time to blog with no company in town, but it has been a crazy few weeks. Wildwood just finished their last week of camp and are now cleaning up camp. Rich is also getting things ready for the Joshua year to start again. We have been continuing to work on our new house, painting and space planning as well as chain sawing dead trees and clearing them away from the yard. We have put in some sweat equity for sure, and we haven't even started moving in yet. But no worries, it is coming soon I'm sure. It passsed inspection and they are just finishing up the last details before we get the go-ahead. Very exciting. So I have started packing, filled the Suburban and parked that and we now have a 1960's ambulance that Wildwood uses, so I can fill that up too. It's actually kind of nice having the extra time to just pack when I can, mostly during naps and Huckleberry times. But of course we would love to get all in before Joshua starts, so on that end we are kind of antsy. Well, since I last wrote, our little Jaron learned to sit up, turned 6 months and started eating vegetables. (and is still not sleeping through the night, boo) Well another reason I haven't been blogging too much is because I haven't been taking too many pictures because my batteries keep dying, so sad. But we are planning on getting some this week so hopefully I will be back in the updating mode soon! Love you all and hope you are all doing well.

More Visiters!

2008-08-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

This past week Rich's family came up and stayed in a cabin. It was so nice to have them. We sat by the lake, did puzzles at the cabin and a lot of the time Grammy Moo took Ellie so I could start painting our new house that we're getting. So that was extra awesome! Rich took all the guys on a ten mile mountain bike ride, which they all survived. (some better than others) And we had a fun photo shoot at the end of the week. Only problem was, when we were rushing to get ready, the toilet overflowed and I didn't have time to do my hair. My hair ended up looking quite silly in all the pictures-sad day. But all in all it was a fantastic week!

Yeah For Visiters

2008-07-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well this week was so fun! I just realized I think I start almost all blogs that way, oh well, it's true! Dad and Judy came and camped near Hume with the 5 middle grandkids, Shelby, Phoebe, Caleb, Abigail, and Josiah. Ellie loves visiting with her cousins. We had fun playing at their campground, and playing at Hume. Swimming, Samurai rides, riding bikes, watching the Hume bike jump and Pizzookie up at Wildwood! What a blast!

They are getting so Big!

2008-07-18T13:55:00.000-07:00

So our little Jaron had his first solid food last night. Rice Cereal! Very exciting. They call it a solid, because it is, compared to what he has been having, but it really could be sucked easily through a straw if one wanted to. In any case, he loved it! Ellie thought it was pretty fun too, in fact a little while later she was sitting eating a fig newton, and was like, "this is my first food" all cute with this sneaky smile. She cracks me up. So it was pretty entertaining because every time I had the spoon over him, he would start kicking and bouncing and spill it everywhere. Silly boy. We were really hoping that this would help him sleep through the night, because he still isn't, but then he woke up at his usual midnight, but after a scream and a feeding he slept for 8 hours yeah! So I know I titled this one "They are getting so big" and that is because the other very exciting news is that Ellie is Potty Trained! Hurray! She has been in big girl panties for almost 2 weeks now and we are very proud of her! Well, we don't have any pictures of that but we do have a little video of the rice cereal extravaganza. Enjoy!

San Diego Trip

2008-07-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

Well in May my brother became the proud daddy of twin boys, so naturally I had to set up a trip as soon as possible to see those kiddos! Well, I spent all last week in San Diego/Escondido visiting with family. I got to stay with my mom, see Jenson and Quincy and their big sister Ava and their parents, I got to see Dad and Judy and a fun treat that my nieces Bethany and Amber were out from Texas, I got to go to IKEA, the beach and Hume SD, it was fantastic! On the way down I also stayed the night with Rob and Katie in Kingsburg then stopped for lunch to see my sister and her new house near Magic Mountain. We had a blast in the pool at Granny's (my mom) and got to see Grandpa and Grammy Moo (Rich's parents) and run around in their backyard. Ellie got to fly around in a Superman cape that was Rich's when he was a little tike, she got to build sand castles with her big girl cousins and party it up with the Hume SD friends and lots of other cousins, including Tori and Minnie. (Rob and Katie's dogs) All to say, it was great to see everyone and flew by like crazy!

No Fireworks but tons of Fun!

2008-07-04T22:42:00.001-07:00

Well today was the 4th of July. Here at Hume Lake there are no fireworks allowed, for obvious reasons, but there is a super high class parade! Everyone decks out their vehicle of choice with balloons, streamers, flags and the like and we have a parade through the camp. Vehicles include motorcycles, golf carts, strollers, firetrucks, trash trucks, go carts, whatever, it's hilarious. Lots of people throw candy for the on lookers, we handed out cookies that Ellie and I had made. This is the first year we were actually in it so it was quite fun, especially since Heidi is up this weekend and joined us on our trek through camp. We topped the night off with watching the Pizzookie performance at Wildwood and putting the kids to bed really late, so a Happy Fourth it was.

I chopped it off!

2008-07-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

Whoo HOo, I chopped my hair off, it is so fun! Basically for those of you who don't know, while you're pregnant your hair usually grows a ton, the negative side is once you have a baby, it all starts to fall out like crazy! I didn't get it so bad with Ellie, but this time, OH Man, I pull out literally handfuls everyday! So all to say, I finally decided to cut it off. There is a girl working summer staff who was a Joshua student this last year that cuts hair, she has her license and everything, so she did really good. (if I do say so myself) So Ellie took some pictures I thought I'd pass along.

A Day at the Lake

2008-07-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Saturday going down to Pine Flat Reservoir. We went with the Wildwood staff and met Rich's brother Rob there with his ski boat. Rich rented two party barges that we based out of for the day and the staff stayed the night on. It was great, both Rich and I got a chance to wakeboard, which it has been a very long time and we are both sore from. The kids loved it too. Jaron loved chewing on his lifevest and Ellie loved floating and playing on the barge.

Goin' to Huckleberry

2008-06-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

So Huckleberry House is a common term around here that Hume people know and love. It is the childcare program for ages 0-5. They charge $5 a session, but staff gets it for $2.50 plus one free day a week. It is available in the mornings from 9:30 to noon, and in the evenings from 6:30 to 8:30. I used today as my free day and it was fabulous, this morning I put both kids in and met some moms at Hume N Beans for coffee (or chai in my case), then tonight I put Ellie in so I could clean the house. Who else has childcare this cheap, it's awesome! Oh, and they give out pagers that work all over camp so I can be paged at my house if they need me, so cool! And Ellie totally loves it and loves seeing her friends there. Well, tonight when I picked her up she had her face painted, and I was like, "oh a kitty" and she goes, "no, I'm a doggy". And she spent much of the next half hour barking for me and Jaron. We both very much enjoyed the free entertainment! So I had to share our little doggy with you. Enjoy!

Sticker Fun

2008-06-23T15:11:00.000-07:00

So today, while I innocently tried to take a nap, my lovely daughter decided to take that opportunity to decorate me with her new alphabet stickers. She carefully went about placing them all over my arm and then curled up on the couch with me, but wait, she spotted one more sticker that had stuck to the tissue box. So she quickly hopped down and got the last one to put on me. So thorough she is. Of course, as I write this, I'm realizing she is not done with her fun because it appears that she just found some little post-its and is now decorating the coffee table with them. Quite the artist!

First Pool Day

2008-06-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today was so fun, Jaron had his first "swim" in the Wildwood pool! He did fabulous and did not cry once! Dad had Ellie and Mom had Jar-bear, it was a blast! The kids had fun together too, and as you can see, Jaron loves his big sister.

First and Second

2008-06-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well we were all apart of a fun wedding this weekend. It was Ellie's first flower girl experience and Rich's second wedding to officiate. Andy and Kellie have worked at Hume and Kellie has worked for Rich at both Wildwood and Joshua. It was very beautiful in a place not far from Hume called Westin Meadow. Both Rich and Ellie did fabulous! One highlight was for sure Ellie picking her nose on the way down the aile, but she did manage to toss some flowers out of her basket and stand up front until the time she was suppose to come and sit with me and then sitting still for the rest of the wedding. It was pretty impressive. Rich did a great job, including handing out a golden plunger as is Wildwood tradition for a symbol of being a servant. We enjoyed tasty desserts and fun dancing while some of Rich's staff kept an eye on Jaron. Ellie even tried out her photography skills with that picture of me. I know there will be more wedding experiences, but this was sure a good one.

Squeakers

2008-06-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

So Jaron has been squealing and giggling like crazy lately, so I thought I'd give you a little tid bit of the fun. Don't mind the filming, I was holding the camera with one hand while tickeling him with the other so it's a little jiggly but I think it's worth it. Enjoy!

We Survived!

2008-06-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we just finished our first week of summer camp, whew! This first one is usually pretty small, only 782 inPonderosa, 383 in Meadow Ranch, 209 in Wagon Train and 66 in Wildwood. Of course, that's still a wopping 1,440 kids coming to hear about Jesus. It's so fun to watch it all come together. Pondy and Meadow have a robot theme this year called "Rise of the Kinematics". Kinematics is the study of motion with no consideration for the cause of it. The speakers are preaching on core doctrines to combat the purely experiential and emotional christianity of today. Wildwood is taking it's own spin on that, there theme is called "Core" and is based on the beatitudes in Matthew 5-7 to hit the students who are already believers. Hume SD (at Point Loma) starts on Monday so that will add a whole new camp. They will run all the same openers and rec as us with a different setting. They will also be taking advantage of the beach, Mexico and other local opportunities. For more info see humelake.org and wildwoodblog.blogspot.com. One of my absolute favorite parts of the week is the dessert at Wildwood on Friday nights! It's called Pizzookie! A sheet pan size chocolate chip cookie with ice cream piled on top delivered in song and dance. And this year they really stepped it up with corresponding video, lights, and a star studded cast including Mandy Moore, Michael Bolton, Carlos Santana, Neopolean Dynomite, Britney Spears and Magnum PI! It's a MUST SEE if you live at or are visiting Hume at all this summer! Well, I finally get to see Rich again, so I better wrap this up. Sorry there's no pictures.

Time Flies

2008-06-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Well I was just taking some pictures of little Jaron and it reminded me of a picture of Ellie. Time really does fly, it's crazy to think how fast she has grown and how tomorrow he will be running around and talking, jumping off stuff, and off roading. My little Ellie took her first quad ride with dad out in the dirt with her sweet new motorcycle helmet. It was kind of traumatic where he couldn't hear that she was crying the whole time until they stopped and she was like, " I don't like the bumpies!". And her little face was freezing so he gave her his goggles, then she was still cold so he gave her his jacket, they came home and she was fine, but he was now freezing, ha. Well, that's what dad is for right. I'm so curious how Jaron will do these things, but no rush!

ATMs

2008-06-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well, as most of you know, I go walking with a bunch of moms every morning around the lake and we call ourselves the ATMs-All Terrain Moms! It is a fabulous time to get out of the house, get some excersize, talk with other moms, and get some sun. We finally stopped and took a picture of just a few of us. There are probably 11-13 moms who go, but not all at the same time. All the kids have there own things they like to do. One likes to throw anything throwable out of the stroller, some insist on having a stick to hold, some are more concerned with snacks, and some fall asleep. We always get comments and stares from passerbys, people just love to see that many kiddos getting free rides. The moms usually talk about the latest reality show, the latest housing move, or the latest thing we are learning in scripture and with our kids. We've shared every labor story and tips on child rearing that we can think of. It's a blast, to say the least! Hopefully we will have shirts made sometime soon!

New Trick

2008-05-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

Well, not too new I guess, but I think today Ellie mastered picking her nose. Ha! She had to have spent ten percent of the day diggin in there. I can't blame her though, I am always cleaning out her nose. I convinced her a while back that it tickled so she has let me do it forever, but now as she becomes her own woman, she doesn't want mommy to do it, she wants to do it herself! Of course this is not the only thing she wants to do by herself these days, but you don't want to get me started on all of those. So today when I'd try to help her out, she would happily try to help me back, and that was just not going to fly, so I let it go and just tried to get the girl a tissue. Oh motherhood, the things you never thought you'd do, let alone talk about! I'm lovin it though, even on those days when you literally change one's diaper, feed the other, change their diaper, spank the other and repeat for hours on end, it's still the best job ever, with the best benefits!

Vaca Sac

2008-05-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

So, traveling by yourself with two kids is awesome! We went to Vacaville this weekend to see my brother Josh, and his family. Then I left Ellie with them while I went to my good friend Heidi's college graduation in Sacramento. So the highlights of traveling were definetely Ellie throwing up in the backseat, and then about an hour before we got there she thought it would be a good idea to wake up Jaron, so he could scream the rest of the way. Very cute! But really over all it was a really good weekend. I got to hang with Josh and Heather, have carne asada and Ellie got to jump on the trampoline, play with the cat and of course play with her cousins, which she loved! Then I got see my Heidi, get pedicures, go to her graduation and to her super fun after party! What a Blast! (I also got to spend like an hour and a half in Target without a toddler-amazing!) All to say, we're glad to be back home, even though it's raining, boo!

The Davids

2008-05-21T22:53:00.000-07:00

So we just got back from the neighborhood American Idol Finale Party! Very exciting. It's our time to be totally critical of people and get away with it, because, hey, that's the point! Since the final two were both named David, I appropriatly made this shirt-Go David! Even though I really was rooting for David Cook. The one that was not 17, ha! And to all our suprise, he won! How fun, we totally thought the teeny boppers had more voting free time, but the best man really won, way to go America! Well, happy tv viewing, now onto "So you think you can dance"!

The Turtle

2008-05-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

So I don't know how hot it has been where you live, probably worse than here, but it has been around 90 here at Hume the last few days. (102 in Fresno-blah) So we had to break out the turtle pool and the popsicles and have some fun outside! The turtle is actually made for sand, but who cares. Ellie loved it! Jaron did not go swimming, but he is sporting his little surfer shirt and mohawk! Windows are open, fans are on and summer is fast approaching! If I could only get that Spring cleaning done before Spring is over-ha!

Buddies

2008-05-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

So Jaron has a friend, his name is Corin, he is three weeks older than Jaron and lives right next door. Today was the first day they "played" together. By played, I mean, stared at eachother, layed near eachother, and took turns crying and smiling. It was quite fun. Ellie was cute with them too, a little jealous of the focus not being on her, but still cute non the less.

Most of you know Ellie's friend Hannah, or know of her, since she is much talked about by my little dear. Well, sadly she is out of town for a few days, but they did get some quality hang out time yesterday, having stroller races, and coloring with chalk. We are so blessed to live here and have so many friends for our kids to play with and learn with!

JWI Graduation

2008-05-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Joshua Graduation on Mother's Day was awesome. Mostly, because it's over! Ha! It was cool though, we watched the hour long movie of the year while we ate, a boy and a girl from the class both spoke, Rich spoke and the students were called by name and received something from each staff member. A quarter from Rich, to signify that they are friends now and to call anytime, a really cool trophy engraved with their name, a binder of their week end reveiws that they wrote all year, this year's Joshua shirt, and the class picture. And you know some other stuff I'm sure went on, but I was in and out with the kiddos, feeding one, running after the other, taking one potty, changing the other's diaper, the usual. Now-onto Wildwood!

We Started A Blog!

2008-05-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

We thought this would be a fun way to update y'all on our lives! Right now is crazy time for us and for Hume. The Joshua students graduate on Sunday and that same day Rich's second in charge for summer arrives to start preparing for Wildwood! No rest for the weary :-) The rest of Hume is also bustling as May madness has begun. Building sets, cleaning up camp, hiring last minute staff. All while still running camps and conferences! It's pretty fun though, to see it all come together! I'm still walking in the mornings with the All Terrain Moms. And I love it! Out of the 10 houses in our neighborhood, 7 of us have babies under one years old! The kids are doing great too, Jaron is growing out of his colic, which is exciting for everyone! And Ellie is talking like crazy and showing such a sweet love for her friends! They are wearing their matching tiedye outfits from Grandma Judy, and are lookin' pretty cute. Did I mention that I love being a mom! Well, that's it for the first blog, look for more to come.