Life According to Kensli

We just began our 21 Days of Sacrifice with our church.  Leading up to the 21 days there has been much discussion about fasting at our house.  Here are a couple of Kensli's ideas about fasting.

Kensli: "Daddy, I am fasting."
Toby:  "What are you fasting?"
Kensli: "Being mean."
Toby:  "Well, that's good."
Kensli:  "Yeah, but I'm not fasting beating up a couple people!"

Kensli told some dear friends of ours that on the 21 Days of Sacrifice she was going to fast chocolate because she didn't like it anyway.

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The other day while we were driving across town she loudly informs, "Mom, I think I need to get a tattoo."  Oh, my!  Thankfully she was referring to the tattoos and stickers they give out at the Dr.'s office.

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The other day we got a mini van as a rental while our Suburban was being worked on.  She fell in love with the thing.  She told my friend the other night when she rode in their mini van that she LOVED mini vans.  Today while driving to the store, she told Nicholas that we were going faster than a rocket, faster than a plane, but not faster than a mini van.

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My grandmother has had a couple of falls lately.  The last fall, bruised her face very bad.  We went to visit while she was still all bruised and Kensli was very disturbed about what had happened to her.

Also, being the mother of 5 sometimes my daily prayer time is on my feet on the go.  I pray anywhere and anytime.  Driving, cooking, washing clothes, etc., it is not strange to hear me all of a sudden start praying.

One day last week something came to mind that I needed to pray for, so I asked the Lord to take care of the situation.  Never missing a beat when I was done, Kensli pipes up from the back seat of the suburban, "Lord, help Granny not to fall flat on her face again.  She looked like she was in a dog fight and a bull fight."  I couldn't help it, she makes me laugh!  I bet the Lord got a chuckle out of that one, too.

Kamryn's Cold

Last week Kamryn came down with a runny nose and fever, which brought on a giant case of the cranky baby syndrome.  Being the careful, watchful, and concerned mother that I am, I carted her off to the doctor proclaiming that it must be an ear infection.  Even told the nurse my worries and concerns about the ears being infected.  After an exam, the pediatrician told me that he could find nothing wrong, except that she had a 24 hour virus.  Heaving a huge sigh of relief that I was not going to have to struggle getting down a weeks round of antibiotics into a baby that can taste medicine hidden in anything, I head home.  The rest of the week she got over the virus just like the Dr said, and then  developed a cold.

Every day I watched closely to make sure the color of what was coming out of her nose was clear and thankfully it was, but by the weekend she had developed a new quite disturbing symptom.  She would get choked on cold and cough until she threw up.  It was quite alarming and always came without warning.  Honestly, she did not care where or who she threw up on.  We were so busy with the revival that we decided that since she was so active, no fever, etc. we would wait until Monday to talk to Dr. M.  By Monday morning she seemed better, so I didn't call thinking the worst was over.  She went until Tuesday night before she threw up again and then twice this morning.  I called the doctor and he said that she had a cold and take her off her formula until it was better.  The milk was causing her to produce more mucus.   He told me to go get some saline drops, nasal aspirator, Pedialyte, and a cool mist humidifier, too.

With supply list in hand we head to W*l-mart and pick up all this stuff that is supposed to help Kamryn get better.  Once home I thought that we should try the "stuffy nose kit" that we bought.  I read the directions with the smiling baby on them.  Now, have you ever tried to put saline drops in a baby's nose?  Better yet, try to suction it out with the nasal aspirator!  The first time we tried we caught her off guard and for the about 30 seconds she kind of looked like the smiling baby on the directions.  Then reality hit and she was like a wild animal.  She fought Kaitlyn and me so hard that we finally gave up for fear of hurting her.   The last time we tried, she knew what was happening and screamed and fought like a tiger from the beginning.  Thought about taking her, the drops, and the aspirator to Dr. M and see if he could do any better.

Thankfully the nice part about babies is that they hold no grudges.  Even though I held her down and made her mad enough to scratch my eyes out, she seems to have forgotten it and loves me again.  Not sure that I would be able to forget about someone dropping things down my nose or suctioning something out so quickly!

The No milk worries me, too, but she seems OK with baby food, juice, and Pedialyte.  I had never heard of or thought that the formula could be adding to the problem.  Makes sense though, because when I have a cold I do not want milk at all.

Praying that the humidifier will do the trick tonight and this will all be over soon.

A New Name and Revival

A few weeks ago our Spanish church became an officially recognized daughter work of the larger church that we started from.  I hope that I have said that correctly, but it basically means we are an official church with a name, but still under the umbrella of our parent church.  (Confusing even to me.) Having an official status, we needed a name that is different from our parent church.  So, with the help of our music minister, Toby's assistant, and a missionary friend in Guatemala, we now have a beautiful new name...... 

Iglesia Pentecostal Rios de Agua Viva.  

Translated it means Rivers of Living Water Pentecostal Church.  Love the meaning, but is so much prettier in Spanish.  I find this is true with a lot of things.  

This past weekend we held our first revival.  Rev. Eli Hernandez flew in from California and preached for us. 

 Friday night we had a social at our house and there was good food catered by one of our Spanish ladies.  Around 50 people came and visited with us.  

On Saturday night, we had 62 people in service with 3 receiving the Holy Spirit.  While the adults were having their service, we had Mark and Amie with a Family of Clowns minister to the children.  They had so much fun.  One lady that was helping said, "I haven't laughed that much in years."

Mark with The Family of Clowns as Mister Chicken.

Sunday morning started at 10:30 am with Morning Fellowship.  We served coffee and donuts to the ones that arrived early.  The church service was another powerful move of God with 7 more people receiving the Holy Spirit.  The Family of Clowns ministered once more to the kids.  We broke our record of 78 with 84 in attendance.   

Music minister, praise singer and musicians leading worship.

Praying in the altar.

It was an amazing weekend!

Last night during our cell group meeting we heard testimonies of what God has done in people's lives.  So refreshing to hear what God is doing among our church people.

The Last Few Weeks

 It has been busy at our little house in the deep south.  The weather has been beautiful and the flowers are blooming.  The backyard is vivid with color and the warm breezes make you want to be outside more than inside.  I just wish my camera could really capture all the colors of my world right now.

Super moon on Saturday night sent us out side with our telescope.  Unfortunately we were not able to do so until it was a little later at night, but the kids had a good time anyway.

I posted a few posts ago about Toby's ordination, and this past week was the actual ceremony.  We are so very proud of him.

Family picture taken at the service. 

We planted herbs for Kaitlyn's botany studies and the kids are so proud of their plants.  We will hopefully have fresh herbs to cook with one day.

Kamryn grabs whatever she can reach.  I was enjoying a sucker the other day and she grabbed it and tried to put it in her mouth.

 Kamryn scoots every where now and loves anything electronic.  She will move quickly if she thinks she can get your phone or computer.  Loves to catch you not looking and punch buttons.  She is keeping us BUSY!

Kinda Sitting Up?

Sunshine is really growing and learning so many new things.  She has been working on sitting up and is getting better and better.  Today she sat up for a good minute, while playing with my phone and holding on to her seat to steady herself from time to time.

If you get her interested in something she can sit a lot longer.

Finally going over.  

This picture has nothing to do with Sunshine sitting up.

I usually do not like pictures of me.
 Ricky snapped this one today and I liked it so much I thought I would add it to this post.  

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss, we woke up and thought all the thoughts we could think.

We read several books written by Dr. Seuss.

Then, we thought several more thoughts.

Finally, we illustrated what we were thinking.

Kaitlyn's Stripped Who's Who

Kensli's Bird Fruit Trees

Nicholas used The Cat in the Hat as inspiration for his picture.

That is me in the car.   Wish I had a car like that!

Ricky's Many Thoughts

The kids enjoy the creative morning break and we all enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss!