A Mother's Meanderings

A Trip to the Grocery Store ALONE

2011-04-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Today I went grocery shopping alone (for the first time in quite awhile) and three things struck me...

#1 It is a whole lot faster to get in and out of a store when you don't have children with you!

#2 It is lonely going to the store by yourself. There is no cooing baby staring up at you from her carrier with a big drooling smile. There is no two year old little boy to play the "Lets try to find a ...." game with. No four year old to help you get the items off of the lower shelves. No six year old to share the joys of finding a good sale or the frustrations of rising food prices. And no thirteen year old to remind you of all the items you forgot to put on your grocery list. Yip, going by yourself to the store is awfully lonely.

And the third thing that struck me....

#3 I'd rather take my kids along for a longer trip than go alone for a quick one.

I am so blessed to have my children IN my life and even more blessed to be able to SHARE my life with them... including life at the grocery store.

Next trip... the kids are coming along!

Congratulations on (Your) Our New Baby

2011-04-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

I feel so blessed to be called "Mommy" and while the task of parenting can be challenging, I want nothing but the BEST for all my precious children. That is why it concerns me that my rights as a parent to raise my own children are slowly slipping away. Little by little the government is stepping in to say that it knows better and can do better than me (or any other parent out there). If you believe God gave children to parents (not the government) to raise then PLEASE click on the link below and read the story that follows.

Congratulations on (Your) Our New Baby - Parentalrights.org - Protecting Children by Empowering Parents

I'd love to hear what you think of the story as well. Feel free to leave a comment.

Pictures of Abigail

2010-11-15T10:35:00.001-08:00

Getting ready to come home from the hospital...

BIG YAWN!

Sucking her thumb for the first time...

Isn't she precious?!

Siblings

2010-11-15T10:15:00.000-08:00

(Yes, the oldest sibling is missing from pictures. That's because she is the one behind the camera. But rest assured that she has held Abigail more than any of her other siblings!)

A Visitor

2010-11-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

Here's the visitor we found in our garage last week...

Abigail Faith

2010-11-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

Born: October 26, 2010
Weight: 9 pounds
Length: 19 1/4 inches

Evan's Curls

2010-10-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

In May, we took this picture of Evan.....

Notice there are no curls.

Then, in September something started happening to his hair....
It went crazy curly!

Story Time Together

2010-10-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Aren't big sisters great?!?! Here is Alyssa reading to her little brother, Evan. Wondering what book they are reading? It is Kurt's book on lawn care! Evan wanted to learn all about lawn mowers and sprinkler systems.

Apple Picking in Julian

2010-10-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we took the family apple picking in Julian after church. The kids had a great time filling up their bags and eating apples along the way. They had several different varieties of apples, so it was fun trying all the different types. We met up with some friends from church and had a great time! Thankfully, it was an overcast day which made it much more enjoyable for me and made it feel more like fall.

Instilling Faith in our Family: Part 3

2010-10-01T14:44:00.000-07:00

Instilling Faith in our Family: Part 2

2010-09-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

God wants us to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord throughout the day but we often wrestle with how to practically apply this principle. In the craziness of life, how do we (as parents) instill faith into our families? Well, I sure don't have all the answers but I do have a few ideas to get you thinking. Remember, these are ideas that God has given me for my family. He probably has some unique ideas for you and your family. But hopefully the following ideas will get you thinking about how you can teach God's truths to your own children and instill a spirit of faith in your own family.

Ways to Instill Faith into your Family:

Click here to read Part 1 (ideas # 1-5)

6. Another great way to instill faith in your family is to pray together in the car while you are driving around town. We started off praying for people who were stranded on the side of the road or when we saw a car accident but then I began to realize that everyone needs prayer! Even the most put together person walking down the street could use prayer for something, so we began praying for anyone the kids and I felt led to pray for as we drove around town. This has been a special time of intercession for others and has taught the children to be more aware of the needs of those around them.

7. When you are out running errands you can also pray that you and your children will be Bright Lights for Jesus while in the store. When the kids and I pull into the parking lot the first thing we do before getting out of the car is pray that God would make us Bright Lights for Him and give us eyes to see people's needs. I use this time to reinforce proper behavior in stores and remind the kids that when they act appropriately they are honoring God and being a witness to others. We also look for ways to serve others while we are out. I like to "debrief" when we get back in the car, asking the kids how they were Bright Lights during our trip to the store and if they were able to serve someone else. They often say things like, "I smiled at the lady" or "I handed the man the item he dropped." I also like to point out ways I saw them shining for the Lord. One other thing I do (although I wish I never had to) is confess my own sins. I often get anxious, frustrated or irritated while shopping with the kids and I think it is important for me to acknowledge before them my sin and to confess it openly as a model for them on how to repent of sin.

8. Teach your children that prayer isn't just talking to God but also waiting quietly for Him to speak to us. You can do this through listening prayer. Listening prayer is just asking the Lord what He would like to speak to you at that moment. One of the things we do with the kids is ask God who He would like each of us to prayer for. We all listen quietly for a few moments and then I ask each child who God told them to prayer for. Each person then prays for the person God laid on their heart. Now I know that sometimes my kids are just pulling names out of the air, but I truly believe that more times than not, God is really speaking to them. And, either way, they are learning the importance of being still before the Lord and will hopefully grow in their ability to clearly hear God for themselves.

9. One of the most memorable things that friends and family have done for me at each baby shower is blessed me with the original design of my new baby. I believe God has uniquely created each individual with traits, gifts and personalities that reflect our heavenly Creator and will ultimately bring glory to Him if used according to his will. Our church has come to call these unique characteristics our original design or the way God originally intended for us to be (without the effects of sin). You can spend time before the Lord in prayer asking Him to reveal words, pictures and/or verses that reflect your own child's original design. Then you can pray this design over your child. It is also helpful to ask the Lord how the enemy would want to come against your child's original design. You can then do spiritual warfare against the attacks of the enemy! What a wonderful gift to give your child by going before the Lord on their behalf and praying for them!

10. One idea, that I got from a family in our church, is doing spiritual warfare prayer as a family. Each morning, before they head off for the day, this family comes together for prayer. They each quietly ask the Lord how the enemy would want to come against each member of their family that day and then they share what they got. Next, they pray against the enemies schemes for each person and then pray a blessing over each other. What an amazing way to start the day as a family! Not only are they gathering as a family for prayer but they are preparing each other for the spiritual battle that awaits them that day. While our family hasn't implemented this (yet), I just had to share it. This would be a great thing to do with older children and teens.

11. One last idea (for this post) is reading from the Bible with your kids. We often read Bible stories from children's Bibles and this is a great way to help our kids understand the Bible at their own level, however, we don't want the Bible stories to be "just another story" from one of their story books. Opening up your own Bible, or one you purchased just for your child, and reading a story or a verse from it with your child will help your child realize that God's Word isn't just a make-believe story... it is God's Word for us today! Use this time to discuss the meaning of the passages you are reading, helping the child to understand difficult words or passages. They probably won't understand everything you read to them from the Bible, but they will be getting use to hearing God's Word. No better gift can we give our children than a love for God's Word... straight from the Bible!

Those are some more ideas from me but I'd love to hear from some of you... if anyone is out their reading these posts. ;-) So feel free to leave a comment and share how you are trying to instill faith into your family!

Click here to read Part 3

Book Review: One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado

2010-09-27T10:55:00.000-07:00

One Hand, Two Hands, by Max Lucado is a charming book about how kids use the hands that God gave them every day. It starts off showing how kids use their hands to play and concludes with how they can use their hands for God’s glory by helping and serving others. The illustrations, done by Gaby Hansen, are quite adorable and my children quickly noticed her creativity in making the character's stuffed animals come to life through imaginative play.

I enjoyed reading this story to my little ones and since it was so short it held the attention of my two year old son. While I have found other children's books by Max Lucado to be more enjoyable, this book is still a nice addition to our library. My four year old daughter especially liked the story and asked me to read it to her several times in a row.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed are my own. You can also participate in the program by visiting there site at booksneeze.com.

Instilling Faith in our Family: Part 1

2010-09-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

Deuteronomy 11:18-19 says, "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

God wants us to instruct our children in the ways of the Lord throughout the day but we often wrestle with how to practically apply this principle. In the craziness of life, how do we (as parents) instill faith into our families? Well, I sure don't have all the answers but I do have a few ideas to get you thinking. Remember, these are ideas that God has given me for my family. He probably has some unique ideas for you and your family. But hopefully the following ideas will get you thinking about how you can teach God's truths to your own children and instill a spirit of faith in your own family.

Ways to Instill Faith into your Family:

1. Set up a prayer board in your home. This could be a white board, chalk board, bulletin board or even the refrigerator. It is a place where you (and your kids) post prayer request and praises. Our prayer board is a magnetic white board where we write out the prayer requests of family, friends and missionaries we are praying for. We put up pictures of many of the people (and people groups) we are praying for so that the little ones who can't read have a visual reminder of who to pray for. In the past, we had a map under our prayer board so that the kids could see where the different missionaries and family members we were praying for lived. It is a good idea to put your prayer board in a location that people frequently walk by and encourage the kids to stop, pick one person, and say a quick prayer before walking on.

2. Make a prayer box. Our prayer box is a shoe box with a hole cut into the lid. We covered it with construction paper and let the kids color the box. Then we took index cards cut in half and wrote out the names of each person we wanted to pray for. On the other side of the card we either let the kids color a picture (or scribble) or, if the kids weren't very familiar with the person, we glued on a picture of that person. Names that we put in our box included family members, missionaries we support, church leaders and government leaders (both at the local and national level). The kids love pulling out a card and praying for the person they got. We usually do this at our Family Worship time but the kids often ask to do the prayer box at meals or at random times of the day. Keep your prayer box in a location that everyone can see so you don't forget to use it! We keep ours on our kitchen island.

3. Find a good location to build an altar with your Stones of Remembrance. Okay, you are probably wondering what on earth I am talking about! Altars? Stones of remembrance? What is that? Well, remember all the stories in the Old Testament where people built altars to thank God for what He had done and to REMEMBER how He had delivered them? Well, God does some amazing things in our lives today as well and we often forget to thank Him and to remember later all that He has done for us. So, to help us teach our children to be aware of what God is doing for us, to then thank Him for what He has done and to remember, at a later time, all that He has done for us as a family, I thought up the Stones of Remembrance. (Now, a little confession.... we haven't actually started this yet. But I am getting excited about it as I type so I'm hoping to start it soon!) What you do is find or purchase several large smooth rocks to have ready to use when God does do something miraculous in your families life. Then, when the miraculous event happens, pull out one rock and write a little phrase on the rock to help you remember what God did. (For example, last year we went to Disneyland and ran over glass just minutes from leaving our house but our tire didn't go flat until we reached the Disneyland parking lot! God kept us safe on the freeway and we were all well aware of it! So we would write something on our rock like..."Disneyland Flat Tire" and the date.) After you've written on your rock or Stone of Remembrance, find a good place to put it where you can continue to "build your altar". You could build your altar somewhere in your yard or put your rocks in a basket somewhere in your home. Just don't forget to look through them every now and then so that you can remember, as a family, how God has worked in your family's life!

4. Practice Family Worship together. Family worship is really just another way of saying spending time as a family praying, singing, reading the Bible and/or memorizing scripture together. You could do it in the morning or in the evening. The key is to go before the Lord as a family. Remember that the time you spend doing Family Worship will vary depending on the ages of your children. If you have really young children you might want to keep it to 10 or 15 minutes (now that's doable!) If you're a man reading this then I challenge you to be the spiritual leader of your family and initiate Family Worship. It doesn't matter if it only happens occasionally or if you go long periods of time without doing it. Your wife and children will be blessed by your initiation of it, no matter how many times it actually happens. If your a woman, then I'd encourage you to pray that your husband would be stirred by God to start Family Worship. I would discourage you from pestering your husband to do it....remember God placed your husband as the spiritual leader and you as his encouraging helpmate. It is okay to mention the idea to him, to do what you can to encourage him and set up an environment that would allow Family Worship to happen but don't pester. Let him lead. And you, pray. If it never happens, you can still instruct your children in the Lord and worship with them throughout the day. Family Worship is a great way to honor and glorify God as a family and it is a powerful tool in helping your children realize the importance of spending time before the throne of God!

5. Memorize scripture with your children. God's Word is a mighty weapon against our enemy so it is vital that we empower our children with the Word of God. The best way I know of to do this is to have them memorize scripture. There are lots of ways to go about memorizing scripture as a family. We have tried several different techniques throughout the years but the one I liked the best and found the most helpful was our Memory Box. I got the idea from another blogger named Kimberly over at Raising Olives. Click here for her tutorial on making a memory box.

There's a few ideas from us. More to come later. But for now, I'd love to hear how you instill faith into your family. If you have some great ideas to share please leave a comment! And remember, a married couple without children is a family too! How do you, as a couple, cultivate a spirit of faith within your marriage? Love to hear from you.....

Click here to read Part 2

Evan's Names

2010-09-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Evan loves his family and talks about them all the time. He has his own version for each persons name. Here they are:

Alyssa is "Lala"
Hannah is "Nana"
Isabelle is "Bar"
Both Grandpas use to be "Bahbah" but he has improved on his articulation and now says "Bampa"
Grandma and Grammy are "Mama"
And of course he can say "Mommy" and "Daddy" very well... he has had lots of practice with those two names!

And he calls himself "Me".

Disneyland Trip: Sept. 7-9

2010-09-17T19:16:00.001-07:00

Our three day, 2 night, trip to Disneyland didn't turn out exactly as planned but we still had an enjoyable time together as a family.

Here are a few pictures from our first day at Disneyland...

The first day I attempted walking but realized that I would need a wheelchair to make it through the next two days. So day two started off with Kurt renting a wheelchair for me but Evan seemed to get a kick out of riding it as well....

Here are some other pictures from our second day at Disneyland...

Our final day at Disneyland was suppose to be a very full day. We planned on staying until it closed but that morning I didn't feel to well and by lunch time I realized I had to get home. (Food poisoning had taken hold of me... need I say more?) So, due to the photographer feeling ill, only a few pictures were taken the final day. Here they are...

(Kurt figured he'd take a spin in the wheelchair before he had to push me around.)

That was our trip! The kids had a blast even though the trip was cut short. Kurt and Alyssa got one whole evening of "big kid" rides while I took the little ones swimming in the hotel pool the second evening. Lots of memories to remember!

Summer Photos

2010-09-02T17:22:00.000-07:00

I realized that it has been awhile since I've posted pictures of the kids. So, here's a few pictures from our summer....

Alyssa has been perfecting her baking skills this summer. Here she is displaying her homemade croissants. (And when I say homemade, I mean from scratch!)

Hannah and Isabelle took swim lessons this summer which made it much easier for me to take four kids in the pool by myself. I am very thankful that my parents have a pool and that they live so close! Here are Isabelle and Hannah at their swim lesson....

To beat the summer heat, we tried to find things to do inside....

When we weren't being goofy, we were doing art....

Here are a few more photos from this summer....

And my favorite photo..... Daddy and Evan...
Doesn't Evan look so proud of his Daddy?!

Adoption Day!

2010-08-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day in the Knutson household! At 7:30 am, all six of us loaded up in the van and headed to the court house to finalize the adoption of Alyssa by Kurt. It is so nice to know we are not a step-family anymore! We got to go back into the judges chambers to sign the paper work...

and take a new family photo with the judge!

It was a blessed morning and we all celebrated with a trip to Farmer Boys restaurant for lunch.

Sunday is the big "adoption party" with family and a few friends. We are praising God for opening the doors and paving the way for the adoption to take place! (And I am continually praising God for providing me with such a wonderful husband and for blessing all the children with a great daddy!)

Forgive as the Lord forgave you

2010-08-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

"Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Colossians 3:13 (New International Version)

Lord, help me to remember that unforgiveness dishonors you and keeps me in bondage. May I forgive others as you have forgiven me. Amen

What NOT to do when you have a son

2010-08-01T22:28:00.001-07:00

Here is a list of things you should NOT do when you have an almost 2 year old boy at home.....

1) Do NOT turn around even for a second because you might find that your son has pulled a knife from the dishwasher and is aiming it at his big sister.

2) Do NOT leave a floor fan running in one room and a bag of pretzels in another room. Your son just might grab a handful of pretzels, walk into the other room and throw them into the fan creating sparks.

3) Do NOT leave a floor fan running at all because your son might be tempted to stick his little fingers in the fan causing a horrible grinding noise. (And for those who are concerned, he is okay, just got his fingers pinched.)

4) Do NOT leave any bunk bed ladders attached to the bunk beds because your son might climb the ladder, hang his body over the railing and then holler for you as he dangles over the edge. (And yes, we now remove the ladders each morning.)

5) Do NOT have any bottles in the house that are not child proofed even if you store them on the top shelf of your kitchen cabinets because your son might push a kitchen chair up to the cupboard, climb the rungs on the back of the chair and reach up high to knock the medicine bottle on the floor. This just might result in the pills being spilled all over the kitchen floor which then entices your son to climb down from his self-made ladder and consume a good portion of the pills. (And yes, I totally freaked out and called poison control! Thankfully, the doctor reassured me that the folic acid pills my son ate would not hurt him. Phew! Lesson learned!)

6) Do NOT assume that having child proof outlet plugs in all your outlets will keep your cleaver boy from figuring out a way to pull them out. And do NOT assume that once the safety plug is out that you will have time to grab the stick-like object from his hand before he shoves it into the outlet. You might relax a little, knowing it was plastic and not metal but you will have to start working on teaching him the meaning of "no touch".

7) Do NOT let your son out of your sight for even a minute if your husband is using a 7 foot ladder to climb into the attic. If you do, you might find your son climbing the rungs of the ladder calling for his daddy.

8)Do NOT think that a dead bolt on your front door (which is higher than your son can reach) will keep him safely inside your house. He might just stack up a pile of toys, climb the toys, unlock the dead bolt, climb back down, push the toys aside and let himself out of the house where you just might find him making a dash for the street. You might want to consider getting a chain latch for your front door.

9) Do NOT store a yard stick in your house where your son can find it because he might use it as a ramming stick to ram his sisters or as a bat to hit your walls with.

10) Do NOT forget to laugh at all the things your son does because, while he does use his creativity to get into mischief, he is your son, and you love him and you find his antics quite charming and humorous at times.

11) Do NOT forget to go outside and play with your son. Kick the ball around. Push him in the swing. Chase him around the yard. And just laugh and play together.

12) Do NOT forget to hold your son, sing to your son, kiss your son and pray over your son. He will only be "almost" 2 years old for a very short time.

13) Do NOT forget to thank God every day for your son because he truly is a precious gift from God!

I love you, Evan! You make every day exciting and I wouldn't trade any of it for the world!

Getting Organized: Chores

2010-06-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I created a new chore schedule for the kids and me. Over the last few weeks we have tried it out with great success. The kids are getting the hang of what chores they are responsible for and when to do them. It has lifted a great load off of my shoulders and it is good to see the children taking pride in their work.

Here's how it works. Each child has a daily set of chores that are to be done each week day. These chores are divided up throughout the day (morning chores, after lunch chores and after dinner chores). They also have a set of Saturday chores that are usually done Saturday mornings, depending on our weekend plans. Each child also helps fold the laundry and puts their own laundry away. We usually do one to two loads a day and fold all the loads at one time in the afternoon. (And yes, that means we do about 8+ loads a week!) The kids also do two big "clean-ups" of toys, one before lunch and one right before dinner.

Here is a list of what each child is doing these days to keep the household running!

Alyssa (12 years old):
Morning chores- make bed, put breakfast dishes in dishwasher, wipe kitchen table, vacuum kitchen floor, straighten up kitchen
Lunch chores- make lunch for everyone, clean up lunch dishes, wipe kitchen table
After dinner chores- help clear the table, put leftovers away, rinse and put dinner dishes in dishwasher, wipe kitchen table
Saturday chores- clean bathroom and dust entire house

Hannah (5 1/2 years old):
Morning chores- make bed, sort laundry and put the biggest load in the wash machine (I am teaching her how to adjust the wash machine's settings and how to measure the detergent so she can eventually do this all on her own), wipe down the bathroom sinks and counters, straighten up the bathroom (make sure counters are cleared off, check to see if there is an extra roll of toilet paper by the toilet etc.)
After lunch chores- vacuum the family room and living room carpets
After dinner chores- help clear the table, take the kitchen trash and recycling out
Saturday chores- vacuum all the carpet in the house, empty all the trashcans in the house

Isabelle (3 1/2 years old):
Morning chores- make bed, empty silverware and plastic out of dishwasher
After lunch chore- sweep under the kitchen table
After dinner chore- help clear table and sweep under the kitchen table
Saturday chore- empty silverware and plastic out of dishwasher, clean the french door windows in the kitchen, help daddy with anything he asks her to do

Evan (18 months old):
Okay, so I don't have a list of chores for my one year old to do! We don't expect him to do anything but he has shown interest in helping out so we let him do what he can when he is eager to help. Right now he is fascinated with the dishwasher so Isabelle has been "teaching" him the in's and out's of emptying a dishwasher. Right now, Evan gathers up the silverware out of the dishwasher basket and plops them all in the silverware drawer, then Isabelle reorganizes everything into their proper places. She also taught Evan where to put the plastic plates, so he does that. She is currently showing him how to stack the plastic bowls and put them away. Soon we will have to find another morning chore for Isabelle as Evan seems to be a fast learner! If only he could learn how to mow the lawn for daddy...on second thought, that might be a little dangerous at his age. (hee, hee, hee)

And for all of you who are wondering what I do, here's a list of my chores:
Weekday chores-
* Put the wash in the dryer and put new loads in the wash machine (although I don't usually fold the laundry, I do put my clothes, hubby's clothes and Evan's clothes away)
* do the grocery shopping
* make dinner and hand wash any big pots and pans
* make my bed and straighten up my bathroom and bedroom
* supervise, supervise, supervise
* do all those miscellaneous things that pop up throughout the day
Saturday chores- sweep and mop all the tile in the house, clean master bathroom, wash bed sheets if needed (I do this on Saturdays so my husband can help remake all the beds. Making bunk beds can be quite a chore with a growing belly!) I also do any deep cleaning or organizational projects on the weekend. (Yes, my children do a good job cleaning, but every now and then things are in need of a little extra attention.... it's amazing how much better a mother's eyes are when it comes to seeing dirt and dust.)

Getting Organized

2010-06-08T12:18:00.001-07:00

Now that I am feeling better I have an intense desire to get things in order before the baby comes in October. I've started to assemble a to-do list of all the things I'd like to organize or (in some situations) have my husband do before October 23 rolls around!

Here's the start of my organizational to-do list:
* Finish Meal Planner
* Organize our Home School
* Organize the Master Bedroom Closet
* Switch around the kids bedrooms (which equals lots and lots of cleaning and organizing)
* Chore Chart
* Daily Schedule
* Sort, label and restore items in storage
* Put together Memory Box
* Finish organizing address and phone number box
* Paint ALL 3 bedrooms (that would be for Hubby to do)
* Sort through baby clothes (hmmm.... will I need to pull out the girl clothes or the boy clothes?)

I have a feeling I'll be adding more to the list in the near future. Now if only I could get it all accomplished before the summer is over.....

When all else fails.... SING!

2010-04-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

My Grandma Betty has five daughters. Her last three girls were pretty close in age. She told me that as a young mother of five, she often cried to the Lord, "I'm not cut out to be a mother of five!"

I can often relate. Life can get a little crazy trying to meet the needs of young children (no matter how many you have). I asked my Grandma what she did in those moments when life just seemed to be unraveling before her eyes.

"Sing!" she said. "Sing songs of praise and songs of prayer to God. Sing songs of blessings over your little ones. Just sing to your Heavenly Father."

Isn't it true, music has a way of lifting our spirits, especially if our songs are directed to God? So start praising your heavenly Father through songs of praise and prayer in the midst of carrying for your little one(s) and watch God lift your spirits in the midst of the trials.

Thanks Grandma for sharing your abundant wisdom!

Evan's First Sentence

2010-04-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Today Evan spoke his first sentence. Now let's take into consideration that he is still struggling to say complete words. Dog sounds more like "dah", clean up resembles something like "eenup" and telling Daddy bye-bye each morning comes out as "buh, buh". But he joined some of those mumble of words together this morning to make his very first sentence!

I was pushing him outside in the swing, having a one sided conversation when he interrupts me to point out the neighbors dog. "Dah," he says. Then he motions to me and says "mama". Next he throws his hands up in the air and says "dada". I reply with, "daddy went bye-bye to work". He continues this little dialogue for a few more rounds, pointing at the dog and saying "dah", then motioning to me and saying "mama", then throwing his hands in the air and saying "dada" as if to ask "where did daddy go?", to which I reply, "Daddy went bye-bye to work".

Then the dialogue changed. Evan pointed out the dog and said "dah". He motioned to me and said "mama" and then slowly and meticulously he said "dada buh-buh wor." (Translated, dada bye-bye work). He was quite proud of his accomplishment and repeated the sentence over again several more times. I think he enjoyed seeing the big grin on my face as I jumped up and down with enthusiasm!

As you can tell, I couldn't contain my excitement. A phone call to my hubby was in order. Hubby was quite proud as well and encouraged me to write it down so that we would always remember Evan's very first sentence.

Way to go Evan!

Reality

2010-04-13T13:01:00.001-07:00

It is 1pm and I am still in my pajamas. (And it's not a cozy, comfy p.j. day either. It's more of a dirty, stinky, "get these p.j.'s off of me" kind of day) The laundry has not been started. The dishes are piling up in the sink. The kids haven't had their teeth brushed or their hair combed. The house needs to be cleaned (but how would I even clean it when the clutter is keeping me from seeing the floors and counter tops?) The "to-do" list is growing and the day is quickly fading away.

And that is just the physical state of things!

Emotionally, I woke up grumpy and lazy. And within a few hours it turned into bitterness and selfishness. Even a simple request by my children has brought up a host of bad thoughts and emotions within me. Life seems to be falling apart around me and I hate the sense that I am loosing control. Lately, I've been tossing in the towel - "what's the use of trying" keeps echoing loudly in my head. I've given in to selfishness, laziness, bitterness and an overall grumpy attitude as of late and it needs to stop NOW!

The REALITY is that I am suffering from all day pregnancy sickness and that means a lot of things around the house just don't get done.

But, the TRUTH is that my emotions should not be tied to my circumstances. Rather, my emotions need to be tied to Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. My joy needs to be found in Christ, not the state of my home. I need to let go of MY expectations and listen to the Lords direction for my day. I need to confess my sin of selfishness and laziness and replace it with a selfless spirit that operates in the power and strength of Christ.

I haven't been doing that lately. But I know that right now is the time to start!

Book Giveaway!

2010-04-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

My friend Jessica, over at Reflections of a Princess, is doing a book giveaway this week. I encourage all of you to check out her review of the book, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, and enter her giveaway!

I read the book about a year ago and God used it to change my life and bring me joy in my role as wife and mother! I'm so excited that Jessica is graciously giving away one free copy of this amazing book. If you don't win, you might want to think about purchasing the book for yourself. You won't be sorry!

Enter to win the book, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, by going to Reflections of a Princess!

Happy Birthday, Alyssa!

2010-03-31T15:21:00.000-07:00

My first born turns 12 years old today! Where did the time fly? She is such an amazing young lady and I am so very very proud of her!

I love you, Alyssa! Happy Birthday!

Opening up a Can of Worms

2010-03-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

I think the phrase "I just opened up a can of worms" would apply to my attempts to spur discussion on the controversial topic of Biblical Womanhood! My original goal was to get people thinking and talking about a topic that few are willing to discuss, but I now know I neglected to lay a solid Biblical foundation on which to carry on any relevant conversation. While I have every intention of continuing the discussion, I think it would be wise for me to backtrack a little and clarify some important things. Would you allow me the opportunity to do that?

First, let me address why I started this blog:
My original reasons for starting a blog where:
1) to share family pictures and stories with a few family members and friends and
2) to have a place to write down the many thoughts that swirl around in my head on any given day
Over time, I realized that my blog would be a great place to share some of the things that God has been teaching me (as I always enjoy reading on other blogs about what God is doing in fellow believers lives).
I only anticipated that a handful of people (mostly family and friends) would read my blog so you can imagine my surprise when people I hardly know (and some I don't even know) comment on my blog or tell me in person that they read a certain post! I'm humbled that anyone actually finds what I have to say worthy of reading but I am also realizing that with my writing comes a responsibility to write with grace and humility while doing my best (as a sinner) to uphold the truths of God's Word.

Now that you know why I started this blog, let me share a few things about myself:

1) I am a sinner saved by grace alone. I am pressing into my sanctification, longing to allow Christ to rule in every area of my life but it is hard to die to self! I fail. I get it wrong. And I know I have a long way to go. My writings on this blog are a part of my journey to becoming more and more like Christ and part of that journey is wrestling with issues relevant to my Christian life. I may often get things wrong, but that is part of the process of growing in Christ. May God direct me, convict me and encourage me as I seek to glorify Him with my life.

2) Maintaining this blog is NOT my top priority. My first priority (aside from growing in intimacy with my Heavenly Father) is to my family. Therefore, while I would love to keep family and friends up to date on the Knutson happenings, ramble about all the thoughts in my head, share the exciting things God is doing, and jump in on any given discussion, my time is limited so please know that if I leave things hanging it is more than likely because I am just busy being a wife and mother.

3) I believe that the Bible is NOT merely one source of truth but rather the Bible is TRUTH, the only source of truth. And all scripture is inspired by God and without error. Therefore, everything I believe is (hopefully) grounded in the Word of God and I welcome correction from fellow believers if I am misinterpreting scripture and dishonoring God, asking that the correction be done in a Biblical manner laid out in Matthew 18:15-17 with love and compassion.

Finally, let me share a problem that I see in our American churches:

As believers, (myself included) we are so afraid of offending someone else and being politically correct that we fail to engage in meaningful, respectful dialogue on controversial topics that are relevant to our lives as believers. In so doing, we miss out on many opportunities for our own spiritual growth and the growth of fellow Christians. We often forget that God has placed us in a body of believers for fellowship, accountability and encouragement. How can we encourage one another and hold one another accountable if we aren't talking?

Now, I'll be the first to say that a blog is NOT the place for sincere accountability and encouragement. Every believer should have a friend or two whom they can be vulnerable and transparent with as they press into their sanctification. (This is one area that I have been convicted of myself.)

With that said, I do hope that my blog can be a place where ideas are shared and challenged in an effort to weed out lies and embrace truth as we grow in our relationship with the Lord... for God's glory!

Oh, and I still plan on sharing cute pictures and stories of my kiddos... It can't be all serious! ;-)

Updates

2010-03-16T17:01:00.000-07:00

I've been busy trying to keep my nausea under control, my headaches to a minimum, my children occupied so they don't hurt each other, themselves or our home and my house from falling to shambles during this first trimester of pregnancy. All that to say that I haven't had much time to finish two of the topics I started on this blog awhile back. So, this post is my attempt to update you on my dinner solution and continue the conversation on Biblical Womanhood (and more specifically, should our daughters go to college?)

Dinner Solution Update:
Well, my efforts have stalled on this project. I just can't get myself to think about food right now! I'm hoping to have it all together by the end of March but we shall see. As soon as I finish it up, I'll share with you what I did and let you know how it is working. So stay tuned....

Biblical Womanhood: Should our daughters go to college? (Click here for the first part of the discussion)
To keep you all thinking about this topic, I'd like to direct you to a post by Jasmine Baucham. I know her post is a long one but it is well worth your time to read it, especially if you have daughters. I'd love to hear what you think about her views on women and college, so feel free to leave a comment (even if you disagree - respectful criticism is always welcome.)

What I am Craving...

2010-03-08T21:09:00.000-08:00

1. Ramen Noodles
2. Sunchips
3. Chocolate Ice Cream

My Struggles to get Dinner on the Table

2010-03-05T11:20:00.001-08:00

I don't really like to cook. Baking I enjoy, but cooking meals seems like such a chore! It's not just the actual act of cooking that I dislike, but the entire process of planning the meals that has to take place before you can even cook the dish.

Here is a list of my struggles in getting dinner on the table:

1. Thinking of meals Every time I have to think of a weeks worth of meals to plan for my family my mind draws a blank. I can't think of a single dish. I end up asking the other members of my family for ideas. That doesn't always work either. Next I ask myself, "Wasn't there a recipe in that one cookbook that I liked? Was it a meat dish or a vegetarian dish?" Then I spend some time flipping through the cookbooks and recipe box trying to find the dishes I have tried and that the family liked. It becomes such an ordeal just to think of a few meals for the week!

Now that I know what meals I am going to make, the next struggle is...

2. Writing down the ingredients that I need. This might seem like a trivial task but for me it is such a frustration. "Basil? Do I have basil?" So I put down pen and paper and walk over to the spice shelf and look for basil. "Yip, got that one." Back to the table to review the rest of the ingredients and write them down. "oops, I can't remember if I have onions", so I get up again to check the cupboard for onions and so the process continues until I have everything I need written on my grocery list.

Next I struggle with...

3. Remembering what meals I was actually going to make. Often times I take my list to the grocery store, come home and put all the ingredients away, and then when dinner time comes around I completely forget what meals I was planning on making! I have a cupboard and refrigerator full of ingredients but I can't remember what dish those ingredients were for! Sometimes I get smart and write out a dinner meal list on a scrap piece of paper while I am writing up my grocery list.. but would you believe I miss place it half the time?

So it's now time for dinner and I finally remembered which dish I was planning on making so I begin to gather the ingredients. Only one problem.... it calls for ground beef and I forgot to defrost it! Or, it was a crock-pot recipe which needed to go in the crock-pot hours ago. Now what do I do????

That brings me to struggle number four....

4. Remembering to prep for meals. I seem to forget to pull out the frozen meat to defrost or assemble the ingredients for the crock-pot in the morning which means I have to think of a plan B for dinner. But just figuring out a plan A was challenging enough!

Enough! I can't have anxiety over feeding my family dinner every single day! There has to be a better way!

Well, I think I found a solution! I'm so very excited to see if it actually works. Want to know what it is? Well, I'm going to leave you in suspense until I get it all together. Then I'll let you know what it is and how it is working for me.

June Lake 2010

2010-03-01T12:47:00.000-08:00

In February our family took a week long trip to June Lake, California, to enjoy the snow (and the sunshine)! It dumped a lot of snow the week before we arrived but was warm and sunny while we were there. That meant nice weather to play in all the snow!
It also meant peeling off our layers when we got too hot!

We enjoyed making snow angels...

building snowmen.....

sledding...

and finding creative ways to play indoors....
Alyssa and my dad spent the better part of their indoor time building this marble run.

Hannah and Isabelle enjoyed playing play dough.

Evan found an air pump that kept him entertained for hours!

We played a LOT of games...

And we even made a fort...

Alyssa and I were also able to go skiing with my dad...

My dad took Kurt, Hannah and Alyssa to Mono Lake. Here are a few snap shots from their outing. (I stayed back with the nappers.)

Kurt and I took the kids into Mammoth for some shopping, treats and a ride on the Gondola...

We had a great time enjoying the snow and making great memories! Thanks, Dad, for organizing the trip for us!

I'll leave you with a few more photos from our trip...

Should SHE be a doctor?

2010-02-25T10:45:00.000-08:00

A topic very dear to my heart is Biblical Womanhood. It's not a phrase we hear much about in our churches or our Christian circle of friends. Actually, I didn't hear about the term from church or friends or family. Rather, with God's leading, I "stumbled" upon the topic through books, blogs and some very informative websites. I've prayerfully decided to do a series of posts on the topic, answering questions like: What is Biblical Womanhood?, Why should Christians care about it?, Aren't men and women equal to God and if so, why make a distinction between manhood and womanhood? I hope that you will all join me in the discussion. I'd love to hear your thoughts, concerns and questions!

To get the topic started I'd like to share a comment that Heather left on my blog post entitled "What's your occupation?". She writes, "I feel like if a woman goes to college and then decides to stay home that society says "what a waste" (of a perfectly good education/mind/money.) But if that same woman would have chosen to not go to college in order to be a stay at home mom, then society would also consider that to be "a waste" of a good mind/time etc... I really value being a stay at home mom and feel that many of our culture problems cannot be fixed until the family is "fixed."... So because I value the influence and lifestyle a stay at home mom creates in her home, I hope that my girls will choose that someday. I feel like we under-prepare our girls/teens for the maternal role and the strong maternal instincts/pull they will feel when they bring their first baby home. We send them the message that they need to go out into the world and "support themselves" and "contribute" by getting a college education. I really value education and want my girls to go to college, but I also know that college is expensive and many of my friends insist they "cannot" stay home because of large debt associated with college (and other choices along the way.) I don't want to say "girls are supposed to stay home and be wife and mother's--you don't need to go to college." But I also don't want to create a situation where they are unable to stay home either."

Heather brings up some very good points! (You can read her entire comment by going to this post and scrolling down to the comment section) Should a woman go to college? Should we encourage our daughters to pursue higher education and careers? How do we teach them that being a wife and mother (at home) is valuable? Or is it? Do mothers and wives have anything of value to offer the world or God's kingdom if they are at home? Are women wasting their minds and abilities if they never work outside the home? Where should women find their value and worth? What should we be teaching our daughters (and our sons)? And finally, what does GOD say about the roles of women?

I'd love for you check out the following interview on the True Woman blog, entitled "Should she be a doctor?" The interviewer asks two guests for their advice for a friend who is pursuing medical school but also has a desire to, one day, be a wife and mother. Should she go to medical school? Check out their response and then let me know your thoughts!

Let's get the conversation started....

What's your occupation?

2010-02-08T14:44:00.001-08:00

"Much of the world would agree that being a housekeeper is acceptable as long as you are not caring for your own home; treating men with attentive devotion would also be right as long as the man is the boss in the office and not your husband; caring for children would even be deemed heroic service for which presidential awards could be given as long as the children are someone else's and not your own."
(Dorothy Patterson, quoted in Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney)

What do you think of this quote? Do agree or disagree? Love to hear your thoughts!

Knutson Happenings

2010-02-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Here's what has been going on in the Knutson household....

Evan is growing up fast! His two favorite things are being with his daddy and playing outside. Here is a cute picture of father and son...

Hannah loves art! We often find her drawing or coloring in the classroom. She has also taken to needle work. Here she is working on her first needle work project...

Evan is now eating at the table with us. Bye-bye highchair, hello messy table!

The kids recently made a fort in the living room and asked if they could watch a movie and eat a snack in the fort. I said "yes", so the kids got to enjoy 3 treats all at once (fort, movie and cookies). Here they are munching away on cookies while staring at the screen...

We've also enjoyed playing outside in our backyard! Here are video and pictures of our time outside....

Strider Bike

2010-01-31T21:09:00.001-08:00

In October, we purchased a Strider bike for Isabelle and a regular bike for Hannah for their birthdays. Hannah was a little too nervous to try out her new bike but took to Isabelle's Strider and soon gained confidence in balancing and steering a bike. Isabelle also enjoyed "walking" her Strider bike around the front and back yard. We have really liked the concept of the Strider. It is a light weight bike without petals. The purpose is to help young kids gain confidence in balancing and steering a bike before they have to master the skill of pedaling.

The transition for Hannah from the Strider to her regular bike has been much smoother than when I tried to teach Alyssa to ride a bike for the first time. And Isabelle loves being able to "ride" a bike like her sisters.

The Strider isn't something you have to have, but when you do start thinking about tricycles and bikes for your child, give the Strider website a visit and see what you think. You just might be surprised by all the benefits of the bike!

The Strider website has lots of information on the benefits of the Strider as well as several cool videos of kids riding their Strider bikes. Check it out when you can!

Note: The website states that the Strider is designed for ages 1 to 5. My 13 month old boy's only interest in the bike is chewing its tires. I would recommend the bike for ages 2 to 5.

Frustrated, Angry and Fed up!

2010-01-29T14:07:00.001-08:00

I'm frustrated. I'm angry. I'm fed up with the kids whining. I just want to have time to wash my hair and get ready for the day without having to stop every few minutes to attend to all of the kids never ending needs!

Yip, that's how I was feeling this morning. Ever feel that way? And to make matters worse, I wasn't too happy with God either. Wasn't He suppose to help me in my time of need? Why wasn't he keeping the kids quiet so I could wash my hair? Didn't He know that I had several errands to run that HAD to be done today? Wasn't He aware that I had "sacrificed" washing my hair for 3 days already? Didn't He want me to look nice out in public so I could represent Him better? Where was He right now? And why wasn't He doing what I asked?!?!

Well, wouldn't you know.... God answered me, but not in the way I was hoping. Instead of fixing my circumstances He turned His gaze on me. And it wasn't a pretty sight! It was my fault that things weren't going well. I should have gone to bed on time last night and risen early this morning, knowing that I wanted to wash my hair before running my errands. But I had been lazy and selfish. I knew my kids were tired as well and instead of giving them guidance and direction this morning, I left them to themselves, not wanting to "waste" my time on training them and instructing them. I was neglecting the very job God had so graciously given me; raising me children for God's glory.

But even more importantly, God penetrated my heart. He reminded me of the verses in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control..." These are the fruits of the Spirit, not the fruits of my circumstances or the fruits of my children's good behavior. God was reminding me that my circumstances should not dictate my attitude, rather, my attitude should be a reflection of the Holy Spirit living within me.

I repented right then and there. I asked the Holy Spirit to fill me anew and to give me a new attitude that reflected His power moving and working inside of me. I know you all want to hear how the rest of the day has been so much easier, how I am plowing through the trials of today with a light step, casting my cares on God and letting the fruits of the Spirit manifest themselves in my life but that is not the case. The truth is that I am still battling frustration, anger and selfishness. I am finding myself lacking patience and joy on numerous occasions this afternoon. But I am not walking in despair nor am I remaining in my anger and bitterness. I am doing battle minute by minute, letting the Holy Spirit work within me. I'm not letting my circumstances control my attitude instead, I am praying that the fruits of the Spirit would be manifested in my life today. May it be so Lord, may it be so, for Your Glory!

Living on Less

2010-01-26T15:11:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is doing a series on her blog entitled "Living on Less". She writes,

"We want to be a family that gives away generously to those in need and if we aren’t responsible with the money the Lord has given us, then how can we bless others with what we’ve already been blessed with?"

This week she will be sharing her tips on how to live on less. Check out her blog to find out, not only how to live on less, but why it is important to manage our money wisely. (Click here for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part4)

Eaten by a Beanbag

2010-01-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

Motherhood's Blessings

2010-01-13T11:59:00.001-08:00

One of the greatest blessings of motherhood is watching my children grow in their relationship with the Lord. To see Alyssa (11yo) staying up late, reading her Bible or seeing Hannah's (5yo) excitement over a new truth that God has revealed to her, is priceless. Or to chat with them all about the character of God and His ways over a meal or witness their repentant hearts after the Lord has convicted them of a sin in their lives. Nothings is more of a blessing to me than seeing my children walk in the ways of the Lord! Below is one such treasured moment that blessed me greatly and taught me what true faith is.

Hannah awoke one night in terror. She had experienced a very scary dream. I comforted her and prayed with her and tucked her back into bed. The following evening, after saying good-night to the younger two girls, I heard Isabelle (3yo) call after me, "Mommy!"

"Yes?" I replied

"We need to pray that Hannah doesn't have any scary dreams tonight," was her reply.

Isabelle began to pray, "Dear Lord, Help Hannah to not have scary dreams and to know You are with her. Amen."

The next morning, Hannah proclaimed, "I didn't have any bad dreams!"

To which Isabelle responded in a matter-of-fact way, "Of course you didn't! I prayed for you and God answered."

O, to have faith like a child.

Bless my soul, O Lord

2010-01-10T23:08:00.000-08:00

You're probably asking yourself, "Did Janelle misquote the verse in the title of her post?" Yip, I did. And for a very good reason.... that's how I often approach worship on Sunday mornings. "Bless me, God. I've had a rough week and I need to be blessed. Bless me, oh God, I need help with the next week (or maybe the next minute)." But I often forget that the verse says, "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The purpose of worship isn't what I will get out of it but rather, what God will get out of it. Yes, we are usually blessed when we encounter God through our worship and we should be... we are encountering an amazing God! But this shouldn't be the reason we come to worship.

I've been struggling with this lesson for some time now. It is a hard one for me to let sink in. I'd like to go to church to relax, take it easy and soak in the music, the message and the fellowship, but I'm realizing my focus is on myself and not God. It is on what I can gain, rather than what I can give to God. It's selfish, plain and simple. I know God wants to bless me but I often forget that He doesn't have to and if He chooses not to I should still be praising Him. It's hard. I struggle. But I pray God will continue to remind me each Sunday morning that I need to "Bless the Lord, O my soul" and maybe, in God's grace, He will bless me as well.

(Convicted by the book Parenting in the Pew by Robbie Castleman)

Bates Nut Farm on December 26th

2010-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

Since many of the cousins were still around after Christmas, we took an outing to Bates Nut Farm to play in the leaves, feed the animals, walk around the shop, eat a picnic lunch and pose for pictures. Lots of fun!

Playing in the leaves!

Feeding the animals with Grandma and Grandpa Brad.

Nana with her great-grandchildren (and the moms)

Some of the cousins posing for our "cousin photo". (Yes, that is only some of us!)

A very fun day with extended family!

Christmas

2010-01-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

We had a memorable Christmas, remembering the birth of our Savior and spending time with family... LOTS OF FAMILY. Many of my cousins came to visit in San Diego for Christmas and we had a great time catching up, playing games and hanging out!

Isabelle and Grandma enjoy the sunshine.

Evan and Kurt and the park.

The girl cousins catching up while watching the kids play at the park.

The boy cousins loading up their marshmallow guns for a marshmallow fight.

After a full day of opening gifts, eating a big Christmas meal and playing at the park, the great-grand kids watched some cartoons together.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was celebrated at my parents house with my parents, my grandmother (aka Betty, Grandma and Nana), my sister and her husband, and my brother and his wife. We then headed off to the Christmas Eve service at church. Here are some pictures of us all on Christmas Eve:

My grandmother bought Evan a sweet book titled Love you Forever.

Here we are with Grandma Galley/Nana.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Joleene pose with the girls.

Uncle Jason and Aunt Danica pose with the girls.

The kids and I found old books that were my brothers when he was younger. We saved them for several years and gave them as Christmas gifts this year, as my brother and sister-in-law are expecting their first baby in February! Here they are with two of the books.

My siblings and I went in on gifts for my parents. We got my dad the Wii resort. (I never thought I'd see the day that my parents played video games!)

We bought my mom a new purse.

The kids were kind enough to pose together for this picture.

On our way out to the car, I snapped this picture of Hannah and Isabelle sitting on a rock under a tree in my parents front yard. Aren't they adorable?

December Happenings

2010-01-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

We kept ourselves busy during the month of December with many fun events (and a few lazy days at home). I wish I had brought the camera with me to more of our outings but I did manage to remember to snap a few pictures for some of the events. Here are a few of the highlights from the month of December:

We enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. The girls and I strung fruit loop cereal onto string to decorate our tree with. Here are Hannah and Isabelle showing off their work.

The empty Christmas decorations box was too tempting for Evan, who climbed right in. Isabelle quickly joined him so she could "read" her little brother a story.

We also enjoyed Ice Skating with our homeschool group (CFS Escondido). It included hot chocolate and cookies, which we needed after skating in the cold! The girls and I enjoyed skating on the ice. They had a very useful contraption for the little ones to push around to help them balance. Daddy and Evan stayed on safer ground and snapped pictures of us.

Here we are getting our skates on...

Evan was fascinated with the video games and toy machines.

Me and my sweet little girls...

We were able to get Alyssa to stop briefly to pose with her sister...

...then she was off and no one could stop her!

Hannah and Isabelle enjoyed skating with the "walker".

And I was able to snatch the camera away for a moment to snap a shot of Daddy and Evan in the stands.

Besides a minor injury when Isabelle fell, everyone had a great time! And Daddy even let the kids get a ball from the toy machine that Evan was checking out in the earlier picture. A great family memory!

And... besides all the outings, we enjoyed just hanging out at home together. Here are all the kids playing "train". (Yes, I know trains aren't pulled by horses but I decided not to spoil their fun by telling them about that minor error.)

What was your family up to in December?

A Kind of Christmas Tale

2009-12-09T21:23:00.000-08:00

I discovered this precious story in the Desiring God blog archives. It was written by John Piper, several years ago, as a story to tell the children of his church on Christmas Eve. Here's a little taste of the story:

"Jemima smiled and said, “And even if things go bad, God makes them turn for good. Right, Daddy? Just like the little poem that you taught us:

When things don’t go the way they should
God always makes them turn for good.”

“That’s right, Jemima,” Daddy said, “and there’s another little poem you need to learn."

Do you want to know what the other poem is about? Read the rest of the story here!

EVAN!

2009-12-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Just when I thought we had baby-proofed the house, Evan proves me wrong! I walked into the kitchen to discover that Evan had opened up the dishwasher, climbed up onto the open door and was sorting through the dirty dishes!

Here is how I found him:

And then he realized I was in the kitchen and wanted to stand-up and show me his accomplishment!

I didn't know if I should hug him and laugh or scold him for getting into yet another area we overlooked in our baby-proofing efforts. I decided to give him a big hug... he was just to cute!

Rain Art

2009-12-07T17:33:00.001-08:00

Today was filled with lots and lots of rain! It was just the opportunity I needed to try out an art project I have been wanting to do with the kids. Here is what we did:

Rain Art
Supplies:
paper towels
food coloring
newspaper
What to do:
Cover your work area with newspaper. Let the kids drop food coloring onto the paper towel. Then take the art outside in the rain and watch the rain drops blend the colors together into beautiful designs!
We let ours dry in the garage on newspaper and then hung them up in our classroom.

Here is a picture of our colorful Rain Art on display:

This week in school...

2009-12-05T21:08:00.000-08:00

My philosophy for the early years is: Let them be kids! The best learning is done through play and exploration. With that said, Isabelle (3yo) still enjoys doing some "real" preschool work now and then while her older sisters are doing their school work. On Wednesday she worked on sorting buttons.
Here she is sorting the buttons by their size (big and small)

and here she is after sorting them into two groups: black and white.

(Of course, she sorts things all the time and never realizes it... like when she sorts the laundry or her trail mix into piles.) I have put together several activities (made from items found around the house) to have on hand when she does want to do some "real" preschool type activities, like the button sorting activity. Otherwise, I try to make the most of teaching moments throughout our everyday life.

Hannah continued to work on writing her letters in cursive this week. We still only use pencil and paper to work on writing her name. All other writings she does in her salt box. Here she is writing the letter k for the very first time! Didn't she do a wonderful job?!?!

This week we started writing spelling words in the salt box. She really felt like a big girl when I dictated spelling words to her (just like I do with Alyssa). She spelled top, all, hat and go this week. I was very proud of her! (We love Spell to Write and Read and Cursive First!)

Alyssa was busy this week working on her report on India. She has to interview someone who has been to India as part of the assignment, so she is excited to talk with Aunt Joleene about her travels there. For her practical arts assignment, she made a wonderful dinner for us all on Monday night: Parmasean Bread Crusted Chicken with a green salad and brown rice. Yummy! We all enjoyed that assignment!

A great week of homeschooling here at the Knutson home!

What's for dinner?

2009-11-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

It has been my lofty goal to be able to prepare fresh, healthy meals for my family each evening. Knowing that this goal is a little unrealistic during this season of life, I decided on a more reasonable goal: preparing a meal (even if it contains a few creamed soups and high fat, lower nutrition items), as long as I prepared it with my own two hands. I figured this would be a step closer to my lofty goal of fresh and healthy meals.

Sadly, even my more reasonable goal has not been met as of late. Our dinner table has seen quite a few items from the frozen food isle and the canned foods isle. We have feasted on Trader Joes Orange Chicken, frozen meatballs, and frozen Stouffers Lasagna. Our taste buds have also "enjoyed" canned soups and canned chili lately.

Tonight we hit an all-time low in the dinner department. Our meal was as follows:

For protein we had frozen fish sticks (at least I think there was some fish amongst the greasy bread crumbs)

For a fruit or veggie I opened up a can of pears (Sadly, I think this was the most nutritious part of the meal)

And to cover the grains food group, we opened up a bag of Sun Chips! Normally this a special treat for our kids but tonight they were thrilled to learn I was counting it as part of the meal.

So, I decided to alter my goal once again. My new goal is to keep my family from going hungry. I think I should be able to meet that goal and with a little effort, I hope to prepare at least one meal this week with my own two hands.

What's on your table for dinner?

Evan is a year old!

2009-11-23T12:26:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Evan!

To see pictures of Evan's first few weeks click here, here, here and here.

Evan enjoying a peaceful nap in his swing. (2 days old)

Evan's first Christmas. (2008)

3 months old

Evan with "Nana" Galley (his great-grandmother)

Safari boy... 5 months old

Swinging!

One of Evan's first meals. Mmmmm!

Cruising around the kitchen floor. (about 9 months old)

My sisters are sooooo funny! (Giggling at 11 months old)

My little boy with his favorite person in the whole wide world... Daddy!

Time sure flies! Happy Birthday to my boy!

Childhood Misconceptions

2009-11-21T09:55:00.000-08:00

As a little girl, I had several humorous misconceptions about life. Here is a few of my "favorite" misconceptions from my childhood:

1. I thought all dogs were males and all cats were females. Of course, in my mind cats and dogs mated together and kittens were baby girls and puppies were baby boys. Imagine my confusion when we got a female dog as a family pet!

2. Somewhere in my earlier years of life I saw a milk add with a glass of milk inside a banana peel. For years I thought bananas were a diary product. It took awhile for me to understand why everyone kept calling bananas a fruit!

3. As a little girl, I received a baby doll as a Christmas gift. The doll came with two bottles. One bottle had milk in it and the other bottle had orange juice. For many years after that, I thought nursing mothers had one breast with milk and another breast with orange juice. If baby dolls needed milk and orange juice then surely nursing babies did as well!

Do you or your children have any humorous misconceptions you'd like to share?

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

Here's me and my kiddos on the hayride at Bates Nut Farm. (Daddy took the picture)

Children are a blessing!

2009-11-18T21:15:00.000-08:00

In the last few months, three dear friends have lost their precious babies to a miscarriage. I have never known this type of loss or grief but my heart still aches for them and their families. Another dear friend and her husband are anxiously awaiting the day they can bring home their adopted son. They are adopting a young boy from Ethiopia. I rejoice with them in the joy of adding to their family. I also ache inside knowing that millions of other children have no family and no place to call home.

Today I watched my children playing together and this realization hit me like a ton of bricks: CHILDREN ARE A BLESSING! As I pondered this I began to weep.

I wept for all those parents who have know the grief of losing a child.

I wept for all the orphans around the world who have no one to call "mommy" or "daddy".

I wept for our society that views children as a burden; as something that consumes our time and drains or finances.

I wept... and wept... and wept....

And I am still weeping....

Three Things I Love Doing

2009-11-15T11:10:00.000-08:00

There are three things that I love doing:

#3 Holding my children in my arms
#2 Being held in my husband's arms
#1 Letting God hold me in HIS arms

Isabelle's Vocabulary

2009-11-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

Isabelle (3yo) has a great vocabulary and articulates words pretty well. However, there are a few words that she seems to mess up every time and we all get a big kick out of it.

Instead of "hand sanitizer", she says "hand appetizer"

Instead of "elevator", she says "ele-gator" (like alligator)

Instead of "Cinderella", she says "Cinder-brella" (like umbrella)

We try not to laugh, though. We don't want to hurt her feelings. :)

The Best of Both Realms

2009-11-07T19:03:00.000-08:00

My eleven year old daughter has been busy pondering life. Something she does quite often. Lately, she has been wrestling with the idea of a physical realm and a spiritual realm and how she should go about her daily life knowing there is a God who is moving and working in her life. She is humbly allowing me to post her latest journal entry in which she grabbles with this very issue.

Best of Both Realms
By Alyssa Knutson

“How can I have the best of both realms?” I thought. I was sitting in the car pondering this idea. I always wondered what it took to have the best of both realms. Was it regular devotions? Or constant prayer? Was it always thinking of heaven and God? Or constant reminders of God’s grace and our sinful nature?

I do not know quite yet, but the search did not end when I read a book called Sacred Chaos by Tricia McCary Rhodes. And I knew in my heart it never will. I have to put those lessons of meditating on God, reading the Bible, memorizing Bible verses, praying throughout my day, to heart and then do them. But when I try to do them, the enemy comes more strongly. And the TV is all the more tempting.

On a particular hard day I was in a grumpy mood and I felt like crying; I thought, "I need to get away.” So after asking my mom to allow me to go out front, I hurried to find my bike. Once I found it there was another hunt for my helmet. Once my helmet was ready in its proper place on my head, I was ready to go. I was so mad I could have started riding and never stopped. But the Lord called me back to him when my tire made an annoying squeak. Low on air! I could have screamed, but I did not. Instead I search wearily for the pump. I found the dusty old thing a good anger eliminator. I pumped that thing so hard my tires where filled in no time. When I finally got one my ride, I was ready to hear God. Over and over I kept saying “Let God untie the knots”. It worked. Pretty soon I was smiling at neighbors while thanking God for his wonderful grace and mercy.

In the same way I often lie awake in bed praying long before sleeping. It is when I am most in need of God’s help that he stills me for a time to get a wonderful since of His glory. But sometimes I have to wait and go through trials before His glory shows. But when it shows it shows all the more wonderfully.

Sometimes I am so wrapped up in being angry I forget His wonderful mercy. Once I find his mercy the smile reappears on my face, and my attitude is all the more happy.

I find this does not require a very spiritual life, or a very down to earth life. All it requires is the best of both realms; a life that takes time to meet with God daily and let him untie the knots. You do not have to give up TV or stop working as long as you are ready to hear God’s voice and answer it. Make God first and other things, including feelings, last and you will have the best of best realms.

Dirty Dishes

2009-11-02T13:17:00.000-08:00

For the last few weeks my sink has looked like this more often than I'd like to admit....

Do you see the rolls that have been sitting on the stove in the muffin tins all day long? The pile of dishes in the sink AND the counter? (And don't be fooled... I didn't have time to bake homemade rolls. That was the work of my daughter who graciously offered to bake rolls since I didn't make it to the grocery store to buy french bread for dinner.) What you can't see are all the crumbs and dirt on the floor, the filth on the counters, the pile of junk on the island, or the dinner dishes still sitting on the kitchen table.

Why do I share this? Because I want you all to know that I don't have it all together. I often blog about things that I hope would be encouraging to other moms out there, but I am realizing (thanks to fellow bloggers... read here and here) that I need to be a little more real and let you all know what life is REALLY like at the Knutson house. Yes, I have found some great resources to help with schedules, chores and homeschooling BUT that doesn't mean that everyday runs smoothly. Far from it! But God is sure teaching me a lot through the ups and downs. I hope you'll enjoy reading future posts about what it is REALLY LIKE to be a homeschooling mom of 4 kids!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

2009-10-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, dear Hannah. Happy birthday to you! Your 5 years old!

Here are some pictures of my darling daughter through the years....

Hannah a few months old...

about 6 months old...

Eating her first drumstick a month before she turned 1 year old...

Up at June Lake after Christmas 2005 (1 yr. old)...

2 years old and looking darling...

Dressing up as a princess (3 years old)...

Showing off her new cowgirl boots (4yrs. old)...

And here she is with her sister showing off their birthday presents (handmade aprons and a new red wagon; thanks Grammy and Grandpa Jim)! Wow!

How did she grow up so fast? We love you, Hannah! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kurt!

2009-10-28T10:07:00.001-07:00

In honor of my husbands birthday, the kids and I made a list of the things we love about daddy.

20 Things We Love About Daddy:
(Janelle's)
1. He is an amazing provider, protector and spiritual leader
2. He cherishes his children and loves spending time with them
3. He is an awesome husband, making time for me even in the craziness of life
(Alyssa's)
4. I love that daddy leads family worship
5. I like going on roller coasters with him
6. He works hard to provide for us
7. He enjoys my cooking
8. He plays games with me
(Hannah's)
9. He watches movies with me
10. He reads me Bible stories
11. I love when he hugs and kisses me
12. He takes me to the park
13. He takes me special places after I go to the hospital
14. He colors with me and likes my pictures
(Isabelle's)
15. He writes me notes every morning
16. I like when he plays with me
17. He pushes me on the swing
18. He makes me laugh
19. I like when he "chit-chats" with me at night before I go to sleep
(Evan's)
20. aaaaa-daaadaa-gaa-daa (translation: I love when daddy lets me climb all over him)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY! We love you! And think you are the BEST!

Evan is walking!

2009-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

My little baby is walking now. Here is a clip from his first day of walking. (Of course, by the time we thought to get the camera out, his little legs were getting tired.) Yeah, Evan!

Bed Sheets

2009-10-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, this might seem like a silly post (and a silly poll) but I am serious about this! For those of you who don't know, I am a clean freak. I like things clean (and organized), which is a very big challenge when you share a home with four children. One of my most recent challenges is remembering to change and wash the bed sheets. I seem to remember how long it has been since I last changed them when the kids (or my husband and I) are climbing into bed. Not the best time to remember, I know. Ever since the kids got bunk beds, I have been putting off changing the sheets longer and longer as bunk beds are a pain to remake! So, that leaves me with this question: How often should I change the bed sheets? Would you let me know how often you change your sheets by taking the poll (on the left of this blog)? And feel free to leave a comment letting me know that I'm not the only one who puts off changing and washing sheets. It would be nice to know I'm not alone! (Or maybe I need some constructive criticism....)

Happy Birthday, Isabelle!

2009-10-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

My precious little girl turned 3 years old today. Happy Birthday, Isabelle!

Isabelle weighed in at 10lb. 9oz.

Isn't she a chunk? Nice and healthy!

Here she is at 5 months old. Isn't she sweet?

Here she is on her 1st birthday, playing in her new sandbox.

Isabelle at Bates Nut Farm, just a few days after her 2nd birthday.

Isabelle loves to play dress-up!

And here is Isabelle and daddy, playing a game on the iTouch just last month.

Happy Birthday, Isabelle!

Got Girls? Get this book! Part 2

2009-10-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Got Girls? Then you MUST get this book. I know it sounds a little pushy... me telling you that you have to buy a book. But you won't regret it! Before I review the book, let me share a little of my own history with you (for those of you who aren't familiar with my past).

I grew up in a Christian home with two godly parents who did all they knew to encourage me to live for Christ and remain pure. But instead, I lived a life of impurity. Let's just say that I was an unwed mother two months after my 19th birthday. Eleven years later, with three daughters of my own, I long for my daughters to avoid the pain that my life of impurity caused me and those around me. I have often looked back and said to myself, "What could my parents have done differently?" or "What could I have done differently?" But I never could figure out an answer to those questions and this concerned me. I began praying, and asking the Lord to show me how to raise up young maidens of purity. And God, being ever faithful, answered my prayers.

I am so thrilled to share this amazing book with you all. Before You Meet Prince Charming, by Sarah Mally, is a guide to preparing the hearts of our daughters for a life of purity, for God's glory. I never knew how to encourage my daughters in purity until now. Written as a story about a princess who is longing for her prince charming, the author takes the reader through biblical principle that will help any young princess save her heart, her mind and her body for her future husband. Ms. Mally does an amazing job of illustrating counter-culture principles that will aid our daughters in the battle for their purity. Written for a preteen audience, this book is great for a daughter and her mother to read aloud (and discuss) together. (I am reading through this book with my 11 year old daughter right now and it is amazing to see all that God is doing through it!) For those mothers with very young daughters, this is a must read for you too! I have already started dialoging with my 3 year old and 5 year old daughters about the truths in this book! It is never to early to start laying a foundation of purity!

So, what is so different about this book? Aren't their enough books out there claiming to help keep our daughters pure? Is this one really going to "work"? Well, you'll just have to buy a copy and find out for yourselves. I pray it does more than just "work", though. I pray that this book challenges my daughters and yours to live their lives for Christ, so that they will be bright lights in a darkened world. And I think it will help them do just that!

May your daughters, and mine, realize the joy that is found in living a life of purity for God's glory! (And don't forget to read Part 1 for another great book recommendation.)

Got Girls? Get this book! Part 1

2009-10-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

Being a mother of 3 daughters has gotten me praying and thinking and reading and praying some more. What about? Well, about how to encourage them to remain pure in a sinful world. I am so excited to have discovered two amazing books for my daughters that are helping them live a life of purity, for God's glory! I thought it only fitting to share these two wonderful resources with my friends and family.

The Princess and the Kiss, by Jennie Bishop, is a touching children's story about a princess who is given a special gift at birth... her first kiss. Through the years, the king and queen guard this special gift for the princess but when she is grown she must decide for herself who is fit to be given this special gift from her.

In a world that tells young girls to give their hearts (and bodies) away to any and everyone, this story stands as an example of what purity is and the benefit of waiting for God's best. This is a must read for any young girl who wants to be a true princess! (Read Part 2 for another fabulous book on purity.)

A New Round of Chores

2009-09-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Since we are starting a new school year, I decided we would re due our chore schedule. The kids needed a break from the same chore routine and they also needed to learn some new skills. Some of you have asked me what chores my children due at different ages, so I thought I'd write a little something about what our new chore schedule looks like for each of the girls. Keep in mind that Alyssa is 11 1/2 years old, Hannah will be 5 years old on October 30th and Isabelle will be 3 years old on October 14th. (Evan will be 1 year old in November, but of course he doesn't do any chores yet.)

I have broken the chores up into our morning chores (those done after eating breakfast and getting dressed), lunch chores (those done before and after lunch), afternoon chores (done after naps and rest time) and evening chores (done before or after dinner). I also included our weekly chores and some additional things the kids do to help out around the house that don't fit into one of the above categories.

MORNING CHORES:
Alyssa: make bed, start one load of laundry (and put it in dryer later that morning), wipe bathroom counter and mirror and empty bathroom trash can if needed
Hannah: make bed, empty dishwasher (except for breakables), straighten up bathroom (i.e. put away toothbrushes, hair clips, make sure towels are hung and not on floor etc.) and refill toilet paper if needed
Isabelle: make bed (no, it doesn't look nice when she is done but she tries and is learning), empty silverware from dishwasher

LUNCH CHORES:
Alyssa: make lunches for everyone and clean up lunch mess
Hannah and Isabelle: clean up toys, vacuum carpet in family room and living room (Isabelle and Hannah each pick a room and vacuum it. It does NOT always get vacuumed even though the vacuum was pushed over it but they are learning. Hannah almost has it down, just misses the edges. Isabelle is lucky to get the vacuum belt/suction to touch the carpet... it seems to be in the air most of the time LOL!) put lunch dishes in sink and clean up crumbs on floor around their chair

AFTERNOON CHORES:
All the girls: Fold laundry and put away
(Isabelle folds all of her own laundry and puts it all away, except for things that go on hangers. Those she leaves on the rocking chair in the bedroom and I hang up later. Hannah folds all her own clothes and Evan's and puts hers away and puts Evans on the rocking chair for me to put away later. Alyssa folds all her own clothes as well as mom and dad's. She puts her own away and puts mom and dad's on their bed. All of us help fold towels and sheets and put them away. Isabelle is in charge of bibs, washcloths and any other small items.)

EVENING CHORES:
Alyssa: help set food out on the table, rinse dinner dishes and put in dishwasher, empty kitchen trash and recycling, occasionally help make dinner
Hannah: set table with plates and help Isabelle put silverware on, fill up cups with water, help clear dinner dishes
Isabelle: set table with napkins and help Hannah put silverware on, help clear dinner dishes

WEEKLY CHORES:
Alyssa: clean both bathrooms (except for shower), vacuum and dust own room, help with vacuuming when needed, empty all trashcans in house the night before trash pickup
Hannah and Isabelle: wipe down doorknobs and light switches, dry swiffer the tile, help mom dust and vacuum, play with Evan so mom can mop the floors

ADDITIONAL CHORES:
Everyone has to help unload and put away groceries (of course, some times it goes quicker if mom does it herself but, again, they are learning) Everyone helps with yard work... although, for the kids, this is NOT a chore but a fun activity! And finally, "if mom asks you to do it, do it when she asks as if you were doing it for the Lord" (aka without complaining).

I think that just about sums up our new chore schedule!

Stir-fry

2009-09-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Stir-fry seems like a simple enough meal. Put some oil in a pan, chop up your favorite vegetables, stir it together over some heat and toss it over some brown rice. Easy enough, right?

Well, I have a little dilemma. I have been using a store bought stir-fry sauce to add flavor to our meals. But lately I have been questioning it's ingredients, not to mention the high sodium content. But I just can't toss the sauce because with it goes our flavor!

So, I need your help. Got any ideas on how to add some flavor to my family's stir-fry? If you do, feel free to leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

Thanks for any input. My health and my taste buds thank you!

The Jesus Storybook Bible

2009-09-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

I have been searching for a good childrens story Bible for years. My criteria has been a book that has charming pictures to look at, a text that is fun and easy to follow for little ones but is still enjoyable for adults to read and that has sound theology. I have purchased numerous childrens story Bibles over the years and all all of them have left me searching for something better.... until now!

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name, by Sally Lloyd-Jones, is above and beyond anything I expected to find for children (and adults). The underlying theme of the book is that every story in the Bible points to Jesus. It clearly shows how the redemptive message is saturated throughout the Bible (both the Old Testament and the New Testament). The text is easy to follow for young ones while challenging even the oldest reader in their beliefs. Our entire family enjoys reading from this book. It's adorable illustrations, well written text and solid theology make this one book that I plan on keeping around for years to come.

Check it out and let me know if you loved it as much as we do!

First Day of School

2009-09-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today was our first day of school for the year. We usually start in late July or early August, so this is a really late start date for us. But we all enjoyed our really long summer break.

Isabelle "started" preschool. That means she participates with us when she wants too and goes off to play by herself the rest of the time. She lasted the entire time with us today. She especially enjoyed making her sandpaper letter and tracing over it with her finger. She learned a cursive, lower case A today.

Hannah started kindergarten! She will be 5 years old in October, so she is an early kindergartner but I figured I'd take full advantage of her excitement to learn and get started. She really enjoyed her writing practice time (we don't use pencil and paper right now, instead we use a salt box that she writes in with her pointer finger). She made such beautiful lower case cursive letters today in her salt box! She thought the feel of the salt was very cool and much more fun that holding a pencil.

Alyssa started 6th grade! WOW! When did my firstborn grow up? As always, she loves school. We are easing into the school year so today was a pretty easy day of review and getting familiar with the new curriculum. I should point out that we are easing into school because of me... I haven't read through all the curriculum yet. She's always eager to dive right in. Guess I better get the ball rolling!

And Evan kept us all on our toes! We tried him in the highchair with Cherrios, but that lasted less than 5 minutes!

We let him crawl around at our feet until he started pulling tubs onto the floor and chewing on our papers. We finally gave up and waited until he napped to finish our school lessons. I will have to get creative with this little bundle of energy!

All in all, it was a great first day of school at Christian Heritage Homeschool (a.k.a. the Knutson Home)!

Disneyland Video

2009-09-21T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here is some video of the little ones favorite ride at Disneyland.

Disneyland Pictures

2009-09-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

See the previous post for all the details of our exciting three day family vacation to Disneyland! I wish we had taken more pictures but we were too busy taking it all in that we forgot about the camera!

We just loved our hotel accommodations. Our "room" consisted of two bedrooms with a shared bathroom. Here is a picture of the first bedroom which held all of our stuff and slept Kurt, Janelle and Evan.

This is the second bedroom that had bunk beds, a sofa sleeper, television with cable (which is a big deal for our no tv family) and a little table and chair for the kids. This is where the girls slept, relaxed, played and watched television.

The second bedroom had plenty of space for Evan to crawl around in after being confined to a stroller or the Ergo carrier all day.

Okay, enough of the hotel....
Here are Hannah and Isabelle on the "its a small world" ride. This was a big hit for them and since it was also air conditioned inside we all enjoyed taking this ride over and over and over and over again!

This was another highlight for the little girls... meeting Minnie Mouse and touring her house.

Here they are sitting on Minnie's couch and...

Daddy is caught red handed trying to steal from Minnie's refrigerator!

Here are some pictures from our second day at Disneyland...
Kurt and the girls entering Frontierland.

Alyssa posing with the Indian statue (or is Native American more PC?)

Isabelle and Hannah were so proud of themselves that they were able to overcome their fear and climb up into this tree house!

Here's a close up of them....

Here we are, pumping water, on the island.

Here is Evan in his stroller looking so cute!

And here we are, again, on "its a small world"!

Then it was off to see the Disney parade. This was a highlight for us all!

Seeing Woody and Jesse was Hannah's favorite part of the parade! (see them on the left of the picture?) Isabelle enjoyed seeing Winnie the Pooh (you can make out his back end in the picture) Evan loved the music and noise and the rest of just took it all in!

Well, that's it for pictures. I was too busy with all four kids by myself Thursday to even remember the camera! Next time we'll have to bring a photographer with us... any takers?

Disneyland

2009-09-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

We are back from our three day family vacation to Disneyland! The kids had never been to Disneyland before, so this was a very exciting trip for them. We all had a wonderful time and enjoyed staying in a hotel, eating out and exploring Disneyland for three days!

Our trip got off to a rocky start. We were hoping to leave around 9am on Tuesday, but because I (Janelle) was lacking sleep and Kurt was still suffering from vertigo, we didn't leave until close to 11am. We ate lunch in the car to save time and were thrilled to be pulling in to the Disneyland parking garage around 12:30pm. As I rolled down my window to pay for parking I heard a hissing sound and noticed the worried look on the parking attendants face. "Your tire is loosing air fast," he said. So we pulled over to the side of the parking structure and called AAA. Thank you AAA! They responded to our call and fixed our tire within a half hour! Phew! We were finally off to Disneyland! By the time we took the tram to the entrance, picked up our passes, took a 30 minute bathroom stop (yes, 30 minutes... let's just say an adorable Isabelle wasn't so adorable while I tried to convince her to use the "scary" Disney toilet) and then waited in line to get our photos taken for our annual passes, it was now almost 3pm! We did enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring the park and were anxious to come back again the next morning.

Wednesday went much smoother. We enjoyed a fun morning at Disneyland and since it wasn't very busy yet, we were able to get right on several rides without much wait. We went back to the hotel for a swim in the pool, showers and baths and a little rest time for us big ones and a nap for the younger ones. After that it was back to Disneyland for more rides and to watch the Disney dance parade, which the girls LOVED!

Thursday was the day Kurt spent getting new tires on the van, so he dropped the kids and me off at the park for the day. Me, 4 kids, disneyland and no husband made for quite an adventure but overall it went very well and we had another fun day. Poor Alyssa had to endure several rides on "its a small world"...she survived though. Kurt met up with us around 4pm and so we got to finish up our trip to Disneyland as a family. We piled into our van after the park closed at 8pm only to realize we never had dinner! So we drove through McDonalds and ate on the way home.

All in all, it was a very memorable trip. Now that we have annual passes, we are talking about when to go back! (I will include some pictures in another post...)

C.S.Lewis Quote

2009-09-12T00:11:00.000-07:00

"The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career." C.S. Lewis

I stumbled upon this quote today and thought it worthy of posting. It encouraged me. I hope it encourages some other homemakers.

Cleaning up for God's Glory

2009-09-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I found Isabelle (almost 3yo) in our classroom cleaning up some large beads and string that we used earlier this morning during our school time. I walked over to her to thank her for cleaning up, but was cut short as she exclaimed, "GOD SPOKE TO ME!"
"He did? What did He say?" I questioned.
"He told me to clean up the beads because that is a way to worship."
When did my daughter become a theologian? "Your right," I said. "Serving others is an act of worship!"
Another lesson learned from one of my children....

Sin Is...

2009-08-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

A Poem by Alyssa Knutson
Age 11

Sin is...

Sin comes like a wave of destruction
Disguised in peace and pleasure
It darkens the heart of man and closes his eyes
It makes all good things seem bad and all bad things good
It comes at birth and leaves at the forgiveness of Christ
It tries ones heart and soul as a Christian
It makes thee turn from God and follow it
It flees at the name of Jesus Christ!
It hides from His glorious light and trembles at His sight
It has no power over His name and no authority over His children
It will be totally destroyed at the end of the earth!

Permission given to post this poem

A Divine Encounter

2009-07-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

This past week was amazing! God has been meeting me in the craziness of life on a daily (or make that hourly) basis. I have spent this past week experiencing and worshiping God in my own personal walk in astonishing ways and because of this, I was so eager to come to church this morning and experience God and worship Him even more. I was really looking forward to praising Him during the worship time, taking in His Word during the sermon and learning more about how to live for Him during the adult Sunday School class. But things didn’t work out the way I had planned.

I won’t go into all the details, but let’s just say my children’s needs prevented me from worshiping, hearing the sermon and going to most of the class. I was frustrated and bitterness was welling up in me. On our way out of church I complained to my husband, “I’m in a really bad mood.”

I had longed to experience God’s presence this morning at church but the kids’ needs hindered me from fulfilling that desire. I spent all of our 3 hours at church either caring for my children or battling the enemy. And oh, did I do battle. I knew the enemy wanted to rob me of the joy of meeting God today. I knew he wanted to fill me with bitterness and I knew he wanted me to believe the lie that my children are a burden and not a blessing. I did battle, but the bitterness still settled into my spirit and so the words left my lips… “I’m in a bad mood.”

When we arrived at home, things didn’t get any better. I longed for a nap. A time to rest and be alone but that never happened. Instead, I plucked up my 7 month old son and grudgingly drove off to the grocery store. As I pulled into the parking lot, I fought back tears. Half of me wanted to cry and the other half wanted to scream out in anger. I did neither. I composed myself, took my son and headed into the store. The first thing I saw was an elderly man selling newspaper subscriptions.

“Would you like a free copy of the Union Tribune?” he said.

“No, thank you,” I replied, trying not to make eye contact as I made a dash for the produce isle. But the man ran after me.

“Wait,” he said. “There is something I need to say to you.”

I can’t tell you word for word what he said because his words so overwhelmed me that I don’t think I actually heard every word he spoke. But, I’ll never forget the heart of his message. It went something like this:

“Mam, I want you to know that you are a good mother. I want to acknowledge the hard work you do. You have the greatest job of all and your children are blessed by all you do for them. Know that your children are a wonderful gift. I wanted you to know that.”

I thanked him for his kind words; the bitterness slowly seeping away. I wanted so desperately to meet God inside the 4 walls of my church today, but God wanted to meet me in the grocery store. God wanted me to know that my children are a precious gift, given to me for a time and that I should treasure that time with them. God wanted me to know that He can meet me anywhere, even in the grocery store.

When I got home, I told my husband about my encounter and he wondered if I had just talked with an angel. I just don’t know. But what I do know is that God had a message to give me today and the elderly man was God’s messenger. Whether he was an earthly being or a heavenly one really doesn’t matter. What matters is that the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, met ME in the grocery store today!

Baby Birds

2009-06-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

The girls found 4 baby birds outside the other day. Two of them had already died but they made a little nest for the other two. I took a few pictures and then we put them back in their real nest. The girls were sad to learn that the mother bird never returned and the babies died. We enjoyed watching them for the time they were alive. The kids are sure getting familiar with wildlife! We have had several road runners in our yard lately as well.

Wildlife

2009-06-30T15:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, our family got to enjoy some wildlife in our very own backyard. We went outside to see the wild turkey pacing back and forth on our hill but we stayed indoors to watch the coyote!

We are use to rabbits, squirrels, small birds, lizards and even a snake, but we were completely surprised to find a wild turkey roaming around when we came home one afternoon and even more shocked to find a coyote on our back lawn when we awoke one morning!

Tea Time

2009-05-23T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hannah hosted a tea party at our house last weekend. Both Grandmas were in attendance. We had a wonderful time eating treats and sipping tea and juice from Grandma Johnson's china. Here are a few pictures.

Our Crazy Dresser

2009-05-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Isabelle has her own unique style. She just adores her rainbow "clown" tights and believes they go with anything in her closet! To limit the battles over clothes, we made a new rule... she has to wear what I pick out when we are going out of the house, but if we are staying home, she can pick out her own attire. We have had some very creative outfits lately! She sure makes us laugh!

The Ergo Carrier

2009-05-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

After 4 children, I have finally discovered the BEST baby carrier out there... the Ergo baby carrier. I only wish I had it for the other children. It is so comfortable to wear (it puts the weight on your hips instead of your shoulders and back). It is very versatile as well. I can use it as a front pack, back pack or on my hip and it holds up to 40lbs! Great news for me as my babies are big! Even Alyssa can easily carry her 20lb. brother around in it. And, while I don't lug my 2 year old and 4 year old around in it, it does fit them as well. I tested it out at home with them on my back... could barely tell I had a 35lb, 4 year old hanging off of me!

Hannah is an Artist

2009-04-16T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hannah loves to draw and color! She must get it from her Grammy (Kathy Knutson). I took a few pictures of her magnadoodle drawings. Here is the pig drawing that she was very proud of. Doesn't it look just like a pig?!?!

He is RISEN!

2009-04-16T21:46:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Easter, celebrating our Saviors resurrection, with family. We attended our churches Easter service and then went home for a nap before heading off to my parents house for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. Kurt's parents and my sister, brother and their spouses all joined us. What a fun day!

Isabelle Sings

2009-02-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

A Prayer for Her Brother

2009-02-26T21:28:00.000-08:00

"Dear Jesus, I pray my baby brother will ask you into his heart and I hope he will always love you and be with you in heaven some day. Amen."

These were the words Hannah prayed over Evan this afternoon. She was singing a song while I nursed Evan and stopped to ask me what the words of the song meant. I told her the song talked about all the people in the world who still need to hear about Jesus and how we needed to get out and tell people that Jesus loves them and died for them. When my explanation was over, Hannah jumped off the bed, ran over to where I was nursing Evan, folded her hands and prayed that precious prayer over her brother. Oh, the compassion and love of a child!

Giant Fort

2009-02-24T22:08:00.000-08:00

Last week we took a week off of school to have "fun days with mommy". Each day the kids went on a scavenger hunt, searching for clues that would tell them what fun activity they got to do that day with me. One of the days we built a giant fort in our living room/dining room. We had a blast! After it was built, we had a picnic lunch in our fort. The kids were bummed that daddy missed out so we did dinner in the fort as well. Just picture 2 adults, 3 kids, a baby, dishes and food scrunched under blankets trying to eat while laying down.... it was very memorable to say the least!

More Photos of the Kids

2009-02-24T21:48:00.001-08:00

Alyssa rocked Evan to sleep a few nights ago... and herself.

Hannah is holding Evan after returning home from her ballet class.

I told Isabelle to smile... this was her smile.

Isabelle "loving" her baby brother.

Evan keeps growing and changing!

Grandma and Grandpa are Moving!

2009-02-17T14:23:00.000-08:00

My parents are moving...up to Escondido to be closer to the grandkids! We are excited to have them closer to us, as we could use the extra help with four kids! This is a picture of Hannah standing on their property. (Alyssa and my dad are in the background.) The house should be built and ready to move in by summer!

Sailing

2009-02-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

My dad and Alyssa went sailing with some friends from church. They had a great time! These are some pictures from their trip on Saturday, January 31, 2009.

2 Corinthians 1:1-6

2009-02-08T17:14:00.000-08:00

This morning I heard a wonderful sermon at church taken from 2 Corinthians 1:1-6. The message so encouraged me that I wanted to share the verses and a few key concepts from the sermon. I pray they encourage and strengthen you in whatever trials you are facing.

2 Corinthians 1:1-6
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.

Comfort comes from the word "para" and "kalea" which together mean "to come alongside". That means that God promises to come alongside us in our trials. (Notice that He doesn't promise to remove the trail but rather He will walk through it with us.)

Here are some other concepts that I took from the sermon:

God may not ease your pain, but He will walk with you through it.

Jesus did not come to remove our discomfort but to fill it with His presence.

Our pain becomes our platform for ministry. (How much more comforting is it to have another person walk through a trial with you when they have already been through the same thing.)

Four Out the Door

2009-02-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

One of the challenges I face as a mother of four, is trying to get all four children and myself out the door. Today we needed to take a trip to the library. My first obstacle was timing our departure with the nursing of my newborn. Not wanting to nurse while we were out, I decided we needed to be ready to leave right after one of his nursings. The second obstacle was having a 2 year old in her 5th day of potty training. Hoping to avoid an accident at the library, I thought it best to leave shortly after she used the potty.

It was 10am and I was just finishing up nursing Evan. Isabelle walked into the room and said she needed to "go potty". Perfect! Evan will be nursed, Isabelle will have gone potty and we are all dressed, so we can leave by 10:15 and have snack in the van. Phew! This was going to be easy!

Then Isabelle walked in to say she did not go potty. Great! Just great! We'll have to load the potty chair into the back of the van just in case she needs to go on the way to the library. Oh- the back of the van is a mess. I'll have to clean it out real fast before I load the kids. Okay, no big deal. I can do this!

Then I saw Isabelle's feet. No shoes. Nobody had shoes on but me! Alright, no need to stress, Hannah and Alyssa can put their own shoes on and I can get Isabelle's on after I feed Evan. I hollered to the girls to put their shoes on.

I started to burp Evan, then remembered we had not gathered up the library books to return to the library. I shouted to the girls again to round up the 13 books scattered around our house as soon as they got their shoes on.

Then, Evan pooped! Okay, I'll change Evan, then put on Isabelle's shoes, then clean out the back of the van and then we can all load up and eat snack in the van. SNACK! I forgot all about snack. Hannah walked in while I was changing Evan to tell me Alyssa and she had found all the books and Alyssa was currently putting them in the van. Thank you girls! I looked at Hannah's feet- shoes were on! Yes! I asked Hannah to get a box of crackers, 3 bowls and Isabelle's sippy cup from the kitchen. Thankfully, we had water bottles in the garage so no need to waste time filling up cups of water.

Evan was now changed so I set him on the bed and put on Isabelle's shoes. Hannah walked into the room with the snack items I had requested. I asked her to put them next to the diaper bag. That's when I realized the diaper bag looked very empty. I grabbed a few of Evan's diapers and a case of wipies. I snatched up one of Isabelle's diapers, only to remember that she no longer wears them. Oh, well. I shoved it into the bag anyways since putting it away would take too much time. I dashed into the girls bedroom to grab a clean pair of panties and clothes for Isabelle and stuffed them into the diaper bag as well.

Then, I took inventory:
Snack. Check. Library books. Check. Diaper bag. Check. Purse... where is my purse? I combed the house looking for it. Found it! Purse. Check.
Now all I needed to do was clean out the back of the van, load up the stuff and get the kids into their car seats with a snack. I could do this!

Evan started to cry. I stood in the hallway, my head turning from Evan to the van and back again. If I don't get the back of the van cleaned up and things loaded in now, we'll never get out of here! The clock was ticking. The kids were getting hungry. I had to get home before Evan's next feeding and Isabelle was currently doing the potty dance. I decided to leave Evan crying on the bed and sprinted to the van for a quick clean up.

Thankfully, Evan's wails were replaced with cooing sounds. His sisters must be entertaining him. Good! Now on to the van. 5 minutes later it was cleaned out. All I needed to do was load the kids and all the stuff. In went the kids. In went the stuff. I past out snacks to the girls along with the water bottles I had snatched from the garage cupboard. I climbed into the front seat...Oh-no! Did I put Evan in the van? I called back to Alyssa. "Did I remember Evan?" "Yes" she replied. "You put him in the car first and he is already sound asleep."

I leaned my head back against my seat and said a silent prayer. Thank you God for getting us this far. Help us the rest of the way.

An entire hour had passed since I first pondered heading out the door with the kids. I had everyone and everything loaded in the van. We were ready to go to the library! I started the engine and pulled out of the driveway. We were finally on our way! Then, I heard a small voice.... "Mommy, need to go pee pee."

Multitasking

2009-01-21T11:47:00.000-08:00

God has truly given mothers an amazing ability to multitask at home! I thanked God for this skill earlier this morning when Evan needed to be nursed, laundry was piled up on the bed, Hannah and Isabelle had started to pester each other and Alyssa needed help with her school work. I found myself sitting in a chair nursing Evan and giving instructions to Hannah on how to fold the laundry while letting Isabelle play with the back-massager on my legs and feet. Oh, and I was giving Alyssa a lesson on writing reports in the midst of it all!

Someone else may have walked in and seen chaos in that room, but I was rather relaxed and enjoying the moment (hey, my feet were getting massaged). All four of my children were with me and I had to stop and pause for a moment to thank God for the four blessings he has given me and the wisdom and patience He has poured out on me to meet all four of their needs at any given time. What a joy it is to be a mother... especially when you know how to multitask!

Evan is Growing!

2009-01-21T11:42:00.000-08:00

Evan is changing everyday! He is currently smiling and cooing at his family. We are all enjoying interacting with him. (Picture taken 12-28-08)

Granny Vi

2008-12-31T11:31:00.000-08:00

Granny Vi (Kurt's grandmother) has come to San Diego for a few months to visit. The kids are enjoying spending time with her. Before Christmas, Alyssa went over to Grandma and Grandpa Knutson's to help Granny Vi make Krumkake (a Norwegian waffle cookie) and Hannah spend another day making sugar cookies with Granny Vi. We are so glad that Vi was able to come out and visit. Here is a picture of Evan and Granny Vi on Christmas Day.

More Pictures of Evan

2008-11-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

Big Sisters, Little Brother

2008-11-29T15:12:00.000-08:00

Evan is loved by all his big sisters! Here are pictures of Hannah and Isabelle holding their baby brother.

I found my thumb!

2008-11-29T15:04:00.000-08:00

Evan discovered the joys of sucking his thumb soon after birth! Here he is, 3 days old, enjoying his thumb.

Evan Russell Knutson

2008-11-29T14:52:00.000-08:00

Evan Russell Knutson was born on Sunday, November 23, at 9:05pm. He weighed a whopping 10lb 12oz and yes, he was born vaginally! Here he is with his proud daddy and mommy.

Tea Party

2008-11-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, I had the privilege of attending a tea party with my 4 year old daughter, Hannah and her stuffed dog, Peanut Butter. We had a grand time! We made special sandwiches and other tasty treats to go with our fruit punch "tea". She enjoyed the opportunity to put on a little make-up and we both dressed up with play jewelry and other odds and ends. It was such a special time. Daddy took some pictures for us. Here is one of Hannah and her dog, Peanut Butter.

Fall Carnival

2008-11-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

The girls enjoyed dressing up for the Fall Carnival at our church. Alyssa was Deborah (from the Bible), Hannah was Jesse (from Toy Story II) and Isabelle got to wear an angel costume my mom made 20 some years ago!

All Grown Up

2008-10-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

My 10 year old daughter, Alyssa, is growing up so quickly! The time just seems to fly by. She had a shopping day with grandma and purchased a few new outfits. Grandma had fun taking photos of her in her new clothes. Doesn't she look so grown up?!?!