Read the Bible in 90 Day Challenge: WE DID IT!!!

I really can't believe it, but the 90 Day Challenge ends today. And Obi and I both finished our Bibles last night! I felt like doing a dance, whooping and hollering, but since the little kids were all sleeping I didn't. But I was seriously excited. I told Obi and Han and then Obi stayed up late and finished his. Han is still working on finishing his reading and I am confident he will have it finished by tonight.

I am so glad that I read the Bible in 90 days. Reading it so quickly really gave me a different perspective and there was such a contrast in the reading for me from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I have always loved the Old Testament, but after the prophets I felt very weighed down with the law and all the disobedience and punishments on the nation of Israel. The New Testament felt like a breath of fresh air and mercy and grace.

When I was about 1/3 of the way through the readings, I thought it would be neat to start a chronological Bible as soon as I was finished with the 90 days. But now I want to start the New Testament over and spend some more time there and study more in depths all the teachings of Jesus. I just don't want to lose the discipline I have had in my reading. I have put on hold most of my blogging, reading other books, and some other projects I would like to get to. But what a great 90 days of reading it has been. I am already planning on doing it again next year!

Tug O War Family

Sports have never been a huge part of our lives. We love to watch the Olympics and the boys have all tried soccer and basketball, which Leia also tried. Obi loves basketball and has lately been interested in watching college basketball, but no one has really excelled at a sport. Until the Awana Olympics this year. I think we have found our niche in the sport world.


It all started with Leia last month. She is actually a Sparky but was drafted up to the T & T ( a group up) for the Awana Olympics. She is such a girl and we had never seen her do the tug o war. It is usually a four way tug, but they were lacking a team so it was three way. Imagine our surprise to see our little girl out there tugging away and winning with her partner. Made her brothers so proud!


Then it was Luke's turn. When he won, we were excited again.


This past weekend, Han and Obi were on different teams. They are both the anchor for their teams. And they ended up tugging against each other. I was home with a sick baby, so I missed all the fun, but Hubby videoed for me. So, below are the You Tube videos from our Tug O War family. We couldn't be more proud!


For the tug of war, the team wins when their team member picks up the bean bag on the floor. If you watch, you can see a judge move the bag up little by little as time goes by. The anchor usually grabs the bag and that is the end of the tug. Several times you can see the anchor grab for something and miss, and then go back to tugging.

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Here is Leia and her partner. She is in the darker green shirt with her back to the camera. She has a pony tail. Watch when she is done as she is funny how tired she is!

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Here is Luke tugging. He is in the darker green with his back to the camera. He is on the left and his buddy is on the right.

Journey Team D Tug

Here is Obi's team in a tug. The video quality isn't the best, but watch how excited Obi is when they win.

2 Journey teams tug o war against each other

This is Han and Obi's team tugging against each other. Han's team is on the left and Obi's is on the right.

Tug of War Final Journey

Here is the final Tug. Point wise, if they won this tug, they would win first place for the Olympics. Han is in the black shirt with his back to the camera. Watch his teammate grab the bag around Han.

Daddy's Little Helper

Recently Daddy had a project that required tools in the house. And being all boy, Yoda loves tools. So he had to get right in there and lend a hand. I am sure he was very helpful.


Daddy is training Yoda to some day be a good helper to him. Yoda really wanted to take over the project himself!

This is a terrible picture, but I love the look on Yoda's face. He was so happy to be helping!

Padme's Olympic Performance

We had lots of fun watching the Olympics last month. And Padme wasn't able to just watch the pairs skating: She had to dance along at home.

She convinced Yoda to dance along for awhile.

She was dedicated to her dance, even if they both ended up on the floor as a result.

But Yoda soon tired of her crazy antics and left her alone.

He found a ball to play with, and she grabbed the broom for her new partner. She keeps an eye on the TV to see the latest moves.

And off she was with Mr. Broom.

Mr. Broom was a much better partner than Yoda as he never disagreed with her.

A good night for dancing!

Family Favorites Friday: Han's Secret

Grateful for Grace is hosting a blog carnival every Friday for sharing your favorite family stories. Stop by her blog and check out more stories.

When I was pregnant with first two boys, we did not want to know the gender of the baby. When we were pregnant with Luke, we thought it would be fun to know. But after we found out, my mom told me that my family did not want to know. So how do you tell everyone else, except your family? So, we decided that we knew, but we weren't telling anyone. But 5 year old Han figured out that since we had seen the baby on ultrasound, we had to know what it was, and he really wanted to know. (He had been praying for a baby sister for quite awhile at this time.) So, I swore him to secrecy and told him that the baby was a boy. He was a bit disappointed. But he said he could keep a secret. I was a bit worried. There was still 3 months to go.

About a month before Luke was born, a friend from church, Lisa, ask Han about the baby. It was driving her crazy that we weren't telling what the baby was. She actually asked him what he wanted, boy or a girl. He told her he wanted a sister. She thought since he knew, he had told her what the baby was. So, she came and told me that Han had told her about the baby. And she was very pleased with herself. When we got home I asked Han what he had told Miss Lisa, and he told me. I figured out that she thought he had told her, but he had told her he wanted a sister. I said nothing to her. For the next month every time I saw her, she smiled a secret smile at me. And I smiled back.

When Luke was born, I called to tell her. She said, "What is her name?" And I said, "Her name is Luke!" Then I explained that she had asked Han what he wanted, not what we were having. And we had the best time laughing about the last month! And Han is my only kid that can really keep a secret. All of the rest of them have slipped up and told Christmas or birthday presents. Even my hubby has accidentally told me my Christmas present twice! But Han has never let a secret slip.

Family Favorites Friday: Leia's smile

Grateful for Grace is hosting a blog carnival every Friday in order to share our favorite family stories. Hop on over to her blog to read more fun stories.

In the summer of 2007, a good friend of mine lost her husband to cancer, leaving her a single mom of 5 children. This made my hubby and me want to look closely at our life insurance and see if we shouldn't get more. At this same time, Leia had to have two bottom teeth pulled because the adult teeth were coming through and the baby teeth had no intention of falling out on their own.

Leia is very afraid of anything medical or dental. She especially doesn't like needles. So one morning I took her to the dentist to get a cavity filled. Then while she was there, the dentist pulled her two teeth. This was a big deal for her and she was a bit traumatized. She came home, laid on the couch, and watched a few movies. Later that afternoon, my newly widowed friends' son came over to play for a few hours. While he was there, we had a life insurance salesman come by to talk with us. The kids were all outside playing and we were having a nice conversation with the salesman.

Suddenly there was a loud screaming coming from the yard and here came Leia with her hand up to her mouth with blood gushing out, crying hysterically, and the rest of the kids coming in after her. Someone said that the friend had accidently hit Leia in the mouth with a PVC pipe while they were sword fighting and knocked out two of her teeth! She was bleeding so much I couldn't even tell which teeth were missing. I was worried it was the bottom middle teeth which were permanent teeth. I finally was able to tell that it was her top two middle teeth that were missing, and they had been loose baby teeth. So, we got Leia cleaned up, cleaned up all the blood on the floor, and then tried to explain to the insurance salesman that things like this don't usually happen around our place. And that we didn't want to buy his very expensive insurance!


So here is a picture of Leia's toothless smile. And you wouldn't guess the crazy story that was behind it!