Life Can Get So Busy...

...take time to stop and smell the roses

Roofing Day #3

And it was basically finished!!!  Here are some pictures from the day.  Thank you again to everyone who came up and helped.  What a blessing!!!

 Working hard

 The kids had fun playing outside

 Getting the trim ready

 Ladies fellowshipping

 Getting the metal

 Sayer and Levi

 Up goes the metal!

Sewing

 Handwork and fellowship

 Corinne and Anna

 On the roof

 It was Mr. Bender's birthday and the Ford's made this lovely cake!

 Happy Birthday Mr. Bender!!!

 Thank you Mrs. Ford!

Tabitha and Taylor

The Many Faces and Poses of Shenandoah...

...all in the space of just a few minutes!!!

Sayer Lost His First Tooth...

...on mommy's birthday!!!

Yeaaah!!!  

Just a few days later, he lost his second front tooth!

Mommy's Birthday - November 8th, 2011

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!  We love you!!!

 All of us kids and mommy

 Daddy and Mommy

 Mommy and Shenandoah

 Mommy and Sayer

 Mommy and Seth

 Mommy and Stasia

 Mommy and Sienna

 Mommy and Sabrina

 Mommy and I

A Birthday Prayer

I made a coconut flour chocolate cake for mommy with all healthy ingredients.  It was our first time trying it and it turned out great!!!  You wouldn't know it wasn't "normal". :)  I'm going to share the recipe with you all below:

Chocolate Cake (and it's gluten free too!)

3/4 cup coconut flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

10 eggs

1 cup coconut oil

1 1/2 cups agave nectar

1 Tbls vanilla

1/4 tsp orange zest (optional)

Directions:  Melt coconut oil.  In large bowl combine wet ingredients.  Add dry and blend well.  Pour into 2 nine inch greased and floured (using coconut flour) cake pans.  Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes.  Enjoy!!!

Icing (you may have to play around with it a little, but it tastes great!)

1 3/4 cups agave nectar

1 cup coconut sugar 

1 1/4 cups cocoa

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups coconut oil (melted)

Blend all in blender until smooth and creamy.  (it thickens up after you let it sit a while - can put in fridge to help set as well).  Ice cake and enjoy!

recipe from elanaspantry.com

Roofing Day #2

Well, the title pretty much explains it!  Hey, I'm actually on November blog posts now! :) Once again, we were so blessed by the church families who came up to help us.  Here are some pictures from the day.

It was Mrs. Thomas's birthday, so we all scrambled to get decorations up before they arrived!

Team work

Julia and Stasia

Team work on lunch too!

The men were working hard and were hungry!

Melanie and I 

(we helped with some of the ground work outside!)

It's coming along

Mrs. Thomas helped us clean up/ pull out our back garden area

Happy Birthday Mrs. Thomas!

It ended up being too windy and we needed some different supplies, so the men decided to work on the wood pile since they couldn't continue on the roof!

Thank you everyone!!!

Misc. October Stuff

 Sabrina made taffy...

 ...and learned how NOT to handle it!!! :)

 They sure did like it though!

 Dancing

 School days 

 We got our piano tuned!!!  (so nice!)

 Sabrina doing Latin

 Paper dolls

 Airplanes and army men

 Samson is getting big  - and is ALL puppy!!! :)

 Shenandoah wanted Sayer to rock her for nap time

 Artwork

 Passports!!!

 Yeaaaah!!!

 The men went on a late night apple order pick up adventure in Kansas!

 Dishes

 Stasia

 Shenandoah

 Yard work

 Sayer

 I love this picture - isn't it great?! 

(mommy took it :)

 Family night 

(I think this one was on Saturday :)

 Tea anyone?

Working by daddy 

(Shenandoah calls the apple her computer)