let it snow! {pretty please}

i have to say, and don't send me hate mail for this, but i wish we had more snow! i've got a couple of snow storms left in my system, but considering my tulips are already pushing up through the soil, i'd say winter is all but gone. so i'll just have to be grateful for the frosty flakes that did fall, even though they were few and far between. here's a collection of snowy memories, memories we would still be making if it would stinking snow! it's february for crying out loud!

was trying to capture mt. spokane, all snowy and glowy, when the boys ran through. and now i love this scene even more.



mitchy wanted to go out in the snow again after everyone had gone inside. so i went out with him and we laid on our backs in the snow and had a good talk about how it will seem like just a flash and we'll be lying on a quilt in the grass, drinking lemonade because we're so hot. mitchy is such an old soul.

papa and a puppy and snow, that's good stuff.

catching snowflakes.

do you wanna build a {tiny} snowman?

snowhenge

"why sled down the hill just to the right when there are ROCK stairs to sled down?!" said no one ever. {except ella and charlie}

snowboard sledding. our favorite winter sport.

1 Peter 1:7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

What the Media Isn’t Reporting on ISIS’ Beheading of 21 Christian Men

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The tragic images are almost impossible to see and process.

There on the shore of Libya stand 21 young Christian Egyptian men, each clad in an orange jumpsuit. Behind each man is a hooded radical Islamist, holding a knife.

We know what’s coming next.

If American Christians were ever tempted to believe martyrs are only people we read about in the Bible and history books, the 21 men who were brutally beheaded because they called Jesus Christ their Savior remind us nothing could be further from the truth.

Each of these men is a hero of the faith. And I believe each one is now seeing the Lord face to face.

Sami Yacoub is a dear friend and the regional director for Focus on the Family’s Middle East outreach. He’s based in Egypt. As you can imagine, this latest despicable act of barbarism has hit Sami and the team in Cairo hard. I would like to share with you some of Sami’s perspectives and insights.

Not all of these facts are being reported by news and media outlets. In fact, I read yesterday that NBC News devoted ten times more coverage to its 40th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” than to this tragedy.

•  These young Christians were in their early to mid-20s. They went to Libya in search of work to help feed their families living under the poverty line in Egypt.
• In the days and weeks leading up to their deaths, their ISIS captors tortured them and attempted to persuade them to deny Jesus in return for living.
• They all refused to deny Christ.
• They all died on that beach singing songs to Jesus.

Yet, from Sami’s perspective, these men were not mere victims. They are “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37) whose ultimate sacrifice is a powerful testimony to their faith in Jesus.

That’s why I echo the sentiments Sami shared with us at Focus on the Family headquarters here in Colorado Springs.

“The Gospel message of salvation rises out of this suffering and persecution. As the Middle East was the birthplace of Christianity, the torch of revival that once burned bright for Christ can once again be lit by the sparks created by ISIS.”

We’ve seen God use persecution to bring people to Him before, and we pray it happens again.

In the meanwhile, though, through all the tears and heartache, what do we do now?

I’ve previously written how Christians in the West can help their Middle East brothers and sisters and how they can talk to their children about what’s happening. I’d like to take a minute to expand on what I’ve already shared with some additional thoughts in light of the most recent situation.

1. There’s a special prayer request from Sami I want to pass along. For various historical and cultural reasons, Christians in the Middle East have placed much importance on the proper burial of their dead. But because ISIS threw the bodies of the 21 young believers into the sea, the loved ones who remain are enduring an added dimension to their grief.

Sami has been given a special opportunity to provide biblical encouragement to the grieving family members by writing a special article for a widely circulated Coptic (orthodox) newspaper in Egypt. That these editors would ask Sami, an evangelical Christian, for his insight means God is working to unite believers. That is no small thing. In light of this, please pray for wisdom for Sami, that the Holy Spirit would comfort the loved ones left behind, and that God’s people in Egypt may band together.

2.  While the White House and other U.S. leaders have spoken out against these atrocities, they have also been reluctant to publicly recognize that this violence has been religiously motivated. Overall, the response has been tepid, especially when seen in contrast to the responses by the Jordanian and Egyptian governments.

Please pray for the eyes of our leaders to be opened to the danger ISIS represents for Christians around the world, and pray they would have wisdom to know how to properly respond. At a time like this, it would also be good and proper for Christians to respectfully reach out to their elected officials and make their voices heard.

Indeed, it is good to pray and hope for justice

december birthday buddies

                ella turned 11 this year. holy heart attack! you know you're special when you turn 11 on 12.13.14!  i feel my blood pressure rise every time I think about how quickly we are approaching the teen years. Lord have mercy. she is really growing up, and with braces added to the mix she is looking more the part of a tweenager than i'd like. the festivities started with root beer floats at school, then bean chose to go to pattison's and roller skate with a couple of her closest friends, and then out to red robin for dinner. the girls had fun whizzing around the rink and of course ella entered every contest and race. she cracks me up with her fearless, confident spirit! at dinner i barely got a word in edge wise as the 4 of them laughed and laughed. there is nothing on this earth like the sound of giggling girls ~ music to my ears! the two items on her birthday wish list describe her personality perfectly: a pogo stick and perfume. now how is that for a contradiction?! i guess she is stuck somewhere between a little girl and a young lady. i'm telling you, this is going by way too fast.

dawson helped me serve whipped cream topped root beer floats to ella's class!

their teacher lets them stand on the chairs to sing happy birthday...

oh lordy, the selfie era is in full swing.

dawson is always ready and willing to light something on fire.

looks like Dawson isn't lucid, but had to include a shot with the bros.

my beautiful birthday girl. ugh, those killer dimples get me every time.

 
umm, that's a more accurate snap shot of her personality.

now on to Big D...

for sanity and budgetary purposes, we only do full blown parties for the kids every other year, and a simple family party on the off years. so it was Big D's year to party hard with his buddies, and i'm so glad it was because he earned it! poor guy had the H3N2 flu over Christmas break, and on his birthday was fevering and throwing up! grateful we'd already planned to do his party after the holidays otherwise we would've had to cancel it! plus, it was his first year at full-time school so he was excited to celebrate with his classmates. he knew exactly what he wanted, a mad scientist party! and a theme is mandatory in this house. a party without a theme is just a meeting.
when it came down to it, what I thought was going to be a simple party to pull off wound up being a lot of work for different reasons. by the time it rolled around I felt like igor, abused, tired, and in need of a raise. who knew it was so hard to find cow eye balls to float in a jar in our "laboratory"?! or that i'd have to drag the kids to 4 stores just to get dry ice, just one of the million things on the list. we hit several annoying road blocks, but the look on the faces of 17 little boys as we did each BubBliNg, foaming, foggy, erupting experiment was worth every bit of effort! dawson's party proved that 8 is gr8 and worth celebr8ing in a BiG way!

 we celebrated dawson at school before it let out for christmas break. birthday boy got to pick a game to play with the class, he chose 4 corners.

just love his teacher chloe! she is so dear! we brought tie dye cupcakes, a precursor to the crazy science party to come...

my day-after-christmas baby is 8 already! this boy represents the culmination of a lot of blood, sweat,  tears, and prayers. how precious he is to me! he rallied some energy and appetite  to enjoy some dinner, mommy's key lime pie, and birthday candles. we were cleaning up dinner and my mom asked where dawson was. poor buddy had fallen asleep at 7 pm on his birthday, of course after throwing up one last time. maybe italian food and key lime pie don't mix well with the flu. good times!

he looks so grown up in this picture:(

dawson's pre-birthday party photo shoot was a crack-up. this one took the cake and became the front of his invitation.

todd's mathematical genius was offended by my invitation. i just tried to use every math symbol I could that kinda worked with the party details. he kept saying "but it doesn't make sense... your math doesn't make any sense!" 

my dining room was transformed into a laboratory. and all those strange books todd used in college and all my biology and anatomy books came in handy as props.

dawson's "professor poses" are a hoot.

that dry ice was so fun!

it started snowing on dawson's birthday, so special for him, he loved it! i added snowflake molecules too.

dawson loves italian sodas so the plan was to have the kids use beakers etc to mix their drink. it quickly became apparent this was going to be a disaster, so my sister saved the day and served as the mixologist!

Experiments:

acid base balloons

elephant's toothpaste

"make" snow

dry ice bubble

mentos eruption

*elephant's toothpaste was a big hit, so nice we did it twice!

*the dry ice bubble was awesome, what a crowd pleaser! we did this twice too:)

my mom was my trusty lab assistant, and i wouldn't have survived without her, my sis and my friend erin! this was definitely a party where extra hands {adult ones} were appreciated!

every party needs balloons, right?! but at our science party, we used a chemical reaction to blow 

them up! that look on dawson's face!

 

lab rats 

love the look on charlie and mitch's faces! so happy all three of the boys were captured in this picture. {ella went to her bff's house to play during the party}

my mom/igor did a great job playing the part of the crazy lab assistant. she had the kids squealing and giggling and screaming!

anatomy lesson. we had a few class drop-outs that hid in the back.

mitch was a good sport and let me spike his hair and put soot on his face from an earlier explosion.

we had pizza, brain jello, fruit and veggies for lunch and one of the boys came up to me and said "miss laura, i kinda lost my appetite because of that..." and pointed to the pig parts. i said "i'm so sorry buddy, can you maybe sit over there?!" and he said "but then there's that===> and pointed to the eyeballs. i laughed so hard, these poor kids were probably scarred for life!

this great old guy was the 5th butcher i'd called over a two week period of time trying to find "parts" for our lab. he pulled through with some eyeballs, a cow heart, and an amazing connected set of pig heart, lungs, trachea, esophogus! so cool, and for free! aside from the rufflings, only one other boy was brave enough to touch!

petri dish cookies. 

i got biohazard bags to use as party favor sacks. calculators, nerd glasses, mechanical pencils, pop rocks and candy were the perfect take home treat for our little budding scientists.

and this final picture sums up how i chemically reacted to this party;) look at those happy faces though!