2010/03/30

Beautiful, Crazy, Busy Week


We were so blessed to have Jake's mom, Teresa, visit us for the week. We started things off right with a hike down to beautiful Point Lobos. The next day we headed up the coast to beautiful Pescadaro, California. We were having fun and only just beginning.


This may not look like much, but it's the future work place of Jake's folks. It's a KOA camp called Costanoa. Located about an hour and forty-five minutes north of here. They will be transitioning there in the next month. Please pray for them as they pack up, sell a car, and make the move.
After the trip up north, we trekked back down south and made a stop at Capitola so Jake could dominate some waves..

His adoring fans look on.
The following day we visited the beautiful Monterey Bay Aquarium. Here we are taking advantage of the family membership. It's cheaper to buy a membership than to purchase tickets for each of us to visit one time..

By Friday we were ready for the big part of the week. We headed north to Redding and were reunited with family. It had been shy of 9 years since we had last seen Jake's Grandmothers, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.

This is Libby's Great-Grandmother Hardesty.
We were delighted to meet his cousin Andy's (new to us) bride, Jackie. They will be heading down here in a couple of weeks for a weekend visit.
Jake's other cousin Will and his fiancee, Ashley. We'll make another trip north over Labor Day for their wedding.

Sunday we started south and made a stop to see some very, very dear people, Bill and Betty King. They are Jake's grandparents on his father's side. We stayed and played there for a couple of hours.

Perhaps you're curious about our little family member Salt. Here he is. He stayed home while we travelled to Redding. He looks like a good little doggie doesn't he? Don't be fooled, the dog-sitter informed us he peed twice in the boys room.. poor fellas.

We took Jake's mom back to the airport yesterday and are getting ready for his dad to come visit sometime in the next week or so.

This week we'll be Spring Breaking. Hoping to do some cleaning, sewing, and a little bit of cooking. The kids will do lots of playing.


*Several pictures above are courtesy of Teresa.. thank you for sharing.

2010/03/25

Hiking with Grandma

Once we recovered from our nasty bout with Bronchialitis, a hike was in order. Point Lobos seemed to be the perfect destination and what a great time to have Grandma visiting. The weather has continued on its cycle of perfection, so we set out and enjoyed the sites... not the driving so much as Samuel screamed his head off most of the time.
Lost in wonder at God's beauty.

Sweet family.

Samuel Well-Baby Checkup (just shy of 10 months)



He had his well child visit this week. Samuel weighs 17 pounds 13 ounces. The Doctor thinks that's a little under weight because it hits the charts at under the 10th percentile. Jake and I aren't too worried. His height is over the 75th percentile. He is happily growing long and thin, Jake and I stayed up all night wondering where he gets it from..
Colby giving him clucking lessons

Samuel on a hike, one day before his weigh in. Notice the chubby cheeks.

2010/03/23

It's Grandma!


We are very excited!

Can you tell?
A bonus picture of Samuel.

2010/03/22

Special Visitor...

We have a special visitor right now. Be on the lookout for pictures soon!

Silas and the Banana


Silas woke up from his nap one day and needed a snack..
He chose a banana.
It was a good banana and served its' purpose well.
Can you tell by the look on his face?

This is an obscure post to be sure, but Silas was just way too cute this particular afternoon to not snap some pics of him.. If you look close you can see he has a black eye. That was the result of a fall between two wooden bar stools. Sweet little fella. He looks like he's been playing in different colored eye shadow everyday for a week now.

2010/03/18

1st Annual St. Patrick's Day Jello Feast!

Decorations.
Colby is there for the food!
Libby would have sat between Si and Lou had she not been at the Doc.
I think Silas needs to have on more green.
Sweet service.
Posing before the jello feast.

Amazing













The children are fine. We followed up with our Dr. today and she was very pleased with the progress Samuel made over night. We are to keep them calm, confined, and rested with some daily outside exposure. This shouldn't be a problem at all because the weather has been phenomenal here this past week and is supposed to stay the same for at least a week. We're talking mid 60's and fully sunny. Perfect. Thank you for your prayers.

2010/03/17

Ug.


Our internet has been down for 5 days. We are back up and running and I am happy to report, because I know you were all wondering, the internet is not an idol! You may think this is silly to consider, but it is my habit to examine all areas of my life to see where God isn't first. I have often thought to myself, "Would I be the same mother through the day If I didn't have the internet.." I already know I have issues with "over-loving" my house.. I discovered this the last time we went camping and the raccoons ate all my homemade muffins while we slept, definitely not a good response there. But alas, I passed the no internet test with flying colors!!

Now for the Ug. Samuel and Libby have Bronchitis. We have all been hard down sick for a few days. Each Reynolds in turn, has had a nasty bug. Today when Samuel woke up he was definitely laboring for breath as was Libby. The Doctor affirmed our assumptions that there was something serious going on. Samuel was so bad when we got to the Dr. that she nearly had us head straight to the hospital. Praise God there was a sweet turn of Providence when Samuel responded well to an Albuterol treatment, or as we refer to it, "All-Better-All."

While I was at the Dr. with the little and the mini the rest of the family had the 1st annual St. Patrick's Day Jello Feast. More on that later.

If you remember, please pray for our littles that they would not need to be hospitalized. We will know how things are looking in the morning when we go in for Samuel's follow-up.

God Bless You dear ones!!

2010/03/12

It's Official.


The candles have been blown out, the prayer of blessing was given, Jackie is 11.

Perhaps you might think only a teenage boy would request steak... Our little Jack is full of surprises.

Turns out Colby was full of surprises too. He and I collected dryer lint for a month. To give you some background, Jackie has some texture issues with flannel pajamas and dryer lint.. It's strange, but understandable. She always pleads with one of her sisters to scrape the lint out of the dryer when she is swapping loads over for me. So Colby, always loving a good laugh, bought her a package of Lindor Lindt Chocolates. Lindt = Lint. He dumped the lindt chocolates throughout the box of dryer lint he'd been collecting. Very, very funny.

Crafty letters and Red Velvet Cake with "Magic Frosting."

As tasty as it was pretty.
It's hard to be serious and smile when one is hungry for cake!
Dad's got them in line... Say cheese, or no cake for you.. Just Kidding.

Happy birthday Jackie Lynn! I am encouraged by your grace and blessed by your love. You are a dear young lady and we adore you.

Hot, Pinch, Ow

Something Jackie and I have talked about for years now is ear piercing. She has desired to have them punched through for a long time. Each time we discussed the option I would remind her of the pain that would be involved. She'd ask me for my own story, I'd tell her about it and explain how much I enjoy my own pierced ears. I would then encourage her to wait until she's a little older only to be sure she truly wanted them pierced. Eventually the notion would be dropped and several months would pass by before it would come up.
For her 11th birthday Jackie told me she indeed wanted them pierced, she knew there'd be pain, and she knew that she'd need to take care of them. I talked it over with Jake and we both had no problem with it, so we only need wait for the day to come.

Today was that day! She sits nervously after praying with me in the van. Her description of the piercing was hot, pinch, ow! Even though her teeth were chattering, she sat up in the tall chair bravely and barely batted an eye. She told me later she had faith she'd have the strength she prayed for and she did!

There they are!

She's beautiful.
We went to the Red House Cafe and stole away to a window seat with fresh cut flowers.

Hmm, what to order? How about the Red House Pizza.
Window light made our picture dark, so we made it a black and white photo adjusting the exposure and fill light. Sweet Memories with my daughter.

2010/03/09

Benjamin turns 9


For dinner we started with Spaghetti and Meatballs with Honey Butter Rolls.

As soon as dinner finished Louisa gave Benjamin the gift he's always wanted.. a woopie cushion.

He was so excited about his new bible. Thankfully it's large enough that it can't fit in his pocket and go through the wash...

Not one, but two Lego cakes.

He was soooo excited. What big eyes and teeth you have Ben.
He was pleased and got all the candles blown out with nine big breaths.

Can you tell how proud he is to stand by his daddy? Daddy wasn't home for his celebration last year.
Now for the action. A Star Wars Lego game. I tried to play too but they made fun of me.

Benjamin, we love you so much. You are a treasure to this family and we have delighted greatly over you these past 9 years. May God grant you many more!