FLOWING WITH CREATIVITY

My goodness the days get away from me!! We've been quite busy. After tomorrow we will have shown our house 3 times this week. I try not to get excited, and I really don't even want to hear the "report", I just want someone to make an offer on our house. We still don't know what we'll do if it would sell. We went and looked at a house tonight and I was disappointed. It wasn't as nice as I'd like it, but it was too nice to really do much too. Anyway, only time will tell I guess, and in the mean time, I have a fairly clean house most days!!

As for my last post.... I haven't done that well at not getting upset over the little stuff.... it frustrates me so. Life is so short, and here I waste so much time being mad over things that just don't really matter. Why do I do it?? I guess it's similar to what Paul wrote about in Romans 7.... "the evil I do not want to do I keep on doing". I was inspired at church on Sunday to dig deeper. Since being home from India, to be honest, I haven't done a lot of digging and being honest with myself and the Lord.... really trying to know Him on a deeper level. Maybe that's a lot of my problem. I guess I should try and remedy that, eh??

Okay, here's the stories and pics of my cuties!! First off, we enjoyed ourselves at Jerry and Jessica's wedding and reception, especially Ava. She had a blast playing with her friend Brooklyn. Of course I was a little embarassed when they went up to the DJ and the next thing I know he's announcing that there are two little girls who have lost their mommies!! I was watching them the whole time....but the other 400 people didn't know that!! They danced their little hearts out to the mariachi (spelling?) band!

All of the Schaffer's came up to my mom and dad's to have lunch and swim. We had a great time, here's just one pic of Nathanial with Aspen and Jaxon.

Then, here's some pics of my little creative daughter. She has found a new pastime, drawing pictures of her family!! She has been thinking up all kinds of things to do. Yesterday, she played all day without asking to turn on the tv once! I was so excited.

I feel bad that I don't write more about Aspen, but she's not really doing anything new. Sitting up like a champ and being as sweet as ever of course though!! She's just a little doll baby, we all love her so much!! She does have a new nickname... Penzilla! She is so rough, and always head butting you or sticking her fingers up your nose or trying to rip your face off!!! We got a good laugh out of that one!

Here's Ava coming up with a solution to reach her favorite book. And a sideways video of Ava doing her two favorite things simultaneously, dancing and drawing.

What's on my mind today.....

Last evening Nathanial and I got into a stupid arguement that ruined our entire night. Mainly because I was refusing to "get over it" without him acknowledging that it wasn't ALL my fault. Anyway, I have realized this morning that I DO NOT want to waste our life together arguing over silly things that don't matter!! (Don't get me wrong, I have realized this before, and obviously it still happens!) But, this life goes by so fast and an entire Friday night was ruined for us. That makes me mad, that we let the enemy come into our life and steal from us like that! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH..... I'M GONNA FIGHT BACK!! So, to all my friends and family out there... if you hear me bickering over somthing small and insignificant, remind me of this post!!

On to more happy things!! What have we done over the past few days??? Well, Ava made me a "shoe snake" the other day. She used every single pair of shoes that she could find in our house... it was adorable, and she was so proud of her work!

The same day, finger painting involved her arms all the way up to her shoulders!!

Daddy playing with Aspen last night at GG's (great-grandma's).

Aspen and Nana the other night.

One thing I hope to do in the near future is post a blog with some of our pictures from our time in India. It's been over a year now since we've been home, and while I still can't say I miss India, I do miss the friends we made over there very much. There were so many Indian and foreigners that we really developed close friendships with... I wish it wasn't so far away. A trip back to visit would be so hard on me and the girls....Nathanial is all for it though. I would be if it weren't for having two little ones. One little one was okay, but I'm not sure about two!! I'll try to post some pics later. Have a great day everyone!

A BEAUTIFUL DAY

What a great day!! We got up and made it to church only about 5 minutes late (that's huge for us!) We had lunch at Nathanial's Uncle Brian and Aunt Lori's house. Then Ava went swimming with Nana and we hung out at the house. We spent the evening all together eating and playing corn hole. Nathanial was a bit wound up and drove everyone a bit crazy at times.... but he cleaned out the garage and did the supper dishes tonight. I asked him what he did with my husband...I'm not used to this!! He's a great husband, but he doesn't usually like to clean!!!! So, now I have time to blog! YEA!




I'm just going to be random, hope that's okay. I'm totally thrilled that the Knepp's are all home together again, but man, I miss getting to hang out with Mandi in the hospital and just talk!!! I can't wait til they can have visitors more often!!!





Yesterday went to Evansville with my parents to have lunch with my sis for her birthday! We went to Nagasaki Steakhouse and Ava had her first hibachi grill experience. I have never seen her sit so still at a restaurant!! It was great! Plus the food was awesome! It was definately a winner, we'll eat there again with the girls!!





Some friends of ours are in the process of purchasing the little coffee shop on the corner of Main St. and 57 here in Washington. They are going to be open from 7am to 10 pm or something. They also serve lunch. I haven't been there yet... but I plan to go and support their business. Check it out if you get a chance. The new owners are Amber Cook's mom and step-dad. Neat people.





Well, I think that about wraps up my thoughts this evening. I'm going to go read my book that Nathanial bought me... "Holy Cow". It's about a girl who moved to India and basically hates it....but supposedly she changes her mind somewhere in the book. I don't think it will change mine!!! It's interesting though, it's all so familiar! Well I hope you all have a wonderful day!! Here's a few pics....

Ava and Aspen at our playgroup..................................Aspen enjoying her first teething bisquit!

It's about time!!!

Well, well, well!!! It's about time I update this thing! Life has been crazy! As I'm sure you all know Andre, Mandi, and Gabe were in a serious car accident about 3 and 1/2 weeks ago. Since then I've been spending as much time as I can with them, and the rest of it trying to maintain my household!! We did actually still go to Florida as planed for my friend Alicia's wedding. We had a good time and we stayed in a condo on the beach for the first time. It was so nice to get up, eat breakfast, go to the beach, come back and nap, then go to the pool!! Relaxing!! Nathanial and I napped with the girls almost everyday, that NEVER happens here!! Then when we returned home I went in to see Mandi and spend the night with her.... let me just say I almost cried when I saw her walk (with a walker) right into the bathroom, do everything herself, and walk right back to bed! I was so proud of her and so thankful to our Lord for bringing healing to her body!! Please remember to keep them in your prayers, even though they are home now, there is still more healing to be done!! It has been amazing to see the prayers that have already been answered. God is so faithful! Okay, since I'm overwhelmed with everything that we've been doing in the past weeks, I'm just going to post some pics and tell about them! Hopefully I'll do better in the near future!! (I need to catch up on everyone else's blogs too!!)

Julian Schaffer, Ava, and Adyson Schaffer enjoying popsicles together!



Ava, Julian, Adyson, and Colten... for some reason they all just HAD to wear one of my shirts to sleep in! We had a sleepover to give their mommy a little break!! It was fun!

Here's Aspen playing with cousin Riley! They really entertained each other, it was cute!!



Wow!! A rare pic of my husband and I without children!!!! This one was at Alicia's wedding... by the way, her and Matt went to GREECE for their honeymoon... I'm soooo jealous!!

Little Miss Ava on the beach... she had such a great time! I told her one night, "Man Ava, your little legs are tan!" She replied, "Yeah, just like Hannah Montana!!" I thought... WHAT??? How does she even know who Hannah Montana is, and why in the world would she say that??? She always is coming up with crazy stuff.



I love these big sister/little sister shirts!! Aspen looks so grown up in a t-shirt!!

This is little Ava, Nathanial, and big Ava!! Ava made so many friends at our condo... this is just one. She couldn't believe there was someone else named Ava!! They all played on the beach together every morning and swam together in the afternoons!! It was great!!!

Daddy and Pen

Daddy and Ava finding shells!