This is the song that God used to lead Phoebe into prayer

"Long Black Train", Josh Turner

There's a long black train comin' down the line,
Feeding off the souls that are lost and cryin'.
Rails of sin, only evil remains.
Watch out, brother, for that long black train.
Look to the heaven's, you can look to the sky.
You can find redemption staring back into your eyes.
There is protection and there's peace the same:
Burnin' your ticket for that long black train.

'Cause there's victory in the Lord, I say.
Victory in the Lord.
Cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.

There's an engineer on that long black train,
Makin' you wonder if the ride is worth the pain.
He's just a-waitin' on your heart to say:
"Let me ride on that long black train."

But you know there's victory in the Lord, I say.
Victory in the Lord.
Cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.

Well, I can hear the whistle from a mile away.
It sounds so good but I must stay away.
That train is a beauty makin' everybody stare,
But its only destination is the middle of nowhere.

But you know there's victory in the Lord, I say.
Victory in the Lord.
Cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.

I said cling to the Father and his Holy name,
And don't go ridin' on that long black train.

Yeah, watch out brother for that long black train.
That devil's drivin' that long black train.

Ice skating ...memories?

Well, we have snow and very freezing temperatures here in MT. So, last weekend I was talking about ice skating, we have an indoor rink here in town and I have fond childhood memories of visiting the ice skating rink in Great Falls, MT. The girls heard me and Ellie was excited, I think she has a romantic skating, twirling, dancing princess idea in her head (don't we all, Girls?). However, as they have never been before, Phoebe was a bit nervous. She came to me saying, "Mom, I don't know about ice skating. I'm pretty worried about it, because I haven't been ice skating in like 30 years!" Ellie chuckles behind her and says, "Longer than that, Phoebe!"
Hilarious. You can only get stuff that good from real life! :)
Love y'all, stay warm! (I know I'm not southern, but I wish I was, okay?!)

Sweet Hallelujahs!

(Mom - note she is looking at the album that you gave me, she loves it and looks at it all of the time!)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Phoebe is so excited, she has become part of God's family! We have been visiting about it for a while and praying for her. Yesterday, she and I were sitting at Jacob and Ellie's school, waiting for them to get out, and 'Long Black Train', by Josh Turner, came on the radio (Mom Mc will appreciate that!). She asked why he was singing not to get on the train, and when you go to hell do you have to stay there? Then she said, that's why we be good so we don't go to hell, right? I answered, no, if we believe Jesus died for us and saved us from the punishment for our sins, if we thank Him for being our Savior and ask Him to come into our heart, then we don't go to hell. She said, oh, good, I do believe that. I said, good, well, have you prayed about it, and talked to God about it?, She answered, no, I better do that right now! And she did! :) Hurray and Hallelujah! Then we had a very sweet conversation about how fast the Holy Spirit comes and that He doesn't have to leave Ellie's heart to come into hers. And she is so excited to be part of God's family, this morning she asked Nate is he was part of God's family, then she asked me if Jacob was. Then Ellie asked me if I had prayed and asked Jesus into my heart! :) Praise and thank You, Beloved Lord Jesus!

Shout out!!

Here is a shout out to all of our friends and family who have been 'secretly' enjoying the blog! I heard from some of you sweeties when we were home for Christmas, and I was so glad! More of you are visiting than I know about! Yay! I would list you all if I could remember all of you, but the memory is going! Anyway, I am just glad people are enjoying it! Love you! (isn't this a great shot of Nate?!)

Kudos to Life Cereal!!

I am so proud of the latest Life cereal commercials about life with more children.

"Life might be easier with less kids, but it wouldn't be this much fun!"

I love my life with four children, it is a blessing and a blast. Of course, it is crazy and usually pretty loud (except when they are sleeping :)and especially to those with fewer or no children! And there are times when I just look around and think, 'What in the world?', but I wouldn't change it for anything. My chil'ns are wonderful, sweet, adorable, hilarious, smart, amazing precious beings that I will never be able to thank God fully for. He has used them in countless ways to change and grow me~Praise God! ~~~~~~~~~~~~
How many children we have is often not our choice, but it's how we live with what we are given that counts. And to my precious friends and family that have less please let there be no offense taken. I have heard from most, if not all, of my friends with three or more children that they have received comments about the number of children they have, that is the reason for this post, not by any means, in any way,to slam any of you. I love you!~~~~~~~~
A year or so after Phoebe was born I remembered that early in our marriage, I said to John that I would like to have four children, he was with me, he wanted them to be just a couple of years apart. And ,in my daydreaming, I took it too far and daydreamed about the perfect combination and arrangement of boys and girls...John wouldn't even discuss it with me (because it was a pointless discussion!). Then we got on the roller coaster of life and pregnancies both unexpected (how could they be unexpected when we had dreamed of four children, two years apart?!?) and planned (only once were we 'ready' and started trying to get pregnant, expecting it to take several months~ one month later, Jacob is on the way!), children, moving, ups and downs of life. And I didn't realize until after Phoebe, that...Hey, I got what I asked for! Four children, two boys first and then two girls, all two years apart~ Wow! Thank you Lord, for giving me a dream that You were going to fulfill! What a sweet blessing!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

I just sat down and went through all of the Christmas cards from while we were gone and I want to say THANK YOU! I love to see your sweet family pictures and read your notes. I SO appreciate getting those from you. I know it takes effort and time and money, so thank you! Some of you will be receiving ours late because I hoped to give them to you while we were in Idaho, but we missed you. Anyway, again, thank you!

We are back...

...I don't know where to start! We had a sweet, wonderful vacation. We are back, refreshed and ready to live Montana life again. God took care of our roads (or us, when the roads weren't clear) and travel wasn't an issue. Anyone who visited the blog during the last couple of weeks saw that I also took a vacation from the computer, there were too many precious ones to soak up as much of as we could! But I will put together photoshows as soon as I can. We hope you had a Merry Christmas and are ready to take on a new year! We pray God's blessings upon you! Thanks for checking in! (these icicles were on the hotel we stopped over at in Idaho Falls)