Sanctity of Life

John Piper from this past weekend's Sanctity of Life sermon:

As everyone knows, our new President, over whom we have rejoiced, does not share this reverence for the beginning of human life. He is trapped and blinded by a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he said, “We are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.” To which I say . . .

No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women’s health; you are authorizing the destruction of half a million tiny women every year.

No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for a million helpless people every year.

No, Mr. President, killing our children does not cease to be killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter.

Call it what you will, they are dead, and we have killed them. And you, Mr. President, would keep the killing legal. Some of us wept with joy over the inauguration of the first African-American President. We will pray for you. And may God grant that there arises in your heart an amazed and happy reverence for the beginning of every human life.

From a Heat Wave to Canceled School

You know it's cold when they cancel schools in Wyoming.

Yesterday we had a foot of fresh snow on the ground and the high temp for the day was 4 degrees. Yet, we still had school.

This morning, we awoke to frigid temperatures and an announcement that due to inclement weather and high winds forecasted, schools had been canceled!


It's beautiful outside - lots of snow and bright sunshine and blue skies. Gotta love Wyoming winters! Here's a picture looking out the front door. It's too cold to get out any further than that.






...and looking out the back. Timothy can't wait to go down the slide.


In a matter of a few short days, the temperature has shifted dramatically. About 80 degrees of a shift. Our last post showed our thermometer at 65 degrees and today it is......




....-13 degrees. And that's WITHOUT the wind chill factored in!!!

The kids are thrilled! Sarah let out a Hip, Hip, Hooray.

Savannah claps for joy that she doesn't have to be loaded into the Yukon for the morning trip to school.

Lindsay and Timothy celebrate with a game of early morning cribbage.

Allie's HUGE smile says it all.

Unfortunately both Allie and I have to go get Tetanus shots today in preparation for out Children't Chorale trip to Spokane in a couple of weeks. The up side is that she doesn't have to miss school for the appointment.

It's a Heat Wave!

It's bright......

It's blue.......

We have bare feet.....

and open windows..........

AND it's 65 degrees ... in JANUARY!!!!

We have had a heat wave in Wyoming the last couple of days. All the bikes came back out, the sandbox was opened and we couldn't keep shoes on Timothy to save our life.

Both Timothy and I soaked up as much sun as we could.

Here he's pointing to the little bit of snow that's left in our back yard.

Savannah doesn't care that she's still in her jammies -- she's ready to play!

January Fun

Timothy LOVES his remote controlled cars, but has been pretty stingy with them...until the other day. I walked into the living room and I found him showing (and helping) Savannah how to use the remote so that the red car would move. It was so cute listening to him explain the buttons.



She still gets frustrated when she can't catch it. When she does manage to get a good grip on it, she is delighted.


A great advantage to having older kids and younger toddlers at the same time is how much help they are to me. Sarah loves to read Timothy stacks of books and Timothy is happy to indulge her.


A short video of the end of the book.



This is what Savannah's hair looked like as she crawled out into the living room yesterday. It looked wet and felt very greasy.

I immediately asked Timothy, "What did you do?"

He responded, "I used your gel in Savannah's hair."

Then I noticed he had a hat on and I took it off to see gel literally dripping off his hair. Ughh. I sighed loudly, picked up Savannah and determined the dishes would have to wait until after they both had baths.




As I was bathing them, I notice an inch long chunk of hair floating in the water as I rinsed Savannah's head. Again, I questioned my son and spoke very slowly, "Timothy, did you cut your sister's hair?"

Timothy, not missing a beat, replied, "Yes, with your scissors."




Sure enough, here is what I found on Timothy's floor. So far these are the only 2 locks of hair Savannah is missing, and I am quite sure Timothy understands how VERY SERIOUS it is to get my scissors and cut any person's hair. At least I hope he does.

Grandparents Galore!

My parents, Susan and Dave, and grandparents, Russ and Sally (my mom's dad) spent some time in Casper over the Christmas break. When my mom's here -- there's always lots of photos. If it's true that each picture is a 1000 words, this is going to be a lengthy post!

4 generations - Russ (the patriarch), Susan, Jodi and her 5 kiddos


Grammy and Grandpa and the fabulous 5


Russ, Sarah, Sally and Allie


Momma's sweet Savannah


Go Ohio State (game didn't turn out so well, but Savannah was a doll in her outfit).

Grandpa Dave and Savannah having some quiet time

Savannah getting spoiled with a peppermint stick. She did NOT appreciate having it taken away.

Savannah in her kitchen

Grandpa and Timothy shaving

Tim, Jodi and Grandpa setting up the remote controlled monster truck

Trying out the monster truck

Grandpa and the grand-kiddos

Savannah tried so hard to catch that darn truck!

Grammy came home from shopping with this fancy gadget - she loves it!

Some reading time for Grammy and Tim

ZERBERTS!

Here is a video of Timothy learning how to operate the monster truck


Great-Grandpa Russ and Great-Grandma Sally enjoy watching the Hubert Elves video. Grammy and kids dance along.

The day after New Year's Eve

Children were not meant to stay up until 2:00 a.m. and be pleasant the next day. Lindsay was sent downstairs to organize her new earrings and this is how I found her. Sound asleep on her bedroom floor!

New Year's Celebration

It's become a tradition.

A New Year's Eve Celebration at our house with food, games and lots of laughter. We start with close friends and members of our small group and then branch out from there. Some make it a few hours, others just past midnight, and then there are those that keep us up till 2:30 a.m.

When we counted up heads the next morning, we discovered that we had a total of 67 people here!

Getting ready for the party


This year we utilized our garage space. We had tables, food, games and HEAT!



As always, a lively game of Hearts brings smiles and moans.

It's 5 till midnight and some are sleeping (Mike and Katelyn).....

.....while others are reading Systematic Theology???!! (Gary)

Yep - the Arrowoods, always the last to leave!

Even Timothy made it to midnight (and then some). The excitement and the sugary sparkling cider kept him going until he literally fell asleep on my lap at about 1:00 or 1:30 a.m. His last words, "I'm not tired yet."

Have books? ~ Get another bookcase!

Call us old fashioned - but we still like books. Lots of them. We like technology just fine, but would rather have some nice bookcases than a new TV. (Apparently after February 17th or something like that, we won't have any access to channels through our rabbit ears any longer!) We can barely find a show on TV that's worth viewing anymore, so it's quite easy to justify the purchase of an additional bookcase.

Phil's mom and brother in law helped us out by hauling it from Colorado since we couldn't find a match to the one we had in Casper. Thanks guys!

Of course we had to empty the current one in order to move it over to make room for the new one. Here's Phil getting it all ready to load.



His sister, Kim, enjoys watching him work as she knits.


Partial progress....

Complete! We have an alphabetized section, a kid's section, men's and women's sections, fiction and non-fiction section and a full resource/Bible section. Love it!!

Feel free to check out anything you desire from the Hubert library. A large selection of children's literature is available in the basement section :).