Iron Chef Argyle

Stephen has won the trophy for the best Christmas present ever! This year for Christmas he gave Murray and Mark an "Iron Chef" for Christmas. It took awhile to find a date that would work for everyone, but we finally had our Iron Chef.

The Rules:
Each chef can choose a Sous Chef
Three Dishes, each including the secret ingredient
Two hour time limit

The Teams:
Stephen and Alex

Murray and Mary

Mark and David

The Secret Ingredient: Lamb!


Food Preparation:
It was a little tight in the kitchen, but some masterpieces were created!



The Kids enjoyed some very sophisticated Sheep's Cheese compliments of David.


The Dishes: (only a few)
Shepherds' Pie: Team Mark and David

Egg's Benedict with Lamb Sausage: Team Stephen and Alex

Lamb, Cucumber and Peanut Salad: Team Murray and Mary

Lamb Tartar (yes, raw lamb): Team Mark and David

And the winner is...
Team Murray and Mary!

yes Ella is still up at 10:30, crazy night!

The Clean Up

Birthday Girl

Ella turned 3 on Saturday! I cannot believe it! Where did the time go? Ella had a great birthday! The festivities started Friday morning. I took rice crispy treats with icing to Ella's class (I forgot the camera, sorry no pics). I am sure that all of the parents loved me for that one. They had the little party in her class at 12:30 and by 12:45 the kids were pretty hyper!

When we got home Ella had the biggest surprise...Murray set up her big girl bed! You can tell by the pictures Ella was thrilled!



Saturday morning we had Ella's birthday party. She has been talking about her birthday at the farm for a very long time. Saturday morning she was thrilled that it was finally her birthday! She was definitely the Princess of the party.






Miller was a trooper the entire party and by this point he was just ready for his cupcake!

Removing Shadows

I think it is safe to say that i am over jet lag and we are back into the swing of things. It is kind of hard to believe that we have already gone and are back. I think the reason it has taken me so long to write some of my reflections because it seems impossible to summarize what we did!

This is the best picture that I have that gives an idea of what the orphanage looks like.

The kids loved having their pictures taken and loved seeing the pictures on the back of our digital cameras. At night I printed the pictures and took them back to the kids. They were thrilled to have a picture of themselves!

This little boy was so excited to have a picture of himself that he wanted his picture taken with his picture.





This orphanage had the only autistic program in Odessa. So one of the main focuses of the trip was helping the teachers who worked with the autistic kids. The teachers were so great and did so much with the very little that they had, but they were so far behind from where we are here in helping our kids with autism. The little girl in this picture is 7 years old. She just came to the orphanage this year. The teachers were told that she would never talk. Within the first day Sam had her attempting and saying words.

The men turned an old storage room into a new bedroom. Sounds simple, but nothing in Ukraine is simple! They put up new (plaster) walls, all the electricity and a new ceiling. There is now a new beautiful room for parents who come to stay.


This picture is at the Black Sea, about a three minute walk from the orphanage.


Murray is preaching a sermon series on Jonah right now. Last week Murray preached on the shadows that arise as a result of sin. When the light of Christ illuminates the darkness, the sin that is there casts shadows. Our time in Ukraine can be summarized as removing shadows. Ukraine is such a sad a dark place. Although it is no longer under the reign of communism, all the effects of communism are still there. And these poor innocent children and the victims of so much sin. By cleaning, building, loving, playing, hugging and laughing, our goal was to help remove some of the shadows cast on those children.

Ukraine

Murray and I leave today for Odessa Ukraine for 10 days. We are going to be working in Orphanage #34. Most of the children in this orphanage have some type of disabilities, mainly autism. We are taking a group from Cahaba Park. We are very excited about the trip, but since the church has never been to this orphanage, there are a lot of unknowns. Please continue to pray for the group over the next 10 days. There has never been a group that has gone to this orphanage, so this could be the first time they have ever heard about Christ. Pray that the love of Christ will radiate in everything we do!

Princess Party

Last Saturday Murray and I took the kids to Chick-fil-a for a fun day with Mommy and Daddy. Hanging all over the windows were princess banners. Of course Ella was thrilled. We inquired about the banners and were told it was for the upcoming Princess Night Tuesday night where there would be a real princess. Since I teach bible study on tuesday night, I thought it would be something fun for Murray to take the kids to, get out of the house for a little while.

Tuesday afternoon we nailed down our plans and I decided to go for a little while because I did not want to miss Ella seeing the Princess. As we pulled up, I realized how big of deal this was. There were probably 100 little girls inside Chick-fil-a. It was crazy! Sadly, there was not a disney princess, but Miss Alabama was there. Ella was just as excited to meet the "Alabama Princess" as she was to meet a disney princess. Neither of these pictures capture how crazy it was! We had to leave because there was no where to sit, but Ella was thrilled to meet a princess, get a pink balloon and see a big pink princess car!

Slipping Through My Fingers

We came to the lake this weekend. Now that we have a lot of toys down here and a pack-n-play, our packing for the lake has become much easier. This trip we brought a carry on suitcase for the kids and a duffle bag for Murray and me (and my sewing stuff but that doesn't count). This is a huge improvement over the dozens of bags we used to pack. As we were pulling into the driveway, I remembered one very important thing that we forgot to pack, the other pack-n-play! We have one here so that we only have to bring one for Ella, but we forgot it! I have not been to keen on the idea of moving Ella into a big-girl bed because I love that she cannot get out of her crib. But we did not have a choice yesterday. We put Ella down for her nap is a queen sized bed with pillows on either side of her hoping they would stop her if she rolled. We tucked her in a reviewed the strict rules and left a very excited little girl in the bed. Murray and I sat and waited for Ella to get out, but she did not. She sang for a little while and then fell asleep. When she woke up she started moaning and I ran upstairs to get there before she tried to get out herself. She was sitting in the middle of the bed sucking her thumb waiting for Mommy. The first thing Ella said was, "Mommy I stayed in my big-girl bed. Daddy is going to smile, Whew, Daddy is going to smile!" We were a little nervous about how the night would go, but Ella did great! When I went in to get her this morning she was sitting in her bed and she said, "I slept a long time in my bed and did not get out!"

I feel like Ella is growing up so fast! Seeing her laying in a big bed under the covers makes me realize how quickly she is growing. It seems like we were just her for her first summer at the lake. Murray and I love the musical Mama Mia. Every time I see it I alway get teary eyed when Donna is getting Sophie ready for her wedding singing 'Slipping Through My Fingers' because I know it goes so fast! I definitely had one of those moments last night!

...Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see whats in her mind
Each time I think Im close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time...

Winter Storm 2009

Like many in the south, we woke up to a winter wonderland! Of course Ella was sooo excited. I could barely keep Ella inside until after breakfast. We had to search high and low to get enough clothes on the kids to make me feel like they were ok to go out in the wet, cold snow. Luckily someone gave Ella snow bibs and she has galoshes, so she was set. Miller on the other had was a different story. He had on Ella's leggings (for layers), the closest thing he had for waterproof pants, which were not waterproof at all, just lined. He had on leather shoes (i knew they would keep his feet dry) that were two sizes to big, but at least his feet would be dry. Then about the only thing his fleece coat did for him was collect snow and make him more cold and wet. All that said, we definitely spent more time getting ready than we did outside!

This is the happiest Miller was in the snow experience.

Ella in her snow gear.

The beginning of Miller's falling apart. He did not quite get into the snow experience.


Ella's first snowball.



This picture is just for your entertainment... This picture is right after I got Miller up from his nap yesterday. He slept in a short sleeved t-shirt and pants (no socks). Do you see how soaking wet his hair is! This picture just makes me laugh!