Allie's turned 1

The past month

I just can't seem to stay on top of things these days. Life has seemed a little crazy this past month. It started with a bang when David worked so hard to move the laundry out of the tiny-sized kitchen and move it out to the garage. What an amazing feeling to have a pile of laundry stacked up next to where i'm chopping food. Wonderful! Although the day he spent in the attic caused his back to totally spas and he then spent the next 8 days on the floor of the living room, unable to get up. thankfully his back is better now. David also made a trip to Seattle to get building supplies for the base.
It's a bitter sweet feeling on the base this week. Outreach teams have returned and students will be leaving today for home. It's so awesome to hear the stories from their outreaches and to see the changes that have occured over the 2 months since they were here. it's always hard to say bye to the students and yet so exciting that they will be going home and sharing with others what they have learned.
We are on the home stretch for the boys finishing up school. we are all so looking forward to summer. The most exciting thing happening here this summer is that our dear friends John and Sam, along with their 4 girls are moving here! And not only are they moving here, but they're moving into the house next door! God is so good!!! I can hardly wait.
here's a few pictures from the past month

Easter Lenten garden

We made a Lenten garden last week for Easter. I think really it should have been done for all of holy week, but i'm just glad we had by Easter weekend. We went on a little walk and collected moss, rocks, sticks and dirt. the boys enjoyed putting the moss it and Barrett got to nail the nails in the cross that Luke made. Peter and I made the tomb and Flint helped put the rock down. It was really fun to read the Easter story to them as we made the garden. We decided that the playmobil men would make good gaurds for the tomb.
Easter Morning, when the boys had woken up, I had moved the rock from the tomb and filled the tray with flowers. The gaurds had run off the side of the tray. That was part of our little Easter tradition, the making the Lenten garden.

Flint's song

Here's a little clip of Flint singing who know's what.

I think we missed January

I have no idea how a month can go by so fast. It seems like we were just having Barrett's birthday and now it's almost Valentine's day. Wow that happened fast. Here's a quick update on what's going on here:
- the fall DTS ( Dicipleship Training School) returned from outreaches. There were 85 students and staff who traveled in 4 teams to Egypt, Cambodia-Tailand, Costa Rica, and Cambodia. We were able to spend a night last week at our community meeting hearing about their trips. It's so amazing to see how God is working in these students and through them throughout the world. I love seeing how some of the students have changed after their outreach.
- The winter school is in full swing. There are 25 students in the winter DTS, and 12 in the School of Dance. The SBS (school of Biblical Studies) is going strong in the winter quarter. They've completed the new testament and have now started the Old Testament.
- We are able to have a little taste of home for a few months. One of our dear friend's daughter is here doing a DTS. it's really fun to have her here with us.
- We also had a visit from some other friends from home, John and Samanatha. John is helping with site development on the base, and really help with an overall plan for the base (as far as structures go: classrooms, dorms, houses, etc.). We had such a great time with them. We went skiing for a day for the first time with out kids. it was so much fun. It's just so great to have old friends come and see us. It's always encouraging to be able to share about what we're doing here and have our friends get to see the big picture.
- work has been continuing on "the slab". The building will be used for the facilities shop and auto shop and classrooms. We were talking to one of the staff who grew up here on the base. She was telling us that she remembers when she was about 12 and they spent the day on the base praying over it and asking God what the plan was for it. There was a work day on Saturday and it was great to see people from all departments and schools come out and work together in the snow to get the building done.

Samoa bars

What do you do when you crave a girl scout cookie in Feb?
Make some samoa bars
I made these the other night, and they are amazing!
Here's the recipe:

preheat oven at 350
For cookie crust:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter- softened
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
To make the crust: Cream butter and sugar til fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Mix together. Add flour and salt.
Press into a 9x13 pan
Bake 20 minutes and cool completely

For the topping:
3 cup coconut
12 oz. chewy caramels
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
10 oz. semi sweet choc. chips

toast coconut under broiler. It took about 7 minutes on low.
Unwrap caramels and melt in microwave. Add the salt and milk before melting them.
Add the coconut to melted caramel.
Spread caramel/coconut over cookie base
Let cool

When it's cool, drizzle with melted chocolate chips. I melted it in microwave, put it in ziploc, cut the tip and drizzled it over bars.

Enjoy!

Barrett turns 9 !

here are a few more Christmas pictures and Barrett's birthday. We had a lot of fun with a lot of boys. 14 total