Out of the water

Reading her testimony

 Our Emma Kait was baptized today.  It was a beautiful ceremony at a small ravine in Lincoln, surrounded by friends, family and our church community.  Here are some pictures of the day and Emma's testimony written all by herself.  We are so proud of our girl.  She is a gift from God and a blessing to us. 

Listening to the Apostles Creed

In good hands

Into the water with Dad and Pastor Nate

Stating her belief in Jesus

The old is gone

The new has come

Joy

Love

Support

My Testimony

By Emma Stanphill

I think Jesus  is a wonderful  and generous lord. He helps me when I feel nervous or scared.

I pray to him when I get scared. When I pray it reminds me he’s always there. When I pray to him it comforts me. If I am nervous or about to do something I remember he’s with me. That encourages me. He makes me feel special and different because He knows everybody and everything but He will never forget me. Even when I do something bad or if I sin he will always will love me. I show him that I am a follower of Jesus by praying, going to church, and getting baptized. After  I get baptized I will try to remember to not sin. But nobody can be perfect. I will feel  like a follower of Jesus even more when I get baptized. I believe that  Jesus is our lord and nobody else can be. Even though people praise bad things, I will never leave Gods footsteps. I also believe everyone should go to church. It changes your life. I am very excited to be baptized and thankful for all the people who are encouraging me to be baptized.

Emma

10-17-10

I am not what I want to be

 

 

 

 

I am not what I want to be.
I am not what I ought to be.
I am not what one day I will be,
But I am not what I was.
And by the grace of God I am what I am.

...John Newton 

 

and Rebecca Stanphill  September 17, 2010

Life is Busy!

Whew!  Time flies when you are raising three kids, opening a new school, trying to survive owning your own construction company in this slow economy, hunting down eggs that stubborn chickens lay in obscure places like under tomatoe plants in the garden, all while continuing to do laundry, do laundry, do laundry. 

Here are my three kids spiffed up for their first day of school.  We have started a tradition of having them make their own posters that has the grade level they are starting.  Their enthusiasm over this request is diverse.  I'll let you guess who loves to do it the most and the least.  :)

Cute 4th grade girls

Cool 6th grade boys

Funny little boys

Checking in on the List

 Just checking off the list of things I want to do before I turn 36. (I have 6 months and counting) I better get going on some of them, and I'm pleasantly surprised that I actually accomplished many of them.  :)

1. Read (and finish) a book
2. Sew something
3. Go to Disneyland (o.k. so that trip with Joseph is already planned)
4. Have a monthly date night with my husband
5. Go on a trail ride
6. Go to the beach
7. Print out digital pictures to fill my frames
8. Sit by the fire with cup of coffee and no guilt
9. Lose 10 lbs.-in progress (lost 8.7 lbs. to date)
10. Pedicure-With Emma for her 10th birthday!
11. Make a painting with Emma
12. Go on a hike with the family
13. Fly somewhere (on a plane)
14. Hang a hammock/swing
15. Create "space" in my home for change
16. Change bank accounts-don't need to since I've finally sorted out some details
17. Start a digital scrapbook for each of the kids
18. Purge the container
19. Coach/teach something Now my job!  (kindergarten through 6th grade everyday)
20. Create a family creed and post it
21. Family devotions/bible time
22. Go to the woods
23. Girls weekend away with my cousin Kait
24. Order handmade necklace
25. Research life insurance changes
26. Volunteer with the kids
27. Candlelight dinner
28. See a live show/musical
29. Get a phone with texting
30. Change my hair Does growing it out count?
31. Plant flowers
32. Build up emergency account
33. Have daily quiet time
34. Try yoga-HOT Bikram yoga done in a room that is 100 degrees!
35. Journal
36. Review this list weekly and check off

Time does fly by

Well, shoot!  It's been about 6 months since my last post.....bad blogger, bad blogger and so just for kicks (and those in my family NOT on facebook) here is a snapshot of each of the last 6 months in our life.

January-Santa Rosa creek clean-up earning our free Disneyland tickets 

There's no place like home for the holidays......

We have been quite busy these days, so I have not posted in some time.  We have finished soccer season for all the kids, decorated for Christmas, had a snow storm hit and even had a snow day from school.  The kids were so excited, the animals were so confused, and our little home stayed toasty warm with our woodstove.  We continue to count God's blessings and we celebrate this season of His birth. 

Celebrating 11 years

To celebrate Joseph turning 11 years old, he and I took a mom/son trip to LA and went to Disneyland and California Adventure together.  We had so much fun dodging around people and running to all our favorite rides.  We loved California Screamin' rollercoaster and went on that ride 4 times.  We also took in an afternoon at the beach with the So CA cousins and had a great time staying at their house.  We loved the time together, the bonding, the corn dogs and celebrating who this little man is becoming.  I love you Joseph.  Happy Birthday!

36 Things to Do before I turn 36

Well, today is October 17, 2009 and I will turn 35 in exactly two months. So I better get hopping. I am trying to be intentional with my time and life, since so much of my life is out of my control right now. So, I thought I'd try to add some control if I can.....so here's my attempt.

1. Read (and finish) a book
2. Sew something
3. Go to Disneyland (o.k. so that trip with Joseph is already planned)
4. Have a monthly date night with my husband
5. Go on a trail ride
6. Go to the beach
7. Print out digital pictures to fill my frames
8. Sit by the fire with cup of coffee and no guilt
9. Lose 10 lbs.
10. Pedicure
11. Make a painting with Emma
12. Go on a hike with the family
13. Fly somewhere (on a plane)
14. Hang a hammock/swing
15. Create "space" in my home for change
16. Change bank accounts
17. Start a digital scrapbook for each of the kids
18. Purge the container
19. Coach/teach something
20. Create a family creed and post it
21. Family devotions/bible time
22. Go to the woods
23. Girls weekend away with my cousin Kait
24. Order handmade necklace
25. Research life insurance changes
26. Volunteer with the kids
27. Candlelight dinner
28. See a live show/musical
29. Get a phone with texting
30. Change my hair
31. Plant flowers
32. Build up emergency account
33. Have daily quiet time
34. Try yoga
35. Journal
36. Review this list weekly and check off

Raising Kids: "The days are long, but the years are short"

I need to remind myself of this truth. 6 years goes by in a blink. How did this baby become this boy? I love you Benjamin Allen! Just having a mom moment!

Happy Happy Birthday Emma Kait

Emma Kait turned 9 last week and we celebrated with a rainbow themed birthday party. Yes, that cake was made in my kitchen, and no I didn't use an entire box of food coloring. It was the hit of the party and all the girls were so excited to eat the rainbow cake. We had a family party in the evening with more rainbow cake and swimming. She said it was a perfect party!

Happy 14th Anniversary

Considering we have no digital photos of our wedding (the dark ages of the 90's), I thought I would post one of Jon and I before kids in honor of our 14th Wedding Anniversary today. I love you more today than yesterday. You are my support, you are my partner, you are my equal half in this life. I knew I was meant to be with you forever starting when I was 17 and I am so glad God blessed me with you. I love you Jon. Happy Anniversary.

Returning to the blog world

Shocking, I know. I have taken a 6th month break from blogging on my own page, but have found many fabulous blogs of others that I love to check in on. Of course the past 6 months has flown by, and much has happened in our lives, but the biggest change happened in the last few weeks as we "moved back" to our property on Paddock Lane to start our life here. The kids and animals are getting settled back in, the garden and pastures are growing like crazy, (come to think of it the kids are growing like crazy too!) and we are trying to keep cool. It feels like summer just started, but in reality school is less than a month from starting back up again. We just returned from our family vacation in Lake Tahoe and our 14th wedding anniversary is tomorrow. No wonder summer flies by. I'll try to post some pictures later tonight after we get home from a soccer camp for church. Don't worry my friends. I plan to not take such a long break this time.

View from a boy's lense

Jon and now Joseph love to take photos. Here are some they recently have taken from our Southern California trip.

Disney and AMA

With some Christmas money we received this year, we decided last minute to take the kids on a Southern California adventure to visit Jon's sister and family. The kids has a blast playing with cousins and we took them to Disneyland for one day and then Jon found out that the first AMA Supercross race of the season was the very weekend we were there in Anaheim, so Joseph, Dan and Jon went. I have to say what a wonderful invention DVD players in cars have been as we cruised down I-5 with no arguments or "when we we get there?" questions. We feel like we celebrated the end of 2008 with a great memory our kids will cherish. We haven't been to Disneyland since Ben was a baby and the other kids were 3 and 5. It was a perfect time to take them as the crowds were low and it was still decorated for the Holidays. Ben truly believed that the stars in Space Mountain were real and Emma got to meet Jasmine and Alladin. I loved staying up late and visiting with my precious sister in law Christa whom I have known longer than my husband. It was a wonderful trip.

Merry Christmas From the Stanphill Family

In an effort to simplify the season, we are sending out our Christmas greeting without the paper and stamps. We hope this finds you well and we are thanking God for His provision for us this year. Please scroll through the blog to get an idea of our year and all it held for us.









Benjamin: 5 years old, Kindergartener, quirky and has taken on school as his job. Loves to play with his cousins but can also be found lurking quietly in corners playing independently. Ben played soccer for the first time this year and has made some great new friends.




Emma Kait: 8 years old, 2nd grade, loves school and her teacher Mrs. Wenstrom. Emma started piano lessons this year with Rebecca's childhood piano teacher and continues to explore her artistic talents.









Joseph: 10 years old, 4th grade, lover of animals and very hard worker. Joseph helped re-roof the little house on our property this year and then re-roofed the kid's playhouse by himself.



Jon and Rebecca: Jon continues in his work for Granite Bay Excavating and has also recently returned to his roots in web/media development starting Structured Media Design. Rebecca voyaged into a new season of life with all the kids being in school this year and took a part time job teaching PE at the kid's school for 1-3rd grades. She has enjoyed some mornings of a quiet house, with a cup of coffee and a crackling fire.

We wish you peace and joy this Christmas.

As Promised

As promised, here is the link to our new business. Please feel free to check it out and if you know of anyone needing web design/media services, we would love the referral!

http://www.structuredmediadesign.com/

New Adventures Ahead

Hi Everyone! I wanted to be the first to let you know that Jon and I are in the process of starting another adventure....well actually revisiting one from his past. In these hard times for construction companies, we have decided that we could use some income from a source NOT linked to the housing market and construction industry so he's going back to his roots in web developing and starting an additional company. We want to introduce you to the name and promise a link to the website soon. If you know anyone who needs his services, by all means, he would love the contacts! He is still continuing in his excavating business with his dad and we thank God every day for His provision for our family. Also, if you call my cell phone and wonder why I answer the voice mail, "Hi, this is Rebecca at Structured Media Design..." you'll know why.

The Rest of the Photos