Merry Christmas!

Can you believe that we are only a few short days away from Christmas? I can't either! There were several things that I wanted to get done, but as with every year, Christmas snuck up on me again! Things got so busy that I had to let a few things go. I didn't get around to Christmas cards (this post is your card this year!) and I didn't get pictures of the kids or our family. :( Sad. I know! I am going to try really hard to get some pictures done in January.

This morning I was reading Isaiah 40 and it talks about the greatness of God. If you need to be reminded of how great and awesome He is, that's a good place to go! It also reminded me of His love and care for me. I love where it says, "He will gently lead those with young." I LOVE THAT! He is great and powerful and in control of everything, yet He still cares for me.

I pray that you will have a blessed Christmas reflecting on what it is Jesus was born to do. I am so thankful He came to earth! What hope!

Merry Christmas!!!

Snow days!

Snow, snow, snow! We got a lot of snow! The kids got two snow days this week, so we took full advantage of them! We played and played, did a Christmas craft, made gingerbread cookies and got out the Christmas movies. I have always liked the Charlie Brown Christmas movies. They're cute, funny and talk about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. It's nice to have something like that for the kids to watch!

Okay, on to the pictures!

The decorating begins... Oh so carefully decorating their gingerbread cookies.

Just for fun I had the kids try Egg Nog. I really wasn't expecting them to like it, I just wanted them to be able to say that they have tried it! And it went over about as well as I thought it would! :)

Of course the best part is getting to eat the cookies!

A beautiful cardinal comes to eat from our feeder. He looks even more beautiful against the white snow. But he has been very camera shy! I did get a picture of this little Junco. Isn't it cute? I love how it can stand on top of the deep snow!

We love snow days!

Christmas sales

Now is when most people start thinking about all of the people they need to buy Christmas gifts for and where to go to get some good deals, right? Well, just for fun Friday I will be having a 25% off sale! You can call me or go to my website (www.marykay.com/bgoshert) and I'll take off your discount. PLUS if you book a party (it can also be online or catalog) you will get an awesome free gift! Good deal!

A Year Old Already!!!!

Time goes by so quickly! It was a year ago Sunday that our baby girl joined our family! And what fun we had celebrating! Grandpa and Grandma were able to join us for the party...we were so glad!
The partying started Friday evening with supper at Cunningham's here in Arapahoe. We told the waitress it was Tirzah's birthday and they played Happy Birthday on their player piano and brought her out a cupcake with a giant sparkler on it! If I would have known they would have done all that, I would have brought my camera! It was a sight!
So now we get to the pictures :) Grandpa and Grandma brought her a little horse that she LOVES! She likes reading books while she's in it. BUSTED!! Grandpa is letting Tirzah taste-test her cake batter...

Yes, Tirzah is crying! She wanted so badly to grab her candle! It was so pretty!

Mmmm!!! She had no problems eating her cupcake! In fact, she polished it off rather quickly and was looking around for another one! (and since it WAS her birthday, she got one!)

It was so cute to watch the kids gather and wrap things for their baby sister. They had a lot of fun getting ready for her birthday! Each one had something for her. Perhaps I will post more pictures later. The picture below is a blanket that Keziah made for Tirzah (with Grandma's help). The boys drew pictures for her and wrote her notes. Very sweet!

Now she's checking out what's in the bag...

I think she liked it!

Grandpa and Grandma brought her several gifts as well. In fact, we had to get into one early. We were having trouble finding her tights for church, but that was a gift that G&G brought! They also gave her a box of crayons. Here is Keziah helping her color. I know that in the picture the crayon is in her mouth (babies have to taste EVERYTHING!!), but she did jot down a few scribbles too!

All in all it was a wonderful weekend! We are so thankful that God has put this little girl into our lives and into our family! We pray He will also be pleased to make her a part of His family as well!!

Our little buddy

Since the older three kids are at school all day, Titus has a more challenging time finding something to do. Yes, he plays with Tirzah. They play quite well together, actually. But Tirzah still takes a morning and afternoon nap. So who's left to play with? Mommy! We play all kinds of things: puzzles, books, leap pad, coloring, Lincoln logs and cows. Yes, cows! That's actually one of his favorite things to play! Cows do all kinds of things, but one thing they don't do, I was informed, is kiss. One day as we were playing cows, he was being so cute and I leaned over and kissed his cheek. In a disgusted voice he said, "Mom, cows don't kiss!" Oh, silly me!

Here are some pictures of our little buddy. The first one is Titus doing one of his favorite things; coloring! Notice the tongue of concentration :)

And this smile. We absolutely love it!

He also really likes looking at books. One of his favorite books is The Little Red Caboose. He just about has the whole thing memorized!

The words of the song 'God is So Good' come to my mind. He is good! And we thank Him for His many blessings to us! How undeserving we are!

Happenings

Autumn is in the air, and I can't help but pull out the candy corn and peanuts! It reminds me of my grandma. She always had a bowl of this mixture sitting out for us to snack on this time of year. I still laugh to myself when I think about the time that a friend of ours asked for the recipe! Ha, ha! A couple of weeks ago we got our first snow. Even though it didn't amount to much, the kids were very excited to get bundled up and go play in it! I have a feeling there will be more to come!

Tirzah sure does keep me busy! She is such a big helper ;)

The other day she found a blue marker on the floor and decided to taste it (it was the smelly kind, so can you blame her?!)

Thankfully we are all feeling much better, although Titus still struggles with a cough. We also got spoiled having the kids at home (even if they were sick). We've had to readjust to the quiet house. Praise the Lord for children who bring such life to our home!

Sickies :(

Well, Goshert's Medical Clinic has been open this week and we have almost reached our maximum capacity! All five kids plus mommy have passed around the same flu/colds that, from the sounds of it, many of your families have been passing around as well! It's miserable, isn't it? So today I would like to send some encouragement your way...

Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!
~Luke 1:45

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope; Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."
~Lamentations 3:21-24

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law.
~Psalm 119:18

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
~2 Timothy 3:16-17

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I know these verses won't make the fevers come down, or the coughs go away, or the physical body aches stop hurting, but I pray that they will be balm for your soul! Take care!

Random Ramblings

We had such an exciting Wednesday evening! Three kids put their trust in Jesus as their Savior! Wow! It's always exciting to welcome people into His family! Please help us pray that these kids will grow in their knowledge of Jesus and that the desire to serve Him will grow.

Yesterday was no school for the older 3 kids. I really liked having them at home! It made me miss the days of homeschooling even more! We have them for such a short time, and when they're at school all day it feels like I don't get to spend much time with them. Anyway, they kept themselves pretty busy. The big project of the day was "Fun Fusion". I'm sure most of you have probably seen them. You put tiny beads on a plastic shape, put special paper over your shape when your done and iron it to fuse the beads together. The kids decided to turn their creations into necklaces. I was amazed at how well they did! Even Titus (who's 3) made several.

Saturday is my big Mary Kay debut! I've invited quite a few people, but so far don't know of any attendees. I've had some pre-orders, though, so that's good! If your in the area Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m., come on over!

Final thought...

football season is upon us!!

Back in Business!

I've decided to get back into the Mary Kay business! I sold it a few years back, but with Nathan in school and some other issues I decided to get out of it. But now I felt like I was ready to give it another try. Things are a bit more settled now (well, as settled as they can get around here!) and I had been thinking of ways I could help with the family's finances. With the kids still being young I really didn't want to have a "real" job, so to speak. I'm prepared for it to take awhile to build up my customer base, but I'm ready to try! I'm also hoping to use this as an opportunity to meet more people and who knows, this may be an avenue the Lord will use to bring people into His Kingdom! I'm excited about all of the possibilities!

So....if you're interested (or know of someone else who might be) you can check out my website! It's up and running!

www.marykay.com/bgoshert

Overdue

I've been saving some pictures to blog about (because I know you've been anxiously awaiting!!!). I'm trying to figure out how to make collages, and as you can see, I'm not making much progress! Apparently I'm getting left behind in the world of technology! ANYWAY, I decided to just go ahead and post some pictures the way I've been doing.

This post is mostly Tirzah. She's been growing so quickly! In the last few weeks she's gotten her top two front teeth, is crawling so well, pulling up on whatever she can find and being just plain adorable! So, here's what she's been up to...

Yummy lunch! She loves boxes! Anything she can climb in, really.

Reading the phone books. Before long, our kids won't know what those are!

Aahh! Her favorite spot!

Lovin' on her brother :)

She even has her very own fan club! Last night all of her siblings came to tell her goodnight! I'm so thankful that even though they fight, they do love each other!

Keziah's birthday!

I can hardly believe it has already been 8 years! Time seems to go by quicker the older I get! We had a great day celebrating Keziah's birthday. She started the morning opening a few presents. I got to have lunch with her at school, which was a first. A few more presents after school and Cunningham's Feed for supper (our oven is still out of order).

So here are a few pics of her day (I'd love to figure out how to do those picture collages!!).

Princess jammies...Strawberry Shortcake Cafe... (other presents in the background...)

The cake (I had to use the church's oven. I'm thankful that I even had that option!!)...

birthday girl sharing her cake with little sister...

and the girls :) (Tirzah was already in bed)

We are so thankful for the eight years God has given us with Keziah!! Happy birthday, sweetie!

God's will vs. mine

Tonight we are starting Wednesday night activities for all ages. The adults will be meeting at another couple's home and our home will be the hub for all of the kids. I'm excited about the idea itself. I'm excited to get something started for the kids. I'm excited that I get to teach important truths about God to my kids and other kids. I love kids! I won't go into all of the details, but having this at our house is something that I've been struggling with for awhile.

God is wise, isn't He? He knows my thoughts. And He knows yours, too. Do you ever have one of those days where you get the feeling that God is trying to tell you something? Well, that happened to me today. I know it is no accident that this is what I read on my flip calendar for today (by Elisabeth Elliot): "Be prepared for the will of God to be very different from what you imagined. I guarantee that ultimately it will be much more glorious that what you imagined." Again, no accident that the calendar tipped over so that I could read the verse on the other side (for April 24!): "Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men." Ephesians 6:7, NIV

WHAM! That just hit me upside the head! My concerns may be legitimate, but it is what it is. And I am to do this with ALL my heart. As with everything else I do, I am serving God, not men. As for the will of God, I pray that mine will be more conformed to His.

Praying the same for you today.

A Bum Mouth

Keziah loves the monkey bars. All kinds. Straight ones, curvy ones, short ones high ones. Bars that are still and the kind that hang from chains. She loves monkey bars! And yesterday at church that's exactly what she was doing...playing on the monkey bars. The ones at church are the kind that hang from chains. She's crossed them several times, but yesterday as she was getting started, they got away from her and she fell face first to the ground. She bit completely through her bottom lip. OUCH!!! She was quite pleased to get a chocolate shake for lunch, but this morning she's feeling a little discouraged. Her big lip gets in the way of eating what she wants. She's tired of her mouth hurting. Poor girl! We're just thankful that there's no school today so that she can be at home and recover another day.

So here she is. The picture doesn't quite capture how bad it looks, but you get the idea. Funny thing is (or not), yesterday evening we went on a walk to the school park. Guess where she was. Yep! The monkey bars!!!

New Haircut

Keziah's hair was needing a trim. After thinking about it some more, she really wanted to get it cut short like mine (aww!). She's had long hair for quite some time, so I told her to think about it for awhile and make sure that's really what she wanted to do. The more she thought about it, the more excited she got to have it cut! She did ask a few times, "It will grow back, right?" I assured her that it would, although she likes it so much now, I'm not sure she will want to grow it out for awhile!

So here are the before and after pictures.

Before... and after.

She looks so grown up now! I can hardly believe that this beautiful little girl is my daughter! The Lord has surely blessed us with 5 beautiful children!!

On the Move!

I've been wanting to show you some pictures of Tirzah's new-found freedom...via crawling. Actually, it's more of an army crawl, but hey, it gets her around! She started out investigating the living room, but she has recently discovered that she can explore ALL OVER the house. She's been having a blast!

So here she is. We find her doing all kinds of things... She found a newspaper by the trash can...

found an ant...

got stuck between chairs...

and finally her siblings corralled her in a box so that they could play :)

Needless to say, we are going to have to be more careful about what we leave laying around the house!!

First day of school...

Ahh, the first day of school! The kids were ready, but I'm not so sure their mother was! The house was so quiet today...TOO quiet! About an hour after they left, Titus was already wishing they were home. Poor little fella! He checked outside for them a few times throughout the day, hoping to find them playing.

Anyway, here they are all ready to go. Keziah's in 2nd grade, Isaac's in 1st grade and Josiah's in Kindergarten.

Here's daddy "running" them to school :)

Titus and Tirzah...left at home...what to do, what to do...

Nathan and I felt sorry for Titus, so we took him to Subway for lunch. Then he helped make cookies for our after school snack. I think he was happy to have something fun to do!

And here's the crew enjoying their cookies!

All three seemed to have a good first day, Praise the Lord! We pray that He will protect their bodies, minds and hearts.

Carousel Park

While in Kansas, Nathan's parents took us to Carousel Park in Joplin, MO. We ended up going twice. The first time, we went on some rides we wished we wouldn't have! The second time, we figured out which rides we liked and which ones to stay away from!

Here was a little train. Pretty safe. Just drove around in a circle...slowly.
Another pretty good one. A nice and easy alligator "roller coaster."

This one wasn't so cool; the Whip Lash. Boy, am I getting old! Here's the pic before...

And here's the pic during the whipping. It felt like the thing would never stop!

Okay, here's another good one. A nice little ride in some kind of bird. It went up to the top of a pole that was decorated like a light house and spun around nice and slow. Nathan joined the flight.

Another nice and slow one was some trucks.

And even though this picture comes last, it was actually the very first ride we rode (Okay, not me. I stayed on the ground with Tirzah...thankfully!) It was a bit frightening! Grandma about lost her hat (you can see her to the far left of the pic)!

Notice the young fella in the bottom left of the pic? He was operating the ride. As it was slowing down to come back in, it stopped and he had to push it back. To make us feel better, he looked over his shoulder and said, "Don't worry. This happens all the time." Ha! Yeah! That sure put our fears to rest! Needless to say, that was the one and only time on the tiger!!!

One of our favorite things (that I don't have pics of) were the go-karts. They were awesome! Both the kids and the adults enjoyed it!

What a fun (and exhausting) evening!