Trip to the States

Everyone laughs when I say we're going to be in the "states" for a couple months.  What is Alaska?  Haha, but anyways, we're down in the lower 48 states right now =).  We left Anchorage the 12th of March.

Lake Clark Pass

International Airport

We drove all night Monday and all night Tuesday with a few hours stop at Whitehorse and Liard Hotsprings to swim.

It was freezing at Liard.  Our hair got all frosty and our swimsuits froze as soon as we got out.

We have five drivers now so we were either sleeping or driving the entire trip down.

We spent Wednesday night at a friends house in Saskatoon...

...and got to Grandma Effie's house at three in the morning on Friday right in front of a big storm.

We spent the weekend at Grandma Effie's in a blizzard then headed out to a friends in Wisconsin then on to Family Week in Kentucky.

We're heading out from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers right now to visit friends and relatives till the middle of May.  It's been a ton of fun so far, I'll post more later.

Birthdays

Deborah and Caleb turned another year older.  It truly is a joy to watch my children grow up.  They are such a blessing.
Below the kids made Deborah a pinata in the shape of a D.

Anna made Deborah a really cute owl cake.

Paul lit 17 candles for Deborah to blow out.

Caleb had 10 candles to blow out.  He's growing up fast.

Anna's cake had a problem that toothpicks couldn't fix so we turned it into another airplane crash cake, which the boys love.

Okay, I'm mad at the next picture because I can't get it to turn :(

Caleb got a remote control helicopter for his birthday.  It was fun while it lasted.  The boys were able to fix it many times.  It flew after it landed in the toilet (Caleb wanted to see it fly in the dark so he could see the beacon.  There are no windows in the bathroom.)  But I think landing in the fish tank did it in.  Quentin thinks he can get it going again.

Preparing for the Sabbath

We believe that the ten commandments God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai are just as relevant today as they were when Yahwh first gave them, including the fourth commandment:
Exodus 20: 8-11  
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahwh your God.  In it you shall do no work:  you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days Yahwh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yahwh blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Every Friday we do a little extra work to prepare for the weekly Sabbath. We cook a little extra so that we don't have to cook on the Sabbath and we clean a little extra in the hopes that it will stay clean a little longer. For fun, we shot some video of us as we are preparing and we put it to music. 
The meat on the pizza is beef not pork :)
Don't forget to watch the Bloopers after the credits :)

The original song and video were produced by Shabbat Across America.

If you get this post emailed to you, you won't see the video.  So, click on this link and it will take you to the video.  Click here Mom - Brendemuhl's Shabbat

Home Improvement

We have been doing a lot of work on the shop and house lately.  We've been replacing (or adding, the shop didn't have any) insulation and painting.

First we did the shop.  We lifted the paneling up on the outside and left it attached at the top so it would be easier to put back.

Then we put insulation up.

Joshua and I

Originally the paneling was attached with staples.  We were going to try just using the old staples but that didn't work so we had to pull all the old staples out and reattach with a nail gun.

Dad and I attempting to reattach with the staples.

Who ever built the shop was extremely staple happy.  They used so many.  It took forever to pull them all.

Deborah and I pulling staples.

After the shop we did a wall in the house.  We have been slowly over a few years doing one wall at a time.  This wall was the hardest.  We have everything attached to this wall.  The computer, TV, radio's, moniter heater, internet modem... lots of stuff.   But we finally got it done.

Dad and Quentin also reframed the window.

Quentin

When the paneling was first put up it was put up with glue instead of nails.  That made for a pain to chip off before we could nail them back up.

After the boys put the paneling up Mom and I painted.  We put on a white base coat then a blue faux.

You paint the blue on, then put saran wrap on it, squish it up then peel it off.

We've also been painting in the kitchen, the upstairs and working on finishing up the basement.  I guess the winter is a good time to get all that done.

Drumming

Four years ago Mr. D came out to Nondalton and did drumming workshops with the kids at school and some of the community (Christmas Drumming).  He came back again this year for two weeks.   He spent the day working with different age groups of kids at school then at night for the community.  If was a lot of fun.  Mom, Deborah, Quentin, Anna, and I all went up at night for class.  Every age group worked on a different song and the day before school got out we had a potluck at the school and we all played our songs.

Potluck

The preschoolers.

The high schoolers.

The adults and older kids.

The elementary kids.

Mr. D

Potlucks are always fun.  Especially during school break when all the kids who go to different schools are back.

Afterwards they had Christmas Karaoke.  The little girls were the only people who would sing though.

Susan's note - About four years ago we discovered that Jesus wan't actually born at christmas .  Since then we have been celebrating His birth at the Feast of Tabernacles, which from Biblical accounts is the much more likely time of His birth.  As our family traditions have been slowly changing, the well intentioned celebrations of other Christians can present difficult decisions.  This year we decided to go ahead and participate in the drumming classes even though we knew the program would be during the annual christmas program.  Abigail wrote a great blog post on what we believe about christmas a few days ago.  You can read it here  http://consumedwiththecreator.blogspot.com/2012/12/christmas.html