It's SPRING!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... SPRING!! That glorious season of wet mornings and the occasional sunny afternoon... greening grass... budding trees. (How poetical do you want me to get today?)

Our southern exposures are just beginning to turn a fuzzy green and we're sooooo happy. =)

mmm... how delightful.

Our chickens are very busy in the orchard (which has yet to bloom)... but in this picture they look more like little rocks. I think the sun was at the wrong angle. Oh, well... if there's one thing I've learned in my months as a photographer, it's that the sun is kind of hard to move.

Blue skies!!

Oh, no... it's another self portrait... with sunglasses!!

It's ANOTHER self-portrait... with sunglasses. (But don't you agree that Sarah helps you ignore the sterotype?)

Sarah is deep in converstaion with her imaginary friend.

Together, they decide to try hovering. It's a new technique... just in from Spain. It can't hurt that much.

*GASP!* I'm lifting offffff!!!

She's... gettttingg... it...

Sarah gains altitude... and confidence.

Finally, she feels comfortable enough to relax a little bit.

In fact, she's *so* comfortable, she decides she might as well stay up here a little while longer.

Which she does, with great ease.

Until she remembers the newest technique, just in from South America. Flying.

Sarah being Sarah (i.e.... naturally good at everything on the very first try) is immediately sucessful.

"Wow, this flying stuff is quite a workout. I'm h-o-t." (Sarah discards her sweatshirt while in the air - a feat never before attempted, ladies and gentlemen!!)

Oooomph!! Until she experiences unexpected turbulence and is flung unceremoniously to the ground. Splat.

Not to be deterred, Sarah decides to try the newest technique from Russia... cossack dancing!

After becoming bored with the Russian folk dance, Sarah turns to handstands.

Ta-da!!!!

Sarah connunicating with the... uummm... who IS she communicating with?

She ditches the idea of flying and cossack dancing... and decides to become a model instead.

A suspicious model!

Typical sibling interaction right here!! =)

It's soooo nice that we can be outside again!

I think she's taking face-making lessons from her big sisters!!

In which Sarah re-enacts "asleep on the hay," from the traditional carol, "Away in a Manger." (Even though there's not a manger in sight that she would fit into... lol!!)

Abigail is looking strangely and unusually angelic in this picture...

Someone's lost their head!!

This looks a little strange, but I only had two models handy. Sooo... use your imaginations, 'k?

Ooohhh... it was sooooooooo beautiful out today!!

The farmgirl in flipflops rides again!

Art.

Lilac buds!! Yippeee!!

Stensgar Creek... aka the Mississippi River. We're hoping it doesn't come up toooo much more and wash our bridge down the Columbia River!!

Puddles... a staple of spring life on a farm. They're especially grand when they grow algae and other abundances of green... life.

=)

Anyway... that was our fun spring afternoon here on the farm!! Hope you had a grand tour... errr... visit... and come back soon!!

March Quotables!

Hey, everybody!! Time for more quotables!! There are some pretty good ones, too... but I was noticing that most of them involve Sarah. To which she replied, "Quotables wouldn't be quotables without Sarah!!"

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Dad: Do we have anything to watch tonight? I mean nothing foolish…
Sarah: Foolish?! Are you implying…
D: ... like from England?
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Sarah: I'm glad I don't live in Venice because I would always have an overwhelming feeling to just JUMP into one of the canals.
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(Abby is banging her spoon on the sides of her mug as she stirs her tea, and its annoying Hannah, who’s trying to think…)
Hannah: Abby could you PLEASE stir that tea a little more quietly?!
Sarah: Tsk, tsk. She would have been in third class on the Titanic.
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Abby: Here's a bookmark for you Sarah. You put it in a BOOK.
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Sarah is teaching Abby language arts, and the assignment is "Find the words in your literature passage that can complete these sentences."

1) Today, I grow. Yesterday, I _____________
2) Today, I tell. Yesterday, I ______________, etc…

S: Today, I grow. Yesterday, I...
A: ... Shrunk?!?!
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Sarah: You know what's really scary in The Little Mermaid? The mermen. There like boom, zoop, boom! (Gesturing with hands to show their figure) No one who lives in the ocean could be that fit and tan.
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Sarah: Whhhhaaaattsss this? (pulls half of a toothpick out of her burger)
Hannah: A toothpick.
S: (wailing) Half!!
H: Yeah… and here's the other half (holds it up)
S: oh, phew! Thought I'd swallowed it!!
(everyone laughs)
S: Well would y'all be worried too?
Joe: Only if I was a goat!
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Roberta (imitating 'Mister Roberts'): One drop of hair tonic... for age!
Abby: You know... Hair tonic isn't very good for you.
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Hannah: You have five fingers on each hand, right?
Sarah: Last time I counted I did.
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Sarah is getting ready to go to a concert. Hannah will be playing the piano and Sarah will be turning the pages for her, and she’s just now finishing getting dressed…

Sarah: I don’t like these shoes. They make my feet look huge!
Mom: No, I was actually thinking that they looked smaller. Lilliputian feet. Or something.
S: (moaning) No, no, they look like duck feet!
Dad: No, they don’t – but if you really want duck feet, I can lend you my flippers.
S: (firmly) No.
M: Yeah, that would be perfect! Then you can walk up there (demonstrates waddling in flippers) and say, “Hello, everyone! I’m here to flip Hannah’s pages!”
S: I am not believing this. (walks into Hannah’s room)
H: You know I actually like that flipper idea. I think that people would laugh. (Hannah is overcome with gales of laughter as soon as she takes one look at Sarah’s face.)
S: (through gritted teeth) They certainly would. Well, I’d have to grow a moustache.
H: Whatever for?! To complete the walrus look?
S: Duh. So no one would recognize me.

Eighteen

In case anyone asks... I (Hannah) am a "grown-up," hard-to-believe, very un-eighteenish eighteen now!!!

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Wow. I can't believe how time is flying by!! Maybe I'll be a "real" grown-up one of these days, haha!!

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Hugs!!

Miracles

This is awesome! =)

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Do you believe in miracles?

If your answer is yes, then you are a part of the majority. In a recent
survey, 8 in 10 people said they believe in miracles. Even folks who
described themselves as non-religious affirmed a belief in the
miraculous.

According to our English dictionary, a miracle is defined as "a wonder,
a marvel, an extraordinary event revealing or ascribed to divine
intervention in human affairs."

When God shows up in someone's life and does something good and
beneficial that can't be explained by natural reasoning or natural laws,
we know that the miraculous has happened.

The Bible is a supernatural book that, from the first chapter to the
last, presents God as a living, caring, personal, miracle-working God.
It shows us a God who actively intervenes in our world, and in people's
lives with His power. He does things in and for people that cannot be
explained by natural reasoning or natural laws.

Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the life and ministry of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. Throughout His earthly ministry, He gave sight
to the blind, hearing to the deaf, movement to the paralyzed,
forgiveness to the shame-filled, and freedom and deliverance to people
tortured and tormented by demon spirits. The greatest miracle of all was
His resurrection from the dead!

This same Jesus does miracles today:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8
(NIV)

Because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever we can approach
Him with confidence. Any time we face a need that is bigger than our
capacity, a problem that defies our solutions, an impossibility that has
limited or log-jammed our lives in some way we should boldly go to Him
with hope and faith in His love for us and in His power to help us.

Speaking of Jesus' love and care for us, and His willingness to
miraculously help us, the writer of Hebrews described the perspective we
should have in going to Him with our needs:

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may
receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. - Hebrews
4:16 (NIV)

Whatever you are facing today, remember that the God of the Bible is a
God who still does miracles. Through Jesus Christ, you can confidently
approach Him with your needs and trust Him to do the supernatural in
your life!

-- Pastor Dale

February Quotables!

Time for more quotables!! February, though it is the shortest month, was a very productive one. We hope this bit of genuine P family humor brings a smile to your face! =)

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Hannah: Okay, so why is George Washington called the Father of our Country?
Abby: Washington, D.C.?
H: No, that’s the city they named after him. Why did they call him the Father of our Country?
A: *pause*
H: What did he do to make us call him that?
A: Uhhhh…
H: C’mon, Abby, you know!! Why do we call him the Father of our Country?
A: *wailing* Because he was such a good surveyor?!

Hannah: Okay, now we’re looking up stuff in the dictionary.
Abby: (blank look)
H: You… do… know how to look things up in the dictionary, don’t you?
A: Of course. What do you think I am, a delinquent?

Hannah: (wailing) Ooohhhh… If life were simpler, Roberta, EVERYTHING would be SO MUCH… (quietly) simpler.

Hannah: You’d better go to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
Sarah: Well, now that’s a profound statement. ‘Tomorrow is another day.’ That’s a gem. Yes, tomorrow is another day. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow and tomorrow.

Sarah: Hannah’s head is there, but everything in it is… gone.

Sarah: Hey, Mom, can we get John (our parakeet) a friend?
Hannah: What in the world would he want a friend for? He has his mirror. And he’s perfectly content with that.
S: He’s a lonely bird!
H: He is NOT lonely. Trust me.
S: Hannah, I know a heartbroken man when I see one.

Abby: Hannah, you want a mini Baby Ruth?
Hannah: Sure. (Abby tosses Hannah the candy)
Sarah: Hey, can I have one?
A: Awww… there’s only one left, and I was saving that up for myself!
H: C’mon, Abbs… give it to her.
(Abby reluctantly tosses candy to Sarah)
H: Now you’ve learned a lesson, Abbs. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust does corrupt… and your sisters take all of your chocolate. By force.”

Hannah: I posted another bunch of quotables on the blog.
Sarah: Good, let me read ‘em!
H: Hey, I just noticed that you have most of the punch lines.
S: That’s cuz I’m the funniest!

Hannah: You know what? I wouldn’t have made a very good child actor. But that’s probably because I would have been a child actress.

Hannah: (cruising through town rapidly approaches a railroad track, looks both ways, and comments just before heading over the tracks…) Are there any trains coming? No? Good!
A few seconds later…
Sarah: I… think it would have been too late if there was one.
H: Naww…
S: You didn’t even slow down!
H: I coulda stopped in that short a distance! You want to see?
S: NO, thank you. Well, maybe you could have stopped, but it would have been a pitiful waste of rubber.

Celebrity Look-Alikes?

In our wanderings and meanderings today, Mom and I (Hannah) chanced upon a Whole Foods. Seeing as we *love* Whole Foods (and that's not just a fad, we've loved that place for over ten years, seriously), we had to stop in and trot around a bit.

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Our trot led us to the dairy aisle, and whilst we were admiring the selection of organic, grass-fed, hormone free, fresh milk they were offering, we chanced across this brand of milk. Annnndddd, ladies and gentlemen, look at the beauties who were gracing the front of those cartons!

Jerseys! In the agricultural world, you're either a Jersey person or you're not. There's absolutely no "in between," and... us? Well, we'll let you guess.

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At any rate, these two cows look strikingly similar to our mother-daughter cow pair. And if you think "Oh, that's ridiculous. Of course they look like your cows. They're cows. Clover and Millie are cows. All cows look the same." I am here to tell you that is not so.

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Anyway, we thought it was rather exciting. Our cow's twins (apparently) on milk cartons. Isn't that like having your picture on a top-selling dvd cover or your name on a star on the Hollywood sidewalk?

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No, wait a minute. It's not like that at all. It's better. (right, Clover?)