Tonight I witnessed my teaching leader from BSF bear fruit.  Her lecture was on the 15th chapter of John.  “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit: apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5  Tonight I not only heard her preach on it, but saw it in action.  Her principles were every follower of Jesus will bear fruit and every follower must love sacrificially.  We end at 8:30pm I’m done with the day and I can image she is as well, too.  Because she is a follower of Jesus she show loved sacrificially to my children.   My kids walked right back into the sanctuary as she was cleaning up.  She stopped and sat on the steps with my kids and talked with them.  I didn’t get to hear all the details of what was said, but that is not the point.  She sat down with them, looked them in the eye, and took the time to hear their thoughts about what they learned tonight.  Her patience and love was just pouring out of her.  I praise God for this servant, fellow sister in Christ,  he has placed into our lives.  Jadon has known her from birth.  If I recall right, she served in the baby class when Jadon was an infant over 7 years ago.  He has been prayed over by this woman his whole life.  How amazing to see God working through his servants, so that his children will know Him.  I don’t know if my kids will remember this moment.   But I do pray they will look back at their lives and realize all the people God has placed in their lives to help them bear fruit.

Bear fruit my children.

Chris

The Ireland family headed to Utah for the second Bar Mitzvah!  This time we celebrated Ben Ireland’s Bar Mitzvah. The amount of work that he did to prepare for this day is quite incredible.  We were all praying Ben would be healthy enough to speak. Praise God he was able to make it through! There is a lot of chanting and speaking for him in the ceremony.  The richness of the Jewish ceremony deepens my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We got to spend quite a bit of time with Greg’s brothers families.  We rented a house together. When we arrived we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point to see dinosaur bones!  What a great way to spend with all the nephews!

The family went up to Park City to explore the ski areas.  Unfortunately I was sick and stayed behind. They had a blast!

-Chris

 

Happy 10th Birthday Esther!  She has already experienced much in her 10 years of life.  Dance, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, swimming, and pickle ball are the sports she has tried.  She loves the arts; drawing, painting, sewing, and piano.  Her adventure heart is contagious.  She loves to explore and experience new things.  She has a map of all the states she has already seen.  She is excited to visit all 50 states as soon as possible.  She is off to a good start, recently added Pennsylvania and will be adding New York at the end of February.

One of her most favorite experiences she does is BSF (Bible Study Fellowship).  She has been attending every week during the school since she turned two.  The Lord is evident in her life.  She works hard to learn and study God’s word weekly.  Most importantly putting into practice what she is learning about the Lord.  Her favorite song at the moment is “Trust in You” by Lauren Daigle.  Our prayer for our daughter is she will seek and trust the Lord always no matter what the cost.  Pray the training she has now will prepare her for the future plans God has for her.

We had a fun day celebrating her 10th birthday with a science party!  The guests made their own calzones, exploded diet coke bottles and made bouncy balls! Great fun was had by all!  Also the guests wrote a letter to future Esther.  I can’t wait for her 21st birthday to open the letters with her!  Happy Birthday to my courageous and adventurous 10 year old!

Chris

 

One of the reasons why we homeschool is so we can be spontaneous!  Like hop on Daddy’s flight and do some sight seeing.  That is exactly what we did this week.  We did an overnight trip to Philadelphia.  We saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and experienced a philly cheese steak sandwich, Dunkin Donuts & pretzels!

I enjoy being able to watch my husband do what he loves!  I’m thankful my kids get to experience what Daddy does when he goes to work!

We arrived in the evening in PHL.  We took a walk to do some sightseeing before dinner.  I’m so amazed at all the history this city holds.  We really only walked one street!  Crazy to think how much more history we could have discovered here.

We made the kids try a new restaurant.  They ended up loving the Philly cheese steak and cheesy fries!

We came back to the hotel and finished watching some football.  Love how much our kids enjoy exploring a new place.  In fact Jadon and Esther slept in their own hotel room.  Made this Momma’s heart worried, but they did great and loved it!

Living in Yelm we don’t experience a lot of people watching.  They sure got a good dose of it in Philly!  What better way then with a donut in hand!

We took a tour of Independence Hall.  There is such rich history in this building alone.  Our founding fathers were very wise men!

I was amazed at the size of the Liberty Bell.  The thickness of the bell is amazing.  Did you know there is a Bible verse written on it?  Leviticus 25:10  Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.

Rahab found this eagle hat.  She couldn’t stop giggling  🙂  Such joy she brings to our family!

After our morning of exploring the city, we headed to the airport via the train.  Its like a city under the city.  Its hard for me to wrap my head around all the underground trains with those skyscrapers above.  Crazy!  Jadon loved every minute of the train.  He couldn’t get enough!

Apparently Philly is know for their pretzels.  Of course we had to have pretzel before we left!  YUM!

The kids received trading card about famous people, places, etc.  They loved reading all the history on their cards!

It was a great overnight.  I’m glad we are able to do trips like this! And hope for many more to come as we raise our children.

-Chris

 

Lake Lawrence is frozen!  Frozen enough to walk, slide, and play on!  Its like I was a little girl playing on the frozen rink from elementary school.  Loved it!  Best part was I got to enjoy it with my kids and nephew today!

Bonus: Esther has been studying about ice.  We got to see the results of ice expanding.  The ice was buckling up against the dock.  So cool!

-Chris

Today we celebrated Rahab’s 5th birthday with great friends and family!  With a dance party for our dance lover!  It was perfect!  We did the chicken dance, hokey pokey, limbo, musical chairs, cha cha slide, and you can not leave out the bunny hop!  Very thankful for all the friends and family who came and helped us celebrate Rahab’s 5th birthday!

-Chris

 

Most people would not know the difference between these two hats.

FO: First officer hat

But in our house its a big deal!  Greg has been dreaming of this moment since he was a little boy.  It has been his focus since I met him, dated him and then married him.  Its been quite a road, but excited to announce Captain Greg Ireland.

He will be based in Anchorage by June 1st if not sooner.  This comes with big changes for our family.  Pray that Greg and I will make wise decisions for our family.  We know that God is in control and we are excited for the transition.   Also, to do some adventuring up in ANC area this summer!

Very proud of you Captain Greg Ireland!

Love you,

Chris

FYI:  Greg will now be able to taxi the airplane!  He is stoked!

 

Our little girl turns 5 today.  What a blessing she is to our family!  She lights up a room, has the best one liners and facial expressions.  She enjoys making people laugh.  Her laugh is contagious.

Most days you will find Rahab singing, dancing and or playing the piano in our entry way.  It is just in her blood.  She loves learning in school and is excited to start kindergarten soon.  She is talking about learning to read.  Praying she will enjoy it as much has her family does.  She enjoys her dolls, painting, playing all kinds of games, playing in her kitchen, and any chance she can get in my kitchen.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!  You light up our world!  May God always be your lead.

-Love Mom & Dad

 

Christmas Eve morning started out with caramel rolls and a puzzle.  Perfect way to start our at home Christmas!  I love the Story of Christmas puzzle.  On the outer edge it has the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke. Keeps our focus on the meaning of Christmas.

We had our turkey dinner around lunch time at Don & Ferol’s with Brad, Megan and Owen.  Great day to spend with family!  Even if i toasted the green bean casserole a tad…Oops!

We headed to the family Christmas Eve service at Crossroads.  What a blessing it was to be together as a family.  Esther read in  Luke and Greg preached!  They both did an amazing job.  My heart is full watching them serve the Lord in this manner.

Our house feels so magical this time of year.  We love the giant tree, all the presents, but most all the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

We all enjoyed a day together playing, eating, and playing some more!  We are all very excited about our new foosball table.  I’m sure many hours will be spent here.  We definitely had a gamed themed Christmas.  Esther got a laser chess game, watch out she’s good.  Greg got family Bingo!  Our kids have never experienced Bingo before.  We will fix that soon :).   Each of the kids got a brainteaser game in their stockings.  Ker-plunk, yard Jenga, and Dog house were also family gifts!  We have enjoyed them all! And I also got a dart board with an amazing case made by Greg.  (See the ‘I’ in the above picture=dart board!)  I’m excited to get that set up!

We also enjoyed a ham dinner with scalloped potatoes, pineapple stuffing, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and salad.  Yum!  Loved hosting Christmas dinner with our family!

We enjoyed our at home Christmas this year.  It was such a wonderful time to remember the birth of Jesus our Savior!  Merry Christmas from the Ireland’s

 

B.A. our Blessing Angel visits us every December.  She brings our family blessings throughout the month.  I love how the kids get excited about B.A.  In fact they got so attached to B.A. this year that they did not want her to leave.  Many tears, created a living space for her, and letter written by Esther trying to convince her to stay longer.  It worked!  B.A. joined us one more day playing Hide and Seek!

She left this picture for the kids!  It took them most of the day to find the letter and picture!

I love how B.A. keeps our focus on the important things during the Christmas season.  We made ornaments and took them to our neighbors this year.  We played games, watched movies, had parties, and just enjoyed finding her throughout the month!  Here are some of the pictures I caught this month of the blessings she brought to our home!

Till next year!

Chris Ireland