Sydney turns 6 ! !

On December 14

Sydney  . . . 

turned 6 years old!!

Sydney is the only one of our 16 grand kiddos

 that has the same beautiful color of hair as her grandpa!  

AND ... she has a winning smile.

She often stops by the shop with her mom after her kindergarten class is over.

Sydney had a "Brave" cake and  --- it was soooo good.

I pray Syd will love the LORD God with all her heart!  

And that her life will be lived for His honor and glory!

"For God so loved the world He gave

His only begotten Son,

that whosoever believeth in Him

should not perish but

have everlasting life."

John 3:16

Friends

A Fountain - Filled With Blood

There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood

--William Cowper

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;

And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;

And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power

Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;

Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;

Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I'll sing Thy power to save,

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,

For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!

'Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,

To sound in God the Father's ears no other name but Thine.

Christmas Baking

Christmas baking was

enjoyable as usual.

Jill tried her now 'famous'

new recipes ....

some of which we like ....

others ... not so much!!

This year Julia was decked out

in her "Princess" apron.

She tried 2 new recipes

which were both 

"keepers" in my book.

Mainly because they both 

contained chocolate!

 Jeshanah was gifted with a 

"Humbug" shirt ...

She decorated some

lovely cut out cookies

and cleaned up 

at least after me!!

 JoAnna had her hands full

trying to keep track of her

four little kiddos.

 Lois made some very

good caramels.

 The kids were

all very good ...

They played 

dress up

and watched

movies.

At the end

of

a

very  long day

I 

think

we 

all

maybe

felt

like

Nolan

but 

only

Nolan

acted out

on 

his feelings!

Oh yes,

we simply 

CANNOT

get together to bake

without some sort

of mishap.

This pan of bars was put

on the floor by the open

patio door to cool ...

can you see the footprint in it???

It wasn't big foot ....

it was little footed ---- Selah!!

Jacob

One fourth of the book of Genesis

focuses on Jacob.  He's the guy

 in the picture holding on 

to the ladder.  That story is in Genesis 28.

He was, at times, a manipulator,

 a trickster and the Bible tells us

he was even born clutching at his older brothers heel as if

he was reluctant to let him (Esau) be born first.

Later in Jacob's life when he chose a bride

he was tricked .... and given Leah instead of Rachel.

Jacob eventually had 12 sons who became the

twelve leaders of the tribes of Israel.

Just as Jacob was his mother's favorite son,

he too favored a son, Joseph.

The life of Joseph makes up another 

one fourth of the book of Genesis.

Another Patriarch - Isaac

Isaac is talked about in Genesis 17-35.

He is the 'child of promise',  the only son of his

parents Abraham and Sarah.  He was born when they 

were well past child bearing age --

Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90!

Isaac's father Abraham was willing to

offer his only son on a altar in 

obedience to God's instruction.

Here we see God as

Jehovah Jireh -- the LORD will provide.

This was done on Mount Moriah ....

very near to where the LORD

Jesus Christ was crucified many years later.

Isaac was likely in his 

20's to 30's at this time.  

Imagine as a young man the impact this incident must have 

had on his life. He saw first hand "Jehovah Jireh".

Isaac married Rebekah when he was 40 and

they had twin sons, Jacob and Esau.

As parents, they each had a favorite son,

Isaac favored Esau and Rebekah favored Jacob!

They definitely don't get very high marks in parenting!

Isaac also lies about his wife

for his own personal benefit. Hmmm ... didn't

I just read his father, Abraham, did this too???

Children have ALWAYS taken better note of

the things we parents DO than 

 the things we SAY!

Isaac was greatly blessed by God.

So great were his possessions and flocks that the

Philistines envied him.

Selah's Golden Birthday

On December 2nd Selah celebrated her 

Golden Birthday.

Two years old on December 2nd.

The kids all made their own

gingerbread houses ...

with lots of licking of frosting

and sprinkles and candy!!

Here are some of the kids' creations.

Selah had more fun eating 'stuff'' than making a house.

Carly

Lindsey and Nolan

Anna, Lydia, Jeshanah and Elly 

Alyssa and her gingerbread house.

Philemon smiles now ...

Love this pic of Lucy

Here's the Rockhold family.

Happy Birthday Selah. 

Praying that you will come to know
the LORD Jesus as your Savior 
while you are still young! 

Happy 2nd Birthday Selah!

Selah celebrated her

2nd Birthday

with blue and white

snowflake cupcakes.

She wasn't too sure

about the fire or

the candles

BUT

She sure did 

like the

frosting!

Philemon enjoyed

the day too.

The kids worked

on making

ginger bread houses ....

all decorated with every

kind of candy you

can imagine.

Selah's house was empty

of any decorations ...

BECAUSE ....

She ate them all!



Lydia is concentrating hard

on her masterpiece.

I pray that Selah,

 will come to know the

LORD Jesus as her

Savior while she is

still a little girl.

My prayer is that when

she is "all grown up" her

testimony will be a 

'boring one', like her mom's,

 and gramma's!  Glorious yet boring!!

Christmas Parade

Following our yearly

tradition ....

we met for pizza at

Little Ceasar's,

stopped at Starbucks

for coffee,

then headed off to the 

Christmas Parade.  

Here are my wonderful

daughters in law!

And my daughters!

JoAnna organizes this tradition

each year and I'm thankful

for her desire to make

traditions for the family!

Carly and Chloe


Lydia and Anna

watching all the

floats go by.

The weather was

beautiful that night.

Grandma Martinson 

with her 

FIRST EVER

Starbucks Coffee

and 

Samuel.

Sydney and Alyssa,

enjoying

the

cousin 

time.

Selah all

tucked into her stroller!

A good time was had

by us all

as we welcomed the

Christmas Season!

BEST mother in law ... Hands down

Myron's mom came for a visit.

Besides being the

BEST mother in law,

she is a good gramma

to my kids and a 

good great gramma

to my grandkids!

Her family has grown

so much.  

I think she said there

were about 70 now from

her 7 kids.

It was fun having her 

with us for several weeks

over Thanksgiving.

We did a lot of things ....

We rang the 

Salvation Army Bell together.

We shopped.  On Black Friday!

We watched movies.

We went to the

Christmas Parade.

We delivered

Christmas Child Boxes.


We peeled potatoes,

almost 20 pounds of them,

for Thanksgiving ...

and she almost cut off her finger.

But she got out of

peeling the rest of them!


We cleaned windows ...

as she always helps me do

when she comes.

One of my favorite memories of

long ago times concerning my MIL 

is ... when I was just a young

mom and we would go to

Stanley, ND for a visit to

see g'ma and g'pa my little

kiddos would stand at her

patio door and get slobber and

fingerprints and lip prints

all over the glass.  

(You have to know

that my MIL is a 'cleanie'.)

Being a good daughter in law ...

I would always try to 

clean the glass on the 

door before I left.

After all, they hadn't had 

any young children in their 

home for many years.


 She would always

stop me from cleaning the glass,

saying, "when you leave I

sit and look at all those finger

prints and remember all

 those little kids!"

And ... maybe ... sometimes ...

she even cried.


Now that's a treasure of a mother in law!!


I, personally, have never understood

all the jokes about MILs.

Because mine is a 

treasure to me!

Below is a picture of my mother in law

with some of her great grand children.

Briann, Cody and Sydney are missing from the pic.