A hymn of praise

One of our family favorite's is Matt Maher's modern hymn, Christ is Risen, which is of course, perfect for this time of year, as we remember and give thanks for the great sacrifice our Great Savior, Jesus, made on our behalf.

Christ IS Risen!!  Happy Passion Week friends (a bit early I know)!!

You can read my passion week posts, on my blog.





-Abby for the rest of the Kautt Krew 

Our {Soon to Be} New Home

On July 4th, we traveled up to S.E. Oklahoma (where we'll be moving in a few weeks) to look at rent house.  The realtor, a lady who attends the church where Dad will be serving, told us that she thought this house would fit all our needs.  Well, indeed it did - lots of yard (the front yard is huge), 2+ bathrooms, 3+ bedrooms, a big living area and within our budget.  This was a blessing send from God.  So, after inspecting the house, Mom and Dad signed the lease agreement, and secured the home for us to move into in less than three weeks! 

For all of our family and friends who are interested in seeing what the house looks like, here are several photos we took.  Pardon the bad lighting (and poor focus on some of them, I wasn't being very careful when taking some of them).   Please keep our family in your prayers as we transition our lives to Oklahoma.   Thank you!

Mom and Dad sign the lease agreement, with Ms. Debra (the realtor).

This is right after you enter through the side/back door.  To the right through the double doors is the kitchen and eating area.

Through the double doors (the back/side door is on the right side of this photo.)

And now into the kitchen, standing where the dining table is supposed to go.

Another kitchen shot - there's lots of cabinet space!

Oh, and two sinks, with lots of counter space, too! 

Through the doors at the back of the kitchen is the laundry room.

The laundry room is huge!  Just what we have always wanted - enough space to fold laundry, etc.  Perfect!

More storage space. (Still in the laundry room.)

Looking into the living room from the dining/end of kitchen area.  (The doorway on the right is into the master bedroom.)

Looking into the living room to the left.  You can see the front door and entry way on the left side of the picture.

The (gas) fireplace.

Front door and entry way.

The living room from the entry way.  (Sorry for it being out of focus.)

The master bedroom.  If you turn to the right almost 180 degrees, you go into the master bathroom.

The master bathroom sinks.  (Through the doorway on the right side of the photo is the master bedroom.)

Master bathroom - it has a nice big bathtub, and a shower.

Down the hall way, to the main bath and the other two bedrooms.  (If you turned 90 degrees to your right, you would be looking toward the front door, in the entry way.)

Through the first doorway in the picture above is the main bathroom, which will be us kid's bathroom. 

It has a large bathtub/shower and plenty of cabinets and counter space.

Kid's bath - if you turn to your right about 45 degrees you'll be looking through a doorway into what will be the girl's room.  The door way on the far left side of this photo goes into the hallway. 

The girl's room, through the doorway off the hall.  It has a chalkboard wall section!!

The girl's room has lots of windows (as does the whole house), and the room is large (14' x 11' approx.).

   I don't have any good photos of what will be Jaden's room, but it is located directly across the doorway from the girl's room.  The doorway that is located on the left side of the picture above goes into the hallway, and then right across from that is Jaden's room.

This is to the left off of the back/side door - an extra room (with another room behind it), which can be used for an office / school room / library.  The door way pictured on the right leads into a large storage room, pictured below.  

The storage room, looking to the right after entering.  Unfortunately the only way to enter is through that one doorway.

To the left, with the door in the picture on the left side of the photo.

And this is the small room behind the extra room I just showed you.  We may use it as a guest room.

And now to the outside part of the house. 

The front.  It has a HUGE yard, with two large trees (lots of shade!), and a large front porch. 

To the right.

The front porch.  There should be enough room for a porch swing!  :)

After looking around the house, and signing the lease agreement, we were hungry.  So, we ate some lunch out on the front porch.  :)

You can see one of the two large trees in this photo.

Looking into the backyard from the patio area.

The backyard to the right.  In need of some definite trimming, but there's plenty of room for a garden! 

Looking back into the patio, and covered area right outside the other back door that comes into the backyard.

This was Abby's response to us securing the house. 

We were ecstatic!  (Can you tell?!)  To say the least, there was lots of shouting and jumping, and excitement.  All we can do is praise the Lord for the goodness He's shown to us!

 Very soon we will be officially Oklahomans.   Well, not for entirely, because Texas will always be home - but our heart is definitely with the folks at our new home church in OK.  Praise be to our gracious God!

A lovely woman

"She is clothed with strength and dignity..."

Proverbs 31:25

A very happy Mother's Day, to our beloved Mother, and friend, and guide in this life.  You have nurtured us, and loved us, and prayed over us, and discipled us.  There are no words to describe how grateful we as the recipients of these precious blessings, are.  So many homes are broken, and so many young lives touched by the lack of a mother.  We have been blessed to have your by our sides every step of our lives... all six of us! 

We love you Mom! 

Joel, Abby, Caleb, Phoebe, Johanna and Jaden

C + C Forever!!

New Years and Our Tyler Trip

One of the mornings there was frost all over everything.  It was beautiful!

I keep meaning to post about our trip to Tyler, but life has been busy.  So, I'm just now getting around to it!

After a relaxing Christmas week, most of us had to go back to work for a couple days.  Then on Friday the 28th of December, we headed out to Tyler, in East Texas, to have a weekend of visiting with our Grandparents (mom's parents), aunts, uncles and cousins.  We got out there on Friday, late afternoon, and had supper together with Poppy and Grams, Aunt Jill who currently resides with our grandparents, and our Uncle Abe, who also lives there.  Grams loves playing different games; Jaden and I (Phoebe) played Chinese checkers and Aggravation with her that evening.  The visiting was wonderful, especially since we hadn't seen them since Christmas 2011.

Saturday was filled with lots of stories from Poppy about their recent time in Colorado, more games played (Mexican train, cards, etc.), and lots of good food.  One thing that was quite hilarious was when Johanna, Caleb, Joel and I played a funny writing game.  What makes it hilarious is that each person writes a sentence, and then starts another sentence, but doesn't finish it.  So, the next person finishes that sentence - without knowing what the previous sentence says - then writes another full sentence and a half.  You continue that pattern until you've written a long story.  And the fun is when you read it at the end, and none of it is congruent, but it gives you a good laugh!  One particular line that cracked Poppy up was the line I wrote, "She contemplated suicide, but thought to herself, "how could I live with myself?""  ;)

Poppy is such a great guy!  :)

Sunday morning, we awoke to frost all over everything, and I couldn't resist to take my camera out there, and snap some photographs.  Unfortunately, the camera just couldn't capture the true beauty that morning.

I liked how the sun shown through the trees, and created a sort of mystical feel.

Frost covered leaves

An odd shaped tree

I love the shadows from the trees in this picture.

Barbed wire

Frost all over the field.  And fog covering the trees in the distance.  Looks so peaceful.

Even for the frost, there were still little green plants peaking through the leaves on the ground.

Sun beams on the frost.

 

Wild mushrooms

Sunday morning we had the privilege of attending church with Uncle Abe.  He'd been wanting us to come to church with him for a long time, so he was happy we could and so were we!  After church, we went back to the house, and got lunch on the table.  Grams is famous for her delicious biscuits, so she decided to whip up another batch. (She had already made a couple batches during the time we had been there.)  This time, I video recorded her, and you can watch it if you want right over here on YouTube.  She's a good baker and cook - my inspiration! :)

Filming Grams at work, making her scrumptious Angel Biscuits.

Grams testing her baking creations.

Don't those just look so soft and fluffy?!

After lunch, and later in the afternoon, Poppy got a big bond-fire going down the hill.  Aunt Jen & Uncle Charles, and their kids arrived, and we had a nice fire, with hotdogs, smores and campfire twist bread. 
 

Campfire twist bread, around a hot dog.  Josh came up with this brilliant idea!

 Once the fire died down, and all the food had been consumed, we head back indoors.  And the crazy games of nertz commenced.  This can get wild, and I mean WILD.  And loud, too.  But, it's so much fun, and we all love each other... so no competition (ha, right!). 

Nertz, here we go!!

 Monday, Aunt Jen and two of her three kids came over again in the mid-morning.  We had fajitas for lunch (so good!!), I made eggnog and pretzels later in the afternoon, and we just had a wonderful time of being together.  I also had the opportunity to help Grams out with some computer stuff.  She's not that great with computers (at least not with blogging, YouTube and Facebook!), so I was able to help her get some things straightened out.  Oh, and she has a video of her white water walking in Colorado four months after her double hip replacement.  You really should go check it out on her YouTube channel, it's quite amazing! 

Family time: looking a Colorado pictures, playing with marbles, knitting and chatting.

Jo hold E.G., as I work on a computer project for Grams.

Looking at Colorado photos, and me helping Grams again. :)

Jaden had lots of fun with his youngest cousins, Zak and E.G.  In fact, they're his only cousins that are younger than him!

Johanna hold E.G. and chats with Aunt Jill.

Making pretzels!

I must have put a bit too much baking soda in them, because they tasted a too baking soda-ish. 

 Monday afternoon, Mom, Dad, Joel and Jaden had to head on back to our home.  Caleb, Abby, Johanna and I were able to stay an extra day, which was really nice!   Monday evening, we watched a couple movies, and had leftovers.  Yum!

Tuesday morning Poppy asked each of us about our hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals - long term and short term - and we had a really good conversation with him about it all.  Each of us got to talk (hehe!), and Poppy shared godly wisdom that he's acquired over the years.  It really was a neat time of conversation.  Maybe he asked us about that since it was New Years day.  :)  I'm grateful that we have grandparents who are following the Lord, and who give godly, sound advice - even when you don't ask for it!  :)

Johanna and Caleb had a deep conversation with Poppy.

Abby talks with Aunt Jill. 

Poppy even does laundry for Grams.  He's so great! 

Deep in conversation.

Grams whips up some enchiladas for lunch. 

These enchiladas were superb.

Jo and I were able to play a couple Christmas duets for Grams and Aunt Jill before we left.

Our Poppy and Grams: still madly in love more than 50 years later!! :)