Happy Father's Day to Ben

These are a few of my favorite dad's life pics of Ben...in random order...

Ben and Jaiya when she was just a newbie. She was born right before a big storm. Most people lost power, but we didn't. I have such great memories of us snuggling her by the wood burning stove......night after night when it was so cold out. But she warmed our hearts!!!

Ben and Jaiya hanging out on the couch!

Ben and Tuck cuddling up. My sweet men!

Last summer playing outside in our pool on a hot summer day!

Ben and Tuck when T was just a wee little man.

Daddy reading them to sleep one night.

I think he was planning worship in this one and she wanted to sit and help him. She loves it when he plays guitar or sings....both are fun!

This is a pretty recent one. I really love it....captures all of their personalities so well!
I love this man. So much. He is such a great dad in so many ways. He notices things that I don't, he wants to include them, show them what he is interested in.

They come running to his truck sometimes when he pulls his truck up to the street. This man is a whole lot of wonderful and I am so thankful that I can share the delight of being a parent with him. Also that he is such an encouragement to me on the days I need some words of affirmation. I knew when we were dating that this guy would be one amazing dad. I am thankful that God has allowed us to be the parents of Jaiya and Tucker. We are not a perfect family at all, but I feel like we are faithful and we allow ourselves to fall in God's grace. Here a little bit of what I see in Ben....

Faithful and Fearless
Available and Athletic
Tenacious and Teachable
Heart Warming
Encouraging and Energetic
Rock Star Dad

Planting the garden and getting dirty!


Playing in a box that someone from life group gave us. Ben made a house out of it. It lasted until recently, then it got cut up.... and taken to Howies...

Reading Big Red Barn before bed.



Happy Father's Day Ben. I love to watch you with the kiddos. I always wondered as a little girl what my husband would be like. Parenting is not really like what I ever thought it would be. It's much more raw than the perfect fairly tales. But its hard and real and our life right now and I love it. And there is really nothing else that I would rather be doing with my life than parenting these two kiddos with the man I love!

Apple Pie, Oh My!!!!!

So this was the finished product before we baked it, I forgot to take a picture of it after we took it out of the oven.
Here Jaiya is helping form the crust

Mixing crust...
Combining apples with cinnamon and sugar mixture
Little stinker kept eating the apples while I was chopping
Right before we added top crust


So Jaiya has been loving to help out in the kitchen lately. She got a book from the library about pies and was asking about pies repeatedly a few weeks ago. We weren't doing a whole lot around here because Tucker had a fever, so while he was sleeping we made an apple pie from scratch! It was super yummy too!!!

Cooking with kiddos is such an easy way to incorporate math, science and sensory into spending time with them. This is actually the recipe I used to use at Smart Start when I used to work with Child Care Providers. I made this recipe with a provider and I kept the recipe. It is kind of fun that the first time I made this pie with kiddos I was pregnant with Jaiya and here I am now making it with her!

Here is the recipe....
pie filling:
4.5 cups (about 6 apples) any kind, we mixed green and red
2/4 cups sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice

crust:
1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp vinegar ( i used apple cider)
(makes enough crust for top and bottom crust of pie)

from www.cooks.com but i altered it a little

Preheat over to 375. Make the crust and form 1/2 crust mixture to greased pie pan. Form crust on bottom and around edges of pie pan. Slice the apples, then mix in sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon in measuring cup. Stir until apples are coated. Add lemon juice, stir and add to unbaked crust. Cover with top crust. Cut slits in top of crust. Bake 375 for 50 minutes.


I TRIED to let Jaiya help as much as possible. After I cute the apples, I had her put them into the bowl, let her dump in all that I measured out. The crust was hard for me. She was smearing the dough everywhere...but she did a pretty good job! It was so fun for her to watch it go in the oven unbaked and see it come out bubbly and smelling like apples and cinnamon!

Delicious with a glass of milk or some vanilla ice cream!!! My grandma used to make the best homeade pie ever.....