Merry Christmas

Riley and Nick, what a great couple!
Ella-the Rock Star..loved her guitar.

The boys and their matching robes! One day they will hate that I buy them matching clothes. Until then--the more the merrier!

Ella performing at Christmas Eve service. She wore a dress that I had saved from when Riley was 5 years old, still looks brand new and it's 10 years old!!

She was so proud to wear it.

Oh man, the boys got a train table..they loved it.. It took all of about 3 minutes for them to tear the track apart and start throwing pieces...Jermey will be glueing or screwing the pieces down very soon!

Merry Christmas to all. We have already enjoyed 2 great Christmas gathering and have one more to go. This year we really cut back on buying. buying and buying. Not just because of the money issue but because of the 'reason for the season'. We are trying to teach our children the real reason we celebrate Christmas and what it means for our lives. Drew kept saying "Jesus Birthday, Jesus Birthday" We have little toy Nativity set that we go throught the Christmas Story with them..

We spent Christmas eve at my aunt Shirley's.. It was great seeing a lot of my extended family and my new baby cousing, Dane. Ella sang in the children's choir at the Christmas Eve service..she did great and is a natural performer. Today (Christmas Day) we had a great morning with the kids celebrating and exchanging gifts. I got a snuggie (which I'm wearing now)..then we had dinner at our house. We have been blessed to have a big enough home to hold our family and we get to host family events now. I love it--and I always get to make the turkey ... We leave tomorrow for Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Missy's house.. the kids are totally pumped to see everyone. And Jeremy and I are going to have a little mini vacation in Chicago for a couple days.. Grandma and Grandpa agreed to keep the kiddo's so we can have a much needed get away. So excited-even though it is going to be like 10 degrees, it is going to be nice to go ice skating at Millenium Park!

Emmanuel "God with us"..

Merry Christmas to you all!

Some fun pics

Ella and Carder at Grandma and Grandpa's.. they collected crickets in the jar.
Jeremy hate this picture, the outfit and the hat. I think it's kind a cute...Seth loves hat's, any kind, any style, any color...he loves them all!

Uncle Garrett and Drew at the parade...they ate about 20 suckers between the both of them.

Riley and her BFF's Faith and Emily. This year we took Riley to St Louis for the weekend for her b-day..and she got to bring along her friends. It worked out great for me and Jeremy too.. they wanted nothing to do with us, so we had our little weekend away :)

I love my "Dork" (see his shirt)

Some Africa pictures

Jermey and I standing at Project Canaan. This is a beautiful 2500 acre farm that Heart for Africa recently purchased. This land will be a life saving gift to the country of Swaziland. It is going to have dairy farms, fish farms, crops, schools, churches, medical clinics. This is also the land that the orphanage we are raising money for will be built.
What a sweetie!! Is this little boy not the cutest thing you've ever seen? Doesn't he deserve a chance at a great life just like you and I do?? We believe he does!!

Oh how the kids loved Jeremy. There is not a big male influence in Swaziland. Most of the men have either abandoned their families, died or are very abusive. So they loved playing with the guys on our team.

Angel and I loved on this sweet little girl. She and her 7 siblings live at a local junkyard. No plumbing with no water. This is not right!! We must choose to care enough to make a difference.

This is the first African child I held when we got to Emmanuel Children's Home. She was so sweet and but very quiet. She would not let me put her down. I sat and held her for a long time.

We have lot's more pictures to share...and lot's more stories. But you can have your own pictures and your own stories travel with us in July 2010 back to Swaziland!!

It's been so long

Wow! I 've got to get back on the blog bandwagon. It's been a long time..and lot's have happened in our house.

We made the journey and back to Swaziland Africa-wow! lot's more to come on that subject
Riley started high school and is a high school cheerleader.
Ella is in pre-k, Drew is in pre-school and Seth started a program at SEMO.

And there are lots more in between that! But I did sound out Christmas Letters this year instead of the traditional cards and I wrote that people could keep up with our family on our blog so now it's time to keep up with the blog!

Africa here we come!

Riley and Ella cheering in the pool!

Ella took swim lessons this year and she turned into quite the brave girl!! Look at these moves!


Drew wants to do his own thing. He won't wear floaties or sit in a tube. And Seth thinks he can just jump right in!

This is Drew's scary face!!

Check out www.heartforafrica.org

Wow! I have not posted in forever!!

We leave in 3 days for Africa. We will be gone July 16-26th. We will be going to Swaziland Africa to serve in at Emmanuel Children's Home. The plane ride is around 18 hours. I have not been on a plean longer than 3.5 hours!! So I'm a little nervous about the plane ride. Our kids are staying with grandparents while we are gone. Split half the time with mine and half with Jeremy's.

Check out the way cool organization we are going with its: http://www.heartforafrica.org/

Please be praying for us over the next couple weeks. Safe travel and health, our children and families at home, the children at Emmanuel and the workers and caregivers with Heart for Africa.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SETH!!

He wore his hand-me down shirt and hat from Drew's first birthday that says "Fun to Be One" Loved the cake!

Ella loves to drive her brother's around!

yummy...more cake!

Wow!! I cannot believe it was already a year ago that I was huge and miserable and grouchy and sooo ready to find out what child #4 was going to be!! Seth was our surprise baby from the beginning. Drew was only 5 months old when I got pregnant with Seth! Surprise! We decided not to find out what we were having..on May 16th 2008 we got to say "it's a boy"! Surprise! And then the doctor said "he is a pretty good size baby", I thought he would be about 8 pounds (since the other were all in the upper 7 pounds).. nope he was 9 pounds 8 ounces!! Surprise!! Big Surprise!! But it did give a good perspectives as to why my back hurt, my hips hurt, I could hardly walk and I thought I was having some sort of breathing problem...

Our little Surprise! celebrated his first birthday yesterday. We had a family dinner at my parents and he ate his entire cake by himself (just a little help from his brother)....the kids had lots of fun and they were dead tired by the time we drove home..good fun and good memories!

I"ve been bad!

I don't know how? But grandpa always seems to fall asleep holding the kids!
Grandma and Seth!

Wresting with grandpa in the floor. Someone usually ends coming away crying!

Ella got her picture taken so Drew had to also.

This is his mug shot!

Ella is modeling the jacket that she and grandma made together (it even has a pocket)!!

Oh man have I been a bad blogger! Life has been in full throttle lately. So what has been happening with us?

Real estate is great right now! But of course in sales it seem to always be feast and famine, after 5 years of it you would think it would get easier when it's the famine part. Ella got to spend the week with her grandparents in Illinois and had a blast. She got to go to an antique mall, bible study, have a tea party and she and grandma made a jacket for her! We picked her up and spent Easter weekend there.

Here's a good one- Easter evening Jeremy and I went to get gas, he reached into the van to pop the gas tank and the wind blew the door shut on his head and busted is eye open. Couple hours later after the massive bleeding stopped we left the ER with 9 stiches! A week later I got to play nurse and take out the stitches. I must say he held up better than I thought he was, he didn't wine at all.

Here's another good one-This week we were in the garage getting ready for our huge yard sale this next weekend. I just stepped inside to wash my hands and Jermey was sweeping the garage when I heard Seth screaming. I opened the door there was blood everywhere and poor little Seth was screaming like I've never heard him before. Drew had gotten a pair of utility scissors off the dryer and tried to cut Seth's big toe off. He actually cut a giant chunk out of the padding of his big toe. It was gushing blood and I had to calll the doctor and ER. They said if it didn't stop bleeding to bring him in and they would stitch it up. I had to explain there was nothing to stitch up!! He had cut a chunk out and it was gone. It was bad, we finally got ourselves pulled together enough to compress it long enough that bleeding came to a minimum then get it gauzed up and taped up. 3 days later it is just healing up great, no big deal at all. Isn't great out God made kids heal so fast!! He knew they would have a big brother like Drew that liked to cut things. And little Drew he had no idea what was going on, he was just standing there looking around like, ''what's the big deal?"

I guess that is a good note to end on. I'll try to post more often!!

Oh, I just forgot really cool news, our good friends Chantelle and Eric are going to get their baby girl from Ethiopia next Saturday!! I just can't wait to meet her, please pray for safe travel and a good bonding experience with her when they get to the orphanage..Welcome home Solie!

26 months and they are off!!

Riley had a big day yesterday! After 26 months of wearing braces, THEY ARE OFF!!! Her teeth look so pretty (and big)!!

She just couldn't stop smiling. Her nickname as a kid was always 'smiley Riley'. And now she has taken that name on again.

We are giving a big shout out to Dr Spence and his staff!! Thanks for the great pearly whites!!

whats happening with us?

We have a had our 'typical' busy life the last few weeks. Real estate has picked up for me, which is WONDERFUL!! Jermey has also been very busy, but is the best at helping me around the house and freeing me up for my crazy work schedule.
It feels like we just got done with cheerleading and now here we go again....Riley is trying out for high school cheerleading this week. Although it is very time consuming and stressful on our family she is wonderful at it and absolutely loves it. So we put on our happy faces and just grin and bear it!
Ella is going to stay with Grandma Missy and Papa Charlie next week, and she is very excited to sing and cook and beat grandpa at UNO.. She told me "I am going to meet some new kids in the neighborhood and make friends". Our little social butterfly.. Drew is great, just being Drew..he is a mini Jermey. Just goes with the flow, laid back.
Seth is currently cutting 4 top teeth at the same time and trying to walk. He is now 10 months old and is getting really brave and taking steps on his own.

The other big news is we are going to Africa in July!!! We have been thinking and praying about if for several months and we finally took the leap and booked the trip. We will be going to Swaziland Africa and working at an orphange for 11 days. I will post more on this soon!!

Waiting for Grandma

Two days a week my mom comes to babysit the kids. Every time I will open the door so the kids can watch for grandma. As soon as Drew hears the door open, he starts saying "papa, papa". I"m pretty sure he is meaning to say granmda, it just comes out as papa??

Yesterday they pulled up their bean bags and a couple Dora books to pass the time. Look how cute just sitting their anxiously waiting for grandma to pull up. As soon as they see her car they usually run to hide from her. And then Ella will yell "come find me"... so cute!!

Thanks grandma for babysitting the kiddos!!

Slim pickin'

I have been super busy with real estate the last week (PTL) and the weather is just gorgeous outside. As you can tell the blogging is getting slimmed down. I haven't had as much time lately to play around on the computer and blog.

Our family is a outside family. We have the best neighborhood in the world. Lot's of kids and our great friends, so we don't see the indoors other to use the bathroom, shower and sleep!!

I will be posting soon with lots of pictures and new's about our upcoming summer trip!!!

Big Weekend

We celebrated Drew's 2nd birthday with a 'Cars' themed birthday. He got lots of fun boy toys. Slowly but surely we are filling up our house with more cars and trucks. Soon he won't have to play with dresses and Barbies anymore...lol
I think Drew looks just like his daddy in this picture.

The other big deal this weekend is Seth took his first steps!! He can balance really good on his own, then on Saturday he took about 4 steps all by himself.

It's pretty funny if he thinks he is going to fall he will close his eyes. But then he gets really excited when he figures out we are going to catch him!

Sweet little happy boy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREW!!

Drew loves music!! And he loves for his Daddy to play the guitar.
Welcome Drew Isaac Ferguson
March 6, 2007

Bis sister LOVE!!

He likes to sit in the drawer of the stove...we don't really know why??

Sweet little 'baby Drew'....some friends still call him baby Drew.

Hard to believe that Drew is already 2 years old!!

We are celebrating his birthday tomorrow with a Cars birthday party ! He loves Cars.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

The Shack

I just finished reading The Shack. It was a tough one, it took me several weeks to get through it. I had to stop for a while then I picked it back up and finished it. Our church just started a series based off the book so I knew I needed to finish it. I have to keep reminding myself that it is a novel, but so much of it seems so true.
One paragraph toward the end of the book really stuck out to me and I've read it over and over.

If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again.

LOVE IT!!

It's Kinda Crazy Around Here!

It's like Jon and Kate plus Eight trying to get all the kids to look and smile at the same time. I think Seth was trying rip Great Grandpa's glasses off (yikes).
Great grandma and Seth
Drew LOVED great grandpa playing the mandolin! He wanted to play too.

It's been one of those weeks aroung the Ferguson house. When we got back from Atlanta it seemed like life started spinning around us. I could hardly keep my head up to breath.

We visted Jeremy's grandparents yesterday. They are really neat people. They are like 90 something years old and still living on the farm on their own. It's actually pretty amazing they have been married 70 years, how crazy is that? They have a real simple lifestyle. When we left there I told Jeremy that I think I would like to live on a farm in the middle of Illinois with no cable TV or air conditioning. He didn't even respond to me (shocker). Then I realized I was having a temporary moment of insanity, because I like having neighbors and cable and especially air conditioning. I think more I was just longing for the 'simple' part of their lifestyle. How do I get that? Is it possible with 4 kids and a job and school and commitment after commitment to have a 'simple' lifestyle?

On another note, Drew is going through a major bad phase of screaming, hitting, biting, scratching, you name it he's doing it. I've had so many different opinions on how to handle it I don't know what to do. Most of the time I'm so exhausted from dealing with everything else going on I just ignore it (which I know is not the right thing to do). Any suggestions out there?

Some good news, last week my good friend Chantelle found out they have a baby girl waiting for them in Ethiopia. They got their referral last Thursday and I am sooo happy for them. She is about a month or two old and just perfect. Please be praying for her safety and health. She has already had a rough start to her little life but we know she is a lucky lucky little girl and will be home soon!!

Heart for Africa!!

We had a blast this weekend in Atlanta at the Heart for Africa event!! It was absolutely one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. They are such an amazing group of people who have fully committed their lives to being the hands and feet of Jesus to the orphaned children of Africa. Jeremy and I look forward to what God has planned for us with Heart for Africa. It was a great celebration but we also had to remember why we were there. That there are millions of orphaned children living alone today with no food, no clean water, no one to love or care for them. Check out the Heart for Africa webiste:
http://www.heartforafrica.org/

We had a blast with Chantelle and Eric!!

Here we are 7 1/2 hours later presenting the Uhaul full of the goodies to Janine Maxwell from Heart for Africa!
We asked for donations to to fill a container that will be shipped to the orphanages in Africa. Wow, did people step up!! Chantelle and I joked about how cool it would be if we had to pull a Uhaul full of stuff. We actually had to pull the biggest Uhual we could get! It was so amazing thousands of diapers, strollers, bouncy seats, rocking chairs, underwear, and more and more!! Thank you to all who gave!!! This will be such a blessing to the children and caregivers!