Joys of Kitchen Usage:

Kitchens are one of my favorite rooms in houses.

I think it is because so many wonderful family memories happened in the kitchen.

Like when my sisters and i would be doing our home schooling,

and my mom would be jump-roping in the kitchen.

or when we would clean up after dinner and mom and dad were dancing.

to disco music.

or michael jackson.

(or whatever was catchy on the radio.)

and those times that daddy would come home from work, and all of us were sitting at the breakfast table in the kitchen, eating chips, salsa, and drinking coke.

and the memories of peyton joining our family, and he was restricted to living only in the kitchen....until he got mom wrapped around his little finger, and she let him roam the entire house, little, by little.

and now, with my husband wrapping his arms around me, while i'm washing dinners, cooking, or cleaning...

yes, so many memories happen in the kitchen. too many to even describe.

although i wish i had time to go into detail of my sweet family and the times in the kitchen.

don't you think food brings people together?

that's for another time-maybe i'll write about the beauty of the dining room one day.

but for now, let's talk about the kitchen.

and the wonderful uses for it.

kitchens aren't always used properly.

but here are only some ways they should be used:

kitchens should:

be full of kids, gathered around a table...

have lots of laughing and talking...

be a place that even little ones can help mom out...

and suck on a spoon...

kids, puppies, and nerf guns are welcome...

and is a place where yummy cookies are made...

a place where little girls can get right in and messy with the cooking ingredients...

a place where singing and dancing can happen...

no matter how loud, out of tune, or crazy it gets...

[and praising Jesus is a given]

and pictures of dear people are taken...

and there is never a shortage of room or seats...

because the counters usually have bottoms sitting on them ready to talk, laugh, or sing with you.

[and mommas give their babies kisses]

and in the end, after burning all those calories having such fun,

your tummy gets a yummy treat.

and you get the beautiful gift of time with those that you love.

and after all that is said and done,

and the cookies are all gone,

and all you see are big grins, smiles, and more laughs,

you can't help,

but want to do it again.

i told my husband that one day, when we have a house, i want a big spacious kitchen with an island and bar stools...

so we can do just these things in the kitchen.

[p.s. anne, i love your kitchen and the ways you use it...]

kitchen courtesy of the dahlhauser family.

yeah, yeah, we all have those moments...

i was flipping through my sister's pics on facebook and found this:

i know, i know...but we all have those moments that were not meant to be caught on camera, frozen in time, and laughed at over and over again.

however, this picture made me laugh out loud when i saw it.

this was two years ago when i was hanging with my lil sis, Ashley and her buddy, Presley.

i was supposed to be the college intern.

and they were supposed to be the kids on the slide.

somehow, my big sis, (www.muchlove-illy.blogspot.com) captured me on the slip and slide going backwards.

i guess this picture captures my personality well...

i'm a big kid at heart.

can you tell?

sweet to see:

a girl excited to read the Bible:

baby faces with pretty eyes:

a big grin from a sweetie pie:

a kitchen full of kids laughing and talking:

girlfriends:

happy smiles from kids:

boys baking a cake for their daddy:

sweets:

happy boys and pineapple:

my loved Bible! I found it!:

what is sweet to you?

when you take a kid to see Karate Kid...

He'll wanna do karate chops too;)

copy and pasted from muchloveilly

here's the little greeting card we made for daddy...this is from my big sis's blog, www.muchlove-illy.blogspot.com.

from www.muchlove-illy.blogspot.com:

p.s. check out her etsy shop...really cute stuff!:)

to the best daddy in the entire universe.

since we couldn't all be there to celebrate with you in SC, we thought we'd bring your three favorite daughters (or as we used to say dafters...and of course, favorite son-in-law) together via blog-world. i think you know how we are your biggest fans, so this day is even more of a reminder that we love you, daddy! we are crazy about you. you werethe first man we ever loved - and you were the first man to ever love us. no one will ever replace that special place in hearts for our daddy.

thank you for being the example that each of us needed to know what to look for in a future boyfriend/husband. thank you for telling us we looked pretty in our dresses. thank you letting us sit on your lap and hugging us when we needed to be hugged. thank you for being sensitive when we needed to cry. thanksfor the boy-advice. thanks for teaching us how to drive (and yet you have one more of us to teach). thanks for always loving mom. thanks for making us all laugh at the dinner table. thanks for making dinner-time a priority in our home. thanks for putting up with being the only boy in the family (well, until pey-pey and brandenberger came along, of course).

and most importantly, thank you being the Christ-like example of a father and a friend to me and my sisters. thank you for leading and loving our home. thanks for especially loving God, and in your love for God overflowed in your love for the family.

and so daddy, we wanted you to be reminded of how thankful
we are for you and how much love you!

so with no further ado...

Like what was said so long ago on a voice-recording in a hallmark card,

"Dad,
you have been the best dad in the world,
we LOVE you!"

From your crazy three dafters and son-in-law,
Ilene, Kristine & Ryan, and Ashley Grace

mom and dad

here are my parents:

(aren't they cute??)

they've been married 27 years! WOW!

i'm so proud of them.

what a privilege to have such an incredible couple as my parents and my example for my marriage.

happy 27th anniversary mom and dad!

three sisters-one daddy post:)

here's a little thing for my daddy from all three of us sisters:)

click this link:

http://muchlove-illy.blogspot.com/2010/06/oh-that-hallmark-card-from-long-ago.html

check it out!:) we love our daddy!

hi daddy!

Hi, Daddy!

It's father's day and you're on my mind alot! Do you remember...

-when you would sit in your gray, black, and brown stitched recliner, and i'd climb up on your lap and cuddle?

- when i'd squish between you and mom because i wanted to be close to both of you at the same time?

-when Ate and I would perform for you and mom in the living room? ya'll were the best audience.

...those were the best times.

[sorry ate, i had to crop you out, cuz that dude was in the picture behind you...and he just didn't belong.]

Do you Remember...

-when you would take us shrimping late at night when the shrimp would fly?

-and when we caught so many crabs on those summer afternoons?

-and when i started playing softball and you and i went out to get my mitt, condition it, and break it in?

-ans when i stubbornly sat at the dining room table refusing to eat and you told me i couldn't leave until i ate my lunch? So i fell asleep at the table after sitting there for hours and then woke up with you sitting there smiling.

...those were some of the best times.

Do you remember...

-when i followed you around the yard when you were working on stuff because

i just wanted to be with you and help you

-when you and i had nerf basketball competitions in most of the hallways of the houses we lived in

-when ilene and i would wear your bathrobe and pretend to be Bible Characters

-when you came out of the lab and told us mom was pregnant with our new baby brother or sister?

- when you and i would go to the gym and play basketball together...and you'd outlast me in running around and i laid down in the middle of the gym?

-when i was running a mile for my Presidential Physical Fitness test and was about to quit and you ran along with me, encouraging me?

...those were some of the best times.

Those were some of the things I remember...

but here are some more...

i remember...

-how every evening, we would gather together in the living room and do family devotions and pray together. I think back to that, and respect you so much for staying consistent with keep our family grounded in the Word of God and keeping that a foundation for our family.

- how even when I made a wrong choice and got disciplined by you, I would come around, climb into your lap, and you'd give me a big hug and hold me and tell me that you loved me.

- how you have a heart for people to know the Lord personally. And how in each place we moved to, in the evenings or in your workplaces, you were always discipling men, young and old, and opening up your life for them.

-how you, daddy, always showed us how much you loved mom, and how you make her laugh and smile. you always made us feel so special when you and mom had an anniversary...and brought us with ya'll every single year, because you and mom said, "It's more fun when the family is complete and together."

-how you were the one and most important example in my and my sisters' lives, of how a man looks like and treats others. You were my standard of what to look for in a man, and when ryan found me, it meant the world to me that you approved of him, and you love my ryan as part of our family. i love hearing you affirm my husband, because, well, you're the wisest man i know.

I always think back to evenings after you came home from work. we would hear the door open and we would stop what we were doing and run to you to say, "hi daddy!" and we would sit there and just watch you take off your shoes, hang up your coat, and see mom...because we just loved you so much.

i still think about dinnertime with the whole family and how you always wanted us to eat dinner together-and that was the best part of the day...we never wanted you to leave the table and get up, because we love talking and laughing as a family and didn't want it to end.

I think about when you would finally get up from the table, after all my excuses and reasons why you shouldn't get up, even if it'd be two hours of talking with the fam, and you would get your maroon Bible with the gold imprinted name on the front, and go to a quiet spot in the house and do your devotions and pray...that image in forever imprinted in my memory.

I think about you every day, and this post doesn't even cover a quarter of all the reasons I love you or all the memories you gave us as an amazing daddy to us girls, and husband to mom.

I love you, daddy.

luxury in a different form

imagine luxury being:

-a free beachball(and pure excitement for that new toy)

-brand new $1.00 flipflops (even getting to pull the tag off of the new pair)

-Lunchables by Oscar Myers (pizza and nachos? cool!)

-a used spongebob t-shirt that someone dropped off

-hugs and reading a picture book on the couch with someone

-finding out that the button on the arm rest on the car door actually lowers and highers the automatic window...and thinking how cool that is

-getting to eat at least one meal a day

-being wrapped up in a warm clean blanket and playing board games on the floor in the evening

- getting a bandaid when your knee is scraped

-a clean t-shirt

imagine all the simplest things of life that we might take for granted...

being a world of luxury for a kid that has none of these things.

reach out to them.

love them.

hug them.

tell them how special they are.

be there for them.

your community might be full of kids that have never known love.

you might be the one to show them what Christ's love looks like.

I can't find my Bible.

And it's driving me nuts.

Last I saw it was two whole days ago.

So now i'm using my little itty-bitty, can-barely-see-the-print Moody Alumni Bible.

It's just not the same as my favorite, worn out, i-can-see-the-print-without-squinting, written all over green Bible.

Auuuugh-where is it?

[edited: June 18th, 2010-found my Bible!!! yay!!! It was under the seat in the car...i thought i had looked there, but guess i didn't see it:)]

big day for toothless grins.

there were these two boys.

if you asked them what their summer consisted of, mostly you'd get,

"nuttin."

so i asked them if they wanted to go to the library.

the library. in the summer.

(which, in my life time, the library was actually one of mine and my sister's favorite places to go in the summer...we'd stack the books up high and nestle down on the couch after we got back and read read read. and when we weren't reading, we were pretending everything in the whole world that you could pretend.)

i was kinda expecting that idea to get shot down right away.

from these boys, i didn't expect much enthusiasm for that idea.

but both were pumped. i got a,

"yeah!!!!!"

from both of them.

so we went.

Dan Wardell is famous in the Iowa area.

for kiddos that watch PBS.

He brings storytime and imagination alive for kids-which is much needed in this time and age.

and surprisingly, the day was a huge blessing to me-the boys did great at listening, participating, and they got along so well with each other!

after all that excitement, we went to BK to grab a bite to eat.

They were so excited.

L loved the camera. He kept asking me to take pictures of them.

and of course, I was more than happy to!

after all that good excitement, the boys and us manned the snack shack during the game time.

i had to correct them a couple times from saying,

"Whadya want?"

to

"What can I help you with?"

or

"What would you like?"

and ending with,

"thank you!"

C kept turning around and whispering, "what do i say again?"

they even got a tip (a whole quarter for each) from a nice lady, who said they had great manners! whoo!

they each bought themselves a sucker. chocolate for L and blueberry for C.

after all that selling, L and I settled down to cheer for C while he played baseball.

and then lil man L decided he was bored and found himself a home under the bleachers, with my cell phone, and a bag of popcorn.

perfect and content.

after a day of reading, eating, playing, and selling, that concludes are big day for these lil guys.

i know, so many pictures, and probably not enough commentary, but with some things, pictures just say way more than words.

hope you enjoy!

(p.s. drop me a comment-i'd love to hear your input on my photo attempts!)