Rawson Teague Felsted

Rawson Teague Felsted. 6 oz. 7" long. Succumbed to Velamentous Cord
Insertion on Friday June 26 2009 at 20 weeks.

It's amazing how everything is there. And how small it all is. We are glad that we were able to see him and hold him.

Little Miss Organizer - A God Given Gift

One of the jobs our children have is to place their pajamas under their pillow when they get dresses.

The other day we were tickled to see that Kenya takes her job seriously. She neatly folder her pajamas and even tied a bow.

We have known for a long time that Kenya was a great organizer but this is going all out.

Halloween 08

Camden is Speedracer in everything he does. If he changes he is Lightning McQueen of Cars. The girls were pterodactyls. This year was the biggest take for our kids. They had fun and shared well.

In Their Sunday Best

Yzabel and Kenya were so cute that I had to take a picture.

Budding Artist

Camden often says, "I want color green." That is two-year old speak for he wants to color, paint or draw.

This week he wanted to paint. He was proud of his painting, as he should have been. Here he shows it off.

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Picture Play On The Mac

I showed Kenya the photo booth program on the Mac and she took pictures of everyone in the family. Above are just a few.

It was a fun way to play with the kids on the computer.

Yard Work - A Family Service Project

We couldn't have ordered a better day! We had lots of help and lots to do. And amazingly enough everyone came to work. What a family we have.


It all started with innocently enough, Cheryl found a picture of a lovely front yard in a magazine. It became our summer project.

We had to take out years of growth to make it happen.

In many cases to remove years of growth take buckets of sweat! But buckets of sweat translates to transformation.

Hard work by all is noticeable. I hope others post their comments on the day.

We had a jungle of plants to transplant. Luckily Almost everyone took some home.

The stage is set for the rest of the project. We hope everyone can come back soon to help us create a new look in our front yard.

Thanks to those who could come. It means the world to us for you to come and help us and show our kids the meaning of giving.

Cousin Andrews Creation

We had a family service project this past weekend at our house. Many cousins and their families came to help. After much of the helping was done Andrew made this with the legos. He liked it so much that he wanted me to take a picture and email it to him.

Camden's Burn

On Friday night we were watching a movie as a family in our nearly finished basement. After the movie we were talking about the fire in the fireplace. Camden went up to the hot glass and placed his palm on it and burned it.

We went into crisis mode. I grabbed an cup of ice water that was near by and put his hand in it. That helped for a short time. Cheryl took him upstairs and and got some aloe vera to put on his hand.

I ran out into the car to get our first aid kit... it has a handbook for what to do in almost any emergency situation. I found burns and saw - cool water, aloe vera. We were doing what was right.

We gave him some pain killer and had to hold him till he went to sleep which Cheryl did.

The next day he had a quarter sized blister on his palm but didn't have anymore pain. He won't tough that again!

Easter Joys

At the first of the month it looked like spring would never get here. So Cheryl helped the kids bring in the holidays with snow style.

When the weather got better, in a few days, Chery brought the spirit into our home with the Easter tree.

On Saturday, Easter eve, we spent time as a family reviewing the meaning the meaning of Easter. On Sunday, we went over to Cheryl's parent's home for a nice Easter dinner.

Family Matters

I found these pictures. One shows Kenya and Yzabel working on the SCAN sofa that used to be my parents when I was a kid. They were going to replace it. I had to have it. Cheryl refinished it and we got new fabric for it.

Yzabel showing her balancing ability.

And the kitchen after the orange project from last week.

A Project

Camden's creation

Yzabel's creation

Kenya's creation

A project that the kids really enjoyed. Cheryl is a good teacher

Project Fun

Camden's creation

Yzabel's creation

Kenya's creation

A project that the kids really enjoyed. Cheryl is a good teacher.

Mattress Slide - Fun Inside

When I was in elementary school my brothers, Pat, Erik and I shared the third floor of our row house. It was a big room with a long stairway. We discovered that the stairway made a great slide with our single bed mattresses. It is exciting to see my children have discovered the same thing. It must be in the blood.

I love how Kenya improvises on how to get the mattress up the stairs. Ingenuity at its best.

Pictures from the Holidays

Cherubic!

Character Traits They Must Have!

I've thought long and hard and decided the following are the skills I want to teach my children.

Character Traits I want my children to have.
1. Initiative
2. Ingenuity
3. Allegiance
4. Integrity
5. Commitment
6. Passion

With these skills my children will be able to make an impact on their society. My goal is to make leaders of them. If I just wanted them to be followers I'd choose a different way of educating my children. Since these traits are not taught in our public society we have taken it upon ourselves to teach them to our children.

I've written quite a bit on this topic in my journal and on my blog TheInternetDarkAges.blogspot.com

What are the things you want most to leave your kids with? What will you do to make it happen? I'd like to know.

Searching for Our Soul?

We have been reading the Little House series to our children, In book four, we read of one Christmas where the girls choose to forgo their (one) Christmas present so that their father could get a team of horses.

This weekend, we talked about Christmas presents with our children. We mentioned that they would get one present so they would need to list their wants and par it down to one.

Our oldest protested that they wanted more than one! My wife, quickly recounted, "How many presents did Laura get for Christmas?"

Kenya (6), replied, "One." She saw that someone else that she identified with got the same... she stopped protesting.

Just the day before I finished reading Throw Your Kids A Bone. by CS Williamson. A story that shows, in part, the contrast between those who gets all they want versus others that don't.

Then on Monday, I read my favorite newsletter (click the link on the main photo then the What did we admire link) and discovered the following quote.

"...Then there is the kind of Christmas with presents piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents are thrown down and at the end the child says - 'Is that all?' Well it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and Nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick." – John Steinbeck, in a letter to his lifelong friend, Pascal Covici

I grew up in modest circumstances in a wealthy area. A number of my high school friends got their choice of new cars when they turned 16. Many had their own credit card ("with limits" they would tell me). By all standards they had plenty...

With this background, I never wanted my children to grow up the way I say things - what plenty did to people and families. I admire how Warren Buffett brought up his family. His children never knew that he had plenty of money. I have seen how having plenty of money can ruin a family.

Of course, I always wanted more than I got, but fortunately for me my parents couldn't afford to give me more! They would have, if they could have afforded it.

Of all of the things I am grateful for, one, I am most grateful for is growing up with less that I wanted. Because now I can teach it to my children and their children and even their children.

Assignment:
If you are interested in seeing what your children will turn out like if you indulge them, please get and read, Throw Your Kids A Bone. by CS Williamson. Then spend a few minutes in considering what you want to teach your children. Write it down. Then compare it to what you are teaching them when you indulge them.


I sure hope you don't believe in mere coincidence.

Then on Monday, I read my favorite newsletter (click the link on the main photo then the What did we admire link) and discovered the following quote.

"...Then there is the kind of Christmas with presents piled high, the gifts of guilty parents as bribes because they have nothing else to give. The wrappings are ripped off and the presents are thrown down and at the end the child says - 'Is that all?' Well it seems to me that America now is like that second kind of Christmas. Having too many THINGS they spend their hours and money on the couch searching for a soul. A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and Nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick." – John Steinbeck, in a letter to his lifelong friend, Pascal Covici

I grew up in modest circumstances in a very wealthy area. A number of my high school friends got new cars when they turned 16. Many had their own credit card ("with limits" they would tell me). By all standards they had plenty...

With this background, I never wanted my children to grow up the way I say things - what plenty did to people and families. I admire how Warren Buffett brought up his family. His children never knew that he had plenty of money. In my opinion, having plenty of money can ruin a family.

Of course, I always wanted more than I got, but fortunately for me my parents couldn't afford to give me more! They would have, if they could have afforded it.

Of all of the things I am grateful for, one, I am most grateful for is growing up with less that I wanted. Because now I can teach it to my children and hopefully their children and even their children.

Assignment:
If you are interested in seeing what your children will turn out like if you indulge them please get and read, Throw Your Kids A Bone. by CS Williamson. Then spend a few minutes in consideration of what you want to teach your children. Write it down. Then compare it to what you are teaching them when you indulge them.


I sure hope you don't believe in mere coincidence.

A beautiful rainy day

We had a hard rain storm in August. The girls were a little scared with all of the thunder and lightning, especially Kenya.

As the storm blew over a beautiful double rainbow shown.

As it turns out the rainbow landed right behind our bishops house. Poetic beauty? I think so.

More Of Kenya's Birthday

I forgot to add these images. They were from earlier this summer. The day of Kenya's birthday. They used their Hawaiian clothing to dress up their dolls. They really enjoyed the themed party.

Kenya's Luau Birthday Party (6)