*****BUSY at The Glen!!!*****

I have had some complaints that there has NOT been a house update...here it is! Something new everyday and things just keep moving along at Killeny Glen!
Sam got hired on as assistant to Mr. Ferguson for excavation of the yard! Oh is Sam into all the constuction equipment!
Siding is almost done...dormers yet to go...they ran out of trim materials! UGH!

Final excavation is THIS week!
OH, does Mommy ever REALLY LOVE the patio steps! Daddy has "an eye" for such things and new it would go over well! The full patio has been poured now and we can already envision the tasty grilled hamburgers we are going to be eating out there!!!!

OH YEAH BABY!

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!!

Hey, I want you to look over to the right and notice my new "click to help" buttons!

Each time you log in to check up on the antics of the Kinney house would you take a second and click to help two very worthy causes?

THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME!!

Chocolate...it's not just for breakfast anymore...;)

So, those in life who do not enjoy the beauty of a delicious bit of chocolate STOP READING NOW! In fact, if you dislike chocolate...I forbid you to read on!!


I enjoy chocolate in MANY forms don't you? I know that eating it in excess is not healthy but I was reading some VERY important facts about chocolate and knew I had to share them!


-Chocolate is a vegetable. How, you ask? Chocolate is derived from cacao beans.
Bean = vegetable. Sugar is derived from either sugar CANE or sugar BEETS. Both are plants, which places them in the vegetable category. Thus, chocolate is a vegetable. To go one step further, chocolate candy bars also contain milk, which is dairy. So candy bars are a health food.

-Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, so eat as many as you want. The problem: How to get 2 pounds of chocolate home from the store in a hot car. The solution: Eat it in the parking lot.

-Diet tip: Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It'll take the edge off your appetite, and you'll eat less. If calories are an issue, store your chocolate on top of the fridge. Calories are afraid of heights, and they will jump out of the chocolate to protect themselves.

-If you eat equal amounts of dark chocolate and white chocolate, the calories actually counteract each other.

-Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger. Therefore, you need to eat more chocolate.

-Put "eat chocolate" at the top of your list of things to do today. That way, at least you'll get one thing done.

-A nice box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Now, isn't that handy?

-If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you?

These "facts" provided for you from superlaugh.com

And, of course, I am willing to admit that when I have made a specific Triple Chocolate Cake there is something amazing about having a piece of it for breakfast with a cup of coffee! Do NOT tell my kids!

Sisters!

I absolutely LOVE these two photos of Emma and Madeleine! MANY thanks to cousins Samantha and Caroline for these adorable halter dresses! The girls LOVE them!
I have watched with GREAT interest and sometimes utter dismay the relationship of my girls. They love and defend each other with fierce protectiveness but fight with such vehemence that I think they will never repair from the insults and unkindness. I tell them on a regular basis that friends come and go but family is forever! Everyone with sisters tell me that this is completely normal. One thing I know for sure is my girls are dear friends and it gives me great pleasure to watch them play all the games they play. Today they are in Paris with their pampered pooches "ToTo and Ivonne" preparing to go "on holiday" to North Carolina where they will attend a fashion show for dogs!

SISTERS

I served the cake, you poured the tea

We built a house under the tree

In grown up clothes we played all parts

Secrets told, we crossed our hearts.

Through all the years, the smiles and tears

First true loves...and football cheers

I've never found a friend so true

I'll love you Sis, my whole life through.

(Author unknown)

Live in such a way that those who
know you, but don't know God
will come to know God
because they know you.

~Author unknown

Soccer Season Rocks!

The Cedarville University Soccer Team volunteers to coach this group and the kids just love the guys, their energy and love of the game.

Madeleine truly enjoyed playing soccer this fall and is sad to see it end. She loves the game and knows the game well thanks to her Dad and her older siblings. She made several goals for her team and just loves hanging out with friends...and of course, the SNACKS after the game! The little kid's league got to play at half time at the Cedarville University game which was BIG TIME for them. Madeleine loves this photo of she and her gal pals from soccer, Riley, Meggie and Hallie.

Baptismal Sunday

What a beautiful day for a Baptismal Service! A bit chilly, but the ten kids that were baptised today did not complain. They have been preparing for this day and were firm in their decision to make this a public celebration of their faith in Christ.

Below, Bob and Tim pray with the kids before starting the service.
Nate as he prepares to be baptised.
Emma Elizabeth
Mitchell as he comes up after being baptised.
Tim Gombis and our three oldest kids after the service. We celebrated with ice cream
and just enjoying this gorgeous day that the Lord provided for this special occasion.

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20 NIV

Killeny Glen continued...

It is fun to see the changes at the house but especially fun to see what EXCITES the kids out at Killeny Glen and today it was BATHTUBS!!! The bathtubs for the upstairs bathrooms were delivered and sitting in our garage. Madeleine and Sam jumped right in to check them for size. Madeleine says they are "too small" but we think they are just right!

God's creation...

Aaaaahhh, two evenings ago our dear friends, Jamie and John, welcomed their sixth child into the world and what a joyous occasion it is! Patty and I went up to the hospital last evening to cuddle and dote on that tiny, little, baby girl and she is just a precious miracle! Although she looks JUST LIKE her older brother and sisters I know that she will be unique as only God, our amazing creator, has planned her to be!




"The child must know that she is a miracle,
that since the beginning of the world
there hasn't been,
and until the end of the world
there will not be,
another child like her."

- Pablo Casals

Movin' along...

This week's progress at The Glen ...siding finished next week and the roofer's should be on the job too...the girl in pink (Miss Emma, of course) is a good worker on the clean up crew.

A visit from Alice Spoondinger!

Madeleine started Kindergarten a couple of weeks ago and realized VERY quickly that she was one of the FEW kids that had NOT lost a tooth yet. She began to ask me regularly WHEN I thought she would lose a tooth and I would have to tell her I JUST do NOT know. Today, she came home from school and asked if she can go see our dear friend and dentist Mr. Jerry and ask him when HE thinks she will lose a tooth. I told her she could ask him when she gets her teeth cleaned in a couple of weeks. Well, she goes to Gram's to play for awhile and calls me on the phone and says, "Mom, I lost my tooth. It is in the blue trash can under your desk. I just realized that I have a tooth missing." I was incredulous but just as she said, when I looked in my trash can THERE was her tiny little tooth. She had eaten a Tootsie Roll from her Labor Day parade candy, bit down on something hard and spit it in the trash without even looking at it! She was thrilled! BUT, there is more to this story...she went into the bathroom to wash and polish her tooth and washed it RIGHT down the drain! Poor little gal was devastated! I assured her that Alice Spoondinger,the Kinney Family Tooth Fairy, (Pap, you will be pleased to know she is alive and doing well!! She leaves pink sparkly dust!) would most certainly STILL come and leave her a little something under her pillow...and you know what?? SHE DID!!

THE TOOTH FAIRY

There's a tiny little creature

Who comes in my room at night.

She only comes in when it's dark

She doesn't like the light.

She does her task so quietly,

And doesn't stay too long.

And when she leaves, so does my tooth,

The one I pulled, its gone!

She doesn't really take them,

She always leaves a trade.

And of this tiny creature,

Who could be afraid?

So when I go to sleep at night,

With a funny gap tooth grin,

Underneath my pillow will be

Proof that in my room she's been!!

~Patty McCaslin

That Sam I Am that Sam I Am...

Sam started pre-school today and he really loved it. He gets to go two days a week. He always gets a sad face when I first leave, but within about two minutes he is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY with all the activities they have planned. He was so thrilled to take his new Thomas the Tank Engine lunch box with him filled with lunch goodies. After school he was happy to show us his craft and tell that he sat on the potty with his two buddies who are also potty training. When Nate, Mitchell and Emma got home from school this afternoon he kept telling them, "Sammy school! Sammy school!"

Home

Where we love is home;

home that our feet may leave,

but never our hearts.

The chain may lengthen,

but it never parts.

~Oliver Wendell Holmes