Friday Afternoon- Our First Tree Felling in NC

Posted by Gabrielle

Two observations about this post:
Yes, we used to fell trees all the time in NH when we had lots of trees but this is our first one here, and, this post is one of the rare few that are not all about Benaiah!
This was after the first winch broke leaving the tree mostly cut through. Because it was a windy day we all left the house-just in case. And that included waking up three little boys who had just gone to nap!

This was about as close as I could get, but this was Timothy tightening the bigger winch.

Timmmbeeerrrr! The grand moment.

Surveying the fallen tree and...

the stump.

This was also Benaiah's first time seeing us fell a tree. He wasn't so sure about it at first.

Christianna's wonderful assortment of chips.

Of course Elliot had to do something funny- he found himself a set of antlers!

Jedidiah's big smile, or maybe it was the big bite he took out of his slice of watermelon!

Tobias found a piece bigger than his head.

The fallen tree.

That's a nice picture. This was as many as we could possibly fit on that stump, otherwise I would have been in the picture.

The sort of work that makes men!

Also, the Hellwig blogger's most sincere apologies for neglecting to post the results of the poll back in February. In case you are wondering, the results were: 10 positive votes! We were surprised that we had that many readers! We're glad you like our new theme. Are there other things you would like to see us post about? Do you have any comments or suggestions on how we could improve our blog or entertain our readers? Drop us a comment; we'd love to hear from you!

More Pictures from Our Second Snow this Winter!

Posted by Gabrielle

I know it's a little late but I promised the rest of the pictures from our big snow. We just got them today. Enjoy! If you are like me and need to refresh your memory you can read the original post about our big snow here.

Arianne and Benaiah. He was dressed up so much he could hardly move!

Benaiah and I.

Three of us on our little hill. Christianna at the bottom of the hill, I in the red hat and Jedidiah in the foreground.
Aahh...the boxes. With only three sleds there weren't enough to go around. Using flattened boxes worked well when lying on them just the right way. However, when we hit a bump, box-sleds tip. Here Tobias is deliberating over his choice of box.

I carried Benaiah up from a wild ride down the hill with Arianne.

This was when he fell down in the snow. It was just too cute and we had to take a picture before cleaning up his face. He didn't seem to mind it at all. Big grins all around!

Sweet Brothers!

Posted by Gabrielle

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!"
Psalm 133:1

Tobias and Elliot!

Benaiah is crossing his sweet little feet and it was so cute it required a picture.

Tobias is 5!

Posted by Gabrielle

On Monday evening we celebrated Tobias' 5th birthday! Wow! Where has the time gone?

Tobias and his peach tart

Blowing out the candles

This was the blueberry pie-special request of our birthday boy

We thank God for you, Tobias, and pray that you will grow up to be a man of God and realize that God is good!

Baking the birthday cake-Part 2

Posted by Gabrielle

Here are the rest of the cake-baking pictures!

Christianna and her not-quite-decorated cake!

Spreading the butter frosting over the cake.

Picture courtesy of Elliot. After taking a few pictures it looked just too fun and I had to try it too!

Sprinkling on the shredded coconut.

Arranging the sliced bananas.

And finally adding the fruit.

Yummy!

Here's the 'official' cake picture. We found it fun to see how we decorated our cakes differently!

Baking for Tobias' Birthday

Posted by Gabrielle

We spent this morning baking for Tobias' birthday party this evening. Can you believe he's 5 today?

Anyway, several years ago Arianne and I both made these really yummy layered cakes decorated with fruit and butter frosting. So finally it's Christianna's turn to make hers and she decided to do it for Toby's birthday! So she and I spent the morning in the kitchen and I instructed her in the art of making a cake.

These are the two baked pieces, the bottom layer and...
the smaller top layer.
This is me trimming the edge off the bigger layer. We filled the pan a bit too full and it overflowed.
Christianna and her cake(not quite assembled yet)!
Here's our butter frosting. It's basically just butter, cocoa powder and honey. We adjust the amount of cocoa powder to the concentration of chocolate we feel like at the time.
Toby, the happy birthday boy, enjoyed licking off the blades of the mixer when were were done!
Christianna and her frosting! Watch for more pictures of the cake-making this afternoon!
At the same time Timothy was also making his graham cracker crust for a cheesecake(what is a birthday without Timothy's famous cheesecake?). We got to enjoy the leftover graham crackers . Can you tell Benaiah is enjoying his?

Benaiah Loves His Food! Surprise?

By Gabrielle

This morning we gave Benaiah some cheese to keep him occupied while we were working in the kitchen. He's such a cute boy!

"Now this is the cheese."

"The thought that Gabrielle almost gave me mouldy cheese by accident makes my lips pucker."

"Ana, may I have some more cheese, please!"

"This is what happens when you stuff your cheeks."

"Haha, unsuspecting Gabrielle gave me more than one piece at a time. This is fun. First I poke them..."

"and then I crumble them. Do you think I'm really that hungry?"

"And now, brothers and sisters, never play with your cheese as I did."

"Where's the cheese?"

Elliot got this very cute picture of him pointing...alas...it was a bit too close!

Making faces for his pictures!

Our happy little boy!

A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Posted by Gabriellle

This past Sunday was a wonderful spring day and I had the opportunity to take some pictures of the farm where we go to church. Enjoy!

"Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23:6

"He (the righteous man) will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers." Psalm 1:3

"The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it." Psalm 24:1

Tobias being a good big brother!