June 2013

Another month updated within a week!

After 23 years of experience Mr. Cochran has lots of stories to share. As he is also one of the elders in our church we get to hear a lot of the spiritual parallels to lessons learned in the air-force woven in his messages on Sunday. If you ever get to hear him teach you'll know what I mean. I love it!
Thank you Mr. Cochran for serving our country!

Receiving different honors for a job well done

Marscel and I both came down with this weird flu like virus. Pa and Mom called us after church Sunday saying it was beautiful out and we should get some fresh air... here's our "backyard" sunning area :-)

Mom's first lesson with her cello teacher

Marscel's reaction to hearing twinkle, twinkle little star was the first song to be learned. Thankfully Mom mastered it quickly and we are able to enjoy hearing the beauty of the cello with other songs

We were so excited to finally be able to get Stately Steps under way and get the filming done for our first instructional English Country Dance video.

The dance crew doubles as a hair and costume set up

After the car ride the dresses became terribly wrinkled once more. The benefit of filming at a hotel is they have plenty of irons!

The ironing board wasn't working so well so Mom decided to skip that step and (after making sure it was on a low enough setting so it wouldn't burn) ironed the dress on me

*Children do not try this at home*
:-)

Making sure all the steps are written out

Our first and second camera men

Action!

Day 1: Film dance steps

Mission accomplished

That evening we were joined by our dancers for the next day...

... and two of our nephews so Michael and Rebekah could take an anniversary trip.

Enjoying fellowship

Day 2: Film the dances

Last minute fixing for a wardrobe malfunction

And she says she doesn't like animals... but they all love her!

Half way through filming Mr. Beveridges Maggot we realized we were using the wrong song. In the time it took to find the song we have a license for we were able to realize another mistake and were able to fix the errors with enough time to film everything needed. Isn't God so good?

Andrew (standing), our great director, camera man, editor, the man who made this happen and so much more. Well done, Andrew!

During lunch break we took portraits and group shots

The lobby seemed to be set up just for us

One of my favorite pictures of my boys

The end of the day has come... freedom of feet for all the Thomases!

The boys tied two of their cravats together and made a jump rope... Mom was more the willing to jump in on the fun

We gathered for a group shot and someone said to do something fun... I guess only four of us heard

Stately Steps Volume 1 Dancers & crew

Be sure to check out the final product at http://www.statelysteps.com

What better way to end the day then with a group hug?

Well, the day wasn't quite over and another adventure was awaiting... our car battery died. Thankfully the Wongs had an extra long extension cord and the boys truck was near to jump it.

Church was cancelled because of a bad snowstorm so we listened to a great message by Matthew Henry

Afterward Benjamin soundly creamed Marscel and I at Monopoly... unlike how when we grew up, he plays by the real rules.

An amazing chalkboard design by Hannah

Before we had to leave we had a quick romp in the snow with a fast and furious snowball fight... such fun!

Beware the snow-bomb brigade

Teaching Philip the finer arts of firing a cannon

Yup, he's a man on a mission!

She seems to have two modes... smiling at everyone in sight, or totally zonked

While icing my back Philip comes crying from the other room and didn't want to leave cuddling... no one knew what the matter was, but he didn't want to move or get down for about 5 minutes... it was pretty cute

Pa and the Princess

Making some AMAZING raw peppermint patties. You probably are wishing you could have some so I'll copy the recipe for you below :-)

Raw Peppermint Patties
Filling - makes about 8 - 2in. patties:
1 Cup shredded coconut
2 tsp fruit sweetener (or maple syrup, agave, honey)
2 tsp coconut oil, melted
4 drops Young Living Essential oil of peppermint

Chocolate Sauce - Makes about 1/2 cup:
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
6 heaping Tablespoons raw cacao powder
4 Tablespoons maple syrup
4 drops Young Living Essential Oil of peppermint
pinch of salt

Blend ingredients for filling in food processor until smooth (at least 5 minutes). Make into patties and flatten on parchment paper. Freeze 20 minutes. Double dip into chocolate sauce (dip them all once then go back and re-dip a second time) and refreeze. Delish!
If you have extra sauce after dipping all of the patties pour in a parchment paper lined pan and freeze. Score after 10 minutes to be able to break apart in Chocolate chunks when fully frozen.

If you aren't familiar with Young Living Essential Oils leave a comment and I can try to answer any questions you may have.

art

There's something so intriguing about old train tracks that make you just sit and ponder

I wish I had another camera showing how this was taken... there was a little tree with a branch just the right height off the ground to balance my camera on set it to the timer mode

tunnel art

Near the old tracks is this big factory with tunnels and holes in the ground... like some big sewage system... except we found steps leading down... strange, huh?