Hannah’s 8th Birthday. She received a special musical box from Grandma Pam. There were some special items in it as well.

Ice cream. I made a black berry pie but something happened to it… I either burned it or the oven did. My oven was locked up and the temperature was up to the highest with E-2 on the display. We did get to eat most of it after dinner though so we had double cream that day… ice cream and then whipped cream on our pie that evening. 

Elisabeth grew this tomato. I believe it’s called a Lemon tomato. They ate some with lunch on Hannah’s birthday. 

After his baby bath…. All bright eyed and bushy tailed.

In the midst of the fire situation here, we still led a pretty normal life. The best part of the past couple of weeks was that my mother came to visit us for 2 weeks. Now that she’s gone, there’s an emptiness in our home without her presence. I miss her dearly already. I did take pictures of her but she isn’t too partial about me showing them on the blog so we’re just keeping them as family pictures.  : )

Miriam’s Birthday –

Little 4 year old…. Since we have strawberries in the garden, we’re doing strawberry shortcake again. Grandma liked our strawberry shortcake. Of course, Miriam did too! 

A wonderful gift from Grandma Pam. Special books for Miriam. She loves her little books. 

Benjamin napping on Grandma Pam. All content and comfy. Grandma loved holding Baby Benjamin and I know she misses him already. It was precious to see how much she loved holding her grandson. She’d look and look at him like a mother would. 

Three cute little girls. 

Benjamin sleeping as all babies do…. 

Our beautiful baby boy. I love this picture of him. He has a soft spirit about him. One thing I don’t want to forget about him is that his eyelids open and close very soft and slow when I am nursing him. He has a very quiet place about him, not all babies have this.   : )

The Mask Family

Fishing in a smoke filled lake…

Our family of quail decided to perch upon the rail of our deck the other morning.

The fire is nearing Loomis, the closest town near us. Fortunately, the evacuation level has been downgraded from level 2 according to our neighbor.  It is not expected to burn down any structures there. It’s traveling at about a mile a day so I’ll be interested to see where we’re at in about a  week or so.

August 22:  New pictures from our deck as the winds shift our way from the South to the North:

My mother and I drove down a few miles towards Loomis Road. Here is what we saw… 

Red flames just beyond the hills. 

We’re about 6 miles from our home taking these pictures. All highways are shut down around us. My mother was supposed to go back to the Spokane Airport on Wednesday but it looks like she’ll be staying with us for a while:  http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/trafficalerts/

Good firemap information here: http://gacc.nifc.gov/nwcc/information/firemap.aspx Sometimes the map doesn’t load.

Here’s a picture of the smoke rising up from the fire many miles away South of Tonasket. We are up several hundred feet from Tonasket and surrounded by mountainous hills so to see this even from our home is quite significant. I will take a drive and take additional pictures to add to this later. Last night the view portrayed an eerie color of orange. We felt so bad for the people down South as we heard the winds pick up.   : (

Smoke from our backyard view. This was a couple of days ago… It was worst yesterday.

Please pray for us. The wildfires in Washington are coming close to us. The very town where Benjamin was born (Tonasket) is under immediate evacuation. The town is only 17 miles from our home. The hospital cancelled my husband’s biopsy in Tonasket that he was to have tomorrow morning due to the evacuation. The person he spoke to on the phone said they could see the fire coming up over the hill. When I heard that, I started to cry. I don’t know how quick things will turn and if we will have to evacuate soon but we’d probably have to go to Canada as all of the highways are closed due to the fires. Our neighbors shared they have never seen such a thing here. We are nervous. My mother is visiting us and has Parkinson’s Disease and would need more medication mailed to her. She won’t be able to go home next Wednesday as the highway is closed and fires are burning on both sides of it. My husband is surprised that we still have phone lines. I apologize for not writing some of you back much lately or at all. Please pray for us. I am in shock that this is going on and has come to this. We’ll update when we can.

The twins shared their 3rd birthday less than ten days after Benjamin’s birth. We didn’t do a whole lot this year but I did make a chocolate cake with ganache and fresh whipped cream.   : )

Anna

Tabitha

Anna and Tabitha, I miss you dearly. Whenever I am in late pregnancy daddy starts to pull more weight with the last baby while Momma’s ability declines somewhat. Well, you two were the “babies” this time. Now I am caring for the “new” baby and I still miss my babies somewhat. Your babyhood has come to a quick end.  : (  Happy Birthday Girls! Wow, it’s been 3 years already. It feels like it though.

Here are some pictures of Benjamin the first couple of weeks or so. I do focus on the new baby pictures quite a bit the first few months.   : ) 

So upset! 

The 1-2 days I did get some bed rest before Matthew’s emergency situation, I had Benjamin in bed with me all day. He made Mommy feel much better and I’m sure he contributed to some of the lowering of my blood pressure. 

Little angel… 

Cooling down after another sunbath. He had a good case of jaundice. 

Cute, little funny face. I bought him a new hat from Amazon that has a little tie on the top to add to his cuteness.  : ) 

Cute, little mouse friend that my friend bought for baby Benjamin.  ; )  

My, what big, pretty eyes you have Benjamin.

Matthew’s hand started swelling again this morning. This was taken just an hour ago. He went in for a regular appointment today and the doctor prescribed some steroids for his hand and wrist. His blood cultures were negative so we are so thankful for that as it would have been such a serious matter. You can see with his hand and the scabs that his swelling was so severe last week that his skin wept as they call it. He needs to elevate his hand 6 hours a day and I still need to stay low and off my feet due to the blood pressure. We’re really unable to keep up on the house other than meals and the kitchen. Anyways, Matthew has an appointment on Tuesday with his regular doctor and the doctor who admitted him last week so they collaborate together and see what it going on with his hand. Prayers are still appreciated for our household.

I’m trying to play catch up here. I think for a time here we’re just going to be behind. Here’s some pictures from the first few days to a week or so of Benjamin.

Too Cute! 

Laying on Matthew’s old spit up towels that I made him over 6 years ago. 

Big Brother… 

We’re the same kind…   : ) Father and son

Here are the pictures that the nurse sent me from the birth.

Dad waiting for the procedure to begin. Mom was already put under. 

Remember from the birth story that dad was holding my hand here and praying. I squeezed his hand firmly while under anesthesia.

Our baby boy just born. Still with vernix all over him. Maybe he would have come out cleaner if he had been pushed out the normal way. 

The sweetest picture.  : ) 

Another sweet picture. I don’t post blurry pictures often but I couldn’t miss this one.