Daddy's Diner

Robb is usually the breakfast cook in the mornings. On Friday night he decided to make a menu for the kids for Saturday's breakfast. It was such a hit I thought I would share it with you!

Daddy’s Down Home Diner

Where everything is made with a pinch of love!

1. Ham and Cheese Omelet 2. Blueberry Pancakes 3. Special Waffles (regular or blueberry) 4. The Saturday Special…

DADDY’S DOOZY

****1 ham and cheese omelet, 1 blueberry pancake, 1 piece of bacon, 1 piece of sausage, 1 special waffle and 1 GREAT BIG HUG!!!**** Beverages: orange juice, apple juice, grape juice Sides: sausage links, bacon strips

Enjoy your meal!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

'Hunterisms'

Hunter (8) "Hey mom, someday if I become famous there will be a sign in our town that says, 'Birthplace of Hunter Arnold'. Wouldn't that be cool?"

Dads 4 Adoption

I saw this on an adoptive friend's blog. Definitely worth watching!

The road is not always smooth.

The adoption that we started fell through and we are now on a different path, but it is the path we believe God has paved for us. We are going back to Ethiopia to adopt a 2-4 year old. We have finally decided on an agency and we are so excited to get back on track. The good news is we got all of our money back from the agency we were working with before and we can use all of the paperwork that we have already done. Praise God! None of this has been easy or without tears, but we have great peace about the direction we are going. We know that God has a child already picked out for our family and we are totally pumped to meet the little one! The truth is that there are 147 million orphans in the world and the devil would like to keep it that way...but God says that He has plans for them, plans to give them hope and a future. Proverbs 24:12 says that 'Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know and holds us responsible to act.' We know the conditions in Ethiopia, we have seen the pain and suffering. We will not turn our backs on a situation we can do something about! We feel so blessed to be on this journey again.

The Lord has called us once again....

We are so happy to announce that we will soon be the parents of a sweet 2 1/2 year old boy from Ghana, Africa. The Lord has stirred our hearts since our trip to Ethiopia. The devastation that we experienced changed our lives and hearts forever. The statistics are astounding...147 MILLION orphans in this world! That is NOT okay! As a family we pray for these children often and we know that God wants us to care for the orphans in distress. James 1:27 says, 'Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.' This adoption process has been different because we chose a child off a waiting child list instead of being referred a child. This little boy touched our hearts and we immediately saw him fitting into our family perfectly. We are working with a different agency and different country, so things are different, yet so much of it is the same. I am not fretting over the paperwork this time and things seem to be going pretty smoothly. We are praying that we will have our little boy home by summer. This adoption is a step of faith for us and we are believing God to work out the details. We have set up an adoption fundraiser with a great company called Just Love Coffee. If you are a coffee lover and would like to donate to our adoption fund, click on the picture on my sidebar. Your donation would be a wonderful blessing to us! Adoption is such an amazing journey that has blessed us tremendously. We are thrilled to be adding to our family once again through the miracle of adoption.

147 million orphans

"Adopting one child won't change the world; but for that child, the world will change."

Best Friends Forever

Ruby and Destiny are very best buds. Although they sometimes fight like sisters, they absolutely get giddy when they see each other. We feel so blessed that they have eachother!

Happy Birthday Hunter!

It was 8 years ago today that Robb and I became parents. We were absolutely thrilled when Hunter Ron came into the world. We had prayed for this child for a very long time. Hunter has always kept us on our feet. As a baby, sleeping wasn't anything that he was interested in. After hours and hours of rocking, pacing, driving around the section, and watching numerous episodes of Baby Einstein and The Wiggles, we had survived Hunter's baby years. Whew! :) At 15 months his courage became so evident when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Although we seemed to be breaking down at times, his faith has always shown through. For 6 1/2 years, with faith that could move mountains, he has been praying for Jesus to heal his diabetes. Although sometimes he gets frustrated with the daily challenges of the disease, he impresses us with his maturity and responsibility of what he has to do to stay healthy. We are SO proud of him! Being the thinker that he has always been, he recently started his own detective agency. He prefers to be called 'Jigsaw Arnold' and will solve any case you bring to his attention for a small fee. (with half of the money going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). Right now he has about 10 cases that he is working on. He does not take his job lightly either. He has questioned suspects, sketched clues, and offered rewards for any valuable information concerning his cases. He has currently made over $20 doing detective work. He's an ambitious little boy! :) Hunter is currently a green belt in Tae Kwon Do and plays on the Hazel Rockhounds baseball team. Everyday he amazes us with his knowledge of history, geography, math, and everything else :) and also his awesome faith in God. A couple months ago he preached to our entire church about healing and the power of prayer. There was not a dry eye in the place. He gave an amazing message. We are so blessed by this young boy and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for his life. Happy 8th Birthday Hunter! We love you so very much!

Miss RUBY

New cement!

By Tuesday all of the prep work was done...just waiting for the sun to dry things up.

8:00 this morning the crew is ready to begin.

Robb putting the new baskeball hoop in.

Of course you need to do the handprints of the kids!

The finished product!

By tomorrow morning the cement should be ready for bikes, scooters, basketballs and 4 happy kids!

Gage Dakota is 4 years old today!

Gage is finally this many! :)

His first ride on his new spiderman scooter.

Another school year has come and gone.

Hunter's 1st day of First Grade.

Hunter's last day of First Grade. (we didn't get a picture with Mrs. Peterson's eyes open)

Brylie's 1st day of Kindergarten.

Brylie's last day of Kindergarten.

Both kids had a wonderful year of school. Hunter's teacher, Mrs. Peterson, is an amazing teacher! She actually taught Robb in elementary school! Hunter cried every night the last week of school because he didn't want 1st grade to be over. He said "I'm just going to miss Mrs. Peterson SO MUCH! How sad! She cried on the last day when he hugged her goodbye. What a blessing she is to us! Brylie's teacher, Mrs. Zens, was very caring and Brylie really enjoyed having her as a teacher. She described Brylie as a "sweetheart". In a few short months Hunter will be on to 2nd grade and Brylie will have her first year of all day every day school as a 1st grader.

I am blessed!

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day celebrating the gift of these precious babes. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to raise these children. It really is such a privilege.

Ruby is walking!

Have you ever thought about sponsoring a child?

When we were in Ethiopia last summer we met the man who handles the orphan sponsorship program for our agency. Just last week we finally looked through the profiles of children, as a family, and chose a 9 year old Ethiopian girl who touched our hearts. She is currently living with her mom, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Her dad died a while back and her mom has no income. She is selling everything they have to provide food for her children. They are in very desperate times. We all fell in love with this little girl and knew that we would be able to help her and her family. For $32 a month we are able to completely change her life. Her needs will be met, she will be able to go to school and enjoy things that children should get to enjoy. We wrote her a letter and sent her a picture of our family. We can't wait to hear back from her. The kids wanted to sponsor more than one and at one point while we were reading the profiles, Hunter teared up and said, "I really think we need to adopt again". Of course the tears then came for me and I understood his sensitive heart. There are so many children who have absolutely nothing, not one toy to play with, little food to eat and nowhere soft to sleep. This hit home for our kids. We are so blessed and I'm glad that we are able to help this precious girl on the other side of the world. If sponsoring a child is something you are interested in I posted a link on my sidebar.

Happy Birthday Brylie!

Today my little girl turns 6! She is the sweetest girl with such a compassionate heart and always a willingness to help. Brylie is the best big sister ever! She plays ball with Gage and babies with Ruby and never complains when I ask her to help with the little ones. She is my shopping buddy and always has fashion advice for me. :) Our family is so blessed to have her in our lives. She was supposed to have her 3 best friends over today for a sleepover but because of the snowy weather we are getting we had to postpone it. We plan on having a fun day at home celebrating with her!

Daddy/Daughter Dinner

A few weeks ago our church hosted a Daddy/Daughter Dinner. Brylie was so excited about spending this special time with her dad. She got a new dress and told me exactly how she wanted her hair fixed. :) The event had a 50's diner theme with the servers wearing poodle skirts and white button up shirts with rolled up jeans. They enjoyed burgers and ice cream and some really fun games. Robb and Brylie competed in a hoola hoop contest (which Brylie said daddy didn't do so well in) and a contest to see which daddy could paint their daughter's fingernails and put in a pony tail the fastest. Robb did very well in that competition but his friend Brian Prouty ended up winning the game. :) It was a super fun night for both Robb and Brylie.

First Grade Basketball

The first graders had a fun basketball game a couple weeks ago. Hunter's uncle Wesley was one of the coaches who had worked with these kids a few Saturdays teaching basic ball handling skills. The game was so fun to watch and the kids had a blast playing against their classmates. I love that Wesley has a heart for these kids and sees the benefits of starting them young. Hunter and his 2 cousins, Booker and Nash, had a super fun time and it was a glimpse into the future seeing them play ball together. Go young Chargers!