The Great Update

I think that we are finally recovered from the camping trip and it is time to share with you all what it is that has kept us away for so long.

So many things have filled our lives over the last couple of months but the couple that stick out are: School started, Jared Dunn visited, the Ansett family visited, the circus, Cedric's birthday and the March for life.

Having visitors from our homeland was a tremendous blessing. Jared came, surfed, jammed with the guys, ate with us, and surfed some more. We were glad to have him and he will ever be remembered as our first guest. He also bought a wet suit so we know that we will be seeing him again soon.
The Ansett's have been a blessing to us for a couple of years now and we are so thankful that they made a detour to see us Farley's. We were very encouraged by their fellowship and hope to see more of them in the future!!! Thanks for your encouraging words and faithful example!!!

The circus was a little creepy but we saw a hippo and that made up for all of the sequins and bad lighting.

Cedric's third birthday was so much fun. We started the day with chocolate chip pancakes. I made a mini cake that looked like a monster from a Japanamation cartoon that greeted him at the breakfast table. We had preschool that day so Cedric ate his 3 mini pancakes quickly and then proceeded to the classroom (which is in his living room). After school he had some buddies stay for a play dough party. They make their own pizza's, created monsters with play dough and topped it all off with splashing in the ocean. When the friends left, Cedric took a much needed nap to prepare for round two of his birthday festivities. He awoke to a bat mobile bigwheel right outside his bedroom door. The girls woke him and put him on his new big boy bike and escorted him to a mound of presents in the living room. He was very excited about the pile but a little reluctant to leave the bat mobile behind. We convinced him and the paper began to fly. After we set up all of his new toys, we headed to the beach again for a picninc dinner. This has become a tradition on birthdays and we love it. Our good friends the Youngs taught us the way of the picnic birthday a few years back and we plan on making this a part of our birthday liturgy for years to come. This is what it looks like: You buy fancy cheese, fancy meat, fancy bread, fruit, trader Joes treats (lots of them), special fancy drinks and set it all real nice like and enjoy good food with better company. It was pretty late when we made it to the beach for our birthday picnic. We set the table, wrapped the kids in blankies, and started the celebrating. We opened with our usual family song (We Gather Together) and then Jason gave a rip roaring blessing to his son that will knock the socks off this teetering culture. We ate, laughed, told stories and watched the sunset together. We than road home and tucked in the very sleepy three year old and his two wonderful sisters. I love birthdays and I am pretty sure that my children do as well!!!

The March for Life was awesome. We are more then a little excited to support our local PRC. We loaded the kids in the stroller and walked with a number of other churches in our area. The kids where really pumped up and had a lot fun. I asked them during the walk, "why are we doing this kids?" they said, "to save babies." Amen and halleujah to that!!!!!

We are now heading to Santa Barbara for a Farley family reunion. Debi is going to wine and dine the whole clan!! She is amazing and I cannot wait to see her and Aunt Jessi, Uncle Nick, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Michelle with their new baby!!! I am bubbling over with excitement right now and will come back with loads of pictures and lots of fun stories.