Happy Birthday, Dan!

Happy Birthday to the World's Greatest Husband! Today was Dan's birthday. We were actually able to take a whole day just for family! It was Great! I made a big breakfast this morning, then off to the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay, after that, Seafood "to go" from Barbara's Fish Trap, then home to carve our little pumpkin to end the day!

Had a great time! Thank You, God, for family!!

Here are a few pictures; sorry they are in reverse order of our day! Enjoy!

Short video clips of Darren...

Here are some short 30 second video clips I took during devotion time this morning. Darren is learning a few Bible verses and Bible songs. Enjoy!

Some recent pictures...

Sorry that I haven't posted on my blog lately! Things are going well for us. Dan is still looking for a second job, but the flip side to the coin is we have enjoyed LOTS of fun family time this summer! We have gotten to do SO many fun things together as a family.

Trips to the park, picnics, visiting the Jelly Belly Factory, sharing ice cream cones and just being home together!

We are planning to go to the apple orchard and pick some fresh apples soon! Can't wait to make some fresh apple butter and apple pies!! Mmmm!! Puts me in the mood for fall and Christmas and BAKING! I love to bake!

I am excited to be getting closer to the arrival of our little girl! We are excited about this new coming addition to our family. Darren is excited about having a baby sister come near Christmas time!

I am posting a few miscellaneous pictures from the last few weeks. Enjoy!

We enjoyed dinner at Cioppino's on the wharf in San Francisco with My Aunt Priscilla, Uncle Jerry and cousin Kristi from Florida! They were on a road trip and stopped in the city overnight. We got to meet them for dinner and had SO much fun! They are sweet people! They even treated us to dinner which was a thoughtful surprise.

Kristi sat across from Darren and played trains with him. He found a new friend!!

Aunt Pris and Jerry!

The three Callaghan's at dinner...

Angie's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Williams, came out in August for the birth of their new grandson, Andrew David. We all went to downtown Emeryville and ate at Fuddrucker's Hamburgers. We had a great time with them. They are WONDERFUL people! I think Angie and I grew up in very similar homes!

Mommy and my favorite Darren man!!

Daddy gives GOOD smooches!

Aunt Karen brought Darren back a Mickey Mouse marshmallow sucker from Disneyland! Mmmm...he enjoyed EVERY bite. His mouth, teeth and lips were all black from Mickey's ears when he was done eating them!

We have enjoyed a GREAT family summer! We love you all!

Teen Ladies Mother / Daughter Tea...

Really had a great time with some of the ladies from our church at the Camellia Tea Room in Benicia today! Some of our teens and their moms came. Lots of fun! God has given us some wonderful ladies! Here are a few pictures...

Some Miscellaneous Pictures...

Here are a few pictures from Dan's phone from the last week or so. Enjoy!

Darren holding his new cousin, Baby Andrew David Callaghan! He LOVES Baby Andrew! Andrew was born to Dave and Angie Callaghan at 4:23 pm on Sunday, July 25th. He is a cutie pie and a GOOD baby!!




Here is the Wild Turkey that flew into our backyard and wandered up by our barbeque grill about 2 days ago! After flying in, it took her quite a while to figure out how to fly back over that fence! Ha!





On the Tiburon Ferry Boat on our way to Angel Island for an awesome teen activity. Always enjoy spending time with my handsome Dan the Man! Our other "son" Anthony in the background! Ha!

Some of our teens on the ferry boat. We had a picnic and a day of fun games on the island. We have such GREAT kids! We always love spending time with the teens God has given us to work with. A great bunch of young people!!

This past Sunday evening we had all the teens over to our house to eat brownie sundaes and had a rousing game of Mad Gab and Mafia. We all had a great time!

It's going to be...

Well, we had our ultrasound yesterday and it is going to be...a GIRL!! YAY!!! Can't wait to buy some girly girly things!! Dan and I are excited. Now we will have our little "rough and tumble" boy and our little girlie girl!! How fun!

Darren is proudly telling all he sees that he is going to have a little sister. (Actually he has already been telling everyone he was going to have a little sister even though we did not know yet. I guess he knew!)

We are also moving Darren out of the crib which he still sleeps in! Time to move on to bigger and better things. He is SOOOO excited because now he has a...BONK Bed, as he calls it! Ha! it is actually just a twin size bed that sits up off the ground so you can use the underneath for storage. This will be great for his toys and make his room bigger. Plus, he gets to climb a LADDER for bed! This is a HUGE highlight in his life!

Dan got it assembled right before bed time so he could sleep in it tonight! His room is rather disheveled as we haven't dismantled the crib, but Darren was pumped that his Bonk Bed was ready!

Darren is always so enthusiastic. I call him my living "exclamation point!"

Here is a "not so great" picture of him and his BONK Bed! He was already tucked in so the lights were out, but Daddy had to sneak in and get a picture! Enjoy!

Miscellaneous...

Whew! It's going to be hot here in the Bay Area today! We don't have too many hot days around here, but when no one has air-conditioning a high of 86 degrees with no breeze off the Bay feels pretty warm!

Here are a few miscellaneous photos I took on Dan's iPhone the last couple of days. Our camera is still broken so here are a few odds and ends. Family is a WONDERFUL thing. Thank You, God!

Darren is a true Bay Area kid. He LOVES Clam Chowder and sourdough bread!!

Darren LOVES to help Daddy! Dan was blowing off the lawn after mowing so Darren wanted to "look like" Daddy! Hee Hee!!

Mommy and her favorite bud just chillin' on the couch.

Haven't felt up to baking in a while. So, Monday I made some Yummy Apple Crisp (and, of course, vanilla ice cream!)! EASY EASY recipe!! Look below the picture for the easy recipe...

Easy Apple Crisp

(Just makes a small recipe. You might want to double if cooking for more. I bake this recipe in a pie pan)

3 large apples, peeled and sliced

1/8 lb. butter (1/2 stick)

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup of water

Grease cake or pie pan. Peel, core and slice apples into pan. Pour 1/4 c. water over the apples. Work dry ingredients and butter together with a fork till crumbly. Pour over apples immediately. Bake at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Easy and...Mmmmmm!

Have a Great day!

Decorating Fun...

On Monday evening we watched Dave and Angie's girls, Faith and Liberty, at our house while Dave and Angie went on a date for their 8th wedding anniversary.

I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones and let the kids decorate their own. Here are a few pictures from our decorating fun...

Darren loving the icing part!

Liberty is proud of her creation...

Faith's cone all decorated...

Yum Yum!

I LOVE Independence Day!

Sorry it has been a LONG time since my last post. I have had some health and chiropractic issues with my pregnancy.

I am a VERY patriotic person! I LOVE the celebration of our nation's independence on July 4th! One of my favorite holidays!!

We had a wonderful patriotic service on Sunday morning, then a sweet time of testimony during our evening service. We were celebrating not only Independence Day, but our church's 63rd anniversary Sunday.

After the evening service we had a fellowship at the church with grilled hot dogs, corn on the cob, chips pasta salad, watermelon and desserts. Mmmm! Then we loaded up as a church family to watch the fireworks show about 20 minutes away from the church. It was a GREAT time of fun and fellowship with sweet Christian friends.

Isn't it great to be a Christian?!

Our camera is broken at the present. I will try to get some pictures today as we grill out with some of Dan's family so I can post them soon!

Busy Days...

Sorry! No pictures to post! We are in the midst of packing so our house is not the most scenic picture spot right now!

We are doing good! Darren is lots of fun and endless entertainment as usual!

Today, I confess, I have felt very pregnant! I didn't have morning sickness, I had ALL-DAY sickness! Such perfect timing too since I am supposed to be packing everything we own to move in less than 2 weeks! Oh well, we will get it done somehow. And I am VERY HAPPY to be expecting, nausea or not!

Dan is SUPER busy too. He is always super busy, but now adding the overseeing of a remodeled house in just 2 1/2 weeks makes life very hectic for him. Please pray he will still manage to get enough sleep to function!

We are thankful to God for the opportunity of the house He has provided us with!

More later. If you want to see a quick video of the house we are fixing up, I can't seem to post a youtube link on here, but the name of the video is "video of inside of house" under helencallaghan1.

Mommy and Darren's Bible time...

Reading the Bible is the GREATEST way to start any day!

I want Darren to learn to LOVE that time as a young boy. We got him a little Bible this past Christmas. Most mornings when I read, I ask him to go get his little Bible from his church bag.

We sit at the table and I read a few verses for him, with great drama! I want him to ENJOY Bible time! We always sing a couple verses in Psalms. He likes it when Mommy "sings" the Bible!

I also write about what I read. So I got him a little notebook to "write with Mommy."

That is always a special time for me. LOVE to see my son gain a respect for a time with God and His Word!

It's Been a While!

WOW! It's been a while since I posted! We have a LOT going on for us right now.

We were just given 30 days to move out of our apartment, our landlords want it back! ...BUT, God had better plans. He is giving us a HOUSE to rent!!!

It's a "fixer-upper" but we are going to be able to use some of our rent to fix it up! Dan knows the owners and God just really opened up the door for us. We are SOOOOO happy to be done "apartment shopping." That was getting depressing! God just spoils us!

Another BIG blessing for our family is that we are expecting our 2nd child at the first of December! We are SOOO happy about another little one on the way!!

Anyways, I am in the midst of packing but I will try to post as frequently as possible and get a few new pictures soon!

More pictures...

Here are some more pictures.

Here are a couple of Darren on Easter Sunday.

He got a little plastic magnetic fishing pole set from "The Easter Bunny" (aka-Dad and Mom). He thought that was the GREATEST thing ever. He also got a nice little Easter basket from church!



Darren is just TOO cute these days!

As I was doing my devotions this morning, I looked over by the couch, (Because Darren was quiet!) and saw that he had gotten his Bible out of his Sunday bag and was "reading" too!! Sweet!

Darren's cousin, Liberty, also came over to play with him this morning. They had SO much fun. He loves "ity," as he calls her.

He was pretending to ride a bike, I looked over...and this video will show you how creative he got with his headgear...

We only have a few pull-ups left in the house. I only put them on him at night time, since he still has a hard time remembering that sometimes. Anyways, he is TOO Funny!