Pics from the Cabin...

Stand Firm

Hopefully I'll someday soon get to post a few pictures from our recent trip to my parents' cabin in the U.P., but for now let me at least document the moment I knew that all the craziness (i.e. the Packing, the 9 hour drive) leading up to the trip had been worthwhile...

Riding in to the cabin, we have to take snowmobiles because the road is usually impassable by car due to all the snow, so my cousins had built a sled seat to cart a bunch of us in at one time and just for fun... Well, my maiden voyage in the sled was ever so slightly terrifying for nervous me. I will say that it was snowy, I was facing backward, slipping around on a seat and trying to hold onto Jake and Trey. Also on the sled were my mom. Claudia, and Sam. Pretty precious cargo. We seemed to be flying over the bumpy ground and I began to freak out (loudly enough to be heard by all the children and my mom on the sled over the roar of the snowmobile pulling us). So Jake yells to me, "Mom, stand firm!" It was from a Bible verse we had learned this fall. I was momentarily calmed, we did slow down, and we made it in just fine. Afterwards, Jake said to me, "See Mom? The Lord did save you."

Bible memorization put to good use!

Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see how the Lord will save you today." (Exodus 14:13)

If Sam Joined Guns N Roses

...and was really happy about it...

A (Chicken) Tender Nutcracker

Claudia came up with this idea after polishing off her Burger King chicken tenders one day... Unfold the container and color it in as shown. Voila! A (Chicken) Tender Nutcracker!

Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

This past gorgeous, sunny-yet-cool Sunday, Ed and I comfortably sat 24 of our Kastelin family members, including 2 of our beautiful children (Naughty was napping), my parents (just back from a vacation to ITALY), my bro and sis-in-law (Naughty #2 was also napping), my sis and bro-in-law (just celebrated their first anniversary), three aunts and uncles (one couple of which will become grandparents for the first time early next year, another of which will celebrate Christmas in Hawaii with their 2 sons, and the other spending their winter traveling the world to visit kids and grandchildren, wheelchair no problem), 6 cousins (all healthy and loved and enjoying various stages of life), and my 90-year old grandparents who will fly to their Florida home for the winter this Friday, all into the dining room of our new home for an early Thanksgiving celebration.

Gabbies Granola Goodness

OK, so it's really Carrie's recipe, but I couldn't resist the triple alliteration in the title. Plus, Gabbie did make it at our house for us first, so Gabbie's it is. My kids gobbled this down like...well, certainly like nothing else containing walnuts, sunflower seeds, and milled flax seeds. They loved it and I didn't even have to add chocolate chips.

2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup nuts
Whatever else - I did 1/2 cup sunflower seeds and 1/4 ish cup milled flax seeds

Melt first 4 ingredients together in saucepan. In separate bowl, mix rest. Add wet mixture to dry and mix. Bake at 300 degrees for 25-30 min. The longer, the crunchier!

Hwelcome to the Hwangs!

Our new home! Our new address!

1188 Harbor Point Drive,
Norton Shores, MI 49441!!!

Our Forever Home? Well, no, we're still looking forward to that. But we love this Temporary Home!