Manger Throne

What kind of king would leave His throne,
In heaven to make this Earth His home,
While men seek fame and great renown,
In lowliness, our King comes down.

You left the sound of angel's praise,
To come for men with unkind ways,
And by this baby's helplessness,
The power of nations is laid to rest

What kind of king would come so small,
From glory to a humble stall,
That dirty manger is my heart too,
I'll make it a royal throne for You

Jesus, Jesus precious one,
How we thank you that you've come
Jesus, Jesus, precious one,
A manger throne....my heart is a throne,
For God's own son

This song was written by Julie Miller and appears on an old CD of hers - not even a Christmas CD. Our kids sang it last year for the Christmas Eve service at church and so I was able to impose one of my favorites on everyone else around! It is especially lovely with kids singing it. There is a Third Day version that Julie sings on, but it is a let down compared to the original.

And the Winner is.....

Lesha. She will be receiving a free Doll Carrier from Vision Forum!
Thanks to everyone who participated.

Contest!!

Fun, Fun!! Vision Forum is offering their affiliates the chance to give away a free gift to our blog readers. So, we are having a contest. Here is how it works:

1. choose which ONE of these gifts you would like to receive if you win:
baby doll carrier
A League of Grateful Sons DVD


2. leave a comment at this blog posting or email me telling me which product you hope to win. In addition, pass this contest information on to 3 other friends. My kids will put all the names in a basket and randomly draw one winner. The contest deadline is December 18th at midnight. I will email the winner on December 19th to notify you and to make sure I have all of your information and then Vision Forum will be sending your gift directly to your door.


It is that easy.


Thanks for participating! When you place a Vision Forum order in the future, please consider going through me or through one of your other friends who is a VF affiliate. To shop through me, you can click my link at the sidebar of our blog. Thanks again.

A New Family Member

Yesterday, Brad found a border collie pup out in the field in the back 360 at the ranch. He had either been neglected or out on his own for a while. He came over and hung out with Paul and Brad while they were chainsawing and then never went away. He had a brother with him, but he ran off and they never could find him. They took the puppy in and fed him and then Brad brought him home today. The kids about flipped their lids. Josiah has had such a hard time since Duke died in October. This was perfect. He is the cutest little guy and has a great temperament and personality. He is a real snuggler too. The first thing he did when he came in was look at his reflection in the kitchen appliances - he started growling and barking. Brad had started calling him Bo - for boney, because he is SOOO boney. The poor little guy doesn't look like he has eaten in days. Now, my only problem is having to potty train a puppy....argh. This will be interesting. We are really excited about our new friend. We have a few photos of him here.

First Snow

The snow started yesterday just after church and continued all day long. We went to the Miller Family's (our pastor) Christmas Open House last night and the kids were so excited when we left to see snow accumulating. When we woke this morning, we had about 4 1/2 inches!! Not tons, but everything was covered and it was so beautiful. The kids were thrilled. It was really sparkly, dry and the most airy snow I have ever seen. It almost looked fake. Wish we had hills here at our house. I need to find a good place to sled, but I am not really comfortable driving in the snow yet. We need to get snow tires or studded tires, I guess (duh, we live in MT and it gets kind of snowy here!!). We were starting to worry that we wouldn't get snow this year....they haven't had a really big snow year since 1996. Danny Ullibarri, a friend of mine from San Diego, moved out here that year. He woke up one morning and they and had gotten 13 FEET of snow..... overnight! He had to tunnel out of his house. Welcome to Montana! I guess we don't need that kind of welcome, but we cannot wait to have more snow....lots more. See photos here.

The Hunt for the Tree

Well, just so that you all know - no more expensive, lame, tree-lot Christmas trees for us - no siree! In MT, you just go to the Forestry Service and pay them $5 - yep, 5 bucks - not $75 or $85, but FIVE DOLLARS for a permit to go and cut your own tree on forest service land. So, off we went into the not-so-very-wild blue yonder just around the corner and found the best tree. And how fun is THAT? We got a nice, big full one. Josiah says it is a blue spruce, but I don't know (how does HE know these things - he's only 11). It is definitely one with pine NEEDLES!! We brought it home and decorated it. I always get stuck doing hte lights - I hate doing the lights. I guess it beats cutting down the tree, lugging it to the top of the car, dragging it off, cutting the bottom off, setting it in the stand, re-setting it in the stand, and getting it even.....or maybe not - did I mention that I hate doing the lights? The kids put most of the ornaments on and you can tell, but we still love it. I try not to micro-manage the tree thing. As we got the tree up straight, Josiah stood gazing for a minute and then said, "Ya know, I really like this Montana way of doing things". See photos here!

Isaiah Turns 9!!

Isaiah is officially 9 years old as of December 5th! Wow. Where have the years gone? We had his breakfast of choice (much to my chagrin): Frosted Flakes and pecan pinwheels. He wanted to go get our Christmas tree and decorate it on his special day. In the evening, we had the usual Dunham kid favorite taco dinner and the Shannon Mizel ice cream cake. What a day! The UPS man even showed up with an offering (great timing, Grandma!). See photos here.

ranch stuff

We were all at the ranch yesterday - 10 below zero weather! But sunny and beautiful. You know, 10 below doesn't feel like what I expected - I can do that! :) As long as you are prepared, it is fine. However, it WAS sunny and there was NO wind - which is highly unusual for over there. The worst part was when Elisha and I decided to go in and check on the cabins - they needed a little attending to. We turned on the space heaters before we went in to work, but it was still colder IN the cabins than OUTSIDE!! We mopped with hot water, but it immediately froze and created a thin, little ice rink in there! When we put the sheets on the beds, we were absolutely freezing and couldn't wait to get back outside! Isn't that crazy? We also met the butcher oersonally yesterday when he came out to kill and gut 2 bison....yucky business that is... and the bison are not the sharpest tool in the shed - the guy pulls up every weekend, gets out and shoots one of them. The rest of the herd all jump and hustle off a little ways and then as he guts the one he has killed, the others come back close again. Then he shoots another one. Then the next week when he shows up in the truck again, they all come over to the truck as if to say "hey, what's this guy doing?". Same truck, same guy, same routine. DUH. After he guts them and cuts off their heads (ick), the others stand around in the field staring at it....not too smart - or maybe it is that they just aren't scared of anything. I am beginning to wonder if all of those paintings of Indians having to chase the bison all over the prairie to kill them are acccurate.... maybe they just came up on their horses and shot them all at once! I didn't watch the gutting, but did see the aftermath. Yucky. We are picking up a pelt from one of them next week and going to try our hand at tanning. That should be a fun boy project. I think that the girls and I will just stay inside and bake cookies or something! :)