Happy Fall!

It is nearly impossible to get everyone involved in our family picture to smile and not talk at the same time. This was the best out of all of our tries! We did not go up to Greenbluff like we usually do every year - the weather just didn't work out at the same time our schedules did. So, we created our own Greenbluff backdrop in my front yard, and I have to admit, I really like it! It turned out super cute!

Happy Fall Y'All!!

Happy Birthday James

We celebrated James birthday today with some friends and a bonfire - what a perfect combination! I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie for the birthday dessert, and dressed it with football candles. My friends Brenda and Karen turned the tops of the pies into chocolate spiderwebs, complete with an oreo cookie spider. It turned out great! Happy 41st birthday James - we all love you!

The Bat Cave Trio!

This year was my year to coordinate costumes - every other year I get a say in it. I found the Bat Man costume first, so then I was able to convince everyone to go as the Bat Cave Trio. It turned out so cute! The kids love their costumes, and the bonus is they can now add them to their costume trunk and use them for play. This was taken at their Fall Carnival at school, and then of course we will trick or treat with them on Halloween. So much fun!

Veggie Tales Live

Today I had an incredible opportunity to cater for the cast and crew of the Veggie Tales Live production at Turning Point Open Bible Church. And for my payment I received VIP backstage tickets for all of my family, plus my friend Brenda and her nephew Nick. It was a long day that started at 6:30 am at the church, and I finally got home at about 9:30 that night. Plus the two days I spent shopping for the food.  The kids had a blast, and my experience in catering was increased, and I really enjoyed it! Gretchen didn't want to have her picture taken with the Veggies, but she did enjoy the show with everyone. What a neat opportunity! I love that even though I don't work a paying job outside the home, I can still provide fun activities for my family just by using the talents that God has given me. What an incredible blessing!!

I participated in Spokane's first Color Vibe 5K run today, and had a great time. This is my second 5K this year, and the first was the Dirty Dash. I am starting to really love these 5K races that add fun to the run. And I think I have convinced the kids to do it with me next year, although James still wants no part in it, except as our cheerleader!

The start of the race - 5K here I go!

Entering the finish line - I finished in exactly 30 minutes!

Not as full of color as I thought I would get, but fun nonetheless.

The official before photo......

And the official after photo - loved it!!!

Garden Goods

This is what I harvested out of the garden today. My garden didn't do phenomenally well this year, but it has still been providing us with yummy veggies. We had a very wet spring, and no real long days of sun for quite a while, so it took a long time for the garden to really take off. I've got plans to make it bigger next year, and hopefully we'll have lots more to harvest each day. But for now, this works great.

A Red Tomato!

We have our first Red Tomato! It's a chocolate cherry and I'm very interested to see how it tastes. It's disappointing that this tomato plant has only yielded a few tomatoes, and only one is red so far. I've had it on my porch, but I don't think it get's enough sun or water. I'm moving all my tomatoes to the big garden next year, and hopefully they will do much better. The one Roma tomato plant that is in the big garden is doing fabulous, and is loaded with tomatoes - all still green, but growing well!

Backyard Campsite

The kids decided to set up camp in the yard today. They are in a nice spot between our two small maple trees, and have even made a pretend campfire ring. I love when they get so creative with their play!

My Beautiful Children

 Austin

 Daniel

Gretchen

Daddy's Day Off

After working several weeks 12 hour/day weeks, Daddy finally had a Friday off. We celebrated with a day at our local water park. We had so much fun, and the kids loved spending quality fun time with Daddy!

Daddy and the kids enjoying the spray

Austin ready to go under

My little fishies

Having fun just chillin' out

Mommy coming down the big slide!

And here comes Daddy!

Twin Fawns

James came home from work today and found twin fawns in our yard. They are so cute!

Mini Rex Rabbits

We have our first litter of purebred Mini Rex kits. They are so tiny compared to the Mini Rex mix kits we have had! And I've already got three of these reserved for sale. Not bad.

Graceful Summer: First Friday of Summer

Good morning all! This has been a full week of fun for our official first week of summer break. The kids were all done with school last Wednesday. But of course, we can't sit still - we have been at our church's VBS all this week, and I have been helping out by leading Faith Skills, where we help the kids to put the memory verse into action. This year it is 1 Timothy 4:12 - Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young. Set an example for the believers in what you say and how you live. (It's a shortened easier version of the verse for the kids to learn). I think it is a great verse for kids to learn, especially school kids, as they face so many struggles in school.

This week was also a reminder of how blessed we are in our country life. Moving here almost two years ago was a lifelong answer to my heart's desire - to raise my children in the country just like I was raised. God really blessed us with our property (10 acres) and this week I have been especially reminded of why I wanted to live like this. We have seen lots of beautiful animals, the kids have been able to explore freely, and I have been able to really tend to my garden. Life is so good right now! My poor husband has been working like a dog, though - his schedule at work changed, and not only has his regular schedule changed from 4 10's to 3 12's and a 6, but he has also been on mandatory overtime, so this week has been all 12's. He has a 45 minute commute to work, and has to be on the job at 5 am, so you can imagine how tired he is by the end of the day. And this will go on for at least the next 2 weeks, including having to work on the 4th of July. It's hard, but we know it is an answer to prayer - he has been worried about some unexpected financial things, and this was God's way of providing our need. I'm trying super hard to make his time at home relaxing, but sometimes with the craziness of kids, that can be a struggle too. But we're getting through, and today is the end of his first week of new schedule. The weekend doesn't have a lot going on, so hopefully he can catch up on his sleep.

And last night was a special night for my oldest, Austin (7). He prayed the salvation prayer, so now there is one more name in the Book of Life! I made sure he truly understood what was happening, and what it meant, and he was able to really tell me what it all meant. He loves his new bible, The Bibleman, that he got on his 7th birthday, and it has a study page in it that explained it all really well. I am so excited for him!

This week, my body has been waking me at 5:45 am. This makes for some good time alone in the morning to have a cup of coffee, prepare for my day, and watch the Joyce Meyer episode I tape at 3 am each day.

This post is part of Graceful Summer. Click the link below to find out more and see other bloggers that are participating.

Mommy - a bear!!

We were getting all loaded into the car this morning to head to VBS when Gretchen said, "Mommy, there's a bear!" I just shook my head at her - there couldn't possibly be a bear. But I looked up towards our bunny barn that she was pointing to, and would you believe, there really was a bear! A black bear, between the ages of 2 and 4, was peering into my bunny cages, probably giving them all heart attacks, wondering which one of them were going to be bear breakfast that day. Thank goodness that all the kids, including our neighbor boy, were all buckled safely into the van. Not 10 minutes earlier, the kids had been up at the bunny barn, checking on them before we left. And thank goodness my camera was handy right next to me. I quickly grabbed it, put on my zoom lens, and began snapping photos.

Standing Tall - probably between 5 and 6 feet tall

Can you see the bolt in the blue siding? 
The top one is at about 3 feet high.

He has got the biggest feet!

The sunlight hit his back, and he is so gorgeous! 
And big!

 

I feel so blessed to live out in the country where we get to see things like this.  And all my neighbors are jealous - they have lived out here from between 15-35 years, and this is the first time they have seen a bear. They didn't get to actually see it like I did, but my pictures proved it! And luckily, he didn't snack on any of our bunnies!

Dirty Dash

I participated in my first ever Dirty Dash run today, and it was a blast! A bit harder than I imagined, as there were lots of goat trails, steep hills, and gradual climb hills. Also lots of obstacles, and of course, tons of mud. I told my friends - chasing after three kids all day does not constitute training for a 5K race. Next year, I will definitely train for hills better. But how fast you finished this race was not really the goal. The goal was to have tons of fun and get dirty, and I am pretty sure I accomplished all that!

The finish line - I mean, the finish mud bog!

Slogging through!

All done - so much for a white shirt!

I had the kids put their handprints

with brown fabric paint on the 

back of my shirt.

My friend and team mate, Amy and I. 

We stayed together until the last mile.

Then I told her to go ahead, I needed to slow down!

Relay For Life 2012

I have been participating in our Relay For Life event since 1997. I love it, and have done many aspects of it, including event chair for 2 years. This year I was Team Captain of my MOMS Club team, plus did Prizes and Awards for the whole event. And this year, my kids spent the night with me for the first time. The weather was good until the middle of the night, about 1 am or so, when it started raining, and really didn't stop at all. It's not that much fun to pack up a campsite in the pouring down rain! But the kids were really good sports about it, and slept pretty darn well in the tent that night. I was very proud of them, and they had a blast!

My kids and I enjoying the event

My MOMS Club team members

An official farm girl!

I butchered my first rooster today, and now I really feel like an official farm girl. I can now raise my own meat from babies, and put them in the stew pot too! My dad came over to help - I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly. It took me about two hours from start to finish, but I think once I have more practice, it won't take as long. I still have 4 or 5 roosters that need to be added to the stew pot, so over the next week I'm going to be busy! This is the rooster before the butchering. I will spare you all the photos of the rest of the job - it certainly wasn't super pretty!

Mother's Day

I have to say, this year was probably by far one of my best Mother's Days. And I think it was because it was so laid back. We had celebrated with my family, my mom, the day before, so today was all for me. And my husband outdid himself in making sure I enjoyed it. No, there was no fancy restaurant - we tried that last year for brunch and all I can say is "what in the world was I thinking???" Lots of people, my kids were whiny, and it just wasn't fun. But this year, I got to sleep in (cue angel music here), I got served breakfast in bed (Raisin Bran and coffee, and it was perfect!) and then we went to church. I got to watch my kids sing on stage in their oh-so-cute way, and then viewed their artwork on display in the lobby. The message was great, the music was great, and I was teary throughout. Once we got home, my hubby sent me outside to play ball with the kids while he fried up enough bacon to feed the whole neighborhood, and made us all BLT's for lunch. We then spent the rest of the afternoon doing gardening work, which is what I had told him days ago was the way I wanted to spend Mother's Day. We got two maple trees planted, a gardening bed made, flowers planted, and plans made for more projects. Hubby again made dinner - grilled pork, pasta and veggies - and cleaned up the kitchen all along the way. It was such a nice and relaxing day for me! At bedtime all the kids gave me giant hugs and kisses, said Happy Mother's Day and I Love You Soooo Much, and went to sleep. I have photos, and once I get them all edited properly (meaning sized so they don't take three days to upload from here in the woods where we live!) I will post them. But suffice to say, it will be a Mother's Day I will remember for a long time!!

Saturday Fun

I first heard the kids start to stir at 6 am on Saturday morning. Really? Really! The one day we can sleep in during the whole entire week, and they have to get up early. I can't wait until they are teenagers, so I can wake them up early just for the heck of it! The good thing is they stayed relatively quiet for that first hour, and then you could tell they were just itching to get up and really play. So at 7 am I went to their rooms to give them the ok to get up, and by 7:17 am, this is what they came out to the living room in:

So this was the kick start to our day. We spent the rest of the morning getting some last minute preparations done for going out to my parents house. The kids and James sent me to my craft room for a little bit so they could work on some Mother's Day cards, and I gathered the supplies for the kids to make my mom a Mother's Day painting. This is what they did (photo courtesy of Daniel!):

I was so happy with how it turned out. Now I need to have them make me one for my wall! We had a nice BBQ late lunch/early dinner at my parents house. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, and I made angel food cake with strawberries for dessert. The kids had fun presenting me with their treasures they had made in school - my absolute favorite kind of gifts!

Austin was too busy playing with Auntie Melissa's new goat to come over and have his picture taken with me! Oh well, cute picture of Austin and the goat! He had fun with her!

All of my kiddos and I - just love it!