Finally a place to hang a hammock...

And enjoy the beautiful sunsets... love it!!!!

A few pictures...

   Here's a few pictures from around here... the last is a picture of our bathroom wall. Cherise cut out the verse and sent it down... love it! Thanks, Cherise!
The other two pictures are of our newly painted schoolroom, and the new porch with the grates up!

Still here!!!

Good morning from the mountains!

    It's been silent on here, I know, and I'm sorry. Life around here has been SO busy! My computer has issues and I did a system recovery in hopes that it would fix itself. But that didn't help, so my pictures that I've been wanting to post stay on  my external hard drive till my computer gets fixed.

Speaking of hard drives...Michael was with me while I was transferring files off my computer and I asked him to get my external hard drive. As he brought it he wondered if he needs one when he learns to drive??!!

The work is getting done! Dad and Carl worked so hard to get all the grates for the porch welded and put up. Mom and Esther painted and painted! Today they are working at getting primer on all the grates so they don't rust before we get them painted. Dad and Carl just got everything hooked up, so we can pump water directly from the cistern right to the barrel on the roof!!!!

Everyone is well, except Weston has a cold. But he is feeling better. We are so blessed! God is so good!

Hope to figure out some way to post some pictures of the work soon!

Cleaning!

 Yeye took a week off of work, so we decided to take off of school, and get some more concentrated cleaning done. It was actually a pretty fun week, and it felt SO GOOD to see a cleaner house appearing behind all the hard work and scrubbing! One sunny day we hauled the sofa out into the sunshine, and gave it a good cleaning.

         The children were such good helpers!!! They did a good job scrubbing the walls outside on the porch, and sure enjoyed it too!!! Even the little ones were helping scrub windowsills with toothbrushes!!! :)

Birthday Boys...

      Jared, Kenneth, and Weston all celebrate their birthdays within one week's time, so we end up just doing  one party for all of them. It's such a highlight for them to decorate their own cake - do you notice Jared's tractor that he created out of Reese's pieces... Weston just plopped or threw his little candies on the cake, and Kenneth lined his up all in a row. Makes me smile to see their personalities show through in the little things. :-)

    Isn't this 2 year old just way too cute??? :) I know I'm prejudiced because he's mine ;-). He was super, super excited about his birthday, has been talking about it for weeks already, and now to actually see his cake... his joy was complete!!! He is doing pretty well in the graduation from diapers. :-)

Hello!

I thought since I haven't been posting many pictures lately, I could at least take the time to let you have a little peek into our lives today!

It's a beautiful day! Warm sunshine with refreshing breezes! The children are having so much fun outside. They made a "tent" in their sandbox, and their imaginations are the limit to all the things they can find to do with their "tent".

Kelly had 7 puppies a couple weeks ago. This week the children discovered that their eyes are open, and to them that's the signal that they're big enough to play with. They each picked their "own" puppy, and take out in the yard to play for hours... even wrapping them up in "blankets"!!! :-)

After the children clean up in the evenings, they like to play "kick the can" before they come in for bed, and it  is so cute to watch Weston enter into the game too. He runs over to the can, puts his foot on top, and calls all the children out! :-)

And a few laughs...

Yesterday Kenneth, (who is really wishing for a pig again) asked me, "Mommy, didn't Alex' pig hatch yet?!" Can you tell that we've had lots of chicks hatch around here??? I had to chuckle as I told him, "Honey, baby pigs aren't hatched like chicks, they're born like puppies!" (The children were able to watch the puppies when they were born.)

A little while ago I was having a mid-day snack of animal crackers. Elaine must have thought that I didn't know when to stop, or else she wanted some too 'cause she said, "Mommy, you ate too much candy!"

Weston recently acquired a pair of flipflops that are slightly too big for him... He loves those things, though, and has to learn how to walk while wearing flipflops. I got such a kick out of him shuffling around, obviously tickled, and then he'll look up beaming over and over, "Tank-ou, Mommy!"

Cherlise is 6!

 Six already?! It's hard to believe how fast the time flies by...

I love how sometimes she runs into the room with no other intention than to throw her arms around you in a quick hug, and then she's off to her play again! She is such a little sunshine (most of the time!!! ;-) 

 

 Hard to believe that it's already 6 years since she was this size... Her mom died 2 weeks before she came to us, and in that time she dropped from her birth weight of 4lbs 8 oz to 3 lb 12 oz.!

   Cherlise, you are a "Jewel" just like your middle name!