Garden

We have a garden this summer. I am hoping that by growing our own veggies that maybe my family might start eating them. One can hope! And yes the grass outside the garden is growing fast than the things inside! We started everything from seeds. So while some people are starting to harvest we are just now getting blooms. We have gotten about 5 green beans!

We have quite a few tomato plants that have starting blooming. Our peppers didn't make it so Burk bought some plants. We now have a jalapeno pepper...

and a habanero pepper.

I can already taste the salsa!

What a Glorious Day!

Last month Hunter asked Jesus to be the boss over his life! Burk was lucky enough to be home to pray with him. Hunter has been wanting this for awhile but hasn't been quite ready. We told him he would know when God was telling him it was time. One night when Burk was putting him to bed, he asked Burk what it was like in hell. Burk told him. Hunter came out of his room just awhile later and told Burk he didn't want to go to hell. They prayed together. I love this picture, he is barely out of the water and he is smiling! I pray he is always this excited about his relationship with God!

To make this day even better, he got baptized with one of his best buddies, Cam Man!

These boys were born 5 months apart from each other and have grown up together. It was so exciting they could share this special day together!

The Never Ending Birthday

Jenna had her 4th birthday last month. Birthdays around here seem to last forever. It seems like we never have time to get all the parties done. Jenna had her first party on her birthday. We had breakfast cupcakes and presents.

The following weekend we went to Nana's where Jenna had spaghetti for her birthday dinner.

Marley was supposed to make Jenna a princess cake. Marley ended up getting sick, so the task was left to me.

Let me tell you, this is the ugliest cake I have ever made! There is a blog dedicated to cake wrecks and this one should be on it! We had been gone all day for Marley's OM. This is what happens when your tired and are rushed.

Jenna still loved it and that is all that matters! With their birthdays a day apart, Jenna and Nana get to share the birthday celebration. But you can see Nana's apple pie beside the cake!

A week later Jenna invited two of her best friends to McDonald's for lunch. Her other bestie couldn't make it in from England. Not sure why!

Don't let these sweet little faces fool you!

These are some sassy girls!

I think we are in trouble in a few years! Oh, who am I kidding we are in trouble anytime they are together!

Spring!!

Our first day of Spring we got about a foot of snow!!

It was a beautiful snow. The flakes were so big!

We had a snow drift on the north side of our house.

Marley is wearing Ugg type boots. This shows how deep the snow was.

This can't be good for the roof.

It was good snowman making snow. However, it melted quick as you can see by Burk's lopsided snowman!

Actually the best kind of snow is when it snows when Daddy is home to play!

Boys Will Be Boys

This paper came home in Hunter's backpack yesterday!

Just in case you need a closer look!

The balloon coming from the back just cracks me up! (No pun intended!)

I am not really sure what else I can say!

The Office

I have been working more hours at church. Our Children's Minister kindly offered to share her office with me. We received a nice desk that someone wasn't using and moved it right in. Our CM also moved a small desk right next to ours for the times Jenna is with me while I work. Jenna thinks she is very important.

She even has her own office supplies!

And if you were to come into the office, Jenna has her sign in sheet ready for you to sign!

Redneck Sledding

Last week we got around 5-6 inches of snow. We normally do not get this much snow and it sure doesn't last this long. Most people are not prepared with the proper clothes to keep warm or the proper sleds to sled on. In fact our W*l-M*rt didn't even get sleds in this year! They must not have checked their persimmon seeds! But this did not stop our town folk! They got very creative.
This young man and his friend stayed up until 3am working on their "sled." It was some kind of a chair that they screwed two skate boards to the bottom.

This family brought two plastic swimming pools. This was not a bad idea. You could take your whole family down at once! You pay big bucks to get into water parks to ride rides similar to this!

We saw a lot cat and dog food bags. This guy decided to wear his. What I would like to know is where is all the food? Some people had more than one bag. Is there a pile of food in the floor at home? If so, it won't be there when they get back.

Once we left this hill we saw someone going down on an air mattress. On Facebook they are telling stories of being pulled behind a truck on a truck hood. I would like to know how many people have old truck hoods lying around. Or maybe I don't! One person used a 4-wheeler to pull each other on a shovel. That just does not sound safe at all to me. Another pulled their kids with a lawn mower! I really should send this to the local stores as a plea to start selling sleds for the safety of our town.

Not Like Mom's

Last night I tried my hand at biscuits. I pulled the biscuits out of the oven. Well, they didn't quite look like mom's. And they didn't quite tasted like Mom's, but I made gravy. Everything is good with gravy on it right?

Except that the gravy didn't quite taste like Mom's either. Not sure what it tasted like. I just know it wasn't good.

I guess I will have to make chocolate gravy to put on the remaining biscuits. Everything tastes better with chocolate. And chocolate gravy I can make!

My Little Man

7 years ago on Christmas Eve we brought this little guy home in a stocking!

He has been a precious gift ever since!

Amazing Race Birthday

For Marley's 10th birthday we decided to have an Amazing Race themed birthday party. We started out by sending Traveling Gnome invitations. The inside had the details on the party. And warned that if you were the "last team to arrive you may be eliminated!"

Nana made a gnome cake to go with the theme. I didn't get a picture, but Marley was wearing gnome earrings as well!


Once everyone arrived we had them draw out bandanna's to see which team they would be on and who their driver would be. Carrie drove the green team.

Rachel and Sami drove the white team.

Burk drove the pink team.

John drove the bandit boys!

Each team received 6 clues they could not read until them completed each task. To avoid having too many at one task we had them going in different directions. This also had them wondering what place they were in since they didn't know where anyone else was.

Our good friends at Twice Blessed, a consignment store helped with this task. I had specially marked shirts hidden within all the other clothes. They had to find the shirt to get the next clue.

The next task was to collect 10 non-perishable food items to be donated to the local food pantry.

One team collected ten can goods from local homes. One team collected 3 can goods and 7 sugar packets. One team went to IGA and bought 10 can goods. The last team went to the closest convenient store and bought potted meat! Yes, that was the boys team!

The next one was a food task. This was at a friends home. When the team arrived she brought out a tray of pig ears and pigs feet. She let them gross out a bit and then brought out what they really had to eat, which was a smoked sausage!

I was so excited about this next task!

One person from each team had to climb in a balloon! How cool is that! We did have one team that didn't want to do it. Yep, it was the boys!

The owner of The Balloon Closet helped them blow up the balloon and then told them how to get in it.

Once in they could bounce around!

Each team was equipped with a camera. It was very cold out the day of the party and is the reason we have no pictures of this next task.

They were to go to the park downtown and count benches. The drivers were instructed that if they counted twice and still didn't get the correct amount to just move on to the next task. I think maybe the drivers just stayed in the car!

Everyone had the same last task. I had hidden mini gnomes in our church's prayer garden. Since it was so cold we hid them where they could be found quickly.

From the Prayer Garden they had to make their way by foot to the pit stop, which was at the youth building at our church, where the last team could be eliminated.

Once they were checked in at the Pit Stop they received one of these candy bars.

Every received a Christmas ornament before they left!

This was such a fun party to plan. We got rave reviews from the girls! I think we might have to do it again. I was thinking that once they turn 16 it will have to end. We sure don't want them driving themselves! The competitive adult drivers were bad enough!

I had a lot of help from my parents, my sister and my friends. I couldn't have done it without them! Thanks to all of you!