November Pictures

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October Pictures

September Pictures

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August Pictures

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July Pictures

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June

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A Great Loss in My Little World

It's said that you never realize how much you will miss something until it's gone.  I discovered this last night and even this morning as I mourn the loss of my garden.  Each summer we have a garden, and the kids and I enjoy watching it grow, harvesting vegetables, etc.  This garden also provides our family with enough vegetables, spaghetti sauce, salsa, and pickles to last us through the winter.  Yesterday a major storm came through here producing baseball sized hail coming in every direction (unlike anything I've ever seen).  It caused a lot of damage and shredded my garden in minutes.  We also found out after the fact that a tornado also touched down less than 1/2 mile from here (no damage was done).  So today I'm working on finding the blessings in this storm as I mourn the loss of my garden and ache for the farmers who lost their crops.

(end of June)

(mid-July)

(last week)

(last night)

May

Summer is just flying by and we have enjoyed many fun adventures together.  Unfortunately I'm way behind in going through my pictures.  I'm hoping to catch up before we start school again.  He's a picture from our camping trip in May.

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Summer Fun

The summer has only begun and it has already been lots of fun and full of adventure.

Saying good-bye to Grandma's chickens before we butchered them.

Kyler is so proud of his new helmet.  He wanted to wear it the whole day  as we ran errands and hung out at home.

Thanks to Daddy's help, Kristin and Kade learned to ride their bikes without training wheels.  We went for a family bike ride and Kade loved it.

Kristin was not too impressed with our family bike ride and requested that we never do that again.

Kade has been obsessed with baseball for a while now, so we signed him up for t-ball this year.  He just LOVES it and keeps telling us he will always love baseball. =)

Kristin had her dance recital, and like last year loved every minute of performing on stage.  If she could, she'd skip all the classes and just perform on stage.

Photo Shoot

The kids and I had a fun morning visiting one of our favorite parks in the mountains and taking pictures.  Of course a bag of candy was very helpful, they were all smiles. =)

Art at its Best

In today's art lesson we talked about trees and did a couple fun projects.  One project was painting a tree.  You definitely can tell a lot about someone's personality when looking at their paintings, or at least you can with my kids.  Here are their paintings:

Kristin's painting of a tree, which is more like a vineyard

Kade's tree, simple and to the point

Daddy Date

One of our kid's favorite things to do is go on special adventures/outings with Luke.  He could take them to something they absolutely hated and they would still love it just because they are getting to spend time with daddy.  Yesterday Luke took Kristin fishing and out to dinner.  They both had a blast.

Kristin said she caught 7 fish and daddy caught 8

Kristin thought this sign was hysterical 

Train Ride

 I love being able to spend my days with these 3 goofy kids.  They are so much fun.  Part of our schooling adventures took us on a train ride yesterday.  It was so much fun and the kids learned all about railroad safety.

Spring Fun

We have had a super snowy spring this year.  So this weekend we thought we'd take a trip up to the mountains before the next storm came in.  We enjoyed a beautiful park, a picnic, some fishing, etc.

It was a good this we enjoyed this little bit of sunshine because the next day we woke up to snow.  After 24+ hours we had a little over a foot of snow.  We have enjoyed playing in it.

You know it's time to be done playing in the snow when you see faces like this. =)

March Hi-lights

I can't believe it's already April.  It seems like the last few months have flown by.  As always, there's never a dull moment around here.  Here are a few of our adventures from March:

Luke and I enjoyed a weekend away in San Antonio

We've enjoyed some warmer spring days

The kids went on multiple eggs hunts, our neighborhood hunt ended up being in the snow (the kids loved looking for eggs in the snow)

We enjoyed a week of fun easter projects & crafts

Disney on Ice

Starting our garden

The Unexpected

There are always unexpected things in life you can never plan for; and you learn a lot about yourself and family in those situations. I was reminded of this a couple days ago when the kids and I found ourselves in a car accident. We are beyond blessed to have walked away without any wounds physically or emotionally (wish I could say the same for my car which had to be towed). As for the other gal in the accident, she may not have been injured by the accident, but whatever possesses someone to drive into oncoming traffic is very concerning (please pray for her).

In situations like this, I don't really think, I just go into fight or flight mode. Which included important phone calls: 911, my husband, and the necessary people at church to say I wouldn't be there to teach. We were beyond blessed by the car that stopped with us to make sure everyone was okay. A car full of nurses (one a registered EMT), definitely a God thing.

Through this whole situation, my kids amazed me the most. They were totally fine and truly enjoyed hanging out with the fire fighters. Kristin of course asked them if I was going to jail. Kade was telling them about Jesus (stay tuned for this story in the future). And Kyler enjoyed sitting in the warm blanket the fire fighters provided since we were not dressed properly. Once I finally got a chance to really ask my kids how they were doing, Kristin's response was, "don't worry mommy, Jesus was with us when we were by ourselves in the car" (when I was outside talking to the officers).

The greatest thing I got out of this I learned from my children: put Jesus 1st and make him your focus no matter what the situation (panic mode is helpful to no one). The faith of a child is a powerful thing.

I have learned over the last year to really be thankful & find joy in every circumstance. I am so thankful for all the emergency crew who helped (especially the fire fighters), for the random strangers who stopped to help, for the bus stop benches that gave my children a place to sit, for family & friends who offered to help, for another insurance company that will pay for damages, for our insurance agent calling out of concern for our family, that no one else was involved despite the heavy traffic, for God keeping us safe, for Jesus being with my children and giving them peace, for my sons boldness to talk about Jesus, and most importantly for the opportunity I had to learn and be challenged in my faith.

On a other note, I also learned that we should dress more appropriately when leaving the house. Sweatshirts on my kids and flip flops on my feet were fine when we left, but when the sun starts to go down, the temperatures drop greatly.

Another Celebration

It seems like we start celebrating family birthdays in the fall and then we just keep partying until February.  Last month we celebrated our sweet boys 5th birthday.  I can't believe he is 5 already, my how time does fly.  He loved every bit of his celebration (which was a full weekend of events) and I'm thankful we now have a break from all the presents, I feel overwhelmed by stuff right now (definitely time to start spring cleaning).

(a special lunch date with grandma)

(a special sign his big sister made for him)

(the easiest cake I have ever make, this was all he wanted on it, no words)

(a family trip to the museum with daddy)

(a family birthday party)