My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

This picture is of Jimmy right before he and his Bubba flew to Michigan for a special weekend with cousin Alli and her new husband, Erik!  His cousin Jonathan also flew out with his mom, so it was a really fun weekend for all!  Jimmy especially loved visiting the Ford Motor Museum.  This kid still loves history!  I can’t thank Jan, Alli and Julie enough for making that such a great time for him.

Meantime, while Jimmy was jetsetting without us, we had our own wonderful adventure!  We welcomed two sweet kids into our home for the weekend who were in need of foster respite care.  These siblings were some of the nicest, most respectful kids I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.  It was our privilege to have them stay with us!  And we’ve gotten to bring them to our church a few times since, which we love!

Lastly, I had to post this picture of Danny on the floor with his beloved blanket.  This is typically how Danny wakes up in the morning.  He rolls groggily out of bed, stumbles downstairs and lays on the wood floor with his blanket while he warms to the idea of being awake.  I always ask him if he’d be more comfortable lying on the couch, but he prefers to be in the middle of the excitement in the kitchen!

We were blessed a few months ago to spend a weekend in Pennsylvania with some of our friends and relatives.  I so wish it wasn’t such a long drive to go see them!

Here are the kids with Jim’s cousin’s grandsons (I tried to figure out what the exact relationship is, but the best I could come up with was that these are our kids with their second cousin’s children):

And their second cousin’s cows!

They had the best swing!

And then we went to visit our friends Ron and Tiffany, and even though their kids feel like cousins, they’re just the best of friends 🙂 . 

One afternoon, I realized that Tiffany and I were talking and we hadn’t been interrupted by my kids – they had each scattered to various activities.  Jimmy and Susie were playing basketball with friends:

Becky was entertaining (or being entertained by) Tiffany’s dogs:

Danny was playing Hot Wheels cars with Tiffany’s son (not pictured), and Tazie was happily jumping on the trampoline with a friend!

It’s so nice to visit somewhere and know that the kids are surrounded by loved ones!

Since I’m so behind in going through my pictures and uploading them to this site, over the next few days I’m going to try to post a bunch of unrelated catch-up pictures so I won’t still be going through boating pictures when it’s snowing outside (although maybe that would warm me up inside!).

Here’s Danny sporting the new headlamp from Bubba and Pappy’s trip to Tennessee:

And Tazie with her good friend at a birthday party:

Jimmy learning yo-yo techniques from a pro:

Tazie showing her hand at arts and crafts:

Tazie looking at pictures of the girls when they were newborns:

Some of Becky’s latest creations.  She cut out pictures by other people and assembled them into bookmarks with her special touches:

Isn’t this dog she drew beautiful?

This following picture made me laugh – I took it to illustrate the difference in Becky and Susie’s personalities.  I had asked the girls to put together some clothes for a weekend trip. The left pile is Susie’s, and the pile on the right is Becky’s.  Susie is more laid-back and carefree, and Becky is more organized and deliberate, both in packing and in life!  I love how the Lord gave us these two girls who are so gifted in different ways!

Another picture that made me laugh!  I love how Susie’s spirit comes through in her writing, and how well she’s done practicing her cursive, which she really didn’t learn in school (A few years ago, Susie’s teacher took a few weeks to introduce the concept, but since it’s not in the official curriculum, it was up to the kids to keep at it, and she’s done very well!):

I’ve been reading some articles lately about the importance of having kids help with chores at very early ages in order to avoid the anti-chore mindset that so many big kids display (perhaps some in this house, *cough*).  So instead of doing a lot of my chores while Tazie is napping or watching a TV show, I’ve been trying to do with her at my side.  Her company definitely makes chores more interesting!  The other day, I asked her to help me take my laundry from the washer and hang it on the drying rack.  She was very willing to help, and this is what she did to hang my shirt up!

I can’t say it would have dried wrinkle-free, but I like her creativity! 😉

Tazie’s getting to that fun age where we can do more things together, like hunt for worms after the rain:

And prepare lunch together:

But she’s still little and adorable enough to crack me up all day long!