Harvest Season!

Well. Again, it has been quite a while since my last post! I am starting to think that late summer/ early fall is our busiest season! Although I didn't get to be in my garden nearly as much as I had planned this summer, we still had an abundance of pattypan squash, yellow squash, the bumpy crookneck kind of squash, zucchini, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers! I had so much squash that I didn't know what to do with it! We had it fried, baked, plain, in casseroles, in soups, etc. I finally started shredding it up and putting it in the freezer for casseroles later on this winter. I made 42 quarts of tomato juice for soups, chili, and spaghetti. I also canned some dill pickles, 17 pints I think. Something new I tried this year, peach jam and grape jelly. The absolute BEST grape jelly I've ever had. Beats anything you buy in a store! Oh and also, there's countless bags of sliced peaches, golden delicious apples, and gala apples in the freezer! I love harvest season ...

In the midst of it all, my big boy started second grade and my Angel Adah started Pre-school. (pictures soon.) She is doing very well.. I completely expected the whole crying and "mommy please don't go" thing... but she just walked in and started playing and did fine! Now she gets mad when its not her day to go to school! She loves it! I am so blessed.... At the moment, I am listening to the girls sleeping on the monitor, my window is open and I can feel the warm breeze with the hint of fall in it, and the bugs buzzing and birds chirping... God could not have blessed me any more.

Already?!

Really? Summer is over already?! Bailey starts school day after tomorrow. My Adah will start preschool a week from today. Where in the world did the summer go? It was filled with so many activities... (NONE of which i have posted about!!) Seems like school let out, we had Bible school, a beach trip, and now its over. Wow. So on to the task at hand, catching up. Will I ever really catch up? Will there EVER be a day that there is absolutely NO laundry that needs done? Probably not. But thats ok... I'm going to enjoy my kids today... Laundry will be there tomorrow. My kids.... just like summer, today isn't long enough.....

I'm still here!

Ok, so its been a month or more since I've posted anything at all! This past month has been crazy with dr's appointments, church activities, weddings, funerals, planning for vacation, etc! I promise I'm not giving up blogging.... hopefully after our next weeks vacation (5 days till the beach!) I'll be able to catch bak up. There have been so many events that I've wanted to share on here... so many summer activities that our family has enjoyed! It feels like I'm behind on everything... blogging, scrapbooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Someday! (maybe!) Hope everyone has a great week.. its VBS week here! So I'm off to clean, and begin packing today.... will post again soon!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The rest of my Birthday

Ok, so I'm a little behind on my blogging!  Have so much to catch up on!  First of all, I wanted to finish my post about my birthday present from Darius...  I knew we were going to a Steven Curtis Chapman/ Michael W. Smith concert, but had no idea that he had sold our tickets, won front row seats on an online auction and backstage passes.  He didn't tell me till dinner right before the concert!  He kept it a secret for about two weeks!  

Meeting Steven was amazing.  His music has been such an inspiration to us.  You just know from his lyrics, how deeply they flow from his soul, that he spends time in the Word.  He talked a lot about Maria that night.. his little girl that tragically died last year.  Anyone interested in learning more about adoption please go to www.showhope.org.  

Front row seats!

We had such a great time... Thank you honey for the best birthday of my life! :)

My Birthday

This was the absolute best birthday of my life! My husband worked for weeks on my surprises for me! He started on Monday (my birthday was Wednesday.)  On monday morning he gave me a docking station that would play my IPhone so I could listen to it here at home.  On Tuesday, he gave me some candles, and a primitive sign!  He knows my style very well.  

Tuesday evening we had a board meeting scheduled at the school.  It was also ladies volleyball night, so we went down a little early at 6:30.  Bailey came running back out of the gym and said, "Somebody's having a birthday party!"  My hubby had snuck out of work early, bought me a cake, and stopped and decorated the gym to have me a surprise get together with cake and ice cream!  He had a little help getting everything ready, thanks to Ashley, who ALSO kept secrets from me for about 2 weeks... LOL.  I love you girl! 

Adah was happy.  There was icing.  

Wednesday morning, he had planned to serve me breakfast in bed, and had taken the day off without me knowing it.  However, Adah got up at 6:30 that morning and got in bed with us!  But he fixed me breakfast anyways!  We had a great day together, and had planned to go to the Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith concert that night. (Pics from that in the next post) He had purchased tickets about halfway back in the auditorium.  That evening at dinner, he surprised me and told me he sold our tickets, and had got front row seat tickets and backstage passes.  That was my final and biggest surprise.  What a wonderful birthday, and what a wonderful, thoughtful, loving, caring, amazing husband! :)  I love you so much, baby! 

Thanks to everyone else who make my day so special.  I love each one of you, and am blessed with the best friends and family on earth.  Thank you Jesus, for another year of life!  

Easter 09

So, yeah, I'm late.  What else is new? LOL!  I haven't even had time to post on here recently!  I'll just try to catch up by posting a few of the major events of the past month or so.  The first one being Easter!  What a joyous holiday!  Our family had great opportunities to spend time together and make memories with our children! 

Mamaw helped the kids with their yearly tradition of coloring eggs.  Did you know that a three year old apparently does not understand what the words "drop it in EASY" mean??  I think 5 of Adah's 9 eggs were broken by the time it was over.  But she had a great time!

So here they are, the products of an imaginative 8 year old boy, and a wild 3 year old girl!  Bailey even made one of his into a submarine... and of course half of Adah's had to be "PANK!" - cause thats my favorite color. 

So we had a wonderful Easter with our friends and family, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!  Thank you, Jesus, for all you have done for us....