If you've met him you know that he's

A boy who will make you smile. A boy who will carry your stuff. A boy who loves his binky.

A boy who loves to snuggle and sleep in my floor. A boy who says the sweetest prayers.

A brother who cares. A son who still adores his mommie. A boy who sings even though he doesn't know the words. If you sit in front of us at church you know this to be true..
A boy who looks good in a hat and who will protect you with sticks. His weapons are always handy. A boy my boy...I can't get enough of his sweetness.
He loves to go to the movies with his daddy He loves the Lord. He remembers Pops.He talks about Papa Bear.He's alittle shy especially around girls.
He was our best baby..He's a pouter when he gets in trouble. He ask for forgiveness and he loves pizza. He likes to play in the bath-tub with his little men and at the end of a day he falls asleep while sucking his thumb with binky snuggled up beside him...

If you have never talked to him try it sometime.You will not be disappointed...You'll walk away smiling...

Our very first harvest

It's so much fun having lots of little ones around to dig in the dirt with you. They are at the perfect age to do anything...
They loved helping us find our yellow gold(potatoes.) They ran their fingers through the dirt over and over so as not to leave one behind.
They helped Scott put them all under the house for safe keeping until we needed them to eat..The bath-tub looked like

someone had poured dirt in the water.

The amazement of their eyes when they would pull another one out of the ground.

Thank you Lord for giving us our daily bread and thank you for reminding us that all things come from you.

u

and the winner is........

Congratulations Darby, I know where to find you! Thank you for your devotion to this 5k.
We love you!

Keep up the good work Theresa, Michael, Green Gardening Girl, Kathy, Bria, and Amy.

The past, The present, and the future..

He bought the car the week she was born..."this will be her first car" he said..
I humored him because this little girl barely a week old would not be driving for a long
time..

He kept it all these years despite several serious buyers along the way..He had it re-done
twice and wouldn't dare let anyone drive it..not even Scott.


Everytime we would go visit he would say "go look at your car."
Again I humored this old man we affectionately called 'Papa Bear.'

Papa Bear died in December 2007. In his will it was clear that this car was Taylor's.

We took it to the mechanic and it's been there for 2 months.

Scott drove it home this weekend for the first time, and as I was driving behind him

I thought papa bear would be proud. His grand-daughter has her

car. I started crying because this was his first and last gift to her.

A 1964 cherry red mustang for a girl..Who would do that when the girl has a brother only

two years younger? I'll tell you who: Papa Bear... he was a rebel in his own right and no-one could figure him out on most days..he had a reason..

As she sat behind the wheel trying to learn the gears and ignoring the loud 'glass pack' she looked over at me and said "this is cool."

Taylor and I have been taking drives all weekend. Wind blowing in our hair, sun-glasses on and
the memory of a man who rides with us..

Well done Papa Bear...:)

5-k give away

So I know it's been a long hot summer and you don't feel like running or eating right.
You're thinking you might not be ready for the big 5-k...
Come on, you know anything worth having is hard, hard work but it will pay off in the end..
So if your new to my blog and don't know about the 5-k look on my side-bar for the 5-k sign-up and read our story and then sign up it's that simple.

I need you guys to be with me on this. I need my friends to run to honor William..
I don't want to do this one alone...

So as an extra incentive we have put together a runners grab bag...It's got some very cool things, some useful things, and a few funny things thrown in...All you have to do is leave a comment and tell us where you're from and how you're preparing for the run.

We will leave this post up until Monday at 12:00pm and then announce the winner on Tuesday morning...We will pick a winner from the hat method.....Even if your not able to come to the run leave us a comment to let us know you're supporting us.....


Where I'm at in my training:

I'm running 2 miles...yippee
My clothes are too big....big yippee
I eat lots of salads which I have come to love..
I look forward to my work-outs (ok so I lie):)
I have added weekly hikes into our schedule to get more work-out time..


So leave a comment and maybe you'll be our first big winner..... As we get in shape to remember Our William....

Little flowers never worry when the rain begins to blow because if it never never rained then they would never ever grow

"mama I wanted to be like you and Taylor"

Paint Job by Channie-Mae

Insights

The follwing is an excerpt from one of the blogs that Robin follows.

"Love is the greatest because even when the pain comes, and it will because pain is the underbelly of love, nothing can ever steal love's joy. Even when the love seems gone, a memory, the joy of that memory still remains, always. And so the love remains forever."

Pain is a very real part of life. Our family has had it's share of pain in the past couple of years. CS Lewis tells us that the line between true grief and self pity is fine. It is hard to see that line sometimes....

Robin, our children, and myself continue to live in faith and continue to seek God's will. Our devotions, our family time is all more precious than ever before. Almost without fail, our son "Baby Willie" is mentioned by one of the children when our family gathers for prayer.

The quote above can truly be described as "bittersweet".

I am thankful that God is sovereign. That He is in control. I am thankful that I can lay my sorrow at His feet.

We have been reading Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. Many of the devotions stress the balance between highs and lows in our service to God. That we need to praise Him daily, whether we are in the valleys or on the mountain tops.

So we do.

Scott

Colors on Canvas

Our family loves to paint and draw so we decided to spend 40.oo on canvas's and paint and do our own art work for our baby's room.
Scott came home with all the goodies and until 11.00 we painted and drew our heart's out.


This is Taylor's picture. She found this on Pottery Barn selling for 200.00 and she painted it for less than 5.00

This is Cooper's and Tuckers master pieces

This is Scott's art work..This one is above the baby's bed..So cute!!

This is my art work. I'm not a very good drawer so I found a book and used tracing paper...shhhhh don't tell anyone

The mess is cleaned up and all have fallen asleep..I have five new pictures in our baby room and I think we have a new hobby...:)

Our School Daze

Doing "School" with three and four year old's is alot of fun but also alot of work......

Between keeping everyone on the same page there's tears, fights and tummy aches and bathroom breaks...I have started using a new program with my little ones that has truly amazed this home-school mom..It's called Frog Street and it teaches the name and sounds of letters by using music..My kids absolutely LOVE it.. I will say it's alittle pricey but if you have more than one it might be worth it...They dance and jive all over the place and laugh like crazy.....I hear them singing the Annie Song through out the day and they can spot a "mamma A" anywhere...

Besides letters we're also working on cutting and gluing. I give them each a bin with their name on it so they can put all of their work for the day so they can show daddie.. They love to show off their work to their biggest fan...I also do a bible story and the pledge allegiance to the flag.Cullen is working on his first and last name. We go over days of the week and listen to books on tape while they have rest time.

"School" only takes about an hour or so... then it's off to watch one ' little bear' and then nap time....
Being flexible is so important to teaching this age group..I always make sure I have snacks in my snack can and a sense of humor....
These days are fleeting and I try and take advantage of every moment to teaching my kids about God getting along with each others and learning to do good work...I always make sure this is a FUN time..I don't want them to associate being with me and doing school a drag...(Now this changes after they get older and take some responsibility in their education.)

g

Dinner and a movie.... I think I love ya

Home-made pizza fresh from the oven

Flowers fresh from the gardenKids fresh from the yard.A movie with the Partridge family's song "I think I love ya".......been humming it all day..

Jordan getting his instructions from Channie-mae..:)

Jo stopping long enough to give me a smile...

Josh making his world famous popcorn while we all watched on.

The beauty of friendship.... wrapped up with a wonderful meal and a funny movie....
What more could you ask for on a Friday night....

Enjoying New Life with dear friends.

Our dear friends just had their 8th baby, Ellia. We went over to see the newest addition and she was beautiful...

My friend Kelly went all natural this time and to be honest she still seemed to be "in shock.":)

She said she's still trying to find the beauty in a natural childbirth..Gotta love her honesty..

I can't wait to get to know this little girl and see how the Lord uses her for his Kingdom..

It made me miss William like crazy but..rejoicing nonetheless.....

This is a late night "sneak Blog"

Robin will probably delete this blog when she wakes up early and sees this. So for you priveleged few I will attempt to enlighten you with an update on current events.

1. Cap and trade....This is nothing more than a well planned scheme to raise the fears of the sheep about "global warming". Over the past few years, and now, the liberal wolves and their lackeys, the main stream media, have indoctrinated us with the global warming...greenhouse effect nonsense and now they are frothing at the bit to reap their reward. If you have been duped into believing in global warming, then I suppose you may think that cap and trade is "wise". Shame on you. If we truly are destroying the environment why would we allow ANYONE to continue to do so? NPR (as liberal as they get) explained to me how this new policy will work.... if you make enough profit you can buy other businesses carbon credits and continue to pollute. Please...can you believe this line of thinking? If you have swallowed this el toro caca

then you ARE A SHEEP. This entire policy is nothing more than liberal socialist taking big government to another level.

We must stop the madness! Obama and his minions and the main stream media will move us closer to chaos than any administration prior to this one.

All you people who have voted for "hope and change" please take a realistic view at where we are now as a nation, and see the truth, don't continue to applaud the downfall of our great nation. QUIT BEING SHEEP!!!

Conservatively yours

Scott

View from the White House:

photography by Taylor