I thought I would take a moment and update my blog. I did sign-up for facebook, but I really prefer the forum of a blog; it is much more pleasant, personal and pretty. :-) Just a few things that I actually took pictures of . . .
Charles and Sammi going to church. Daniel and William were sick, so I stayed home first and then Charles came home while I went back to teach my YW lesson. Cutie-heads . . .
Sure love these two!
Water days . . . the kids have enjoyed cooling off while running in the sprinklers . . . I have enjoyed sitting back and watching them squeal.
William's new hair-cut -- he is now a "real boy". Daniel got a haircut, too. He insists on having "bangs". Cute boys. It cracks me up that William will just tackle Daniel as if he is the same size . . . Daniel is usually pretty tolerant. :-) I can't wait until Daniel is 16 and William is 12. Oh boy!
Lovely Sammi and lovely roses. Sammi has been doing well and she achieved her Faith in God goal of getting straight A's for the whole year. She is a determined little person. Her nose is always in a book, usually fantasy. I wish I had had the amazing books to read that she has! I remember reading Babysitters club, Sweet Valley Twins, and other non-brain-stretching books! Sammi is a joy! She is almost 9 and will be in 4th grade! Yikes!
I have been trying to teach the kids little lessons here and there. We did a dinosaur lesson and I made homemade clay so we could create our own dinos. We watched a dinosaur movie, and colored some dinosaurs, too. They loved it.
The kids have been enjoying breakfast more during the summer . . . their favorite so far is German Pancakes -- amazingly easy and wonderful!
This is what our backyard looked like when we moved in (2 years ago). It was also infested with box-elder bugs (by the thousands -- no joke!) spiders of every kind (by the hundreds), earwigs, and huge black beetles. It was a bug breeding ground . . . I still cannot believe we cleaned up the crazy mess --layers and layers of rotted debris, rocks, 200 cinderblocks, tree chopping, stump digging, etc, etc. The first time I saw the yard I thought, "This has potential?!" . . .
Last Saturday I spent the day lying on a blanket on our grass, soaking in the sun and beauty . . . I looked around in awe of what we had accomplished, and I was so grateful for what we had done . . . our hard work is paying off. Sometimes you just need to have a "vision" of what is possible and then you work hard and make that vision a reality . . .
The front of our home before we moved in . . .
The front of our home now (it would not let me type above the picture)
The kids used to play in the dirt and rocks after we cleared out the top layer of debris . . .
Now they can lay and play on the lovely green lawn . . .
I have been amazed at the beauty that surrounds me lately. I am so grateful to live in this beautiful world. There is hope for the future. Have a vision for your life, and who you want to become . . . and make that vision become a reality. Anything is possible.
