Summer Arts Festival

Anna has always had a love for art. Ever since she could hold a crayon in her hand she's loved making beautiful pictures. This summer our wonderful church offered classes in the arts. They painted tiles, made picture frames, decorated cakes, and much more, all in the name of Jesus. The theme was Treasure and how we are each a treasure in God's eyes and He is our treasure. This past Wednesday was the celebration night where all of the children had their art on display. My beautiful girl had her painting hung right up there on the wall just like in an art gallery. I'm so proud of her!

What a beautiful creation God made when he made my Anna Grace. Perhaps He put a little of His creativity into her...

O-O-O-Opossum

There are a few things in this world that scare me: someone jumping out at me, my kids running out toward the street, and....animals where they shouldn't be. Let me explain. Just a few weeks ago we had a "problem" with snakes. Rich had run over a few while mowing and told me to keep an eye out for them in the yard. So I was vigilant and looked at every stick as if it were about to slither away, didn't let the kids in the grass without shoes on, and didn't venture out too far away from the house. The problem with this whole scenerio is that we live on eight acres of wooded land that has wildlife all over it. So as you can well imagine I happened to spot a snake slithering across our stone wall in the front of the house one evening. Needless to say, I did a hopping shrieking dance across the driveway. Thank the Lord Rich had just came home from work. (Early I might say, yes God does take care of us in every circumstance.) My knight in shining armor, or khaki slacks as the case may be, pulled out his 410 shotgun and shot that snake! My hero saved his damsal in distress. And what distress I was in!

Okay, now fast forward several weeks to today. After having a wonderful visit at my mom's house this evening, Anna, Micah and I returned home to get ready for bed. Before we headed inside I decided to go check on Rippy and give him some fresh food. Micah didn't have his shoes on so I carried him on one hip and carried the dog food in the other hand. I entered Rippy's pen and set down his food, then proceeded to peek into his feeder to check and see how much food was left in there. As I did this I caught a glimpse of little white feet that did not belong in a dog food dish. I let out a scream, tried to keep from dropping Micah and ran out of the pen back to the house. We decided to wait for Daddy to get home and that Rippy could sleep in the garage tonight. When Rich got home we told him the whole story and my brave husband said that we needed to get it out. So out into the dark we went, me carrying a shovel and Rich with the shotgun. I didn't want to be in charge of the gun, I might have shot the wrong target. So I was in charge of knocking over the feeder and jumping up on top of the dog house. I did this with excellent skill. My brave knight kicked the feeder out the pen door and proceeded to open the door so that the oppossum could escape. I know that these close encounters with the animal kind are to be expected when you live in thier natural habitat, but I definately prefer the four beautiful deer we saw this morning over the oppossum and snakes anyday!

Bonfires, Bikes, and Barns Oh My!

This past weekend was absolutely one of the best we've had in a while. The weather was gorgeous (78 degrees on Saturday) for July and we decided to do lots of outdoor activities. The kids had spent the night Thursday with Mema and Papa, so Friday morning I had the opportunity to go pick up Micah's "Big Boy" bike that I had found on Craigslist. It is hotwheels and has fire on the side...right up my little guy's alley! So when the kids came home Friday night we gave him his bike and made the day of a 2 1/2 year old! He is 100% boy and LOVES the color blue. God provided exactly the bike my little man wanted...isn't He good?

Later that night we decided to have a bonfire up in our back "pond" area. We roasted marshmallows and made smores. Micah said that he liked the "fire" ones the best.

Then on Saturday we visited the Rutledge Wilson farm which is not far from our house. The kids loved seeing the animals and playing in the hay and on the playground that was in the shape of a barn. What a wonderful weekend we had, and as Rich said this morning, "These are the best times of our life!"

Swim Lessons and the Finished Project

Today was the first day for Anna's swim lessons at the Nixa Aquatics Center. With black clouds overhead and wet pavement underfoot, we set out to go swim. She was so excited and followed all of the teacher's instructions. This summer has been great for Anna's confidence in the water. When we went camping and boating a few weeks ago, our little fish just jumped right off the front of the boat and swam all around that lake (with a life jacket on of course). So when she came to me after lessons and said, "Mom, watch this," I was impressed that she could already swim under water, but not really surprised. Anna has always loved the water and I'm sure that she's going to learn alot in these next two weeks of lessons.

"Swimming, swimming, just keep swimming." --Dori from Finding Nemo

Burrrr, the water was quite chilly!

Finally, presenting the finished sewing project. Anna did such a wonderful job on her very first attempt at sewing. I'm going to frame this and put it up in her room.

Train ride and sewing

Yesterday was a wonderful day of firsts.

Micah is so crazy about trains, especially Thomas the Train, and we wanted to experience a real train ride before the wonder wears off. So we ventured off to the Branson Scenic Railway and rode a real train through two tunnels, across bridges, and into Arkansas. Anna and Micah both loved eating lunch on the train and walking between the cars while the train was going. Micah especially loved playing on the Thomas train table on the actual train. We had so much fun and made wonderful memories.

The conductor came by and punched our tickets. He punched an A for Anna and an M for Micah just like on the Polar Express. We were quite impressed!



Finally, this is a gorgeous view of the beautiful Ozark mountains.

Sewing....

Anna came to me and said, "I want to sew." So I gave her some fabric, borrowed an embroidery hoop from Grandma, and drew out a picture with chalk. After showing her a simple stitch she went to work. She has now sown two flowers, a sun, and her name. We'll show the finished project soon.

What a great day!

Here we go!

I have just jumped into the world of blogging. Hopefully this will be a wonderful journey that lasts for years to come.