Hoe Down Fun!

Last weekend we attended a hoe down with the home school co-op group we are a part of this year. It was AWESOME! We were afraid that the weather was going to rain us out...but it was perfect! It was nice and cool and felt like fall with jackets on at times. It was at a HUGE farm of one of the members of the co-op...and over 300 people were there!!!

We were asked to dress as western as we wanted. Now, our family is not really known for our western wear. We had to kind of stretch to be western! We all (except Jay) wore pony tales in our hair and the girls had cute freckles too. They had a photographer there taking photos...and here is our family hoedown photo!
Look at those western cuties! I could eat them up!

Since it was a farm, there were lots of animals there to pet and play with. The girls were in heaven...especially Virginia!

They had horses for all the kids to ride (there were over 75 families there!). The girls loved getting the chance to ride!

So cute!

Then, there were fun games to play too. They had these saddles that you could get on and try to "rope" a bull! Virginia is riding one handed...giving me the 8 second high five!

Look at the roping girl! All the kids played a western game of good guys and bad guys. There was a cute jail made out of pvc pipes. They spent literally hours playing this game with all the kids!Then...there was the FOOD! They grilled out some yummy hot dogs and everyone brought different side and they were so good!!!

We also brought homemade chili for the contest. All of them were so good and we tried several. Our favorite was a white chili...that's always my favorite! All the food was in the most precious barn that was decorated and set up for everyone to get their food!Dad and Anli enjoy some gooooood foooood!

Homemade cookies are the BEST...

The kids loved the tire swing!

Virginia doing some cool moves with the hula hoops!

Virginia found a friend in the pasture. This goat was HUGE! He was really furry and funny too. Jay and I were sitting up on the hill enjoying some time hanging out and enjoying watching the kids play together. I was looking over at Virginia feeding the goat and all of the sudden it made this noise and scared her to DEATH! It was so funny that Jay and I laughed forever! So cute!

Precious growing up girl...

Cutie cowgirl...
We had such a great time! We loved meeting new people and mostly watching the girls have a BLAST with so many children. They just ran and ran and ran for hours. They had a scarecrow contest, hayrides, square dancing, and just lots of time to hang out together. What a fun memory!

New Art

I found this wonderful wall art at Khols last week and I just LOVE it! It sticks to your walls by rubbing it onto the wall with a little scrapper. It hangs in our dining room where we eat our dinners together. I just love it and I think it says it all...

"The fondest memories are made when gathered around the table"

PS. This painting is one that my father painted when I was a little girl. I just love it!

My Family's Favorite...

It is officially Fall when I make my pumpkin pie! My hubby came home last week to the house filled with the aroma of not one but TWO pumpkin pies cooling on the counter. He and the girls couldn't wait to dig in! They love the pie and I love that we have some very special traditions in our family. I am so thankful to share these with the most wonderful family in the world!

Rainy Days on Mondays...

NEVER get me down!

(...when there are fresh oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies coming out of my oven!)

Finished!

Today we finished our home study this morning and are APPROVED! It will be completed and finalized soon and we will send it off to Homeland Security to be put with our I-600a. Hopefully we will get matched soon! We are so excited...

Ruby Dolls

A while ago we ordered a set of dolls based on Proverbs 31 that are called Ruby Dolls. They are called this because a woman of noble character is worth far more than rubies. Since we started our new Keepers at Home group, we have been studying Proverbs 31.

The set of dolls come with a book that you make focusing each day on a different verse. We have been going over that daily in our Bible time for school...and have begun making our Ruby dolls. For family night last week we decided to jump in and make Ruby...or at least start!

There was a lot of crafty things involved and we are not nearly finished! We will not only make Ruby...studying all the characteristics she has...but also her family. It will take us a while, but we had a great time with Ruby. The girls learned more about sewing and the kinds of stitches involved. I am learning too! It's great that the girls are learning wonderful skills!

They learned about threading a needle and sewing her garments. They did as much as possible on their own so that they could really learn the skills themselves!

Here is Virginia's Ruby doll. Isn't she great? They did a wonderful job and each day we are all learning more about the kind of woman God has for us to be. I am getting so much out of this study...and I need to learn a lot myself!

Look at Anli's! It looks just like her. While we are doing each step, there are things we are learning about being a woman of noble character. It brings it to the girls level of being a young girl of virtue. We talk about clothing...like Ruby's clothing...we should strive to honor God with what we wear. It's a great time of discipleship with the girls...and a lot of fun too!

One month...

Well, this morning I just realized that I had been counting wrong. Yesterday was the ONE MONTH date of our approval to adopt from Uganda. And...no match yet. I thought it had only been 3 weeks! Well, at least I didn't realize that this week or I would have been more anxious:)

Our adoption coordinator said when we were approved that it could be a month before we would get our referral since they have to run articles in the papers in Uganda to make sure there are not family, friends, or Ugandan families that are open to adopting these little ones.

So...out one month mark came and went without a call. But, we know that God's timing is absolutely perfect! Maybe today...

***New post below too!***

Family Focused Friday!

Do you love to blog, but don't have the time to update it as often as you might like? Well, in my life I am ALL about redeeming my time and finding strategies to make every moment count. So, here is my tip for blogging that many of you already know about...but I wanted to share it in case you didn't.

I love to blog since it is my only scrapbook right now. I love to record all the little things we do so that the kiddos will have a heritage album of our lives day by day. BUT...I don't have the TIME to blog like I want. Many weeks would go by with HUGE long posts since I didn't have time to share.

SO...for the past several months I have been sitting down every Sunday night to write all our activities from the past week. I do 5 posts (one for each day) and then I set them to automatically post each morning at 5 am. That way...I get to quickly post for the entire week...and those who read my blog get a daily update!

It's very simple to do. Once you have made your new post, you look down right above the "publish post" button and there is a little blue link called "post options." Click that and then put the date and time you would like for the post to be on your blog! That's all!!

I have done this several time when I am out of town and want prayers for each day. I just set them to post on the days I need the prayers and they are up! I have also set a side a private blog for my girls and Jay that they go to when I am out of town. That way I can schedule a new post for them to read while I am away to stay connected! I have used this on every mission trip...complete with videos of me telling them how much I love them.

So, if you are frustrated with sporadic blogging...try this time saving trick. I have used it EVERY week for months now. Everything isn't exactly on the DAY we did it...but who would EVER know that? If there is something special I want to post about on that day (birthday, special thoughts, etc) I just post again for that day.

Hope that helps some of you, who like me, have been overwhelmed with blogging and staying current. It has sure been a time and mind saver! For example...I am writing this one ahead of time:)

Enjoy...more time focused on your family!

New friends at our house...

Last week the girls had saved up enough money from their allowance to go to the pet store and buy some of their own fish! They were thrilled to go and pick WHATEVER their money could buy! Anli came home with a blue beta. She named him Snicker.
Snicker enjoying his new groovy colored home:)

Virginia got a really cool goldfish with spots on it that she named Pebble. We already had a little bitty fish that has been alive for 3 YEARS! He is the tiniest thing, but can live through an apartment move. Her fish and our other fish were able to share the larger aquarium. It is really nice with a light, filter, and a cool rock home!

We are just adding to our numbers all the time:)

House of Cards...

The other night, the girls really got creative with EVERY card in our home! They decided to create the longest maze of cards that they could. Virginia was the master builder and Anli was quality control...with her clipboard making sure to let Virginia know when there was a crash of cards.

It was so hysterical to see a string of cards ALL over our apartment. Now, that sounds huge...but in our apartment it is only 20 steps from the front door to the end of our bedroom. But...just watch the video to see how creative they were with cards.

Then, Daddy and Virginia worked to build a house of cards. They worked on it for most of the night...building and rebuilding! They had a blast, my two engineer minded sweeties!

This was about how tall they were able to get it! I was so impressed. I especially love the different "floors" being different cards. What fun!

Keepers at Home

This year our girls are involved in a group called Keepers of the Faith...and our girls group is called Keepers at Home. It is a group of girls that strives to learn what God's plan is for young women of faith. We go once a month and work towards badges that are in our book...all the while working on the things that a Proverbs 31 girl might do to prepare herself for being a women, wife, and mom one day! It's so much fun!

Last month they made soap...I was on a mission trip with the camera when Jay took them. He's such an amazing daddy...he was the only man in the girls group. They have groups for boy called Contenders of the faith that work on skills Godly young me should know.

First, they start out their meeting with a devotion on Proverbs 31. Our girls have almost memorized the entire chapter!!! It's been challenging and convicting for me to go back through and memorize those verses. Then they played a game for teamwork that worked on diligence and patience as they worked together to get the donut in their partner's mouth! Then...they got to EAT the donut...their favorite part!

After devotion time, they work on a badge and this time it was a beading badge. We had a wonderful instructor that taught the girls all about the history of beading, different kinds of beads, and how to bead all sorts of things. But, mainly this time we worked on a seed bead ring.

She let all the girls pick their own color beads from TONS of different colors and types of beads.

Then, they began to learn to bead. It was a lot of fun...and the girls really enjoyed making a unique ring themselves.

They both love all kinds of arts and crafts...so I knew Keepers would be the perfect club for them!

The best part is that they get to hang out with LOTS of sweet girls each month and make lots of friends. They both have really good friends already and it's great for me to hang out with some other moms too! It's great to have the encouragement of other home school moms too!

Here are the finished rings...

Anli loves blue...and hers was just beautiful!

Virginia chose fall colors and really made a lovely ring. She has been wearing it every day since!

We will finish the beading badge next time and get to bead some more jewelry...and we got a precious Bless this Home plaque that we get to bead the hanger on.

If you are interested in Keepers of the Faith check out the link here:

http://www.keepersofthefaith.com/

Art Fun!

For the past several Tuesdays, the girls have been taking art classes at the Timothy Ministry. Anli has taken Chinese Brush Painting and she is doing some amazing work! We can't wait to give some out for Christmas presents! Great job Anli!!
Virginia is taking Art Mediums...where she works with a different kind of art each week. She has worked with yarn art, chalk, pastels, and will work with sculpture and wire and lots more! It is a wonderful class and she really loves it!!

Then, they take a watercolor and acrylics class together. They have done a great job with their paintings!

We LOVE art!

Hapy Fall Y'all!

This week, we turned up our favorite fall music (yes, we have fall music in our home!) and began getting out of fall decorations!



We'll be heading to our annual trip to Burt's Farm for our real pumpkins and heading to pick our own apples very soon. But, for now...happy fall y'all!

Thank you...

Jay, thank you for bringing me flowers all the time. Thank you especially for my roses this past week. You are such a sweet blessing to my life. I am so grateful to walk this road of life with you. I love you!

I'm Paper sick...

Well, today I am officially papersick. It's a lot like morning sickness...just different! It still reminds you that things are progressing along...but...it's still kind of sickening!

Today we had to do our fingerprinting at the Cherokee county detention center. Well, for some reason I must have really difficult fingers...or prints...or something. It took the officer a LONG time to finally get some prints that the sweet little machine would accept. I might or might not have a complex about my fingers now.

Then, I took Jay back to work (who, by the way, totally has cooperative fingerprints...of course!) then headed off to the FedEx office on Highway 92. The big dumpster in front of the first building might have been a sign of things to come. It was closed for flooding and remodeling. It had a few other addresses and so the girls and I headed off to find the next location.

Now, I guess I have officially lived under a rock my whole life because this was my first time to mail something FedEx by myself. Now, I have had jobs in my former life...but when you work in the creative end of publishing...you don't do much with FedEx...at least I didn't.

This was NOT the day for someone who has never darkened the door of a FedEx location to TRY to mail VERY important documents to the FBI!!!!! Um...I was sweating. See, I'm not the detail person of our marriage. I don't do the money, I don't do the bills, I don't try to work with important documents. I...do the mommy side of things. I get really nervous when things like fingerprints, background information, 911 call logs, and the sort have to be mailed off to people who ARE detail oriented and get paid to check EVERYTHING.

So, I do what I always do when I am totally clueless...I march right up to the counter and tell them how ignorant and clueless I am and beg for their help. I find that most people like to know things...and like to talk about what they know...and will usually help those that admit they are clueless. Today...my lady was less than impressed.

I just laid all my things on the counter...told her what I was told in a very lengthy letter on how to send all this stuff...and then waited for her kind help. Um...no. She looked back at me and said...I don't know what you are supposed to do. Um...what???

An hour later...4 times up at the counter with the WRONG forms (there are like a LOT of forms!) I think I finally got everything sent to it's rightful place...or not...I'll find out soon enough. She had no mercy on the ignorant. She sent me back to that little desk of forms 3 times. I had to call my home study agency...tear up several forms...and pretty much beg God to help me have a "sound mind."

Towards the end, when it finally looked like there was a light at the end of the tunnel, she saw the packet that had ADOPTION - PLEASE EXPEDITE on it. She talked a little to me about it and seemed to be a little kinder when I told her about it. I pray that all those precious little prints and papers and releases get to their right places.

So, today is one of those papersick days. They aren't always the most fun part of the process, but they do remind you that you ARE in the process...and that something REALLY precious is on the way!!! That about wraps up the paperwork for right now...until we are matched with a little one (hopefully NEXT week!!) then there is another round for the Africa side of things.

I think from now on...I will be sending my very smart, very detail oriented, very knowledgeable hubby to the FedEx office. In adoption...you get to SHARE the sickness:)

New Ministers' Wives conference

Last week, my friend Paula and I got to help lead a conference for the new ministers' wives in Georgia. We had SO much fun (we had gotten to do another conference the week before too!). The ladies were so sweet and open.

Mary (in the red) is our Georgia Baptist Convention ministers' wives consultant and she is such a wonderful resource for all the wives in Georgia. I just love working with her! Katie ( in the cream) is the current President and Paula (in the green) is the upcoming secretary. I am so honored to work with these women! Amy (who could not be there) will be the upcoming Vice President. We all are looking forward to our year of leadership starting in November!

God continues to bless me with the opportunities to serve the women of Georgia...alongside some awesome wives! We talked about ministering in our spiritual gifts. We had lots of yummy goodies, enjoyed some get to know you games, and got some groovy bags. Mary ALWAYS gives out wonderful bags.

So, if you are a minister's wife in Georgia...let me know! We have an amazing retreat we are planning for you in January. Please let me know so that I can give you all the details.

PS...what's with me looking pregnant...do you think it's the adoption:)