Oh! To Live on a Farm!!!!!

On Tuesday, I had the priveledge of going with 3 of the kindergarten classes at Emma Claire's school to the Barnyard!!!! It was SO much fun and I apologize for picture overload, but I just couldn't help myself!!!!

Remember this pig, more about him later....

The Bunnies, Oh! The Bunnies!!!! I see a bunny in our future!!!!!

The white ones loved to be held and cuddled, the black and gray ones, not so much - Emma Claire's got away from her!!!!

White is such a peaceful color....

The chicks were pretty scrappy too!

Hi! Mr. Goat!!!!

Mr. Sheep!

Mr. Pig!!!!

It was so fun watching all these friends together!!!!

Chasing Chickens..... Remember when????

Sharing...

A class photo - you'd better act fast - these don't stay still for long!!!!!

A sad face - all she wanted was to get in the pen with the bunnies - did I mention she LOVES bunnies - she could sit and hold one ALL.DAY.LONG!!!!!

Wanting them REALLY bad!!!!!

In line to ride the horse, but still sad that she can't get in the bunny pen!!!!!

But Wait!!!! Did you hear that? While you're waiting to ride the horse, you can go play with the bunnies!!!! Yipeee!!!!!! I haven't seen Emma Claire move that fast in forever (maybe never)!!!!!!!

She captured a bunny and the following photos can be titled, "Poor Bunny"!!!!

They were sweet bunnies though, and all the children were so gentle with them!!!!

Next came the lake and boat ride and feeding the ducks and fish - I still can't believe someone didn't fall in!!!!!

There were some HUGE catfish too that kept eating all that bread!!!!

Off on a boat ride!!!!

Yes, that would be my child dragging her hands in the water - I guess I forgot to warn her of snakes and those HUGE CATFISH!!!!!

Here's that pig again - Emma Claire fell in love, and so did I. I want one - especially when I heard that pigs are actually very clean animals and can be house-trained quite easily!!!!! They'll even sit on the couch with you and eat potato chips and watch a movie - how fun!!!!

But you want to know what turned me away??

The fact that this pig will one day be 1200 pounds!!!!

Did you see that - 1200 pounds!!!!???? Talk about eating you out of the house!!!!??? I can't imagine how much food that pig will eat!!!!!!

Emma Claire LOVES animals and takes good care of them - maybe one day she can spend a summer on a farm!!!!!!!

As long as there is an outlet for her dramatics and flair!!!!!

Coming soon...how our house is getting a little closer to becoming a farm!!!!! (and I'm not talking about Wilson and Henderson - though pretty much everyday when I pick them up from school they look like they've been rolling with the pigs!!!! Those boys LOVE some dirt!!! ha ha!!!)

Mud Room Re-do

In our house, we have 4 rooms painted this wonderful shade of red (Mud Room, Foyer, Living Room and Dining Room). Now, I really do like red in houses - we have MANY rugs with this exact shade, but 4 rooms!!!! - I am so sick of seeing red!!!! So, I have begun to paint, one room at a time. I started with what I thought would be the easiest, until I decided halfway through to paint the trim and doors also, and realized that there are 7 doors in this little room (one of which is a bi-fold closet door with all those little slats - YUCK)!!!!

Here are some before pictures:

That door at the end leads out to our garage and this room can become the messiest, dirtiest room in our house in about 30 minutes. This is also the room that is seen by more people - anytime a child is dropped off or picked up.
It's a great color red - not too orange or pink or burgundy, but enough is enough!!!!

Voila!!!!

I am a big fan of walls and trim color/doors being the same color, it just makes the room "flow" a little better.
And I'm so sorry, but I can't give you the name of the paint color - it's a custom color that we've used in Henderson's room and our upstairs hallway. I'm pretty sure it's Sherwin William's Down Home, but I can't be certain.

Here you can catch a glimpse of the next phase of red that will need to go - the staircase/foyer!!!!! It's a 2-story foyer with lots of crown molding and railing and stairs - it will be a HUGE job!!!!

Seven

SEVEN

Perfection.Completeness

Seven wonderful years with the one I love

We've been through a lot in 7 years - 4 houses, 3 children. Will is the most patient, hard-working, selfless man I know. He loves me unconditionally, is gentle, kind, and humble. He prioritizes "our" time together and looks forward to it!!! I am the luckiest woman on earth to be loved by him. He loves Jesus and his mama and that makes a GREAT man, let me tell you!!!!
He loves our 3 children and spends time with them, disciplines them as a loving father should, reads to them at night, wrestles with them, scares them silly, and even lets them ride on his shoulders to see (or be protected from) Big Al!!!!

I love you Will!!!!

Happy 7th Anniversary!!!!

"...I found the one my heart loves."

Song of Solomon 3:4

Weeds

Yesterday I was in the backyard pulling weeds out of the grass while the children were enjoying popsicles!!!! Emma Claire walked up to me and this conversation followed:

EC: "Mommy, what are you doing?"

ME: "Sweetie, I'm pulling the weeds up out of the grass."

EC: "Why are you doing that? They are so pretty!!!!"

ME: "Yes they may look pretty on the outside and have all kinds of pretty flowers on them, but underneath the ground they are stealing all the water from the grass and making it so the grass can't grow!"

EC: "Oh!?"

ME: "It's kind of like sin, sometimes it looks pretty on the outside, but when it gets in your body it's really really bad and can make you sick and feel far from God." (not exactly sound theology, but it got my point across)

EC: "BAD weeds, BAD weeds - I'm going to help you pull them all out so the grass can grow!" "What's all that at the bottom of the weed?"

ME: "Those are the roots, they grow down in the ground and drink all the good water, you must pull all the roots out or they will just continue to grow and grow and grow, even though you cut the flower away"

A little later, I was in my bedroom and I heard Will call for the children and I looked out, Emma Claire had a HUGE handful of flowering weeds in her hands, roots and all. She excitedly exclaimed to her daddy, "Look at all the flowers I found!!!" Will replied, "Emma Claire, those are weeds, not flowers" And ya'll, she threw them down as quickly as she could and said "Bad Weeds" in a mean mean voice.

I hope and pray she's like that with sin in her life, she may not always recognize it as sin at first, but hopefully when she does, she will throw it out of her life without thinking twice.