Vance

For our wedding, 11+ years ago, we had a chili feed. We actually warmed it in and served it out of this kettle. 

About 3 months ago we were visiting Nate's grandma and I noticed this pot hanging up on the wall in one of her barns. I asked her if it was the one we used and she just gave it to me. 

I was SUPER excited. It works well for photography...but I'd like to use it in the house somewhere, just not sure where yet. 

(Andi, Vance, Trae, Darbi)

I Wanna...!

Vance was a young 2 this summer. We had many guests. His favorite was Jazelyn, his second cousin. 

One afternoon as we were seated outside visiting, Vance walks over to my Aunt and very gently says, "I wanna hoed dat bwak baby." It was just the cutest thing ever!

He sat there and very soberly and carefully held Jazz for a while! 

Those dimples are AMAZING!!

Gorgeous, simply Gorgeous!

God is a circle!

(Andi, Darbi)

Tonight after we returned from AWANA the kids and I decided it was time to go through the closet and get all of the clothes out that are too small and hang up the ones that require ironing...in-other-words ORGANIZE!

While working the conversation about God came up. How old is He? Why did He make the earth and Adam and Eve and THAT TREE if He knew already that they were going to sin...?

After about 10 minutes of talking about there being no beginning and there being no end to God. No one gave birth to Him. No one created Him. He didn't start and will not end...

Nate pipes up to help my blundering tries to answer a question I can't wrap my mind around either, and said, "Guys, God is a circle!"

Dead silence, I was sure there were just going to pipe right back in to the same old questions and we'd then go around and around and around with the same answers and get no where.

(Vance)

But no, I looked around at all the faces and they seemed to all grasp that concept fully and were satisfied with the word picture.

Of course Todd had to add a little footnote, "except there is a beginning to a circle because you have to put your pencil down somewhere and start, even a square could work except there are corners........" Yeah, he sort of took the analogy on a rabbit trail.

I LOVE these little minds. They are fresh and so eager to learn and scoop up all that is around them.

(Vance)

This summer we were able to put blacktop on our driveway and the kids had to wait several days before they could step on it. SOOO EXCITING!!

 Poor Vance didn't get the memo to jump!!!

 Dad and the kids built a fort out back out of an old church that was taken down 15 years ago.

This summer we all camped out inside. There is enough room for two per loft (so 4 total) and then the littles and Dad and I slept on the floor below. It was some of the best camping.

(Nate, Vance, Trae, Darbi, Andi, Todd, Halley, Nate) In order of birth.

The Farm!!

Every year I take a trailer and head to Hood River, Oregon to get several bins of apples. This time we stopped at The Farm on our way home to visit Great Grandma Copper! I think the kids would choose to live there if given the choice!

This particular day we drove up to find Grandma moving along quite fast with her walker, helping with the end of the day chores that needed to be done. 

The kids piled out of the car and ran to see if they could 'help'!

She then proceeded to grab the last dahlia from her 1/2 acre (or somewhere around that amount) of flower garden and stick and pose for the children and farm crew! What a riot!! We sure love this lady!

 She gave them all rides on her walker:

 Halley so enjoys animals, it would be fun to get her one to take care of some day!

 Nate M. found a loose rock from her rock wall and found a fossil in it and had a great conversation with Grandma about creation!

 We got all of her crutches and walkers and wheel chairs out of the barn and had a ball using them around the farm.

 She even was chasing Trae with Vance on the walker! I've not seen her this energetic in months.

 The boys raked all the leaves in her front lawn for her.

Vance spread them back out for us again:).

 And since it is an orchard type of farm we enjoyed the many different varieties of apples Grandma shared with us.

 Before we left Nate made a fire for her so she would be warm for the rest of the evening.

An overall WONDERFUL day!

Raggedy Anne X3!

The girls had a dress-up day for their dance this past week but needed to wear something that would allow them to move. I figured that everyone would be a princess or dolled up ballerina...and, of course, we can't follow the crowd:) lol! So Nate graciously took our date night (with Vance) and stood in line at the fabric store while I ran around and grabbed a few items to make some 'hair'!

I borrowed Julie's (my neighbor friend) sewing machine and ran home to make their outfits. Luckily for me Julie also had little aprons that worked out perfectly so all I need to do was wash their striped tights and sew some yarn together and glue some flowers on. The under side of the hair also has hair pins so they stay in place, for the most part.

 They wore their ballet shoes but didn't want to get them dirty, so wore their boots for the pictures. It's still pretty cute!

I took some leftover fabric and cut it into strips and just tied them around for a necktie.

 Had to have a crazy face in their too!

 Of course we had to have some face paint and add a few freckles. I was toying with the idea of making enormous eyelashes but for the sake of time we just used their real ones (which were long enough) and put mascara on.

They felt beautiful!

New Baby!

~Meet Eliza~

A friend of mine has a new niece and at 4 days old we grabbed a few photos. I have a 'small' fetish! 

 Eliza's 2 year old brother...so full of energy and yet already knew to be so gentle around his little sister.

 Mom,

 Dad,

My Friend Julie and her niece!