All the Kids are Busy

I love that I still get pictures from my kids of what's going on in their lives.

I actually stole these from Facebook, but I was also sent some!

Amos and Lanaya Elizabeth celebrated their One Year Anniversary last week. And she's celebrating her birthday this weekend.

Elizabeth made their cake. They didn't have a wedding cake, so this is their first official cake. 

From Facebook: "anniversary cake made with lone pine coffee and italian meringue butter cream + my wedding bouquet"

No doubt it was delicious.

Happy Anniversary, you two! 

Jonathan had friends from Missouri go to Disney this past week, and they invited him to spend a day at one of the parks with them. 

So he had a great time yesterday seeing some Missouri folk and enjoying all the Star Wars stuff.

Harrison and Silas have a very imaginative time whenever they get together.

Uncle Lee invited all his family over to dinner at the Junction and then visiting at his home. Harrison and Collin ~ second cousins, together again! They've seen each other maybe 3 or 4 times in their lives. And they're both about as talkative as each other. But they settle in at some point during the evening and get along well.

The first snow of the season.

It didn't last long.

Phoebe and I are working on a miniature quilt together. 

We bought the materials over a year ago and are just now starting on it. We'll see how long this takes us.

Katelyn invited Phoebe to Winter Formal.

Phoebe found a thrifted dress online that was a good price. I think she figured out it was from the 90's! Thankfully it fit with only a few modifications. Both my girls have always been really good at finding dresses for 'the dance' on sale or at thrift stores. I appreciate that about them.

Phoebe and Katelyn.

The boys at Winter Formal. 

Kemper on the right was crowned Winter Formal King later on that night.

The friend group.

We have sad news about Doc. 

He got himself in trouble with the calves down the way. Knowing him, he was having a good old time, trying to make friends. Anyway, the farmer didn't know the dog, and his calves were in danger (he had to call the vet to stitch up one's mouth), so he put him down. Phillip took care of all the calling around and getting the body and burying him at Mimi and Papa's. 

He was an awesome first dog for the family to have. We miss him for sure.

 

Thanksgiving and Such

We had revival a few weeks ago. 

A team from CCCB did the music and a couple from Rock Solid Ministries were here for the preaching. 

Harrison and I were in nursery Sunday night and Phillip and Phoebe were Wednesday night. This was the only little one H and I had, so we just had fun playing with him. He built a bunch of Minecraft creepers out of blocks. 😅

Then we had a youth Sunday evening service. These two young men preached very good sermons, and Harrison read Scripture and prayed. There was also the communion meditation and singing led by young men. It was an excellent service! Jamie has a good thing going on training these boys to be leaders in the church.

My parents came up from Louisiana to be with us for Thanksgiving. We had a rousing 3 hour game of Risk. Harrison was the champion for that one. 

FaceTime with Jonathan and Lanaya Elizabeth Thanksgiving day. Jon is in Jacksonville staying with family friends from back in our Jax days. The McFerrins had us over for Thanksgiving just about every year we lived there, I think. Jon has been going around to our old homes and church and such to see everything he hasn't seen since he was 8.

We wrote what we were thankful for on the table runner that has been making the rounds for several years. It's fun to read what the kids had to write when they were little.

A rousing game of Shanghai (is there any other kind of game but 'rousing'?). 

My dad was the champion for that one.

Our home at twilight. (by Phillip)

 

October Doings

What a great October it has been! 

That perfect bit of coolness. A little bit of rain, but not a month full at least. Fall colors everywhere.

Our sunrise this morning.

My favorite color mums.

There was a fat bumblebee on the coneflowers. 

We're gonna let these sit this winter and hope that the seeds spread and fill the planter boxes in the spring. We ordered our plants from Great Garden Plants, and they were wonderful to work with! I had to cancel some items at one point and that was not a problem. Their plants were a little bit worn when they arrived, but they perked up once planted, and the new growth has been phenomenal. 

The field to the east of us was harvested a week or two ago. You had to catch 'em before you blinked because they were here and gone in no time! Soybeans don't seem to take as long to harvest as corn does.

Doc has been 'fixed.' 

He was a sad puppy for a couple of weeks since we kept him chained up and coned until he was healed. We're glad that's done though. He's a free range dog, and we want him to enjoy friendships with other animals without hanging others with unwanted commitments. 😉

We took a homeschool day to go to Runge Nature Center in Jeff City. I like to get in a good nature hike once or twice a year. They had a number of animals inside (live and stuffed), and their hiking trails were the perfect length. Not too long but still a workout.

We met up with Shirley for lunch afterwards. She's the one I heard about Runge from since she likes to walk there. J Vietnamese Cafe was the lunch place and it was delicious!

We had a sad yet joyous meet-up with college friends a couple weeks ago. One of our college friends (Julie) has inoperable cancer, and she and her family flew to Missouri to meet up with friends and family while she is still well enough to do so. 

There were so many people there! Some of them we hadn't seen since college. We got to meet Julie's husband and kids and talk to so many people. We met at the church in town, and many lovely ladies provided snacks and drinks for everyone. This picture was all of the 90's CCCB graduates who were there. 

Julie was amazing; her smile was beautiful; they captured lots of pictures. We are praying for her and her family.

Jonathan is getting lots of speaking practice this week. He did the communion meditation for two services at Kissimmee Christian Church. 

He spoke at chapel for the kids at Kissimmee Christian Academy.

And he had a sermon to deliver for one of his classes this week as well. We get compliments about him all the time; we're proud of him. We just got him plane tickets for coming home for Christmas! 

We didn't cut pumpkins until a couple of days before Halloween, so they weren't rotten and black this time!

Harrison's sports a cut across his eye.

Phoebe's has a goofy smile.

Phoebe handsewed a heavy lined cloak for Harrison's costume, and she also made his beard. 

She took him to town to trick-or-treat. 

It was a cold one! But she drove him around instead of walking everywhere.

He is Bogrod. 

A dwarf wizard character that he came up with a long time ago.

Sickness in September

How funny that the older your kids get, the fewer pictures you capture of them. 

Understandable. Privacy and all that.

We've been sick this past month. We each took a turn about one week apart from one another (although the effects of this thing linger). We're getting through it though. 

We're very excited for fall! I put out all my fall stuff and bought a spice candle and burgundy mums for the front porch, and I'm planning some fall baking. The kids are planning to watch Over the Garden Wall some evening. (So good! Check it out!)

Because of so little rain, the harvest around here is not bringing in very many bushel to the acre. We haven't had any fields right close to us harvested yet, so we look forward to that soon.

My parents in south Louisiana have had even worse drought than we have, I think. My dad sent pictures of a pond near them. It was flooded to the street in January and now it's a puddle. They have big holes in the ground, instead of the usual cracks from dryness. 

I got hungry for doughnuts, so I made some a couple of weeks ago. I want them to be lighter and crispier rather than dense and soft. I'll have to work on that. They were pretty good though.

The kids pressed and dried flowers for Nature Study and then glued them to glass jars to make candle holders. The Internet has so many ideas!

We enjoyed Prairie Days again this year. We helped with the church booth (pass out information and snow cones). Watched the parade. Harrison hung around with his friend Silas, and they did some of the activities. Phoebe was starting to feel sick, so we went home. I went back that night for the music. There was an awesome sunset behind the bandstand. Then we got a lightening show for the rest of the music until it started to rain, and we had to scoot on out of there.

Lanaya Elizabeth and Amos took a two week trip to Oregon last month. I loved hearing about it! They stayed with different friends or at a campground. Visited lots of coffee shops. Toured the Bible Project headquarters. Did lots of other stuff. They made it back safe and sound and sounds like they had a great time.

We talk to Jonathan on the weekends usually. He's got his routine in place and is enjoying his classes. He preached at the Kissimmee Christian Church last Sunday night and someone got a picture of it for Facebook. Good work, Jon!

I caught these clouds on my walk this past week. Unbelievable.