Category Archives: birthday

7 of our FREE Fun Summer Activities – A Little Summer Recap

Hello!!! I’ve been pretty active on social media this summer, but I just realized it’s basically been crickets over here on the blog. I’m so sorry! But we’ve been busy having fun, so I can’t complain or apologize too much.

What have we been up to?

Well I’ll show ya.

1. We played outside.

That’s right, good ol’ backyard (or front yard in this case) fun. Bike riding, tire swinging, water hose spraying, just plain fun. And lots of it.

2. Vacation Bible School

I spent a week shuttling the kids to church every night for songs, Bible lessons, snacks, and water games. It was exhausting but so very worth it.

3. We adopted a new pet! our pet frog in a plastic toy car

Now, I know pets can be costly, but Captain Froggy was a freebie from our pond. 🙂

There was also a pet turtle, but he only stayed for a few hours before the kids returned him to his natural habitat.

4. We picnicked and splashed in the creek at the park.

baby feet in a creek

Unfortunately we didn’t get to do that nearly as much as I had hoped, but I did make sure it happened.

5. We had ice cream and popsicles by the pool.

7-free-fun-summer-activities-iimg_6178

6. We swam. 7-free-fun-summer-activities-img_6055

A lot. Rarely a day has passed that no one got in the pool.

7. We enjoyed some amazing sunsets.

beautiful southern sunset

That has been our summer in a nutshell. We’ve done a lot and nothing at the same time, and it’s been a full and fun summer. I’m actually mourning the end of this summer more than any other in the last several years. The cool thing – all those fun things were totally free.

I love to go and do fun stuff. I really love to travel. However, I’m very glad we made the decision to just hang out at home and have a low key Summer this year. Now we’re all refreshed and ready for our crazy fall season.

Moms and dads, do not worry if you don’t give your kids every experience or lots of big vacations. Those things are fun, but definitely not necessary for fun childhood memories.

Leave a Comment

Filed under birthday, daily adventures

30 Days of Thankfulness: Day 5

Day Five

I’m thankful for my Sylvia-Kate.

My word of the year last year was joy, and oh how she brought joy to our lives! Even before birth, she was teaching me so much about seeing the joy in life, even when it’s hard. One year ago today she arrived in a whirlwind, and she hasn’t slowed down.
20131105-043833.jpg

20131105-041306.jpg

We named her after her great-great grandmother, Sylvia.

20131105-044532.jpg

She’s happy and silly, snugly and loving. She loves her brothers and our cat.

Her brothers love her too. 🙂 They take good care of her.

20131105-042045.jpg

20131105-041407.jpg

She gets excited when she sees her best baby friend, Irie, who is less than two weeks younger than her. They’ve been chatting over coffee and bibles since they were both in the womb, and I pray their friendship continues that way. 🙂
20131105-044522.jpg

She’s pretty obsessed with her daddy.
He arrived home from a twelve hour drive, less than 24 hours before she entered the world. She’s been a daddy’s girl from the start and was waiting on him.

20131105-041826.jpg

She wears hairbow a for me, even though she’s rather pull them out.

20131105-041926.jpg

She loves baby dolls.

20131105-042029.jpg

She can walk, and has taken several steps at a time on two or three occasions, but she’d rather crawl or bear crawl.

She says mama, dada, kitty, hey, bubba, nana, uh oh, and a few other words.

She only weighs about 18 pounds, and can still wear 3-6 month onesies if they have short sleeves. She’s our tiny, happy girl. We wouldn’t trade her for the world. I am so blessed that God chose me to be the mother of this little joyful soul. I pray she never loses that joy and continues to share it with others.

Happy birthday, Sylvia-Kate!!

20131105-044057.jpg

Leave a Comment

Filed under 30 days of thankfulness, birthday

Why yes, there is a goat in my kitchen!

Yep, that’s a goat standing in my kitchen. He’s a Pygmy goat to be exact. Friday afternoon we brought home the newest member of our zoo. Lincoln has been wanting a horse as long as he’s been alive, but for his second birthday we decided to start small. He has done surprisingly well with remembering to feed the dogs and reminding me to let them in or out, so we thought a goat would be a good addition to his entourage. So far, his name is “Goat.” Hopefully that will change this week.

Don’t worry, he lives outside. Lincoln’s daddy (my awesome hubby) just happens to be pretty handy with a hammer, and he built a spiffy goat house for our new friend. The next picture is Lincoln and his friend playing in the goat house before Daddy got the roof finished.

2 Comments

Filed under birthday, children

Our First Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday marked our first wedding anniversary and Steven’s 25th birthday! Woohoo!

After church, we went out to eat with my parents, Whitney, and Adam. Then we went back to my parents’ house to cut our cake. For some reason, my computer decided not to rotate most of my photos when they were uploaded, and blogger doesn’t give you that option, SO these are the only ones I’m posting here. I’m just too lazy to mess with it. The others are posted and rotated on Facebook though. Hint: there was a bit of cake smashing present….and drink pouring…

If you want to see the rest of the photos, click here.
(You don’t have to have facebook to view the album.)

1 Comment

Filed under birthday, wedding

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was my 21st birthday.
It started out pretty good, got kinda bad, and then got good again.

This morning, I got to sleep in and be lazy a little because I didn’t have to be at work until 12:00. I only got to sleep in about 30 minutes though, thanks to my dogs. Work was pretty slow. Then, Steven called to say he had no idea how he’s getting home tomorrow because of all the roads being closed, and when he does get home our “weekend away” are canceled due to the same thing. Urg. Oh well, maybe next year.

Tonight, I went to church then out to eat with some of my church family. I love my church family. Dinner definitely cheered me up, especially Emma and Eva Grace. When they first got there, they each gave me a sucker and told me, “Happy birthday.” That just made my day. Those little girls are so sweet.

I also got to have a talk with my friend, Jennica. She goes to Harding, so we don’t see each other too much during the school year, and I really miss her. She’s great. I love her bunches.

Leave a Comment

Filed under birthday