Lunch with The Halls

 On Friday, we enjoyed having the Halls come over for lunch. We had been trying to find a time that worked to get together and decided lunch on Friday fit with everyone's work schedules. Though it got much warmer later in the day, it was really nice right at lunch so we enjoyed lunch on the porch.

 Before lunch, Bekah showed Jason her crayons and they colored a bit. After lunch, we visited for awhile and the kids played outside on the swing set.

 Jason even tried the "big kid" swing with Brent's help.

Thanks for coming over, Chris, Tamara and Jason. We are glad we could get together and we had a fun lunch with you all!

Berry Buddies

 Though it has felt more like summer this week, we know fall and then winter are just around the corner. These "little berries" will be ready with their heads all warm! Thanks to Ms. Lilly, all the girls now have matching strawberry knitted hats. They even have little green leaves knitted on top! She had someone make them for the girls and surprised the girls with them on Sunday. They were thrilled and even wore them during the children's message.

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 Here is Ms. Lilly with Bethany. Ms. Lilly is our oldest church member and Bethany is the youngest in our church right now. So I thought this picture of the two of them was really neat. Here is Ms. Lilly with the big girls too.

Thank you Ms. Lilly for the special hats to keep us warm. We look forward to a "berry" good fall and winter.

Supper with the Hagys

 We enjoyed lunch over the at Hagys' home a little while back and had been trying to figure out a time to have them over to our house as well. Stephanie and I were talking at church Sunday trying to figure out a time. With all the busyness of fall just around the corner, we just decided to go ahead and get  together on Monday night. Our big girls were excited all day.
We enjoyed supper together. At one point Brent looked up and said "we have 10 people in this kitchen!" We did and it was a lot of fun! We finished with dessert on the porch and some play time outside in between.

 

Here are the big kids showing me their "Pirate Eyepatches" (yep, carrot chips...) Got to love their creativity!

They had fun playing with the Jeep, even though the battery is almost dead and it moves pretty ssllooww, and trying out some gymnastic tricks!

 

The light ended up being really pretty as the sun set and Brent was able to snap a few pictures of all the kids and even a few of their whole family.

 Thanks for coming over, Hagy Family! We had a great time and hope to get together again soon!

A Visit with The Lees

This past weekend we have the chance to see some of our closest friends from our time at Swift Creek Baptist, the Lee Family. We had not seen them in over a year and we were very excited when we found out they were headed toward the mountains. They were actually going to take Taylor to college at King University but they were coming close enough for them to be able to visit us!  

We actually met the Lees back in 2005 when Brent began to work with the youth at Swift Creek and we we had the blessing of working with and watching LB and Taylor grow into the beautiful godly young ladies that they both are. We are thankful for the godly example they were and are for our girls. Chris and Martha have always been a source of wisdom and encouragement to us also.

 

The Lees met us at church since they hadn't had a chance to visit there before. While we were showing them around, Taylor and Bekah found the foozball table for a bit and of course, both girls wanted to show them the playground!

 We headed to our house for supper next.

We had a great evening visiting together. Taylor is planning to major in photography so Brent was able to show her a few photography tips.

 We did some brownie making, Curious George reading and enjoyed supper together too!

 Martha has always been good with my little ones and she was with Bethany as well. She got her to fall asleep for a nap just in time for me to eat supper while she slept.

 On Saturday, they moved Taylor in at school, but were able to come back and join us for church on Sunday. We were so glad they were able to come and worship with us!

 Afterwards, we were able to introduce them to one of our favorite places to eat, Don T's. This lunch was special for us. During our time at Swift Creek we ate many, many lunches with the Lees and a couple of other families also. So it was a fun time to be able to eat Sunday lunch with the Lees again!

 Thank you for coming to see us, Chris, Martha, LB and Taylor. We love you all and we very much enjoyed our visit with you. Come see us again!

Rockbridge Community Festival 2014

 Today we participated in the Rockbridge Community Festival 2014. This is the 3rd year Brent has had a booth for his photography here. We always enjoy this festival and it is so nice to have such a great festival close to home. Here are our big girl helpers. We were able to pull up very close to his spot to set up so once he got the tent up each girl wanted a job to help (Bethany helped by sleeping in her car seat throughout set up today). You can see both girls started out in their pajamas since we left home before 7 am this morning.

 Bekah wanted to job of hanging hooks for her Daddy's picture to go on. Rachel helped bring canvases to the tent.

Here is Bekah with the fully set up booth. My job today was actually to run the photography booth and I enjoyed talking with all those who came by his booth today.

You see, at the Community Festival, our church also has a booth as well. So I was in charge of the photography booth today while Brent and the girls headed for the Faith Mountain booth.
 Here is the smallest helper with me. Bethany went back and forth between the two booths. Thank you to Judith, Shirley, Joy,Tamara and all the others who helped with the girls today!

In the busyness of the day, the camera never made it down to the church booth from the photography booth so I don't have any pictures of the booth itself. At the booth, they were helping people coming to the festival to make these bracelets and sharing the Good News with them of how much Jesus loves us. Each color on the bracelet has a meaning. The Yellow bead reminds us that God loves us and has a plan for us and wants us to live forever with Him. The next bead reminds us that the wrong things we do separate us from God. Next on the bracelet we see the cross and the red bead that remind us that Jesus loves us so much that He died on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven of those wrong things we do. The next bead shows that Jesus forgives those wrongs things when we ask Him and gives us a new heart. The green bead reminds us that as we trust in Jesus we grow in new life with Him.

This is the bracelet that Rachel made and she and others helped those who came by make a bracelet if they wanted to and shared with them this great news of how much God loves each of us!

The day ended with some excitement. We had a couple of periods of rain during the day but as we were finished the festival it became clear that it was REALLY going to rain. Thanks to all our friends, including Chris and Tamara and Joey, Josh, Joseph and Eric, we had the photography booth taken down in about 30 minutes and the pictures at least safely put in the van before the rain began. We didn't quite miss all the rain. As Rachel told me as we were standing under a breezeway trying to stay dry, "Hey Mom, this is kind of like the ark!" Yes, it was Pouring by that point!.
We are thankful that the rain held off as long as it did and thankful for a great day at the Rockbridge Community Festival this year.

Dance Days

 Dance Days are here again for Rachel as well. Here she is getting ready to start her class this year. This year the color for her class is orchid. This leotard was actually mine when I took dance as a child.

  She is in Ballet this year with Ms. Jessica. Last year, she had a great year with Ms. Tara learning ballet, tap and a little tumbling too. When we were talking over the summer about which class she was going to continue with next year, after thinking about it a little while, she chose ballet for this year. Ms. Jessica was also her teacher the first year she took dance, and she is excited about dancing with her again.

 Actually, Rachel knew all the girls that were in her class on Wednesday already. They were all in Creative Movement class the year before last together.

 Here she is with Ms. Jessica, her teacher, and Ms. Nell, who is her class helper, practicing her jumps.

Here she is practicing her leaps

 Here are two of her biggest fans: one watching all she did and the other getting a great nap!

They finished class with a curtsy, a sticker and a group hug.



Here is Rachel showing me her favorite new curtsy she did in dance class this week. Rachel, we love how creative and energetic you are and we look forward to watching you dance your way through this new year of dance!

Rachel's Checkup

 A few weeks ago, I was working on all the preparations for the start of Rachel's school year and called the doctor's office about her vaccinations. Come to find out she was due one immunization and a well checkup. She and I headed out yesterday morning for her 8:30 am checkup.

 We knew Rachel was getting taller over the past few months but now we have the official measurements.
Weight: 36 pounds
Height: 43 and 1/2 inches tall

She did great with all the vital signs including "the arm hug."

 She did great with her vision and hearing checkups. In fact, I teased her after the hearing checkup that she did so well that when I call her from downstairs she can't tell me she can't hear me from her room anymore!

 Dr. Ellis even let her hear her own heartbeat. She thought that was really neat!

 She did get a little nervous just before time to get her chicken pox vaccination. But she did great when the time came and got a blue popsicle (her favorite color) from the nurse as a reward!

We are thankful for an overall great checkup! Can't believe 5 and 1/2 years have flown by so quickly! We love you Rachel!