Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Family Heritage










About 15-17 years ago, when I was just a teenager, I used to love to dig through thrift and antique stores with my friends. I came across a plain white/cream colored, slip type of dress. I just fell in love with the dress. I didn't know its history or even if it was an antique. I just loved the simplicity of the dress. I thought one day God would give me a little girl. I could dress her up and take her picture in the dress. The dress is handmade and very simple but I knew that one day my daughter's beauty would make the dress beautiful. Well, I have been blessed with three beautiful daughters. I decided to take them at age one, to one of my favorite places in Kansas City, Loose Park, to take their pictures. I started with Isabelle when she was just one year old.
I also took Courtney when she was one. Her birthday is in July so the roses in the garden were in full bloom!
Now, I have taken Sarah. She is two and half and the dress still fits! It is a lot shorter on her but still just as beautiful!
I love looking at these pictures and seeing the girls similarities and differences. I also love looking at them in amazement, an realize how blessed I really am!

*I tried to put these pictures in order but for some reason this program
kept moving them. See if you can tell who's who?*

Redneckin' in the backyard


We spend a lot of time in the backyard. Now, that we have a pool again we spend even more time there. The kids swim at least once a day, sometimes more. Almost every evening after supper they want to swim, until they just wear out. One night while Aunt Ann was here we decided to roast marshmallows for s'mores in our flower bed, turned weed patch. In no time at all we had a small fire going and then, yummy s'mores. Everyone loved them! Sarah, who is not a sweets eater, even joined us for some chocolate. I know this is not the classiest story about our lives, but it is real. I do hope one day the kids will glean out of their memories some sort of standard but hey, we do live in a town named, Peculiar!

Deanna Rose Farm/ Courtney's Birthday


Nanny and Aunt Ann wanted to celebrate Courtney's birthday while they were here so we planned a fun day at the Deanna Rose Farm. We packed a picnic lunch, grabbed the presents and were off. We had so much fun just being together. The weather was hot but not unbearable. We did take advantage of the air conditioned areas at the farm. The kids loved seeing everything. You can see all of the pictures from our day if you click on the the link to Our Photo Albums!

Friday, July 13, 2007

Family Reading


We have read some good books together this summer as a family. We are currently reading "Indian Captive, the story of Mary Jemison" by Lois Lenski. It is based on the diaries of a girl who was taken captive during the French and Indian war. We have also read "Strawberry Girl" by Lois Lenski. It is one of my favorite books. It is about a girl living in Florida in the early 1900's. We have also read" The Apple and the Arrow" by Mry and Conrad Buff. It is the legend of William Tell and his son. This was an exciting book. We also read "Mr. Popper's Penguins". This was a funny book about penguins who live in someone's basement. I don't know what we will read next, maybe "By the Great Horn Spoon". I can tell you this we love reading together and we look forward to every chapter each night!

Fourth of July


Oh, my what a week! We all had the stomach flu/virus the week of the Fourth. Nanny and Aunt Ann came for a visit, also. So far they have not caught the bug from us. It makes for a long illness when you have so many people in one house. No one ever gets sick at the same time. It just gets passed around one at a time. Anyway, I think we are on the mend. Because of the holiday we still had a lot of fun. On the Fourth we went to all the thrift stores (my choice) because everything was half-price! We also grilled in the backyard and the kids swam. Later in the evening we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Nash's to shoot off our fireworks. It was raining off and on. Jesse and Tim were the troopers, and stood in the rain to shoot them off. After that we went to Harrisonville to watch the city's fireworks. They were really pretty. If you want to see all the pictures from the Fourth click on the link to Our Photo Albums.

Belton Community Days





The town our church is in, Belton, holds a summer festival called Belton Community Days every year. Our church always sets up a booth and has a entry in the parade. The past few years we haven't participated because the kids were so small. Now that they are getting older we walked in the parade. Isabelle, Courtney and Jesse rode on the trailer and threw candy at the crowd. Seth, Sarah and I walked behind with some of the other moms! It was actually a lot of fun!

City Market



One of our most favorite things to do is to go downtown to the city farmer's market. The kids love looking at everything. I let them each pick one item ( fruit, vegetable, or baked item) to buy. We love to go home and sample it all together. Sometimes we sample at the market or on the way home. Sarah ate almost her whole pint of blackberries before we even left the market!

Tim and Bonnie celebrate 12 Years!


Tim and I celebrated our 12 year anniversary back in June. We did not do much to celebrate. Just went out to dinner at a restaurant that we loved back when we were dating. We have had a great marriage so far, and are looking forward to many more years together. God has truly blessed us with each other!

Vacation Bible School


Back in June our church had its Vacation Bible School. The theme was "Game Day Central-Where Heroes are Made". It was a sports themed week, full of fun! I taught the preschool class. I had between 10-14 kids a day. I had a lot of fun, and I know all of my kids did too! There are some pictures of the closing ceremony and just some snapshots of my kids in the room where I worked. You can see them if you click on Our Photo Albums.