Our Christmas Wreath

Mary and I went to a local farm to make our Christmas wreath this year.  It was so much fun and the workers and coordinators were so nice.  It was so special to make our wreath ourselves with local greens and holly and pine cones.  We hope to keep this a family tradition for years to come.

Mary's Birth Day Celebration

We had a little party for Mary with some friends.  I made her a banana cake with fruit topping instead of frosting.  It turned out really yummy!

Mary had a blast making balloon animals.  She got out the balloons and instruction manual and made them all by herself.  I was impressed.  Her kitty is watching her make a mouse.  She is mezmorized.

We did pin the tail on the llamma for the little ones.

Everybody was having fun!

12 candles...can it be possible?

Lots of party fun!

Celebrating her birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's

My dear Mary girl, I am so blessed when I reflect on your birth. What a special gift you are to us. We were past the age of what most people, including the medical field, thought that we would be able to have a child naturally, but with God all things are possible. I have walked a life that is way different than the one I imagined as a young person, but I would never change it now. Your daddy and you came to me in God's perfect timing and my life has been all the sweeter for it. You have grown into a lovely young lady, full of life and love and creativity. As you grow my message would be, wait for the Lord, no matter how long or short the wait will be. If we are following Him we have no worries for the future, He will give us all we need when we need it and we don't have to compromise to get it. He is a good and loving father and gives good gifts to His children. In this life, if we follow Jesus and the things he taught us, we will have persecution and trouble from the world. We are hard pressed on every side at times but we are to throw off those things and sins that weigh us down and run for the prize which is eternal life in heaven with him. Remember if we are wise with the little things (this short life compared to eternity) God will give us so much more (eternal life with him). Happy Birthday Sweetheart! I am so proud of you and look forward to see all that unfolds in your life!

Fall is Here!!

The Fall and its harvest is upon us. We love the peppers, cabbage, blackberry jam, tomatoes and apples.  The flowers are still beautiful and have picked several big bouquets from the front garden already.

Mary picked up leaves and did crayon rubbing on them and then painted them with water colors.  

They turned out so pretty!

We went out to our favorite farm and pumpkin patch, 7 Oaks Farm

This is the farms name sake.  About a hundred years ago 7 Oaks sprouted up and formed a gigantic tree.  A few years ago it became diseased and had to be cut down.  So sad.  the stumps are still very impressive.

Twin goats feeding from Mary's hand.

A scary branch that was so beautiful against the Autumn sky.

We had a wonderful homeschool field trip to Denman Nature Reserve near Tou Vell Park.  They had an awesome nature presentation to the kids with all the furs of natural animals of Southern Oregon.

We all walked around the huge pond full of ducks, geese, and other water foul.  Rich found out that you can fish blue gill from this pond.  So we have found a fantastic fishing site not more than 10 minutes from our house!

Canadian Geese taking off from the water.

We decorated our front step with pumpkins from 7 Oaks farm and our own dried corn stalks.

Our back step

My favorite bumpy pumpkin.  I have not seen one like this before.

We hope you all have a blessed Fall Season!

The Sky is Blue Again!!

We are so happy to have blue skies again.  We have had smoke from forest fires since the middle of July.  At one point our town was listed as the worst for air quality in the nation!  Yesterday I went out and took a bunch of photos of our front flower garden.  It is so lovely this time of year and we have been enjoying it.  We get a lot of American Gold Finches coming to the feeders along with humming birds and lots of bees.  Here a few shots that I took: