Kitten, anyone?!

Please, save me from myself! I took in this sweet, sweet kitty and have fallen in love with her. I took her as a "babysitting job" until we found her a home. I bottle fed her and have cuddled her for hours and now she is ready for a family. I'd keep her but my 15 year old cat hisses when she is in my lap since he is so spoiled. I need someone to give her a home before I become hopelessly attached! One thing about professionals who work in adoption is that we adopt too many animals. Amongst our staff at the International Adoption Clinic, we have something like 7 kittens available for adoption in our homes. I know....it's a bit much.

Here is sweet Grace (or Little Squirt as Phil calls her). Post your email address if you want her!

Happy 5th birthday!

Happy 5th Birthday! The girls turned 5 on the 5th. Everyone has always told me that 5 was a big birthday. Now I see why. It was wonderful! I have loved all of their birthdays. This one was so special because they were so excited about having a good time with their friends on their birthday. Here are pictures of their birthday party at Mother's Day Out.
Here is Lily blowing out her candles...

Kate's turn...

Later that day, we went to Toys R Us to spend Grammie and Grandpa's birthday money! It was so much fun walking around the store letting them pick out what they wanted. Kate walked right to her toy that she had planned to buy...a Lightning McQueen track. Lily, who is less a toy girl and more a "let's hang out and chat" girl, spent 1 hour looking and saying no to everything until she saw it...the rock tumbler that makes "ordinary rocks into polised stones". So we are now polishing rocks daily. Both girls got a candy necklace, too.

They also got to choose what we had for dinner. It was unanimous...SUSHI! So I indulged them on their - too expense for a 5 yo old to eat - treat.

Honeysuckle vine

I'll have to transplant some of our honeysuckle vine to the new house. For a month during the summer there is a wall of honeysuckle that fills the backyard with fragance and fun! It somehow symbolizes the simple life I so crave.

Lily

Kate

Selling our house

Since we are planting a church in Helena, we will be selling our house. I've REALLY struggled with this. I really love my little house and my neighbors that are like family to us. We can also walk to our church, Phil's work and Lily and Kate's school from our house. Trusting God with this one has been so hard.

Anybody looking for a house in the Oak Mountain area?? It's 3 bedrooms with a full basement that we use as a 4th bedroom, cul-de-sac lot and big backyard. We are selling it for $189,000. It's MLS number is 4399000 with Remax.

Dad's 70th birthday party

My dad and aunt celebrated their 70th birthday party this year. My sister and I planned a surprise party/campout for my dad and my sister's house. Here is Granddaddy opening presents from the crew of grandkids.











The campground in my sister's backyard was wonderful.

The girls REALLY wanted to campout. Ugh! They can't even sleep well in their own beds. How would camping outside in a tent turnout? Did Phil stay home knowing how this would turn out? I didn't want to be the meany mommy who said no, sooo....
Here they are snuggling in for a cozy night in the tent with their adventurous mommy.












Oh, well, we did survive and they were SO proud of themselves. Here we are waking up in the morning.












Fighting off the bears outside the tent...












Now they had to try the zip line.



































The birthday boy shows off his youthfulness on the zip line. Let me just take this moment to vent that the last time my dad made a zip line for us kids was about 25 years ago and he had me try it first to see if it worked. IT DIDN'T and I ended up in the dirt in a pile of wood and ants. I was not falling for that one again so this time I made sure someone else tried it before my kids did. :)











Frog catching.































Time with cousins.












































Mammaw Mamie reads a bedtime story to all the grandkids before we went to sleep the next night (in the house!).

We didn't get to travel to see family for Easter this year, so we hung out in the neighborhood. Sweet Mrs. Deborah always has the neighborhood kids over to decorate cookies.


























Of course, Mother's Day Out had fun parties, too!







































Then Easter morning candy-fest...

In trying to come up with alternatives to loads of candy, I bought these letter stamps for the kids. I put each letter in an Easter egg and hid them all over the house. It was a hit. It made the morning last longer and afterwards they played with hours with their new stamps. (Mommy relaxation time!)

This summer's garden

Thanks so much for sweet comments encouraging me on our new endeavor and catching up on the blog! I really need the accountability to get my scrapbooking done. BTW, does anyone know of a service that updates your blog and/or can turn your blog into a digital scrapbook for you?

So, I guess I'll start with spring...

Phil got serious about his garden spot this year and built a retaining wall to house his veggies. So when planting season came, he and the kids (and a neighbor's kid) were ready to go!

The girls were ready for some serious work and playing in the dirt.

I think Phil could have done this project in a fourth of the time without all the extra little hands.

...but then he would have been so lonely!!

Here he is tenderly working his soil. This picture reminds me of how peaceful and patient my husband is.

And I love this dirty little hand!

Careful not to over water...

Too late!

My happy Lily getting her fill of quality time...

Lots of critters were found throughout the day.

The almost finished product...














The finished product weeks later! We had a yummy bounty for summer meals and the kids loved picking and eating their own plants.