2 Months of Pure Joy

On August 2, Mary Quinn turned 2 months old.

AB purchased an app to make her milestone photos for me.

I'm pretty sure her sisters think she is a doll to dress up and photograph.

Ruth wanted to be the sister to give her her first ever pony tail.

Overalls, of course!

Supporting our GCA lions in red and black!

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

One night I received a text from Caleb (who was upstairs) of a tree frog on his bathroom window with the caption

"I was being watched in my bathroom."

So glad to be back with nature!  :)

Only One Shot at the Lake

We used to spend most weekends of the summer up at the lake. 

Unfortunately it seems that the older the kids get and the more activities/sports they are involved in, the harder it is for us to break away from life here and enjoy a relaxing and fun weekend at the lake.

Out of the entire summer, we only were able to go to the lake one overnight quick trip.

The weather cooperated and we enjoyed the water and boat - not to mention time with cousins.

This was MQ's first time on the boat and just like all the Fish Sticks before her, the sound of the motor and feel of the wind put her right to sleep.

We so cherish our time at the lake house.

Hopefully next summer will include more time to vacation there.

Say "Cheese!"

Aunt Sara took our first Fish Stick photo of our crew of 9 one morning at church.

We love these kiddos so much!

Celebrating Mary Quinn

Four precious friends of mine hosted a beautiful baby shower for Mary Quinn.

Every detail of the decorations were so special.

My precious 5 daughters

My sweet Mother-in-Love

 These friends are the best - Suzanne, Nicole, Laura and Dabney

 These 2 sweet cousins seemed to really bond this past summer.

I enjoyed seeing their friendship grow.

Beautiful girls!

Spectacular View

During the summer months, we saw more than 3 rainbows that were absolutely beautiful.

We continued to run out on the balcony to photograph the sunsets, clouds and rainbows.

These photos were all taken on different dates.

Have I said enough how much we love country living?

Full rainbow taken from Grandma's porch of our house.

Traffic jam I encountered on the way to pick up our raw milk from a local farm.

My Ruth

Ruth is silly.

Ruth loves animals - like crazy loves animals.

Company from AR

When I went to AR to bring Mary Quinn home, her birth father asked if they could come visit us this summer.  They came to visit when she was one month old in our new house and spent 3 nights with us.  Their family of 5 came with a niece and 2 uncles.

It truly was a blessing to get to know them better and show them what life looks like for our family.  I think that they left our home feeling a peace for the security and love that MQ would receive being raised in our family.

 Mary Quinn with her birth mom, Valorina.

 We took them to Nonie's with our cousins one day to swim.

This is Leah with their niece.

 This is their youngest daughter, Emily.

 Esther with middle daughter, Morina.

 As we were leaving we had a flat tire to change.

Out of nowhere, we had a torrential downpour of rain.  The boys didn't mind playing in it.

Cousin Fun

 Once we moved, it seemed that the summer had just begun.

We spent lots and lots of fun times exploring the property, swimming at the creek and swim hole, playing with our kitten and enjoying country living with our cousins.

 One day My Man's twin cousins came to Nonie's with us for a swim day.

The cousins always love to see Mila for a swim day in the summer.

Poor Grandaddy

My Man was building his parents house next door to ours and they were to move in 3 weeks after us.

As I was unpacking, they were still working next door getting the house ready to move into.

One day we got a call that Grandaddy had fallen on the driveway and hit his head on a rock.

Quite a goose egg.  Doctor said it would look worse before better.

Boy!  Was he right.  Grandaddy's eye swelled up huge and purple.

The bruising continued to spread from his head to his eye and then to his neck.  Although he looked like he had gotten into quite a fight, thankfully he said it was not painful.