Family Pictures

Nothing fancy.  Just the self timer 5 minutes before church.  The sun was really really bright, not always a good look.

Thankful Post and Faith in Humanity

I do a lot of complaining.  Probably more than any one person should and before I'm thought of as an "always angry" person who isn't thankful for anything, I do have a lot to be thankful for.  I feel like I have been blessed beyond measure, more than I deserve.  I forget sometimes to stop and be thankful for all I DO have, instead of what I DON'T.
Not all people are horrible and rotten and out to get you, although it may seem like it at times.  I sometimes...okay quite often...okay more than the average person, have my faith in humanity destroyed but  this is a pretty cool video showing people who do the right thing even though it's hard, or inconvenient or even dangerous.

I'm so very thankful:

 for my family

my children

my home

my health and that of my family

my husbands job

that I can stay at home with my children

my CHURCH

friends

scriptures

prayer

this beautiful world

art

food

water

The list could literally go on forever.  

Count your blessings name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God hath done, count your many blessings, name them one and one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Handmade Book

Ever since Lilly was very small she has been obsessed with making books.  She went from simple folded paper, to multiple folded papers stapled together and now she's been looking up videos on YouTube on how to make books.  She found a pretty darn good one and begged me for 3 days straight to help her make one.  I finally relented and she wouldn't let me rest until it was done.  We are talking hand sewing 80 pages.  But it was kind of cool and the result is pretty good and Lilly is absolutely thrilled with it!  Now I'm making one for Max.

Ours isn't perfect but considering it cost us next to nothing, it's pretty cool! If you want to make one of your own here is the video we used.

Max's painting

I love this cute picture he made.  He said it was him (with the red shirt and blue pants)  and his dog (in yellow beside him.  *We do not have a dog by the way)  Then he changed it said it was a scarecrow and his dog.  Yes he still loves scarecrows.  See HERE for proof.

Watercolor Wednesday

No idea what week I am on, but having a 3 week break has been nice.  I actually WANTED to paint.  So here are the two I've been working on the last day or so.  A little rusty and not completely satisfied with the results but what can you expect when you haven't done any painting for 3 weeks.

Both were done from photographs.

View my other work HERE.

Melted Crayon Rocks

This project is awesome!  I saw it on THIS blog.  I thought it looked like lots of fun so we gave it try.

First collect a bunch of rocks from your yard.  We have an over abundance.  I would suggest finding bigger rather than smaller rocks.
Place them on a foil lined cookie sheet in your oven (350 degrees) for about 20 minutes or so.  I'm not exactly sure on the time, we stuck ours in and then ate lunch.

Next gather a bunch of different colored crayons and remove the wrappers.  Or if your like me and your kids love to peel off the wrappers you won't have to do this step.
Take a rock out of the oven (with oven mitts) and place the rock on a piece of foil on top of a pot holder or fabric placemat.
Then touch the rock with the crayon and it instantly melts and runs all over the place!!! You can then paint with crayons.  Mix colors and overlap, it's really fun!!!!  Next time I'll be sure to do more rocks for me!
We place ours just outside our side door in the flower bed.  They really are lovely to look at!

Stewart Falls

On Saturday we decided to go for a hike.  We hiked to Stewart Falls.  It's a 4 mile (total) hike.  The kids once again did AWESOME!  We got one more crossed off our list!  (We want to hike as many trails as we can this summer and we are off to a good start.)

Getting a good picture of everyone is like pulling teeth.  Can't seem to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.