more photos

I believe this might have been Philip's maiden voyage upon horseback! He couldn't resist the opportunity to saddle up.He rode like a champ!

This would be Max! He's our neighbor wild but very friendly dog.

Art show

Along with a love for horses, the kids also share a love for art. On an unseasonable chilly morning, I brought out all the art supplies I could locate.They went to town creating pieces of art that we dedicated to our dear friend who will be spending a long month in the hospital! We hope the pictures help bring color to his white hospital walls.

horses and cousins!

We had an wonderful time with my sister and her children. It was a rare treat that our time together was spent in Roxboro. My sister has always loved horses so it was with out question that a trip to our neighbors would be in part of our agenda!It didn't take long to figure out that her kids inherited her love for horses.
I think they could have stayed on horse back our entire time together!

new duds

This is my very first post from my very first new laptop. Oh wait, sorry mom and dad, this is my second laptop! Thanks for that high school graduation present; that was an awesome laptop. Well, some 15 years later, I have found myself so excited about my new laptop.When we moved to Roxboro 6 years ago, Philip offered to buy me a laptop but I kindly turned down his offer. It's taken my that long to figure out it was now time! Thanks to the generosity of our neighbor, who works at CompUSA, the kids and I now have our very own laptop! Thanks to my sweet hubby who kept his offer open for six long years.

Wilmington

Philip's super cool cousin got tickets for our family to go to a Veggie Tales Live Event in Wilmington last Saturday. It was the whole Veggie Tales gang on stage singing all the hits. Fun times!
On our way to the show, we stopped off at one of our old favorite past times - the Arboretum. It's a beautiful public garden done by the NC Cooperative Extension. It was a rainy and overcast morning but the azaleas were in full bloom.

It wasn't long after we arrived when Peter comes running back to where we were excitedly declaring, "Come quick; there are frogs mating". Yes, all 4 of my children dashed to follow and see the event. Yes, I consented and photographed the event but I will not post! I just love these kids.
We were all sad that the rain forced us away from this place before we had finished exploring and soaking in the beauty.

My firstborn

There are days when my firstborn frustrates me because he has yet learned how to read my mind.
There are days he aggravates his little brothers til they cry.
There are days when if his shoes could reach out and bite him they would but he still can't find them.
Then there are days when he begrudgingly washes the dishes.
Then there are days when he carries his youngest brother across a creek so he doesn't fall in.
Then there are days when he chooses to do a writing assignment on Carl Lewis so he'll be able to do research before writing.
Then there's this moment at Walmart when my heart truly melts and I see how God is working in his life. I am able to witness Peter spontaneously and unprovoked (except from the children's sermon the day before)decide that he wants to spend all of his money to buy canned meat for the food drive our church is participating in. He spent every dime of his $8.00 and then apologized for taking so long to decide on what to get. I want to remember this moment for a long time.

The celebration

Ryan has known for a long time that all he wanted to do for his birthday was to have some friends over and ride horses. Although the afternoon ended up being dry, after a weekend of rain riding horses just wasn't in the cards. Thankfully, Ryan wasn't too disappointed. We celebrated with the occasion friends and family.It was such a blessing to have all of the Chryst cousins be able to join us for the day. I am so grateful to be close enough to family that we can celebrate these special times together.We just need to work on everyone looking at the camera at the same time!

Spring Break

After enduring 2 days of CAT testing for Peter and Emma, we are in the midst of spending five more days at the beach.I had no idea how beautiful of a week this would be. The kids have been very dissapointed that I didn't have them pack their swim suits.
Although, they have adapted to playing in the ocean with their clothes on.
I have to admit it has been a bit of a inconvience for them not to have their flip flops! Socks and tennis shoes are just not the shoe of choice for the beach. However, anything is better than testing!

Snow day!

We celebrated the consecration of the new building with snow! It hasn't snowed all year and it snows on the evening of the consecration service. None the less, it was a beautiful time to celebrate God's goodness and be challenged to live into this new oppourtunity for ministry. There are times in our families lives when it's hard to identify where our family stops and church begins. The lines are intertwined. This project has blurred those lines even more. Just today, the kids were pretending to be architects and builders using terms and phrases that they had been overhearing for months.
There wasn't much snow but enough to build these snowmen. It wasn't long after the snowmen were built that the snow cream was made and lunch was served picnic style!

sweet memories

It was like rain falling on thirsty ground for me to happen upon this moment unfolding



I admit the moment you just watched was a requested repeat of the spontaneous moment that melted my heart.

Good times like these make all the "pull out my hair" moments worthwhile.

I love these kids more than they know.

If you're wondering....

what my children have been up to these last few weeks while I've been completely absent from blogosphere- here's a good summary

I have been truly grateful for the warm sunny winter weather. My days have found themselves to be very long as Philip has found himself in the position of contractor for the remodeling work at the church. He's gone from way before sun up to way past sun down. My kids have found themselves relegated to the outdoors more than usual for it being winter.

Ryan has been spending the last few weeks setting traps and planning for bird stew. He's torn between cooking his captured birds or keeping them as a pets. He's still hoping for a dog but I think realizes that he might need to take matters into his own hands. He faithfully checks his traps throughout the day and unloads bird seed throughout the yard. Peter has joined in on the bird hunting ventures but is taking a different approach.He's going for the David and Goliath method. He did get to go squirrel hunting with a church friend recently. Amazingly, they sat in the cold for 3 hours without ever seeing a squirrel! Thanks to all the bird seed Ryan's been spreading and the warm temperatures the birds are flocking to our yard.
Nathan's happy to follow along in his "cowboy boots" and his soldier stick. This particular occasion he was given permission to carry the bird net. Yes, it really is a fishing net but that's all they had at Walmart!

As for Emma she happened to be inside at the time of these pictures reading a book.

Apple nachos

I have been so delinquent in keeping current with my blog. I have a running list of excuses in my head as I think to myself, "I should really update things". Oh well; maybe one day I'll finished posting our vacation pictures. In the mean time, I tried out a new snack yesterday - apple nachos Although apples and peanut butter aren't that unusual in our house, it was really fun to serve them like this!