Me and My Dad

I loved spending some time with my dad one afternoon for Father's Day!

I got to take him for a drive and shop for tools.

He walks around the tool store kinda like I do at Hobby Lobby!  It was fun to watch him!

And we had time to visit...  it was wonderful!

Love you, Dad!

Father's Day 2012

I wish I was a wordsmith and could say what John really means to our family...  what a great dad he is and how grateful we are to celebrate him on Father's Day.

I have some pictures...  of the gift parade tradition.

and of the boys with their dad in the recliner... another Father's Day tradition. :)

And the boys' favorite picture is the one where I finally let them be silly!

However, what is not visible to the camera, but what we really cherish the most is John's heart for us. 

The way he stands in the gap...  his prayers for us...  his humble love.

The way he guides the boys to the Lord...   he mentors...  he disciples.

A father's heart - one that is truly devoted to the Lord - is a treasure... and we are rich in the blessing of belonging to John's family!

Happy 13th Birthday, Josiah!

Our oldest turned 13 today!

It seems like a milestone birthday.  We've begun the TEENS!

But I think 12 might have been the bigger year...  our boy is begining to sound like a man and he just might have outgrown me already.  He loves that and I'm trying to get used to looking up to him.

He makes me laugh like John does.  I love that.

And his smile melts me.

We blinked and our baby is turning into a man.

13 years ago... (before the age of digital photos)

and today...

his request... PLAIN lemon cupcakes with PLAIN lemon icing. :)

We had so much fun celebrating together!

The boys spent the afternoon playing together with the new games.

And I've decided there is just nothing like hearing brothers enjoying being together...  boy laughter and whoops of delight... awesome!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSIAH!

We are blessed to have you for a son and so excited to see all that the Lord is doing in your life as you continue to grow in your walk with the one true God!

We are so PROUD of YOU!

Celebrating the End of the School Year

in Eureka Springs at The Great Passion Play!

We've been counting the days...  anxious to end the school year.

We made it!!!

The boys had a great year and we all learned a lot!

To celebrate we took a family field trip to see the life size replica of the Tabernacle at the Passion Play.  It was really neat to see because we had studied it in school this year... we had even made our own miniature replica.

Here we are at the Tabernacle...

And of course we went to see the statue!

And the boys loved the play!

Can you believe this was the first day of June?!?  Look at our clothes...  it was CHILLY and we were sipping hot chocolate...  it was MARVELOUS!!

Well done Wasson Boys!

You've graduated to the next year of school!

Happy Summer...

New Farm Animals... The Sheep

Ol' Farmer John got us five sheep this last weekend!

We all hovered, watching them climb off the trailer and start grazing in the field.

I never knew our crew would get so excited over a few sheep.

They were sheared the day we got them...  so the boys think they look naked.  I guess they do. :)

We are all looking forward to seeing them all wooly.

Here is the view of the sheep from my office window.

I'm practically pinching myself...  it is so...  blissful!

It's amazing how peaceful they are to watch.

We have already had our first spiritual lesson from watching the sheep.

Ask the boys how people are like sheep. 

This was a perfect lesson while we were studying some of the Kings of Judah and the King of Assyria this week.  It was wonderful to see the light of understanding shine in their eyes when we could use what we had learned about the sheep to illustrate human nature.

So, here we are at Green Gabled Acres with

1 cat

5 rabbits

14 chickens

5 sheep

and 5 geese

I think we are a real farm! :)

The Hydrangeas

GRACE = unmerited favor

I’ve never been so keenly aware…

Seeing His grace despite my own unworthiness.

The Israelites knew the joy of reaping what they did not sow when they entered the Promised Land…  I feel like I live there.

I have a row of big, gorgeous hydrangea bushes growing beside the garage.  Did I mention BEAUTIFUL?!  The blue blooms make my heart skip a beat.  I love them!  I can’t help but keep some in a vase on the table all the time.

Here they are…  photos have not been edited at all…  ahhhh!

As Shepard says every time we see anything beautiful or even just kinda neat as we walk around the farm, "This is God's wonderful creation!"  We find ourselves living in awe.  Sunsets and sun dapples through the trees...  Shepard reminds me that even gross bugs are part of God's wonderful creation.  I think if we just look, we could find the beauty of God's grace in a lot of things.



Shep's Latest Costume

He wanted everyone to get to see it!

He's pretty creative and never ceases amuse me... that is after I get over the shock of being confronted by Wonder Boy when I come around a corner. 

Gotta love boys!



My Dad's Birthday

We got to go to Springdale one evening last week to celebrate my Dad's birthday with him!

Josiah really enjoyed showing Grandpa how he flies helicopters on his computer game.  And Grandpa was able to give him some good pointers on how to fly!  I do believe there was a subtle science lesson or two.

Me and my Dad!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

17th Wedding Anniversary

17 years together and it only gets BETTER and BETTER!!

Happy, happy, happy anniversary!!!

Our anniversary was the day after we got back from Florida...  so we celebrated with a dinner out at P.F. Changs!  Josiah snapped these pictures at our farm before we left.



State Signs

A new tradition!!

We LOVE traditions!!

We are hoping to get a picture of each state sign as we travel through it...  won't it be fun to see how many states we visit through the years?!



Vacation in Destin

We got to spend a week of vacation on the beach in Destin, FL!

It was fun!  A wonderful break from the normal routine.

And it was a learning curve vacation...  the boys enjoyed the beach and the ocean, but by the end of the week they preferred to just swim in the pool (which did not even have a view of the ocean!).  We're thinking we could swim in a pool without driving all the way to Florida!!  LOL. 

For our crew, beach lounging is fun for a day, but then they are ready to do something else.

They are all begging for a trip to Branson so they can go to Silver Dollar City.  :)

Here's our favorite family portraits in the sand.

Love this one of me and John!!

And here's our fun in the sun pictures.

John got to do a little snorkeling...  maybe you can get him to tell you his beached whale story! :)