Me and Grandma K

This has always been my favorite picture of me and Grandma! (I think it was taken in 1992.)

Grandma K

Grandma, what is heaven like? Are the colors more exquisite than anything I could even comprehend? Is the music more glorious than my mind can imagine? Did Jesus welcome you home today with an enormous smile that was full of His compassionate love? I picture you there... basking in the glow of God's presence, knowing His complete peace and joy and realizing the reward of your faithful race, now finished, here on earth. My heart almost bursts with gladness for the happiness I know you have now, but at the same time it selfishly aches for your presence with me again. I look forward to the day when I can bask in God's glory with you!

I love this picture of Grandma. It was taken about two years ago - before her stroke. We had taken our baby Will to meet her for the first time that day. Isn't Grandma beautiful? Yes, her hair color is a natural brown even though she was in her 90's. :) I've had lots of memories of Grandma in my mind today - the conversations we would have, washing dishes together, playing with her paper and stamps, eating her delicious food - she was an incredible cook, the bedtime snacks, the smell of her house and the heavy blankets that pinned you in bed and kept you so warm, her aprons... I will miss her.

New Basketball Goal

The boys are really enjoying the new basketball goal... especially Josiah.


Shepard is always in some kind of costume... he's not too interested in basketball yet.


Will David hanging out on the "court".


Josiah practicing ball handling... (isn't he getting big?!)

They have a great bball "court" with our circle drive.

Latest photo shoot of the boys

Last week I took the boys out to get some new pictures. I absolutely love all the backgrounds I had to work with at the old Ozark Smokehouse. The boys had fun playing there and finding berries. Will is HARD to take pictures of... he delights in "not" looking at the camera. Josiah and Shepard are much easier and really tried to cooperate with my ideas. Josiah even had plenty of his own ideas for pictures, so that was fun.

There was an ant hill here and they were all afraid of biting ants, so they were carefully checking them out. We didn't stay here very long. :)

So handsome! My fantastic 10-year-old!

See that personality??

More personality!

Cutie! My precious 5-year-old!

This one cracks me up... see those tongues?! :)

Survivor Campers Return Home

John took the older two boys on a "sort of" survivor camping weekend trip (no electricity - just out in the woods somewhere)... and it sounds like they had a GREAT time! I'm so happy that they had this opportunity for a special father/ son bonding time. John is a great dad and it is so encouraging to see him investing in the lives of our boys - training them in necessary skills and building Godly character. I'm guessing the boys favorite part was building the campfire and then throwing things into it. I'm not sure any of them just loved sleeping in the tent. :)


Will and I got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa and go shopping together. We had a good time, too. Here's Will riding his favorite little yellow bike thing... I really think this is one of his most favorite things to do! (You can't tell from the picture that he's on the bike, but he sure is happy.)

Third son potty trains himself?!

It was almost bathtime, so I left Will's diaper off after a diaper change. We heard him in the bathroom and a few minutes later he came and said, "potty" several times. So, I asked him if he needed to go potty and he replied, "uh-huh" and bobbed his little head up and down. Half-heartedly I said, "ok" - can you hear the long drawn-out-do-we-have-to syllables? :) So, I walked with him to the potty and there he had already placed his little potty seat on the toilet - hmmm, I realized he was serious - so I sat him down. Yep, he immediately started to go potty! The little fella knew exactly what he was doing. The whole family came to cheer and applaud - he was smiling from ear to ear and clapping for himself - so cute! His reward was that he got to flush the potty! Do third sons usually just train themselves like this??? This could be great...