Shepard's Kindergarten Graduation

Confirmed!  Shep LOVES the stage!  He was able to participate in our homeschool group's kindergarten graduation on Friday night and he loved every minute of it.  He told us a few weeks ago that he didn't want to be on stage in front of "all those people" - HA!  The boy thrives on it!  Check out the picture that my friend Jessica sent me of him walking in with the graduates.  I love this one!

Getting ready to go to graduation...

Turning the tassels... 

We should have practiced this. :) 

John and I got to give him his diploma and tell him how proud we are of him! 

Shepard and Catherine 

Wonder what was going on here?? :) 

Shepard and his friend, Anna Kate 

Shepard and GG 

Our little boy is growing up!  And we are so proud of him!  He has learned a lot this year in kindergarten.  He's reading and writing and learning math and lots of other things.  But, mostly, we are proud of his tender heart to the Lord.  And also, we really appreciate his kind spirit toward his brothers and others.

It is a joy to teach Shepard at home!!

Spring Storms - Limbs Down

We've had plenty of rain and spring storms lately.  This last round knocked down a few limbs in our yard.  Will and I took a walk this evening and I got a picture of him with the biggest limb we have down.  (Gotta love his soldier get-up!  He posed in character, too. :) )

Mr. and Mrs. - the geese

Everything at Green Gabled Acres seems to have a name.  I've often admired people who have the knack for naming stuff - that just seems fun - but I've never had enough creativity to do that.  But, at our farm, it just seems to come naturally...  at least so far.  And actually, I guess I'm still not "creative" with the naming, but if if it fits I can't seem to help but name it.  So, our geese pair that live at our pond have become "Mr. and Mrs." to me.  They are so cute always walking around together.  And on Mother's Day weekend their eggs hatched and they have four little geese parading around everywhere with them now.  I just love watching our geese family trot around!  The other day when I drove home I had to stop and let them pass over the drive, so I got out and snapped this picture while I waited.  Life at the farm is FUN!

Oh, and the other day I found Will sitting here by the barn while he was waiting for me to come back from my walk.  Too cute!

MSM is 600!

Wow!  Beyond our wildest imaginations, MySaleManager.NET has 600 clients now!  We are really grateful for each consignment event that has chosen us and trusted us for the software they use to run their event. 

The boys and I are SOOOOO proud of John and the excellent work he does.  It's easy for us to see why his business is growing so much.  The Lord has enabled him to create an excellent product and John has the kind of character that is trustworthy, honest and caring.  Way to go!!

We enjoyed celebrating the latest milestone last night with my parents and my grandpa and Lois who came to visit us and see the new farm.

New Animals at the Farm

Well...  it feels like a real farm now!  We have animals!  17 new baby chicks and a barn cat (kitten) to add to our two rabbits.  The boys are enjoying the animals immensely!  Especially Shepard who is THRILLED to have the cat as his very own responsibility to take care of.  Shep wakes up early to go see the cat (named Joey) and spends every spare minute out at the barn with him... except while he's in the garage visiting the chickens! :) 

at the new house...

Loved finding the boys sitting together by the front door one evening!

The boys have been doing such a great job working on the farm and helping with all kinds of jobs.  After one job, Shep offered to give Will a ride back to the house in the cart.  What fun!



Mother's Day 2011

I am so blessed and my heart overflows!  The Lord has entrusted these precious boys to my care for now and I'm incredibly thankful that I get to be their mom. 



First Easter at the New House

After spending the weekend moving to our new house, we were TOTALLY wiped out!  This Easter was much different than any other we've ever had.  The boys were very understanding and we just did things a little differently than normal.  We did manage to get a few eggs colored - I'm amazed that we were able to do that, but we found the stuff we needed in our boxes and it worked out.  And they didn't get their Easter baskets until late that evening but I think it was worth the wait because they sure enjoyed the nerf dart guns they got.  We had a special family time together where John read us the Easter account from scripture and we had a wonderful discussion about that.  Little Will was so exhuasted that he fell asleep on the rock ledge by the fireplace!

Here's some pictures from the evening:



Moving Day pictures

What a day!  We were EXTREMELY grateful for our precious friends and family who helped us this day!  What a big job to move all your stuff to a new house!  We rescheduled a few times to avoid the rain and in the end it seemed like it rained all around us, but we were able to move without getting wet.  Seemed like God's protective Hand on us and we praised Him!