planting roots

 a love to read

 funny faces to share

 an activity owen loves - building with bristle blocks. 

 let's go fly a kite ... henry loves flying the kite.

 owen loves to throw rocks and grab hand fulls of dirt

 {half pajama day - at least the shirt.  he really wanted to leave on his monkey shirt & it was a wednesday when he doesn't have school so why not?}

 we have two toomer's oaks we planted recently - have had them in pots for several years and were able to put them in the ground!

 and also planted a sweet housewarming gift of a sugar maple tree - planting it a few months ago.  and its first few leaves a few weeks ago.

digging in the dirt, planting trees, sowing a small garden.  digging in our hearts to learn about oneself, planting roots of wonder, curiosity, perseverance, and faith, and sowing seeds of thankfulness, laughter and love.

eucharisteo

much to post ... feeling behind, blog and otherwise {as usual!}, but i will get it done, at some point ... until then, wanted to share the above thought from Ann Voskamp.  this is the crux of her book, One Thousand Gifts, as well as the crux of life.  ordinary every. day. life. our ordinary transformed into God-breathed extraordinary.

"aren't the heights of our joy always dependent on our thanks?"

www.aholyexperience.com



outtakes & ready for spring

anyone who has ever tried to photograph more than one child will appreciate these um, well,  outtakes.  :)

and, welcome spring!  the weather sure has been crazy this winter - but it seems safe to say that spring has sprung and has brought eighty degree temps along with it. 

time to break out the old flip flops!  owen's first time wearing flip flops - which he calls "blip bops."

love owen's chubby little feet.  he appears to be sporting a size 7.5 and henry a size 9.5 these days.

speaking of spring, our house sits behind a nook of trees.  within a week the leaves popped out in the below pic.  now, they have really popped out and you cannot see our house from the road {or this part of our driveway, really}.  crazy!  will have to take another pic to compare.

 our yellow rosebushes are blooming ... a few of their first blooms.  first for us, for for them.

and with these nice warm days, we have spent a lot of time outside.  checking on the cows.  prepping our raised beds for our garden.  exploring.  weeding.  planting.  laying pine straw.  eating on the porch as much as possible.  watering. taking walks. cutting grass.  gazing at the amazing stars - the sky seems so much clearer out here.  finding frogs.  finding ant beds.  playing with anything that could resemble a club.  kicking the soccer ball.  listening to the sounds of nature at night.  playing with cars and trucks.  loading trucks {the one above hails from michigan back in the days when sue's brothers were young.  sue, remember these?  we have this dump truck and a fire engine that you all passed on to brock when he was younger}.  loading trucks is a big part of each trip outside.  this day's load consisted of some good old rocks, a few leaves, and a piece of stone.  the trusty old dump truck is enjoying spring, too.

hello from h & o

no particular reason for any of these - other than just pure cuteness.

 mmnn, mmmnn, mmmnnn.  mommy is such a sucker for these brown eyes, dimples and grin.

 henry was pretending he was a little bird and the blanket was his nest.

 the boys love this car/town mat.  love love love it.

 before school one morning

 h & o ... trying to get a pic of the two {at times a challenge} ... and ahem, brotherly love.

they actually DO love each other ... owen is just not a big fan of hugs from h sometimes.

but they do pal around together at home and at school ... when i pick up the boys from school and ask henry who he played with on the the playground, he always {as in three days each week, the three days they are at school} says, "owen!"  the other day at school when owen saw henry on the playground he gave up the swing and said, "hen-ee's turn."  most times they have a blast together.



cowboy round-up

a long long time ago it seems, gary and i took henry to the storybook farms cowboy round-up.  it was a whopping low thirty something degrees ... freezing in alabama ... but lots of fun.  there were games, horses to pet and see, dinner for the cowpokes, "calf" roping, stick horse races, a blacksmith, and a campfire.  it was so cold I did not take the old camera - just used the phone.  henry had a great time - he didn't mind the cold.  he did mind the one horse that snorted though - wasn't a big fan.  here he is below with corduroy, of whom he was a fan.

and the video above is of the stick horse races ... henry was great about bringing up the rear each time {they raced about five times}.  for you out of towners, storybook farms is a local, non-profit horse farm that serves children with disabilities and/or illnesses.  all of their horses and paddocks are named after literary characters ... and they are a fantastic organization.  here's the link if you want to take a peek!http://www.hopeonhorseback.org/

funny moments

from one of henry's awesome teachers ...

h:  "hurry owen! hurry owen!" (over and over)

h's teacher:  "where are you going all in a hurry?"

h:  "why to the ponderosa of course!"

and ... last week at school h and a few friends were sitting with this same sweet teacher.  she asked them what they wanted to be when they grow up/  the conversation went like this:

friend:  I want to be a pilot.

h's teacher:  What kind of pilot? 

friend:  An airplane pilot and a rocket pilot too!

h's teacher:  That would be so cool to go to the moon and outer space!  What do you think Henry?

h:  Well, I would rather just stay here on Earth.

laughs to start out the week!  :)



wrapping up the month of birthdays

january 13th - henry's birthday.

february 1st - owen's birthday.

february 16th - my birthday.

february 25th - gary's birthday.

we have wrapped up the month of birthdays around our house.  the lanterns have come down.  the birthday treats have been gobbled up.  yet, owen still sings happy birthday sometimes.  ha!

my birthday was wonderful - gary made my favorite meal {breakfast}.  we were all home and enjoyed good tunes, good company and good times.  that saturday i ran in the Love Your Heart 10k ... it rocked!  that's one race in auburn i have not yet run.  one word: thankful.  well, two words: thankful and excited.  gary had a wonderful birthday too - we went to our first {and only this year} auburn basketball game.  the tigers did not win, but we all enjoyed the game.  we met up with good friends there and then they all came back to the house with their kiddos to visit and have dinner.  the bushes trekked down from birmingham - great to see you guys, as always!

also in february, gary and i took henry to the storybook farm cowboy round-up {that's another post}. 

we continue to "unpack" and situate things here ... that will continue it seems. 

 thanks to greg, brett's dad, for the delicious peanut butter and chocolate cake!

 above: from our front porch.  our "neighbor" across the street turned the cows out in the field next to us ... when we drove in the driveway for the first time after turning them out, henry exclaimed, "we live on a farm now!  there are cows!"  he and owen LOVE these moo cows.  there are a handful of calves and the boys enjoy watching the calves frolic and follow their mommies {and, get out of the fencing}.  gary and i both grew up on land with livestock {cattle and horses mainly}, so we have certainly enjoyed having them close by too.  there is one bull amongst these cows ... what a life, right?  poor guy. 

 and this is the view from our deck/porch that overlooks the pond. 

see that bench in the middle left of the picture?  that is the bench on which gary asked for my hand in marriage - june 29th, 2003.  the bench sat in his dad's yard in anniston at the time, but several years ago when his dad moved to auburn, he moved the bench to the ponderosa.  for christmas that year he gave us a plaque for the bench, "the betrothal bench," with the date of our engagement.  quite thoughtful.

that is our driveway there on the right.  our sits a ways from the road.  when they were adding the gravel and making the driveway way back when, gary and i said, "we like a snaky {curvy} driveway."  henry quickly said, "i do not like a snaky driveway."  ha!  will never forget that.

we are able to witness the sunset every day.  gorgeous.  in all honesty, what a blessing does not seem to truly capture our emotion, for all parts of life.  not sure how one would describe it, really.  undeserving? unimaginable? utterly thankful?  

for now, let's just say that if you are ever on our end of town and want to stop by, we would love to visit with you.  come and check out the cows, pull up a chair on the deck and watch a spectacular sunset.