Back from M.I.A.

Hello!!!!

Well I am back from a lovely hiatius and I have way too much to say and not enough time to say it. The photo I placed on the title was taken tonight in our front yard. I just love it. For those of you who don't know...no we have not married in another wife, that is Kaytie Jo our roomate of three years. She is great, like a sister to me and the girls and to Clay too in one sense. We fell in love with a similar photo that is found on one of the photo sites that I just adore and we had to dulplicate it for ourselves. Here are a few more to share with you!

As far as what has been going on I will have to blog and share from the mac and I am on the pc. The mac has most of our photos from the on goings around here.

Grace and Peace

~holly

Happy 10!

Happy Anniversary too us!  This is our 10 year anniversary month.  Our actual date is the 31st but we are going to celebrate for 10 weeks total starting yesterday!  That is my gift to Clay; 10, once a week dates without children.  I know that doesn't sound like a big deal to most of you but to us it is a HUGE deal.  We basically believe in attachment parenting for at least the amount of time that our children are still nursing. Well Eden is still nursing and so that means we have not been anywhere without her for over a year now.  It was grand - however, we didn't know what to do with ourselves and we almost forgot how to carry on a real conversation. 

So here is a synopsis of our first date.  

Picnic at Woodward park - Crostini & Muffuletta Antipasto & smoke cheddar cheese with water.  We people watched, ate, I read aloud, laid and watched squirrels, planned vacations and stole a couple of kisses.

Dessert at Shades of Brown Coffee Shop - A grasshopper for the Mr. and a Prague Mocha for the Mrs.  We sat and people watched for a good hour.  This is one of our favorite pass times is to people watch, it must be in our genes because Payton is a serious people watcher as well. :O.

Then back home to the kiddos.  We are both still beaming today  from our great date.  It was kind of like our first date, because never had a "first date".  We were friends for several years and always knew we were the ones.  We basically courted and then just fell right in love.  

I will try and document our dates as they happen over the next nine weeks!

Until then ....Grace and Peace

h

Harvest!

Here is some harvesting that I did today!!!  We have a ton of carrots and onions that came out of the ground and one lonely tomato.  There are many more to come and I forgot to take a picture of the beautiful and incredibly long green beans I pulled as well.

Oh I LOVE fresh eating from the garden.

Happy Food!

Joy and laughter!

Oh my goodness!  Isn't she beautiful?  When I took this shot of Payton it sent me into the future about 1o years.  She looks so mature and brilliant in this shot.  I just had to share.

The other day I was doing laundry and left the room for half a second and came back to find E.G. in this position!  She is a little monkey these days.  But isn't she cute.  I think all of us probably have a pose similar to this one in our pasts.  However, it does scare the poohey out of me and from now on the dryer door will remain shut unless I am standing next to it.

She is living my other life!

I found a new blog today and I am IN LOVE with this lady already and I don't even know who she is or where she is. Here is a blurb from her blog on "Alternative" that so spoke to me and about who we are:
Parenting It’s a crazy thing…this parenting job. We are trying to do the best that we can with the information that we have…and adding a whole bunch of love and kisses along the way We are a home birthing, cloth diapering, non-vaxing, gentle disciplining, baby wearing, co-sleeping, extended nursing family…whew! That’s a lot of labels. I prefer to think of it as natural parenting. We believe that children are to be treated with respect and mercy. It’s not an easy road and we’re not perfect by any means…but we try to treat Bella the way we want her to treat others….with respect and kindness.
Isn't that great? She is a photographer who lives on the road with her family. I really think she maybe my "other life".
This is her blog.... http://walkslowlylivewildly.com/ WOW!!!
I hope you all are having a great week - I have been stewing on some things that I will share soon. God is working on me in many areas this week.
Love to all
~H

The Celebration

Eden Grace and her favorite "toy" gift.

Check out that sweet new dress - I wish they made it in "Momma" sizes.

The girls met Daddy Clay for a picnic to celebrate on E's b-day.  We munched on many good things including E's favorite, Strawberries!!

Doesn't she look like you could just grab her up like a little strawberry and munch on her?

Mmm good.

The four girls born in five months last summer, came to help party with us at E's b-day party.

So proud of herself after eating her first cake.

She finally got the hang of it.

"What is that?  You have spent the last year telling me that I can't have anything like that and suddenly you just set it out in front of me and let me have at it?"

E. G.'s B-day!!

Happy #1 sweet Eden Grace.  I love you beyond measure!  I never knew how much I could love another child.  You are so wonderful and fill my days with laughs and joy.  I am loving every moment of watching you discover this world.  Thank you sweet Jesus with blessing us with this amazing miracle of a child.