Living and loving...

We're having a GREAT summer.    

It started with Troy and I celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary!  My how young we looked...and isn't my sweetheart so HANDSOME?!  

We added a new pet to the mix...

The girls are having a blast being creative--

Grace likes to decorate her pokey arm with stickers...

And they both LOVE to try out new do's and having their nails done!  When I do Grace's nails she likes me to paint something on her pokey arm.  I usually paint a heart on it with fingernail polish.  I'll have to remember to take a picture next time.

The children and I finished with our first 6 weeks of this school year already.  And on July 1st, I celebrated turning 40 by driving to Baton Rouge and getting a number of our adoption documents certified, taking a wild trip to the zoo in the rain on purpose, and going out to eat with my amazing family!  My philosophy for this decade (and beyond) is to have no regrets, to live each day in a new and unexpected way that makes people want to know why, to point them to my unique, creative, awesome God.  When you put your trust in Him, you never know where He'll take you, but you KNOW it's gonna be GOOD!

(If you click on the giraffe picture, you can see how hard it was raining!)

We've been trying our hand at growing fruits and veggies...

watermelon,

corn,

and satsumas!

Our second batch of chickens are growing rapidly.  

We're thinking we should get our first eggs in the next month!

Uncle Troy is teaching Erin how to drive--she did really well!  They spent almost 2 hours driving around the yard and practicing starting, stopping, parking...  

Now we're in Cartersville, GA for our yearly trip to the Reeves home (maybe one year we can talk them into coming to our home...).  The kids and I do look forward to this every year (this is our 3rd year).  Julie and Robby own Steps of Faith, a christian dance studio.  The girls are both old enough to do the dance camp this year with Caroline and are LOVING it!