Lots of this

We've had so many opportunities these last few months to work on forgiveness and loving well! Thank you, Katie for working on something that is so necessary in life. The Scriptures are not silent on this topic as it calls us to forgive 70 times seven...which means we forgive over and over again!  I pray our family can always be quick to ask for forgiveness and quick to forgive each other! Love you sweet girl! And yes, I do forgive you!

My view this morning

Last night, Justin went out it town to do an open house and model hours in Washington NC. No one ever likes Daddy traveling, but you kids do a great job being thankful that he has a good job- working hard to provide and then anticipating his return with joy! Everyone is excited when Daddy gets home!

Sometime in the middle of the night, you Pippers, came in and gave me Snuggles the stuffed puppy to snuggle with...sweet girl, thank you for thinking of me, since I was sleeping alone and loving well in your own way! I did snuggle with her the rest of the night! I love you! love, Momma

PS...Katie we got to talk after you woke up and your stuffy, Libby the bunny, will always be with you! Love this view too!

School today

A wee bit of planning and Katie and I can study and work from fun places! Today's stop, The Umstead for tea and school. Katie, it is fun to see you mesmerized by the quiet beauty of this spot and to see you using good tea manners. What fun, sweet girl!

Out to tea with our Sweetie!

While the boys jump at Defy Gravity, Katie, you and I went to enjoy Strawberry tea, Caroline, a new drawing book and lots of conversation! What Fun! Love you, Pippers!

Oh Spelling, How I DON'T Love You :)

Dear sweet 1st grader, whom I have the pleasure of teaching this year, 

Spelling is not a favorite subject.  There are to many rules and sounds and challenges with spelling.  But alas, dear girl you are learning the tricks of this subject.  

Mimi, who was recently out here teaching you school, taught you to take a picture in your mind of the word and then look up in the air to the left to "see" the word in your mind.  

Yay! It is is slowly coming along and the words are forming in your mind. 

If I am honest, spelling is awful for me as well.  I love English, but hearing phonically and then knowing all the rules baffles me.  

So lets keep working together and we shall spell together with confidence (or with spell check and the dictionary :)

Wearing Red and Black

Thank You Wiley's for the NC State bball tickets!

Go Wolf Pack!

Pumpkin Carving and Trick or Treating

Fall is one of our favorite seasons.  There are so many thing to do dear kiddos!  

We carved pumpkins and went tricker treating this past week and it was so exciting.  Katie and Owen you thought through your costumes many times and settled on the Royals...even though we were all sad they lost in Game 7 of the World Series.  You rocked your outfits, scored $3 burritos at Chipolte, raked in 5 lbs of candy and loved every minute of our festive week.  

 Two artists deep in their work

One helper concentrating with his tongue

Justin did a little artistic work creating the lantern for their newest neighborhood

 I was in character here...I'm Erin Andrews.  I'm interviewing a very important KC Royals Cheerleader.  :) Oh and I got a chance to talk with Hosmer...

 Look at that Coach and little player!

 :)

Fair time!

So. Much. Fun. 

North Carolina State Fair

7 hours of walking

favorite food: homemade ice cream

favorite artist: china doll artisan, wooden toy maker, from tree to violin artisan

Favorite entry: anything by the Burton kids!

Uber glad we did it!

Double date day

Owen and daddy & Katie and Mommy

The boys played baseball and the girls spent a bit of Katie's birthday money on a doll carrier.  Then we celebrated with ice cream cones.  AWESOME. Kid Date. Saturday.

UVA Won!

It's ACC Championship Sunday...we're blessed to be here enjoying the game! Cheering for VA today!

We are now "jump on the bandwagon fans" for the University of Virginia!  They play a really solid game that was a ton of fun to watch.  Plus we have heard from good sources (thank you Burtons) that the coach is a solid follower of Jesus.  And it is evident even to the announcers that the players play unselfishly and do what their coach asks them to do....they trust him.  What a great example of living out what you believe.

UVA-ALL THE WAY!!

(Thank you to my husband for allowing me to use what he is posting on FB for our blog.  I'm working on the photos on our computer to post those...but right now it is running so slow :(  I'm sure when I delete some of our 20,000 photos it will run faster.  :)

Welcome to Our Photo Shoot...

Taken by the creative, joyful, talented and always laughing-KristinShyla. (go on over to her blog, you won't be disappointed!)

Kristin-Thank you, Thank you, Thank you-for serving, loving, laughing, smiling, enjoying, believing and photographing!

Here are the some of the rest of our shoot, I mean Kristin took about 500 photos.  :)  

I don't want to forget these days.  

And these days that are flying by...

I want to remember that we do have more laughing, smiling, joyful days then challenging, fall on the floor in despair days (though they do exist).  

We have GREAT kids that love each other and us and anyone that comes into our house.  

We are still in love, best friends and want to be more so! after almost 12+ years of marriage-meeting when we were the wee age of 16. :)

The Lord has put us in Raleigh and we really enjoy this city.

Our life is FUN!  We do fun things.  We explore the outdoors and indoors of Raleigh and the East coast. What a blessing!

We enjoy being silly/crazy and need to do it more often.

Our little boy is 4.5 and growing up way to quickly for us. He's honest, a natural helper, struggles when he can't get things right, he's full of energy, creative, loves to give hugs and wants to wrestle or work with Daddy as much as possible-after all Daddy is his first hero.

Katie, oh Katie Grace...why are you growing up too?  You are 6.5, creative, love to sing songs, twirl around and create a story, you're intuitive, have a million and one things going on at once, detest putting away your clothes, love to read, love to color/draw and could snuggle at anytime of the day or night.

And finally, I want to remember who freely gives joy and life, thats what makes us honestly happy.  May we all find JOY in Jesus for life that is truly life and for freedom that is truly free.