Riding Bikes

Last Thursday:

Two Pictures

One from yesterday:

Sweet helpers.  =)

And one from today:

It has taken nearly 4 hours of work to get the toys to this place.  The pile on the floor by the bed is all of the dolls and stuffed animals and you probably can't tell but there are about 7,459 items on top of the bed, neatly organized into containers.   

WHERE do they all COME from??????

I have put off organizing them for weeks (maybe months) because it feels so overwhelming and there are just sooo many.

I seriously wish I could just throw them all out and start over.  But of course I won't.  I did get rid of a lot today though and that felt AWESOME!  

I feel like I can breathe better.

The Faith of a Child

The crazy wind tore the gate off our fence a few months ago.  

The rest of the fence is in very sad shape as well.  It was very windy a few weeks ago when the girls and I were outside swinging and the fence was creaking and swaying in the wind.  The girls came and stood by me as I was looking at it, trying to figure out which part was most in danger of falling.  One of them said, "What are you looking at?"  I said, "The fence is starting to break so I'm checking on it." 

(or something like that) 

Gracie says, "Jesus can fix it!"  Ava immediately agrees, "Yes, Jesus can fix it!!"  I say, "Yes, He can.  Daddy is planning to work on it soon and Jesus will help him do it."  Later that day as Ava laid down for her nap she suddenly gasped, "Jesus forgot to fix our fence!!"  So again I tell her that Daddy is going to work on it, and Jesus will help him, etc.  Both girls brought it up a few more times in the next couple of weeks and I told them the same thing every time.

A few Saturdays ago, John and Jody picked up the girls to take them out to eat, shopping, and to the park.  Here the girls are waiting:

 (and SO excited)

Joel worked on the fence while they were gone and when they pulled back up out front, I went out to meet them but Gracie didn't even look my way.  She ran as FAST as she could around back and excitedly, out-of-breath asks Joel, 

"IS JESUS HELPING YOU FIX THE FENCE?!"  

Joel says, "Well, yes.  He's given me strength to work on it."  (or something like that)  Gracie sadly says, "But...I didn't see Him!"

She totally expected to see Jesus and was SO excited !!  Ah, such faith.  =) 

Another funny thing is after Joel fixed the first two sections on the left of this picture, he only removed a single rotted panel on the section that is currently completely gone.  It stayed that way for a few days until he was able to take down those next two sections.  That driveway on the other side belongs to our very good friends and one day Gracie stuck her head through the small opening, looked from one side to the other, and said, "THIS is going to be GREAT!"  Which echoed Kyndra and I's sentiments exactly.  We're thinking maybe Joel could make a gate on the back side so that we can easily go back and forth between each other's houses.  LOL!

Fun Times

We took Lila to Story Hour at the library today because her mom wasn't able to come.  We went to Burger King afterwards (our weekly ritual) so the girls could play.  Here they are waiting on their food:

Decorating

The girls came running down to my room the other day, excitedly telling me,

"We decorated for the wedding!! You wanna come see?!"

This wasn't exactly what I expected:

The kitchen table covered in painter's tape.  LOL!!

It's All True

This past Monday:

 Matt and Amanda experienced one of the earthquakes in a very real way.  We felt the same one here but not as strongly as they did.  There have been several this week, and that is VERY unusual for Oklahoma.  

In other news, I'm so, so sorry for the lack of posts lately!  Life just seems to be rushing by...each day goes so fast, whole weeks seem to fly by at an alarming rate.  But all is well and we are doing good. =)

I'm heading to Ladies Conference this weekend!!  I have been looking forward to this for months and am so thankful I get to go.  Joel and the girls have big plans for while I'm gone.  They are going to stay in a hotel and get to go swimming and go to a 3-story indoor playground that Joel is able to go up in as well.  The girls will have so much fun.  Maybe not as much as Joel, but close.  =)

Well, I have several posts in my head but it's just finding/taking the time to do them.  I will devote some time next week to do that.  I PROMISE! =)

Here's a recent picture of the girls at the library:

=)

Our Family

As drawn by Gracie: