Home Improvements

Sam has been busy working around the house, as usual!

Recently he tore down our boring old fireplace mantle, built a new one and put it up. He trimmed the living room in natural wood to match and it all looks so pretty!

He has also been busy painting. This is an accent wall in the living room....nice, huh? I LOVE COLOR! Up until now we have had only one color on all our walls, but I am really a fan of color. It adds so much to the atmosphere of a home.

After Sam finished the green living room wall, he remembered how much he likes color too. So we picked out a paint color for the dining room. We chose a beautiful shade of red and painted the back wall in that room. Then Sam used the rest of the paint and did a wall in our bedroom too. It looks awesome!

He also took the rest of the green paint and painted the back walls in two of our bathrooms. It is all so nice. I don't have pictures of the red yet, but it is gorgeous.

Nice work, Sam! You do such great work and I appreciate all you do around the house! :)

Middle of the Summer

It's been a busy summer so far. And that's the way we like it! :)

Here are just a few highlights....

Many days the kids look like this:

before we even make it back home in the afternoon.

Henry, ever the fashon-conscience one in the family, has finally given up his "wrangling" jeans (otherwise known as Wranglers) in favor of shorts. Don't think he did that willingly, though. It took a lot of convincing that cowboys really do wear shorts in the summer. Shhh...don't tell!. :) Henry has such a fun personality. Check out the attitude in this picture!
Wild clowns showed up in my front yard one evening. I was able to snap a quick shot of this one as he ran by in the 90 degree night, sweat dripping down his face. Jonah is enjoying a lot of dress-up time these days....four is such a fun age!
Bridget is a natural animal lover. She ADORES our dogs and cats and often slips out of the house to chase them around the yard. They enjoy her attention most of time and the smaller ones let her carry them around. Elmer lets her sit on his back and hug on him like this:

(And Bridget is obviously into dress-up these days too. It's been fun to add girly dress-up clothes to our closet full of super hero costumes!)


We've had quite a few tea parties this summer too. I surprised the kids one day and made scones and fruit and sweet berry tea for lunch and served at their tea-table. Usually our parties are pretend, so they were pretty excited to actually eat in the playroom! :)

We've been swimming quite a bit, tending the garden, taking care of our farm animals, having picnics and tea parties, going to parks and the science museum, and playing with friends.

Summer is so fun!

Next week we're going to family camp in Arkansas with our church. Can't wait! (Thanks again, Ingrid for taking care of our farm while we're away! :) We sure appreciate you!)

This boy cracks me up...

It's about a minute and a half and totally worth watching if you need a laugh. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Summer Edition

(This is Bridget's typical 'after swimming' look.)