Mother's Day 2012

 Mothers Day. With our sometimes goofy kiddos it can be difficult to get, just the right picture! But we love 'em anyways!!! We are SOOOOOO blessed to have Tasha as wife and mommy! What a caring, thoughtful, understanding Mother she has been to our children. As a Father looking on, I want to say that I appreciate all of the time and effort she puts into the art of Mothering, and yes, it is an art! It takes a creative flair to go beyond just being a Mom. It takes the whole heart. Tasha has certainly learned the art of involving her whole heart, and investing into the lives of other people. I deeply love and appreciate that she cares so much about our kiddos. What a wonderful, selfless Mommy! We all love you dearly!! :)  

 These are some of the gifts that She received at church.

 And these are some of the things the children wanted to get for Mommy.

 Yummy!

Making our own laundry soap.

 It may look like grated cheese, but it is a bar of Fels-Naptha soap.

 Melt it down till it's smooth.

 Add hot tap water half way up in a clean 5 gallon bucket.

 Then mix all the ingredients.

 1/2 cup of Borax,

 1 cup of Super Washing Soda. Mix it till everything dissolves.

Then fill up the rest of the bucket with hot tap water, cover and let it thicken overnight.

I will then use this as a concentrate which will end up making 10 gallons of soap. Saves our family a bunch of money. :)

Shoes!

As you may imagine having six children, we are always watching for a good deal. Tasha is very adept at bargain hunting, and thrift store shopping. I stopped in at a local thrift store earlier this afternoon to say hello to a good friend of ours that works there. While we were talking I noticed a pair of tennis shoes that looked like they might fit Skyler. Skyler won't be 13 until this August, but he wears size 14 shoes, so they can be a little hard to locate. Well anyway, I didn't purchase the shoes and went about my merry way. Later in the afternoon we received a text message from our friend that works at the store, she asked, could I please stop back past the store before closing tonight. I went back and found that someone (our sweet and good friend) had purchased the shoes for Skyler as a gift! I marvel at the friends that God puts in our lives and how God meets our needs. God is Good!

They fit perfect! They are AirJordan's, not that we care about the brand, but these are well made shoes.

Flowers, Taco's, and Great Memories!!!!

 

Our best friend's Danny and Elizabeth Flower's came home from Florida a couple of weeks ago and we were THRILLED to be able to spend time with them!!! 

                              

Together our two families have a total of 10 children. They have been raised together most of their lives, and are the best of friends!

                    

 Time for a silly pose! =) From L to R: Tanner, Wesley, Elliana, Skyler, Emma, Cory, Caleb, Ben, Becca, And Abby.

Another fun pose!!

Becca holding Emma on her shoulder's.

Abby and Elli are the best of friend's. Elizabeth and I had them only 9 days apart. 

 

 Skyler with Ben on his shoulder's, and Tanner trying hard to hang on to Cory!  =)

Since we have so many great memories together, Elizabeth thought that it would be fun for her and I to sit with all the kiddos and tell our favorite memory. (The guys were gone for a bit, so this was an idea to keep our kiddos busy!=))

Sweet Caleb James. He is almost four years old, what a cutie!

Big brother Wes holding Emma Jane. 

We were so thankful they were able to come and visit. They had a lot of plans and only a short time to fit it all in!! Love you guys!!!  

Youth Night!

We went to Jonesboro last night to the gym. Every other Friday night our church has a youth night for everyone from the church, it's great because everyone, young or old is invited and usually attends. Last night we had Taco's (my favorite) then played Basketball and dodge ball. Our youth leader presented a devotional about half way through. What a fun night. I knew better than to attempt any basketball, but I had a lot of fun playing a few games of dodge ball with the kiddos. Man, they take that game serious!

"New" skirt for Emmy!

If you are anything like us, you just can't find a good modest skirt for your girls. If it fits in the waist then they are really short. To get them as long as we like then they are way to big in the waist. Well I saw everyone else making a skirt out of a pair of jeans so I thought I would give it a try. Now my Grandma Collings taught me how to sew a little when I was way younger, but I have never touched a sewing machine. When we left Hobe Sound, Florida in 2010, Mrs. E. Shamber gave us an older singer machine, but we had never really used it. Well last week I was tired of studying for my Pastoral counseling class, so I decided to take the night off and relax.


(Back)
A couple hours later, and only one little mistake, (I think) here is the finished project. I had so much fun! Maybe it seems strange for "Daddy" to sew a dress for his little girl, but I am thankful to have a skill that will help us provide for our family.


(Front)
Should I say thank you to Skyler for giving me an old ripped pair of his jeans to use for the wedge of lighter material to be sewn in? THANKS Sky!!!




And there is little miss Emma, wearing her, "new" skirt!

Loving life!

We live a busy life just like everyone else. Homeschooling has been a challenge, we are looking at some other curriculum, not sure A.C.E. is working well for all our kids. Cory and Elli does fine, but Tanner and Skyler have a little more of a visual learning style, so we will see what happens. Tasha is still working at the Pharmacy down the road, but they keep cutting her hours. She only gets 15 hours this week. I have been looking for something else. I am just about to finish pastoral counseling class, I will be glad to have this one done. Only seven more classes until I finish my first degree! I am excited about that. We had a bunch of friends and family that went to the IHC convention this week, wish we could have been there, we love Dayton convention! Well update again soon.
G~

Renewed Interest!

We are in the midst of "renewing our Interest in blogging! What I mean by that is this: Facbook is Great but not always the best way to represent our family So we are going to find time to get our blog going again. Be Patient, we homeschool 4 kids and I am in Pastoral Counseling class and Tasha works at a pharmacy. Wow, no wonder I am so tired! lol Have a great week.

This last September we were living in Logan, Ohio where we were youth pastors at Logan Holiness Church. September is Tasha's Birthday so I kind- of surprised her with a special weekend away. We stayed in a wonderful cabin at Camp Akita which is just about 8 miles outside Logan. I actually worked there and thus was able to use the cabin at no cost, as long as we made sure it was clean and ready for the next visitors.



Here we are leaving for a nice long hike. We were going UP to Bald Eagle. And boy was it ever UP! Two miles straight up to the highest point on the 1200 hundred acre property. We had so much fun that day, and I think Mommy and Daddy were the only ones that was really sore the next day :)



Hikes during the day and campfires at night,,,, we really had a nice time with Mommy and enjoyed our family weekend.

New Glasses!

Elli went to the eye Doctor a couple weeks ago and was thrilled to find that she had to get reading glasses. She is such a big girl, 7 now.

New blog coming soon.

We are hoping to spend some time over the next few days "Remodeling"
our blog and getting it back up and running again. Send me a comment
and let me know if anyone out there still spends any time reading blogs
:)