when city meets country...

it's really fun(ny)...today we went to play at the farm...and there is nothing like it back home :) The girls loved it and so did I, but only for a day :)

More pics...

My sensitive smeller immediately upon exiting the car...

the silo (far right) Rachel and I repelled from in college...

inside their life size clubhouse....

tractor rides with Uncle Phil...

Brooke and Kate...

swinging from...

the rafters :)

good times...

in Martinsburg...when you start hearing a lot of random, unsolicited 'I love yous' from the little ones, you know that they are loving life...tonight, Brooke told Mimi on the way home from the carnival, that she loved her, that she (Mimi) was her best friend, and then she said that 'I wish I could marry you'...my girls LOVE it here and would never want to leave if their daddy was here with them...

more pics...

duck duck goose and 'pick me' from Erin...

Kameron and Brooke messing around...

Erin and Brooke playing tag...

boat rides...

Brooke...

horse and buggy...

happy spectators :)

flying high! and loving life...

Pennsylvania

Rachel and I are up here in the hills of Pennsylvania :)  It's beautiful and the girls are enjoying ALL their cousins!  We've been entertaining the little ones with a lot of wholesome fun :)

Take a look.

Security is always scary for Brooke.

Brooke and her puppy and popsicle.  

Erin and hers...

Kam in the trees...

the campout is not complete without a tent like this...

The Texas campers...

and the rest of their cousins (excluding Kyle, he's getting a little too old to enjoy this)...

Tyler and Erin looking in the sky for clouds and...

airplanes (the airport is just a couple of miles from parents' house)...

truck races...Tyler is faster, but Erin is full of tricks to delay his start...he still beats her everytime...

Kam spending a lot of time in someone's lap...

More to come!

the armor!

I'm a chronic blog surfer and stumbled on another awesome blog!  Here's her post from yesterday that I copied, pasted and printed so that I can do this with my girls :)

On the way to school this morning, Em and I were praying in the car. We put on our "Armor" every morning in the car so that neither of us starts the day "naked"...because that would be...AWKWARD!  It goes something like this:

Me: Lord, we put on our armor. We put on the belt of...

Em: TRUTH!

Me: Yep! So that we share your truth and always choose to tell the truth, not letting the devil tempt us to lie.

Me: We put on the breastplate of...

Em: RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Me: Yep! Lord, we want to do things Your way, not ours, so help us to be a light and choose to do the right thing.

Me: We stand with our feet in the gospel of...

Em: PEACE!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You that You sent Jesus, the Prince of Peace! And we trust You as our foundation! Your ways ROCK and no matter what the d(D)evil tries to throw our way, we will trust You and know Your peace!

Me: We put on the helmet...

Em: OF SALVATION!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You for Your word! We want to renew our minds with Your word because the d(D)evil tries to lie to us all the time so we need to know the difference between Your truth and his dumb lies!

Me: We take up the shield of...

Em: FAITH!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You that FAITH can ward off the fiery attacks of the e(E)nemy.

Me: We take up the...

Em: SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, YOUR WORD, SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD AND WE WILL PRAY AND PRAISE CONTINUOUSLY!

Me: EM, YOU ROCK! I am so proud of you!

I want to be an astronaut...

yep, that's what Erin wants to be when she grows up.  After baths tonight, she asked "mom, can I pleeeaaase be an astronaut when I grow up? I promise I will stay on the moon".  

Earlier in the day we talked about gravity and how the moon has very little of it...that it's kinda scary cause if you jump you just go floating into outer space (that kinda freaked her out, but not really because after that conversation set in her brain all day she ended with wanting to go to the moon).

By the way, in ninth grade I was voted most likely to be an astronaut...but it wasn't because my 'friends' thought I was super smart or ambitious, it was because people thought I was the most air-headed girl in the class...So. Rude. :)