Florida Sunshine!

Well, this morning my sweet parents left to return to Florida. They had arrived earlier this month, along with 3 smiling faces.

Abby!

Amanda!

(looking just a little excited, don't you think?)

Jessica!

A special presentation of orange blossoms!

Kitty was really missing those! Thanks, Abby!

A special presentation of carrot cake

Granddaddy's Birthday was only days earlier

A leisurely walk

"So...what do you think? Should we grow some more rocks?"

(nah)

I love this picture!

And this one!

The faithful old man

"...I am just soooo happy to be here! Let me show you how happy I am!"

Clay entertains himself by playing...

"Peek a Boo!"

"Hmmm...I think I prefer smearing sweet potatoes all over myself...and the table...and all over the poor soul who gets stuck sitting beside me"

The Millers came up and we celebrated Sarah's and RG's Birthday

The girls thought this was amusing. They put it on the cake.

Apparently RG says this

What a fun Granddaddy!

"Come on and join in Samuel! I'll make sure your brothers don't make fun of you."

Benny gets his gun for his 12th Birthday

And did eventually get to hold it himself

Daniel - enjoying Jessica's "cool phone"

A slightly competitive game of Cranium

Little "Cabbage Patch Paul"

There were many nights of music of course

Here Kitty is willing to play, but uses her guitar as a picture shield

"Grandmama School"
They loved it - or at least they loved the goldfish rewards!

"Did I pass the page?"

"Let's see, you had 87 words in a minute"

A day of building the raised beds

Little helping hands

Big helping hands!

Her "inspiration"

"Welcome to Church at the Park"

A cook-out afterwards

"OK - Jess, you can stop showing off the cool phone"

This was before the new "do"

(there's a story there somewhere)

Tracy, you need to be careful who your daughter hangs around with. I think this kind of behavior might just rub off.

A more than slightly competitive game of kickball

Granddaddy comes up with the best ideas!

"Brother Against Brother"

Way to Go Abby!
She tied the game up!

She was on MY team. Can you tell?

Rose really got into her kick

Hangin' out at the Millers later

Fishing with Granddaddy

"Time to leave already?"
"Let me clearly express my sentiments on the matter!"

Don't say I didn't warn you, Tracy

Sweet Friends

"Goodbye, my sweet! I will return for you!"

And he did! Daddy and the girls flew back, while Mama stayed up here for a week and a half more. He flew back Friday and they took off in their little "Home on Wheels" today.

Boo Hoo!

Thank you for coming!!!

It was wonderful!

A Brief Update

It seems that Google, that ominous granter of blogger privileges, has deemed us picture worthy ( for tonight at least). So, I am posing as Kitty, since I am currently signed in under her screen name. I will make an effort to briefly (is that possible?) update our blog a bit.

DISCLAIMER: I am just learning how to use "Blogger in Draft" so please forgive my lack of professional looking formatting.

Right now we have the honor of hosting my sweet Mama for a week. Last week we had My Father and Mother, Jess, Amanda, and Abby! Daddy will be back soon to drive Mama home, but we are treasuring every moment with her until then! She is doing all the wonderful grandmotherly things - playing games, helping children learn, and discussing deep theological truths. Pictures of these visits to come ...when we find our camera cord

WE'RE HERE MISSOURI!

As posted in our last (pictureless) update, after a wonderful time in Troy with the Covenant Family Church, we arrived safely in our new home.

Isn't this a crazy picture? No, not Kitty, (she's crazy I know). It looks like her arm was beamed into another room!

Little Emma enjoyed having a "job list" for 2 days at least


BACK TO FLORIDA WE GO!
Wait a minute! We just got here!
Back to Florida we go for business.
But we soon realized that God had providentially brought us back "home" for many other reasons as well.

Little Man and an adoring fan (Hey! That Rhymes!)
"We're gonna see Grandaddy and Grandmama!"

A Meeting with local political candidates
My father is actively engaging local candidates in discussions and has invited those in the community to come out and become involved

We were glad to be there to help out and attend this event!

My father - excellent motivator! I'm so proud of him!

Lovely hostess

Good speech, Mr. Albritton


A LOVELY TEA PARTY

This tea party wasn't a political one - It was a beautiful garden party hosted by the Stricklen girls.
What a treat to be able to enjoy this event!

A little wind can't stop us!

A BABY'S BIRTH!

Most importantly of all, the Lord gave me the opportunity to attend the birth of little Nathaniel Charles Stricklen!!! I prayed that the Lord would allow me to be able to be there and am amazed at His providential and creative hand in working out the details!

Doesn't my sissie look beautiful after just having given birth!?!

I can't tell you how thankful I was to the Lord that I could be there with my sister for my precious nephew's birth!

Hey Buddy! We've got some bugs to catch. (At least that's what Paul was doing today)

I LOVE THIS!!!

AND THIS!!!

STRAWBERRIES!!!
We got back just in time for the strawberry upick and brought a bunch of them back for people up here and for us to freeze, make jam, and EAT. It was great!

mmm...mmm... Is there anything more delicious?

Crazy man Ben...among other sweet friends, helped us pick 75 flats of these heavenly morsels

Thanks, Sam!

See, cowboys can pick strawberries with the best of 'em

My wonderful friend Tracy and I exchange a "see you later" hug :)

BACK IN MISSOURI

We celebrate Jason's um...30 something birthday. Here he attempts to um ...stab his cake?

Which Ashley and Kitty seem to find amusing

We attend Pride and Prejudice, produced by the Nisbett family, with a cast of homeschoolers. The quality was excellent!
Paul really enjoyed this Jane Austen play...(yeah right) But the rest of us loved it!

This guy was such a great "Mr. Collins"! We laughed so hard!

Here we are at Panera Bread afterwards with the Willis family and the Neidnagels - I think we shook up the little "cafe style" Panera Bread set-up a little with our large crowd ;) We had a great time!

THE WILLIS FAMILY COMES TO VISIT
What a blessed time we had with the Willis family. The kids had a great time "tromping" and obviously took the camera because there are no pictures to prove that we adults were even there :) We had some wonderful fellowship and discussion - even though there aren't any pictures of it

Peter always welcomes male fellowship - surrounded as he is by females

Havin' fun by the creek. Rose is loving being in there with the big kids

Well...there's a little bit of what we've been up to this past month. More to come hopefully, but that depends on the great webmaster in cyberspace I guess.

Posted by....you guessed it...Mama