Springtime~

Wow! Where has the spring gone? Only a few posts ago it was snowing and now it is almost summer! We're really sorry that we've not been at all faithful with up-dating, time just has a way of disappearing... Anyway, over Mother's Day weekend, our church had a community outreach weekend. We broke into different groups and worked at different places in the community. Mom and Dad went to an children shelter were they actually had to hold some children down to keep them from running away, fighting, etc... It sounded like quite the experience. (to say the least!!!) Anyway, the group I was in went to a local horse ranch for handicap children. While the boys worked, (oh I mean when all the work the girls could do was done :P), we snapped some pictures. There was a really neat barn there, and so we started up our creative energy... So those are the pictures you see below. Enjoy ~ :D

Aren't they beautiful? I am so blessed to have these beautiful gals as friends! Everyone was making fun of us for picking these flowers, but they sure were fun to take pictures with... Ah, it was such a fun day!!!

For those of you wondering about the house, we are still painting! Presently, polka-dots are being added to Livy's bedroom upstairs (yes, I will be sure to post pictures on that when it is done. I don't think you will be disappointed!) Dad is working on painting the red room, and so we are nearing the end. We have been doing alot of little things recently. (Decorating, painting, finishing up just lots of little stuff)The counter top problems have been resolved and we will (Lord willing) not be moving out of our house again. Sometimes when I look back over how far we have come, I am just overwhelmed. Things that we always take for granted are so special to us now. About a year ago, we started seriously considering beginning this remodel job. We all knew that it would be a huge undertaking since we would be doing it while we are living here, during our school year and everything else we are involved in. Excited, we plugged into demolishen. It was so fun at first. Then along came the days without water. The month without a kitchen sink. Hours of sanding the walls. Days spent mudding the woodwork. Needless to say, if we knew all the time we would spend doing the things we have done in our house, we probably wouldn't have been so quick to say, "Yes, of course, let's remodel!" Although, remodeling has taught us that happiness isn't jumping out of bed every morning onto nice carpeted floors or eating Christmas dinner with anything more than candle light. It has definitely been a great adventure. (Trust me, there are still days when we all just want to be done), but thankfully now that we have a kitchen (with cabients & a sink!!!) and working bathrooms, things don't seem to be that hard anymore. Anyway, we want to thank all our dear friends who have put up with our frustrations... (Sorry we always un-load our house frustrations on you!) We don't know what we would do without you all. Some day soon our house will be done and we will have you all over ~

The school year is coming to a close for us (cheers!!!) and we are looking forward to summer. We really haven't been able to do as much on the house as we would have liked too due to all the school year things that end in May.Our choir play was Tuesday night, so the only big thing left is camp this summer for me and Ricky. (He wants you all to know that he did NOT pick that name! :o)

Thanks for reading~ Hope everyone has a great memorial day weekend! See you in a month~ (just kidding, I really will try to up-date before then...Once those polka-dots are done, I'm sure that you'll be hearing from us!) God Bless!

Love, Nikki