Thursday, July 25, 2013

Early surprises and sweet friends

I (Lana) was thrilled to receive a birthday package in the mail from some awesome friends in Illinoisa whole month early.

Of course I opened it right away. Why do you ask?

So I’m blogging this because I opened the mailing envelope to discover these beauties…




 I mean, who wraps gifts in little hand sewn tissue paper packages? My talented friends, apparently. Are these not adorable?! For the record, I am a serious forget-about-the-paper-and-open-the-gift-already type of person, but I made exception for these. I was like, I can’t open these! I should display them, for crying out loud. Where’s the camera?



                                                 The gifts were fabulous too…


                                                                     
Thank you Lauren, Rachel, and Abigail… y’all are awesome! I love and miss y’all like crazy!

 

The Great Wal-Mart Adventure

Here are some pictures from a recent 3 ½ hour family outing…. to our local Walmart in the middle of the night.

Yes. Walmart.

Here’s what happened… a friend of ours from Kansas was passing through our area on a business trip and stopped in at our house for the afternoon, after which he was headed to said Walmart to put up a new bike rack with a local crew. Well, why didn’t we just go with him? The guys could help! The girls could shop! Etc, etc. So, that’s what we did.

 I love our randomness. We have a lifetime of wild/crazy/fun/ridiculous/precious memories because of it.J

So anyway... here we are at our home away from home….



 The Wilson guys in this crew are the ones sans hard hats, for the record.










 Allie and Lana chillaxin’ on some really comfy chairs they found on, oh, the fourteenth round of the store. *getting crazy looks* *and just smiling back*




  
Mom and Rachel, the faithful watchers-of-the-project.





After several hours, two unnamed individuals decided they were starving, and forthwith betook themselves to the closed-and-empty snack bar in the back of the store with their just-purchased-at-the-front-register snacks. Hey, why not?






Lana, as most of you know, goes a little crazy late at night, say after nine o’ clock or so. Enter the baby doll….




Levi….Man Of Steel.



Question: What store manager puts a bin of huge, bright, tempting bouncy balls in the middle of the aisle and expects that they won’t get played with in said aisle?
Answer: All of them.
Question: Are said managers’ expectations lived up to?
Answer: No.


At around midnight we decided to head home… not before saying goodbye to Nate with prayer in the toy section of Walmart. “Where two or more are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” Believe it! J




Jonah availing himself of a little refreshment for the ride home…





So ends another saga of life in this unpredictable family. Thanks for reading!

 Please excuse all the grainy cell phone photos… I’m not in the habit of bringing my camera to the grocery store, so I didn’t have it with me. I know, right?



Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Friday, July 19, 2013

Pickling...

Having been born and raised in the South, where home grown fresh produce is some people’s livelihood and nearly everyone’s pride and joy, it stands to reason that we grow a garden each year. *Some* of us enjoy this and *some* of us don’t (names of each party left to the reader’s imagination), but we all agree that nothing tastes better than a plateful of butterbeans, sweet corn, sliced tomatoes, green beans, and summer squash, all of which were on their respective bushes, stalks and vines just a few hours before. Life is rich. J That said, here are some snapshots of Rachel’s latest project… turning some of that abundance into homemade dill pickles. Yes please!








Thursday, July 18, 2013

Late, as usual...

So here we are with a characteristically late post about our Fourth of July! Sorry about that! :/
Our church hosts a cookout and fireworks show each year… plus we usually spend part of the day at our grandparent’s place hangin’ out with cousins (and eating way too much homemade ice cream)…. Enjoy the pictures!





 What IS a holiday without yummy (junk) food anyway? I, personally, could live on these oh-so-happily-frosted sugar cookies :)
 A random collection of siblings, friends and cousins counting change. Or rocks? Or something. ???? :)
 Apple pie and vanilla ice cream... quintessentially American!
 A bunch of us sisters and girl cousins got together and did our nails all patriotic. What about us?! :)


 Yes, that's a trash bag hanging in the tree. I really have no idea why.
 The fabulous Terry's Creek Baptist Church Grilling Team! :)

 Levi, the Grillmaster. :)

 I love this expression, don't you?
 Allie with her friend Jessica!


Our father’s God, to Thee,

 Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
~Samuel F. Smith