Work Day With Bark Dust

This is our bark dust day. We are making our flower bed bigger too. It was so much fun. This is Zachary carrying bucket loads to Mom. My mom is putting our loads into the flower beds.
Here is Chauntel weeding around this tree. Camille is watching her, in her coat. I do not know why she is wearing her coat on a hot day.
I am shoveling bark dust into buckets for Mom and helping her like Zac is in the other picture.
Here is Blayne with the pick ax; chopping out old sod and getting it ready for new bark dust.
Dad dumping the big load of bark dust for us to use. See Garret and Camille in the truck? They were pretty impressed!
Everyone has a job to do, even though some are lazy at times. During this part, I was inside watching Jared.

Mom spreading bark dust in the circle....working very hard!

Taking the old front flower bed apart. It was fun doing it. Mom dug up all her pansies and saved them for other places.

Dad chopping out sod. The others helping him.

Zac replanting Mom's pansies in another place.

Dad rebuilding the flower bed.

Part way done....doesn't he do a fabulous job? :)

Almost has the new walkway done.

Finally finished...replanted and bark dusted. It was a very busy day! But very fun. ~Alexa

Scripture that spoke to my heart today...

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I used to always read this verse as "for everything" give thanks.....
Sometimes I'd think..."No God, I can't be thankful for this, it's too hard and I can't find any reason to be thankful for this!" I found it so interesting when it was one time pointed out to me that it actually says "in" and not "for". Big difference! It's kindof hard to be thankful for a certain trial that comes our way...but there does always seem to be something good that comes out of each trial that we CAN be thankful for! So now whenever I am struggling with something, I try to find something I can be thankful for in my trial. I try to see what good thing God is trying to teach me now. These lessons are hard to learn...but our God knows exactly what each of us need to learn and is so faithful to teach us in whatever way he needs to, to get our attention!

Enjoying My Fort......

with my unpaid employees:) This is my fort. My Dad built the frame and Christopher, Clint, my sisters, and I built the rest.

This is Chauntel and Camille on my new "carpet" which is sod; that we (Dad, Zachary, I) chopped from our yard last night. It is very soft.

This is me in the "museum". It's in the 2nd floor of my fort. Alexa, Chauntel, and I made made it. It has a bird's nest, snails, and all the animals that I have shot and skinned, in it.

This is my swing. I made it with Zachary's ruined bike tire.

This is my new flowerbed. My Mom gave me these pansies out of her flowerbed and I made this by my fort. I also planted 5 rooster grasses close by.

Today I heard my rooster crow...it's starting to do it more often now. We've just been playing outside today. There's always something fun to do out there. ~Blayne

This Past Week...

This past week I did a lot of stuff...this is some of what I did....

***Tuesday I woke up, did my chores, and then I sat around. Next I ate lunch and had quiet time. Then my Mom read to us out of the Bible. In the middle of it, the phone rang. Somebody was going to come over but mom would not tell us who it was. After that Chauntel wanted to have a tea party so we had one with the door closed. Suddenly there was a loud bang on the door. It was our cousins along with our Aunty Elva and Uncle David. They brought us a meal and shared it with us. It was a very good surprise. Then we talked them into letting Tara stay overnight with us. It was a lot of fun. On Wednesday we decided to play wedding dress-up.

We all put on white outfits.

Tara got to try on my Mom's wedding dress. It almost fit her. She was SOOO pretty, I thought!

We also jumped rope, played in our room, played at the fort with Blayne, and picked flowers to try to make crowns with. It didn't work very well. We hung it on Blayne's fort door for a decoration. He likes it. That night we went to the first night of Conventions at our church.

***We went to Conventions part of each of the other days. It was great fun. On Friday we had a babysitter since Mom had to work in the kitchen. It was Aimee...and she is so much fun! After Mom got home, we played outside on scooters, bikes, and played tag.

***Today we made a meal for Janine. She had a baby a couple weeks ago and named him Nolan William. In the afternoon Mom took it over there and I stayed home with Garret. While they were gone, we made brownies. I also called my Dad and asked him to pick up ice cream to go with the brownies as a surprise to my family. After supper, I got the vanilla ice cream from the garage freezer where my Dad had put it. Everyone, even my Mom, was so surprised. Mom said that I'm always full of surprises:) ~Alexa

What's Coming Up And About Today....

Today we went to town. First we dropped off Chauntel and Zac at my Aunt Clara's house. Then the rest of us went to doctor's office for a check- up for Jared. He has a bad cold. He has Bronchitis. After his check- up we went to get his medicine. Then we went to Taco Bell and got some food. Next we went home. We ate at home and then I fed the kids and put them to bed. Now I am typing on the computer.

***Things That Are Coming Up

*Saturday is my Uncle Chet's Graduation party. I hope we get to go there but Jared and Blayne are sick. Chet is going to roast a pig!

*Sunday is a get together at my aunt and uncles. I hope everybody gets better.

* Next week is Conventions. I hope we get to go.

This is what is going on in the next couple of days. I hope we get to go to some places. ~Alexa