May We Never Forget...

“And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

Deuteronomy 8:18

We went to the Virginia War Memorial on Memorial Day to honor those that have died to keep us free, are currently serving, etc. I'll tell you more about it later but I wanted to share these pictures and verses with you just as a reminder and thought-provoker to "never forget" the sacrifice millions of people have and are making, and the One who gave us our freedom.

I'm just going to let the pictures and verses speak for themselves,

Kimber

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends."

John 15:13

"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

2 Corinthians 3:17

Seth Peter's Emerald Isle Portrait Collage

"...Jesus...the son of Seth..."

Luke 3:23, 28

Striving to be like Jesus,

Kimber

Caleb Michael; Emerald Isle Portrait Collage

"So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents."

Genesis 25:27

2 Emerald Isle Collages; Kimber Ashley and Alexis Noel

When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.”Genesis 19:15

Well, now that I'm behind on my collage posting, here are two. One of me (Kimber) and then one of Alexis.

I've wanted to mention this before, but I've forgotten, until now...on most of my collages I've been putting "May 2009" when in reality it was "April 2009." I would go back and change them but I can't because they're now Jpegs not psd's. Anyways, I'm sorry...I would fix it if I could. :)

Striving to be like Him,
Kimber

Nash-Houchins Wedding and Baby Bunnies!

"And make marriages with us; give your daughters to us, and take our daughters to yourselves."

Genesis 34:9

I'm really behind on my posting, but I really can't do anything about it so I'll start with the most recent events.

Friday our cousins, Kaitlyn - 13, Sarah - 12, and Rachel - 3 months, and their mom (a.k.a Aunt Stacey) came down to our house. We watched The Tale of Desperaux (very good movie by the way; lots of spiritual parallels), ate some snacks, jumped on the trampoline, etc. We (the 5 girls consisting of Alexis, Me -Kimber-, Hannah, Kate, and Sarah) talked until around 11:00 that night. Saturday morning we had an absolutely wonderful breakfast by Daddy and Mama and then we played outside, took showers, and left around 12:30 for New Found Church of Christ where my 3rd cousin (I think) and her husband were getting married. Mama was playing the piano for her wedding, so we got there about 45 minutes early. The wedding started at 2:00. Miss Heather Nash (now Houchins) was escorted down the aisle by her father and brother (she cried most of the way down) and then given over to her soon-to-be husband, Mr. Julian Houchins. The wedding went very well. The reception was in the gym and they had lots of different foods and everything was delicious!

This was one of the flowers on the table where the cake was.

(I hardly took any pictures, so I only put one up here.)

After we waved them off in my great-Uncle's ANTIQUE Pierce arrow car (a family tradition) and then piled into the van and headed home. My cousins and Aunt would be coming later that night but they were stopping by my Grandparents house first to visit.

Lydia in the car.

When we returned home, we cleaned the inside and outside up as best as we could before 7:00. We had our Bread Becker Pick-up that night and people would start arriving soon. We always have such a wonderful time with our friends from Bread Beckers! There was lots of yummy food, the weather was beautiful, and it was an altogether wonderful night! :) After everyone had left, we cleaned up and waited for my cousins and Aunt to arrive. Erika and Allie (2 more cousins!) came with them too, so we had a bit of a full house, but a full house is always so much fun! Of course, all the girls were in our room, and the other siblings (except Lydia) were in the boys room and my aunt in another room. We (the girls) looked through photo albums, played Spoons, did gymnastics (imagine that!), talked, laughed, and had lots more fun! As you're probably guessing, yes, we didn't fall asleep until around 11-12:00 that night.

Family is such fun and I'm glad we have a big one!

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Now for the bunny news: Saturday morning (before the wedding) Daddy came home early from work for a shower and he brought 2 absolutely adorable little bunnies back with him. He was cutting HEFC (our old church) and he thinks that he ran over their nest because they started running from his lawnmower. Well, Daddy knows we love little animals and he loves catching them and showing them to us and seeing our excitement, so he caught them and brought them home. We put them in Fawn's old cage. My rabbit, Fawn, died of old age (about 1-2 weeks ago), so her cage was now open for new inhabitors.

Kaitlyn, Sarah, and the rest of us agreed to these two names: Lina (lean-a) and Leya (lay-a). Of course, we don't know if they are boys, or girls, but we're hoping girls! :) We researched what they would eat, drink, etc. But enough of my talking, here are their pictures...

Aren't they cute? All of us have held them that I know of, except for Eden, 'Siah, and Lydia.

We're hoping that they will thrive, they're eating food, so mostly everything is going well.

I'll try and keep everyone updated.

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Just for a quick prayer request: Lydia has a pretty high fever, so if you would pray for her to feel better soon that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Kimber

Rachel Grace's Dedication on Mother's Day

"Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me!"

Isaiah 8:18

After my last posts you pretty much know what happened on our Mother's Day this year but I'll just do a quick recap with some pictures to illustrate! :)

We left around 6:00 AM that morning and arrived around 10:00 AM. We had two stops at a gas station for potty breaks, breakfast, and gas (most of us were still in our jammies but thankfully there was hardly anyone there!).

Hannah in the car.

Erika, my 14-year-old cousin, took this picture.

We had to get to their church early (furnacecreekbaptist.org) because Mama was singing for Rachel's dedication.

The service went very well...

Mama sang beautifully once again! :)





The associate pastor (left) and my Aunt Stacey with Rachel and Uncle Mike.

Praying

My Uncle Mike is the Pastor of the church, so he did about 2/3 of the actual dedication. Here he is asking the family to try their hardest to point Rachel in the Right direction.

He also asked the church family to do the same.

Here he is getting ready to read a letter to Rachel or his little "butter bean."

Aunt Stacey and Rachel

Reading the letter

After the letter was finished being read he took Rachel, and after 1 or 2 things he....

...went up and back down the aisle of the church, showing her to the people.

Coming back down the aisle.

Aunt Stacey and Rachel going back to their seat with the present that contains the letter to Rachel that will be opened on her 12th birthday, or when she accepts Christ.

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After the church service, we went back to their house, had a sandwhich lunch, played Kemps and Spoons, talked, etc. and then celebrated my Paw-paw's birthday (which was that day).

Sarah made Paw-paw his favorite cake: Boston Creme Pie.

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Now here are some pictures of Rachel Grace! :)

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Striving to be like Jesus,

Kimber

Emerald Isle Portraits; Hannah Elysse

"...The young woman was lovely and beautiful..."

Esther 2:7

Here is Hannah's Emerald Isle, NC collage:

Striving to be like HIM,
Kimber

Emerald Isle Portrait; Daddy, Mama, and Lydia (the youngest in the family currently!)

"Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table."

Psalm 128:3

Here is the collage of Daddy, Mama and Lydia - the youngest member of our growing family - so far!!!! (Hopefully there are lots more to come! I'm all ready for another one!)

[Lexi helped me pick out the color-style of the words]


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Striving to be like HIM,
Kimber :)

P.S - The next post will be on Mamma's early Mother's Day and then hopefully my cousin, Rachel's, dedication, Lord willing.

Mamma's Early Mothers Day and Pictures of Lydia (again! :)

“ Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you."

Exodus 20:12

Since we had a full weekend ahead of us last week and would be gone on Mother's Day, we decided to do Mama's Mothers Day on Saturday. We woke up around 6:30 AM Saturday morning and started to prepare breakfast-in-bed.

We decided that the menu would be: eggs, cereal, drop biscuits, a fruit bowl, juice, and grapefruit (Mama's favorite).

Alexis made the eggs for us.

I cracked 5 eggs (just enough for Mama and Daddy) for her and then she hurriedly made them up.

These are the flowers (weeds) that are growing all in our cleared land for the many-animal-farm.

Alexis, still wearing her jammies, Rode the bike down our road that morning, picked some flowers and came back with them.

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Hannah was in charge of the fruit bowl and other things and I made the drop biscuits. The boys were woke up around 7:00 and just kind of helped wherever we asked.

Around 7:30 we started making our way up the stairs with the food, cards, gifts, and more.

Mamma had finished taking a shower and was in her rocking chair when we went upstairs. We started singing "Happy Mother's Day" (to the tune of Happy Birthday) as we went up the stairs and into her room.

Before we sat down to eat, Mama opened her cards, read each one, and then started snacking on her buffet! :) I had set up the gray table in her room while she was taking a shower, so after a few trips downstairs to get the rest of the food and utensils, we sat down to eat after a prayer.

These are the eggs and drop biscuits.

The drop biscuits are a family-favorite (for most of us). We put chocolate chips or cranberries or sprinkles in the muffins and they taste really good! As you can probably tell from the picture the biscuits are a little brown because they were ready about 20 minutes before we ate but I left them in the cooling oven to keep them warm until breakfast.




Josiah eating his cereal! :)




Seth bought Mama a mug from our church, a little bookmark-bead-thingy, and a pack of breath mints all with his own money!

Lydia was happy that morning!

After breakfast we rushed out the door and drove to Lavender Fields (lavenderfieldsfarm.com) and picked out some herbs for Alexis' herb garden. We bought 15 plants and have yet to plant them...(waiting for a dry day) Then we went to our cousin Mason's birthday party and returned home with our cousins, Erika, Allie, Claire, and Gracie. [I prayed that all of them would be able to come because there was a possibility that one wouldn't be able to, but they all did!] Daddy and Mama left for their Mother's Day date-night to Outback and we stayed home, made dinner, took showers, watched a Veggie Tale and Wall-E, painted fingernails, and talked. The little ones (those under 7 years) went to bed around 8:30, the boys around 10:15 and us (the girls) around 11:00! :)

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 and suceeded in driving out of our driveway at our ship-off time (6:00 AM) with everyone and everything in the car! We barely slept on the way to our Aunt and Uncle's house (I slept for about an hour and the rest for about 30 minutes) but we enjoyed talking and joking with each other. Mama had packed us a small breakfast and they stopped at a 7-Eleven and picked up some AWESOME doughnuts for us, as a sort of thank-you for letting them go on the date together. To make a long story short, we arrived at the Lawhorns (my cousins and family) safely, went to church, saw Rachel get dedicated, played, ate, and then got home around 9:30 that night. I'm hoping to get the pictures of Rachel's dedication up here next but I'm having a problem with RAW and Jpeg files and my picture transfer...anyways...don't worry about it! :)

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And, here are some pictures of Lydia from the other day also! :)

This is one of my favorites.

This is her face whenever she hears anything different, drops something, sees something, etc.

Smiling at Alexis

Eating a brush

Alexis was chasing her and Lydia was running to me (we were trying to get her to smile naturally) and I caught her and held her and took this picture while Lexi approached.

Lexi and Lydia! :)

Looking outside

Her favorite place to be is probably outside - she loves being out in nature (who doesn't?).

Another one of her faces!

Drinking the detangler spray...babies! :)

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Striving to be like HIM,
Kimber