Kimber's Birthday! And a Surprise!?

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIMBER!

Before I say anything I want to tell you all just how much Kimber means to all of us.  Most of you know her personally and know her as a sweet girl, with a "gentle and quiet spirit" as 1 Peter 3:4 tells us.  She's also more, she's a follower, a seeker of Jesus Christ and what His will is for her life.  She's dedicated to waiting for the Lord's timing in regard to a spouse and in the meantime is serving her family in preparation for marriage if that be the Lord's will.  She's my (Hannah) best friend and counselor and often who I look up to.  All this to say, no one could ever replace the very special and important part she plays in this family and in the world around her.  How very glad I am and the rest of my family are, to have her for another year!  And now to the main reason of this post... 

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PART 1: PRESENTS

Kimber's birthday was on December 5 and she turned 14 years old! She slept in 'till 9:30-Which I am sure she enjoyed :)-and then we told her to awaken from her beauty sleep, and come downstairs.

The very "well wrapped" present!  Obviously a little tall for the bag. ☺

I was photographer for the morning (although Lexi took these first three pictures).  Definitely not my gifting. ☺☺☺☺

This is where the birthday girl was to arrive.

The birthday girl!  Beautiful smiles in the morning!

Opening her HUGE present.

Very happy over the gift, all 28 Time Life Civil War Books (we got one from our great grandma and she loved it so we looked them up on ebay, since they aren't printed any more, and daddy won the bid).

Three of the books.

The breakfast table.  On the menu was eggs, cream of wheat, fruit bowl, and pop-tarts (a special treat!).  During breakfast she also opened a couple of cards and individual presents from all of us.

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PART 2: THE SURPRISE!

Well, Kimber had been thinking for a while of cutting her hair and was finally persuaded to do it on her 14th birthday as a memoir.

Her beautiful golden locks.  I've always been jealous! ☺

She decided to give her hair to "Locks of Love" (http://www.locksoflove.org/). 

The shortest you could give was 10 inches so Mama cut off about 12.  You had to braid it then cut it at the top of the second pony-tail.

Kimber tried not to think about it too much.

So it was a little tearful but hey, hair grows back.  I think she's beginning to enjoy the ease of it more now.

Kimber and her new due.  I curled it for her...hoping to make her feel better.

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PART 3: DINNER, CAKE, AND A MOVIE

A family picture before dinner.

Pizza was Kimber's choice of food, along with some yummy punch.

My lovely sister.

The cake.  It was an ice-cream cake with vanilla ice-cream, oreo's, oreo ice-cream, cool-whip and m&m's on top.  Extremely good!

We only did 6 candels since daddy didn't feel like lighting all 14.

Kimber blowing them out.  Lydia looks terrified!

Kimber and her ice-cream cake.

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We watched "Ben-Hur" for the movie, which is a little over 3 hours long, so we had to watch it during dinner and cake.  I hope Kimber had a fantastic birthday and will forever be remembered!  We love you!

After Jesus' Heart,

Hannah

P.S. Lexi did most of the pictures.  She did a great job!

End of the Year Homeschool Report Night

Tonight we did our end-of-the-year homeschool report night.  More pictures and information will be coming soon but I thought I might as well update you on what we've been doing when I had a second! :-D

All for Jesus,

Kimber

Daddy and His First Kill of the Year

"He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD."

Genesis 10:9

Daddy has been inspired to go hunting after Mr. Williams came out to our property and saw some deer and shot 2 squirrels.  Currently, Daddy's hunting somewhere on our property.

Yesterday he shot his first game ever.  A squirrel!!! :-D  He was up in the crook of a tree eating a nut and no deer were showing up and Dad had to go to the bathroom, so he decided that he would try and shoot it before going back up to the house.  Well, to make the story short...he got it.  I heard the shot go off while we were getting ready for History and then one of the boys yelled that Daddy had got something as he reappeared at the edge of our woodline.

There you go...Mr. Squirrel.

Daddy will definitely get the first bite of squirrel steak...and it better be good!

All for Jesus,
Kimber

P.S. - The squirrel has been the first live thing that Daddy has ever shot.  He was very excited! :)

Bath Time for Lydia!

"And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and [you shall] be clean."

2 Kings 5:10

Last week Hannah, Lydia, and I (Kimber) were in the house and everyone else was gone doing other stuff  so we had a relaxing and quiet afternoon!  When Lydia woke up we figured out that she had wet through so we decided to give her a bath! :)

Babies are so comical in the bathtub!  We love styling their hair into the weirdest styles around, while they innocently play in the water - both of us having a great time!

Anyways, here are some pictures from her bath that night!

Eating a cranberry (dried).

I was eating some and she loves food so we gave her some to see if she could smile for us! :)

That was yummy!

Smiling at Hannah.

Showing off her pretty teeth!

And then came the terrifying time to actually get cleaned up!

I think this picture is absolutely hilarious! :)  I laugh every time I see it!

Now that's better!

Washing the sweet little baby feet!

All for Jesus,
Kimber :)

Avery's Branch Farm

"But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’"

Zechariah 13:5

2 Saturday's ago (yes, I'm really behind on this post!) we went to Avery's Branch Farm for their annual "Give Thanks for Udders."  We were interested in getting another raw milk share since Daddy has really been convicted that we need to switch back over after reading his cancer book.  Since they have shares we wanted to go and tour their farm so we could decide whether or not this was going to be where "our cow" is.

Saturday morning we got all packed up for a day at the farm!  We just packed Cheerios, fruit, and stuff for our lunch because we were going to have a big dinner that night.

A friend from church, Mr. Johnny Panchison, came on the trip with us since his parents were gone for the weekend and he had nothing to do! :) 

After dropping off some kale at my aunt's house we drove the 1 1/2 hours to Avery's Branch Farm.  The only problem was that we got lost following google maps...twice.  We were an hour later than we had planned and the only way we got to their farm was after Mama called her friend, Mrs. Tara, and got directions from her. 

Once we parked, we got out (it was a little cold but still beautiful) and went and drank some apple cider, ate some cookies, and  before going to watch the movie Food Inc.  Daddy, Mr. Johnny, Hannah, Caleb, and I were the only ones who really stayed in there.  Everyone else was outside wandering around waiting to meet Mrs. Tara who was coming to the farm also!  While we watched the movies some more of our friends, the Kellers, showed up too!  (And we also saw someone from Bread Beckers Pick-Up!)  The movie was very good (even though we almost froze in the barn as we watched it!) and extremely disgusting at times.  I really would like everyone to see it because then they would realize how nasty processed meat is!  Seriously, the videos they had of the meat processing plants was horrifyingly nasty.  And we eat that stuff!

Anyways, after the movie finished we walked around, looked at the different animals, milked a "cow" and met some of the Avery's Branch family.

Milking the "cow"

Eden milking.

The sky was just gorgeous throughout the afternoon.

Some of the old barns.

One of the adorable little cows!

Lydia, of course, loved all the animals.

For fencing they used electrical, but they had it turned off, so Lydia thought she could go in the pen and slyly suceeded before I realized where she was and pulled her out! :)

The cows are so cute!

Petting

Some of their chickens.

I think they were laying beside each other to keep warm.

The sun before dusk.

Some more cows!

Daddy ended up talking to Mr. and Mrs. Alexander (the owners) and one of their sons before we left. Well, actually he talked to them for a long time! :) (He's always very good at making sure he gets to know people)

The sunset before we left that night.

Mrs. Tara May, Mama's best friend from high school, came to the farm sometime during the movie and talked with us.  We hadn't seen her or her family for 1-2 years and since they lived nearby the farm we went to their house for dinner and to visit.   For dinner, we made Mrs. Tara's favorite, Mama's enchiladas, a Taco casserole, and Taco Dip.  For dessert we had brownies!

As the food was cooking, we went outside and watched Mrs. Tara interact with her horse, Garth.  It was so sweet how they communicated with each other!  Mama even got to back Garth up into his stall just by shaking her wrist, hand, and arm!  It was really neat!  The boarding horse they had nipped at us once but that was probably because she got scared with everyone around her.  Thankfully we all backed up out of her stall before she could get us!  The younger ones got to brush  A.J., the little miniature horse, and all had a fun time in the barn even though it was very cold!

Once back inside we talked, laughed, and ate some bean dip and had dinner once it was done.  I forgot to mention that Mrs. Tara has two children, Madison and Montana that we played with too.  Mr. May was working and wasn't home until 10 minutes or so before we left, so we barely got to see him.

I sat with Madison during dinner and then we played Sorry! together.  After that most of us watched Mrs. Tara demonstrate how she makes all of her beautiful scrapbooking cards.  Lexi was all into it because she's very creative and would love to scrapbook!  It's amazing how much scrapbooking stuff someone can own!

Her (Mrs. May's) cards were absolutely beautiful and we enjoyed watching her demonstrate how she did everything!

(You may be wondering what our friend, Mr. Panchison, was doing...he was talking with Daddy!)

We finished off the night with a bite of brownies!  Before we left we tallked to Mr. May a little bit and then got into the car and drove home.  It was around 12 that night when we got home so all of us were really tired!  Mr. Johnny ended up staying the night with us (he got Eden and Josiah's room) and dad broke him into his late night prayer meeting and worship that he does after we all go to bed.  We're going to get a milk share, probably this spring,  from Avery's and we definitely enjoyed the beautiful day talking with friends, laughing, etc.!

All for Jesus,
Kimber :)