Mary's Photos

When Bob and his brothers were between one and two years old, their mother had them photographed. So she has continued this tradition with our children. O'Neal's studio in Newport News took the Butler boy photos and the first five of ours.

Our family friend, Elizabeth Larum, is learning professional photography. Joy's 16X20 in our dining room was taken by her.

We had the opportunity to go to Nagshead on Thursday (more on that later) and decided to try our hand at capturing Mary's photograph. (our children's photos have been taken between one and three years of age) We've posted our favorite today so that Grandma can see our first choice.

It's amazing what you can do with a digital camera and a computer! Those 16x20's were over $400 in the past. These prints are only $16. Elizabeth knows alot more than we do about photography and Kendal took a class with her last summer. Therefore we have good consultants. Kendal actually took the very photo that we are planning to use. I was a better coach than photographer. (Mary cooperated with my silliness better) We were bribing her with icecream sandwiches.

Happy Father's Day!

Today, Bob, and three other fathers, including our pastor, spoke about fatherhood at church. It was a real blessing to everyone. Our family is fortunate to have such a wonderful dad! We went out for a late lunch at our favorite restaurant, Carrabba's. I wanted photos of Bob and Noah on their first Father's Day together. We also added pictures of everyone else in the family who were still dressed from church. That included all of us except for the three little girls. They had been wearing their matching pink dresses that were photographed in our last blog post.

At church we learned that one of the families just bought a house in our neighborhood and will be moving in at the end of July. We are very excited they'll only be one block away. The Ward family has six boys and one girl. So if we start to spend time together our life will be full of BOYS! Derrick, Karen and their children are wonderful and we look forward to having more opportunities to fellowship with them.


Bob with Noah, Kelsey and Kendal.
Bob with Daniel, Isaac and Noah.
Bob, Noah and me (Mommy).
Noah with his daddy. Noah is seven weeks old now. He's even smiling a little here.

Family Creations

This is a Lego robot that Daniel created.
Of course, God created this precious six week old baby! We are amazed every morning at how much bigger and fatter he is!
Isaac and Daniel created this Lincoln Log fort.
Joy created this Lego schoolhouse. She is quite the engineer and works alone. :) Kelsey smocked this. One day it will be a dress.

Kendal and her friend, Elizabeth Rush, exchanged beads in the mail and this is the bracelet Kendal made with hers. She wanted Elizabeth to be able to see it. The internet and digital cameras make it so easy to stay in touch. We are blessed to have both!
This is a dress that Kendal made by herself, without a pattern, with material that the Bacon family was discarding. She has worn it to church with a spring sweater over top. She's planning to make a few more changes, like adding a zipper. This is the back view (above).
This is a view of the top front (above). There are beads along the top edge.
This is a full view of the front.

It's too hot outside for us. It's been 100 degrees here for the last five days! The children have been swimming twice. But now that Daddy is back to work we'll have to stay home. It's too hot outside for Noah to wait for us by the pool. So, everyone is being productive inside. Kelsey made more spit cloths today for Noah. My denim skirt is still in progress. We're hoping Kendal will finish smocking Cousin Lisa's baby girl's dress soon.

Good Laughs!

Todd Wilson at Familymanweb.com made a third comic book of homeschooling cartoons and we received it last week. We scanned a few of our favorites and put them here. These books are the best gifts for homeschoolers we've seen yet! In our house this would be Kendal and someone like little Mary.
I can't tell you how many times someone with a couple of children has repeated this legend!
I think Bob can relate to this one.

This is the gorgeous Knockout rosebush Kendal gave me for Mothers' Day.
Anna is reading a Poppleton the Pig book to Joy and Daniel while they are eating roasted cashews for their afternoon snack. She is the best aloud reader we've had so far!
Joy and Anna are practicing their sewing skills on scraps of fabric from a skirt I started yesterday. They are doing very well. We are surprised at Joy's skill at only four years!
Here is our precious Noah. We think he's cute even when he's crying. (obviously since someone thought this would make a good photo :)

Find some shade and enjoy the new month! Happy JUNE!