Flowers, deer hunting, and God's mercy

I know the things in the title of this post sound a little unrelated to one another...I guess what relates them to each other is that they were/are all a part of our lives lately-:o)

These were our beautiful Morning Glories before the frost killed them.





Kaiti standing by our abundant blooms~





My little girl made these artistic nature/flower arrangements-aren't they cute?
Of course they wouldn't last long so I have pictures of them:o)



Damien's first deer-a little button buck!!!
He was the first "lucky" hunter of the season around here.



Chad's nice 8 point buck!




Aubrey got a nice doe!



Working up our good harvest of venison- We like to grind alot of it and then season it with sausage seasoning- It is delicious!

We also enjoyed some of the best steaks you've ever eaten the other day and we like it cubed and fried in our big cast-iron skillet with peppers and onions and served over rice! Food fit for kings!:o) Thanks for all the good meat, boys!

Kaiti raking Fall leaves with her little rake...

O.k, here is the part titled, "God's mercy" because we're so thankful God was merciful to us in not letting it be worse! Tyler had an accident the other day when the log splitter hitch fell on his hand, resulting in a trip to the E.R. and 15 stitches as well as a fractured middle finger. Here he is nicely bandaged but there are more pictures below of his poor injured hand that if you have a queasy stomach, you may want to skip. But, you know boys, what good would it do, to just put a bandaged hand on here...You need some real proof and blood!!!! So, look at your own risk!:o)



Top of his hand-he'll more than likely lose the nail on the one finger-



The middle finger was cut worse and is the broken one-he had splints on both for awhile, but now only has one on the broken finger.

15 stitches....Ouch!!!!

Our dear, faithful Auntie nurse...what would we ever do without her?! She came so many times to dress and check on his hand--good thing she's our neighbor as well!:o)

Taking out the stitches...it was a painstaking job that took well over an hour!
Thank you so much, Auntie Ness!



And in closing, a beautiful picture that Ty took that I will caption,
"Thanking God for His loving kindness and tender mercies"
"Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies," Psalm 103:1-4
Thank You, God!



Wild Blackberries, Beavers and Other Things of Interest

Point of Interest No.1...Strange but cool table centerpiece-

does anyone out there want to guess what it is?:o)

I'll give you one hint- it came from our garden!

Yum! Home-made popsicles!

These are made only from orange juice concentrate

and yogurt, so they're fairly healthy.

Matter-a-fact you could even have one for breakfast!

Wild blackberry picking! Damien and Aubrey went over

to a place nearby and picked some lovely, wild blackberries.


Isn't he just too cute?!:o)

Awesome! And the berries made some good blackberry cobbler!

Thank you, boys!

A perspective on life from inside a silo...

There was an old silo on the land the boys were berry picking on

and it made for some interesting photography.

While they picked berries they also watched deer,

eating in the field-

and the deer watched them picking berries!

Virginia creeper or ivy growing up the outside,

you can see growing down the inside at the top

of the old silo.

The old bridge out behind our place-

Kinda picturesque, isn't it...

Aubrey on the creek-

Ty took the picture from the bridge.

The bridge is old and becoming really dilapidated-

Doesn't look very safe anymore really!

This is an awesome shot, but it almost gives you a turn

when you think about Ty taking it from the edge of that rickety old bridge!

(Or maybe that's just because I'm his Mom!:o)

Our creek out back...
What a great place for our children to grow up-

The wonders and beauty of God's creation

are just the best- how blessed we've been!

One of the members of our beaver family-

Isn't he/she a cute and clever little thing!

A clearer shot of a beaver friend-

And a nice little bass that got to go back in:o)

And I just had to post some of our trip to

Silver Dollar City yesterday.

They are having what they call "moonlight madness"

right now, and maybe it is a little "mad" because they stay open 'til

10:00pm- but we wanted to experience it, getting to ride rides etc.

after dark when it's warm (they are open late during the

Christmas season too, but often it is colder then)

And I must say, it was really cool, and alot of fun!

This is another silly hat picture, what is it with these

crazy hats anyway?!:o) Here they are enjoying the hat moment

with a few friends we were privileged to spend part of the day with.

Only if you notice, Baby wasn't on the picture above-

And alittle later he mentioned it to Big Brother,

who like the doting big brother he is, headed back to the

"hat store" so Baby could try a hat on too!

Doesn't Jensy look adoringly impressed!

Oh, the joys of candle dipping!

I told Kait that next time we go to SDC

we would go to the candle shop and she could dip

some candles. So here is my promise being fulfilled!

She picked a pair of unicorns and made them

pink and orange and the other one purple and yellow.

And now they're hanging in her little girl bedroom-

Daddy and Jensy having a lemon-ade break-

As you can see, it was dark!

Chad and Aubrey playing a game of

Checkers and Aubrey being the kind boy he is,

said that I could mention that Chad won!

Jens amusing himself with a wooden tic-tac-toe game.

East or west, Home is best!

And as a parting word of thanksgiving

for all God's goodness to all of us-

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

His faithful love endures forever."

Random...

Just some pictures I thought worth sharing...:o)

************

Daddy, Mommy and little ones-

thought we matched well enough to take a picture of...:o)

Mommy and Kaitriana

Damien & cousin Stevie

Oh, look at this fine fellow!

And notice the grin on his face:o) This was one huge old frog!

Do you think if she would've kissed him....

Our newest lamb...he was a single birth, and really good-sized--

looked like about a week old soon after he was born...I

don't know how old he was by the time this pic was taken, but isn't he adorable!

What a cute smile!!!:o)

One of Ty's bunnies-

he recently built, mostly by himself, this very nice new hutch to

accommodate his latest litter of little ones.

"Thumper"

Kite flying weather...unfortunately there's one caught out in one of our

trees in the front yard. The tree is going to have to come

down anyway before long so I guess it will probably

have to stay there until the tree comes down, as it's not

really climbable unless you're too small to climb up that far, or a cat!

Sad to say, this one got lost!

Ahhh, this was probably the BEST lemon meringue pie I have ever eaten!!!

Made by my sister, Bridgette, from scratch (I have to add that

because it really makes all the difference in the world, don't you agree!)

It was so wonderful I just had to post a picture of it!

I wonder if seeing this picture in years to come will

help me remember how it tasted... Just a little reminder for us, to thank

God today for the gift of being able to taste!:o)

One of the boys took this picture, isn't it beautiful!
"Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time

forth and forevermore!

From the rising of the sun to its going down

the LORD’s name is to be praised."

from Psalm 113