Here are some of the pictures I've taken of Ben and Paula since they've been engaged. Some of them we went out with the intention of taking engagement pictures, and some are just, "Hey this is a pretty place, lets take some engagement pictures real quick!" Some are silly, because well, we tend to be on the silly side most of the time. That's how we roll.



When we found the pitchfork (threek?) in the hay barn we couldn't resist.








Here we were just recreating one of my favorite engagement pictures ever. The original was of my cousin Tammy and her (now) husband. It fit them perfectly, but it's pretty cute for Ben and Paula as well.

 


They are being 'deer in the headlights'

 

You look lovely Paula dahling. :)




this one and the one above are two of my favorites.



And maybe this one too.





Stephen and Tommy were a tremendous amount of help as you can tell. :) They ambushed them without warning. It was pretty fun.



I mostly added this one because you can actually see how long Paula's hair is. She normally has it in a bun, but its sooo pretty and long.





Look! Green grass! It was in East Texas, but it's kinda sorta almost that green here now! Thank You Lord for the rain!

Congratulations Ben and Paula. I love ya'll!

Putting My Trust in God

After these past few weeks, I find myself having to run to God and put my trust in him so I don't fall into great amounts of fear. When I get on Facebook, it seems to be full of prayer requests. I stop and fervently pray for each one. I keep seeing God's hand and His Grace come through on each of them. It calms me. To know that he is in control. I have struggled with fear a lot in the past, so now I just have to keep turning to God, taking each thought captive, and put my trust in Him. Because really, what else can we do?
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I figured out a way, albeit slow and I can't edit them, to get pictures onto the computer. Here are some cute ones from the past several months.



See that cute boy on the left? He's my nephew. He's going to be a big brother in November. I'm excited.





Dakota, I think this is one of her 2 month pictures




I love this picture of Ben and Paula and Dakota. It was taken either the weekend before or the day before they got engaged. I can't remember now which it was.



Never Enough

No matter how much time you spend with those you love, no matter how close knit of a family you are, once you know that you won't get to see someone from your family again until your time on earth is over, the time you did have just doesn't seem like enough.
Until this past week I had never lost anyone REALLY close to me. I have lost grandparents, which is very hard, but when it's your brother it is something altogeher different.
I don't know if it is from being in a semi large family, or if it has to do with being homeschooled, or just the way we were parented, but my family has always been extremely close.
I didn't agree with the way my brother lived. In fact, our lifestyles were nearly polar opposite, but that didn't keep us from loving to be together and have fun. We always have so much fun together.
My older brother Bill died early Saturday morning. His 31st birthday will be April 29th, the day after Ben and Paula's wedding. Bill was always up for a good time, and loved to spend time with his family. I was on the phone with him right before I shot that deer the night before Dakota was born. He thought that was awesome. He loved to dare people to do things. Or he'd say if I did some goofy thing he'd give me a dollar and then ask to borrow a dollar. He loved to laugh and would do anything for a laugh. There are so many things now I wish I hadn't been too afraid to tell him. I DID tell him I loved him. But I wish I'd told him how proud I was that he was trying to get clean. I kept meaning to, but I never really thought this would happen. I thought I had time. I hope his 3 year old daughter will remember him. He loved her so much. I know this is rambly and random, I just needed to tell.... someone. Bill I love you so much. I will miss your laughter. I will miss your phone calls that lasted SOO long that I was looking for reasons to get off the phone so I could actually get something done. I'm sorry. I wouldn't try to get off the phone now. I'd love a call. Chris misses you. A lot. You were his best friend. Not having you to see when he gets out is going to be hard for him. I wish I could give him a hug. At least the rest of us have each other to lean on. I miss you so much brother, and I hope a day doesn't go by that I don't think of you.

Learning the Ropes

Yesterday evening as I was sitting here at the computer feeding Dakota, the phone rang. It was my MIL from out in the barn. She said I might want to grab a camera and get out there.

Tyrel and Kimber were helping with the barn chores. Kimber gathered the eggs and Granola asked Tyrel to get the calves in to the pen in the barn.

 She suggested he get the rope hanging in the barn to help him. Once I got out there I kinda gave him a few pointers on using a rope. Not that I am a great roper, but I did coil it for him and show him how to hold it.

 He chased the bigger calf  around and around the barn lot.

 He got discouraged and asked me to do it for him a few times. I told him he was doing great, and that me doing it for him wouldn't teach him to rope. He's seen Daddy do it enough that watching me wouldn't help. I just think he was surprised that it wasn't as easy as Daddy makes it look.

 He got it over the calf once, but didn't pull it tight and the calf went right on through. Eventually he got him chased into the barn.

 

                            Then he started on the smaller one. It was a little more his size. I was a little worried about him actually catching the bigger one.

 He got the rope over her (we need to work on where to hold the rope as I can see by the above picture).

 And hung on. He almost ran out of rope before he got a good hold on it.

 The calf wasn't very happy about having a rope on her.

 He pulled

 And pulled

 I told him to get up there closer to her.

 So he worked his way up the rope

 And pulled some more. Eventually I grabbed the end of the rope so the calf would quit getting farther from the barn, but I made him use his own muscle to get her closer. (You can see Granola chasing an ornery milk goat around behind him)

Finally, with a little help from Granola behind the calf, he got her pulled in. He was very proud. He had to go call his Daddy and tell him that he'd roped a calf. He got a rope burn, but I think he's kinda proud of it too. :)