SPRING HAPPENS RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES

Four seasons are not always visible or distinct.
In the desert  the changes are subtle, except for spring if there has been sufficient rain. Then dull green prickly cactus and trees display flowers and color, especially yellow with lots of pops of deep pink and soft purple.


At Third Place, it seemed that Spring just happened
right in front of our eyes. Leaving in December the ground was barren and brown. In March there was a
lush green grass everywhere. Not three days later the green was covered with a blanket of yellow.
                             

Robins, by the flocks flew in. They were everywhere pulling worm? from the ground.

One day, just at dusk, spotted through out the yellow and green, was a larger poppy like flower.  It was a one time showing, gone the next day.

A day drive up north to explore more little towns, the famous Blue Bells were just emerging. Their array not yet at its full potential but beautiful. 

Orange took over along the highway. Who spilled the paint bucket? 

The trees were so dry they left questions of  whether they were alive or dead. Then one day every branch looked fuzzy, covered with tiny little leaves.

Looking out over their tops across the meadow the brown was now light green. Within just a few days they were all filled out and thick.

CELEBRATING

Weddings are amazing Celebrations.

Travis and Christin's was one of the most beautiful in our family' story.

Beautiful in design, color, fashion and flowers.

But especially beautiful in the way it expressed them.

Surrounded by family and friends

Celebrating Relationships

Celebrating Them.

Celebrating Love and Life and New Beginnings.

Celebrating the Magic and the Joy.

Little Girls are just special.

Kayla, although follows her older brothers and tries to do

what they do, loves her dolls and her bows and her shoes

She is all girl. She pushes Baby Ema or Baby Alli

around the house in a stroller. Tucks them in their bed

and tenderly cares for them.

God placed a mother's heart inside little girls.

THANKSGIVING at THIRD PLACE

Two weeks over all making memories, playing games wars (boys against girls), making discoveries, Star gazing, taking long walks, having long talks, laughing,

praying, watching movies and Football, Cyber Monday shopping, cooking, eating, crafting and more. Mom Collins spent some time with us. Travis came but Christin had to work. Jonnie flew with Kayla. Brad, Kristina and the boys drove two days there and one going home.

We have so much to be thankful for. Family tops our list. We are all very thankful for each other and love being together. Of all the adventures Rick and I take our most favorite is anything we do with Family.

Brad was the first to discover a baby Kudu, about three weeks old.

Daily Kudu hunts took place allowing all of us to find the little one

bedded down while Dad and Mom - Zulu and Venda - grazed.

'Anthony's Zoo' lets us get up close

Andrew getting licked by otter; Nathan by a tiny Muntjac

Bottle feeding a tiny baby Muntjac and baby whitetail deer

Kayla joining the fun on the Ranger. She likes the Bumpy part of the ride.

Riding on the Ranger - Nathan at the wheel.

Throwing corn to the deer

Helping Papa cover the hay.

Playing on the Ranger

Putting Hay in the Feeder

Game Challenges - racing to pull tissue from the box.

Hanging with Uncle Travis in the swing

Until the hook broke in the tree branch

Swinging on the Disk swing.

While Mommy and Daddy go to Argentina with High School Ministry, we get to hang out at Nana's house and play with Papa. Everyday as filled with fun but we have our Favorites.

Favorite playground when it is 105 outside. Balls, cars, trikes, tools, tent, beans, and best of all, Papa's Motorcycle.

Favorite daily fun - swimming with Papa. We learned to swim like 'doggies' doing the dog paddle.

Favorite book: Nathan - Mittens by Jan Brett; Favorite puzzle - Fish and Cars; Favorite game -

The Match Game.

Favorite special place to go - Aquarium- a maze of fun views of fish, sea horses, jelly fish and baby Nemo. The water tunnel was fun - walking on water with fish swimming under and over us.

Favorite ride at Chuckie Cheeses.

Favorite rest time movie - Mission to Mars - Backyardagains. "De Mars" We watched it every day and laughed through the whole thing. We especially like the part we can dance to.

Favorite position - upside down. Nathan is on his head most of the time, Andrew is getting the hang of it and Kayla is trying to be like big brothers.

Favorite cookie to bake - Chocolate chip because we can eat the chocolate chips while we measure and mix.

Favorite Snack at Nana's House - little boxes of raisins.

Hanging out with Papa at Nana's House

Nathan, Andrew and Kayla love to spend time at Nana's house, but it is Papa they love to spend time with 'cause Papa has all the cool places to be and things to do. While Mommy and Daddy celebrate their 10th anniversary in Hawaii our Three Little Smiling faces keep Nana and Papa busy. Sweeping the garage was a lot of fun.

Now they have a great place to ride trikes, throw balls, play with play dough and beans. Of course garage doors open to expand the ball throwing and bike riding area.

Some of the fun things we did were filling the bird feeders, wagon walks to the mail box before bath time, Picnic breakfast on Nana's bedroom

floor watching a movie. The favorite of this week is a Veggie Tails -The night before Easter, with a big robot rabbit. Eating dinner outside on the patio, making animal stamp pictures and getting ink all over our hands.

Every day we went somewhere. One field trip was to the airport to watch the planes and play in Papa's airplane. Sitting in pilot seats and pushing buttons. But they are not ready to let Papa turn the plane on. That would be too noisy. They will wait until Daddy can go with them on that first adventure.

A Field trip to the Railroad Park for a picnic, train ride and a carousal ride.

Another day we have the local park all to ourselves to swing, slide, climb up and down the ladders, pull each other up and down the slide.Nathan and Andrew laugh hard trying to get up the slide. Nathan keeps slipping down on to Andrew so then Andrew decides he is going to help Nathan by sitting/laying at the top and pulling Nathan up.

Kayla just loves being outside doing anything and

loves it even more if she can watch her brothers or do what they do.

Cabela's, allows Nathan and Andrew to sneak up on some geese outside the

front door. It is a little scary and exciting until they realize the geese are not real. They see an elephant up close and personal, it is real but not alive, like all the animals in Papa's office; play in the little tents just their size with window to look out and seats to sit on. Kayla got involved trying to find where her brothers were hiding.

One day we went to the Library to get new books, reading several before making their choice of 2 to 'check out. The Librarian shows them how to check out their own books.