This is our green eyed, rosy cheeked, dark haired beauty named Mary. She is a quiet sort of person with a glorious smile that brightens a room instantly. Mary loves to make things and is interested in becoming a chef. Yes, I GREATLY encourage her in that interest. Who doesn't want an awesome cook in the house?
Ah, the brain of the family! This is Alva... he is very academic. I mean, this kid is quite a few years younger than me and he says things like, "Did you know ______ ?" and I'm just going, "Um... yeeeaaaah. Of course I knew that *racking my brain for information that just isn't there*!"
Oh yeah! This is Abigail (The one on the left)... our toad grabbing, lizard catching, dirt loving, caring little tom-boy. One time, she saw a squirrel get killed... did she even think of being grossed out? Noooo, that's not how Abby is. She grabbed that bloody squirrel up in her hands and ran to Mom.
"Mom! I think it's dead. Can you fix him?" Poor gal. She was really concerned about that poor squirrel!
Thankfully, Dad was in the room when Abby ran in. Otherwise Mom (who's a through and through city girl) would've gone ballistic grabbing Dawn soap and any other disinfectant she had available to wash Abby's hands.
Awwwww!! This is Joy. She is our adorable, princess, city girl who loves lace, jewelry, earrings, lip gloss, lipstick, mascara and anything girly. Mom has to hold her back and make sure she doesn't get really, really"big girl" things until she is a "big girl"!
This is Grace and I. Grace is cool... she really is. She is a sweet little spitfire that is a wonderful mix of girly and tom-boy. Her imagination is nothing like I've ever seen. When she was 3 or 4 she had an imaginary farm... the horses were pink and the sheep were green with panties on. Wouldn't you love to see a farm like that?!
This chubby-cheeked little boy is Robert. He is the last of Mommy and Daddy's 10 kids... and is very obviously THE baby. Robert says the most adorable things, that makes me want to laugh all day. Do you want to hear one of those adorable things? Oh yea... I knew you would.
Me: "Robert, where did you come from? (I was expecting to hear, "From Mommy's tummy" or something like that)"
Robert: "Um, Jesus." Out of the mouth of babes, y'all...
Oh, and did I mention that when you get him to give you a hug they are the squishy-est (this is a word in my dictionary) most cuddly hugs on the face of the earth? Well, he does gives that kind of a hug... but I have dibs on them first, ok? He's my bro.
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We are like every other family out there:
We get mad at each other.
We sometimes yell at each other.
We say things we shouldn't.
We apologize over and over again.
We have devotion together.
We hide cookies, bags of chips, and cans of soda from each other.
We watch Tim Hawkins together.
We laugh up a storm.
We fight over who gets to read "that amazing new book from Amazon" first.
We go to church together.
We do "karate" at each other.
We go camping together.
We annoy each other until the person getting annoyed wants to punch somebody.
We love each other.
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Because that's what families do. We are a family and we are thankful for it.