Summer 2015

We started our summer out in Missouri helping my mother-in-law get her house ready to sell. We ended up spending about 5.5-6 weeks there. We came home to Texas, and within a week we left for a 2 week vacation to Georgia. We have had an incredible summer and the biggest surprise we have had is that we are having a little girl added to our family! I cannot believe I am getting a daughter to join my two handsome boy's! Perfection. Absolute perfection is what I would call what my heart is feeling. My heart is so full of love for my children and my husband I feel that I almost can't contain it. I have the perfect man for me, two beautiful healthy boy's whom I adore and now a baby girl to join us. Wow. As this year continues on I can see God's handy work in everything in our lives. His protection. His love. His gifts to us. I truly can see Him working in our lives!

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Here are just a few pictures from our visit to Georgia that I wanted to share. It has been 3 years since I had been in Georgia and I truly had a wonderful visiting time. Time was well spent and lots of memories were made! It was a wonderful visit, and one that I am so thankful that I was able to make.

Love this picture. :)

It's a crowd! :)

Not perfect, but so thankful everyone is in it!

 

First family picture in 5 years!!

Love this picture.

Landon the photo-bomber. Haha.

 

So proud of #65!

Paw Paw Howard and Cameron watching Tyler's football game.

Uncle Ty was a favorite!

It was late and Cameron was delirious and Landon was tired.

Too much fun with Uncle Ty!

 

It's a ....

 

... A GIRL!!!

 

Madelyn Elizabeth Thomley

is due to arrive on or around 11/24/2015!

 

We are very excited about having a sweet baby girl join our family!

 

 

"Matthew 7:7"

 

Here are a few pictures that just spoke to my heart. I hope you enjoy.

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New Seasons, New Changes

I think the one thing we can all say is that things change. Life takes us by surprises and we all have our ups and down's. This year has been an interesting one for our family. We've had our major downs so far, but God is and has graciously continued to pour out his blessings on our family even when I had no idea how to pray or for what. When things always seem the darkest, there is always a ray of sunshine about to break through!

Our family is going through wonderful changes right now, the first one being that Baby Thomley #3 will be joining our family at the end of the year. We did not plan this, and it came as a HUGE shock and surprise. We had not planned on having any more children and were quite satisfied with our two boy's. There are many things that still await us and are unknown to us, but the fact that I am learning (sometimes the very hard way) to trust in God and that he know he knows exactly what he is doing, even though its not at all what I wanted, His way IS the best way!

As changes continue to make our way I will continue to do my best as a wife, mother and a continuous student (who has honestly been slacking lately) of the word of God. So please pray for me as I transition into motherhood with a four year old, a two year old and a newborn and a homeschooling mother and wife! Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 4:13. I am excited about this new stage in life and I feel so fulfilled to be doing exactly what I am doing. There are things that I would change if I could, but for now my soul is satisfied.

 

My Studious One's

I have been so excited about our school work for the summer!
Cameron has been progressing very well in his studies,

 and I am excited about our new workbooks.

Hopefully these will last us through the end of July!

 

Working hard in his math book. :)

Landon is working hard too! :)

He loves to copy his big brother.

Meet "The Girls" ...

For a while now, I really can't remember how long, I've really been wanting some laying hens.  I've always thought that I would enjoy having a few for laying fresh eggs. With the cost of food these day's, and my love for fresh food and wanting to provide healthy meals for my family I've always thought about being a bit more self-sufficient when it comes to growing/having our own fresh foods in our backyard. I always knew it would take a bit of effort and work but I think that's what makes them taste so good! :)

 

So here is my start to a "goal" of being more self-sufficient.

This is the house that my sweet husband built for them. We made it off the ground so that snakes and other wild things can't get to them at night.  

Cameron is so excited about the chickens.

The black and white one is a Barred Plymouth Rock and the other is a Black-Star or also known as a Black Sex-Link. The reason for the name is because from day one you can tell which one is a boy or girl! Boy's are born and have a white dot on their heads. The Black Sex-Links are a cross between Barred Rock and a Rhode Island Red. You can clearly see the Rhode Island Red in her!

This is Ginger.

She is a tall chicken and she will lay around 250-300 eggs a year!

These girls are very docile. They are not bothered by a whole lot and the boy's can just run around and they don't even spook and go crazy. They are really good hens. They are 19.5 weeks old and should start producing eggs any day now. You may be asking "Where's your Rooster?!" Well, they have already have been fertilized and since we are not hatching any babies right now we do not need one. I've learned a lot about these two breeds of chickens over the course of this past week!

The boy's love the chicken's and cannot wait to go out and see them every day. :)

My little farm boy's.

Landon has had a fascination with chicken's for a long time now. He got some toy ones for Christmas and since then he will go around saying "Bach, bach, bach". That's what he call's them "Bach's".

Getting a closer look.

Love it!

This is Oreo. She has gotten to the point Justin can just walk up to her, pet her and pick her up! No running around looking like an idiot trying to catch chickens! LOL. Oreo will also lay around 250-300 eggs a year. It may sound like a lot but they typically only lay one egg a day (some don't even lay every day) so that would only be 14 eggs a week. We will be getting about two more hens so that we are guaranteed fresh eggs all year long!

 

 

So far we have really enjoyed them but can't wait until we start finding eggs every morning!

I will let you know when I do find one or two!

 

 

 

Playing in the Mud

On Saturday Cameron enjoyed playing outside in the sunshine after a week full of rain and being indoors! I was glad for him to get out there no matter how wet and dirty he got. He had a blast playing with his "New Digger" (the little Tonka toy he got for his birthday) from Daw. I will post more on his birthday later.

 

I was also able to capture some sweet pictures of Landon's little face. I did not let him play in the mud! Haha. There is no telling how muddy he would have gotten and I didn't want him to get sick since he has had a snotty-nose for the past week or so.