Happy Fathers Day!

He didn't tell me how to live;

he lived, and let me
watch him do it.
~Clarence Budington Kelland

For Fathers Day, we wanted to honor our dad with a post on our site, although he is deserving of so much more! We think we have one of the greatest daddys on earth! WHY? Because of this quote written ahead of this post.

Our dad isnt a "do what I say, not what I do" kind of dad. He is an incredible "hands on" example to our children and to me as his wife!

~He shows us how to love God and be faithful.

~He displays unconditional love and patience.

~His character exhibits servanthood and humility.

~He guides us into adventure and shows us how to have fun.

~He patiently teaches and leads our family well!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY JOEL AKA DADDY

Here are a few of our favorite recent pictures of our dad.

The big 3-0

Well- well. I turned 30 today.

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........................

It sure does feel good. I mean, I have had some drama beforehand about 30, I dont think it helped that Kayla just turned ten earlier this year. These big milestones sure do hit hard!

Funny, I remember turning 20. I could NOT wait to be 20, because I was pregnant with Kayla at 19, and Joel wouldnt stop calling me his "pregnant teenage wife". I desested that phrase - and wanted to be grown and 20 and pregnant! Yes, Joel and I started life way too young- married at 18! WHEW!

But here I am, Im confortable now in my 30's. Im ready to be officially grown up! But will I ever grow up? Nah! Life's too short for too much seriousness! Did you know birthdays are good for you? Statistics show that the people who have the most birthdays live the longest!! How about that??

So- heres to many many more birthdays!!!

Stricklands, Stricklands, how does your garden grow?

Well, our garden is growing out of control!! We have officially outgrown our garden! We will be expanding next year! :D

Right now, our okra plants are making okra daily! I need to start cooking it before it all goes bad! Our tomatoes are so delicious. I just have to pick them off the vine before they are red, they ripen in the kitchen bay window...the birds love our tomatoes! Cant wait to pick our corn! I hope its edible! We have about 8 ears of corn.








Then we have our sunflowers, which are now above 10 feet. We have started to harvest the seeds for next year! We also have started harvesting our bluebonnet seeds too!















Our watermelon and cantaloupe plants are taking over the garden (after numerous attempts to thin them out). I've recently given in and let them grow everywhere!

We are so excited to see these melons getting fat! I have no idea when to pick them? Anyone know?


And we have cantaloupe everyhwere! The Strickland clan are gonna learn to love this stuff this year!














Of course our butterfly garden has taken off. Everything is so colorful and in bloom. We have seen lots of butterflies come to visit. We were even able to raise a caterpillar and release it as a butterfly in our garden. SO much fun!


(pics of butterfly to come- they are on Joel's iPhone)


And lastly our pumpkin plant. It has expanded tremendously and has about 6 pumpkins growing. I hope they grow big and we are able to carve them this fall!!

Lake Alan Henry Adventure

We went on an Adventure to Lake Alan Henry to be with the Barnes family. We had so much fun but didnt want to leave. We love the Barnes clan and we love the lakehouse and lake! We will be back VERY soon!

Three generations of Barnes boys. We love Pawpaw Barnes! I think Taylor looks like him! (aside from all the blond hair!)



















Arleen is someone who I just LOVE to be around. She is spicy, fun, loving, and just enjoyable! Sadly this is the only pic we got of her driving her boat!









She has set up such a lovely place. This is the new gameroom she made. If the kids werent on the boat, they were in this room playing away!









There are sandy roads to get to all of the lakehomes. We were venturing out into the fields and found a 3 foot rattle snake..no we didnt get a pics and no I wouldnt let Joel kill it- we were all too scared! (Except Joel of course)








We spent alot of time on the lake boating, snorkeling, sea-dooing, swimming, cliff-jumping, wakeboarding, and sunbathing. SO REFRESHING!

























Poor Taylor is just a little too young, he took a nap everytime we got on the boat.










Lastly, this was our friend turtle from our favorite spot- Turtle Cove.