Mom and Dad's Anniversary

Today, my sweet parents are celebrating their 31st wedding anniversary!

They have blessed our family with a legacy of love, of commitment, of sharing and caring through the good times and the bad.  They are a beautiful representation of what a godly marriage should look like.  They have never let divorce become an "option" word in the marriage or in their thoughts.  They have prayed for the marriages of all of their children from the time of our births, asking God to bless us with godly spouses who will serve Him.  They are a wonderful example and I'm so thankful that the Lord blessed us with them as our parents.

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom!  We love you both soooooo much!

Nature's Beauty...

Matthew recently took this picture of our farm early one morning just as the sun was cresting the tree line.  There is such beauty in the foggy morning sunrise.  How blessed we are to be able to enjoy such beauty right here on our property!  

 "From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord's name is to be praised."

Psalm 113:3

The Karate Boys

Ethan and Noah, along with 3 of their friends, have recently taken up Karate classes.  And they are loving it!

They come home from each class with new techniques to show us and funny stories to tell.

Our whole family decided to attend one of their bi-weekly classes to see the action for ourselves.  They were pretty impressive!

There teacher is a Christian gentleman who is interested in teaching the techniques of karate without all of the "spiritual" aspects, so we appreciate that.  

It's also a good form of exercise and balance practice!

It's nice that they have their friends to do it with them.  They are all really getting into it with the kicks, punches, sparing gear, belts and stripes.  Hopefully they'll never have the need to use it in real life, but if they do, watch out for the Kung Fu Hammonds! ;-)

One Whole Year of Marriage!!!

Matthew and I just recently celebrated our one year anniversary!  Wow!  It's hard to believe it's already been that long.  Time sure has flown.

I love Matthew more now than the day that we got married.  It's amazing how love grows.  He's my dream come true, my sweetheart, my best friend.  I thank the Lord for blessing me with such a godly man.

For our anniversary, Matthew took me out to a friend's vacation house on the lake for a few days.  It was a lovely cabin, beautifully furnished and it literally sat about 6 feet off of the lake, with a huge front porch spanning the cabin to enjoy the private view.  We were so blessed to be able to stay there and enjoy our get-away time together.   

 

We knew that with me being so far along in my pregnancy we'd have to scale back on some of our favorite activities, like hiking or jet skiing, ;-) but we had a lot of fun challenging each other in bowling and mini-golf, along with going to the movies and out to eat.

He took me out on the lake in the little row boat, but the funny thing about this boat is that it had no oars!  So he graciously rowed me around with a shovel that he found!!!  Oh, the joy of being creative!

On the last night, my family came over to share dinner with us, play games, sing, chat and simply enjoy the beauty of the lake. 

 We had a lot of fun reminiscing about our wedding and the wonderful year we've had.  We are looking forward to many, many more blessed years of marriage together!