Cupcake Wars!

Hubby turned 60 years old on July 31 and our family was able to get together to celebrate
and have a fun time. We sure needed some joy in our lives because truthfully it just hasn't
been joyful since we lost precious baby Eden and believe me she was in our thoughts
the whole weekend long!
It was supposed to be a camping weekend in our yard, but the weather did not cooperate...
so we had some in the camper, some in the house and one family went to a motel!

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The kids have been talking about having
 CUPCAKE WARS 
for awhile and this was the perfect time.

Have you seen that show on TV? Ours was a tad different because there is no way
each family was making 1,000 cupcakes. ha!
Hubby and I were dubbed the judges! NOT fair! HA!
It was really okay and we had fun doing it.

We were blown away by our kids creativity!
I thought they would use sprinkles etc, but they took this contest very seriously.

Each contestant was judged on Presentation, Menu Design and Taste.

Thought for sure these would win just for presentation alone.

Can you believe it?

Campfire cupcakes 

They sure put a lot of thought and time in these.

Alas, they tied for 2nd place.
I think if they would have amped up that menu design they would
have given the winner a run for 1st place!

This is our daughter and her family.
Allysha, Daniel, Matt, Jon, Joshua and Amanda

Next , we had a S'mores theme complete with Minions!!

NEAT menu design!

To be fair, I really blew it because I didn't even realize there were Minions
roasting their marshmallows until the judging was all over!!

 I think I was too enthralled by everyone's creativity.
I just kept saying I could NOT believe it. Oops. Sorry guys!

Colette made the minions and they were amazing. I wish I had a shot of them from the front
because they looked exactly like them!

 Look at them roasting their marshmallows over the campfire.
TOO cute!!

Alas, they tied for 2nd place also.

Colette, Ainsley, Annika and  our son Nathan

Our oldest son and his family chose a golf theme.

What a creative menu!

 His wife came up with that and I thought she did great!

 The weather wasn't kind to the frosting on the cupcakes.

Hot and humid, but they preserved. 

The grand prize winners by three points!

Melissa, Korrah, our son Jason, Keira and Kanaan

We really had a great time and I think it should be an annual tradition.
I told them this was a "trial run" for the next one. lol.

The kids had a lot of play time together and
some of them also had fun with fake mustaches.

The

"icing on the cake"
for hubby and I was that on Sunday morning our whole family went to church with us.

That was definitely a RARE TREAT!

This pic would have been up farther, but I forgot. OOPS.

 Little sweetie Korrah was enthralled with my fountain and loved adding stones
 to it and playing in the water.

I have many more photos, but I already had to redo this whole thing once
pictures and all so I gave up. I am tired.

We are so very thankful for our family and we feel so very blessed.
It isn't about how much money is in your bank account
{God knows we would be in trouble there}
or how famous you are, but it is all about God and family.

WE ARE BLESSED...in spite of the pain of losing Eden...

and oh how we do miss her...terribly!!

Someday we will know why, but for now we must trust
in our Heavenly Father and His love for us!

Please continue to keep us all in your prayers.

Blessings~

So thankful for your thoughts and prayers...

I can't even begin to tell you how much comfort and support we have received from family and friends
in the past three weeks since our beautiful granddaughter Eden Rain was stillborn. All I can say is

you. are. amazing.

God has met financial needs for my son and his family during very difficult time and many of you have also
 sent gifts for them, the girls and myself.

 I can't say

thank you

enough. My son said "wow there are so many people who love and care for us".

Y.E.S.

I received the necklace above from a dear blog friend who lives in New York.
We have never even met face to face, but only have communicated online.

I was so touched when I opened this keepsake that she had made just for me.

I LOVE IT !

and...I cried.
yes, I did...I've been doing a lot of that lately and I am sure I will do more
in the days, months, years ahead.

She also sent gifts for the girls and a financial gift as well.

I have received gifts of money from many of you for my family and we so appreciate it.

You have shown God's love in tangible ways and we say

THANK YOU!

I have written several poems and cried through every single one of them.

It is helping me heal although we will never get over this loss.

We will look for ways to incorporate sweet Edens memory into our everyday lives.

I created a facebook page called

Prayers for the Boothman Family

if you will click on the link above it will take you there.

It includes the poems that I have written to date and I am sure it will
include many more in the years to come.

We so covet your continued thoughts and prayers for our precious family.

May God bless each and every one of you!

Tuliptree and Toadshade Trails ~

Yesterday afternoon our youngest son and his family went with us to a nature preserve called
Goll Woods
 that is in our area. I can't remember the last time we walked in here!
I wanted to last fall and it didn't work out so we got a jump on it this year. Not many pretty
leaves or flowers yet, but we will come again in a few weeks when the tulip trees and other
flowers are in bloom hopefully and again in the fall.

We followed our son and he took us over this bridge on the way.
Of course I had to have hubby stop the Jeep and get out and snap a few pics.

We parked our vehicles and hit the trails.
Don't you just love the names? I do!
We decided to walk Tuliptree Trail first.

The little girls did well overall. Big sister Annika did a lot of whining the farther
we walked, but I thought they did a great job because we walked over 3 miles.
Maybe four.

This is what sweet Ainsley said to her mommy after picking up these two sticks.

Moss was everywhere you looked and it was great to see some green.

I tried to take photos of unique trees.

I think this is a shag bark tree? 

A huge roll of barbed wire

Have you ever seen a camouflage tree? Pretty neat. We saw a few of these.

I wonder what little creatures have wandered in and out of here over the years.

This was the second trail we walked called Toadshade Trail.

I wanted to get a shot of how huge these trees look next to us. 

These trees are just crazy

Son Nathan on a baby snake hunt. It wriggled away so I couldn't get a photo.

Contemplating the long walk ahead? lol

There were several trees with carvings on them along the river.

This sweetie did a lot of this...her legs could just hardly carry her. 

This tree reminded me of an elephants foot! What do you think?

This photo should have been up higher in the post , but I forgot to add it.
 {Had to get one of myself in here too}
If you scroll up higher in this post you will see that my son swiped my hat and was wearing it.
 He LOVES that hat. {It is really my husbands}


We had a WONDERFUL family time, but I am just not as young as I used to be. I went into this walk already
aching all over and I was worse for wear when we got home. Exhausted, but it was so worth it. I love
family times like this. I hope you enjoyed our nature walk as well! I took about 280 pictures plus so I
really had to pare them down!!

{I am having an online garage sale again so be sure and check out my previous post. I will be adding
more things as the days go by. Thank you!!}

Belated Christmas

Just wanted to pop in and say hello and share a few belated Christmas photos.

We had Christmas with  my parents and our children this past weekend. Yep, kinda late
but that is what worked out best. As it turned out our oldest son and his family were sick
with that nasty flu so they didn't get to come and we missed them a lot!

My mom has always had the kids dress up at Christmas time and this year our grands were
the stars. :)

Baby Daniel playing with his drum that we bought for him.  Just look at that big
smile! Too cute!

I think at one time during the day most all the kids played with the drum. I am beginning to think that I should
have gotten a drum for everyone. Wouldn't that have made a great photo!! :)
These photos were taken at my youngest sons home.

Anticipation...

Back to my parents house again...my dad reading the Christmas story with my sister and her hubby
in the background.

So glad I got these photos of my dad...love him to pieces!

Precious memories in the making.