Family

What is your family like? Mine... mine is probably mostly NUTS! But I love them for it. I've been thinking for a while about what to post next and I've come to a decision. I want to post about my family. 

{Left photo} 13 of the 17 grandkids on my mom's side with my wonderful grandparents! 

{Right photo} My sweet grandma Ball and me at Christmas when my family got to visit her in Oregon! My grandpa Ball passed away when I was 2 years old... He was an amazing man and I am excited to walk the streets of Heaven with him one day. 

Going to the family reunion last weekend reminded me how blessed I am with the family the Lord gave me. I know that I could call any one of my siblings, parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, or grandparents and ask them to pray for me and they would. I know that I can count on them to make me smile and to make me feel loved. I truly enjoy spending time with them and doing life with them! 

This family photo is from my oldest sister's wedding last September. My family, plus the first brother-in-law!

Over the years, my family has grown with the addition of two brother-in-laws and two 'sisters'! I already had 5 siblings and now I have 9 and I LOVE it!! There is so much I could say about each sibling and especially about my wonderful parents, but I believe in the phrase, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Now, you recently saw lots of photos of extended family so I won't have much of them, but here is a ton of photos of my incredible, nutty, wonderful, and full-of-love FAMILY! 

The family that travels together, stays together. All, but the two married sisters, on our way to Oregon to visit my grandma Ball. 

 I don't have many photos of my mom and dad... so I just have to pause here and brag about them a little :) My mom is such a hard worker! She has raised 6 children, started a business, runs our farm, and is the founder of a national organization. Many call her superwoman... I get to call her Momzie! My daddy is equally an incredibly hard worker! He as well owns his own business and has been the best role model of a father any daughter could ask for. He has had the privilege of traveling all around the world and we kids have had the awesome opportunity to go on several of those trips. My parents have shown me what it means to work hard in life and to follow Christ in everything that you do. I love you both more than I could ever put into words. 

The four unmarried siblings :) Ages 24 to 14... 

More traveling!! We love road trips!

All of the girls, plus G (one adopted sister), my cousin, and my older sister's sister-in-law! 

My older sister... I am number two, so she is the only sibling above me. I love her so much and I love watching our relationship mold and grow with our becoming adults. These photos are from April when mom and I went up to visit her in PA. 

My 'Twin' on her wedding day back in November... She was such a stunning bride! 

This girl and I have been twins since the moment she could walk. We got our name, 'twins', because we are the closest in age {19 months apart} and we did everything together as kids.

Needless to say... her wedding was VERY emotional for me! I love her crazy tons and I am so thankful Jesus gave me my Twin!

My bro... he is pretty much AWESOME! The only boy with 5 sisters... I think that is cause enough to praise him. He has grown up without me even noticing and I am so proud of the man he is becoming. He is an incredible dancer, a student at UGA, and I love him so very much!

My baby sisters!!! Ok, so they are SO NOT babies anymore, but they will forever be "the little girls" :) 

This one is 'my baby'. I was the first one to see her after she was born and she was my responsibility when she was little. She is an incredibly talented mixed martial artist and is about to attend college. I am so proud to be her older sister and... I freaken love her!

The baby of the family! Also, my look-a-like :) We are 10 years apart and still, everyone asks if we are twins. She is an amazing artist and has a crazy style that is all her own. I love that she is 'her' and is not trying to be anyone else. You are adorable my baby sister and I am so proud of you. I love you!

 Now, here are some photos of our family's "adopted" sisters... I seriously love these two just like they were my blood sisters and I don't know what I would do without them in my life!

You already know Lil' Chef :) and the other one is G... she is 9 months away from being a DOCTOR!! So incredibly proud of her!

Don't think I could ever do life without this girl... bestest friend anyone could ever ask for!

This was a semi-spontanious trip to do a 5k about 2 hours away! Sisters do crazy things... 

LOVE these girls so much... 

I LOVE people! I always have, but there is one particular family that the Lord placed in my life about 7 years ago who have definitely become family to me. That family would be the Q family :) I have been the family babysitter since the oldest (KQ) was 3 years old. I have watched these kiddos grow up and I am so blessed to be able to call these wonderful people family!

And then there were four... this was right after the youngest, AQ, was born!

KQ, JQ, and LQ all helping out on the farm. They love it out here!

I just love these kids! 

That was a lot of lovin'... and a lot of photos, once again! But I just wanted to share with you all the HUGE blessing God has given me in my family. They all bring something special to my life and I love them all more than words can describe. Take a moment today to thank the Lord for your family.... to tell your family members how much you love them and are thankful for them. Family truly is one of the greatest gifts Jesus has given us! Blood related or not :) 

So Blessed, 

LoLo

Junior Week One

Junior week one is over! It was a great week, and everything went as smooth as it could.

 

If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
- Rabindranath Tagore

 

I know that it seems like a random quote this time, but I had seen it on a friends Facebook page and really thought it was a great reminder.

 

It has been a beautiful week here, perfect weather for all the kiddos activities. We had one stormy day, but it was nice to have rain to make all of the colors outside pop again.

 I love being able to do my devotions and eat outside, the view is so perfect up here on the mountain.

There is a councilor here that is my age and we have become good friends. Jackie is a rugby player, and wanted to make sure to stay in shape while she was here. We have gotten to workout twice together and it was a ton of fun, we would do it everyday but camp can get crazy ;). She is one of those people I know we will stay in touch after camp is over.

Here are pictures of the food we have been making.....

Dirt pudding

 

My Mom's Jello Cups

Carmel Popcorn  

Breadsticks (super yummy)

 

Pizza and Breadsticks

 

Out last dinner for the campers

 

Strawberry Shortcake

 

The menu will be the same for this week, but I will take pictures of the food I have not gotten yet :) 

One day I had a polka-dotted pink and black tank top on with a bow in my hair and apparently I looked like Minnie Mouse. Well during a game Kara (a camper) came up to me and said we were matching...... she had a Minnie Mouse shirt on and said I looked like Minnie too. She grabbed my hand and said we had to get a picture together ;)    

 

She was adorable and we called eatchother Minnie the rest of the week.

Mom and I went shopping and I got to go to this isle, where I found my and Lolo's favorite candy ever! 

It reminds me of so many friendship dates we have brought them on, and the good times that come with that! 

 

After a long week of camp this was our menu sign...

The campers are all gone and sweet Shylee has stared her sad face ;(

 

Then 10 minutes later she was sacked out on the couch.

Now my oldest brother's family is on their way here from Massachusetts...but I will wait to put the weekend adventures in my next post! I have not seen them in 2 1/2 years so I can't wait to finally see them! 

Another camp week starts Sunday at 2pm...bring on the little campers!! 

With a pinch of love, 

Lil'Chef

 

Hello from Maine!!

Off again on a new adventure and this time.... to Maine!!!

 

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

I will be here until the 16th of August, then back to Georgia! I will be here for two junior weeks of camp and then a specialty week. The two junior weeks are these next two weeks then I get to go to road tripping to Massachusetts! It is the second week in August that the specialty week will run, and I have to say I am most excited for that one! My whole family will be all together for the first time in two years. There are seven kids and then my parents, over the years we have added two sister-in-laws, a brother-in-law, a niece, and three nephews. Everyone except my brother-in-law will be here to help run the week of camp! Enough with what is going to happen because I am sure I will be posting about all that again soon ;)

 

My plane trip to Maine....

 

I was not happy at all with the lady that sat next to me at all! Lets just say Jillian Michaels would have loved to kick her butt with a good workout ;) She had fallen asleep and started literally squishing me.... andI could not wake her up! I was just praying so hard that the hour left of the trip the pilot would fly a little faster. Finally we landed and my Mom was there to pick me up! We got to just talk on our way to camp and those are always my favorite times. When we got to camp I got to see my brother, my Dad, and Shylee (the cutie in the picture).

Here are some pictures of Blueberry Mt.....it is the camp my Dad is now the director of.

 

My Mom does a GREAT  job with her garden! I always know the garden will be tended and beautiful. She really enjoys her garden time!

 

My favorite view from the camp.

 

My Dad's new addition to the camp family.....

 

 

.....two sheep....Roger and Maggie!

 

 

There was a work team here from PN when I got here to help get the camp ready for campers. The work team left on Saturday morning, and we had to make a quick turn over to be ready for campers to come Sunday afternoon.

 

For the quick turn over my Mom and I had some shopping to do ;)

 

 

If you think that is alot, that only will last us till Wednesday. To brighten our day, on our way in I caught a shot of this beautiful butterfly (no filter)!

 

 

Sunday morning my Mom and I knocked out most or our desserts for the week.

 

We made more then cookies, but we were on a roll and did not stop to get pictures. I will try to get pictures as we serve them later this week. Here is the best kitchen Sou Chef (my Mommy) I could ever ask for. The cool thing is we will be adding more of my sisters as the weeks go on.

Sunday night is always PIZZA night!!!!

 

 

This was a cute picture because I was trying to get a picture of my sweet Mom's mottoes for the camp weeks, but the campers thought I wanted a picture of them. I really like this picture because it holds memories, you got to love campers!

 Me and my little brother Wes cooking Pancakes this morning. He is a huge help in the kitchen, and helps whenever he is not my Dad's right hand man.  

Tonight dinner was a chicken recipe I made up to try baked "fried" chicken. It turned out good, but definitely some things I want to change to make it even better.

 

My Mom writes the menu and I found this on the board ;)

 

 

Then to top the wonderful day off I had this for dessert and hot chocolate ......yummmmy!!

Well that's all for tonight, and I will be reporting back as soon as I find some time to write again!
With a pinch of Love,
Lil' Chef