From a distant land...

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land
--Proverbs 25:25

We received our first letter from our newly sponsored girl from Thailand.  We were all excited to read our letter from Wannaporn.

On a side note...Thai is a very ornate looking language!

We learned that Wannaporn lives with her mother and father and has an older brother.  Since she and Rachel have the same birthday, Rachel had a fun time comparing herself to Wannaporn.  According to her letter she is 114 cm. tall, so we got out a measuring tape and discovered she's about 1 inch taller than Rachel and about 2 lbs heavier.  She likes to ride her bike, her favorite fruit is watermelon, she has a dog, and her favorite color is yellow.  She learns verses at the center she attends and likes to sing praise songs.  What a blessing to be able to be a part of her life!  We're looking forward to getting to know her better through the years.  If you've ever considered sponsoring a child....do so today!  You can contact me with any questions about sponsorship or visit Compassion International at http://www.compassion.com/

What was that beagle thinking?

I found this photo of me and my brothers circa 1987 at Mom and Dad's needed a copy for myself, and these thoughts come to mind.

• This is proof that I've always had dark circles under my eyes
• Why is Peter wearing pink shoes?
• I wonder what Penny the dog is thinking?

Easter

Our weekend was full of family, church, eggs, food, and fun. :)  We dyed our eggs Saturday.  Between the food and the Easter eggs, we went through over 6 dozen eggs!!  (We only dyed 2 dozen)  

We went on a stealth mission for the easter bunny to hide some eggs for a little boy who missed the church egg hunt because he hadn't been feeling well.

Off to church this morning for a wonderful service.

We hunted eggs this afternoon in our backyard.

Then Rachel hid the eggs for Aaron and this happened...

The basket broke...eggs falling everywhere

Egg Down!

Rachel rebounded after a few minutes of pouting about the basket.  We even had a visit from our own little easter bunny.

Fancy with the Friends

Rachel's friend Loralei is here visiting from Nebraska.  To celebrate, Loralei, Rachel, Avalyn, and Hannah made a trip to the salon to get their nails painted.  I don't know....we may have created a monster.  This kiddo may want a regular trip to the kiddie salon.  She loves her nail polish. :)

Spring Breakin'

Back from a 4-day trip to Illinois which included a 1st birthday party, a trip to the lake, some mushroom hunting, lots of egg hunting, and a visit to see my grandfather.  We celebrated my nephew Carson's 1st birthday on Saturday with a farm-themed party.

Carson is one of the easiest going little guys around.  He smiled and clapped for everything.

The whole family

There was also a time for a little basketball.  Aaron has really been enjoying the fact that he is now taller than his dad. 

After church on Sunday we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and headed to Shelbyville Lake.  The lake is really low right now so Mom hauled out a couple of buckets to gather some large rocks for some landscaping projects in the backyard.

Comfortable Dusty???

Sunday evening Dusty took off back to Indiana for work and Monday I took the kids down to Flora to stay with Dusty's parents for a couple of days.  Aaron went mushroom hunting with his granddad, but there wasn't much to be found.

And Rachel and Memaw hunted Easter eggs....over and over and over!

Confessions of a Sporadic Blogger

Hi, I'm Heidi and I've turned into a sporadic blogger.  There's really no "confessions" to go along with this.  Just a statement of an obvious fact.  Not that we haven't had anything to do.  So here's a photographic parade of some of the activities that have involved the Hackney 4 over the past 2 weeks.

Had the Awana skating party.  Lots of fun for kids on wheels....minimal injuries....Bonus!

I am in the midst of an entryway rehabilitation.  This is somewhere in the "during" part of the process.  As it stands now the decade old wall border is down, the paint is up, the wall decal arrived in the mail yesterday and is in the box, and the new light fixture is sitting in the corner of the living room.  Hopefully an updated "after" photo will be available before summer. :)

Our weekly ladies bible study group always has a pitch-in before the study; usually with a theme.  Since it was 2 days before St. Paddy's day we went with Irish.  I managed and Irish potato soup that turned out to be fairly good and some Irish soda bread

Heather had already planned to make Paula Deen's Kentucky Creme Pie.  We determined that surely there were people of Irish descent living in Kentucky so it was acceptable.  No one complained.

This past weekend and also this coming weekend I am photographing an event called Pure Girl.  It's for moms and daughters and this year has a fun beach theme.  Which leads to photos like this......

And to end on....last Sunday was Youth Sunday which means youth greeters, youth ushers, testimonies from youth, a rollicking skit, and an appearance by Reality 3:16.

....and the beat goes on



Aaaah....sun!

Lovely sunshine and warm temperatures...mix it with this

...and you've got a winner of a day!

Played around a little with my lights and converting to black & white tonight.  Here's a couple of my faves.

And to sum up - this Thai Chicken Pizza that I made was yummy. :)