There is beauty

I have been seeing them poke up for the past few weeks. For the first time ever I was a bit resentful towards the daffodils as they started to peek out as we tiptoe toward spring. You see, I've been praying that Miss Lydia would be home by the time our little field bloomed here. So when Nathan told me I should check the field I couldn't imagine going. Today though the blue skies and warmer temperatures partnered with a God who promises strength will rise when we wait upon Him, gave me just enough courage to go. Lylah was bursting with excitement! She immediately set to work picking her bouquet!

Now there were some tears hidden behind sunglasses, but mostly there was just beauty. Beauty in the wonder of creation. Beauty in the excitement of a child. Beauty in a God who carries us when we feel we can't carry ourselves. We found a sweet little patch of flowers all by themselves in the middle of four big trees. We decided that that patch of flowers was Lydia's patch.

After snapping a picture of big sis with her "sissy's" flowers, we picked everyone from the patch for Lydia since she wasn't able to be here to pick them herself this year.

After that we picked more flowers and just enjoyed a sweet tradition that is on its 4th year. Though this years flower field experience wasn't how I would have pictured it, it was still filled with sweetness and beauty because true beauty doesn't lie in our circumstances-it lies in a God who carries us through each and every moment of His plan.

Two years and still counting

Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow is the two year mark for our adoption journey. As I was looking back at the posts from February 2011 I can't even begin to explain the emotions. So much has changed. As I sit here and try to come up with something worth saying, I just have to say some days are harder than others. Of course some days are busy, and even though Lydia is always on my heart, those days life sort of just takes over. There are other days when I am full of peace that surpasses all understanding. Then there are still days when it's harder to remind myself of the truth of Gods word and sorrow threatens to overwhelm me. In those moments or on those days I am even more thankful for a few things: the sweetness of the body of Christ as I reflect on those interceding on ours and Lydia's behalf, the gift of "big sis" here with me each day, making me laugh and learn so much, and the fact that Jesus knows my heart and all of the emotions flooding it better than even I do. I wouldn't have chosen for this journey to be two years and still rolling, but since this journey has the fingerprints of my Heavenly Father all over it, I will rest in His perfect plan; just some days better than others ;-)

Waiting

I've learned so much on this adoption journey, but since a lot of adoption is about waiting many of my lessons come back to that same place. I have to daily surrender my plans and my timing to His. I have to daily confess that I'm trying to make this journey about me when it is really all about Him. I have to take myself off the throne and let Him be there-where He belongs. Many verses have encouraged me lately so I'd thought I'd share a few just in case you too find yourself waiting...

Psalm 147:5 Great is The Lord and abundant in power, his understanding is beyond measure.

Jeremiah 31:3b I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Hebrews 4:15-16. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, let us then with coincidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Joshua 21:45 Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

Last week we got news that the Embassy in Congo was adding a step to the adoption process. They are adding an investigation because they are seeing such a surge in adoptions through Congo and want to make sure each child being adopted is in fact an orphan. This step could add 3-6 months to our process. Today we did get our i600 approval which was needed to begin the investigation so that was good news. Please join us in praying that our case would be very smooth and swift. Pray for the people working in the embassy and in our agency to be organized and efficient. Most of all pray for our sweet little Lydia that she would be safe and protected while we continue to wait for her to come home. We of course need prayers as we wait. It is our desire to wait well and to use each moment spent waiting for His glory. It is humbling to know there are so many prayers being spoken on behalf of us and our little lady. Thank you.

To Catch You Up to Speed

Wow. I was just thinking about doing a blog post but then I sort of got lost in old posts for a bit. I was a crummy blogger in 2012. Forgive me? Maybe I'll do better in 2013. It certainly was fun looking back through old posts so maybe that'll be motivation. Anyway I wanted to post a little update on all things Mattingly..

1. We are getting closer to moving. We have had volunteers and friends helping Nathan get things all ready and it's getting close! We are super excited to be in town and to see what God has in store for us. Oh, and don't you like my pretty green cabinets?!

2. There are a few guests that pop up at our house at least once a day. Marco, Luka, and Luke are all of Lylah's imaginary sons. Random, I know, but totally Lylah. These imaginary sons have entertained her for mornings on end. One day I got the entire house ready for a showing while Lylah and her sons had conversations. Here is what I know. It is always Marco's birthday. He does karate and gymnastics. She seems to talk with him the most. She also talks to her real friends and family about Marco like they should know who he is. I don't know much about Luka except he seems to get in trouble the most. Luke is the newest "son" on the scene and by far the coolest since he is "super brave and usually spends 3 hours killing monsters and mean guards". Seriously?!

3. When Lylah's sons are all off doing karate and killing things she spends her time dancing around the house being a "prima ballerina". She turns everything into a barre, my oven and dish washer handles, the bathroom rails in the handicap restrooms. She even practices going up on pointe. She loved all things ballerina already, but it exploded when she visited dance class with a friend! To top it off her Meme got her a "ballerina suit" for Christmas and then a friend from church gave her one too! We will probably have dance classes in her near future.

4. I so wish I could post some of the pics we've gotten lately of Miss Lydia! In one picture she is going to town on a sucker! My favorite so far is of her riding on a nanny's back (classic African style) while the nanny pushes some other kiddos on the swings. She looks tiny in that pic! We also got a picture just last night of her crawling! Our i600 has been filed so hopefully we will get approval in the next few weeks. We are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel! Please pray that we don't have any major hiccups from here on out and that we are celebrating being a family of four soon!

Okay, I think that's all for now.. :-)

Thoughts on "Yuck".

I did something today that I haven't done in four years at least.  I put on my big black roller blades and took off.  Those of you who knew me four years ago, know how wonderful this must have felt.  Those of you who know me now, might also be able to imagine how much needed this time was.  You see, some of you know that the past couple of weeks have been filled with "yuck" all around me.  "Yuck" actually doesn't really begin to explain it really.  Here is a run down.  An adoption quickly approaching 2 years with no real end in sight.  One young man and two young women my age dead, leaving behind young families and countless loved ones.  Cancer claiming yet another precious member of our family.  A shooting in an elementary school, probably not too much different from the one I taught in only 2 years ago. Seriously, so much sorrow and sadness in this world.  I was to the point of being a bit overwhelmed by it all. 

Then, as I took off on my roller blades, this song was the VERY FIRST one that played.  We could make all kinds of arguments about these different tragedies.  "Adoption shouldn't be so hard, I mean there are sooo many babies who need homes" or "If we could only find a cure" or "We really need better gun laws".  I'm not saying that some of those arguments aren't valid; I'm just saying that even if all of those problems were solved this world would still be filled with sorrow.  This world would still be filled with pain.  This world would still be filled with "yuck".  Why?  This. world. is. not. our. home.  Like the song says (go listen to it) "Jesus has overcome, And the grave is overwhelmed, The victory is won He is risen from the dead."  I needed that reminder.  I needed to be reminded that Jesus has won the victory over sin and all the sorrow in this world.

1Corinthians 15:55-57 "Oh death, where is your victory?  Oh death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"

My time roller blading ended with this song. These lyrics brought me to tears. 

"Higher than the mountains that I face
Stronger than the power of the grave
Constant through the trial and the change
One thing remains
One thing remains

Your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me  [ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsty.com/jesus-culture-one-thing-remains-lyrics.html ]
On and one and on and on it goes
It overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I never ever have to be afraid
One thing remains."

I am so thankful for His love.  So thankful that it never fails.  In the face of the fear of our adoption never coming to an end.  In the face of the sorrow for my friends and family who are dealing with loss.  In the face of evil that is senseless killings.  This one thing remains.  "Your love never fails it never gives up it never runs out on me."  That love is the answer to the questions that these trials bring.

Romans 5:8 "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Adoption Update and some pretty awesome shirts.

We got some news last week that we have been waiting for for almost two years. Our agency notified us that there is a little girl in DRC who is now a Mattingly! Wow! What a journey we have been through so far. Here is a recap for those of you who may not know:

---Start with one agency. Wait for well over a year for a referral. No end in sight as far as that wait. Start to hear about and suspect some corruptness within that agency. Find an agency with a waiting child list. Switch to that agency. Get a referral for a little 11 month old girl almost immediately. Wait seven months only to hear that she actually had family come forward who wanted her. Cry, grieve, pray, and wait to see if it was in fact family that wanted her and not someone else. Get a phone call that the little girl did in fact have loving family that had been looking for her. Cry some more. Overwhelmed by peace in God's sovereign plan. Get word of another little girl who is a true orphan who needs a home. Accept that referral, she was then five months old. Two months later here we are! We now know who Lydia is and we can't WAIT to kiss all over her sweet cheeks!--

I have a couple whole other posts started about things we have learned through this journey and how this journey has changed our faith and grown our love for Jesus, but those posts are for another day. Today we just wanted to rejoice with you! I also wanted to let you know that we will be doing a long sleeved shirt fundraiser for the next couple of weeks. We will be taking orders so if you'd like one let me know your details! The adult shirts will be long sleeved and are $25. The kiddo's only come in short sleeve and are $20. If you'd like one just look me up on facebook or shoot me an email! lara.mattingly81@gmail.com

Thanks so much for walking this wonderful journey alongside us!

Free Greeting Card Deal!

Still card shopping?

Have you gotten your Christmas cards yet? Here is another great site! Treat is Shutterfly’s exciting new greeting card brand that makes it easy for people to create and send one-of-a-kind greeting cards. Treat cards are perfect for holidays, birthdays, congrats, thank yous and every occasion in between. It’s crazy fun. It’s super easy. And it’s totally personal.

And today only you can create and send a totally personalized greeting card from Treat for FREE. Whether saying thanks for Thanksgiving, wishing a best friend a holiday birthday, or simply sharing the holiday cheer with a just because card, Treat lets you create a one-of-a-kind card that is sure to impress. Just use the code TREATBLOGR! Then enjoy the fact that you just made the recipient of the card smile really big right before Thanksgiving!

Are you planning Christmas Cards??

Are you planning on sending Christmas Cards this year?  It's hard to believe it's already time to start thinking about Christmas!  I've been picking pictures today for our Christmas Cards and I love the options that tinyprints has!  Seriously LOVE THEM!!!  So if you are looking for some great quality cards to send to friends and family this year then you will most definitely want to check out their special offers page http://www.tinyprints.com/promo/tiny-prints-coupon-codes-promotions.htm!!  Oh I can't wait to see ours!  And seriously when you have awesome pictures like this one:

why wouldn't you want to share!!?? 

**This is a sponsored post from Tiny Prints.

Adoption Update and Cards for a Cause

In my last post I mentioned that our agency thought they might have another referral for us. They did in fact get us a new referral very quickly and while it was bittersweet knowing that we will forever love one little girl we'll never know, we are so thankful for God's mercy in giving us a new little face to pray for and hopefully call our own. We accepted a referral for a sweet little five month old girl on October first. The timeline from here is estimated at 6 months. We will of course be praying for everything to move crazy quick and would invite you to do the same. :-). Basically, now we wait to pass court (again) and for our appeal period to end which would make this little sweetie officially our Lydia.

For now we have a super exciting fundraiser!! As you all know I am a consultant for Usborne Books and More. What you may not know is we have a really wonderful fundraiser called Cards for a Cause. Basically you have the choice of two different sets of adorable cards. There are 30 cards in each box and each box is only $30!! One dollar a card!!! With each box you purchase you are helping fund not only our matching grant, but my sister's family's matching grant as well!! I do believe that is a win-win folks!! Interested?! Let me know on here or better yet check it out on my facebook! Our goal is to sell at least 50 boxes! Please help is meet that goal and share this with as many friends as possible! Thanks!!!

Heartache, adoption hiccups, and hope in God

We have been in an adoption whirlwind of sorts. You see, two weeks ago we received word from our agency that the little girl that we got a referral on in February actually had family in Congo who objected to our adoption judgement. Our agency wasn't sure about the validity of it, but yesterday we got a phone call from our agency saying that the little girl that we've been calling Lydia was no longer an orphan, she was with her family in Africa.

So there you have it. Adoption is hard, but at the same time it is glorious. You see adoption is the gospel. Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!". We have been reminded so many times in this journey about the depth of Jesus' love for us. And while we are heartbroken that the little sweet face we've been looking at for 8 months is not our Lydia, we have peace and hope in God's perfect plan for our family. We know that He will help us to love the next little girl that he gives us a picture of and prayerfully brings home to us. And just as we cling to His words in John 14:18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." about the day we will see Him face to face, we also cling to those words for our Lydia. We will come to you sweet girl.

So what's next for us? We will keep perusing our Lydia just as Jesus pursued us. Will it be hard? Yes. Will there be more heartache? Maybe. Waiting? Definitely. We will speak to our agency coordinator on Monday about another little girl that is waiting in Africa. We will continue to work on getting our Lifesong grant matched to finish funding our adoption. Most of all we will pray. We will pray for Lydia. We will pray for hearts to be stirred to care for orphans. We will pray for our story to bring glory to His great name. The one who gave it all so we could be "children of God." We will enjoy this sweet little one He has already entrusted us with:

And wait with excitement to see His plan for our little Lydia.

Huge Praise: Matching Grant and how you can help!

Lifesong and our church's orphan care ministry is partnering with us by offering us a $3000 matching grant. Here is the text for the letter with details on how you can help us get every dollar matched which would mean $6000 toward costs associated with our adoption and getting our sweet baby girl home. That would put this adoption very close to being fully funded. Our God is big people!! (PS. I'm going to try to not be a so terrible blogger in the near future)

Dear Family and Friends,

Most of you are aware that about a year and a half ago we began a journey to answer God’s call to care for the fatherless through adoption. We began the process to adopt a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo in February of 2011. You may also be aware that a little over five months ago we finally got to see the face of the child we have been perusing all this time. Our agency has advised us not to put our sweet Lydia’s picture in print, but trust us when we say she is beyond precious!! In the pictures we’ve seen she even has the same serious face that her big sister Lylah is so well known for! Right now we are waiting for documents to clear so that we can begin the process of applying for her visa and scheduling embassy appointments. We are getting so close and are prayerful that God would move in mighty ways to bring Lydia home even by Christmas.

Some of you might be wondering what prompted us to adopt. Well, primarily, we see that God calls us to care for orphans. “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction” James 1:27. We recognized that for our family one way we could care for orphans was to adopt one into our family. We know that God loves Lydia and all other orphans around the world. His desire is for them to be cared for. We have a loving home ready to adopt, love, and care for Lydia and prayerfully one day she will see her need to be adopted into an eternal family through Jesus Christ.

The biggest challenge for adopting families, ourselves included, is finding the finances to make an adoption happen. The estimated total cost of our adoption is over $25,000. This cost covers adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel expenses, attorney fees, and funds to care for Lydia while she is still living away from us. We certainly don’t have $25,000 lying around, but God is faithful and has proven it over and over. By His grace and the generosity of friends and family we’ve been able to pay the initial $15,000! We appreciate you and the way you have been involved in our journey thus far. We would like to ask you to pray and consider continuing on with us as we seek to bring our little lady home. There are two specific ways you can help:

1. Prayer-Please pray that God would protect and provide for Lydia in the DRC until we are able to bring her home. Pray that the remaining steps of our process would be smooth and without problem. Begin to pray for Lydia’s transition to us and for our transition to a family of four. Ultimately pray that God will give us wisdom to raise the children He is entrusting us with and that Lydia (and Lylah) would come to know Jesus as their Savior.

2. Financial Support- Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $10,000 in adoption expenses to bring Lydia home. Lifesong partnering with our church Living Hope has graciously given us a Matching Grant of $3,000 to help bring Lydia home!

If you would like to be a part of God’s work in giving Lydia a family and in turn exposing her to the gospel as a part of her daily life, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and October 31st to the address below. Lifesong is a trusted organization administering the funds on Lydia’s behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of the funds received.

1. Please make checks payable to: Lifesong. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “Mattingly #2986 adoption” in the memo section of your check. (Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use).

2. Mail checks to : Lifesong for Orphans Attn: Mattingly#2986 PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford St. Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you so much for investing in the Kingdom through prayers and finances-we pray that this journey will bring much glory to God! We will continue to update about our process and by all means stop us and ask to see Lydia’s picture! We love to show her sweetness to those who love her already just as we do!

In Christ Alone, Nathan, Lara, and Lylah

Lylah's third birthday party

******i thought I had already posted this but alas, just found it in my drafts! Happy flashback to summer! ;-)


As some of you may or may not have figured out I'm sort of having bloggers block. So with that being said I'm not sure how often I'll be blogging but I did know I wanted to remember Lylah's third birthday details. I had planned to have a mermaid party until one morning she came into the bathroom as I was getting ready and told me " mama, I want to have a Dr. Seuss 'birtay' and I want to wear this skirt (a Dr.Seuss skirt mom had gotten her last year) but I still want a Tiona dolly.". Now if you know anything about me you know I can handle a Dr. Seuss birthday! I didn't go crazy with it though. Just a banner, some stuffed animals my friend (who has a mutual love for all things Seuss) let us borrow, some photo booth props, and streamers and balloons. I thing it created the perfect setting for this super sweet picture!

Lylah had a ball at the party! The weather looked questionable for a but again (like last year) but it turned out to be a great day! Lylah swam with her friends and family until presents were opened and then she was glued to them. Speaking of presents we had talked all week about sowing thankfulness. Lylah had decided that it would show thanks to say "I love it, I love it" I ran with that and we practiced all week long. I'm weird I know. She remembered what we talked about as she was opening gifts but lets just say she sounded a bit robotic! It was really cute though!

And this is how she ate her cake! Too funny! It was a super sweet day celebrating a super sweet girl!

Impromptu Lightening Bug Catching

Tonight we had a great time doing something that I hope you get a chance to do this summer too...catching lightening bugs!! Lylah held the jar while mommy and daddy ran around like crazy people trying to catch each lightening bug she pointed out!! We filled her jar and came inside to turn out all the lights and watch the bugs flashing. Lylah loved it and actually so did I!!! We talked about how awesome it is that God created a bug that lights up at night! We also told her how we are to be lights of the world. We watched the bugs some more and actually went out and caught MORE!

Nathan put Lylah to bed (with her jar on the chair next to the bed) and he said we need to catch lightening bugs every night because Lylah was super sweet. She even asked to pray for me which she NEVER does!!! She talked to her lightening bugs for almost 40 minutes!! Summer memories. Love it :)

Princess Tea Party

We have the best library ever. We REALLY have the best librarian ever! She put together the sweetest little princess tea party for the girls on Saturday. Now our little lady is such a funny mixture of totally girly and adventure lovin' girl. Well let's just say that the tea party was super fun for the girly side of Lylah. Here are just a few pictures of our fun:

Thankfully the frog didn't turn into a prince :). We aren't going to be ready for that for a long time!!

Camping out

On Memorial Day weekend we finally got a chance to go camping. You see we tried going camping with Lylah for the first time in the fall, but couldn't find our tent, we borrowed one from our neighbors and it broke when we were trying to set it up :(

So we got a new tent for Christmas and finally had a night that was free and was good weather wise. Lylah was super excited about the tent and her sleeping bag!! When we got to the camp site we immediately ate lunch. Lylah was not happy about the flies which made me think we were for sure going to have to turn around and leave. Thankfully she calmed down and got to work "helping" daddy set up the tent. Like I said she was very excited about the tent so as soon as it was up she was ready to get in her sleeping bag!!

After playing around the site for a bit we went down to the lake to swim. She had some arm floats and another little float. We all had a great time swimming!! The water was perfect!!!

Nathan's uncle lives close to the lake so we went to his house for a cookout that evening. It was a great visit and incredible food, but sadly I didn't get any pictures :(

We got back to the site in time for Nathan to work on getting the fire going. We had the perfect camping evening. We roasted marshmallows and played games. We even got Lylah some glow sticks which were a big hit!!

When it came time for bed I reminding Nathan that I was sure we wouldn't be actually sleeping for a while. We all three got into the tent and the craziest thing happened....Lylah went right to sleep!! She slept until 7:30 the next morning!! Perfect camping trip with our little family!!!

A Year Later

You may remember that about a year ago I left my job teaching and started a new job of being a full time mommy and wife. You may also remember that decision was a huge step of faith for our family as Nathan was self employed. Our plan was to look around to find him a different job ASAP. We needed (so we thought) a steady, predictable cash flow to make it with me not working. Well, I'm so thankful that God knows exactly where I need to grow because it was His plan that Nathan would continue to be self employed for the whole "school year". Talk about taking the act of provision out of our hands!! There were weeks without work, there were weeks with lots of work, there was a new friendship made that provided work that otherwise would not had happened. He who calls you is faithful. Our bills were always paid, our tummies were always full, we even still had some extras. This year has been so humbling as things didn't go as we planned, but we were still taken care of. Last week, Nathan started a new job. We are beyond words thankful!! He will be working full time and also have benefits. This job came along in God's perfect time. He knew that we both needed to learn to trust Him fully for our provision, so He waited to bring that job. I'm so glad He did. Now, we still won't be living a life of luxury! We don't want that life anyway! We will continue to need to budget well and be wise with our spending, we will just know how much we have to budget. We definitely won't forget who is the one really meeting our needs each and everyday!

Adoption Update Alert!!

We got word last week that our dossier (AKA: big ole stack of papers important for the completion of our adoption) was in the DRC!!! Woooowhooooo!!! We are super excited for this big step!! Our agency estimates the wait time from here to be 4-6 months!! Now, we know adoption is a roller coaster and timelines don't always go as expected, but would you join us in praying that the timeframe would be close to this?? Lylah is asking more and more questions about Lydia. Tonight while I was rocking her she said, "Mommy, Lydia is going to sleep in my pack in play and I'm going to sleep in a big girl bed. I don't think you can rock her.". I explained to Lylah that Lydia may want to be rocked too and asked her if she thought I could rock them both at the same time. Her reply, "oh that's a good idea. After we are finished rocking can I kiss her?". She also asked recently, "Mommy, will Lydia be scared?". Deep question from my little thinker!! I told her that yes Lydia would probably be a little scared because she has never seen us before. Lylah of course had a solution to that problem. "I'll just tickler her mommy, then she'll be happy!". Oh sweet Lydia we can't WAIT for you to get home so we can kiss and tickle you!!!

Sometimes

Sometimes as a mom, you have to take a break from all the teaching, all the discipline, all the messes, and all the "am I doing this right" feelings.

Sometimes you just have to let loose...

Stop being so rational.....

And enjoy the moments....

Of being a mom.

I needed that afternoon of laughter between two buddies more than I realized. I needed a reminder that part of being a mom is not taking yourself too seriously. Oh what a joy it was to see these two girls be silly!!

Down on the farm

Monday we went with some other mama's to tour Chaney's farm. First of all, if you haven't taken your child to one of Mr. Chaney's presentations then that needs to make your summer bucket list! He loves what he does and it really does come through in his presentation!! I was always impressed when he could hold my kindergarten classes attention, but I was even more impressed when he held a rather large group of lil bits (who were mostly 3 and under) attention!! Most of them weren't even sitting with their mommies!!!

Anyway, we had loads of fun!! Lylah loves cows probably thanks to lots of trips to Uncle Kenny's farm. Her favorite part of the day was the baby calf, Bambi. She also got a big kick out of Mr. Chaney trying to squirt he with milk from Miss Glimmer the Cow's udder!! I loved getting to catch up with some of my best mom buddies and even though I did manage to lock my keys in the trunk it was a beautiful day so the wait for AAA wasn't bad at all!!! Here are some pics of our fun!!

Blurry getting squirted picture :)

Petting Miss Glimmer with her buddy Brady and cousin Bella.

Kisses from Bambi the calf!!

Tractor, tractor :)

Hugs from Mr. Chaney. So sweet.

Blue Mooooon ice cream! Yummy!!!

And some fun on the playground!

An impromptu taste of Barren County.

Last Friday we needed to go out to Nathan's uncle's farm in Barren County. It ended up being a delightful evening of enjoying some local businesses in the area!!! First we stopped by the Berry Patch. The Berry Patch actually is the farm right next to Uncle Kenny's so we know the family. After choosing a basket of strawberries we visited for a bit. They were getting ready for their open house and had this huge flower basket as a fun contest!!

How much do you think it weighed?! Lylah even got to help one of the girls on the farm with the chicken chores! She loved that!!! Oh, and the strawberries were so yummy that some of them did not make it home :)

After that we headed over to Kenny's Farmhouse Cheese. We bought some yummy Tomato Basil cheese, chatted with Aunt Beverly, played with their dog and checked out the cows and their awesome new cheese shop that is being built! After that we headed to...

This bakery/restaurant used to be right up the road from Kenny's, but they moved closer to town. It seemed to be a good choice! The place was hoppin' even though we didn't get there until 6:45. They have the yummiest homemade pizza EVER!!!!!

We ended our meal with some super yummy cookies!!!!

Soooo, if you are ever in the Barren County area stop by any of these great places for a treat!!!