Thursday, August 31, 2017

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Tuesday!

Rehearsal! Gathering the (highly energetic and incredibly creative) wedding party for instructions.
Marvelous Grooms and their very sweet Grandmother!
Littles, littles, littles. Love them all!!
Details. There are JUST a few! Ha!
The perfect place for everything is out there somewhere!! :)
Getting ready to practice with Daddy. 
Mothers' scheduled time to CRY keeps getting put on the next list but the tissues are ready!
Graceful exits. Very important! :)
Lindsay...still baking wedding cakes in the kitchen!
Can you smell this? Amazing. Wonderful. Samples accepted. :) 
So happy to have our Grandparents in town! 
They made the trek from Berlin and got in last night in time for ANOTHER delightful brunch. 
Love their missionary stories and sweet fellowship.
Aunt Pandy's Box of Essential Goodies for Every Floral Opportunity.  
Tags. You can never have enough tags?!
Our new favorite baking girl.
Bowers boys absolutely adore Aunt Pandy!
Some call it Kleenex. We call it a NECESSITY  for every purse and pocket!
Counting the hugs and kisses, walks and talks, coffee stops and HOURS!
Incredibly thankful for time together, singing and praying together, and for all the Lord is doing. :) 

Monday, August 28, 2017

Favorites from Sunday and Monday


Sunday morning this nice guy just showed up for breakfast. :)
Gathered our families after church to discuss wedding details and practice singing together. 
So many opinions. So little time! Ha!
Very adorable groomsmen discussing the order of events.
Love our church and our Pastor and the FRONT ROW! Very good for listening skills. 
The Lord sent our dear friend Lindsay to town to cook, keep the lists going
and keep the brides smiling! 
Loved and encouraged by notes from across the country.
Daddy and Chapman beautifying the great outdoors one table at a time.
Love our meals together here and look forward
 to family arriving from 'round the globe on Tuesday! 
Charlie's tomatoes are amazing! Chicken on the grill by Carver.
Trying to improve these life skills as we give away our
our lovely and faithful kitchen managers. 
The beauty of having a mechanic in the family is that ovens get fixed, too! Blessed indeed.
Crosby's Happy Bag assembly line.
Protein, chocolate and other goodies help EVERYONE smile more sweetly. 
Glorious day of making granola, listening to Daddy's stories,
fantastic leafy greens, Bible time, brunch menus, chocolate,
shopping lists, orders on Amazon and praising the
Lord for so many sweet blessings.
If all goes well we hope to send pictures tomorrow. :)     

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Countdown to the Double!

One year ago we had no idea THIS would be our current family project!
It has been so very sweet to walk with our dear ones through this amazing season of life.
These are little snapshots from the past week or two of preparations. 
 
Beautifying and painting at the Bontrager Farm.  Brothers are prime recruits. :)
Green smoothies by the half gallon. Any guesses who can drink this entire thing?
Blessings and thank you notes abound! Amazed by the kindness of so many sweet friends.
Somewhere between wedding list, reception list, home and car and honeymoon and vows and guests and flowers and menu lists, Charlie volunteered as chauffeur and squeezed in a charming sibling lunch! 
Crosby Virginia gets the award for Most Adorable Toothless Maid of Honor.
Lord willing, we get to keep one girl here for a few more years. Whew!
Fine tuning those cooking skills. Nice to have an assistant. :) 
Love is in the air AND in the concrete!! Carson made this for Lina. 
This Sunday lunch thing is serious business. :)
 Note the pristine watermelon center and the rather wild coleslaw corner. Ha!
We may be single handedly keeping Amazon in business.
When you live way out in the country, PRIME means a lot! :) 
Dashed in the store after a dress fitting with Carolina and ran into Cassidy who was doing her own errands! We all ended up converging for a conference in the very cute dish section. 
 40 cases of water bottles heading home for de-labeling and ICE.
Every once in awhile you just gotta show up at church in the same thing! 
Scene by the front door these days: collection of boxes, bags, purses, samples and STUFF!
'Tis a brave soul! Daddy has been our family barber for years and rarely misses.
 Ha. No pressure. :)
Our brides! For those of you who may not know, Joshua and Carson's older brother Mitchell is getting married one day later. This is Mitchell's beautiful Bryn, and a shower for the three Mrs. Bontrager's was a hoot. :)  
Very fun shower hosted by the Bontrager Aunties.  
Cassidy's noteworthy assistant was quite thrilled to help in exchange for this!
God has been so faithful to send Cass and Lina fantastic finds at
consignment and thrift stores. This day there was practically
a whole house on the floor! 
Shower hosted by the dear ladies from church. Pink tool kits! SOOOOO much fun!
Sisters and love and joyful things for happy homes!
Bridesmaids practicing hair on the way to church. :)
One more marvelous thing about adding new sons to the mix is double dates.
So much fun to visit over dinner, lunch, breakfast or coffee!
One of Daddy's highlights has been "talking breakfasts" with
Josh and Carson MANY early mornings this year.
Thankful for our house and especially the PORCH!
 It has been our gathering place all summer for meals and fellowship.
 Sometimes that love in your heart just overflows! 
Oh boy. Sometimes the fridge does, too!
Chap and Campbell in the removal and restoration business.  
2 brides plus 2 grooms equals fabulous executive meetings on the fly.
This is not you average boardroom. :)
Thankfully they have been working out details together for years.
Everybody in the same place for a family brunch, family workday and a family walk and bike ride.
Wahoo! So happy to be together as this is a LITTLE hard to come by these days! 
 Decided we better also grab a family picture.
 These are the times that try men's souls?! 
If we could just all fit on the swing!!
The duck paddling wildly under the water while trying be calm on top HAS come to mind lately, but the Lord was good and it only took us 1 hour instead of 5! Ha. Improving as the years go by. 
Thankful, thankful, thankful for God's faithfulness to each of us.
Praying for the many details of the next few days.
Would love for you to join us in asking the Lord for peace, rest, order, good weather and stretched time.
May God be glorified every step of the way.