I was recently looking at this blog and realized it had been a long time since we have posted anything ... too long of a time! So, here I am with a Washburn Family update.
Life has been really busy ... more so than normal. I will kinda give an overall update from the beginning of the year. I have heard that pictures are worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures ... maybe I will not have to type as much :) Also, at the very end there are a few videos from the last few months.
Here are portraits of Abigail, Samuel and Lydia ... and the last picture is of Sam, Lydia and Sam's dog Golani in the woods. I am so blessed with such sweet, beautiful (and handsome) siblings!
In the beginning of March we went on a puppy delivery trip for our BEAGLIERS. Due to how busy my brother Tommy was with work, he was not able to come with us which was sad :( But he was working with one of his best friends, so I think he pulled through it fine and they had a blast, I believe :)
We dropped off two puppies in West Virginia and then we got a hotel in Pittsburgh PA for the night. In the morning, a person from another state met us at the hotel and got a puppy, and then we walked along the waterfront in the city and around the Pittsburgh Pirates Stadium. It was rather cold, but we had a good time ... it was our first time (us children) in Pittsburgh!
The top row of pics are of a church on a hill and the waterfront ... and the buildings. The next row is of the children by the statue of Bill Mazeroski (a baseball player). And the last row, well, the pictures can speak for themselves!
Below on the top row: my beautiful older sisters, Hannah and Ruthie.
Bottom row: Sam "working out" at the gym in our hotel, and Ima on the computer holding my sweet little puppy Opie, well, Opie is not mine anymore ... I sold him!
After PA, we drove to New Jersey and dropped off another puppy. Then we drove down to Dover DE where my grandmother lives. We call my grandmother Babci because that is Polish for grandmother ... and she is Polish; we are half Polish.
Top row: Hannah, Ruthie and Sarah with Babci ... the dogs are Ernest T (a Beaglier) and Babci's baby girl Daisy (a Cavachon).
Second row: Abigail, Samuel and Lydia with Babci and Daisy.
Third row: Babci was teaching the girls how to crochet and knit and Sam was building something, I am not quite sure what :)
We went to the beach one day! We love the ocean :) We always try and go to it when we are at my grandmother's house because we do not have a beach in TN. The day we went was a little cold, but that did not change how beautiful it was!
Here are the four oldest girls. The top row is Ruthie and Hannah, and the bottom row is me (Sarah) and Abigail.
The two youngsters ... Lydia and Samuel :) The children love feeding the seagulls ....
.... and Abigail loves catching them too! For the last three years, each time we go to the beach she has caught a seagull. And Lydia likes collecting shells. We love walking on the beach! Us children (well, those of us there) tried to get a picture but it was kinda hard to do with the wind, sand and sun in our eyes :)
Have you ever eaten at Grotto's Pizza? Whenever we are at the beach we eat Grottos. Yummm .... I'm getting hungry! It was funny though because they brought out these children's coloring pages for the younger ones, but everyone started playing around and most people (even the older ones) colored and played games until the food came! The next pic is of Sam, and then there is one of me with my puppy. He loved the sand and he ran after me while I walked.
First picture, Babci with some of her grandchildren. Next, us children in front of the Washington Monument. By the way, did you know that the Monument is under construction because an earthquake "damaged" it a little in 2011?
Below is Sophie (our little house dog who is a Bichon) with her daughter Daisy (who is a Cavachon) and then Hannah with Shadow - a puppy from one of the litters she raised but he now belongs to my Uncle Ricky.
I do not know how many of you know this, but our family has a dog breeding business. It is called HAPPY HILL PUPS and we breed Labradors, Cotons, Beagliers and Cavachons. We have been breeding for many years. So far this year we had a litter of Beagliers (shown below). Also, while making a HHP collage, I had to add one of little Sophie!
Oh, I love this picture! What beautiful flowers! Abigail made the bouquets.
Recently we went to a place just a few minutes down the road from us where we had never gone before. It is called Old Stone Fort State Park. It is not a big park, but there is a river that runs through there and it is really pretty. Anyway, we walked around there one day and enjoyed hearing the river flowing.
We tried to get a family picture but it did not turn out as we were hoping, you can barely see Tommy and Ruthie. The second picture is Abba and Abigail, and then Abba and me.
Lydia, Samuel, Tommy and Hannah.
OK, we have this friend who is kinda like a brother to us and his name is Clinton. A year before we met Clinton, we met another girl named Sharon. Sharon lived with her family in a state far away :) After a lot of prayer from my parents (and us children) and some other close friends, my parents "introduced" Clinton to Sharon and her family. LONG story short, they started courting, then they got betrothed and last month they got married! I am so glad to have Sharon as a "sister" now :) Everything was so beautiful and we are so happy for this new couple!
Clinton and Sharon wanted to have a fruit tree at their wedding so Abigail offered to make them several. She made a "test tree" for our Purim party and the pictures from that are on the first row. The second row are pictures from the wedding. At the wedding a lot of people helped put the tree together (THANK YOU to those who helped), but Abigail was the one who instructed everyone and she did a wonderful job!
Here we are getting ready for the wedding and setting up. Also, giving the bride one last hug before she joins her husband (not that we can't hug now that she's married!) The wedding was held at the Noah Community Center about thirty minutes away from us in Beachgrove TN.
My dad performed the ceremony with the help of Clinton and Sharon's fathers. Tommy and Hannah played a song and Abigail sang it when Sharon walked down the aisle. It was actually a song that Sharon had written.
The first row of pictures got a little out of place ... but they are all at the wedding :) The second pic was of them praying before they started, and the third was when Sharon circled Clinton. I think the other pictures can speak for themselves!
Some of my siblings sang a song for Clinton and Sharon called Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim. We also did a good bit of dancing! On the bottom row is our DJ, Samuel :) And last is Hannah, Sarah and Abigail with one of the bride's sister, Sarah.
We have a good friend who we call Uncle Duane and he helped out with the song. Next ... our beautiful parents :) And some more dancing.
OK, so three of these pictures are from the night after the wedding ... but that picture of the girls doing the dishes ... how did that get in there ??? :) That was from the morning of the wedding. Have you ever washed dishes with the bride on the day of her wedding ??? Well, if not, let me tell you one thing ... it is not boring! :) But back to the other picture, we stayed up late, some people played Spoons (a game) and others just hung out. We also watched the bombing that happened in Boston.
At the end of April, our family went to GA for the weekend. There is a family down there (the Smiths) and they were holding a camp-meeting, we stayed at a hotel though! The Smiths are working on a homeschooling curriculum called the Digital Tutor/E6-4. You can visit their website HERE! It is pretty neat what they are doing. My sister Hannah was asked to do some lessons which she went down and had filmed last year.
We had a nice home-y feeling hotel! By the way ... the children loved staying up late swimming! And the moon picture was not actually taken in GA, we got that one here at our house.
We met at a community center and a few times we were early so we had fun hanging out! After we got home I noticed that they got individual pictures of all of the children except for me! Oh well ... there is one with me and my daddy :) It was a really cute county place.
The Heavenly Father really blessed us and we had a wonderful time in GA! The Smiths were a really sweet family and we had great times of praise and worship and fellowshipping, dancing ... the list could go on and on. THANK YOU Smith family! Below are some jamming sections and then there are pictures of Lydia, Ruthie and Bethany, and then Lydia and Sitara.
And here are some random pictures from home! A friend got the picture of the flowers (but they are at our house), then my parents going for a walk ... Tommy weed-eating, and Abigail and Lydia dressed up like two Polish girls ... cute!
Besides company, traveling and dogs, what else have we been doing, you may ask. Well, us girls have started another home business where we sell Israeli tichels (head coverings). We buy them in bulk from a wholesaler and then we sell them on our WEBSITE. We also recently put out our 21st copy of SHINING STARS MAGAZINE! And another thing we did was we made maple syrup this year. We are not doing that right now though because the season is over.
Life is busy for all of us, but in the busyness, may we never forget Jerusalem. Psalm 137:5-6 says, "If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy." Also, our Almighty God said in Genesis 12:3, "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." And Psalm 122:6 says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May those who love you be secure."
Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful week!
