October 22- A New Cowboy on the Place

Our neighbor, Mr. Timmons gave Kacy a horse. We had been wanting a horse to train into a kid horse for quite a while, but we didn't want to buy from auction because of the possible diseases that they carry. This horse was boarding at Mr. Timmons for a couple of months, but wasn't being taken care of by its owner. To make a long story short, Mr. Timmons ended up with a 4 year old Quarter Horse/Thoroughbred stud for free. When we told him what we were planning, he said that if we could take the horse off of his hands we could have him. He is very gentle and loves attention. We named him Cowboy. He has never been ridden, but I think that he had a good raising for a good part of his life.

October 18-19 - Trip to Oklahoma

Last month some very good friends of ours,  the Deckers, who live in Oklahoma, hosted a dance for their daughter's birthday.We were unable to go at that point. So mamma and Mrs. Decker have been planning a trip up there to see them and have a dance with some of their friends. We have been looking forward to going for a long time. 

Janessa, Sarah Kathryn, and Riley are talking before the dance started

The Deckers have a beautiful, concrete patio where we had the dance. It was the perfect size for our party.

Starting the Posties Jig....the favorite.

 Unfortunately we didn't get very many good pictures of the dance because the lighting was strange. The next morning we all hung around, played, and relaxed until after lunch. Everyone went home after lunch.

Daddy, Mr. Decker, and Mrs. Thomas talking around the fire.

These guys have been busy.

 One of the things we love to do when we get together with the Deckers ( and now the Thomas family as well) is play the card game "Spoons". We played for quite a while before breakfast. Then after breakfast we played two games of Capture the Flag.

Thank you so much Deckers for your kind hospitality and a wonderful weekend!!!!!

October 13 - David Rives

Janessa found out couple of weeks ago that a creation astronomer was coming to speak in Lubbock. It was organised by Sarah Brugle, who has an excellent creation blog, Click here to check it out. Tonight was his talk. It was amazing!!! He is an excellent speaker and composer. To listen to some of his music and creation proofs on his YouTube Channel here. He talked about the amazing design of the universe. It was based on his book Wonders Without Number. 

Talking about the earth's perfect place in the solar system. If it were a little farther away from the sun it would be too cold for life and if it were any closer we would burn up.

He talked about how our atmosphere is the perfect mixture of chemicals for us to be able to breathe. He compared it to the atmospheres of all the other planets. We are truly made without excuse!

A couple of questions that Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have asked about the evolutionary theory.

This is a video on the incredible creation of the humming bird that Mr. Rives was apart of.

Mr. Rives runs a tv show called "Creation in the 21st Century". He has many guests that come in and talk about their work in the furthering the creation message.

This is the Rives theory of Relativity.

Scientists have estimated the numbers of sand on the earth to be that huge number....

.....and the estimated number of stars is even more than that of the stars.

Talking about the Earth's Geo-magnetic field and how without it we would have fried a long time ago.

We are the only planet that scientists have found that had any liquid water.

Tel me, why do you think the earth has been made by chance over billions of years?

He handed out coffee straws to the crowd and put up a picture of a galaxy. Then he had us to hold the coffee straws at arms length, and look at a place between two stars. He said that when the hubble space telescope took a picture no bigger than the end of a coffee straw this is what it saw. There was thousands of GALAXIES in that tiny area!!!!

After the talk we all went out to a place in the country to do a star watch. Mr Rives came out to answer any questions that we had. And believe me he had a ton to answer. He really knew his stuff!!! Not only did he have answers to our astronomy questions, but he had answers to most any questions we put to him. Thank you so much Mr. Rives!!! If he is ever in your area I would highly suggest going to him. I could write all day about how amazing his proof was against evolution, but everyone needs to see it for your self!

October 10 - Pumpkin Carving Party

Today we were invited to a pumpkin carving party at a friends house. Because we don't celebrate Halloween, most of us had never done this before. It was a lot of fun. They had lots of different options of decorating the pumpkins. Painting, nailing in little pieces of plastic, and the old fashioned idea of using a knife.  

The Pogue kids table.

Mrs. Mary and her adorable nephew, Colton are watching the excitement.

Our wonderful hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Middleton.

October 2 - New Pet

Dad and Zach have been building a back porch for a man that lives in Lubbock today and while they were there Zach saw a rather large turtle crawling across the front yard. The man didn't want it so Zach brought it home for the boys, who happen to be really fond of reptiles. He was named Mr. Turtle. We have a huge horse trough that was used as a lye bath to remove paint a while back, so it is no longer good to water anything. The boys have worked hard to clean it out and make a habitat for reptiles out of it. That is where Mr. turtle's new abode is. Before we put him in there we wanted to see what the dog and cats would do with him. I love Quincy, but she is rather a coward when it comes to turtles. All the turtles we have had in the past, scared her so bad, and I have no idea why. This one was no exception. And one of our nosy cats learned not to be so nosy. 

He's very ugly, but we are all getting very fond of him.

Mr. Turtle in comparison to another turtle that we have, Crush. 

The not-so-nosy cat.

September 28 - Air Soft War

For Janessa, Kacy, Garrett, and Gabe's birthday Zach bought each one of them an airsoft gun. Today we all went out and has a huge air soft war. We had a blast (literally)

Looks like Gabe is out to get someone.

Since we are using his mamma for the war, Banner has learned to stay out of the line of fire and eat as much as he can.

The chickens learned the same lesson, Whoever said chickens were dumb?

Is that not a beautiful sky.

Ok back to the war.

Zach is building a fort.

That's all the pictures of the war, for you see, nobody had time to take pictures as soon as the war was underway. That evening we has family bible study. We are going through the book of Matthew. It's amazing how much you learn about these familiar stories once you really dive deep into them.

Zach is teaching Gabriel leather work.