Celebration at the Park

Pearl had her first day of dog training class Saturday, and to celebrate that and her birthday we met some friends and relatives at a park for some ice cream and frisbee!!! Make sure to go read about the class at Pearl's blog mydoggyfriend.wordpress.com!

FSDS Service Dog Training class

The celebratory group!

Adorable nephew makes an adorable selfie!<3

Frisbee!

Ice Cream!

 Super grateful for friends, family, ice cream, and God's love. What are you thankful for this week?

This Goofy Family

Maricopa County Summer Reading Program + Glendale Library Summer Reading Program= LOTS and LOTS of reading!

Silly doggy thinks the baby pool is for her! <3 

Kate's writing hideout behind the couch

Dollhouse people out to dry after a dunk in the pool. (113 degree weather nowadays!) 

Yup, a tarped Foosball table. Glorious surprise thunderstorms keep us on our toes! :)

"Shhh!" A surprise birthday party for a friend was awesome fun! It was so hard to keep 47 people quiet while the birthday-girl was upstairs sewing with her friend, and we were decorating downstairs. Imagine all the held back laughter! ; )

Goofy Bea! 

After a scrumptious pot-luck dinner, games commenced--including dressing up bible times... 

and Guesstures! (a.k.a charades) 

Thanks to some awesome friends who lent us their minivan while our 15 passenger was out of commission.

Thrift stores!!! 

Sweet, happy-go-lucky pup!

Doctor's office

Talking on the phone with scrumptious--I mean, adorable--nephews!! 

 Silly selfies on the way to church...

 And on the way home. :P (See? It's our van! Yay!! Thanks so much, Mr. W, for fixing it!!!) 

 Little soap makers!

Kate's beautiful creations.

A tent made out of sheets appeared across the gap between the couch back and the window to the sun room.

 

Ella decided its luscious comfy-ness was made especially for her darling highness! 

 
Aunt Lori gave us a puppet theater!!! (Thank you, Auntie! We love it!)

And that about sums up what the Willisters have been up to! 

Death to a Pig

I know you are probably wondering what this could be about?! It's really a funny story. Years back we bought a pig. Not a real live, squealing pig. A cute, stuffed, pink pig. It sat upright on its little tail and its ears poked up vigilantly. And of course you've got to sew a plastic gold ring to its snout, and set it up on a shelf  next to the bathroom mirror!

"As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion."(Proverbs 11:22, NKJV)

As we've moved from house to house we've always carried her with us as a reminder. Then the dog found her. She grabbed its leg in her mouth and whipped it around, playing tug-o-war, and ripping viciously at its little curly tail. We all agreed it was hers to keep. Not long later, Aimee found a plastic eyeball, the pig gutted and in bits. And so passes the pig...righteously judged.

A Helping Hand

Over the past few months God has given us many family ministry opportunities.

One was the chance to help a single mother with her business of beading therapeutic necklaces.

 We've had many great conversations while beading, and beading, and beading. And then beading some more.

 Even the littlest kids help!

Our Aunt Lori came by with a box full of stuffed animals and another of tote bags. She explained that a ladies' sewing club made the bags for children in the foster care system who usually have to carry their few belongings from home to home in a black trash bag. Now when they get sent to a foster home a stuffed animal, nestled on a color-coordinated bag, is waiting on their bed.

 We made short work (if you can even call it work) of matching up the tote bags with the numerous cute animals and rubber-banding them in place.

 We paired tons!

A few of our favorites:

Puppy dog on a sport patterned bag for a boy

 Pastel pig

 Camo koala bear

 A curious looking squirrel peaking out of a vintage travel-themed bag.

It was a privilege to help spread God's love for people in small ways. 

Surprise!

 We were blessed to find a beautiful Australian Shepherd/Border Collie dog on Craigslist. Only three of us knew we were going to get her. On Saturday we met the people who were selling her.

 

 

On the way home! So happy!

 Everyone at home was surprised and adored her.

 She found a place to sleep by the couch.

 We might call her Cinderella, Ella for short.

She is so mannerly, sweet, and loves everyone!

Random Stuff From Our Week

Conquering those nasty weeds!



His sweet little cheerleader



The faithful scholars

Our favorite college student



We have been loving our library! There are way to many books in the house!

A Hilarious Quote: 

"Behold, I have come to torture you! I have to clean out the fridge
so Josh Groban is going to do it with me."

Pie, glorious pie!



He studied his manual well, and got his driver's permit just like his Uncle!



Awwww!



Just like the old days!



You can just tell who won, can't you?



Muti-generational Foosball, passing it down through the ages! : )



Boys against girls



The victorious winner!

A Hilarious Quote:
“Proving God exists is not so hard, people! I just proved it with the click of a button! I searched “God”, and He is everywhere!!!!! He’s even on Facebook! And Wikipedia!!”
 



"Cheese"



Swinging together!



Silly Missy!



Fun on the scooters!



Visiting the neighbor's horse over the fence



"Wow!!! Hi horsey!"



He loves his sand!

A Hilarious Quote:
"We're cool, we just forget it sometimes."
***

"Actually, put it this way: God has given us the gifts and opportunities
 to be very cool and do wonderful things for Him, but sometimes we forget."



Silly boy!



Pastor snacks: the fuel for those awesome sermons



Getting ready for the Men's Prayer Advance. Now that's nice camping!

Listen to our two favorite talks here:
Faithful to Your Wife

Faithful in Prayer



Of course you have to try it out



Apparently the camera flash is blinding in the dark!



The perfect babysitting bench, and he loved it!

And that was our week! Comment below with your week; we'd love to hear!
Check back on Monday for another post!