Out of the mouth of babes

So the other day Nathaniel comes running from outside and says tome,"Can I borrow your camera please?" I say "What would you like to use it for?" He says, " To take pictures of my frogs drying out." I said " Why are they drying out?" He says ever so confidant and proud " We gave them swim lessons and now they are drying off!" Really what was I thinking, Sheesh..dumb question! I handed the camera over and turned around and laughed that it brought tears to my eyes!!! Honestly where do they come up with this stuff!! I am blaming this one on Aunt Tiffany!!!
Frogs keep them entertained all day long!!
Seriously...Is this frog posing??? :)

Say Cheese!

A good day for Gabriel...Thanks you Jesus he has had some past few days that have been hard!

Posed by Junior

Junior decided that he was going to take some really cool pictures for the blog...I suppose sandals and purses just don't do much for him! Here's what he came up with.....

This is Nathaniel and Spencer...ever so serious!

Nathaniel Robert Barrera

Spencer Christian Barrera

Oh yes...skateboarding is a very big hobby here!

We have the coolest skate park up the street.

Nate popping a wheelie!

Ever wonder what inspires a great melody?

I suppose for Nathaniel he is inspired by the Beauty of God's nature! Isn't it amazing that it only took God 7 days to create such a magnificent place to live and enjoy for many years! God loved us so much He thought about everything...how to appeal to each of our senses...we didn't realize and truly understand that until moving to Camp Barrera in Williamsburg Virginia. We our blessed to see beautiful trees, and green grass, and tulips blooms and amazing bushes colored with the most vibrant pinks and purples, we hear the birds chirp, and are waken early Saturday mornings by the pecking of woodpeckers ;) and we get to experience the amazing smells of the roses in our yard (they have amazing scent) and last but not least...there is this really cute little Sno to Go shop and you get this amazing snow cone thing but in the middle is like ice cream, millions of flavors!!! Not wouldn't that put a melody in any body's heart? Just thought it was so cute to get up and glance out the front window and see Nathaniel walking the yard strumming Spencer's guitar and singing away!

Thrifty or Wise?

Here is the Big Debate.... Do you become "thrifty" because of age, wisdom, or just because you are losing it? I like to think after week of prayer...that age as nothing to with it, hahaha that it must come with gaining wisdom and learning to be content and a knowing of what's important. Sounds good to me...how about you? Anyways...moving to Virginia as opened up many new worlds to me and as made many things I didn't understand when I was younger so perfectly clear now. For example..why my grandma spent her Saturday mornings running between 3 different groceries store to buy her food...now I know... food is so expensive...you have to go for the deals! After 33 years of living...I finally made it into my very first thrift store...what a concept..do you realize that people get rid of perfectly good things and you can buy them for like nothing! I got these sandals there..perfectly good not even worn on the bottoms, for $3.00 I am not kidding!
After showing off my new sandals to my good friend after a bible study, she took me to another Thrift shop closer to home that she loves...and I got this super cute purse for $2.00 I know it is hard to believe....I have since gotten many great things...perfectly good jean shorts for the boys for under 2 bucks, Jordache Capri jeans for Destinee for $2.65 and I have gotten many books for the kids for a quarter and Disney VHS for like a dollar...I know your thinking no one owns a VHS player anymore...oh but Gabriel does and he is rough on his movies..they tend not to last too long so dollar movies like Lion King....a blessing to our family!!!!!

Squeekers!

This is "Squeakers" as Gabriel calls them. I think he thinks there is only one and it is his pet. He gets up each morning and goes to the window and says "Where's Squeakers?" He just gets so excited when he sees them, he always says come, get your camera! I think it is funny...this particular post on our porch is a favorite spot of many of God's creatures! I wish I had taken a picture of all that we have seen on this post...We have come home from church and an owl as been perched on it, we get so many different beautiful birds of all colors! It is funny. We get lots of creatures through out our yard....squeakers, lizards, frogs, turtles,snakes, and even raccoons! We are truly blessed I suppose...anyways that's what the boys keep telling Destinee and I :)

Car shopping is over!!!

This is the car we just purchased. It is a 1997 Chevy Cavalier. It is paid in full!! What a great feeling... hahahaha! Funny, in Virginia when you buy a vehicle from someone they still own the license plates and tag. So the couple were really cool and let me keep theirs until I can go down tomorrow and register it and get new plates.
It gets great gas mileage so it will be the perfect car for John to drive back and forth to work!!! It is nice because the previous owner kept good care of it, no dents or torn seats or anything! Gabriel thinks it is a very cool car! I think it is cool because there is no back doors so he can't open them when you are driving down the road!!! :)

Setting our captives free!

Here is Destinee getting ready to set free one of the butterflies
Spencer trying to choose which one he will set free
Spencer lets his butterfly go (double click on this picture and you can see his butterfly right by his bangs)
Nathaniel sets his butterfly free. (if you double click on this picture and you look in the left side background you can see the butterfly, it is the black spot on the pavement)
Of course Junior set his free but then followed it everywhere it flew and here is a great picture of it sitting in the grass.

Harvesting Butterflies

Our science project for the month! This is our butterfly habitat. We ordered this really cool kit and then mailed away for caterpillars. They came in the mail in this cup of food. We watched them for a week travel to the top of the cup and begin to spin this really cool silk stuff.
They covered themselves in this silk and made cocoons. They hung this way for about 8 days.
Then they changed into this very pretty brown and orange Butterfly. The whole process was very cool and so interesting. Funny know that I sit and write this it reminds me of what God must see and witness every time one of us come to him tired and warn out and dirty and he transforms us into beauty and makes us usable!
Here we go as a family out to set free our butterflies. They only have a life span of one to three weeks, so we enjoyed them for a week and now will let them go to enjoy nature! (See Vanna at the top right displaying the net?)