The McDonald Family

Fun Around the House & Grady's B-day!

This place is so picture-perfect! So quiet and relaxing!

Mandy and the girls making butter!

Its been a blessing to have fresh milk again!

Hauling Hay! Haha! *these boys!* :-)

Enjoying the fire pit!

Mmm.. good!

:-)

The girls dressed up like twins one day! They are the best of friend

I wonder where they get all the drama!??

Happy Birthday Grady!! & Daddy!!! We went to Sizzler and had all-you-can-eat ribs and prawns along with the salad bar. It was so yummy! While dining, someone came up to Grady and asked if he was running for the Oregon State Legislature!

Papa & Nana's New Place

With Papa & Nana purchasing a new house, there are lots of improvements and help we hope to lend to them this spring & summer! Unpacking, helping put in their front yard, Painting and all around hanging out with them! It's great they are so much closer now!

Nana! In her element, around her family <3 p="">

Papa and his wonderful cooking!

Mr. Cool guy :-)

Such good friends.. I am so glad that they are able to be friends with one another.. Grady and I really appreciate how our older children work together, work out disagreements and issues right away. It truly has established great friendships between them!

hanging out with bros

Grady looks over some of the dirt work needed...

Grace's Piano Recital and a Special Gift

Mrs. Powell gets the children organized

Grace did such a great job not being nervous!

She played La Dona E Mobile from Rigoletto

Grace has taken lessons from Mrs. Powell for almost 4 years now. She is such a special role model and an encouraging teacher! Grace absolutely loves her! In addition, Amanda has taken piano lessons from her as well. They have such a special relationship too!

Little Laura is looking forward to joining Grace this fall for lessons!

____________________________________________________________

A few weeks after Grace's recital, Mrs. Powell contacted us to ask if we would like to have her baby Grand Piano that was needing a new home! What an amazing blessing! So exciting!!

They're here!

Last class of the season! We love you Mrs. Powell! Thank you for such an amazing and wonderful gift for our girls!

A Peaceful Season

Our friends, whose home we are now renting.. had taken an older manufactured home and added onto it in many directions! Turned what probably was a 1200 square foot home to a 2600 square foot home with 3 bathrooms, a school room and a huge living room! We have really enjoyed living in their beautiful home.. the property includes 5 acres, fields for animals, a barn and even an area which is perfect for our dog run. They also left a trampoline and a huge above ground pool. We feel very spoiled! Its been a very peaceful season for us. What a blessing!

Moving from Brownsville!

With our lease in theBrownsville rental drawing to a close, we began looking for a house to buy in the Willamette Valley.. along with 1,000 other families! We were pretty discouraged at what we were finding.. the old farmhouse we liked was currently being used as a grow home- it smelled so strongly of marijuana that Ashley and Amanda got a migraine every time we walked through it. Kilz wasn't gonna be strong enough for that place! We looked and looked but couldn't find anything within our price range & with acreage.

Some friends approached us and asked if we would be willing to rent their home for a time while they went to work at the Ark Encounter in Kentucky.. The rent was very reasonable and the home was not only located on 5 acres but also is located next door to some special friends also! An answer to prayer. Short term, possibly.. but gave us another year to save to buy!