My Surprise Birthday Celebration May 4th

The Sunday after my birthday, our church family held a wonderful surprise celebration for me!!! We had another birthday tea party too!!! I had no idea that they were going to and was so excited. Some friends of ours who aren't normally at church joined us for the celebration too. It was such a happy day. Everyone was so good to me and I still can't believe all that they did!!!


The beautiful tea table


More pictures of the tea table


Yet another picture of the tea table!!!


The women preparing the food.


Everyone did so much for me!!! All of the gifts were things that I can put in my hopechest and save for my own home someday.


Getting ready to open gifts. Brittney Southerland sat by me and recorded what each person gave to me.


Daddy spoke a little about what he had talked to me about on my birthday. The 7 missions of the Christian home.


The onlookers


A birthday hug


Mommy then gave me one of my gifts. A recipe book with memories to go along with them. She arranged for all the ladies in church to give me one of their family recipes and a memory about it. Mrs. Ocker took it a step farther and surprised us with recipes from friends across the country. Thank you to everyone who participated and helped to make my day a special one. I greatly appreciate it!!!


Below I'll review just some of my gifts...

Our church family all got me a beautiful sliver tray. They had inscribed on it our church name and my birthday. It is so pretty!!!


The Southerland family got me this beautiful table runner.


The Walker ladies made me this fun apron. I love patriotic colors!!!


Melinda Blevins and I


Opening my gifts


The McCurry family and I


The Walker ladies and I


Selah Ocker and I


The Ocker family gave me this beautiful tea set.


Sabrina made me this wonderful travel sewing kit holder!!!


Getting ready for the cake. Mrs. Blevins made it to where each of the girls pulled a ribbon with a charm on it out of the cake. Each charm represented the character of a women from the Bible. The women and character qualities represented were as follows: the faith of Sarah, the loyalty of Ruth, the wisdom of Deborah, the courage of Esther, the prayers of Hannah, the joy of Elizabeth, the strength of Abigail, being helpful like Pricilla and the heart of Mary. Mrs. Blevins also made me a beautiful charm bracelet with the above theme. It is a reminder of the wonderful character traits of the Godly women in the Bible that are important for women to still follow today.


It was such a happy day!!! Everyone was so good to me and blessed me more than words could tell. Thank you to my dear church family for making my 16th birthday so special. May Our Dear Lord Bless Each of You Richly!!!

My (Savannah's) 16th Birthday

My 16th birthday was wonderful!!! I am so thankful to my family for everything they did to make it special for me. I love you!!!


Daddy and Mommy took me out for breakfast at our favorite breakfast place in a little town about 5 minutes from where we live. It was so special. We've never been able to do that before because Sabrina is just now old enough to stay home by herself. We had a wonderful time. While we were there, daddy and mommy told me a surprise... I am going to get my drivers permit!!! I am so excited!!! I just have to finish studying for the test.


Me at breakfast.


Sabrina made delicious strawberry shortcake for lunch!!!


Mommy and Sabrina did a huge surprise for me... A WONDERFUL birthday tea party!!! I had no idea what we were having for dinner and it was so much fun!!!


The wonderful tea table.


Daddy and I by my birthday countdown sign.


My siblings and I.


Daddy escorting me in to the tea table.


I was so surprised!!!


Enjoying my birthday tea.


While we were having our tea, daddy talked to me about the 7 missions of the Christian home: care, worship, evangelism, industry, education, culture and hospitality. Daddy and Mommy also gave me their gifts around the table. Their gifts to me were all centered around the 7 missions and as daddy would talk to me about a certain mission, they would give me the gift to go along with it.
Also, I got my hopechest!!! Daddy is going to build it for me and hasn't been able to do so yet because of his back. I saw pictures of what it is going to look like though and it was beautiful!!!


These beautiful cloth napkins were for evangelism because a lot of evangelizing can take place around the family meal table.


For education, daddy and mommy gave me some of the Leaders In Action series. It is wonderful!!!


Mommy and I


Right before my siblings gave me their gifts, the Ocker family called to say "Happy Birthday". I got so many wonderful birthday calls. Thank you to everyone who participated!!!


Sayer and I


Seth and I


Stasia and I


Sienna and I


I love this picture of Sayer!!!


Sabrina and I


Saying my birthday prayer.


It was such a wonderful day!!!

Cats In A Row (I thought this was so cute!)

Bees, Bees and More Bees!!!

Here are some pictures of us and things that we did to get ready for and then hive our bees.


Daddy and I assembling the frames for the hive.


Look at those bees!!!

The Big Day

Getting ready to hive.


Daddy, Sabrina and I


Sayer Stonewall


Here come the bees!!!


Daddy and I ready to hive.


Making sure we understand what to do before setting to work.


Opening up the bees.


The cats wanted to be in on the action.


Spraying the bees down with sugar syrup one last time.


Pouring the bees into the hive. This was an amazing experience!!! The bees were a lot more active than we had planned on!


Putting the frames into the hive.


The curious onlookers.


Sabrina was our helpful instructor, reading us the instructions from my bee book.


Attempting to dump the last of the bees out of the package into the hive.


Putting the hive back together.


Closing it up.


After the hiving was over.


Getting the last of the bees brushed off.