Halloween 2008

Here is another link to some recent photos. The gang had lots of fun dressing up and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood this year. It's so fun to watch N experience new things! We've been enjoying gorgeous weather---balmy temperatures and sunny days. We've been outside as much as possible. Wintering the yard and flower gardens, playing in the leaves and just laying in the grass and staring at the blue sky. It could be this kind of weather year round, as far as we're concerned! Enjoy the photos!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9716&l=fbbd8&id=1009123737

Fall

Fall is here! It's crazy to think how fast the time goes (I'm always saying this--especially on my blog as I don't post very often!). We are full swing into the school year and Fall schedule at our house. It's been crazy busy and we're all ready for summer again, I think! The past few weeks have been especially brutal. We're working to slow things down a bit and cut out a few extra things from our schedule. I'll let you know how that goes! HA!

P is doing really well at school. Second grade is suiting her well and she came home with all A s on her progress report. She is turning into a beatiful young lady. Her younger two siblings adore her as she is so good with both of them. Patient, helpful, loving, and kind. We miss her a lot when she's at school during the day.

K is doing really well at his new preschool as well. We're really happy with it there--the teachers are really wonderful and they have a great program. He really likes it--especially that there is a cool playground and gym area for them to use. The cool thing is that it's REALLY close to our house. I have ridden my bike to pick him up more than once. I LOVE that! The kids get a kick out of it, too. I load them both up in the bike trailer for that trip. Kadin always asks to go "one more time around the block" on the way home. :) We've had a few fun field trips already and Mommy and N have gotten to come along for the fun. A few recent favorite quotes of mine from K:

While walking into preschool a few weeks back: "Mommy, this feels a lot like High school."
Me: "Does it?" (trying to be casual and not laugh!!)
K: "Yes. It feels a lot like HS here....but it's not."
HA HA!

This week after seeing emergency vehicles in front of a home:
K: "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a fire man."
Me: "That would be a great idea, K"
K: "Or maybe a police man."
Me:"that would be a great job, too buddy."
Long pause....
K: "Wait a minute! I'm scared of fire! It's not safe! I'll be a police man. ...but not a police woman."
Me: "Right, you have to be a girl to be a policewoman."
K: "But I want to work with a policewoman"
Me: "Ok"

He's just so funny!!!

N is growing like a weed! She is talking a lot and keeps us all laughing. She has a BIG personality for such a little person! She loves to read books, keep up with the other two, and explore everything. Lately she's realized that if she gets to giggling about something it's contagious. She gets a bit hoot out of getting us all laughing.

D and I are keeping busy with work and trying to tie up loose ends around the house. Poor guy--he's still working on our bathroom remodel project (over 2 months later!!) as we've had several interruptions and more-than-we-bargained-for stuff going on. Our van "died" in the midst of the remodel---head gaskets. Soooo....we canceled our vacation for camping in the UP and stayed home to figure that out. D found us a fixer van for the mean-time and he got that up and running for us (much faster repair than the other van). The bathroom took a bit of a raincheck in the meantime! The bathroom is close to being done now--just cosmetics left. The original van has been taken apart and new parts gathered. Now the time intensive labor has begun! Hopefully it will be done sooner than later and we can sell the "fixer" van and get our money back! Whew! Crazy times!

Other than that, that's about it for us! Hopefully I'll be back in touch sooner than later. Facebook has been where I've been keeping up better with the updates, if you want to check us out there!

Happy Fall! Check out the links to see some recent photos of us enjoying the Fall.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9259&l=c2e10&id=1009123737


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8802&l=5857a&id=1009123737

Summer

I thought about entitling this post: "The Lazy Days of Summer" but it wouldn't be true! We've had a GREAT summer, but I don't think there's been anything "lazy" about it! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind that have brought us to the dreaded "August"! Which makes us all go, "wow....school is almost here!!" :( Wah!

Anyway, here are some highlights:

We've been spending lots of time out in the yard and pool. D and I have been working around the yard some--continuing to make landscaping plans and work a bit in the flower beds. All three kids love the pool and spend as much time in it as we will allow.

July 4th weekend had us in T.C. to visit all the family. We had a wonderful time hanging out on the Lake Michigan beach with H's family, eating Moomers ice cream, enjoying "Gramp's spectacular fireworks show" and having a four wheeler parade in the woods with Ds family.

Mom and the kids have been busy with several playdates and trips to the library. It's been great catching up with lots of friends, mingling at area parks, and visiting the library regularly. Both older kiddos finished the summer reading program at the library and won a few fun prizes, including free meals at Texas Roadhouse. P has become quite the bookworm--she's working through the Boxcar Chilren series as well as Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. She reminds me so much of myself as a young reader! It's hard for her to put her books down, and if you ever wonder where she's at, chances are you'll find her curled up with a good read! :)

K continues to be enthralled with tractors! He and his Dad pretty much eat, sleep and breathe them, I think! :) They recently went to a tractor show about an hour away from our home. They came home with all kinds of John Deere souveniers and lots of fun photos and memories. They signed up to become members of the tractor club and are already planning on involvement for next year. Plans include a tractor train equipped to give kids rides. I'll be sure to update with photos as that project comes together!

N is saying and doing more and more each day. She really works hard to keep up with the older two as much as possible! She LOVES to sit and look at books and she loves to be outside. She asks to go "side" a lot, and also asks to go on bike rides and walks. It's hard to believe that she's 17 months--soon to be 18! A few of her favorite newer words are: squirrel, flower, pool, what, Melanie (friend's name), Joslyn (babysitter's name), bug, walk, and go. I know there are more I'm forgetting, but those are a lot of recent additions. She climbs the five foot ladder up to the slide/playhouse and has virtually no fears. Save for the vacuum--which is a pretty recent addition!

Another favorite of the summer is "swap day". Most Thursdays a friend and I take turns swapping kiddos. She takes mine for about 3-4 hours while I get some things done, and then I take her three girls while she gets some things done. The kids all get along well and we have all really become close. One of them told me last Thursday evening, "I never like the end of the day on Thursdays. I just wish it wouldn't end!" It was so cute! :)

We look forward to more summer memories for sure...the fun isn't over yet! We have a camping trip ahead of us and a bathroom remodel. Not to mention many more playdates and bike rides! I'll be back with some photos soon. Hope your summer is going well!

For whatever reason, I seem to have troubles with posting photos and adding the descriptions of them! I must be doing something incorrectly!

Anyway, the below photos are as follows:

1. 6/14/08 Nia's first dip in the pool---she wasn't so sure!

2. 6/14/07 Kadin's "goods" after a trip to the tractor store :)

3. 6/08 Kadin working on his tractor--he came up with this on his own :)

4. 5/08 Piper at horseback riding with "Thunder" the pony (she is able to do all the hoof-picking on her own) :)

A few recent photos

1. 

Summer is here!

It's been a long stretch since I've posted, and I know I'm long overdue. It's been busy, busy, busy the last several weeks at our house. I've been much better about keeping facebook updated, so check in there, as well. (LOTS of photos and videos)

First of all, we are sooo thrilled to be into summer! P's last day of school was June 6 and K finished up the end of May. They both had a wonderful school year. We finished out the year with some fun spring concerts, parties, and events.

P completed her 8 week horse-back riding class and we promptly signed up for more. She really seems to have found her niche. She has a natural touch with the horses and looks so beautiful while riding. She absolutely loves it. She has ridden several different horses, but seems to be on "Thunder" the most. He is a pony and his size fits her well. As most ponies are, he is a bit cantankerous. P has had a few run-ins with him--nothing major, just little "issues". Several weeks back he stopped while trotting and let her slowly slide off over his head (she was new enough to riding that she was afraid to hurt him by grabbing his mane). Last week he gave the tack helper (young teenage girl) a rough time and pulled her right to the ground after she got him from the paddock to come and tack up. I guess he is well-known for such things. Yet, once he and Piper get into the arena he seems to do pretty well with her. (we've seen him give quite a show on other riders) The instructor told her last week that he seems to really like her and does beautifully with her. P was pretty tickled to hear this. I have a feeling she'll be working with him a lot. :) He's grown to be one of her favorites, even in the midst of the challenge! It's sooo cute to watch!

K has dubbed himself: "tractor man" along with his Daddy. He says, "We're tractor mans, aren't we Daddy?" :) It's so cute! He is particular to John Deere's. He is collecting quite the array of JD paraphernalia for his room, as well as some t-shirts. A highlight of his school year was transportation day in early May. He was able to help operate a backhoe and ride in the bucket of a hi-low bucket truck. It was quite the experience for both he and his Mom. YIKES! I took both video footage and photos for those that want to see the proof! (they're up on facebook as we speak) He is loving summer and wants to be outside 24/7. It's hard to believe that he's just a week or so away from four years old! He is looking more and more like a little man. One more year of preschool and then he'll be off to kindergarten! Crazy!

Little N is quite the character. She has wild, curly red hair and a personality to match!! She loves to keep up with her older sibs. We've had a little bit of an issue with biting as of late, but I think we're coming out of the worst of it. She is climbing and saying lots of words and keeping us on our toes. We still haven't gotten one year photos taken as she seems to always have a goose-egg, bruise, or scrape on her face! Now that she's almost 16 months old, I think I better just go for it, regardless! :) Her favorite thing to do is watch the birds and play outside. She says and signs "bird" and loves to watch them at our feeder.

D and I have been busy around the house. We're trying to get some home projects completed. My scrapbooking room/home office is almost done! Yay! He told me last night that I will be "moving in" this weekend, regardless! :) I'm really excited about that! Also on the books are some landscape work and a bathroom remodel.

Otherwise, not much new to post. I *will* try to get some photos up on here soon. Happy Summer!

It's spring!

We're all VERY happy to have spring weather in our midst! We've been having a ton of fun outside enjoying the sunshine and warmth. The kids adore being outside. Nia loves it just as much as the older two. She goes to the door and says something like, "side! side!" If she has to stay behind when anyone goes out, she throws a big fit. She has become quite taken with the birds, and signs and says "bird" and tries to make a whistle! It's the cutest thing ever. I sign it and say it and then whistle a bird noise, and she copies. She gets her lips pursed and gets the air going, but no whistling yet. :) D hung a bird feeder where she can see them coming and going. D put a new door on the "tree house" (which is really a playhouse attached to the swing set) to keep the birds out. They've been building nests in there and leaving quite the bird mess. So, the little house now has screened windows and a cool door. It looks cute and the kids love having a door to open and close. Another perk this season is being able to have Nia in the little bike seat---we can all go on a family bike rides now! She loves it, too. She giggles and grins and waves the whole ride. It's really precious.

P has started horse back riding lessons. Boy, is she in her element! She's two weeks in and hooked. It's really neat to watch. It seems that this is really a niche for her. She is picking up on things quickly and is very comfortable around the horses. She was riding a very large horse both weeks, and she didn't bat an eye. In fact, she jumped right off the horse herself with no help. Just swung her leg over and dropped down (a big drop!) on her own with no stool. We are very proud of her and excited to see how much this fits her.

K is movin' and groovin' these days. His passion is still tractors; especially John Deeres. He loves to be outside working on stuff with his Daddy. He also continues to crack us up with funny stories, comments and antics. A recent favorite was: "Grampy's mustache is weird. Next time I see him, I'm going to shave it off!" ha ha! Grampy has decided to hide his razor for our next visit! ;)

D and I have been slowly chipping away at some projects around the house. There is a list a mile long waiting for us, but we're doing what we can little by little. The current project is the office in the basement. It is coming along, and I'm excited for it to be completed. It will offer much more organization and storage for paperwork and a scrapbooking area.

I'll post some photos of the latest happenings very soon. In the meantime, happy spring! :)

Updates

For some reason I wasn't able to type on the last post other than photo captions. Anyway, I have tons more photos to share, but haven't had much time to do so. Here are a few to check out of recent events. I'll post more as I have time.

Recent Photos

2/26/08 P was crowned class representative for Homecoming
3/18/08 Tired girl with favorite fingers and silkie
N's first bike ride---she loved it! 3/08
Happy Birthday Nia! 2/20/08
She liked to look at the cake, but not eat it!

March already?

It's been busy, busy, busy at our house. Nothing too exciting really, but time seems to fly by with the busyness of family life. On one hand I keep saying, "March already??" and on the other hand I'm thinking, "Is winter EVER going to end this year???" Our family has about had it with the winter and being cooped up. Hopefully another month or so and we'll be out of the woods! We've had some pretty bad snow storms over the past few weeks, and it seems that every time we have one I'm having to work and commute in the middle of the worst of it! I've had three pretty scary drives home over the past few weeks. Last night was the worst by far. Not fun driving on an unplowed freeway with several inches of snow on top of ice, white-out conditions and a bunch of psycho drivers going too fast and barreling up on you (including semis and buses!!!). My 30 minute commute turned into almost an hour and a half. YUCK! Driving back in to work about 17 hours later I was thinking to myself, "funny that the very same freeway can be completely dry not 24 hours later!"

Anyway, enough griping about the weather from me! :) As far as "fun" news, N continues to keep us on our toes! She has two older sibs to keep up with, and she's doing a good job at trying just that! She RUNS and SPRINTS to get into things! She loves to talk and is saying more and more words. She initiates kisses and "loves" and games of peek-a-boo and stuff. She is infatuated with her "shoes" which are a pair of the leather Robeez booties. They are AMAZING for the hardwood floors (otherwise in socks she face plants!) and she says, "Shhhhssss" whenever she sees them. She will carry them around and bring them to someone to put on her if they aren't already on her. :) They're just the cutest things ever! I need to get a picture of her wearing them.

P had the recent honor of being "crowned" class representative for homecoming. Each teacher picked a student from their class and she was chosen for first grade! :) She got a neat certificate, crown, and a bag of goodies from her teacher. We took some pictures of her in the "royal throne". I'll have to get some posted as well. We are very proud of her and how well she's doing in school. She is a great student and is a loving help at home.

K is continuing to do great in preschool. He enjoys it very much and continues to flourish. He still loves his tractors. Tractors are pretty much his passion in life. He eats, sleeps, and talks tractors 24/7. :) He is a character and lots of fun!

D and his brother just spent this past weekend working on our laundry room. They plumbed in a new washtub and made the water drain pipe from the washer connect directly into the plumbing, and not into the tub any more! Yay! They also began to lay down new flooring over the old nasty asbestos tiles (yikes!) that were in there. It looks soooo much better, and we can't wait for the rest of the remodeling. It's fun to see the process!

I'm at work blogging again, so hope to get some photos uploaded soon! :) More soon....

Happy First Birthday Nia!!!!

Wow, it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since our little red-headed joy came into the world! It's flown by! Our girl is walking as of 11 months 1 week, is talking: mama, dada, num-nums, kitty, Daisy, Piper, Kadin, thank-you, and silkie (special blankie) and is getting bigger every day!!! Nia you are truly a joy and a blessing from the Lord. We love you sweet-heart!!!

Love,
Mommy, Daddy, Piper and Kadin

New Year

Happy New year! I've been meaning to post before this but I just haven't had much extra time. We've been busy with back to school and back to routine and all of that good stuff. The past week has flown by as we've gotten back into the thick of it.

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We had a great time in TC with family, and we were even able to get our bedroom painted and a new ceiling fan hung over the holiday break. I'm currently working on getting curtains and then the room will be officially done. Yay! It's like breathing in a breath of fresh air when I walk in there. Aahhhh... :)

The kids are doing great and seem glad to be back to school. They have been enjoying their new Christmas stuff. They have particularly been enjoying board games. It's nice to have K able to participate with that more as he gets older. The main favorites are "Sound Bingo", "Zingo" and "Hi-Ho Cheery-O". We've started to make a game part of our night time/bedtime family routine. It's been great!

N is ON THE MOVE! She's super close to walking independently. Any day now, it will be over! She has taken steps between us, but mostly just surfs the furniture and walls for now. She is pulling up to things, as well. She says "Da da", "Kitty", "Daisy" (one of our dogs) and seems to be working on the "m" sound with "more" and "ma ma" close to follow. She is babbling a lot. She waves and points at things and is starting to really let us know when she doesn't like something! (such as us feeding her baby food---she'd much rather feed herself by picking up food pieces!) She's a ton of fun and really enjoys interacting with all of us.

I will get some photos posted soon. I'm currently at work, so I can't get them posted at the moment. I will try to get some up soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

We hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! We are looking forward to it very much. The kids are thrilled. They have enjoyed all of the Christmas preparations and advent activities. We're going to have a quiet Christmas Eve and Christmas day at home, with Dean and Giles stopping by later on Christmas day. On the 26th we'll head up to TC to visit with all of the family for a few days. It should be a great time! I'll try to include some photos up on the blog here sooner or later!

We love you all!

Still hanging in there

Well, we're still not well at our house! It's been quite an unbelieveable month of illness. We've officially had someone ill since Oct 30th. We've all have residual coughs and sniffles, and D is still rather sick. He now has the fun bug I had over Thanksgiving. We're really praying that this is the last of it, and that we'll all be better for Christmas!

We're really getting into the Christmas spirit at our house. We'll be decorating our tree this evening. The kids are geeked. We purchased it in TC at the tree farm last weekend, and only just brought it in the house last night. We wanted to let it settle overnight, and unfurl from being bound. It should be a fun day. The kids are also VERY excited about getting their advent calendar out. It's so fun to celebrate Christmas with them!

In other news, N is movin' and groovin' all over the place! It's a riot to watch her scoot around. She can get up on her knees, but she doesn't actually crawl. She does this little scootie thing where she tucks her left arm under her chest, and pulls herself around with her right arm and legs. It works especially well on the slippery hardwood floor! Not much is safe anymore, as she moves from room to room. She is stellar at finding cords, paper to rip up and small pieces of junk to put in her mouth. It should be an exciting Christmas with her on the move!

Hopefully we'll be back soon with some Christmas photos to share. As of last night, we have gotten all of the kids' professional photos back and boy are they cute! I'm excited to share them with everyone!

I hear we'll have snow later tonight or tomorrow....so, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...." will be our theme song! :)

Blessings to you and yours!

The local germ pool

We've been a bit MIA for a few weeks, due to illnesses in the household. Get a load out of what we've had so far between the five of us:

• upper respiratory infection (viral)
• strep
• croup
• fifths diseas (viral--sounds worse than it is!)
• ear infection
• pink eye
• sinus infection
• slight tummy flu

Can you believe it?? This has been our past 2 1/2-3 weeks!! Unreal. Poor P has had the worst of it with the most variety of illnesses. She has been to the Dr three times and is currently getting over a bad case of croup. We're praying that she's better very soon. If not by Monday, we'll be taking her back in again. :( We're getting a bit concerned. She's pretty worn out from all that she has been through. Hopefully my next post will be of good news and a healthy family!!! I've done all I can to clean, lysol, and air out the house on nice days. Whew....I don't know what we have going on!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we'll be in touch soon!

Fall

We are all doing well and keeping busy. We have enjoyed some great weather over the past few weeks, and we're eating it up! The colder weather is coming though, so our days are numbered!!

Poor P has been ill this week with a flu bug and has missed three days of school. So far no one else in the family has gotten sick (knock on wood!). She was sick on Halloween again, as she was two years ago. She did make it to a few houses up and down the street, but that was about it.

K continues to love preschool. He loves having somewhere to go a few times a week that is special for him. He still asks if it's time to pick up P from school each day around mid-morning. He misses her now that she's gone all day for five days.

N now has two teeth and more on the way. She is signing "nurse" and "more" and scooting and moving all over the place. The older two are learning what it means to have a mobile baby on the loose! They love her dearly and have a ton of fun with her. She does this silly thing with her head--swaying it back and forth really fast. Then she'll stop, look at them and smile as if to say, "Well, c'mon! Your turn now!! Let's play!!" So they do it back and she giggles and then she'll start doing it again. Yesterday she was doing it while in her high chair at lunch. The other two were responding by doing the same until K announced with a grimace, "I'm getting dizzy!" P didn't look so hot, either. Poor thing, being sick and all!

Last night we all had a little fun on the tractor and trailer. D is teaching the kids how to drive. I was brave and got in the trailer with N and P while K was driving!! Yes, my three year old!! Then P and K traded places for a bit. They were pretty proud to be hauling their Mommy and baby sister around. :) Photos of that event to come in another post.

Updates

Wow, has it really been almost a month since I've posted?? Time flies when you're having fun...or when you have three kids, anyway! We're all doing well and plugging away. Keeping busy with school and family life. Here are a few updates of interest:

• P lost her first tooth on Wed Oct. 10th. She pulled it out herself! :)
• K went to the dentist for the first time on Monday, Oct. 15th. What a riot!
• N has cut her first tooth, and the second one is on the way. (we're kind of into teeth around here, lately!)
• P had a wondeful progress report last week. Pretty much 100% accross the board!
• K wrote his first upper case "K" last Thurs at preschool.
• P is the only one in the class that has had Flat Stanley returned so far...4 have come back! Many thanks to those that have/are participating! The teacher and class are THRILLED!
• D and I continue to do well...nothing too interesting to report for us! ;)

I promise to post some photos soon. I have some really cute ones of the above events. :) I just haven't had much time on the computer lately. Take care!

Swinging into fall

Well, we've had a nice bit of warm weather again. We even had to turn the AC on! We'll take it! We've had fun working in the yard a bit this week. Our front yard is sadly lacking the presence of the big tree, so....this past week we purchased two smaller trees to plant out front. Of course there is no comparison, but at least this will add a little character and "homey" feel. It's amazing the difference...we've missed our drive a few times, the neighbor has missed HER drive a few times, and it makes the front of the house a whole lot hotter with the sun beating in. Our poor yard and plants out front have gone into shock without the shade. It appears that we'll be watering a whole lot more now!

In other news, we hit up the apple orchard yesterday for the first time this season. P's class went on a field trip there and the rest of us joined in. D even stopped in on his lunch break. The younger two and I had to scoot out early, as K was throwing tantrums over the turf trikes and didn't heed Mommy's warning that we would leave if it continued. :( It was an exhausting day for Mommy (and I wanted to stay!!), but at least we got to pick an apple and a pumpkin, go on a wagon ride, and have cider and dough nuts. Hopefully we'll go again as a family in the next few weeks and can pick some more apples for pies and such. I expect that K will not make the same mistake again. ;)

School continues to go well for both kids. P is in the top reading group in her class, and her teacher says that she's doing great. K is adjusting well to preschool and is always excited to go. I think we're getting into the swing of things with the schedule and such. It's been a bit tiring for me, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. Poor N gets drug around in the car a lot. :( She is so good natured about it, though! She is such a happy baby. She spends a lot of her time giggling at her older two siblings. They certainly love her and keep her entertained!

P is doing a Flat Stanley project for school. It's been fun helping her prepare for that. We mailed out three Flat Stanleys on Thursday, and have two more to mail out. The postal worker at the local PO was so gracious in offering to mail out three more for P to three different states (her own family members!!). We'll ask her teacher on Monday if any of those states are taken yet. How sweet of her to offer that! Thank you to those that were willing to be his hosts! You are appreciated, and we'll keep you posted on his updates!

Keep checking in...we'll be adding a few more photos soon.

It's been awhile....

This is K on his first day of preschool, and P's second day.
K sure loves his little sister! And she loves him a lot, too!
This is P and N in the middle of a ring from the trunk of the tree we had taken down. Yes, that inner portion was all rotted out! This tree could have landed on our house! Yowsa...


Well, we're back to school and moving into fall! We had a wonderful final summer weekend up north with family. We got to see everyone and enjoy some great weather. The highlight of the weekend was two afternoon trips to the Lake Michigan beach. It was glorious...we've wanted to do that all summer!

P is doing wonderfully in school. She likes her new teacher and has several nice friends in her class. It's hard to believe that she's in first grade and is now gone all day at school. We miss her a ton, but know that she's doing well and is in good hands at her school.

K is enjoying preschool as well. He is excited to have something special to do twice a week, as he misses P while she's gone all day. He loves going, and is a crack up as he gets ready. It is a co-op preschool, so the parents are very involved and get to work in the classroom once a month on rotation. Each parent has a "job" at the school, and ours is to make a batch of home-made playdough for the kids to use each week. K seems to think that this is "his" and not for all the kids to share and keep in the classroom. This has been a bit of an issue, but the teacher graciously let him carry around a little ball of it for the class period. ha ha!

N is growing so quickly! We took her in for her well check yesterday, and she is 17 pounds 2 ounces and 27 inches long! She still has her red hair and cute little upturned nose. She is a very happy, content baby. Everyone comments on her sweet disposition, and we are asked often if she ever cries. Ha ha! She does! Although she usually only cries if she's really tired or hungry. She gets a big kick out of her older siblings and her two furry friends (aka: Daisy and Callie....our Golden Retrievers)

In other news, we had to have the large tree in our front yard cut down yesterday. It was very, very sad, as it was a gorgeous silver maple that provided wonderful shade. It also hosted several squirrel families and bird nests for us to enjoy. However, it was rotted quite badly in the center...worse than we thought! The rotten portion went up into the branches and down to the ground---a huge central portion of it. It was pretty scary when we actually saw how bad it was. Thank God we cut it down before it fell down on our house and the neighbor's. Yikes!

We will have some photos to follow shortly. The computer is back up and running at home, so we'll add some soon!

Happy fall to all of you! The cooler weather has been here....what a wake up call that summer is really over!

Summer Summary

This is probably going to turn out to be a long post. I've been working on it off and on over two days time during breaks at work. For those of you not up for a long one, just read down through the bulleted list and you'll probably have the gist of it! :) For those who, like me, want ALL the details, read on further! There will be some photos to follow, but due to a computer virus at home, I'm not going to attempt that right now. Hopefully we'll get that issue remedied soon. At any rate, here goes!

It's hard to believe that the summer is quickly drawing to a close. It's gone by super fast this year. D and I have agreed that it's been a very different summer than we ever could have expected. It definitely hasn't been the easiest summer, but it's been good nonetheless. God continues to be so faithful to us. He provides for us and blesses us in the midst of it all. He continues to teach us even when we're not expecting to be taught. Here are some memories of this summer (some are still being made!) in no particular order:

• Seeing P's delight and natural abillity for riding a horse
• Potty training a three-year-old boy and hearing the proud announcement: "I pooped in Thomas!" (Thomas the tank engine underwear)
• N rolling accross the room to touch a dog's paw (and giggling!)
• D hiking to Mt. Pilchuck with Ted and Joe
• Kaler's visiting our home from WA--lots of fun times and laughs in 12 short hours!
• Regularly riding tractors and motorcycles in our front yard and down the block
• All five of us plus two Golden Retrievers up in the playscape tree house
• Watching K and P "work on" the broken tractor with Daddy
• Talking about heaven daily with the kids after the passing of Ted, Merlin the horse, and Itsy Bitsy Boo (Grammy and Grampy's dog)
• Dancing with all three kids at the local library story hour
• The whole family eating McDonald's sundaes in the van at 8:30pm and blasting rock and roll with the windows open
• Bandaging countless skinned knees and bug bites/stings
• Spending the last days with Ted before his passing
• K squirting Marilyn (Ted's Mom) with a squirt gun while she was on a phone call (she screamed!)
• Rocking to the Vacation Bible School band with the kids for a week
• Visiting with many friends from WA--hours and hours of fun catching up!
• Riding a WA state ferry to Whidbey Island--"Look at the seagulls floating on the wind!"
• Arguement between P and K: "Grampy is NOT a boy! He's a Grampy!" (K). "Grampy it too a boy! He is a Grampy AND a boy!" (P.)
• Bike riding, bike riding, and MORE bike riding! Especially inspired by Joe Kulper in WA who fixed the kids up with bigger bikes and got them so pumped up to ride.

Those are just a few of the many, many things I could mention. It's been a jam packed summer. Difficult at times, but also good. The losses we have experienced this summer have hit us pretty hard. The loss of Ted was huge, of course. Walking through that whole process during our stay in WA was incredibly impacting. Then, a few weeks after being back home we found out about the loss of Merlin, who was a VERY cool horse that we got to spend time with during our stay on Whidbey Island. The kids loved him and fed him while we stayed at the farm where he lived. Piper has had an especially difficult time with that loss. Then last week my parents had to put down their dog Itsy. This is another hard loss for Piper. Itsy wasn't the kind of dog that really liked kids, but she really liked Piper, and Piper knew that. It will be interesting to see how she does when we go up to Grammy and Grampy's next weekend. I'm sure it will be difficult for all of us. As I mentioned in the above list, we have had some neat discussions about heaven. God is so good in that I found a wonderful book about death and heaven at the library. I just happened to glance at a shelf in passing and there it was! It was a really good book to read to the kids; Piper especially. Thank you Lord! It was very helpful during this time of loss.

I also had a rough go of it for a few weeks with a strange rash of sorts. I saw four doctors and filled eight prescriptions for it with not much for answers. Finally it seems to be dissipating as I'm moving into my fourth week of it. No final diagnosis other than contact dermatitis. Not sure what I came in contact with, but I sure hope it doesn't happen again! I lost about a week and a half of "fun" as the Docs thought I might be contagious and didn't want me around people too much. (Not to mention the fact that the extreme heat and humidity outside made the extreme itching even worse). I'm just thankful that it wasn't as serious or contagious as they originally thought. Thank the Lord no one else got it!

We have spent the past few weeks catching up on things that we have meant to do all summer and are only just now getting to. I'm embarrassed to admit that we have only just visited the local library for the first time. (we've lived in the area about 2 1/2 years) Now that K is a bit older, I finally decided to try it. (I have avoided it for fear of him being too loud and boisterous!) Have we ever been missing out! I used to take P to the local library in WA all the time, but haven't taken the plunge since we've relocated here. Last week we actually made it to the story hour. It was so much fun. All three kids had a blast. Red Robin visited (in full costume) from the local restaurant and passed out free kids meal coupons. We checked out 21 books and 1 Clifford movie and had everything read within a few days. We went back again yesterday and checked out 30 books and 2 movies this time! We have plans to go back again next week, as well. I'm not sure I'll be able to carry any more than 30 books, so we better cut if off at that! K was excited to see the lawn mower guy both weeks in a row....I guess we'll shoot for next Wednesday around 10:30 a.m. again to see if we can see him yet a third consecutive week!

We also hit up the sprinkler park for the first time. That was a blast, as well. It features a great wooden playscape as well as a kid friendly spray We would visit again, but we've had rain all week....so, hopefully we can make it one more time before school begins after Labor Day. We also hope to do the zoo with some friends, but we'll see how it goes with the time we have left.

Lastly, we've been able to catch up a bit on playdates with friends over the past week or two. We've had fun getting to know people a bit better. We're excited about building community and making more connections here. Our whole family is feeling a bit more connected these days. God is good!

We are looking forward to the final week and a half of summer left. We're going to do some more fun things together, and then head up north to visit with the family. Due to the craziness and unexpected changes that have come up this summer, we haven't even made it up since April!!! So, we're looking forward to that. I hope your summer has gone well, and we'll be in touch as we head into Fall. Wow! Back to school, here we come! Hopefully we'll have some photos posted here soon.