Catching up...again!

It's hard to think about keeping warm in the winter on these scorching humid days but our friends' log-splitter was available and so were many hands....

I love seeing our boys working together....another 'snapshot of grace'

Daddy was away last week for work and boy, did we miss him!! Thursday night couldn't come fast enough~The kids were so excited to bless him with gifts on Father's Day. They rushed him in after the log splitting to lavish him, since we had activities later in the day and would spend the next day with our Dads celebrating~How grateful I am for the godly Dads in our life... My hubby, Pop-Pop Doyle, and Pop-Pop B are such a gift to our family.

L and his brothers had some Lego fun the other day~

Yes, baseball season continues. Curtis was chosen for the tournament team again this year. Saturday evening was their first game. They lost by 2 runs but they sure looked snazzy in their uniforms :)

Can you spot C?

We so appreciated that Uncle Bill and Aunt Sharon trekked across the bridge to join us for the game...Aunt Sharon even brought Cracker Jacks...

Somehow L managed to eat 3 boxes!

Sunday morning we were blessed to have both sets of Grandparents join us for church...they came to see our beautiful new building ( I'll post on that soon!) and then back to the house for a very belated birthday celebration for P,C, and L.

Mimi took L's cues...he thought a Phillies cake would be a great idea(see his Lego creation above?) Mimi made this cake in the midst of packing up their home as they prepare to move later this summer. Most of her kitchen is in boxes but somehow she was able to pull this off!!

The cake and cupcakes were a hit :) I hid Grandmom B's brownies in the freezer but they have been discovered! The 4 loaves of pumpkin bread are still stashed though!!

Our "Little Man's" Big Birthday Weekend~

I totally forgot to publish this post from almost a month ago--better late than never!
This year, L's 8th birthday happened to fall on the weekend of our state Homeschool Convention...my hubby and I are both 'on staff' to assist, so L joined us this year in order that we could spend part of his birthday together. The 2 older boys also came to serve much of the weekend and the 3 younger kiddos went to Mimi and Pop-Pop's for Friday and most of Saturday. There was a children's program again this year and our friends from Historical Happenings conducted a few sessions on Civil War and Medieval Times, which Luke attended along with a bazillion other kiddos.

Before we left for the convention we were able to squeeze in L's celebration dinner. L chose meatloaf and mashed potatoes for his meal of choice... he made this decision with a little help from his siblings. Initially he wanted whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes but since we had them for breakfast over the weekend they were able to convince him otherwise!

P was a good sport and shared his birthday cake with L since their birthdays are only 5 days apart. We were crunched for time so they celebrated together:)

We pre-ordered this WW2 gun with Mimi and Pop-Pop's birthday money for L. He could not wait for the Historical Happenings booth to get set up so that he could go and claim his gift!

L spent his birthday money from Grandmom and Pop-Pop B at a vendor who sold art supplies. He frequented the booth so much that the owner kindly gave L a sketch pad to go along with some of his newly purchased art goodies.Here L is settled at the Volunteer Booth working on a scratch art project he also bought with birthday money...it was a picture of WW2 fighter planes.

At the end of the convention, the children participating in the Civil War program were led through the convention hall 'in formation'

L is in the back row with the green shirt...he was quite the serious soldier!

Another view of the 'soldiers' in formation~

It was a crazy busy weekend followed by a wedding the next day after church so we were grateful L was with us on his special day! He thought it was pretty cool to spend Friday night in the hotel and to go for a swim at 10pm when we finally got in from the convention hall!

All in a day....

Some days can best be described through pictures...

Daddy was working from home today but before heading over to his 'office' (the living room where his computer was fired up), he decided to tackle the dreaded missing sock box. With Odesco and Mercy's help, they actually matched about 10 pairs. This picture doesn't even display all of the mismatched socks...someone please tell me, where do they go????


A visit to the doctor confirmed that G's ear pain was indeed a nasty infection...too bad the oregano oil dropped in her ear did nothing but make her smell like a hoagie :(!

It's here!!! M took the day off to await the arrival of our new refrigerator freezer--it got here at 6:45 p.m.!... Boy were we all grateful to have a working fridge again to replace our almost 18 year old dying model. I must admit, I've never seen such excitement over an appliance before!

It was a family effort to get this in the house. P and C were a huge help to M as he maneuvered this monstrosity up the porch steps and into the kitchen on a hand-truck. The 3 youngest helped Daddy fish the water line through the kitchen floor into the basement ceiling and remove all the packing materials, while I whisked the the 3 older kiddos around the corner to a bowling party with friends from church.

Feels like Christmas...a refrigerator with water and ice in the door. How grateful I am for my handy hubby who was able to get the water line all rigged up before we went to bed last night..everyone wanted to drink lots of ice water today :)!! Oh, and another bonus is our white fridge/freezer finally matches the rest of the appliances :)!!

What's a fridge without a bit of family history displayed? I couldn't go to bed until I had that taken care of! I have had pictures of each of the kiddos as newborns on our fridge for as long as I can remember. Then we added our 'first' pictures of Mercy and Odesco including their 'delivery room' snapshot as we watched them emerge from behind the glass doors in the airport. I love the emotion on each of our faces as we saw them for the very first time!
Believe it or not, one of my top questions when we were shopping was,"Will magnets stick to this fridge?" They don't adhere to the new stainless steel models, in case you were wondering :)

L was very perturbed all day yesterday by another wobbly tooth. I prayed with him before bed that God would take care of it for him...at around 1am he came into our bedroom and announced, "Mom, my tooth fell out , what should I do with it?!" This morning I asked M if I had been dreaming...sure enough a toothless little man greeted me with a very big grin. He is convinced that Odesco elbowed him in the night helping the process along...only God knows :)!

Conversations...

Mercy and Odesco are typically the early-birds around here. They scamper down the stairs and head right over to the school shelf to get out their work for the day. There is a method to their madness...the first one to finish gets their work corrected first and then of course free time sooner. This can make for some interesting interactions and 'opportunities' for my sanctification early in the day!
Today, as I was attempting to finish my 'quiet' time,and they were busy with schoolwork, they both noticed that last night Daddy had hung one of our Portraits of Hope pictures on the wall . Odesco remarked that he remembered playing 'that game' at Acres of Hope. Mercy commented that sometimes they did not have a wide open space to play it because the nannies would bring the beds outside to wash and dry them in the sun. Odesco remembered that the beds were not too comfortable and then he said,"Mercy there's one thing I don't understand...why did they make us take baths in hot water when it was already so hot in Africa?!" Then he remembered how he disliked wearing a particular sweatshirt but he seemed to always get stuck wearing it...he recalled how he had to sleep under the covers and how hot it would get in the bed with that sweatshirt on. Soon, they were back to their schoolwork completely unfazed by what just took place.

I am so grateful that these 2 have these shared memories of life in Liberia. I am so grateful for these brief windows into their past...I still stand in awe of the great lengths the Lord went to make them a part of our family. In spite of the frequent chaos, conflict, and challenges, my heart is so thankful to be their Mom.

How good and pleasant it is...

....When brothers live together in unity! Psalm 133:1
Way back in April, our family enjoyed a refreshing Sunday afternoon at our brother and sister in law's house. They spoiled us with a delicious feast but even more with the gift of their time... My hubby just loves to be with his brother and I am equally as blessed to spend time with my sister in law. The icing on the cake was getting to know our nephew's 'bride to be' a bit more too. We were so grateful that they took time out of their crazy pre-wedding schedule to visit with our family. They spent at least an hour with the kids teaching them some fun games and later took us on a tour of the old 'full of character' house they are renovating.
Thanks Bill, Sharon,Peter and Shannon for a wonderful memory!!

Our 4 monkeys !

This is the fun game "Ninja" that Shannon taught our kiddos...they are still playing it :)

Our nephew and his sweet bride to be :)

On the threshold of the home they are renovating. One neat fact : they cut down a huge tree and used the lumber to rebuild the staircase...how cool is that?!

Dibble Dabble

What do you get when you combine a hot day,8 energetic kids, a generous neighbor with a refreshing pool, and a golf tee?
FUN!!!!!
"Dibble Dabble" kept this clan happy and busy for quite a while today :) I thought some of you may want to give it a try.... Thanks Yoder family for sharing this fun game with us!!!

First, one person is the designated 'tee hider'...they swim to the bottom of the pool and place the tee on the floor...then they swim away. In this picture everyone is waiting for the tee to pop up to the surface~

Once the tee is spotted, watch out...it's a free for all as everyone tries to grab it...it is harder than it looks as that tiny piece of wood just bounces around with all the commotion!

Victory!

Another Victor!

Attempting to multi-task while I 'supervised' this lively game, I brought the book I had just received hours earlier in the mail...it is a science book that I will be coordinating a coop from in the fall....I positioned myself under a shady tree... a bird enjoyed target practice with my newly acquired book!! Yuck! (a few minutes earlier it got my arm so I moved- obviously not far enough away from his shooting range!)

Aren't they handsome?! I was trying to get a good picture for a montage frame we have...not quite what I had in mind but thought I'd share it anyhow :)
Thanks for checking in! I've got lots of posts to catch up on so stay tuned!