O-N-E

This is turning into birthday season for our family! Two birthdays within a couple of weeks should keep us pretty busy with the celebrating. I honestly can't believe that my baby girl has turned one! It doesn't seem like it's been a whole year since she was born, but I can hardly remember what life was like without her here. I picked out some of her favorite foods for dinner and made an Angel Food Cake for my little angel. She loved the menu and the party blowers! We forgot to practice blowing out the candle, so she wasn't quite sure what to do with it. But she loved all the singing! She looked like she was going to dig right into her piece of cake, but I think she filled up on too much birthday dinner because she had trouble finishing her piece. She thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers the next day, though! I thought for sure that Fiona the Destructive would be perfect at unwrapping presents. Go figure- that night she wasn't very interested in ripping paper. She loved what was hiding inside all that pretty paper! We're so thankful to have Fiona in our lives and in our family! She is a joy and a treasure!

E-I-G-H-T

Hallllllooooooo out there!! Is anyone out there still checking my sad, lonely little blog?? You can't imagine all the things that have been vying for my time and attention these last few months. I know, it's a poor excuse for not throwing a few pictures up every once in a while. But you know, sometimes something has to give. I have so much I want to share about what we've been doing. I think I will start with our latest celebration. I can't believe it, but my biggest little one just turned eight! It seems impossible. Trevor got to have two parties- the second one on Halloween with knights and fairies as guests. And for desert: pumpkin pie! Don't you just love how we smash a whole bunch of holidays into one day?! Trevor is such a patient, loving big brother (most of the time)! These pictures show how much he has matured over the past year, as he let his brother and sister help with his gifts. He's also a great helper around the house with chores and watching out for his younger siblings! I am amazed to watch him grow and change. It is hard to remember when he wasn't so big and mature, and yet it feels like yesterday that he was just a little toddler. Happy Birthday to my little man!

Family Fun

I swear I don't know what happened to all the pictures that I thought I was taking. I guess I just got so caught up playing, I forgot to take pictures. It was a crazy, chaotic, noisy week. Just what vacation should be when there are 20+ people sharing a house! The cousins had a great time playing together and the adults got to catch up. Despite some disappointments (who closes main attractions in August???) we did all sorts of fun things in Branson. Here are some of the highlights: The fish hatchery at Table Rock Dam- fun for all ages!

Marshmallow roasting amongst the poison ivy- fortunately we didn't seem to have any cases of that.
Celebrating Nana's birthday- complete with balloons, elk heads, peach cream pie and singing! Oh, and don't forget the 20 loved ones surrounding her!

And totally random fun-ness!
I will try to get the rest of the pictures from vacation up on my shutterfly site this week, so look there for more!

Slow Down

We had a wonderful time visiting Ev's parents. It was really nice to have a week where we were on country time. The weather was gorgeous- we even got some rain. Yeah, for us that's good news! In fact, it was Fiona's first time in the rain. The boys were so excited they ran around like little maniacs just soaking it up!







We did some good, old fashioned yard work. Ev ran the chainsaw while the boys and I picked up sticks and branches. Even Fiona got in on the work. It was great to be outside! I think we were outside from morning until night with only mealtimes inside.




We worked hard, but we played hard too. Trevor & Braden climbed trees, ran in the corn, caught small animals and generally wore themselves out while getting thoroughly dirty from head to toe.






Of course we left time for those things we never get to do like seeing family, riding 4-wheelers and tractors and looking at cows. Fiona met lots of people for the first time!