It was the best of times and it was the worst...

Watch Out! It's Bug-girl!


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Our Lil' Firecracker checkin' out the tent.


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The Menace Twins when it was still fun camping.

Okay, I have weird markings after my comments on the pictures that I can't get rid of. Oh well. I guess we will just have to deal with them:)

We went camping this weekend to celebrate our son's birthday. We live in the sticks so where did we go camping? That's right! Right outside of Olympia! The day we got there was really nice. We picked up groceries on the way there. We got to the park. We set up camp and the other family members that were camping with us showed up. The weather was just right. The kids played with rope and swung from the trees in our camp site. The guys took the kids on a walk and I sat and read my Bible and relaxed in an "easy-chair." It was quite lovely. We had hamburgers and enjoyed camp food. We had friends come visit us over from their camp site. We ate S'mores. We finally all went to bed. Then the trouble started. The baby didn't sleep well, we had some constant trips to the bathroom and about 2:00 a.m. it downpoured. It didn't just sprinkle, it actually puddled in our tent. It didn't let up the rest of the morning. We finally packed our sodden stuff up and took our rumpled selves (in body and in spirit) home. It was one of those trips that you learn a lot from. Either that or you allow it make you bitter and you never want to go camping again. We are going with the former. Our tent and camp chairs are sitting in our front yard, drying out. I put all of our pillows in the dryer yesterday when we got home so everyone would have dry ones to sleep on.
I learned that next time we will take some tarps, the port-a-crib and the port-a-potty!

Birthday Boy

Here he is! Our SamBoy is now eight years old! We had a good party at Oma's house. Friends and family came for cupcakes, some incredible homemade ice cream and to play in an extremely cold pool. The kids played in the pool while the adults watched from the sidelines. We remember wanting to swim badly enough as children to risk hypothermia, but these days it doesn't look as inviting. Our birthday boy received some nice things that day. He got a handmade quilt from Oma, a CD/MP3 player from the fam. and birthday money from the extended fam.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMBOY, WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Just wanted to put a quick post on here for Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to the Ole Daddy Rabbit. He got a new shirt. Unfortunately, I have been running a little behind and didn't get all the kids to hand print it like I have in years past. We will have to rectify that soon enough. It has started to be a tradition to get a new shirt with all the current children's names and handprints on it. Each year we seem to be running out of room. I am going to try my hand at ironing on a picture this time. At least he has a cool shirt to wear today. It says,"DAD, a boy's first hero and a girl's first love." It will be even cooler when I get the picture on there:)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads in our life as well!

Funny Kids

I took some pictures so I could send one to my dad for Father's Day. This is the one we thought was the best. It is definately a good view into their personalities. I think they look pretty cute.

Keeping it up

I need to post something so I remember to keep our blog spot up. So here goes:

Fri. night the boys had a baseball game. They went out early for batting practice. The other team never showed up. They went to the wrong place (even though our coach gave them his cell phone number and directions). I feel badly for those parents. They drove an hour for their kids to not play. I am not sure if we are rescheduling or if they just forfeited. We will have to see. If they forfeited then we have a tournament this weekend and baseball is done.

Mon. the boys also had a piano recital. They both did very well. The oldest really surprised us. Their teacher is really amazing. She gets children to really learn to play. She is worth so much more than we pay her. I am glad to have her for such reasonable rates though. So they are done with piano for the summer.

I ordered school books and such for next year. I love getting new books. We ordered from the Timberdoodle company. They had it here in three days. I was so impressed. They also include a free book with every order. We received Boyhood and Beyond. It looks like a wonderful book. I think all of our boys will get a lot out of it.

I had a wonderful English teacher in high school. He had a sign posted in his classroom. The sign had the word "alot" on it with one of those red circles with a slash through it. I always remember that a lot is two words and not one because of that sign. That was half my life time ago. It is funny how some things stick with you. That could be another post; sayings that stick with us. If I had a bigger readership I might take a poll:)

The Ole Daddy Rabbit shot our problem raccoon early this morning. He took no pleasure in killing it. Unfortunately, the animal had gotten to be a problem. It had taken to appearing at all times of the day and night. It was getting bold enough to take on our cat, rabbit or maybe even one of the small fry. It got taken out with one shot (pretty impressive really) so it didn't suffer. Thus ends the chapter of raccoon watching at our house.

Next time I will think up funny sayings.

IN PRAISE OF BUCCA

I have a really good friend that my children affectionately call "BUCCA." When she comes over my children can sound like a bunch of chickens,"Bucca, bucca, bucca!" She did leave me high and dry for a week to camping with her family. During that time while she was enjoying the outdoors and valiantly protecting people from dastardly varmints, I had to soldier on with school and the loneliness that comes with husbands involved in household projects. How did I ever survive? Some how I managed and she is now back. I did get to talk to her on Monday as well as winning a contest. She is a good listener, smart and witty, has hair that I have paid way to much money to try to have, but never got and for at least 6 weeks I had more children than she:) She loves her husband and family, is a good example when it comes to hospitality in her home and against any sane reason seems to like me. She also has commented on our family blog, some of which has inspired this post. Happy Wed. Bucca!

Cookies and Other Excuses

I had started blogging again with every intention of keeping up with it. I was doing well until I hit a problem with our cookies on our webspace. Since I don't even know what a cookie really is I used the old stand by my mother taught me. She used it with appliances. When something was on the fritz she believes in praying over and leaving it alone. If you leave it alone the appliance will usually heal itself. (That is a joke for the humorily impaired) It seems to work with blog stuff as well. I didn't even attempt to follow the instructions from Blogger in order to fix the problems. Lo and behold! My husband tried to log-in today and it came up with no problems what so ever. Guess my mom was right.

Our weekend started out with a baseball game. The boys won! That is the first game they have won this season. It was a bittersweet victory since the opposing team has never won a game at all. We sure were glad for our boys. It is still hard to see those little guys on the opposing team trying with all their might to be good little sportsmen. They all did a good job.

Sat. The Ole Daddy Rabbit had to go help his buddy break in his new shotgun. They both killed a good number of clays! That'll learn 'em. We also tried to put up one of those Easy Set pools up at Oma's house. It claims to be ready for water in 15 min. Whatever! Maybe for the super gifted, but it took us a bit longer. Then we had technical difficulties that had to be smoothed out with brute strength. Ah well! It is up now. We BBQed on Sunday after church and the kids got blue lips trying out the pool. It is quite funny that they can be shaking all over, quivering lips and all, and claim to not be cold so they don't have to get out. We remember doing the same thing, though.

Mon. the oldest boy went off to do his testing, as required by homescool law here. I jumped on the computer to check e-mail and a couple of my favorite blogs. I got a lovely surprise: I won some books from one of my favorite bloggers of all time. Carmon at Buried Treasure usually has something thought-provoking to say. Her blog is often subject for conversation at our house. She usually stands on the same side of the fence we do on many important subjects. She has a great way of addressing controversial issues. She does that so well, I figure to leave that all in her domain. We mostly post our family news and such here. Carmon just celebrated 6 years of faithful blogging. In celebration of this event she was giving away books to some one that left a comment for that post. Mondays aren't always bad:)

BIRTHDAY GIRL

This is our Lil' Firecracker enjoying her first cupcake.

This is our Lil' Firecracker with the outfit Oma made for her birthday.


It is hard to believe, but she is a whole year old now. She has decided to leave crawling behind and walk every where she goes. She feeds herself and doesn't want any help. Her new sun bonnet will be great because she loves the out of doors.
Happy Birthday from your family!

Baseball pictures.

Our Fireball enjoying a hotdog after the game.

Here is the SamBoy up to bat.

Here is the BusyBee on first base!

The best looking umpire we have.

This is BusyBee or as much as you can see through the chain link.

Here is our little Firecracker helping keep the baseballs in the bucket. You have to watch them or jump out, you know.

We had friends and family show up to cheer our boys on. We had a lot of fun and the boys all played well. We didn't win, but that is okay. We like winning just like anyone else. We think playing your best and learning sportsmanship is the point though. The Ole Daddy Rabbit got talked into umping again. I am sure he got picked on account of his looks.

Mother's Day

I am so very thankful for my mom. I am thankful for the friends that I have that are moms. I am glad to be a mom. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO US ALL. I think that about covers that:)

I do have some lovely pictures of the boys' baseball game last night. They all played well and that is the important part. I even got some good snaps of the really handsome umpire they had. I will post them soon as I have a quiet house right now and I am going to do the ultimate mom thing-take a nap.

Underway

The girls' new room is underway. Yippee! When we moved into our house over 5 years ago it came with an almost finished room. It had the insulation and wiring done. The Man of the House took off work to complete it this week. It now has flooring down. As soon as that gets screwed in the drywall will be going up. We have three girls that will be moving upstairs when that room is done. We already have the pink, purple and white paint that will delight the princess in all of them. I don't have to live in it and they do so they can have pink walls if they like. I already painted their dresser. It is white with pink and purple drawers. We have all the furniture to go in the room including the pink, lacey bedspreads and curtains. Most of it was given to us or picked up at a garage sale. So the cost to us was minimal. It is amazing the wonderful kid things you can find at garage sales or thrift stores. I will have to remember to take some pictures when it is all finished.

Morning Glories.

We planted Morning Glories on Tues. or Wed. I know I bought the Jiffy-pellets on Mon. The seedlings are already sprouting, as you can see for yourself. Truly amazing! We numbered each one. I mixed four different seed packets together. Then the children each got a grid sheet. They got to guess what colors will come up in each of the 63 little pots we planted. I plan to plant them along the fence so we have some beauties climbing the fence.

We have had a little gardening incident so far. We planted two cauliflower and one broccoli plant out in a little spot in the yard. We also have a rabbit that is appropriately named Peter. He ate them! I had hoped the deer would leave them alone and they did. It was Peter Rabbit neatly clipping them down to the nubbins. I have one broccoli plant up in a planter that should be safe. Ah well. The deer seem to think that our strawberry plants and roses are here simply for their luncheon delights. Last year I shot a couple with the BB gun while they were sampling my blueberries. They were cheeky enough to return though. It is the price we pay for living in such a beautiful place, I guess.

Unbelievable.

Our neighbor gave us this outfit for the Firecracker when she was born. I thought,"It will never fit her." Yet here she is able to wear it almost a year later. It is unbelievable how time flies. She is learning to walk too. Pretty soon she will be toddling after her brothers and sisters. They are so amazing!

After all this time!

I know that our vast reading audience has wondered what happened to our blog. Life pretty much! We have priorities and the internet isn't one of the top ones:) Now I again have the desire to put some stuff on our blog. I might even find some time to do it.

We are getting to the end of our school year. The boys are playing baseball and we have Friday night games for the next six weeks. I hope I can post some pictures from that. I also need to update our profile since some nicknames and most ages have undergone some changes. The kids sure enjoy seeing pictures of themselves so that is a lot of fun. Well, we shall see if I get it together for a little bit, hmmm?

After all this time!

I know that our vast reading audience has wondered what happened to our blog. Life pretty much! We have priorities and the internet isn't one of the top ones:) Now I again have the desire to put some stuff on our blog. I might even find some time to do it.

We are getting to the end of our school year. The boys are playing baseball and we have Friday night games for the next six weeks. I hope I can post some pictures from that. I also need to update our profile since some nicknames and most ages have undergone some changes. The kids sure enjoy seeing pictures of themselves so that is a lot of fun. Well, we shall see if I get it together for a little bit, hmmm?

Why Not?

I know it has been a while since I blogged. I have several reasons why. One is that I am having techinical difficulty with my digital camera uploads. Since I am not necessarily a techno-savvy person that is a big mountain to scale for me. I really haven't had the time to try lately.

We also established this weblog to be fun and show off our family pictures. We have gone through a series of hard providences. We have come out on the other side a little more patient and thoughtful (I think, I hope anyway). These things always serve to remind us that we are not as big or tough as we think we are. We really do need to hang onto Jesus. When it comes down to it, He is all we have. We really are thankful for our church family that has been Jesus with skin on for us.

We are hoping and praying that this year will be one to blog happy things about:) It has started already:
My good friend, Valerie BBG, had a beautiful baby boy. You can look here to see for yourself.
We also got a new niece on Dec. 21! She caused much excitement for her parents, her aunt, uncle and cousins. Most of all for her big brother. He is quite enamoured with her. We know he is going to take good care of her.

We also got my mom for Christmas. Not just for a visit, but to stay! She has a nice, little place just down the street from us. She has decided to call it Providence, which is a very fitting name for the house. It is a good reminder and testimony of God's goodness even in hard circumstances.

I bought sauerkraut!

You might well ask why. I will tell you-for Reformation Day. Now you are probably wondering what that is all about. I am not going to miss this opportunity again. We are going to celebtate October 31st with German fare and some fun educational things, that have yet to be decided. In case you were wondering, it is the day Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Whittenberg. Celebrating God's providence through this man is a much better way to spend that day, I think, rather than simply not celebrating Halloween as we have in the past. Well, so much for leaving the controversial things to Carmon:)

Look who's nine!

Yes, our oldest is nine, as of tomorrow. We have a lot of fun playing with our funhouse pictures. We couldn't find a pirate, but our BusyBee settled for being a WWI flying ace. What a blessing our boy is. Happy Birthday!!!

I love a contest.

I do love contests. I like playing games and having fun. I am honest enough to admit that I like winning, but I also enjoy playing too. So here is a contest definately worth entering at the In A Shoe website
This contest is quite a challenge for me on several fronts. I had to learn a couple of new computer skills. One was learning how to insert a link in my post. The information was graciously provided on Karen's website. Then if you link to the contest you can actually enter for a second contest for another worthwhile prize. I hope my friend Valerie(BBG) is proud of me.

The contest has a prize from Vision Forum for $700.00 worth of products. That is for the family that guesses the number of items in the new Vision Forum catalog that is coming out. There will also be a drawing for 2 $50.00 gift certifcates from VF as well. Nice prizes and lots of fun. If you click on the In A Shoe link and then follow the directions you too can enter.

Fun, fun, fun for everyone.

Good News.

We had to postpone our carwash until this last Saturday. We were blessed with great weather and a wonderful crew. We raised $410.00 all together. Some came from people at church that donated even though they could not come to the car wash. Some was also earned at the carwash. The money all went to Dave and BeckyLynn Black for the Ethiopian churches they minister to. Our family has been blessed to be involved with their ministry in a hands-on way. This was great for us and the children.