Josh's 31st Birthday!

Last Saturday was Josh's 31st birthday. He had a quiet morning at home with his favorite girls. Very relaxing. Just what he needed after a long week. I told him we were going to dinner with our good friends the Troyers, and even gave him his gift in the morning so he wouldn't think there was "more to come".

We had a great dinner eating a TON of shrimp (Thanks again, Clint and Keisa!!!). Afterwards we went to our house to "watch a movie or something", and SURPRISE!!!! Our wonderful friend and babysitter, Kristi helped me pull off this sneaky little party for Josh and he had no clue!

David and Craig took pictures for me all night. Look at Josh! Too funny. :)

Make a wish!

I'm not sure what is going on in this picture. I just thought they looked like statues. :)

You can't have a birthday at our house without the Elmo birthday banner! :)

I Love Having A House Full!!!

This is by far the best part of ministry here at New Tribes Bible Institute. At any given evening you may have a room full of people! I love it!!!

Some staff and students enjoying a movie in our home. :)

A Farewell to Summer

I feel like the last few weeks I haven't been able to post much. Our computer wasn't working, then it was, then the Internet wasn't, then it was, then it wasn't again... You know how it goes. I have been assured by my dear husband the problem has been officially fixed. Yeah!!!

We have had some amazing times this summer with family. Two trips to Tennessee, swimming in Nana and Papa's pool, playing in the sprinkler. I started back to work a little over a month ago, but we were able to squeeze some last bits of fun into the summer. We went to the park with some friends, had little girls over for a fairy party, Josie turned THREE (I still can't get over that) and we were able to make a quick day trip to Blue Gable on Labor Day.

Now Emma is in school, and the weather is getting cooler. At tree on our street is starting to turn red, and is dropping some leaves!

So as we say our farewell to the summer, we welcome autumn with open arms, and await all the joy this season brings, of jumping in leaves, apple picking, cozy sweaters, and family together. I love the fall! Autumn is such a blessed time. Now, where is that apple butter recipe...

Daddy and Emma on an elephant?

I love this picture. Boy can that girl get her Daddy to laugh!

Look at all those fairies in our backyard!

Splashing around at Blue Gable.

I love this little cottage! I still remember swinging on the porch swing reading a letter from my friend Katie when she found out she was having a boy, and I was pregnant with Emma! Lots of fun memories here. :)

Great News, and Weird Happenings

First for the good news...Addie no longer has allergies!!! We went to see her doctor last week and she passed her skin tests, and today we had the results of the blood test. This is super exciting!!! She is able to start with baked goods, and by six months, we should be able to be eating eggs and drinking milk. We celebrated the news at lunch with her first EVER cookie, which she promptly spit out. I don't think she is used to sweet. It was funny. Here are some recent pics of my cutie pie!

Adelaide happy at the beach.

Looking for some sand. :)

Okay, now onto the weird. This morning I woke up with my eye totally swollen shut! I have no idea what happened, but I couldn't open my eye. Josh thinks maybe it was a spider bite. My eye wasn't red, and there was nothing leaking (sorry if that grossed you out!), so that kind of leaves a lot of things out. I am going to the Doctor at 2pm to see what he thinks.

My eye this morning. (The other one was shut because of the bright flash).

This is me trying to open my eye.

It has gotten a little better. I just took this picture. I am still going to go in though, and see what they think. Any guesses?

Emma's First Day of Kindergarten!!!

What a momentous day today was in our household! Our oldest daughter went off to school! The whole family went to take her, and as I dropped her off in her classroom she seemed to be really excited. When it was time for me to go, Emma started to tear up. She asked me to "Please tell Josie and Addie that I will miss them very, very much!"

It was so hard to leave her there with tears in her eyes, but I knew staying would just make it worse.

What does a Mom do for the first day of Kindergarten? Well certainly not work! I could hardly concentrate on my jobs, so I kept myself busy with some "brainless" filing, until it was time to go get her.

Emma had a great day! She was so excited to tell me over lunch all about Chicken Tag that they played in gym class, and the gingerbread hunt they went on. Here are a few pictures we took to commemorate the day!

Emma showing off her new backpack Daddy let her get.

My little girl, excited and nervous. (Thanks again Ben and Em for the cutie outfit!!!)

My girls are getting so big!

Emma at her desk.

Emma with her teacher, Mrs. MacMillan.

Whirlwind of a Month!

Have you missed us? Have you even noticed we were gone? This has been a very busy time for us with the student leadership training, registration, orientation, and all the includes. When you take that, and add that our computer broke (again) that leaves no time to fix the computer, and then no time to blog!

Whether you missed us or not, I sure missed blogging! I can't believe I still have pictures from Fair havens to post. I have a ton of great ones, but I will leave it at these. No need for it to be December, and you are still reading about our vacation in July!

Thanks to all you loyal readers who have let me know it was time I updated!

Ben and Josh. No they are not Oakley models.

Addie made it to the top! What a trooper! That was a much bumpier ride than we thought it would be.

I love this picture of Ben. It looks like it would be on the back of some great photography book that he had published. Ben, when you publish a photography book, you have my permission to use this photo. :)

The best of the attempts at a family photo.

I thought this was hilarious! We were just trying to get a picture of the three girls on a big rock. Seems simple enough. The Curry and Snyder families had no troubles. Well, this says it all. I LOVE Emma's "Good Grief" face. Oh, and also that Ken is hiding behind Addie so she won't fall! Good times!

Fishing at Fair Havens

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. I was having problems finding the pictures on our computer. I am definitely not a computer geek.

While we were in Tennessee, Josh took Emma out fishing with Uncle Ben and Aunt Emily while I put Josie and Addie to bed. Em was able to catch these great shots of Emma's first fish!

Casting: it's not as easy as it looks...It's much easier. Don't tell Emma I said so!

Is there a tug? Reel him in Emma!

Here is Emma with her prize catch! When she was telling me about it that night she said "Momma, I don't know why, but I was so excited that it made me cry!". That melted my heart.

Time to throw him back in.

I just had to add this picture. Apparently this duck was so obnoxious and followed Ben around all evening. Ha!

Thanks again Emily for taking these pictures for me. Makes me feel like I was there. :)

Back from Tennessee!

I was going to wait to post once I got my pictures all in order, but my sister-in-law made it a race, and who am I kidding...I'm addicted to blogging! :)

Our Mathew five went to Tennessee and met up with the rest of the 13 in the family for a week of fun together. What a great week it was! I miss them all already!

I'm sure there will be several posts of the week later on. You can also check out the Curry blog and Ben and Emily's blog for other possible pictures of the week. :)

Here is a picture minus Dad and Mom (they took it!)

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations Joy Abbott! You are the first one correct with Missouri. Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I did ask Rachel to pick between the two she guessed, and she picked the WRONG one. Close guys. Oh, and major props to the Everson's for the very detailed description. :)

Thanks everyone for playing, and please play again!

Maybe we can get Joy to post her prize on her blog when it arrives. :)

Let's Play A Game!

At the moment, I've got a ton of older pictures available.

The first correct answer receives a prize. I am rooting for locals, as sending something out of the county will be a little more expensive, but you are all welcome to play.

Where are these pictures taken?

Look in the background for clues.

I just had to post a close up. Look at these two cuties!

(another hint: Figure out which child it is, and maybe you can pin-point where in our lives we were)

A laugh for you today!

Can you see what the sign says? Go ahead and click on it to enlarge. Since when do banks have cigarette specials? Ha ha!

Okay, really this was a sign at a gas station, but I thought it looked too funny, like something you would read in Reader's Digest or see on Jay Leno.

Hope it put a smile on your face today!

Independence Day!

Yesterday was a wonderful Independence Day! We woke up a little later, after having a wonderful evening with new friends and old at Cascades for Jackson's fireworks display.

After eating some yummy cocoa ripple coffee cake and getting a nap, we went up to celebrate our freedom at Nana and Papa's house.

After we grilled some dogs, and had a dip in the pool, we headed to small town USA, aka Fowler-tucky, to their annual 4th of July parade with Papa and Nana and the cousins. All of the kids had so much fun, and so did I! :)

After the parade, we went for ice cream at the local Frosty boy, and then to the park for their fireworks display. We all had a great time playing together, and hanging out before they started.

We were pleasantly surprised to see one of the best displays of fireworks in years! You would think that they wouldn't have been so big in such a farming town, but they were awesome. What a great day with the family I'll never forget!

Josie, Emma, Solomon and Alex watching the parade.

It looked as though the whole fire department was in the parade! I hope no fires were happening in that town! :)

Josie dancing to some of the music.

My dad took our picture for us after several failed attempts at a self portrait. Thanks Dad!

Josie's smiley face sundae at the Frosty boy. Emma wanted me to take a picture of hers too, but they looked the same, and she already had eaten an eye ball. So, if you want to, you can pretend this is Emma's sundae. :)

Jay and Shanna chilling out before the display. I love seeing how crazy in love these guys still are! :)

Cayden is super excited!

I love my sweet nephew Alex. I wish he was my son. I love those eyes! Doesn't he look like he could be mine? Maybe I could just sneak him. :)

The ever cheerful Addie. (Nice picture, Josh!)

Emma, Ashlyn, Ivy and Solomon playing "freeze tag" before the show.

Okay, so I didn't want to miss the show while trying to change the settings on the camera, so after two pics, I put it away and snuggled close with my kiddos. It was the best!

Eight Years!

Today we celebrate eight glorious years of marriage! I can honestly say I am the most blessed woman in the world.

Thank you for choosing me to be your bride. I love you more now than I ever did when we said our vows. You make life exciting, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Happy anniversary my sweet Joshua!

Um, we need a more recent picture of us. This is from April. Lame. I know.

I Live With a Bunch of Crazies!

Who knew that eating pudding could be so much fun?