Looking back - June

I would say we had 3 major events happen in June.

1. We redid (by ourselves) our kitchen floor and entry landing.  We used a porcelain tile that looks like hardwood floors.  It was a lot of work and our dining room was in our living room for several weeks, but we are very happy with the results!  It wasn't really hard to do, there are just a lot of steps to tiling and it takes time.  With 3 young children we worked late at night, when friends or family offered to watch our kids, and when others offered to help us.  I actually like that kind of work.  My dad always had me helping with construction projects, wood working projects, etc.  It's something I enjoy but don't necessarily have the time to do it.  I also love working with Lee like that.  We make a good team, mistakes and all...but only we know what those are:)

2. We had my 13 year-old nephew, Joshua David, come visit us for 3 weeks from California.  It would be an understatement to say my kids adore him...they ADORE him!  They loved having him around!  Although he didn't sleep at our house, he was at my parents, we saw him often and enjoyed our time with him.  We took him camping one weekend and the boy got hooked on fishing!  It was fun having him around!  Come visit again Josh!

3. We volunteered for VBS!  Man, was that an exhausting week!  I mean exhausting!  I helped lead the opening and closing assemblies, along with the music!  I also helped lead this year's missions project, which was to raise enough money (in coins, mostly pennies) for 500 diapers for our local pregnancy care center.  The first day we raised enough money for 42 diapers.  I thought to myself, Lord did I make my goal too high, are these kids going to be disappointed?  Well, God had other plans in mind (doesn't He always).  By the end of the week, the kids brought enough money to buy over 15,000 diapers!  The pregnancy center said that would last them almost an entire year!  Not only did we meet the goal, but tripled it!..."But God!"

So as you can see June was busy as well, but it lead into some exciting time and fun memories that we made in July...(coming soon)

Fall Break

We took a camping trip this fall break.  Which, did you know, you pretty much have to pack up your whole house when you go camping?  There is SO much stuff to bring!  Especially with kids.  Anyhow, it was worth it!  I must admit, when we got home I was SOOO very tired, but I know the kids had fun, made memories, got away from the norm of life, electronics, and enjoyed God's beautiful outdoor creation.  There is just something refreshing about being in the great outdoors.  

We invited some friends along, who we always enjoy their company.  The kids rode bikes around the campground, called themselves the Musketeers, and I think had a fun time all around. 

Where did we go?  Madison, IN.  It's our getaway place.  It's quaint.  Reminds me of my hometown, and I just enjoy being there.  We didn't get to browse the little shops this time around, but did get to enjoy a favorite diner of ours, The Downtowner.  Yum!  It's just plain ol' good. 

The worst part of camping when you're pregnant...it is guaranteed you will have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  There was also this huge walnut tree on our site and it must have been harvest time because all the pods were falling off the tree.  We joked if one of the kids got hit, which they never did (but came close), then they had it coming.

Klara cried as we packed up the tent, "tent broken."  I guess that means she had a good time.  Yea, it was a good time.

 

Milestones

Phew...one littlest sister potty trained and one oldest sister losing her first tooth!  Milestones seem to be happening here more and more often! 

So I declare my littlest bug, Klara Jane, is a stubborn one.  She only does what she wants, when she wants to.  So I was a little hesitant about potty training, and after the second day I was contemplating giving up (it probably didn't help it was a busy day and we were running here and there), even though really she had done fairly well.  But by day 3, she had it down.  Praise God!  So for 6 and half more months, we'll be diaper free:)  WOO HOO! 

(I will spare you a picture of Klara sitting on the potty):)  

Isabel has had 3 very loose teeth on her bottom, and actually her two adult teeth were already coming in behind her baby teeth.  I didn't even know that was possible, but it is.  The dentist said they really need to come out soon or they are going to affect her adult teeth.  A few days ago we thought one was SO close to coming out.  We tried pulling, we tried string, but I guess it just wasn't ready.  She was really excited about it.  Tonight at dinner she took a bite into her hamburger and let out a, "OW!"  I could tell her tooth was bleeding just a bit.  I told her we needed to try and pull it out (this was a different tooth than we tried before).  Her attitude was not like the few days before, she was verging on hysterical.  I'm pretty sure she has her daddy's genes when it comes to pain, hospitals, blood, etc.  After some encouraging and a bit of stern, "You need to calm down!  It's going to be ok," I finally got a string around her tooth and with a slight tug, out it came!  PRAISE THE LORD! 

I know it's kind of close up, but you couldn't really see it otherwise:)

It seems silly to stress over these little things in life, but I guess they are what make up our life at this time in our lives.