Summer Fun

This is a 0-3 month top on Annabelle. It was my absolute favorite of her's when she was a newborn and it still fits. It's obviously much shorter than it used to be, but it still fits. I'm thrilled.

Pictures at the water park on Samuel's birthday


At the start of each night of Sports Camp all the coaches and helpers lined up and the kids got to run down the long line by themselves and slap everyone's hands while crazy music played. The kids loved it. I thought it was such a unique way of giving attention to each and every kid that was attending. This was on the last night when family was invited. Andy was there each night leading and since it was at our church Samuel was not as disappointed this time that Joseph wasn't there. Here's Joseph eating up all the attention running through the 'tunnel'.

While we were visiting different churches last Summer all Joseph and Samuel kept talking about was they wanted to make the church with the spider web their church. Andy and I had no idea which one they were talking about. So, when we told them that Charlottesville Community Church was the church that God has lead us to, they were thrilled beyond belief. That was the church with the spider web on the playground!

It has been a joy to worship with this congregation and to go through their membership class and know that God had an even better church for us that we even imagined. Their heart for our community continues to amaze us. What they are capable of accomplishing in serving our community is astonishing considering their size.

Here is Joseph enjoying the spider web at the carnival after the conclusion of the Sports Camp.

And here's Annabelle enjoying her snowcone with no flavoring. She thought she was in heaven.

Samuel with his award from the week!

Their new obsession, water balloons!

Samuel got grown up legos for his birthday, but they can only play them when Annabelle is sleeping so it's a very special treat.

Miss thang had her first peanut butter and jelly sandwhich. She loved it of course!

It's been an awesome summer, I can't believe how fast it's going, though!

Garden Growth

We have enjoyed so much our garden. What a blessing it has been. Here were our fruits and veggies on July 21st:

baby cucumbers were sprouting up all over

butternut squash, we have 2.

our first tomato to turn red

crookneck squash, had about 3 at that time

Watermelon, we have one other about this size

Siblings... One of God's Greatest Gifts

No matter how many children we end up having, I believe carving out frequent one-on-one times with each child is crucial to their development. So, while Samuel was gone doing his various activities last month, those times naturally lent themselves perfectly for Joseph and I to spend time alone together. I was able to really connect with Joseph, focus on him as an individual and do the things that he loves to do. It was a very special time for us both.

But, as nice as it was, there was still a noticable void for Joseph. The bike rides just weren't as fun, the games not as exciting and Mommy sure doesn't play swords quite like Samuel.

Conclusion: Mommies are great, but sometimes all a boy wants is a brother!

We have enjoyed so much watching our children's relationships with each other blossom into such deep friendships. We pray they will only grow deeper with time.

Samuel Turns 5

Since mid July Samuel has been so busy. He had Vacation Bible School at a nearby church one week, Nana came for his birthday, went on a camping trip with Daddy, turned 5, went to sports camp the next week with our church and went on a trip with Gigi and GranRan the following weekend.

He's definitely a homebody and cannot stand to be separated from his brother, so all of this activity was challenging for him. Overall we think it was great for him to get some time away and spread his wings a little. Being 5 is tough!

With all the excitement going on, Samuel didn't want a party. So, we went to a water park nearby that he's always wanted to go to with a few friends and everyone came back for dinner and dessert. It was a perfect way to celebrate our precious Samuel!

Off camping with Daddy


They came home first thing Sunday morning, his actual birthday.

Spiderman costume from Nana. He didn't even know what Spiderman was, but asked Nana for a Spiderman costume for his birthday. Of course, she came through for the little man!



Water park after church


His lego cake



We celebrated both Annabelle and Samuel's birthday's while Nana was here.


Luray Caverns with Gigi and GranRan.


We thank God for this amazing child he has given us. He brings so much joy to our lives and we are so honored to be his parents. God is doing some awesome things in his life and we are glad we get to be a part of it all.

It's going to be a great big year for Samuel. We start Kindergarten in the fall! I'm so excited to finally be offically homeschooling. It is going to be so fun! What an honor, but oh what a huge responsibility, too.

I will rest in the truth that God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.

Mid July

Our church was in charge of the entertainment for the July 4th city-wide celebration. Daddy was volunteering and we were planning on going to celebrate with the other 20,000 people expected to attend, but the weather had a different idea. This is as close as we got to the excitement.

So, I made a 4th of July treat to try to make it up to everyone a little.

Cleaning Annabelle off after dinner one night, we found a pea squirrelled away for safe keeping.

Poppy came for a surprise visit! He had a funeral to attend in NY and decided to take a detour on his way up there to visit us. We had such an awesome time with him. The boys had a sleepover with him at a nearby hotel. They went swimming, watched TV, stayed up late and had a big white sugar breakfast... I suppose that's what grandparents are for... or at least that's what they tell me :)

Our first hot pepper!

We had to stake our tomatoes with even bigger stakes since they were over 5 feet tall.

Andy made an A frame for our vines so they could be supported and give us more room for them to grow up instead of just on the ground. Annabelle loved helping.


About to get dumped on!

Water baby

I finally got the first year of our blog printed out in a book. It came out so well! I hope to be able to print one out for each year and use it as our family's memory book. I love this concept. We get the benefit of having our memories in print, but also get to share them with others online. I know I'll never even come close to capturing all the noteworthy stuff, but it's motivated me to keep blogging as much as I can.

I don't love the layout of the inside. The pictures aren't very big and the text and picture boxes aren't always aligned great, but it's a new company and I think it will only get better with time. The user just doesn't have a lot of options for how it comes out, but it might just be the design side of me being overly analytical in that area. But, on the flip side, it's extremely easy to order. So few options leads to having it ordered in under 10 minutes. If I only knew it would be that easy, I would have done it months ago! And it's reasonably priced. Totally beats scrap booking in my eyes.

The company is blog 2 print.