Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Peyton's 1st Birthday

Yes, my little Peyton turned one at the end of March. I can hardly believe it has been a year since God blessed us with our second son. He is such a joy with his precious giggle and sweet personality. I love watching him play outside, climbing on the small play toys and riding the "truck" down the driveway. He LOVES to be outside! Just recently I started putting him in a booster seat at the table instead of in his highchair. He thinks he is SOOO big. And he's getting pretty good at going down the stairs by himself. We tried to get him to go down on his tummy, but he's opted for the scooting-on-the-behind one-step-at-a-time method. It works. And I love watching him eat a banana like a big kid- holding the whole banana in the peel. So cute. He really is such a joy. We are so thankful for him.





Monday, June 22, 2009

The Boys and Lance Armstrong



Isaac loves to be like Daddy. Here he is with his "work shirt" on and his "work pencil" behind his ear, just like Daddy. He's sooooo proud! : )



And Peyton will crawl or climb on just about anything. At just the right height, the dishwasher is fair game, isn't it??? And sister's bunk bed is easy to climb onto and has really fun bars to hang from. The little monkey has way too much fun!

















We had a great Father's Day yesterday. We all went to the McFaddens for lunch and had a nice visit with the family, including Grandma and Grandpa McFadden. We don't get to visit with them too often so it was nice to see them. We also got to see Chad's brother's house that he's fixing up~ great job Caleb and Lindsay! Saturday was Chad's sister's bridal shower. It was a great time, with almost 50 people in attendance. It's amazing that she's getting married in just 2 months!!! Congrats Natalie! Some really fun news: Lance Armstrong was in my hometown for a bike race!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly believe it! My parents got to see him~ I'm soooo jealous! (Dad, I need some pictures!!!) And of course he won! How fun would that be to see him race?!?! Please, those of you who were there, you have to tell us what is was like. : )

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Elisa's Birthday

Elisa turned four in March!!! We had some family friends over after church the day of her birthday~ fun times with goodie bags, a craft, and cake and ice cream. I normally make a cake for the kids for their birthday, but this time (mostly because I ran out of time) I let her come with me to the store where she got to pick out her own cake. She really enjoyed this and was very excited about her cake. She loved the colors :)





















Elisa is a sweetheart with a great ability to charm and make you laugh all at the same time : ) She loves one-on-one time and will sit on your lap any chance she gets. A couple of her favorite activities are doing puzzles and playing with dolls. Her absolute favorite activity (for now) is helping me with lunch or dinner, even if helping is just sitting on the counter making mommy smile~ she sure does make meal prep more fun!!!

Elisa and Peyton

Ooooooo, don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?!?!?!












And she's such a cutie, don't you think?!?!







Then again, I'm the mom and can't help but see the cuteness!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Go Buckeyes!!!







Here is Isaac sporting his "football" clothes. Daddy (and Mommy too) is an Ohio State Buckeye fan, so naturally it is fun to have Buckeye attire for Isaac, and naturally all of our children know how to respond when someone says, "O-H!". Yes, the appropriate response is, "I-O!!!" And when one is getting dressed in one's "football" clothes, one must say, "Go Buckeyes!" (Really, we do not brainwash our children.) Now I must say here that our children also know how to cheer for the Cal Bears. "Go Bears!!!" can be heard in the room if a Cal game can be found on our mid-west programming. : ) Much thanks to Poppy Scott for that one! My Ohio-born children still have some CA blood in them : )






Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Brianna's Birthday

















I went and had some pictures copied to a cd!!! hip-hip-hooray! I am not planning to post ALL the pics at once- hehe. A little at a time.


Today's pictures come from Brianna's birthday party. She turned 7 back in February. For her party she had 4 friends over for some craft time and a sleepover. Only 2 friends were able to spend the night, which turned out to be just fine : ) They all had a great time. I can hardly believe Brianna is 7 already. She's grown up so fast. She loves math and science. Part of the homeschool curriculum I'm using has me go through verses in Proverbs with her; I'm always impressed by how quickly she understands the concepts we talk about and the examples she comes up with (some concepts in Proverbs are difficult to explain!). She's enjoyed loving on Peyton recently- she hasn't always been the first to play with the babies, but lately I'll find her helping Peyton with a puzzle or a toy- so sweet. Oh, and she loves to help me in the kitchen. She'll help with just about anything- she'll cut, add ingredients, stir, set the table, think of things I haven't thought of for the dinner table, make sandwiches, etc. She's a great helper. I look forward to seeing her learn and grow more in the months ahead.





Monday, June 8, 2009

A Bridal Shower and Clothes Projects

We had a wonderful weekend! I was able to take the girls to a bridal shower for Chad's cousin. The shower was beautiful and it was really fun to do something girly with my girls : ) Upon returning home, Daddy and Isaac were working in the garden; Isaac was helping Daddy pull weeds. Too cute!!!!

I was able to spend a couple hours working on a project: putting away all the clothes that have accumulated from the kids outgrowing what is in their dressers. The accumulating clothes prompted me to make some decisions about kids' clothes in general. 1. I need not keep so many clothes. This has only created more work than it's worth. I love that the kids have been blessed with so many hand-me-downs, but a girl/boy can only wear so many clothes and we only have so much room. 2. I need a place to put the clothes in transition. Isaac's dresser was becoming the leaning tower of clothes... that just wasn't exciting to look at and was a source of anxiety every time I entered the boys' room. So, there is now a designated bin for such items and once it's full, I must put said items away. This is the plan anyway. Long term, I have visions of being more organized about clothes and season transitions, but one step at a time, right?

And we had a blessed Sunday with wonderful fellowship at church and relaxing time at home. Chad's parents took the four oldest home with them in the evening and we enjoyed a nice bike ride with just Peyton. Peyton enjoyed having Mommy and Daddy all to himself. Which brings me to today and only having Peyton- can you guess what might be on my to-do list??? You guessed it- making a picture cd!

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Back to Blogging

Wow, it's been a while, again, since I've posted. I had a few minutes this morning so I thought I'd post an update.

I had a great visit with my Mom and Ken. They came for a week and we all had a great time! Our activities included shopping (Bri got a new bike!), going to see a kids play (Stellaluna), card playing (so fun for me! I love cards!), evening walks (so fun), LOTS of outdoor playing with the kids (including a picnic at the park), and a breakfast out-to-eat at Bob Evans. I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting. Oh, yes, Chad did lots of gardening! You should see our garden!!! (Maybe someday you will.)

I've had some morning sickness and fatigue that hasn't been so fun. Overall, it wasn't as bad as it could be, so for that I'm thankful. But it's never fun to feel sick. I've felt much better the last couple days :)

I was sooooo incredibly blessed to have coffee and dessert with a group of friends this week. I was encouraged and laughed so hard my cheeks hurt. The group included a couple women who always bless us younger women with godly wisdom. We are so blessed to have their input in our lives. Did I use the word 'blessed' enough? hmmm.

The kids are outside playing with the neighbors; it's a BEAUTIFUL day. The plan is to eat lunch outside and head out for some afternoon shopping.

(If you are wondering about pictures, here's the deal... our computer won't allow me to just download pics from my camera to the computer. I have to have the pics on cd and to get the pics on cd, well, that just takes a trip to the store down the street and an hour (or more) to wait for the pics to download. Hopefully I'll find time, I mean make time, to do this soon so you can see our cute kids and beautiful garden. If I don't get it done soon, you have my permission (not that you needed it) to bother me about it. You know, like, WHERE ARE THE PICTURES???)

Blessings,