A Sandbox for Isaac

These pictures were taken a couple months ago, just before we had some family pictures taken. I hope all of you had a nice 4th of July weekend. Isaac is our little firecracker, born early in the morning on the 4th in 2006. We had fun celebrating his birthday. Daddy built him a sandbox for his birthday (of course all the kids are enjoying it). It has been almost nonstop sandbox play since it was finished. You'll love this: Isaac was helping Daddy shovel the sand into the wheelbarrow, to then take it over to the sandbox... Isaac stops and says, "Daddy, I love you." Sooooo sweet. We spent one evening at the local Balloon Glow- there were about 15 hot air balloons lit up. The kids have really enjoyed going to this the past couple of years. And we enjoyed getting together at a friends place for food and fun with lots of friends on the afternoon of the 4th.

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.

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. : )

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!!

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 : )

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.