Days flying by...

This past Monday the 11th, Emily turned 8 months! WOW...it is so hard to believe that she has grown so much and is getting into all kinds of things. She is rolling every chance she gets (no forward crawling yet), her first tooth starting to come in a few weeks ago and now 2 more are following, she is eating Cheerios, fruits and veggies, and still on Mamma's milk. The biggest thing with Emily now is her voice...wow she has a shriek that is pretty incredible and can be migraine inducing. If you have been on the phone with me you can attest to this sound she makes. All in all she is doing wonderfully and we are trying to redirect this scream because no matter how cute she is it WILL drive you crazy!! Pictured here showing off her teeth, love of cheerios and scream!!

Ryan is busy with preschool and does enjoy his time there! The crying has stopped for dropoff and so that is a big relief. Ryan is pictured here with his teacher, Mrs. Holley! He is still telling lots of Star Wars stories and is constantly finding someway to have his guys hanging from something in the house. His favorite place is off the spiral bindings on many of the teacher books I have for school. He is not very patient with Adam finishing school and often needs "help" with something only Adam can do. We are still finding the groove of having all the kids around during school. A Ryan statement of the week...after Todd gets a spoon for Ryan to eat some applesauce with Ryan says "Dad you are the best dad ever...(as he turns to go down the stairs) but when you spank me you are not the best dad." He was heading down the stairs almost as if he was saying that part to himself.

Adam is slowing getting used to his new schedule but I think does miss some of the structure and rules of school. We are working through that and hopefully will get into a good groove sometime before May of 2011!! Today was a different day since it was raining outside Todd was off work and so he took over for school today. We had Bible all together and then he worked on math & science with Adam, however Adam thought he should have guitar and gym since Daddy was teaching. We also got our catapillars in the mail yesterday and was perfect timing since the next lesson in our science book is catapillars and butterflys. Very Cool!! Adam question of the week..."Mom, how many grandchildren do you want us to have?" "I want you to have as many children as God's has planned for you." He says, "I think I will have 2 boys and 2 girls." I love Adam's many, many thoughts about his future! The above picture of Adam is reading his letter he got back from his friend Haley in MD!! He was very excited to hear back from her! We hope the letters will continue, it is always fun to get snail mail!!!

Lock Haven Lake

Sunday afternoon we met Adam's cub scout group at Lock Haven Lake! It was a day of fishing, hiking, and learning all about Native Americans. It was a beautiful day with weather we could not have ordered to be more perfect!! We are not a big fishing family however we got what we needed for the day, borrowed fishing rods (batman fishing rods), worms for bait, a cooler with snacks & drinks and we were off! Todd spent the entire time fishing with our boys, other cub scouts and some time all by himself but it paid off, he caught 5 fish (only 1 fatality, the others were released successfully), Adam caught 1 and Zabien (Adam's friend) caught 2. The boys also were able to make a tee pee and a Native American drum! It was just all around a fun afternoon! Ryan had a blast hanging out with Todd while he fished and the boys did their crafts and also watching some of the older scouts catch salamanders. It was only about 15 minutes before we were leaving that he just could not resist or just forgot he had his long pants and shoes on and walked right into the lake. He did it on "accident" and only got in about ankle deep so what can we say, it could have been a lot worse!

Emily did well and spent the entire afternoon short of a few minutes before we left in her stroller taking it all in!! Here are some pictures from the day...

Friends come to visit...

We had some good friends come to visit this weekend! We enjoyed a great time of scrapbooking, crafting, shopping and of course eating! We went to a quilt shop that is Troutville on Friday night and then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. The kids had a great time playing checkers as well as checking out all the fun toys inside the store. Pam is good friends with Bob & Carolyn (Todd's parents) and her daughter Amanda is good friends with me and Todd. So Pam stayed with Bob & Carolyn along with her 4 year old (almost 5) granddaughter Savanna, and Adam and Ryan on Friday and Saturday night, and we kept the little ones here at our house, 11 month old Katelyn (spelled wrong I fear) and Emily. We did our scrapbooking on Saturday while all the kids were with the grandmothers and Grandbob!! Grandbob gets the big award because he took the 3 older kids to Chuck E Cheese, alone! They kids were totally surprised as we were too that he was up to the task! He did a great job and we added "wonderful" items to our toy collection.

Saturday night we went over to Bob & Carolyn's for dinner Nanny (Carolyn's mother), Brannon & Valerie joined us for the cookout! It was a delicious dinner and great fellowship! Adam made sure to bring his popcorn form for the cub scouts and made 3 additional sales at dinner. He has been very diligent with his selling and we are exciting for him! We try and get together once or twice a year to visit, scrapbook, and just let the kids play. Pam lives in Charleston, WV and Amanda lives in Charlotte, NC so it takes a little organizing to get all of our schedules to match up, but we manage to make it work!

Emily and I pose for a picture at the cookout! She was looking very pretty in her pink and since mommy is usually behind the camera it was nice to have one of just the two of us!!

Monday minutes...

The day started early...Todd was up and out by 7:00 trying to work as much as he could before the rain started (which has yet to start as I sit down to write)! He is keeping very busy with all kinds of projects from family and friends. It is great to see how the Lord continues to provide during this interim in our lives! We enjoyed some donuts Daddy brought home last night and then we started our day of school in our p.j.s!! AWESOME!!

Today's Bible lesson was about our birthdays...and how we should have 2! Our actual birthday and when we were born again, aftering asking Christ to live in our hearts! It was a great story and perfect way to explain being born again to the boys. Our memory verse is 1 John 3:7 "We must be born again", a great simple verse for Ryan to memorize too. He was very excited and repeated it a number of times all on his own, but not before he showed his enthusiasm for his upcoming birthday in November. As I was "coaching" him, leaving out words and then he would fill in the blanks...the time I took out "again" at the end he would complete it like this..."we must be born....in November"! We all laughed and enjoyed his revision to the scripture. After a few more times he was able to remember "again" and not November!

Science today was continuing our study of living things, which was perfect since we spent our Saturday on a working farm. Friday night the boys went with Gram and Grandbob's to a Hidden Valley Titans football game to watch Aunt Valerie's brother Kyle play and then went home with them to spend the night. Todd worked late with Sean mowing & Emily and I went to Walgreen's to coupon shop! It was a productive night but we were all doing our own things. Saturday Todd was up and out early to work with Sean all day mowing, Emily & I went to Nanny Farmer's house to meet up with Gram, Grandbob and the boys. We had Hardee's breakfast there and then were off to Farm Day at Homestead Creamery Farm. We got to do tons of fun things there, make our own butter, milk a cow, pet animals, and even hold little kittens. We enjoyed a hay ride, a trackless train ride for Ryan, and some other fun games.

We packed everyone up around 1:00 to head back to Salem to let Adam sell popcorn in front of WalMart for the cub scouts. He did that from 2 until 4...while he was there Carolyn (Gram), Ryan, Emily & I made it to the end of a Trunk Show, for all kinds of bows, headbands, hats and much more for Emily. We had a great time looking through and picking out some great new bows for Emily. She will be styling!! Her Wahoo bow is featured here in her picture!! She has to be watched...unattended the bows come out and go straight for her mouth.

Back to WalMart to pick up Adam and then head home! Todd got home about 7:30 and we fixed steaks on the grill then just had a late dinner, enjoyed a music concert on TV and then everyone crashed, what a great day!

Sunday was a great day too...starting with leaving our house at 8:05 for church, need I say more!!! What a wonderful thing to leave so early and have time to spare when I sit down in worship! A new trend I hope! We enjoyed breakfast at Shoney's then back home until Bible Studay at 4.