Beach Trip

Two weeks ago we headed to Ocean City New Jersey for an extended weekend with my (Heather's) family at my grandparent's beach house. We had a fun time walking the boards, biking, riding the ferris wheel, going to the park and eating good food. Here are a few snapshots of our time together.

Early morning bike ride with Daddy



Eating donuts at Browns



Hope waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel

Riding bikes on the board walk...I might add Sarah screamed and cried the whole way back to the house while strangers looked at my cross-eyed....though the first half of our ride was fun. We stopped at the arcade and pretended to ride the rides! Cheap fun!

My mom used to collect Mr. Peanut memorabilia so we took her picture with him!

My grandfather giving Sarah a ride on his scooter!

The ferris wheel. See how high we are and no seat belts or bar to hold us in!
I used to love rides as a kid but I honestly was freaked out by the ferris wheel. We got stopped at the very top and were just swinging in the air and my palms got sweaty and my heart started racing! They were all laughing at me but I was so relieved when the ride was over!

Hopey at the park

Little Hope

I can't believe my little Hope will be 6 months in one week. She rolled over for the first time last week and has started to scoot on her belly on the floor. Where does time go? We are enjoying her at this stage though as she giggles and likes to be played with. She really likes to be right in on the action and hates when we leave her to play on her own. She loves to be held and is enjoying her new bumbo seat. We love you little Hopey!

Are We Having Fun Yet?

So I am not sure if it is the dog days of summer or what but I have not had very happy campers this past week. Fighting...whining...more fighting...crying...yelling. This is what seems to accompany many days (and it is not always the kids doing all of the above I am sad to admit).
Anyways...I always post only the really GOOD pictures. I thought I would give you a taste of another side of our lives in this season (no captions required the pictures say it all)!

A Little More Hope

Here's a few more pictures of our little Hope. Her personality seems to be coming out more every day. I can see how her name is fitting to her personality and the hope and joy she exudes. Yesterday at an appointment with all four kids we were sitting in the waiting room and everyone was impatient and melting down. There was a five year old Hispanic girl who started jumping up and down on her seat and when she did her long black hair would bounce. Hope found this hilarious and began to laugh and squeal at this girl like I have never seen before. Soon everyone in the waiting room was laughing out loud with Hope and the frustration of the wait disapperared.
So be filled with Hope today!

P.S. Check out my girl's rolls! It makes me smile!

Snapshots of Summer

Our corn just came in so we picked about 4 dozen (maybe one fifth of what is out there) and husked and froze about 3 dozen this morning. This is our first year doing a garden and we are having fun doing it as a family. The kids have learned how to peel corn, dig pototoes, pick zucchini, cut zinnias and weed the garden and really seem to be enjoying it...especially Sarah. That girl can tell you what is a plant and what's a weed better than I can sometimes.
Here's some shots from this mornings corn picking and a few other shots of summertime here on the farm...

Here is Sarah with a bucket of pototoes straight from the garden!

Just some summertime fun!

Miss Sarah turns Four...

Our little Sarah turned four at the end of July. We had a special day celebrating together. Sarah started out the day by saying "Mom I need a four year old shirt to wear". Luckily I had just the thing...a cinderella shirt I had gotten just for the occasion! We baked and decorated cupcakes in the morning then in the afternoon Sarah picked herself a birthday boquet. Picking flowers is one of her favorite things to do. She seems to have a natural green thumb (she gets it from both her grandmas)! Then she got to go on a motorcycle ride down the lane with Daddy and get pushed on the swings. We had her favorite meal of tacos and opened presents in the evening.
We love you Sarah! Know you have a special place in our family that no one can replace! We are proud of the BIG girl you are growing up to be!


The cupcakes decorated by Sarah herself....she is becoming quite the little helper in the kitchen (when she wants to be I should add) :)

This is Sarah after she opened up her present of some dress-ups and jewelry. What a princeess!

Swinging on the swings...another one of her favorites.

Just me & Daddy

Happy Birthday Sarah!

A Little Bit of Hope

Hope will be 5 months tommorow...which is hard to believe. This little girl bring so much life and joy to our family. There is nothing like her smile to make you feel like you are the most special person in the world! Despite her dependence on me in this season she is refreshing to be around because she thinks I 'm the best and she does not say "NO" or talk back to me yet! :) Here our a few pictures I took last week of our little Hope...

These last two pictures are not very clear because I had the camera on the wrong setting but I included them because they are very Hope. She is teething right now and is constantly sucking on her fist or whatever she can get in her mouth. She actually just got her first two bottom teeth. We are very proud!

Vacation Time...

On Saturday we returned from a week at Ocean City New Jersey with the Buckwalters. We had beautiful weather and a great time hanging out as a family. There were 14 kids (11 under 6) and 10 adults and it was a fun week of biking, eating, laughing, watching movies, hanging out, sleeping, and just RELAXing. Here are some pictures from our vacation time!

Thanks everyone for such a wonderful week!

Family portrait

Daddy and the boys...

Ma-Maw and Pa-Paw and the fourteen kids!

Moses' s favorite part was bike riding on the boards and getting early morning donuts with Daddy at Browns.

Sarah's favorite part was playing with the girl cousins Zion and Kaycee! These three had such a great time together. What beauties!

Silas loved playing ball and running on the beach!




Mommy & Hopey

Hope did great on her first beach trip! Here she is sporting her bathing suit with a typical Hopey look on her face!

Mark being "super-dad". He gave me a couple of afternoons to myself to just sit and read on the beach! What bliss!

The caption says 'Mom & Dad Thanks for the dounuts". We had just finished devouring ours and saw the sign. Very fitting!

Love this picture! It is of one of the many sandcastles built this week.



Big brother Silas and Hope! He's so proud!

One of the special parts of this week was having Matt & Naomi and family up from North Carolina. We miss those guys so much and it was great to have a week to hang out and connect.

We love you guys. Thanks for the great family pictures!