Apple Picking

Because Justin's birthday is in September, one of his favorite birthday activities is apple picking. This year, we invited two other families to go with us for Justin's birthday. These are a few of the pictures from our apple picking trip.

Rebekah was completely cozy during the whole experience. She was comfortable and I was even able to pick some apples while holding her.

Caleb loved the first apple picking trip that he can remember! He ate an entire apple - seriously, I had to stop him before he ate the stem and core! Because the ground was wet from rain, we didn't let him out of the stroller, but he enjoyed watching the bigger boys pick apples.

Aaron proudly displayed one of the Granny Smith's he had picked - right before he ate it! I was beginning to wonder if he would eat his weight in apples!

Zachary bravely jumped into apple picking and even climbed a tree or two. He ate his fair share of apples as well.

We are trying hard to pair all of our children up with future mates by the time they are ten! Not really, but Justin's and Aaron's best friends happen to be sisters. They are never far apart from each other when our two families get together.

New to the apple-picking scene this year is Uncle David. He came up to spend Justin's birthday weekend with us and we enjoyed having him join the celebrations.

Dear Sara Kate! She and Justin are inseparable! We enjoyed spending the day with her family, and I know it made Justin's birthday extra special to have her there.

Nancy

Happy Birthday, Justin!

Today is Justin's sixth birthday! If you read the post on Rebekah's blog, you already realized that we are having technical issues with our hard drive and I cannot access my pictures. So for now this is a picture-less birthday post, but I will add the pictures as soon as the drive is back up.

Justin is 42" tall and weighs 36 pounds. His favorite activities are riding his bike, reading, learning his doctrines and Bible verses for Kids4Truth club, and playing with his brothers. I am homeschooling Justin for kindergarten this year, and we are very much enjoying it. Recently, there were two activities in which Justin dictated sentences to me, and I thought they would be appropriate to share on his birthday.

I like to play...

....baseball on the Game Cube.

....Runescape and Ice Age (computer games).

....on the swingset.

....riding my bike.

....with my guns and bullets (caps for the cap guns) and all my cowboy stuff.

When I am big...

....I am going to play paintball. (???!!)

....I will have a bigger mouth.

....I am going to drive a jeep.

....I am going to take Sara Kate on a date.

"There might be other things I can do when I am big, but I can't think of them now." - Justin

Oh, to be a six-year old! We love you, Justin!! Happy Birthday!!!

Huge Praise!!!!

Praise the Lord I have a JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I start my new job today with a local builder. I will be supervising the construction of custom homes for them. This is a huge weight off us and a great opportunity to learn and grow in my field. Thanks to all those who have faithfully prayed with us.

Most of all Thank you Lord for providing for our every need.

D

Aaron funnies

When Aaron asked me to push him higher on the swing, I naturally obliged him. And when he went higher than he's ever gone before (that I know of anyway), he tried to tell me about it so quickly that his words came out all jumbled. I love this age!! :)

"Mommy! I never bee'd this higher so much! I never go'ed so higher!"

"Aaronnette" modeling one of Rebekah's bonnets.

It's not raining buckets, but this bucket might be useful in the rain! :)

I love my little Aaron-bear! :)

Nancy

A Little of this and a little of that!

Warning: This post might be a little all over the place as I attempt to catch you up on the last few weeks of happenings around here!

First, all of our boys are growing!! We are amazed at the amount of food they are beginning to pack away...literally, more than I eat most meals! These are some pictures of a recent Sunday afternoon when we opened our kitchen ice cream shoppe! :)

Zachary

Justin

Aaron

Caleb

We get comments all the time when we are out and about regarding the size of our family and the ages of the kids. One of the most frequent comments is how much the boys are like little stair steps. Well, we measured them yesterday, and there is a reason they look like little stair steps - because they are! Would you believe, each of the boys is exactly six inches shorter than his next oldest brother??!! In descending order, our children are 48" (Zachary), 42" (Justin), 36" (Aaron) and 30" (Caleb). How fun is that??!

Sweetly sleeping!

Rebekah did not have the greatest news at her weight check today. We will be meeting with a gastroenterologist (GI doctor) sometime in the next two weeks to decide on a new feeding plan. You can read all the details on Rebekah's blog here.

Yes, Caleb is in my pantry sorting and eating my potatoes!

Do any of your kids like to eat potatoes...raw? Apparently Caleb does! If we forget to latch the pantry door, this is what we inevitably find....a small pile of neatly sorted potatoes with a nibble or two taken from most of them. Last week, Drew even woke up to find a potato in our bed! We are still trying to figure out when and how Caleb got it there.

Yes, that is Caleb, and yes, he is in Rebekah's swing....

Along with potato-loving, Caleb loves his sister. And more than he loves his sister, he loves his sister's toys! We frequently find Caleb in the swing, in the bouncy chair, lying on her floor mat and in Rebekah's car seat. You know, when we don't find him in the pantry!

Eating breakfast on Zachary's first day of second grade.

The saying goes all good things must come to an end and that is exactly what this summer did! Today was Zachary's first day at Brushy Creek Elementary, and we were all up early to take him to school. Zachary's teacher is Mrs. Lewis, and we have been really impressed with her classroom management and organization. Zachary thrives on a schedule and routine, so we were very pleased about his placement in Mrs. Lewis' room. He had a good day overall and is looking forward to getting more books and learning something tomorrow.

Zachary is ready to learn!

At some point during the school day each of the students in Zachary's class had to give a brief "About Me" speech to the class. Zachary (who is never at a loss for words!) told me this afternoon that he told his class all about Rebekah and his brothers. He is such a sweet big brother! :)

I'm off to finish up a few chores and get ready for tomorrow. The alarm rings too early for our new school schedule!

Nancy

Patience......

The Lord is teaching me patience. I had contact from the company I have been interveiwing with, and they have had some delays in job starts. So they have also delayed bringing anyone on just yet. I have been promised a final answer on whether they will fill the position or not in two weeks. Until then I am continuing to send out resumes and look for work all I can.

D

Job Update

I talked to the prospective company today. It will be another week to get a final answer. The owner has been out of town and they have not had there staff meeting yet to make a final decision. We will be patient and wait a little bit longer. All in the Lord's timing.

D