The Countdown Begins

Well, we only have ten days until school starts & the baby could possibly be here in a few weeks. That means we have lots to do. Every day we try to cram as much work & play as we possibly can into one twenty-four hour period. Yesterday four of us got together with our twelve kids & took them out to lunch, hiking in and near a river and waterfall & then out for giant dishes of ice-cream. It was a perfect day!

Here's Ayla & Traleigh at the end of our excursion.

Four guys managed to get the wood-stove moved from the porch to the hearth last night. This project should be completed today. The kids took off with Auntie Julie this morning & won't be back until Sunday night! The possibilities of things to do are endless. The to-do list is endless! That's why I'm procrastinating on the computer right now. Thanks Uncle Walter & Auntie Julie, I'm sure we will get lots accomplished and enjoy our little break!

This One's For Carmen

This isn't a wonderful photo, but it's a recent one of all Chad & Marjan's kids. It was taken at Micah's 6th birthday party in March. So, from left to right we have, Skye, Canyon, Annika and Aurora is between my two kids.

End Of Summer

The days have cooled down considerably. School starts soon. It feels like summer is pretty much over.

That means many babies will be coming soon. Erin & I are just days apart in our due dates. We were together at the very beginning of our pregnancies and we've just been together at the very end. While I hate to have Summer end I must say Autumn has always been my favorite season. This one will be even more exciting than usual. Hope you all enjoyed your Summer as much as we enjoyed ours!

Tueeesdaay Afffternoon

I sure hope my family won't be sick of garden beans, tomatoes and basil any time soon. I'm in love with those three items right now & have managed to make them a part of almost every meal the past few days.

I'm almost finished organizing our kid clothes mess. I've gone through about ten bins & have it all organized by size & gender. Every time I opened a boy bin I wished for a boy. Every time I opened a girl bin I wished for a girl. I'm glad I don't have to decide the gender of this baby. I could never make the decision.

Does anyone recall that bad storm that wrecked part of our porch oh like a year & five days ago? Dear hubby is finally getting around to fixing it. It's not like we have anything else going on these days! He tells me it will be done by the time our bible study group arrives tomorrow night!

Craig piled up this rock today for the wood stove we're having put into our living room. The work on that begins tomorrow morning.

Kid-Speak

I've really enjoyed watching the kids enjoy their summer, but the novelty is starting to wear off. There have been more tearful confrontations every day. If we are not on the go all day every day the kids are bored & wanting to leave home. I think it's about time for the routine of school! Anyway, this morning the tearful confrontation was over a Batman comic book. They both wanted to look at it, but it just doesn't work for them to look at the same time. My solution was, "OK, Ayla look at one story then pass it to Micah. When Micah is done with his one story he passes it back to you. You have to share." You'd think that was a pretty good solution, wouldn't ya? Not to Ayla. Her tearful response was, "But mom, it makes my tummy hurt when I have to share!"

Living Room Camp-Out

Wouldn't it be fun to be a kid again?

Skye & "Ayla Baby"

This is one of my new favorite photos. Skye & Ayla have become such buddies in the past while. I just love the way they love each other!

Can You Tell Who She's Supposed To Be?

Did you guess Robin as in Batman & Robin? Yeah, me neither.

Home Sweet Home

The reason why I'm sitting on my butt typing instead of doing my yoga class (which I desperately need, by the way) is because we just got back from a spur of the moment trip to Iowa. At 7:45 the kids were still sleeping. If we were to go to my class I'd have had to wake them up, get them fed & dressed & in the van in 15 minutes. I so didn't have the energy for that this morning. We had a mostly good time on our quick trip. We got to go to a dear woman's funeral (the reason for the trip). It was so nice to catch up with her family & some of our friends there. We got to help my brother celebrate his 29th birthday. Please don't mistake it for his 30th! We got to relax around Iowa City with him, my mom & my aunt. We also got to spend Sunday with some good friends in Cedar Rapids and had a nice supper with my Dad. Unfortunately we had an experience that really put a damper on our entire trip. It was stinking hot the whole time we were there & on Friday morning the air conditioning in the van slowly started to die. Everyone who had to ride in our van experienced extreme crabbiness at some point - it was not pretty. To make matters worse the passenger window got stuck down & at 4:30 am on Monday morning my poor mom was outside right before the rain started trying to get it up. Thankfully she managed to do so. Craig convinced me to get the van fixed before I came home which was probably a good thing. I can't imagine how long that 4 hour drive would have felt if I hadn't. So, that's the good news. The bad news is that I spent over $200 & it's only partly fixed. We still need to figure out where the leak is & why only the bottom vents are blowing out. Anyway, it feels good to be home. I think I'll stay here until the baby comes now. It's time to start getting the nest ready!