Excitement Is Brewing!

Our summer is flying by just like I'm sure most of yours have been. We've go so many irons in the fire so to speak and this is just a sneak peak of what's happening around here . . . I'm so excited. I can't wait until it's done!!

(Don't hold your breath. It may be weeks. We should be back up to laptop-speeds this week, so I may be able to post during the interim.)

For now, I'll keep you guessing!

Birthday Boys!

Isaiah's birthday will be memorable for many reasons. The day before his party we had problems with our 'country sewer system' which meant no running water. (Note to self: NEVER leave cleaning til the day before guests arrive!) So we decided to take the kids and go to Nana & Pappy's house 40 minutes away to sleep and shower all the while praying Daddy could find the right parts and get everything working before the party.

Mommy had to cart all the cakes and cake decorating tools with us. This was a late-in-the-game decision so cake decorating didn't start until midnight. I wish I could say I do my best work under pressure, ahem. However, it was more like 'take what you can get'. There were a couple architectural errors, but the birthday boy liked it.

Here is Isaiah with Pappy when her first woke up and saw the cake almost done.

Here's the cake after Isaiah tried to pick it up because he thought it was a real "ractee"! Nana & Mommy both gasped so loudly we scared Isaiah.

Here's the birt-day boy with his ractee cake.

Time to sing "Happy Birthday!"

For fun, we gathered a few battery-powered vehicles for the kids to ride. This is what the day pretty much looked like -- Isaiah leaving the other kids in the dust. For those of you that haven't seen Isaiah drive these things . . . you are missing out! I hope to get him on video sometime. The kid can maneuver them like nobody's business and in reverse!! Does NASCAR have scouts??

This is pretty much what his face looked like the entire afternoon. He had friends of his to play with and was excited about all his gifts, even the clothes!

Well, except for this face. We napped him before the party (which actually started without him). I finally went in and woke him since his little guests had arrived. It took him a little while to wake up.

We had another birt-day boy at the party. We surprised Daddy with a 35th birthday party. One of his aunts put 35 $1 bills in a card. We thought it was hillarious. Glad he was surprised and enjoyed the party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

It's A Sign!

Tried three times tonight to post pictures and an update. Seeing as it's 12:45, I'm going to take this as a sign that a post isn't going to happen!

I'm now only able to work on our old desktop computer (which is slower than snot)!! Not sure how often I will be able to update especially if Blogger gives me problems when I do have the time to wait for the computer to respond.

We are all alive and well. Thanks for stopping by!

Oh well . . .

These were meant to go on the end of the post, but I don't have the time or patience to do it . . . just a few fun pics.

(This is my favorite! May have to blow it up for his room.)

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The kids and I are visiting friends in NY for a few days. I backed up pictures onto CDs lately and thought I'd bring them along so I could update the blog since it's been a while. Unfortunately I didn't grab the right CD, and I'm not able to do an update on Isaiah's bday. I'm bummed to say the least. I'll just have to hit a couple "highlights" of other things we've been up to lately.

Last week, our beloved Aunt Margie went home. We believe she trusted in the Lord, but were never able to get final confirmation. For the benefit of her other family members, she had a Catholic funeral. It was interesting at the least. I often wanted to stand up and shout "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" and other portions of Scripture that refuted what the priest said. It was empty and not at all comforting. If we didn't know her testimony, it would have been really difficult to sit through as a Christian. We are thankful she is no longer suffering and are thankful that she was such a blessed part of our lives.

A friend invited us to their pool for the afternoon. Little Miss Chicken finally would go off the steps in the baby float! She had a good time. Hopefully it was a confidence builder and she'll be more excited to go in the water next time.

Isaiah had more fun squirting everyone with his quirt gun. Makenna was practicing her scuba skills.
And the BIGGEST NEWS of all! Isaiah is old enough to go in the Iggle's Nest!! For those of you non-local folk, our grocery store, Giant Eagle, has a babysitting area where the kids can do crafts, play games, watch movies, etc. This area is for 3 to 9 year olds, so this was his first time. For the last month or so, if you asked Isaiah "how old are you going to be on your birthday?" His response was always "I 3. I go Iggle's Nest!" usually accompanied by much jumping for joy! They made t-shirts with lions on them. If I remember, I'll have to take a picture of the kids in their shirts and post it.