Luke turns 9!

This year, we went to the Palumbo's house for Luke's birthday party.  It was a birthday party for wizards, with a treasure hunt to find the ingredients for magic potions.

A day with horses

Miriam is our animal lover.

She doesn’t just love looking at them, or learning about them like Luke did at her age, but she is a hugging, squeezing, doesn’t mind if they lick her face kind of animal lover.

 This concept is completely foreign to me, since neither I nor the boys have ever been comfortable holding or getting too close to animals of any kind.  Petting is about the closest we get.

A couple in our church graciously let us spend the day with their horses, and even let everyone take a little ride!  It’s so nice to live near so many open spaces and farms!



The owner of this horse said that she “couldn’t take her eyes off Miriam”.  It was love at first sight for both of them!

Andrew has always been our little climber

Every since Miriam was a baby, she has always loved dogs too.  I never would have imagined I’d be open to getting a dog, but the way her face lights up when she is around them has had me thinking how special it would be for her.
 
What a neat and memorable day this was!

Rocky

Max decided to show the kids Rocky last winter because it is one of his favorite all time movies.  He had no idea how much they would all love it, including Miriam!  They even got Caleb into it!  Just about every time we are in the van, Max plays the Rocky music. 
















For a couple months, after dinner, Max would turn on the part of the music when Adrienne was in a coma.  Miriam would lay there, pretending to be Adrienne, and then would wake up at just the right part, say “win”, and then everyone would start the training workout.  So fun!

Isaac's 5th birthday

Such a fun birthday! 
The best part of the day was that the Wagners came over, and of course the fact that we had lots of hot dogs, and presents.  The Wagners star wars lego set was probably his favorite gift of the day.

He got a new pair of jeans.  (Isaac happens to LOVE jeans that fit him nice a snug, so this was an exciting gift for him)

Playmobile sets! (This was the day that Isaac started saying "Playmobile" instead of "Playbeneile" because Ben didn't understand what he was saying, so he finally realized he had been saying it wrong, and he swiftly changed it.

Best buddies!

Money from Aunt Danielle

Legos from Chup-pop

Andrew's 7th birthday

His golden birthday. . . turning 7 on 7/7/07!!  Party at Nana and Grandaddy's after a long day of VBS and swimming . . .  and another party at the Graf's beach house with Chup pop!

My Birthday

This sweet boy of mine kept asking if he could buy me some presents for my birthday, so Max finally took him to Dollar Tree. He only had $5.00 in his piggy bank, and he spent $4.00 on me!. 

I said to Max “I bet he was wanting everything in the store for himself”, but Max said, “no, he was totally focused on you the whole time, and he picked everything out himself.”

He got me purple flipflops, body wash, flowers, and socks.  What a sweetie!

Coloring/reading

I absolutely love how much our kids have always enjoyed both reading and coloring!

Luke reading the Lord of the Rings in first grade!