Poor Teddy!

The boys were digging out these large stuffed animals in the closet today and found this teddy bear. It was a baby gift from a friend when Andrew was born, which makes it nine years old! It sat on the rocker in his teddy bear nursery. OK, I am getting a little nostalgic!:) Anyways, when they showed it to Luke he said, "His face is broken!" When we asked him what was wrong he said, "His smile is gone!!!" We laughed so hard!! Thought I would share our funny for the day! Well.....there was another funnier funny by LUKE but it is not appropriate to share publicly!:) Aunt Sarah would NOT be impressed!

Water Fun with Friends

A few days ago we went to a little town not too far from here where they put in a free sprinkler park. It is nice and clean and kids of all ages can enjoy it. About five moms from church and our kiddies packed lunches and went to get wet! I forgot my camera so my friend let me borrow hers and snap a few shots. Yes, Luke was with us, but for some reason he didn't get in any of the pictures!:) Sorry they are so small. This is how they were emailed to me.

Smores and Popsicles!

Isn't summer fun?? Not just the extra free time, looser schedules, warm weather, but also the fun foods of summertime!!! Besides all the yummy fresh fruit, popsicles and smores are right at the top of the list! The other night our good friends and neighbors, Mark and Lisa, invited our family over to roast marshmallows. Luke's smore was quite messy and he enjoyed every little bit of it!! And the other fun food Emilee has recently discovered is popsicles! She got so excited she kept signing "please" over and over again! She doesn't always sign it, but we usually get some noise that we know means please. She just REALLY wanted more popsicle. She kept smacking her lips and coming back for more!!:)

25th Ministry Anniversary at GBC

Last night we gave honor to whom honor is due. Scott's mom and dad celebrated 25 years of ministry at Grace Baptist Church. All five siblings were able to attend. It was a wonderful day! The grandchildren sang and then all five kids and spouses sang as well. Ben's wife, Dayna, was unable to attend because of being on bed rest with baby #2. We missed her very much!! Ben preached an awesome message and several awards were presented to Scott's dad. Afterwards, there was a reception and several gave testimonies. All the planning payed off! It was one of those days like your wedding where you look back and wouldn't change one thing about it! Congratulations, mom and dad, we love you and are continually blessed by your example of faithfulness to God and His ministry!

Pool Time

Yesterday was VERY hot so we pulled out the water table and the kiddie pool. Emilee was in heaven!! She went from one thing to the other-filling, dumping, pouring, stepping in and stepping out!! What fun! After all these boys and swim trunks, it is so fun to watch a little girl in a bathing suit prance around with her tummy bulging out!!:)

Matthew is A Graduate!

Tuesday night Matthew graduated from K5. It was a really nice program. Our favorite part was the little play they did because Matthew played the big bad wolf named Harry. He did an excellent job! It was done in children's theatre form so the children played the props and characters. He had a very funny part and enjoyed getting laughs from the crowd!:)

God's Precious Gift

I sit and write this post today for one main reason-to praise my God for His hand of protection on our little girl yesterday and to thank Him for the prompting and the direction of the Holy Spirit to do what was needed. While this could be a chronicle of every awful detail of what happended , it is not! What transpired was a miracle~only something God can do. I found Emilee face down in a friend's pool...every parent's worst nightmare come true. As I tried to get up the deck steps to get to her I felt like I was running in one place. When I jumped in and grabbed her she immediately clung to me and started crying! It was as relieving as the cry right after birth. I am confident she instinctively held her breath. She wasn't even coughing at all! She was even still holding the toy she had been playing with. I believe it very well could have been within a minute of her falling in that I found her! That was the Lord~no question!!! It is afterward that you fall apart and can't even breathe. Yesterday was very difficult for me because I kept reliving what I saw and replaying in my mind what I did and the "what ifs" that could have made everything turn out much differently.
Last night Scott and I talked/prayed about it a lot. He reminded me that Emilee is a gift from God and that she is His~only borrowed for awhile. Yesterday He could have taken her, but He chose to let us have her a little longer. We are reminded of the important job we have of raising her to be a godly girl who wants to love and serve Him. We prayed God would remove the vision of yesterday from my mind. Satan wants me to stay there and I choose not to. "Whatsover things are true...think on these things." What is true? She is here and fine-God protected her! What is true? God is good ALL the time! Even if things hadn't turned out this way. What is true? EVERYTHING comes from His loving hand! We have learned and been reminded of a lot of things. We thank Him for Emilee and today I can say that a peace has filled my heart and each time I look at her and go back to yesterday I simply do just that...thank Him for her!

End of the Year Activities

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Andrew wanted to show you the last project for 3rd grade! They have been reading
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. They were to make a shadow box depicting a scene from the book. Andrew chose a scene where Almonzo feeds his pig Lucy some candy and it gets stuck all over her and him!


Also, last night was Andrew's spring piano recital. He played "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee" and did a really nice job! Sorry the timing is so off again. I think because it takes so long to download or something it must mess it up. Oh well, at least you get to hear it. He thought his piano playing relatives would enjoy it!:) I think Scott was messing with Luke and trying to video...thus the unsteady hand!:)

Wild Animals

You are probably looking at these pictures wondering what in the world they have in common. Well.....animals! The first picture is of my freezer in the garage. Here is the story. Yesterday afternoon right before naps Luke came inside and asked me for scissors. I asked him what he needed to cut and he smiled and said paper!! Curious....so I asked what paper? please show me. He took me to the patio table and I realized he wanted to cut open a popsicle!! (He had just had one!) I said no and put it in my kitchen freezer and put him down for nap. About an hour or so later I was hearing noises from the garage. I sat still for a while and just listened. I thought for sure there was a bird or something that got stuck in the garage because the door was open. I kept hearing this knocking sound???? Finally I got brave enough to open the screen door fearful of what I might see. I looked down and the first thing I saw was two large puddles of water on the floor. I cautiously peeked around the crates and saw that the freezer door was wide open and there were chunks of ice dropping to the bottom of the freezer, thus the knocking sound I heard. Fortunately I don't think anything was ruined but I am so glad I saw it when I did. This picture was after the fact. It wasn't this full when it happened. I had just bought 19 pkgs of hot dogs and 19 pkgs of buns for a school function so that is why it looks so full!! Obviously I am thankful for no wild animal!!! But, later last night Scott called me while I was at a friend's house and said he had something in the tree he wanted to show me when I got home. Here is what I saw....


While I was gone he heard the trash can get knocked over. He ran out there and a raccoon took off so he chased it and it climbed the tree in the backyard. We have been having trouble again with them ripping open trash bags and spreading the "goodies!" I didn't even know raccoons climbed trees! Scott had his DeWalt flood light sitting on the ground shining up on the thing so he was scared to move! When I pulled in to the addition our whole house was lit up!!:) He said he even threw a ball up in the tree and it didn't even budge! Hopefully the raccoon goes back to all his buddies and tells them to stay away from that house because the psycho that lives there likes to torment wild animals! Ha!Ha! :)

Flowers for Mommy

OK, you can all tease me later about posting three times in a day! I haven't been able to get on the internet for several days and it was driving me nuts! There was a lot going on so I have to fill you all in! :) I had a very nice Mother's Day. My gift came on Saturday when Scott and the boys made this flower bed for me around the tree in the front yard. I have wanted to do it for the last couple summers and we finally got to do it! Everyone helped as you can see! It looks really nice...hopefully my flowers survive ME. I am horrible with plants and flowers. We shall see!

Andrew's Pain in the Neck

Andrew woke up last Thursday with a sore neck. He went to school and we thought the kink would work itself out. Well...I got a call at the fire station that he wanted to come home at lunch time. His teacher said he was miserable. So we came home and put heat on it and rubbed it and took some Tylenol. As the day went on it wasn't getting any better. Our neighbor suggested taking him to the doctor for a muscle relaxer. So we took him in that evening and he came home with a collar and Tylenol with codeine!!!! The doctor said the muscles in his upper spine were in a spasm and that he needed to keep the collar on until Monday. It got better each day. The weird thing was that he had gone to bed feeling fine and woke up in such bad shape!!! Poor thing...I kept saying "quit favoring it-it will hurt worse.....keep your shoulders level...blah...blah...blah! I'm very glad we took him in!!! He got lots of attention and "oh! what happened????" He loved it! He only got worried when papa asked if it would affect his golf game! Andrew was afraid they were coming in the next few days and he wouldn't get to play. I think he is recovered and ready, papa!

Firefighter Luke!

Last Thursday our playgroup went to the fire station downtown for a short tour. I really planned this especially for Luke because he is so into fire trucks and firefighters right now. As expected he was in complete awe!! They did a really nice job with the kids. They got to get inside the truck and hear the tone that goes off when a call comes into the station. They got to see the guys slide down the pole. They even took us upstairs to see where they sleep and eat and play!!! The biggest thing Luke took away from the things that were said...."Don't hide in closets and don't hide under your bed!" He imitated the guy all day long!!!! The fireman had said that because when kids get afraid in a fire they hide and then it is difficult to find them with all the smoke-so don't hide!!!!

Matthew is Seven!!!!

I remember May 6, 2000 like it was just yesterday. It was a very warm Saturday in Kansas City. We were out shopping at Kohl's and doing some other errands when I started feeling kinda weird. As time went on I knew I was feeling worse and wanted to head home. When we got home we started timing what I thought were contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart. I called Danielle and she came and stayed with Andrew until the babysitter could get there. Then her and Mike came up to the hospital to keep us company. The guys watched the NBA playoffs on TV. I had a nurse who had previously been an army nurse. She was quite large and very rough!!! Enough said....every time she came in to check on me Mike and Scott were making faces behind her. It really was quite funny. Once they broke my water things moved very quickly!! Danielle said she remembers my doctor running down the hall getting his gloves on. Nobody expected things to move as quickly as they did! I think I was admitted around three and delivered him around seven. Mom and dad arrived the next day and Gramma and Papa Ice came to see Matthew for the first time over Memorial weekend. Can't believe that was seven years ago!!

Matthew's birthday party

Last night was Matthew's birthday party. He had four friends over and after pizza they went bowling. What a sweet little group of kids. They had a lot of fun together. When they got back Matthew opened his gifts and then it was pinata time!! I think that was the highlight of the night! Scott was the one to finally bust it open. The kids did a quick scramble to get as much candy as they could. Emilee even joined in! Can't believe he is seven!!! Happy birthday, buddy! We love you!

New Shoes

What is it about girls and shoes? After all these boys I have to say I am LOVING the girly stuff!!! When I saw these shoes I had to get them! As soon as I tried them on her feet she smiled and kept looking at them! Just wish they had some in my size!