Moses. The Sleepover.

well...i had promised my nephew i was going to have him for a sleep over when his littlest sister was born (who was Hope, who is now 4 months old). yikes. so we had moses stay over from kaden's birthday party, and then took him home last night...this was maybe at 10 oclock Mon. night...everyone here was in denial of bedtime i think. :)

that meant that moses had to hang out with us at swim lessons in the morning, he was a trooper.

kaden- getting ready to do a cannon ball...

soakin' up some rays of sunshine

playin' in the hot tub (it was 102 degrees in there) amidst the 90 degree day. :)

thanks for comin' Moses. Hope you had fun.

more birthday fun.

my cousin got married on Friday, and had a "chocolate bar" where you could help yourself and fill your bag full of different chocolates before you left. so...we used this idea for kaden's birthday party with his cousins...no chocolate allowed, but plenty, plenty of good candy to pick from. campbell perched herself at the table all night long and she paid for that the next day. :(

lego's anyone? i try to give my kids something to laugh at when they are 30...my attempts at making them cakes of their "choice". this one was actually easy, until you had to put icing on them. :)

where'd all these cousins come from, anyway? and we are missing a bunch of 'em...

kaycee with mam-maw...sorry you missed out pap-paw. :(


cute 'lil' Silas taking it all in...

opening mam-maw's present...it's so much fun.

and his Buckwalter cousins pulled thru and got him a Phillies shirt. LOVED it. :)


he also got some baseball bases he was thrilled about from Jaiden and Reese, and some bubble gum and of course, baseball cards from his N. Carolina cousins. He loves looking at his new baseball card collection. :)

a packed full of fun Saturday...

Had a fun day on Sat. I took the kids to a friends pool for a chunk of the day...

Kaden's been taking swimming lessons all week (and will continue this week), and this was the first time I really got to practice with him all he's been learning...

Calli hasn't liked the pool up until this point, but this day she loved it...that meant a little more relaxing for mommy. (Well, I don't know if relaxing is the right word, but a little more low key anyway).

Sat. night we went mini golfing to continue celebrating Kaden's birthday (since it had rained on Fri. night) and then to the Cochranville carnival for some dinner...we were quite the circus, but it wasn't crowded so it didn't seem to matter much. :)

kate mcrae (con't)

This story continues to break my heart, and bring to my reality that things could change for me in an instant. Today. Tomorrow. Next week. One of my many goals as a mom is to both realize and understand that my children were given to me as a blessing from God and that they are not infinately mine, but His... I try to cherish the everyday of life, but continue to wonder at the plan of God.

Someone once told me that it's my job, as their mom, to start letting go and preparing my kids to leave home from the time they are very little. This has always intrigued me because I was the young college freshman who was 5 hours away from home and terribly homesick. I continue to be the one who didn't want to move 24 driving hours away from my family to Idaho, and often cry at the end of family vacation saying good-byes. I stink at good-byes. ...I am sure when I read one of the Family Systems books, I will see why I act the way I do, but for now... I am trying to teach my children to live without me (a teeny, tiny, little bit), so when the day comes, it will be okay for both of us. (I am speaking of Kaden going to Kindergarten, and Kaycee starting preschool in 6 weeks) :)

That being said, this family is dealing with something I pray and hope I never have too. So, I am trying not to take for granted each day...the good, the bad...and the ugly, because I see and I know that things could be vastly different for me in seconds.

Please check out the latest video on this little girl, Kate:

A Day in the Life of Kate

Happy Birthday Kaden.

Happy, Happy 6th Birthday Kaden.

You are such a joy to watch grow. You were my mover and shaker from the beginning (before Campbell that is). Just a day overdue, coming into the world at 8 lbs. 4 oz. , were a prized treasure. We love to see the leader in you "popping" out. We love your love for sports. We love your tender heart. It's fun to see you following your daddy around, taking in his world. You know more about this farm than mommy. :) We love your helping hand, shy smile, and willing heart. We cherish each day we've had with you, and hope for many more. Time has gone by so fast! We look forward to sharing the rest of summer with you...before you bound off to kindergarten! We pray for you everyday to follow Jesus, to make right choices, and to respect those around you...

With the greatest love-Mommy and Daddy.

A busy few weeks...

I cannot believe it's the end of July already. Where does the time really go?

I have been a bit behind on my blog, due to all the busyness. In June I felt like I was getting ready for the beach. Came home to prepare for a baby shower for Matt's cousin Emiley. Then that was over, and I found myself having one more week to prepare for the King Reunion, which we hosted YESTERDAY.

Aldie had decided awhile ago, that he would like to have the KING REUNION at the farm. I thank Jesus for a beautiful warm sunny day. A large tent was set up in the grass field beside our house on FRIDAY, along with some porta-potties. :) (We then took advantage of the tent and hosted a cook-out for our Sunday School class and another Fri. night...what fun, the kids played in the downpours of rain...I guess I was too busy to get pictures?)

The fun started Sunday morning at 9 a.m. (well much before that), but people started arriving shortly after 9 for the 10 a.m. start of our church service, with lunch to follow. 2 roasted pigs later, and TONS of food...the last couple left at 5:30 p.m. At first count there was 220 people HERE, guessed to be maybe 250 with more coming for lunch...WOW. I didn't get my camera out until 3:30 p.m. when the crowd had dwindled...

Lots of chatter...

Maybe Campbell will be an animal lover afterall? She was even talking to "Cheetah". A friend from Matt's office dropped off 4 kittens last week...they are very friendly, and like to hang out around the house...Kaycee continues to scream at the top of her lungs when a kitten crosses her path...and she says she wants to be a vet when she grows up. :)

At one point they were trying to figure out how many people could actually "potentially" be here...they stopped because it would take to long to figure it out, but Aldie's dad, Mahlon, was one of 13 children...the figures were stopped at 54 grandchildren. YIKES. So, any decendent of those 13 were invited to attend...

My parents came down on Sat. evening for pizza, a slight token of appreciation for the flowers she did for both Emiley's shower, and this big shin-dig. (Don't worry mom, these were only put on the grass during the preaching...) BEAUTIFUL. Thanks mom.

I decided we needed to have FUN for the kids...so we rented a sno cone maker. Actually the adults liked it as much as the kids. We had grape and root beer. We also had face painting and a candy scramble...

More chatter.

Camera shy Chloe and Cass...

A fun, fun part to our weekend, was that we got a new (for us) motorcycle on Sat. Matt has RETIRED to a non-wheely making Harley Ultra, and it is a sweet, sweet ride.



He and Kaycee went out for an ice cream cone on Sunday evening after the party...

Here we come Galen and Deborah! We are hoping to do a cross country ride next Spring to celebrate our 10 year anniversary! Pencil us in. :)

calm.

..."Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not even know." Jeremiah 33:3,6.

Pray for little Kate McRae.

I am always amazed at the goodness of my life. I have had to endure nothing really hard, or unbearably sad to this point. We have had hard times, and some trauma, but nothing that cannot be "fixed" with time and I am so grateful. I am very thankful. I am aware that this could change in a moment, in an instant.

A friend e-mailed me earlier and asked me to pray for this family, who neither of us know. So, now I am asking you to do the same. Pray for this beautiful little girl, her sister and brother, her mommy and daddy...the list goes on.

Check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ese3zYZ-NA4 from 2 wks ago, and
there is a second update I am trying to load now...

Pray for Kate McRae - Update Part II

Kate McRae - Little Light

Vacation @ Ocean City, N.J.

Each year since my family moved off the farm, my parents have treated us to a paid for week at the beach. It is such a fun, huge blessing to us all. Thanks Mom and Dad, Matt, Mark, and Megan for making it a priority to get your families there. We had so much fun, despite all the chaos...it was TOTALLY manageable, right? :)

The days consisted of making "pools", drippy sandcastles, boogie boarding, jumping waves, napping, crying, whining, laughing, laying in the hot sun, eating lunch on the beach, reading, walking back and forth to the potty, or to get someone up from a nap, or put others down for naps...it was just so much fun, wasn't it Kaden? :)

The nights consisted of lots of baseball games, kickball games, playground time, more fun at the beach, boardwalk fun, or sitting around eating, talking, reading, playing games, watching the Phillies, or some movies.

An evening shot of my sister and I...love ya girl. So glad I got to have a sister in life.

So glad, my girls get to have sisters...wish Kaden had a brother too.

Each year we take a family shot, which I don't have a copy yet, and then my parents and all the grandkids. There are 14 little ones...the oldest, is Judah who is 12....then 11 of these peanuts are all age 5 or under. :) I did say manageable chaos, right? :)

Then we fit in some family shots too, maybe you'll see these again at Christmas time? :)
Kaden-5 1/2, Kaycee- 4, Campbell- 2 and Calli- 8 months.

I did get an awesome tan...and that is mainly due to the beautiful sunny weather we got every day we were there, AND my precious husband. He's not much of a beach man, which usually works out to my advantage. :) He would stay in with the kids during naps, so I could go back out on the beach, and read, or talk, or nap...Thanks Matt (and mom too), that was such a huge blessing to me!
We had some requests for an "updated" bike picture, since Calli arrived...here it is...you can't even get a close up anymore. :( We got such the comments, and laughs riding down the boardwalk...it's so fun...Kaden did a great job on his own, and Kaycee loves to ride the tag along...

A little movie time for the little ones who weren't interested in the big people movie. :)

Love spending time on the boardwalk in the evenings.

So...the MAIN perk of going to Ocean City, N.J. is that my sister in law, Heather's, grandparents own this house. It's a little small for us now, but we are willing to be a little cozy because it is a)such a great deal, and b) so close to the beach and boardwalk...it's on 16 th street. This is what the driveway looked like on an organized day...

Another fun thing that happened this year, was that Rip Hamilton, a NBA player from the Pistons?, was staying 2 houses down for a few nights. (A few years ago they built these amazing condos 2 houses down...on the boards...we toured them one year, and they were outrageous! That's where he stayed). My nephews got his autograph, and we got to salivate over his $500,000 car he parked in front of our house...don't know if that was a smart move or not, but we didn't put any dings in it. :) Thanks Rip for making our week.


Love, Love, Love the cousin time!

That's a wrap...Until next year. :) mk