Happy 5th Birthday, Jensy

Happy 5th Birthday, our sweet little Jensy!

One thing he wanted for his birthday was Easter eggs....hmm, Easter eggs in October? Well, we fixed that up by using eggs we had and stuffing them with squishy little frogs and other fun stuff, and having a birthday egg hunt!

He loved it!

Matter-a-fact it was such a hit, that he told me afterwards as he was opening his eggs, "You're amazing!" Isn't he a sweetheart!:o)

A "froggy" birthday! The pond in the middle had tiny frogs in it and four of the candles were frogs. His gluten-free cake was delicious! And instead of boughten ice cream, we had yummy homemade slushies:o) Please pardon the blue pond on the cake...I wanted to use blueberries to color the frosting, but was afraid we'd end up with purple water:o)

"Happy birthday, dear Jensy, happy birthday to you!"

Blow, Buddy! Good job!

Birthday presents! And a sweet face...

Daddy, Mommy and our precious Jensy...whose name means "God is gracious"...He certainly has been!

The Curious George tea set he has been wanting for a long time!

And the big fish pillow that he also has been wanting ever since he fell in love with Derek's, on our trip back East.

Jensy seemed able to really enjoy his birthday party this year...it was so nice! Thank You, God! Thank You for our dear little boy and for every birthday we've gotten to have with him, and that he enjoyed this one as much as he did. That was God's present to him, and all the rest of us too! God bless you, Jensy~ We sure love you!

Company & Tea

Fun with the Farnum family...they had a good time jamming together and sounded as good as they looked:o)-- but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get a video of them playing, to upload on to this blog!

The Cole families from Kansas were also here on a different weekend and we had a great time! One evening we had a volley ball game up at the community center in town. Go for it, Chad & Aubrey!:o)

Didn't take any pics ourselves that weekend, that I know of...I guess we were having too much fun or something!:o) So the pics here are thanks to our young budding photographer friend, Jenise~

After the volley ball game, a bunch of the young people that were there, as well as our company, were at our place for a snack and bonfire--oh, and there was music too!:o)

TEA PARTY TIME!

Posing with cousins, Paris, Milana, and India --Aren't they all so cute dressed up for tea?!

Smile, Ladies!:o)

Tea time...orange scones (my favorite scones!) and pink & chocolate cookies from Aunt Amie:o)

Friends and cousins--Kaiti & Milana--our little southern bells

Little people, at their table--who says boys can't have tea parties?!

My tea party dollies

Cutie pie!

How very fine we are! Love you, lovely ladies!:o)

Happy 23rd Anniversary, My Love

We are so thankful to the Lord for giving us another year together! So often it works that way...you are ever more grateful for something when you might have lost it. And hard things can bring about an even sweeter closeness. It takes less to impress you, because you are just impressed to be alive and impressed to be together. But you realize there is more to be impressed about...strengths and beauty, and depths of love and character that you hadn't maybe been so aware of before. Twenty three years may sound like awhile, but when it is time spent with your best friend, your one true love, the dearest person in the world to you, then it's such a short time. So, my Love, how 'bout forever?!:o) For now, I'm glad and thankful for each new day...for every moment! I love you, Nathan!

I'm not really a food picture person, but to celebrate our special day, we went out to eat at the "Gobblers Roost", a cool little restaurant that is by reservation only. And the food, a five course meal, was fabulous, so we just had to take a couple pics of it!:o)

"Give us this day our daily bread"...how beautifully God has taken care of and provided for us this past year! Thank You, Lord, for all Your undeserved blessings to us!!!

Grandma...

My Beautiful Italian Grandma~1973

My Grandpa and Grandma...before they were my Grandpa and Grandma:o) Taken in 1938--they were married in 1940

After they were my Grandpa and Grandma...this picture turned out kind of fuzzy unfortunately, but I love the relationship you can see we had, even by my first birthday! How I miss them!

Grandma loved babies! Here she is holding Kaiti~ one of her many great grandbabies

And Jensy...these two had a special bond--it was so sweet!

She loved Baby Aliyah-- even though they didn't get to spend much of their lives together, Aliyah has a surprisingly good memory of  her!

My Dad, Grandma, Baby Kaiti and I at Silver Dollar City~ I love the "laugh" on her face!

Celebrating her 90th birthday--she lived to be 95! She was an interesting, energetic, strong, awesome, friendly woman, who liked to bake cookies, and go shopping, and feed people. To me she was my beloved Grandma...One year ago today, my heart broke as I watched her leave~ I don't think I could've made this for her then, it hurt so much! It still hurts and I still miss her so much, but I'm glad I can write this today, a year later.

Once, when I was a little girl, she sent me a rose in the mail and wrote, "I'm sending the first rose that bloomed. I always said the first rose is yours." She was my beautiful red rose! One of the last songs I sang to her that night before she died, which my boys also sang at her funeral was, "Where the Roses Never Fade"~

In my Rose Garden of memories
There's a special place for thee,
for though thou art gone
from this mortal world
In my heart thou wilt always be.

I Love You, Grandma, and hope so much to meet again, where the roses never fade!

Catch-Up Post~ 2013

Happy 2nd Birthday, Baby Girl!

Well, there were just so many cute pictures of her that evening!

Aliyah's 2nd birthday

Mommy, Daddy and as Jensy still calls her, "Baby Iyah":o)

How's that for a birthday smile?!

I must say, I'm really happy to be here to celebrate another year...Birthdays are wonderful things!:o)

Happy birthday to the dearest husband and daddy in the world!

Kaiti's 8th birthday...wasn't she just turning one?!!

Happy birthday, Kaiti dear!

Sisters in their matching birthday dresses~

  

A day at the zoo--this one wasn't real!

Summer fun at the lake

                           ~Introducing Our Class of 2013~

Congratulations, Tyler! You did it!!!!!

Ty's speech...yes, he actually did!:o)

We're proud of you, son!

Ty with Pop and Grammie

Tyler, “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’ With all our love always~

Next was our big trip back east in August~ first stop was with our good friends, Tim, Joanna and family. Joanna and I have known each other since we were little tiny girls, and we've gotten to be very close friends over the years. She came out to help us soon after the accident and it was such a blessing to our family!

Joanna's daughter, Kaitlyn, and our little girls playing dress-up--they had a good time together even if Kaitlyn is a bit older than they are.

Happy 20th birthday, Aubrey!!!!!!!! Part of his birthday was spent traveling, beings the three oldest boys left home after we did, meeting us at Tim's the evening of Aubrey's birthday.

This is an aerial view of Belleville, Pa. and yes, Nathan was the one in the plane, of course!:o) The church you see, is the one where his Dad and new step mom, Annie, were married on August 17th. Belleville is a beautiful valley in possibly the Allegheny Mountains? I tried my best to find out for sure if I have the right mountains here, but so far I haven't been able to confirm this fact, so I stand to be corrected- Does anyone out there know? I'd love to know for sure! Anyway it's a beautiful place!

The Monday after the wedding, we had a reunion at a lovely park. This is all of us, folks, all nearly 60 of us!:o) (That's what happens when you have 10 kids!:o) It was wonderful to all be together again beings we are usually scattered all over the world. The day was too short really...

 

Happy 22nd birthday, Chad Boy~ How can our baby boy be so "old"?:o)

Right after we got back was the Homeschool Music Fest...Most of the pictures I'm posting on our blog of the music fest are ones that closely pertain to our family, but there were lots of other people there and we had a total of seven bands play this time and an attendance of nearly 450 people--had a great time! Our theme this year was about letting our lights shine and taken from the verse in Luke 11 "Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness." Chad made the lighthouse you see in the background for part of our decor---isn't it cool? Grandpa's Neighbors were in charge of the decorating this year and they did a great job!

Ron and the boys playing the offertory on Friday evening

Kaiti and Aliyah dressed up for the "dress-up"

Dress-up time!

Jensy and his little friend Matthew building a sand castle!

Kaiti and Chad singing "I Am A Promise" for the talent show Saturday afternoon

Damien played bass for them---they all did a great job!

We passed out glow sticks after dark for the little kiddos and had them come up front to sing "This Little Light of Mine"--Aliyah thought she needed sunglasses I guess!:o)

Practicing for the band scramble

People gathered outside the large tabernacle---just thought it was such a gorgeous picture!

The band scramble group that Ty was in--they played/sang "Red Haired Boy" and "No Not One"

Chad's group, The Light Keepers~

And Aubrey's group~ Evidently great minds think alike because his group was called The LightHOUSE Keepers"!:o) 

Someone was tuckered out! Sweet baby asleep in her stroller...

Aliyah and her little friend Zuriel having fun

     

Next big event was Kaiti's baptism on the 1st of Sept. Five other young people were baptized then too. We got done in the nick of time as a rain storm came in which made everyone have to scurry to their vehicles.

Daddy & pastor

Kaiti's baptism

God bless you, sweet Kaiti~ may you grow in grace and wisdom and a closer walk with your Savior! May you remain faithful to Him all the days of your life!

Recently Marc, Linda and their family of seven were here to visit~ thank you, dear friends, for making us one of your stops! They have 5 boys and 2 girls just like we do!:o)

The little people~

Damien chillin' in the new awesome hammock that the Neals gave us last time they were here. What a thoughtful and relaxing gift! Hopefully posts will come oftener again and not as long as this one:o)