beauties

karis received an early birthday present from my brother & sister-in-law. aunt m has a degree in entemology and karis is completely fascinated by bugs - roly polies and butterflies (she's terrified of bees and flies becaues they.....BUZZ!)

anyhow, karis received the gift of a few butterflies for her birthday and also a butterfly kit to use next spring when the time is right. it will be fun to watch the full development and stages of the life of a butterfly!

we released the other butterflies today, but not before an overnight with us and a good meal of oranges! :)

legacies

We had a great time celebrating "Bella Grace's" birthday tonight with extended family at "Chick-a-fil-a". EVERYONE was able to make it! :) We LOVE to be with our family. It helps that the kids are all getting old enough to be somewhat independent in their play. My neice (12) has taken an interest in Bella and my nephew and Karis are best buddies.
Anyhow, I thought I would share a picture of ALL of us! From Gramma (93!) all the way down to Bella (3), it's quite a clan. (Karis & Seth are in the play area so they aren't in this lovely shot!)

a favorite photo

In honor of Bella's 3rd birthday, I thought I would post this recent picture. It's one of my all-time favorites!

They're growing up...

Well, this has been a little bit of a tough week for me. Not only is my oldest daughter starting 1st grade, but my baby turned 3! I can't say it's happened fast...I have been with them almost every day of their lives. I have watched them grow and develop day-by-day. I am so grateful for that! It's a privilege (despite some challenging days)!

So, Karis wanted me to roll her hair up in curlers for her first day of school on Wednesday. She wanted "LOTS of curls". So, here's how it turned out:

We worked on it a little and calmed it down before she had to go and by the time she went to catch the bus, she was delighted with it. We thought she looked pretty grown up:

Karis is already loving her teacher and making new friends (no idea where she gets that social "bug" from!) She also LOVES riding the bus TO and FROM school every day. She's really only on the bus for about 10 minutes, but that's enough for her!

Isabella celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday. What an amazing kid! She really is something else. For her birthday, we went to Toys 'R' Us and they gave her a birthday crown and a nice mylar balloon. As we shopped, everyone kept saying "Happy Birthday". When they asked how old she was, she would say, "I'm six today!" At home, she knew "3", but somehow, she thought it was funny to tell people she was six. We'll have more of a party tomorrow evening at "Chick-a-fil-a" (that's what she calls it) with some extended family (Grammy, Papaw, Great Grammy Florence, Aunts & Uncles and cousins). She has requested a pink cake with pink frosting and she picked out a "3" candle and some fun candles a couple weeks ago. :) We did go to Bob Evans (Isabella's request) for dinner and here are some fun photos from that!

40 yrs, 45 yrs, and a bunny

This has been a monumental week. On Friday, Scott turned 40! Honestly, we all think he looks GREAT for his age and no one is convinced that he looks "old." He took it well and we focused our energy on celebrating his life and accomplishments. No "Over the Hill" puns. We enjoyed the afternoon in Pendleton, Indiana, a lovely little community on Fall Creek. There are some charming shops downtown. We had wanted to stop in to this little used book store (Word for Word) every time we would drive through on 38, and this was our chance. We also were delighted to spend some time in an adorable children's book store called tadpoles. The girls loved it and I know we'll be back!

Today, my parents celebrated 45 years of marriage. That seems crazy in our modern world. They are in the minority these days, though. It's inspiring to realize that it is possible for a man and woman to live in a committed relationship, faithfully, for 45 years! And, actually, it has been longer than that, since they actually met 47 years ago! They had their first kiss by the bell at the Fairmount Wesleyan Campgrounds in Fairmount, Indiana. I am so proud of my parents - of their faithfulness to God, to each other, to their children, and grandchildren, to their call to full-time (and most often, bi-vocational) ministry!



Okay, the bunny. Tonight we were doing our Sunday night routine, picking up and putting away and recovering from the weekend. I looked out the front door and there was a baby bunny sitting by our driveway. Scott made some attempts to get a picture. This one turned out pretty good.

My mom brought me a tub of "stuff" and a box of my finest work from primary school a couple months ago. Of course, I resisted the box of "stuff" for a LONG time, but then I was afraid that there might be something in there I want or could use. What was I thinking? I still haven't been able to work through it. However, yesterday, I took a little stroll down memory lane and went through the momentos box. What a TRIP! Karis loved it and I can't believe how much she actually looks like ME! It was fun. Back in that day, I went by "Krissy"! :P In any case, there were some neat things in there. Sometimes we need to be reminded where we came from to see how far we have travelled.

Of girls, snakes, and daisies

We've had a busy couple of weeks, but they've been so good. We took a little mini-vacation/long weekend and "ran away" to Cincinnati for the 4th of July. It's become a tradition of ours to get away with my parents around that time. Cincinnati is a favorite, but we've also been to St. Louis and 2 years ago we visited Elizabethtown, KY and Dinosaur World!



This year was just relaxing. We made it to the pool every day and didn't have to worry about our "fair beauties" getting sunburned since it was indoors. We also managed to squeeze in some shopping and got some great bargains. And, we were thrilled to have the rain stop long enough to enjoy an impressive "small town" fireworks display. We properly exhausted the girls every day and they rested so soundly! I think this picture is probably something that we'll enlarge and display in our bedroom. Just looking at it makes me feel peaceful!










Karis has had a couple adventures this summer. She has attended 2 summer day camps at the local park. I let her pick them and she selected "Creepy Crawlies" and "Leapin' Lizards." Both camps explored reptiles and snakes. She absolutely LOVED it! We attended a presentation with Snakehead Ed (a former high school biology teacher who acquired quite a selection of snakes. Karis was eager to check them out. Here is a picture of her with Ed' 7 ft. albino boa constrictor. She happened to be wearing a yellow shirt that day and was nearly camouflaged. During the presentation, it took 7 adults to hold this snake completely "stretched out". You can only imagine the look on my face as she lingered while the camp director went to obtain a camera and snap the photo!







One of favorite pastimes this summer has been watching our flowers bloom. We have everything from coneflowers to daisies, and we've had irises. Right now, our Rose of Sharon bushes/trees are blooming, and the blossoms are just stunning. In addition, about 4 weeks ago, we discovered an odd-looking stalk quickly growing in front of our house. Scott was going to dig it out, but my dad thought it looked like a sunflower stalk. We waited patiently, and this last week, we found out that it really is! It looks a little out of place, but we're anticipating some sunflower seeds before long!

Family Sundays

We have long honored Sundays as not only a day set aside for worship, but a day to be with family. Sometimes, we are able to do both - be with family and worship the Lord. That's always a special treat.
We had a nice lunch with my sister & her family today. Here is a nice picture Scott took of the girls with my niece and nephew (Shelby (12) and Seth (8). They all get along so well! Karis and Seth are especially good friends.

I am also posting a nice picture of our friend, Susie, and the girls that was taken last week. Susie was our first friend when we moved to Fort Wayne 6 years ago. We miss her a lot!

Good friends are hard to find. We're slowing building our friendships here. It does take time. And, I think it is a little harder when you're older. I had heard that but never believed it, and now I am experiencing it.

Finally, I thought I would share a favorite picture of the girls with Scott last Sunday, Father's Day! What a great crew! Scott is an absolutely amazing father to these precious little gals. They adore him!

Just a Saturday at home

So, today is one of those rare days at home. We really don't have an agenda, but a few things in mind we'd like to do. Scott is hoping to get out in the yard and do some trimming. The shrubs are a little overgrown and we have some serious work to do in the flower beds. The previous owner's mother was a Mastser Gardener and did a marvelous job with the landscaping. Needless to say, I am not the green thumb and it's going to take some work to get them back in shape!
Maybe today we can get a picture up of our house.

Third time's a charm

So, this is the third time in as many years that I have tried to start a blog for our family. But, I am thinking this time will work out. It's too much fun reading everyone else's. :)
I'll try to post some pictures. We got some good ones of the girls last week. Karis & Isabella will get a kick out of seeing their pictures up on the computer.