A Little Hole Diggin

I am FREEZING and it's just the beginning of these long, cold, dark months of endless gray skies and little white flakes. It's not that I don't mind winter, I kind of like it. But I thought that as I am shivering at my computer I could share some pictures of warmer temps & brighter skies.

I have loads of beach pictures that I will share over the next few days. For starters, I thought I would share two of the boys playing in the sand.

Who can dig a bigger hole???

Romeo even decided to help Andy dig his hole.

Blessings!!

Fun Park

Sometimes I think that I am a little ADD. I jump from one thing to another only remembering to come back to it much later (my Mom calls it Motherhood). I would love to share some exciting pictures with you, but then I am afraid that I wouldn't get back to where I left off so.... Continuing on with our summer vacation with our cousins.

There is one place that is high on the kids list of things that we must do when they make the trip from Wisconsin to see us. Go to what they call "The Fun Park". All the passageways, stairs, slides, tire swings... this is just a great place to let the kids run some energy off at. Funny thing is last year when they came we went to the park in long sleeves and sweatshirts. We timed our Fun Park trip right in between all the rain drops that seemed to be never ending last year. This year, was HOT! The kids were all sweating and red faced.

The fave every year is the tire swing...

And then there was Kevin adding his own interpretation of a gilded figurehead on the bow of a ship.

There really is never a dull moment with Kevin around.... He cracks me up sometimes!

Blessings!!

Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

I have soooo many pictures to share from our vacation with our cousins. So many, that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Where do I start? What do I write about first?

I guess I will start where anyone from our family would start..... with ice cream..... cuz who doesn't LOVE ice cream??!! Especially ice cream that is eaten along side a channel with boats softly bobbing up and down in the water.

Our two families are ice cream connoisseurs. It is just the way we are wired, so every good vacation with them involves several trips to different ice cream stores.

And really.... you can't have all the cousins eating ice cream and not make them pause for a picture. What a great way to start our week long vacation with the most beautiful weather and warm lake temps.

Love this next picture. Boys... eating ice cream and checking out the boats... Classic.

I am known to pack my camera, for all the unexpected times that I may need it, but on vacation, it is my third arm, I go no where without it, and you never know when it might come out for a quick picture. You need to be prepared at all times to be photographed. This was one of those times...

Why you ask, would I take a picture of Kevin getting into the van? Because I can, because he never expected it, because if I don't take pictures of him when he least expects it, I would only get pictures of his hands in front of his face, because that's how I roll.

With all the excitement of the first of many wonderful days with the cousins, Jilli was all tuckered out. Love how her little lips are swollen with sleep and her hair is a mess. I don't know how many more times she will fall asleep like this, so I will cherish this time and of course take a picture of her sleeping on her Daddy's shoulder.

Blessings!!

Karate Testing

The kids started taking Karate back in April. We take them to a Christian Karate Studio and have been very happy with what we have seen these last 7 months. They pray before and after every class and do a devotion at the end. We love it there and are excited to watch the kids continue to bloom under the loving care of their instructors (KyoSaNim's).

Back in August the kids had their first karate testing. It was a long morning, but it was so fun to watch the kids and see what they had learned.

At one point during the testing, Micah had to perform Kee Cho Hyung Il Boo (Korean for form #1) with only KyoSaNim Caleb doing it with him since Micah was the only white belt testing that day. Micah Rocked it! He did better than some of the more senior belts. DoJaNim Bill (who is the owner/master) commented on how well he did.

The really cool thing was that we got to watch the kids break their first boards. I would have never thought that Micah was big enough to break a board let alone Jilli.... I was wrong, all three broke their boards. After they broke them the instructors all signed them, so I guess I will now be collecting broken boards with signatures for the next few years.. just one more keepsake ;-)

Here is Jilli breaking her board... she did it like an old pro. What Form!!

Tyler was a little more scared that he was going to kick KyoSaNim's fingers, but then he got over his initial fear.... now he thinks he can break any board anywhere...

Then there was Micah. He walked up to DoJaNim and broke the board so fast I almost wasn't ready with my camera. I had to check to make sure I got a photo of his big moment. Shocked DoJaNim too...

Here he is a moment before his foot hit...

And the moment after...

Here is a pic with the kids and the their broken boards...

Brace yourselves.... Here is one of our whole family... Tyler is being Tyler...

Blessings!!

Beautiful Ears

My son, my beautiful son, comes up to me today and states that he is ugly. Ummm..... I tell him that he is beautiful, that he is created just the way God wanted him to be. He tells me that his ears are too big. That they look like Dumbo's ears and he wants to cut them off. He says they stick too far out from his head. YIKES!! I expected stuff like this from Jilli but not from my son!

Kevin comes home and I have my son tell him what he told me. He repeats his complaints and then said he wants to cut them off. Kevin lovingly tells him how handsome he is, that his ears don't stick out, that he is perfect just the way God made him and then he says only what a Father can say.... "but if you want to, you can cut them off." Panic shoots through my heart, out of all my children this is the one you DON'T want to challenge in this way. Kevin then proceeds to tell him that it will be very painful and there will be lots of blood.

I would have never taken this approach, but it seemed to make him stop and think that maybe his ears were OK, just the way they were.

About an hour later, the boys were upstairs in their room together. I was going through their schoolwork and all of a sudden I hear Tyler start to cry/scream. My heart stopped. He didn't really try..... He comes running down the stairs holding the side of his head... There is blood dripping through his fingers, running down his hand. I turn white.... my breathing escalates... I am thinking that I hope my kids remember how to dial *911 cuz I am about to pass out!

Normally, this kind of stuff doesn't bother me. I saw lots of stuff in the Doctors office and nothing ever effected me the way this did.

Micah came down the stairs asking Tyler if he was OK. I quickly ask Micah to grab me some paper towel. He came with half the roll flying behind him as he ran it to me. Tyler removed his hand and I quickly started to apply pressure to the wound, which was thankfully a little scrape just above his ear. Apparently my boys got in a little shoving match. Which is kind of funny because just a few hours earlier I was having a conversation with a friend about how sometimes our lives can be portrayed as wonderful, beautiful, fun filled lives with nothing amiss or even slightly ugly. And... w.a.l.l.a.h... this happens. My perfect, never do anything wrong children, were fighting pushing each other and one winds up with a head injury.

Thankfully Tyler didn't try to cut his ears off, but I am still in a quandary with what to do about the negative views of his ears. I look at him and his ears are perfect for his funny, sweet, smart, fiery, strong-willed, sensitive, handsome little boy. And as I go over in my mind what to do to help Tyler find peace with his ears, I can't help but feel again, overwhelmed by this amazing job of being a mother. But as I was reminded today by my pastor, that all things are possible with God (spoken from a man who has 6 kids). All I have to do is start my conversation with Him about Tyler's ears and I know that He will be there for me, answering my prayers.

You know, my heart really breaks for my child, the one who I carried under my heart for 38 weeks. The one who I fed, bathed, rocked, sung to, kissed, hugged, and loved on for the last 6 (almost 7) years and if I feel this way... how much more Our Father feels the pain of the lie that Tyler is believing. To think that Tyler is anything but beautiful is just too much for this mind to comprehend... so I'm not even going try... HE IS BEAUTIFUL... enough said.

Blessings!!

Pool Time

It turned colder today. Not the bone chillin cold that I am sure this winter will bring, but the cold that forewarns you that colder temps are on the way. It's the perfect day to remember the warm temps of summer.

I will always remember the summers that the kids learned that going underwater is fun and not scary. For the boys it was two summers ago in a warm Tennessee pool. For Jilli it was this summer.

Aunt Laurie did what only Aunt Laurie could do. She talked Jilli into going underwater with her. Then she did it over and over and over. Jilli finally got the hang of holding her breath and then wiping the water out of her eyes when she came back up. After the one evening with Aunt Laurie, Jilli was determined to figure out this whole swimming thing on her own... Without her lifejacket.

And she did....

As soon as she figured it out, she was like a fish, spending more of her time underwater than above the water. Then she started to jump off the pool stairs...

It was pretty cool to watch. And since the weather was so hot day after day after day, we spent a lot of time in the pool practicing our new skills.

Since the boys already knew to wonders of the underwater world, they wanted to increase their already found skills. Which is kind of hard to do in this pool because

A.) it doesn't get that deep... and

B.) you can't jump in off the sides.

So the boys practiced swimming longer and longer distances and we played games with these little pool balls.

Tyler thought it was great fun when I was sitting at the side of the pool and he would throw the ball at me, it would land right in front of me, which would cause a big splash and I would get all wet. I think I recall that I was laughing too...... NOT!

I would then proceed to throw the ball back at him and try to splash him, which he thought was unfair....

We had lots of fun playing with those little balls.....

Then when Daddy came to visit us, the boys would have Daddy launch them into the pool.

They would have done that for hours but Daddy's muscles could only take so much...

Here goes Tyler...... sizing up Daddy.....

Preparing for the launch.....

Air Time...

Blessings!!

Make-Believe

I remember when I was a kid and it was safe to run the neighborhood all day long without so much as a "Hi Mom, I am playing at so and so's house." I remember taking myself 2 blocks away to play at the park all day. I remember making up games with all the neighborhood kids and playing them every night. To this day I still have good memories of playing with brooms at night, not really remembering what the game was called or how we played it, just that we did and had so much fun.

I think in this highly multi-media world our children are losing touch with that part of the brain. The part that makes things up, the part where life is fun and new. They are much more interested in letting a TV keep them busy, or playing video games till their eyes are cross-eyed. Yet one more reason I love to camp. There is no multi-media. We have a TV, with no cable, we have movies, but they really don't get turned on unless it is raining or we are chillin for the evening inside away from bugs. Camping is a place that forces little minds to come up with new possibilities. It is a place where new worlds become exciting adventures. Sticks become best friends, tree limbs become ropes that you swing on through the jungles of the Amazon. It is a place I know well, it is a place that I grew up in.

My sister and I would lay in bed making up stories until our eyes gave way to sleep. When we traveled we would go into the back of the van and pretend all the bridges were waves in the ocean and we would have to dive under their crashing white foam. Who needed video games, we had our imagination! Even now when I can't sleep I slip away to the world that horses run free and I race along the meadows on their backs.

So when I peeked out the door of our trailer to see two of my children very caught up in a made up game, I was thrilled. Entering into this world of make believe is sometimes hard for Micah, but when he gets there, it is full throttle. He will build games to play, remake games with new rules so that we can play differently, or use a game and add things to it to make it a whole new game.

On this particular day, he used a game (Sorry) and used his army guys with it. I am not exactly sure what the rules were, but Jilli did, and she was holding her own. They had so much fun playing it. It kept them both busy for a few hours until it was time to head back up to the pool for a final swim.

I know they can't have the same freedoms I had growing up, but camping is a way for us to give them a piece of that life. Get them in touch with that very real world of make-believe.

Blessings!!

Knight in Shining Armor

He hears a distress call, he looks around... scanning for the victims. He spots them, they have huge eyes, scared faces, and a turtle. Here comes Kevin to the rescue!

He really must work on his game face, one little whimper from a higher pitched voice and he is putty in their hands. We will be in BIG trouble if he can't get this under control soon. The only problem is that I can't get him to jump and do my bidding the way little girls can. I specifically remember a time when I had climbed up into our garage to get something for Kevin and got caught up there. I was yelling and banging on the wall in hopes that he or his brother who was here at the time, would come running to save me. May I also mention that it was winter and FREEZING in the garage, alas, no one came running for like 20 minutes, and then it was "why are you making all that noise." The sympathy was just dripping from them as they start to laugh at me.... mean, just plain mean.... where did chivalry go?

Back to the story...

In the hands of the distressed, was a turtle (with big claws) and a hook that went in his mouth and out his neck. Very sad to see, I have to admit, but really what are we going to do about it??

Nothing to Fear When Kevin is Here (and you are under the age of 15)... He will save your poor turtle! He just happened to have all the tools a surgeon would need to remove the hook and his assistant, that really didn't want to be his assistant in this situation.

All I got to say is watch out for those nasty claws! Thankfully the grateful young lady had no issues holding his legs away from the hands that were trying to save it.

I think we worked on this turtle for 20 minutes, it felt like forever. He kept trying to pull his head into his shell. He was not very grateful for the life saving work we were bestowing on him.

In the end, we were successful, we were able to remove the hook and the girls had huge smiles on their faces and a big "thank you" for their knight in shining armor.

After battling with this turtle (and winning) our friend (and camping neighbor) came over to our site and told us that we really didn't need to remove the hook. Apparently, turtles have some kind of acid in their saliva that within the week would have eaten through the hook and it would have fallen out. Now he tells us... after watching us struggling with this creature. I know he was sitting at his table in his trailer laughing at the heroics that were taking place. I honestly don't think though, that Kevin would have stopped had he known, the big eyes of scared girls have a way with him and he would have continued his work until the results were satisfactory with the little girls.

I really must work on my high pitched cries for help, I will be a student of Jilli Joy, she has used the cry, she has worked the cry, she has mastered the cry, and her Daddy comes running...

I will let you know how my cry is coming, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings!!

Back to Camping in July

Ok, so we had a pretty much perfect camping season this year. Although it's ending before I really want it to. Sadly, I think our season is now over. I really wanted to get in one more trip up to Ludington with our friends, but the calendar is running out of time, the weather is turning colder and our unit is in the shop getting things fix. So.... blogging about the camping trips this summer will have to hold me over until I get to start out all over again come spring (which in my book, could be early March weather permitting).

These next pictures are of our camping trip back in July. It was a beautiful Saturday evening and we got some visitors for supper. Nothing says summer like camping, hotdogs, hamburgs, smores, hot fire, laying back in the chairs dreaming the evening away, and if you are lucky a game or two.

As an added bonus, our new niece brought her parents out to see us. I look at these pictures and can hardly believe Lorelei was that little. She has grown so much in the last few months.
The king of all marshmallow roasters...Kevin. Our family likes them big, brown and gooey, if they have black on them, toss them into the fire and start over again. This summer we were introduced to a new way of making smores. I call them smores on steroids. They are soooooo gooooood. I will have to share with you the secret ingredient, if I am feeling extra kind.
Baby Girl taking her nap on Ama....
Game time! Watch out, I have some mean playing machines.
Yup, Micah has his game face on and he is ready to roll..
Don't let the innocent face of Tyler fool you, he will get you when you least expect it.
Man, even looking back on the pictures... how I love camping and all that goes with it. There are times when it feels like a lot of work, but it is all worth it, the memories we are creating with our kids are priceless. There are not many families who take camping as seriously as we do (except our friends the V.W's **wink,wink**), and there are people that might call us crazy, but I think it makes all the sense in the world.

Blessings!!

Beauty

I am going to be trying hard to bring this blog up to date. I have so much from this summer I would love to share, so if for some insane reason I have extra time on my hands, I might be posting more than once a day. Grand expectations....

So I love having a daughter and there are times that my daughter.... well take right now for instance, she just stomped her feet all the way up the stares, and made the poker lips scowl face this Peters' family is so famous for, and yelled at Tyler for leaving her all alone in the basement, then plopped her little self on the couch, crossed her arms (continuing to scowl) and made this little humph sound. All attitude (that she didn't get from me), and she probably had an eye roll in there for extra measure (that, she did get from me). As I was saying, I love having a daughter (minus the attitude) and all the things that come with little girls.

I love doing her hair (on the days that I force her to have her hair done). I love dressing her up in dresses (on the Sundays that I put my foot down that she can't wear her sweatpants), but the one thing that I never have to force her to do is wear make-up. As a side note, she is not allowed to wear it unless she is dancing on stage or staying home (neither happens very often).

There was one day however, while we were camping that she decided to put make-up on. It was so cute that I couldn't tell her to stop, it was a perfect photo-op just calling my name. When she was finished I was quite impressed with her abilities, for a 5 yr old she did great!

After she was finished, I sat her down and asked her what makes her really beautiful. She said "Jesus in my heart".

I have the awesome responsibility of training my little girl to look at her image the way God sees her and not the way the world sees her. I think it's quite obvious that she is beautiful on the outside (I am not bias, not one little bit), but more importantly she needs to be beautiful on the inside. I am battling an up hill battle. The world will tell her one view of beauty, but I have to show her the Godly view of beauty.

There are days that I can't wrap my mind around the fact that I am a Momma, and not just that but a Momma of a little spirited girl, that someday will be a spirited young women. My knees are shaking, because I just can't comprehend that I am really cut out for this incredible responsibility. But I guess it's good that my knees are shaking because it forces me to get back to where God wants me, on my shaking knees, praying for wisdom and guidance as we blaze new trails into womanhood.

Lots to say, but think it's best not to say anything...

What a day...

I keep typing and then erasing it all...

Thinking that I will just post a picture and call it a night...

Goodnight...