Summer Adventures

I'm not very good at blogging in the summer.  I'm just having too much fun gallivanting around with my family.  A major benefit of working as a teacher is the fact that Scott has the summer off!  A downside of working as a teacher is that Scott works another job in the summer to make more income for our family.  Have I mentioned how thankful I am that I married such a hard-working man?  Seriously.  He's amazing.  Scott leaves the house around 6:45am in the summers and get's home a little after noon.  He builds stonewalls all morning with two of his teacher-friends from school.  It's an awesome gig and we're really grateful for the extra work.  It's also pretty flexible, so we still have lots of time together as a family.  Here are just a few of the fun things we did the second half of June...I'm playing catch up here.  Bear with me!
Lots of concerts on the various local bandstands!

 Scott has been working many afternoons on finishing this never ending painting project!  We (He) are ALMOST done!  No more ugly green!

 I've been playing soccer twice a week and loving it!

 Goofy boys...

 Little hands...

 Micah's a little hesitant when it comes to tree climbing!

 Lots of playground time...

 We love these two buddies!

 We have been swimming almost every afternoon! 

 Eating some yummy treats at the local Farmer's Market

 We had fun visiting the old railroad station/historical society...

Sailing with Pop is always a blast!

 Camden's learning how to steer the boat!

 Brothers...

 Clara came to visit for ten days and we had such a blast with her.  Lots of cousin time!  (More pics of our time together in my next post!

 We've just loved watching this little girl grow big and strong.  She's such a sweetie!

 Kisses!

Let the adventures continue!

Ready for you!

Come on Baby Goose!  We're ready to meet you!!!  I'm sitting here on the couch, watching you move inside my belly like crazy and wondering when you're going to arrive.  Tomorrow is your due date (and Bepa's birthday).  It would mean a lot to me if you showed up right on time, but even if you don't I know your timing will be perfect.

Your room is all ready for you, which kind of makes me laugh because you will likely be sleeping in our room for the first 10-12 months of your life, but who knows, maybe you'll want your own space more than your brothers did and want to get settled in your little room sooner rather than later.  I can't wait to hold you and kiss you and love on you for the rest of your life.  See you soon, Little One!

Don't worry, we'll replace the pictures of Micah with precious little newborn pictures of you!  :)

 Soooo different than your brothers clothes! 

 We had to squeeze a twin bed in here for Daddy for the nights when all you want to do is stay awake with Mama and nurse.  Daddy needs to sleep a little bit so he can wake up with your brothers at 5:30 every morning and let us sleep in! 

We're ready Baby Goose!  Are you?!?!

Another Successful Project!

The three boys in my life love to do projects.  Scott is bored if he has to sit around for more than 20 minutes with nothing to do, so we often spontaneously start weekend projects just for fun.  We had a little plastic turtle sandbox that was sufficient while the boys were really little, but we decided as a family that we wanted to make a bigger sandbox that they could both comfortably play in along with their friends.  After a little research online and a trip to the hardware store, we were ready to go!

Here the boys are explaining what we're up to to our neighbor...

 A good little builder helping Daddy...

 Once it was all made, we ordered some sand to be delivered it was SOOO much cheaper to do it this way than to buy individual bags of sand.  For all of you out there wanting to build your own sandbox...remember this advice!
The boys watched the truck back up into our yard from the safety of the swingset. 

 Well, we ordered a little too much sand (it was only a yard, but the guy said he put a little extra in the truck!)  I think we had enough!

 We spent the next day taking loads of sand behind the shed to save a pile for the future...

 Lots of helpers makes for light work!  I even picked up a shovel a few times...I swear!

We are now thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our labor!  We even have had friends over, like these pictures of our boys playing with our two adorable visitors from North Carolina (Many of you probably know Kelcey either personally or through her incredible artwork and jewelry that I pretty much wear every single day.  She blogs over at Sweet Mess and is my sister's childhood best friend. She also grew up in the house we now live next door to and we're neighbors with her Dad!  I played with her and her sister when we were little and now our kids are playing together on the same little dead end road...pretty crazy!)  Anyway, the sandbox handled these four just beautifully! 

Thanks to my handyman husband for making this little idea a reality!  I love you! 

Finding the Beauty

After a busy Spring Family Weekend at school, Scott had Sunday and Monday off and we had a blast spending some good, quality time together as a family.  These last six weeks since my Dad first entered the hospital have been a whirlwind of activity, travel, juggling the kids, stress, fear and sadness.  But it has also been a time of hope.  Seeing the community come around my family has been incredible.  Watching my Dad make significant progress at his rehab facility has been so encouraging.  Learning to appreciate the simple things in life that we most often take for granted has been a wonderful lesson to learn.  Seeing the faith of my parents tested and yet grow deeper and stronger has been a testimony of God's faithfulness and care for us.  I am doing my best to find the beauty in the world around me even when life doesn't feel beautiful.
On Sunday we had a great family day.  We went to church down in Concord and then went to visit my Dad as we have been doing ever Sunday since he's been in Concord.  We ate bagels out on the patio, watched the boys run around the grass and enjoyed seeing how well my Dad is doing.  He is such a trooper - it is seriously amazing to see how hard he is working and how high he is keeping his spirits.  It has been interesting to see how the boys have been taking in all of this stuff with my Dad.  We now play an imaginary game where Camden is in a wheelchair and he wants me to push him around the house.  We also play a game where I'm Bepa and I lie in bed and he's the doctor and Micah is the nurse and they check my legs and ask me all sorts of questions.  Every time we pray, Micah says "Bepa" before we even start.  When visiting with my Dad on Sunday, Camden told him all about how we were going to go to Beech Hill Farm after we said goodbye to him and was sure to add, "Hey Bepa, maybe when you get all better you can come to Beech Hill Farm with us too!" Camden and I brought my Dad back in for his next physical therapy appointment and as we were saying goodbye to him, Camden said, "Bepa, I think Ami really misses having you at home."  :(  It was so sweet.  He asked me tonight when Bepa was going to walk again.  I told him that we don't know if Bepa will be able to walk again, but we're hoping that maybe he will be able to by Camden's birthday in August.  Camden responded saying, "I hope Bepa is all better by my birthday.  I want him to walk to my party and have birthday cake with me."  I hope so too, Camden.

Here are some pictures from our visit with Bepa and our time at Beech Hill Farm.

 These little goats were only a few weeks old!

The boys love this peacock...

 A little boys dream come true!

 We actually sat down together in the sun and watched them play for a while!

 First ice cream at Beech Hill for the summer (yes, we hit it up on opening weekend!)...

 Sunday afternoon we worked on clearing out the lower part of our yard.  We're envisioning sitting around a fire pit on a summer evening on this little area over-looking the river. 

 Unfortunately, it's a lot of work to get this yard cleaned up.  This lower area was apparently used as a dump for years.  It didn't take long for us to fill up this entire barrel with old, rusty cans, broken pieces of glass, colored glass bottles etc.  It's nasty and we have a ton more to do before it's truly clean.

 The back of our little home from our future fire pit.

 An old car about just a few yards into the woods behind our neighbor's house...

 On Monday we tackled a big project of reseeding parts of our yard that really needed some attention.  The boys loved digging in the new topsoil and helping to spread grass seeds around.  Now for the challenge of keeping them off these seeded areas while it grows!

 Big boy!

 Camden and I were so excited to watch what we think is a red-tailed hawk in our back woods today.  This guy hung out with us all day.  He is huge and so beautiful!

So much to be thankful for. 

"God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear..."