Wrapping up Summer

Faith creative way to decorate Baby

Snuggly Kids

Woolly Mammoth Hunters



I just realized that I have not posted nearly all summer! Part of the reason is that we don't have a camera; our dinosaur is broken, and we really need to get into Consumer Reports before we buy again. Looking forward to not having the three-second delay!

However, we do have a few pics left on our camera that should have gone up; but I have not put them on the computer yet. Now that I am thinking about it, it will happen soon. Life is still happening here; it's just not for all to see! :)

Summer re-cap:
The garden came and went. Sunflower fort grew up as high as the house and then fell over! Pumpkins overtook the garden, as well as the dead space behind our fence, so now I guess we will get to be the neighborhood pumpkin patch!

Speaking of neighborhood, this year the weather has been so outstanding that we have gotten to know our neighbors, especially the children. We even got to go over to Juan's and eat his boiled pig in a pot bigger than I am (someone else ate the eyeball. Seriously.). We also got to use their pool during the heat wave.

We have spent our evenings after dinner watering the front and back and then playing Red Light Green Light and Mother, May I. The kids are also really into playing catch. Gabriel loves balls right now.

Fourth of July we went over to Moses Lake for our traditional family reunion at Lisa's. We love everyone and are so thankful that we come from Christian families where our kids are free to play without worry.

Faith had an exciting Jungle Adventure birthday complete with buried treasure! She is seven now and very helpful.

We house-sat at Dad's in Arlington, which turned out to be quite the ordeal, complete with an emergency room trip due to Elijah's new-found cat allergy.

This summer we also welcomed two new babies into our church fellowship. The Colemans had their ninth baby Mary Ruth, aftera string of five boys! We also welcomed Caleb Sammii who is number six for them. Also my dear friend Brandi Grenier had her third baby, a girl named Haley Linnea. Congratulations to all those dear families out there!

Kyle turned 29 on August 1. We all had Killer Omelets at Papa Culley's. Kyle can't quite pack it away like he used to.

And the plantar facsitis is back. Both Kyle and me! We are pretty gimpy around here and waiting to be able to walk comfortably again. Kyle got his from over-use on the soccer field. Last time, I felt cool because I could say mine was from a fifteen-mile run, but this time my pathetic reason is that I tried to wear cute shoes two days in a row. I guess we are throwing out our flip flops around here and looking for some Keens or something more practicle.

This summer I taught a health food class on salad making and the benefits of greens. Upcoming I have a desserts class and will touch on the woes of sugar. The kids will be selling some of their awesome creations (prepared with clean hands).

We are looking forward to continuing violin with Miss Carol who comes to our house and teaches us for free (What a blessing!). She gives Faith and me lessons, plays a violin game with Elijah, and she even has a teeny violin for Gabe, which he LOVES. I will probably teach her son piano when the time is right.

In September we are looking forward to my birthday, to our ten-year high school reunion, and the the beginning of Friday School. The chicken house is still being built, so maybe we will get to finnish that too!

Now I have to go because I have a date with my little boy to play Mouse Trap.

Home Life

Helping remove...

...the nasty shower doors.

Playing on the violin (now we just have to learn to be patient for the results!)

Serious business, the cowgirl life is.

Family night

Home School Group Field Trip to the Sedro Woolley Museum

Elijah and Noah Taft

Some of the kids

More of the kids

Gimpy Gabe

Elijah and Faith Williamson

The kids had a great time at the museum. There was a lot for them to see there. The employees commented that they were impressed with this group because of how interested they were in everything. Afterwards we rewarded the children and all went over to Alfy's for lunch.
What a blessing to be a part of such a neat group of kiddos!!!

Tea Party Time

The kids have really been into tea parties lately. Faith decorated the house and put up a sign outside and has been pretending we live in a tea cottage. By the way, THE BATHROOM is NOT as hideously orange as it looks in the photos here on the blog.

CAN ANYBODY TELL ME...

...HOW TO MOVE PHOTOS AROUND AND ARRANGE THEM IN BETWEEN TEXTS AND WHATNOT? ...Heather?

Gabriel Update

THANK YOU SO MUCH
to all who have been praying for little Gabriel!

His finger is improving, and time will tell if everything heals up back to normal. We have been going to the doctor about every other day for the last couple weeks, and we even had another ER visit this week because the wound broke open again, thanks to Mom (me) who was trying to have some special one-on-one time with Baby by playing an apparently rowdy round of peek-a-boo. Please continue praying, if you would.

Micah and Heidi's Wedding

Last Friday we had the honor of attending Micah and Heidi's wedding! They were married at Hillcrest Lodge, a beautiful park in Mount Vernon. Everyone looked so beautiful, and we regret that we never got pictures of the bride and groom together!

Moms should never have to see their kids' bones!

I am not a squeamish person, and I don't cry easily, but last week was too much! Gabriel is really at a stage where he messes up the kids' toy set ups. The familiar scene was about to unfold again, so I reminded Elijah he could take his toys into his bedroom and play undisturbed. I proceeded into the kitchen to finish up dishes when I should have seen the whole thing through. Apparently, Gabe had tried to follow Elijah into the bedroom when Elijah slammed the door on him...and his little finger!!!

Hearing fussing, I figured that Elijah was removing Gabe from the scene again and I continued doing the dishes, not realizing the severity of the situation. When the fussing continued, I went to mediate and found Gabriel looking up at me, not screaming, just whining, with an urgent look on his face. I still did not realize his finger was stuck until I opened the door and saw it fall. I panicked when I saw the bone.

I had to call 9-1-1 three times because there was such a bad connection, and Faith quickly got a cloth to wrap up the finger and piece that was severed. By the time the paramedics arrived, I had gone from screaming to crying. I was thankful for their light-hearted attitudes. All the kids got to ride in the ambulance to the hospital, where I was met by kind nurses and a cussing doctor. They gave Gabriel morphine until they decided whether or not to do surgery. The first thing they told me was that they would not be able to save the finger, and I was okay with that. But I called Mom and asked her to interceed, and she called the family and got them going. After that the doc came in and decided to try to save it. I know the Lord was at work because Gabriel actually fell asleep as they stitched him up! He was so peaceful the whole time; he never even cried his "I'm hurt cry."

It was truly sweet to see Faith's compassion towards her baby brother. I overheard her tell the nurses with a quivering voice, "I hope Gabriel's okay. I love him so much!" That was a far cry from her brother who sat in the hospital chair, trying to cover his tail, and repeated over and over, "Gabie was in my way! He was in my way!"

What a day! I am so thankful for a wonderful family and especially Kyle who was brilliant through this whole ordeal. We really believe God has a purpose in this little event, and we are thankful.

Please continue to pray that Gabe will be able to keep his finger and nail too! I will keep you posted. Thanks for the prayers!

Graduation and Project Display Night

Congratulations to our dear young people from our church fellowship who graduated last week! Above we have the Uptain family with their son Trevor the graduate! Below Trevor poses with his long time friend Kayla who also grafuated that night.

That same night was Project Display Night for our home school co-op. Faith was very proud of her display of Noah and the Ark of Animals. Not too bad, considering, I was informed she was participating in the display fifteen minutes before she was supposed to be there for set-up.

Elijah's 4th Birthday and Chuck E Cheese

Elijah chose to go to Chuck E Cheese on his real birthday and then out for pizza and finally home for Kung Fu Panda. Every four-year-old's dream!

One of Elijah's favorite gifts yesterday was the sleeping bag and camel pack from his daddy, although Elijah could not understand why his bag was green when on the tag, the picture of the bag was blue.

Elijah chose to have ice cream sundaes instead of cake.

Elijah's Birthday Party

I have a ton of birthday pictures to post, so bear with me. I guess Kyle is pretty snappy happy, and I am obsessed with getting them up on the blog especially for my mom and Greg far away. Since I have not figured out how to post captions under each photo (yeah, I know), I will explain that in these pictures are my dad and step mom; brother Brandon, sister-in-law Heather, and baby Mattea; friends from church Julie and two kids Erica and Korey; and close cousin Manesseh and little Luke.

More of Elijah's Birthday Party