Look of Innocence

How can we resist spoiling this sweet little angel? Even Taylor and Cole adore her so! They are such good brothers to her!

Breaking and Entering

Well, we had our first intruder. One morning, I fed the family pancakes and syrup. It was a very busy morning, so there wasn't enough time to wash the dishes. We had the windows open, since it was a nice day. I was feeding Lucy when Cole walked into the Kitchen. He suddenly said, "Daddy". I thought, "Oh, he means Mommy". Then he said it again and I thought he heard Troy come home. Finally, he comes back to tell me we had a squirrel in our kitchen. I thought, "Is Cole ok?.... a squirrel?" Cole then tells me that it's ok cause it went out. Now I thought, "Oh, great.... he saw a mouse and now it has snuck back to who knows where." Our first mouse encounter. I asked Cole if it was a mouse, and he said, "No, a squirrel." In my head I said, "How could a squirrel #1- get in our kitchen and #2- get back out?" At this point I decided I needed to check things out, whatever it was that Cole saw. I got up and went to the kitchen. He was right. A squirrel had chewed through our screen window in our kitchen. Walking into the kitchen I could hear the cackeling of the squirrel outside the window. His plan had been foiled. He returned a few times, only to find the window closed and access denied. Unlikely enough, he had climbed telephone and power wires up to our second floor window, to chew through the screen, to reach the tomatoes or pancake syrup. The tomatoes were spared as he knocked them off the window sill entering the house. At that point, he must have been thrown off guard by all the syrup dishes left from breakfast. We will never know what happened and will ever be grateful he decided to leave the way he came without too much mess. The kitchen window remains closed until we can fix the screen.

Snuggly Boys

One night we checked on the boys before we went to bed, and found them snuggled together. Taylor must have been scared and decided it would help to join Cole.

Lucy's Hands

Lucy has discovered her hands and tongue. She loves to chew on her fingers or fist.

Good Morning

This morning, Lucy woke up early to eat. Sherrie fed her and then layed her down in our bed to sleep a little longer while Sherrie showered. Lucy just loved sleeping in our bed, since it never happens. These pictures catch a small glimpse into her wake-up routine. She looks so cozy.

Growing Up!

All our kids seem to be growing under our noses. Taylor gets bigger each day as he matures and develops his own personality. His top two favorite things to do are: #1- Riding his bike #2- Reading. Every day he comes home from school and asks if we can "ride bikes." We are glad that he likes to be active, we just wish we had more yard for him to explore.

Happiness

Doesn't his smile just make you smile? Cole has always loved to make others smile. One thing he has started to do lately is say "See you later, alligator", when you are leaving. He then gets a little confused and says, "bye Baboon", or "bye crocodile". He is so silly.

Sleeping Beauty

Lucy is such a good baby. It is hard to believe she is already three months old. The time is slipping away so quickly. Is it possible to freeze time before it is gone? We love her so much and are grateful she has come to our family.

Date Night

When we moved to Philadelphia we were blessed to have two families include us in their weekly date night rotation. We now have regular dates every friday night with the exception of every third friday when we watch all the kids (10 including ours and two other families).

We have enjoyed finding fun, creative things to do for our dates. One date night we decided to have a photo night where we took each other's portrait and then took a few together. We didn't have any recent pictures of each other or of us together, so it was nice to not have to go to a studio to get it done. They turned out pretty well.

You can do that?

There are hundreds of uses for clear tape! Changing your face shape might not be the first one you think of. Taylor and Cole love clear tape and have found many, many uses for it. Originally they wanted to tape their eyes closed, so we found a quick alternative. Taping their noses up seemed a little less threatening.

Lucy's Blessing

On August 3rd Lucy was given her baby blessing. We were grateful to have Dad Johnson, Kay, Brent, Natalie, and Alyssa join us for the weekend.

This is the same dress Sherrie was blessed in. Somewhere we have a picture of Dad Johnson holding Sherrie in the dress. It is so humbling to realize that she has such great potential and will one day be a mother, to love and care for children of her own. It was a long weekend for the kids. We kept them running between early mornings, late nights, and lots of fun in between. They enjoyed playing with Papa and their cute cousin, Alyssa. We appreciate the time they spent with us and the sacrifice they made. It was so wonderful to be together.

Happy Birthday Taylor

July 31, Taylor turned 6 years old. It is so hard to believe it was 6 years ago that he was born. What a wonderful start to life's adventure. We are so grateful to have him in our family! Taylor has always been a sensative, kind, friend who is concerned for others. We love his silliness and desire to share happiness with those around him. He wanted a butterfly cake with LOTS of candy. So, we made the cake and put candy between the layers. Half the cake had chocolate candy and the other half, non chocolate (for Cole who doesn't like Chocolate). It was a little too much candy and sugar, but Taylor loved it! A few weeks later we had a party to celebrate with his friends. We made two pinatas. The first is a stinkbug (Taylor's choice) and then just a plain round one. Although the stinkbug didn't look "store bought" it was fun to make and Taylor was so pleased. The kids sure had fun, especially when they got to the candy inside.