Summer is Going Fast

 A belated Birthday gift for Denae!  Lots and lots of pictures from the last month and a half. 
Mid June our baby Luke turned two  years old!  Oh how time flies.  Thankful to God for this precious little light in our lives. 

 We celebrated with Joel's parents and his brother, Eric, and family.  Luke enjoyed his gifts and all the company.  Joel grilled out and we were glad for a beautiful day. 

 Two sweeties.  I love the bright orange shirts.  Makes them easy to spot :)  Happy Birthday Luke.  May God continue to bless you. 

 This year we had Benny go to cub-scout camp.  Joel was able to go along a few days.  Benny enjoyed swimming, archery, BB guns, and sling shot ranges.  He had fun doing several manly crafts, I guess they call them "projects", not crafts though :)  Benny came home nice and tired each night, and then had VBS each evening too.  It made for a long week, but an enjoyable one.

 Joel took along Elijah one day, and Rachael one day to camp.  Siblings can go for free and they both had a good time.  Elijah was able to participate in the games and projects and enjoyed the day out with Daddy and his big brother. 

 An adorable little man in my bed!  Timothy is growing.  He is 11 weeks old already.  He is still an extremely fussy baby.  I really do feel so bad for him and I can't seem to do much to help him feel better.  But we all love our baby Tim-Tim (a nickname I gave him, and I don't know why).  He also gets Timmy, Baby-Timmy, Fusser and just Timothy.  Two weeks ago Timothy was 12 pounds even, so he is gaining ok, he is coming down from off the charts though, and is now at 50 percentile. 

 Trying out Sissy's rollerblades.  Luke has always had a special love of Rachael, but since Timothy's birth it has grown even more.  He calls out for her in the morning, and is always with her.  He goes to her to fix up his little boo-boos.  I am glad for this, this special little bond.  She loves to care for him and he adores her.  I am so often busy with Timothy that I am so thankful for an extra set of loving arms to hold Luke. 

 Two months old, getting big in the tub.  He kind of smiled, which is why the picture.  He really hates his bath.  Still.  So he most often gets sponged down to save us all the shrieking and screaming that goes along with a full sink bath.  But sometimes that is all that will do. 

 I'd say that Aunt Shannon's dessert was a hit.  Blair and Asher sure loved it on fourth of July.  We had a wonderful bbq with my family.  It was a very hot day, but the kids had fun running around and playing in the creek.

 Joel had fun setting off fireworks for the captive audience.  The kids were so loud and exuberant.  Clapping, yelling and laughing.  It was great fun for Joel and them.  Luke doesn't like the fireworks (and a host of other scary things), so he was inside with a screaming  baby Timmy during our festivities. 

 Watching the show at mom-mom and pop-pop's house. 

 Joel and the kids camped out one muggy night.  The township was spraying for mosquitoes that night so we had to have them come in for a bit, but then they went back out and settled down to sleep.  Joel slept outside of the tent and said the moon was beautiful that night.  I slept in my air conditioned bedroom!  Hooray for Daddies!!!

 Not only did they sleep in the tent, but they went through two large bowls of pop-corn and then they ate their breakfast cereal out there too.  This was Asher's first time to camp out, I believe.  He is enjoying his big-kid status now.  I can't believe Asher is four. 

A favorite shot so far this summer.  Luke is so sweet and silly.  And ornery.  He is in to EVERYTHING.  We recently went to Cabella's so the boys could spend some of their hard earned cash (they are cutting a few lawns this summer) on air-soft stuff.  We were in the aisle looking at gun after gun and never noticed Luke quiet as can be, take a canister of the plastic pellets off the shelf, open it (it was sealed with foil) and EAT a good handful of beads!  He was in the stroller, we thought he was safe! HA.  There are still a few pellets hiding in the stroller I am sure.  He gets up the stairs, can open our "child-proof" gate and changes the codes on the answering machine.  He slips out the front door and goes up the street.  Luke sure keeps me hopping.  Good thing he is so stinkin' cute.  I can't get enough of him!!!

So that is all that I have for now.  I'll try to update a bit more regularly, things have not settled back to normal yet with Timothy, not at all.  But I am more and more convinced of God's good and perfect plan for my life and the life of my children.