Videos!

This is a video of Michael and the kids running!

A video from our vacation! The kids were having a great time feeding the fish and talked Emily into dumping her whole bag in at the end!

Emily ran right out of her shoe for the win! This summer we had a blast at the local Catholic high school's track and field events in June!

This is what happens when the kids get the fishing bug and we don't go fishing! They all had a blast taking turns being the fish!

School Days!

The kids all started back to school a few weeks ago and have transitioned well. Jacob wasn't so sure about being at school for 7+ hours but he's good to go now! He especially loves PE and music.

Here are Jacob and Megan on their first day of school! Jacob was still missing his glasses and shoes but they were on in the car!

Here's Megan ready to go!

Jacob with his bad boy look!

Emily started school the next day and couldn't be happier to go to Mommy's school!

Emily was giving out hugs on the first day to her teacher Miss Lisa!

Picking out her job.

After school we headed over to get Megan's allergy shots and met my friend Nicole there. Afterwards we went to Snow-Biz with all the kids and they wanted to all ride in my car! Emily and Allie (who hid from the camera!) held hands the whole time!

Candyland fun!

Jacob identified and sorted all of these letters so we could see which ones to work on! Notice the blue and purple letters are together because they look the same to him! Apparently brown and green are also difficult for him.

Shoney is loving my re-purposed closet that used to be filled with random stuff. Now it's a nice quiet place for staff and kids to relax when the going gets tough!

Allie came running over to Emily to give a big hug!

We are all patiently awaiting Baby Girl Langston to make her arrival any day now!

Aunt Jackie's!!!

We spent a wonderful weekend at Aunt Jackie's a few weekends ago and had a great time. We celebrated Great Grandma and Grandpa's birthdays and the kids sang Jesus loves me for them!

Here is a group picture!

This is when they were singing!

Emily was as happy as a lark with all of the attention!

Megan loved every minute of kayaking! She would totally stay there forever if we let her!

She enjoyed giving everyone rides!

Luke also had a blast!

Jacob went out with Luke in the kayak and had a blast!

Emily swimming!

Jacob and Adam having a great time playing Clue!

Daddy and Emily playing a funny game of Rummikub!

Here are the kids playing their own "battle" version of Clue!

Cousin Erin took Megan out in the canoe to fish and had a great time. Megan would have stayed out there for days but we made her get out after 2 hours and lots of fish later!

Megan also wanted to learn how to clean the fish!

Emily and Daddy snuggling!

And this is how we all felt afterwards! The kids were completely worn out and we were all spoiled by a fun relaxing weekend at the cabin!

Random Pics

All the kids helped with the arrows for the party!

This picture of Jacob cracks me up! I managed to miss a chunk of his forehead when we put sunblock on for the pool!

Working hard on the arrows!

The girls had a play date with Hope and made their own house! Jacob was at Hope's house playing with his buddy Parker!

I especially like Emily's bed!

Then the girls went outside and Shoney took over their house!

Emily loves playing "stuffy toys" as the kids like to say!

A week after her party we finally made smores! She was super excited to roast hot dogs and marshmellows!

Emily is happy with her chocolate!

Jacob became really interested in poking the fire and burning trash in the pit!

We went to Bass Pro Shops and the kids were in heaven pretending to drive boats, atv's, and more!

Happy 8th Birthday Megan!!

Megan had a fantastic 8th birthday party this year! She really wanted a camping party and camp for real but we talked her into a backyard camping party instead. With friends and their siblings we had about 15 kids over for the party which started at 5pm on Saturday night and lasted until church at 10:30 Sunday! I have to admit, this was definitely one of our best parties yet! We started out with a camp theme dinner, then went outside for a scavenger hunt to find all kinds of fun goodies, then cake, presents, more fun free time outside, then when it was dark we jimmy-rigged a sheet to make a screen for a projector to watch Rio 2 outside. It was awesome! Then the kids got ready for bed and finally went to sleep after midnight! Then the next day everyone got up, enjoyed pancakes and off to church we went! Overall I think everyone had a good time and we had a blast making homemade bow and arrows (with popsicle sticks, dental floss, and q-tips), butterflies, and all the yummy food!

Here is the crew for the party! 

Dinner!

This was the first year we let Megan just rip into presents, it was a wild fun time! When I quizzed her afterwards she knew exactly who got her what! She was very blessed with perfect gifts that she loves!

I forgot to take a picture of the platter of individual dirt cakes! Everyone got their own dirt cake in a flower pot with worms and a daisy with their name on it!

She knew what this was before she opened it and was super duper excited!

Her first BB gun! This was the one thing she really really wanted...and it was not an easy choice to get it for her!

We enjoyed butterfly snacks, twigs, worms, campfire, and more!

Thanks to our friends we had 2 big tents for the kids...a boy tent and a girl tent!

Everyone sprawled out enjoying the movie! This was my favorite part and I can't wait to do this again sometime!

Shoney was right in the middle of everything and loving it!

Some of the girls waking up!

Pancakes for everyone! The morning was surprisingly relaxed and fun!

Shoney loves the attention!

Some of the kiddos ready for church! They were super sleepy and one even fell asleep a little during church!