Heattttttttttttttt

Yikes, it's HOT! I heard on the official weather radio this morning that we have 96% humidity and the heat index is between 106º and 115º ! It's a real honest-to-goodness heat wave! There is a heat advisory out until late tomorrow night.

In this horrible heat this weekend Jeremy worked his tail off!! He took down the big shelves in the den, took out the old window, cut off some siding outside, put in some new studs in the wall, and got plywood up on the outside of the house to get ready to start putting siding on.

Heart & Home

Yesterday with the kids started out pretty trying for me... During breakfast, Caeden decided to spill his and Sylvia's bowls of cereal all over the table and floor and play in the mess. Then Annah dumped half a big container of cut-up watermelon all over the kitchen floor. It became apparent that I was not getting out of mopping the kitchen floor in the 90-some degree heat!

After lunch, we had to make a quick run to the library to return some books. I only intended to drop off the books and come right back home, so I took Caeden in just a diaper since it was so unbearably hot. (Plus, the air conditioner is out in our car.) Well, just across the street from the library is a company we are talking with about siding and replacement windows, so I decided I should just go ahead and stop in to look at siding color samples since I was already there. Of course, I can't leave the kids sitting in the car, so I took them in with me. Caeden started screaming because I wouldn't put him down on the floor in all his practically nakedness, so I finally did put him down. As I was trying to talk to the man who was showing me the samples, the kids started chasing each other in a circle around the store, laughing and screaming! Oh my goodness, I was so upset with them! I apologized to the nice man, grabbed the kids and strapped them in the car, told them not to talk, and no one uttered a word all the way home.

Last evening, I got to go out to dinner with girlfriends. Then we went shopping and I found some great bargains at Gordman's ($6 pairs of jeans!!!), and then we picked up snacks at Wally World and went to a hotel (one of the girls had won a free night's stay!) and watched chick flicks, gabbed, and painted our nails until 1:30 a.m. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!! Now that was a much-needed sweet release and SUCH a blessing!!! And, Jeremy and the kids got to have some quality time too. He took them to Pizza Hut and Target and they watched the Wiggles too.

Jeremy is working on the den. He is kind of working on the inside and the outside at the same time. We're going to have to start putting up vinyl siding too help keep the water out, so we're trying to choose colors. We wanted a creamy light goldish yellow, but can't seem to find the shade we want anywhere. So, now we are thinking maybe a shade of green?

Hard to say goodbye...

 What a wonderful time we had on our trip to spend time with family in Indiana!!

Uncle T & Aunt E came over to hang out with us every evening at Gram & Krampa's. They are always fun and so generous to spend time with us.

When it was time to leave this morning, Annah struggled and sobbed for about half an hour because she didn't want to leave Gram & Krampa's. She even told me she loves Gram more than Mommy! Ouch. Sylvia said she was going to hide so she didn't have to leave. The times we have visiting are always full of such special moments; it's such a blessing, even when it's hard to leave.

Great Grandma DeHaven's 90th!

Our trip back to Indiana this time was for a very special surprise party for Great Grandma DeHaven's 90th birthday!! Her party was really nice, and she obviously enjoyed seeing the many people who came to celebrate with her. We were so glad to be able to be there. Kasey and Danielle gave boat rides on their pontoon, and the girls and I went. It was so nice and relaxing! The kids had fun playing in the lake a little bit and playing BINGO with Grandma Lopshire.

Great Grandma DeHaven and her birthday bikini from Bob!

Grandma D and all her grandkids

 Sylvia on the pontoon boat

the 5 of us

Two Violinists

This morning we visited Great Grandma McEowen at her home in Renaissance Village.  Grandma loved playing violin until arthritis made her hands too painful to be able to play.  (I'm not sure exactly when that was, but I never heard her play.)  So, Krampa and I wanted Annah to show Grandma her new violin.

 Great Grandma McEowen so enjoyed Annah bringing her violin to play for her.  She even took a minute to make some sound on it herself.

It was beautiful to see the two talking about their love...one remembering music she used to make, one just beginning and dreaming of music she will make...

I am so thankful for the legacy of music in my family!

Family Swim!

Annah's first "concerts"

Annah doing a demo for Uncle Trav &Auntie Erin

A violin, a water fight, and a crumbling wall

Annah got her violin today!!! We are all super excited about it! She had her second lesson, and her homework is to practice playing "Hot Cross Buns."--which is known to violinists as "2, 1, None."  As soon as we got home, she had to show Sylvia her violin. And, the second Daddy got home she had to show him too. She is thrilled.

 "Sylvia, feel this. What does it feel like? Do you know what that is?! That's horse's hair!!" Since, she loves horses so much, Annah thinks it's extra super cool that the strings on her bow are made from horse hair.

You can see the excitement, can't you?!

It was really hot today, and Daddy sprayed the kids while he was doing some watering out in the yard. They loved it and yelled, "Yahoo! This is funner! I'm soaked!" They also got out their tiny umbrellas and tried to shield themselves from the water, pretty unsuccessfully, but happily.

 Here's the mess of our den right now! We've decided not to put a window back in, but to wall it up and put in a bigger light fixture. There is one thing I've decided is good about the whole mess...We'll have to repaint the room and get rid of the ugly gray colors!!

a "typical" Sunday for us

 Sundays are fulfilling, tiring days for our family. Here's what one is typically like:

• 5:30 - 6:00 a.m. - My alarm goes off, and I finally get up and get myself ready
  
  
• 7:00 a.m. - I get my music together and practice a little, which usually wakes the kids up. One of us forces Jeremy out of bed so he can get ready.
  
  
• 7:30 - I start panicking that we will be late and nagging at Jeremy to hurry up.
  
  
• 7:40 - We throw ourselves into the car and speed off to church.
  
  
• 8:00 - I go to rehearsal for the first service. Jeremy and kids may run through McDonald's or Krispy Kreme drive-through and come back to church. J watches kids, feeds them their cereal and milk, maybe dresses one or more of them too--depending on how late they slept.
  
  
• 9:00 - First service starts. Caeden goes to the nursery. Sylvia goes to preschool class. Annah goes to the pre-K class. Jeremy usually has to leave the service after the worship set to get things set up for elementary kids' church program during second service. I don't think he's heard a sermon in months.
  
  
• 10:00-ish - First service ends. I usually have practice again for second service, so we scramble to figure out who can watch the kids. Sometimes the girls come with me and sit in the front row of the sanctuary to watch the practice. Most of the time, Jeremy wrangles with all the kids plus some extra ones. Once in a while, if I'm not playing/singing for second service, I am able to help w/ the kids.

10:45 - Second service starts. Caeden goes to the nursery. Sylvia goes to preschool class. Annah goes with Jeremy to kids' service. Jeremy is currently one of the leaders for the elementary kids' program. This summer they are doing a church camp theme. They run about 50+ kids and maybe 8 adult leaders. Usually I am playing piano/keyboard/organ or singing, but today I was in the nursery for a bit and the preschool class for a bit.

•  noon-ish - Second service wraps up, and we try to pick up our kids from their classes as quickly as we can. We usually make it to the car with all 5 of us between 12:30 and 1:00. Today it was 1:00.
  
  
• 1:00 - We either run through a drive-through and pick up food or head home. Today, we went to Wal-Mart to pick up milk, TP, and other stuff we were almost out of.
   
• 1:30 p.m. - We get home. Today it was 2:00. I started making lunch, and we ate at about 2:30.
   
• 3:00 p.m. - Naptime for everyone!!!
   
• 5:00 - Jeremy tries to rouse me from my half-coma state.
   
• 6:00 - We scrounge up something to eat. I rarely make dinner on Sunday nights. Usually we have popcorn and watch a movie. Tonight we had pancakes because we did popcorn and a movie last night.

• 7:30 or 8:00 - We start getting the kids ready for bed...brush teeth, go potty/change diaper, get "ni-night waters," march upstairs, put on jammies, read a book or story, say prayers (The girls like to do the "squeeze hand prayer" where we each say part and pass turns around by squeezing hands.), tuck in, hugs and kisses, lights out.

• 9:00 p.m. - One of us has to go upstairs to tell the girls to settle down and go to sleep...

That's how our Sunday's usually go...

Back to the park!

We spent the whole day at the SF Park pool today. Wow. We sure made up for missing the sun most of the week; we are all sunburned. We had waterproof SPF 30 sunscreen on and reapplied it, but alas...we got the burn.

Ashley and Jacob spent the day with us there too, while Matt & Carlene worked on their search for a new home. We are SO sad they are moving away from us, because they are incredibly dear to our hearts. But, we're at least thankful they're only moving into town and not hours away.

Caeden was braver with getting into the pool today!

Colfax Coolness

 Today we visited a couple local establishments in the nearby town of Colfax. We went to the library! Sylvia wanted to bring home every book in the place (It's a very small library.), and Caeden...well, he's just not quite ready for the library yet. Jeremy had to take him out to the car while the girls and I checked out books. He was just a little too [loudly] excited about all the books and aisles to explore in the library!

We also went bowling! That was another first for all of the kids! They were very excited, and enjoyed it for a little while. But, they got really tired and cranky quickly. Caeden got frustrated that we wouldn't let him take the balls out of the return (for fear he would drop one on his foot, which he almost did once!), and was really mad when we took his bowling shoes off to leave, so he started screaming and throwing a fit. Then Sylvia got mad and started crying because we said we were not going to the playground (yes, as we had said we might) after we were done bowling because they were so tired. Then Annah started crying and yelling because she got a blister on her heel from the bowling shoes and actually said, "I don't EVER want to come back HERE again!" so loud that the owner of the bowling alley came over and asked her what was wrong. She brought her a band-aid and put it on her. You'd think I'd want to crawl under a rock, but we really did have a good time until they all started to meltdown!

a little crabby, but ready to bowl

watching the ball go down the lane

 "1, 2, 3!!!!"

 Caeden loved the bowling balls, and thought the shoes were really cool!

watching Daddy in action

I was trying to keep them under control while Annah bowled.

Moraine View State Park

We took the kids to the beach at Dawson Lake today, which is at Moraine View State Park, not far from our house. None of the kids had ever been to a beach before! They were thoroughly excited and thrilled to be there. It was shallow enough that they could go out quite far. Caeden had trouble keeping his balance in the water, but thought it was a fun way to jump up and down and splash when he fell. The girls and Jeremy had fun splashing each other and dumping buckets of water over each others' heads.

We used the self-timer for a family pic of our selves at the park. Hey, at least we were all looking at the camera!

picnicking close to the beach before we swam

The 3 little "chicks" following along...

They dug right into the sand, and jumped right into the water.

Children's Museum

Hmm, our second day of vacation was interesting too. We had a fun time at the Children's Discovery Museum in the morning!

While the kids were napping, Jeremy took the trim off our leaking den window so he could measure it. Well...the whole wall around it fell apart! So, we have to have someone come out and rebuild us a wall. Anyone who would like to fund that project, please contact us right away. Ha ha. Right. Anyway...

The girls are attending Bible school with friends this week too, which has been a blessing they are really enjoying.

Fun at the Children's Discovery Museum!

 playing with the water table

The drum beats out your heartbeat when you put your hands on the sensors. Caeden was enthralled!

making noodle necklaces

 TRAINS!!! Caeden was not-so happily sharing the trains with another little boy.

Daddy pretending to be a dentist

Annah pretending to be a mad dentist?

Staycation Day #1

 So our first day of vacation was kind of a dud. It rained all day. It stormed all evening. Our house leaked--as usual. We didn't get around early enough in the morning to do anything. Argh. We did make homemade ice cream in the bathtub! It's grey and rainy today too. But, we'll try to make the most of it.

There was one cool thing today... Annah had a trial violin lesson!! Since she was 2 or 3 she has been saying she wants to learn how to play the violin. So, I finally got around to finding a teacher, and Annah and I got to meet her today. Miss Ruthie was great with Annah, and in the first lesson already taught her all the parts of the violin, how to pick it up and hold it, and the note names of the strings! Annah was loving every minute of it!! Now we're just trying to figure if we can come up with the extra $100/month for her to keep going to lessons! Aaack!

Actually, I am looking into a couple ways to create some more income myself. I'm sure I'll have more info. shortly, but if you would join me in prayer for clarity of God's will in these matters, I would greatly appreciate it!

Swimmin'

We went to the pool at SF Park again yesterday, and took a picnic lunch too. We're kind of kicking ourselves for not going before now, but maybe we'll make up for it and go a lot more here on! ;)

This week we'll be vacationing here at home! There are so many fun things around here that we've never done, so we're staying at home for vacation!

Today after church we came home and played outside in our little wading pool!

4th of July!

Happy Independence Day! We spent the day hanging out at home. It rained a good portion of the day, so we didn't get to play outside, but it dried up enough for fireworks tonight!

We moved to Arrowsmith 5 years ago today! And, this is the first time we've been in Illinois since on the 4th of July. We weren't sure where to go to watch fireworks, but we chose LeRoy. We're glad we did! The display was nice and long, and we were able to park pretty close by and sit in the back of the car and watch.

Caeden thought he was scared at times, but by the end he was saying, "'A-gin?" and "More?" and "Pretty!" The neatest moment of the night was a couple minutes into the fireworks...Everyone was making their "oohs" and "ahs," and in the middle of everything Sylvia just said, "God, thank you for these fireworks."

Yes, thank you God for fireworks and freedom and family and friends. My heart is blessed today.

The kiddos and I in the back of the Aztek waiting for the fireworks to start.

Daddy & Sylvie enjoying the fireworks

 part of the finale of the LeRoy fireworks

Pretty Growing Girls

Annah felt very pretty and grown-up looking today. She was so excited it was hot out so she could wear her open-back outfit. And, Syvie was happy and super adorable in her little sundress from Travis & Erin. A momma just can't resist taking pictures! ;)

State Farm Park!

Happy 30th Birthday Marti! We love you!


We had an awesome day today! After 5 years of living here, we finally took our kids to the kiddie pool at State Farm Park!! It was SO awesome! The pool is super nice, and surprisingly it wasn't crowded today! The kids enjoyed themselves. After they were significantly wiped out, we got McDonald's, went to a picnic pavilion at S.F. Park and lunched, then let the kids play on the tot playground. We really need to do more "just for fun" family things together.


We also drove through the carwash for our church teens who were working to raise money for their "Experience Jesus" trip this week.



A few weeks ago, Caeden was sitting in his high chair eating dry cereal. Of course, he spilled it. A few minutes later, I'm in the next room and hear him picking up the cereal and singing, "Clean up! Buddy!" I realized he was singing the Barney Cleanup song, "Clean up! Cleanup! Everybody everywhere!"


Caeden is very excited about learning his colors right now. He gets ecstatic about yellow for some reason!


Last night we took a little walk around Arrowsmith. Their was a Sheriff clocking people as they came down Main Street. She got out of her car to talk to us, and asked the kids if they wanted to sit in her car. None of them did, but she turned on the lights for them and even ran the siren for a quick second. She showed them her handcuffs and explained how they worked, and I pointed out her tazer, but the kids didn't really understand what it was. She was super nice, and they kids thought it was really neat to meet her too. We walked all the way to the south side of town and went to the playground for a while. Caeden walked all the way there and back; he LOVES to walk now!!

Daddy & the kiddos chillin' in the kiddie pool at beautiful State Farm Park...

Sylvie needed a break.

Annah likes "the mushroom" fountain.

Daddy went in with her.

Whew!  So much fun, we need a little break!

Little Man & Big Daddy

There are several great playgrounds at the park too. 

We had lots of fun in the tunnel tubes!

We will definitely be coming back to the park more often! What a great day!!