Strawberry Jam and Swim Team

Many thanks to Nana for teaching H how to make jam. She now has something to take to the county fair in July! (So glad to have that one crossed of the list.)

Our three biggest kids are all on swim team this summer. It has been such great exercise for them, and they are consistently improving their times! We are so proud of how hard they are working.

Our Toothless Wonder

Happy Birthday to Our Biggest Little Girl

Eleven years ago today, Chad and I became parents of a beautiful baby girl. She has been everything we had hoped and much, much more. Thank you, God, for entrusting this dear girl to us.

Happy Birthday to our biggest little girl!

Six Month Family Picture

Thanks, Heather (Heather Nelson Photography of Kansas City)! And, contrary to what you see here, Cooper smiles and laughs a lot.

Half a Year?

Six months ago today Chad and I had just met Cooper for the first time. We were physically and emotionally exhausted, much like the days we added four other little ones to our family.

Cooper's eyes were full of distrust as I cuddled him to my chest and sang the words I'd rehearsed in my mind thousands of times. "I'll take care of you. Don't be sad, don't be blue. I'll never break your heart in two. I'll take care of you. I'll kiss your tears away. I'll end your lonely days. All that I'm really trying to say is I'll take care of you."

During these six months, we have had the indescribable honor to do all those things for our dear, sweet boy. And, in turn, he has brought such joy to each member of our family. His siblings are so proud to call him brother and Chad and I to call him son. It seems we can hardly remember life without him. We love you, Cooper, and always will.

Last Days of School

Okay, this is not an end of the school year tradition. But, it's cute. One of Cooper's favorite words is "hat". Apparently, even a pull-up will do. (No, we're not potty training. We're just using up some old pull-ups from the last round.)

The last few weeks of school have been filled with all kinds of fun events. One such event was H's participation in "Night of the Notables". Each student became someone he/she determined a notable person. H became Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, from West Des Moines, Iowa. She (H) did a wonderful job with her speech and display board. We were so proud of her.

Another event was Track and Field Day. All three of our school-agers were participants, and all three gave each event everything they had. The following pictures are evidence.

A Fan

I am a fan of garage sales. I am not an "Every Saturday of the spring, summer, and fall garage saler", but I do enjoy getting gently used items at a fraction of the retail price. This last weekend was our town-wide garage sale. My sister-in-law and I tootled around town for a couple hours. She bought quite a few cute clothing items for her daughter, and I ended up with three things.

Number 1: A baseball t-shirt type onesie for Cooper. $ .50

Number 2: A high chair.... though we already had two high chairs in our house (one of which had been a shower gift for our eldest....11 years ago, and the other had been rescued from the curbside before being taken to the junk). This new model is easier to clean up, doesn't have a plastic pad that cracks and traps crumbs, and is just prettier. $10 (Thanks, Erin.)

(Old high chair with the pad from a chair as a backrest....many unseen crumbs in cracks)New-to-us wooden high chair with no hidden crumbs

Number 3: A refrigerator. Our garage frig. kicked the bucket over the winter, and finding spaces for frozen pizzas, pre-made casseroles, and cans of diet Pepsi was becoming increasingly difficult. $50

Thanks, Dave, for helping Chad get it home!