Prayer request

Joel's aunt Vangie is dying from cancer right now. The situation is really sad. It is his mom's sister and they just lost thier son (Joel's cousin) 3 years ago. He left behind a wife and 4 small children. This family has already dealt with alot and could really use your prayers. She got the cancer diagnosis a little under 3 months ago and now she is in the hospital fading quickly. Please just pray for the family members left behind. We know that all things work for good for those who love the Lord but sometimes we just can't understand.

My Big Girl

Emily just figured out she can stand from a sitting position. She keeps doing it over and over. Soo cute!

Big Day

Emily took two steps yesterday. She is 13 1/2 months old so a little late on walking but it's ok. It has made her a baby longer and I like that since I am going to wait awhile to have our next. She was sure proud of herself when she took her steps. She sat down and clapped. Too cute! Today she wants to keep trying it over and over but she is still pretty unsteady. Before I know it she will be running away from us. It just goes way too quickly.

A new addition to our family

Its a boy-- He is cute and little and fuzzy. Meet Rocky....





The girls first seeing Rocky. We suprised them. Abby had woken up super crabby. She is getting teeth and has been a bear lately. After seeing the puppy her mood totally changed and now she can't talk about him enough. She is constantly asking us questions: "Why do puppies sleep so much, why can't puppies talk, does God talk, ect....." We are being driven insane.
Rocky is so small
Look at that cute mug

Caleb and Jonah with Rocky
Jonah and Emily
Emily loves Rocky and wants him always on her lap.
Abby and her new love
The girls getting to know him

Abby loved to hold him and kept saying, "he can sleep on me"
This is how he slept for about an hour in the car-- too funny
He was up at my feet as we were totally unprepared for a dog. Joel saw and ad and after that it was history. My no's did nothing so now we have a dog.
Uncle Caleb with the girls
Uncle Jonah and Rocky. When the boys first got there Abby wouldn't share him so she let Jonah hold his tail---- :-)

Memorial Day Weekend

We went up north this weekend and spent time with our families. We really had a great time and the girls love being there. It was thier Uncle Caleb's graduation party. I didn't get a single picture of him in cap and gown though.

Here they are with thier Grandpa Kopkie
Daddy and his girls
Me and Joel
Us again--
My aunt Mary with her twin girls. They were two months premature but you would never know it. Here they are healthy, chunky 6 mo. olds.

This is Abby feeding her little cousin Kaden. She is really in love with him and is constantly telling me how little and cute he is.
Here we are at the Mississippi headwaters
Just another shot
Joel and Abby. We have a picture of him and Abby when she was 2 mo. old on this same fallen tree.
Joel and Emmy

all our hard work

We have been working so hard to get ready for our garden. We had to haul all the rock out. Haul in 4 yards of black dirt. I hurt in places I didn't even know I could hurt. Joel redid all the edgers- digging them level with the ground and getting them perfectly straight. It looks great. We are going to go around the whole house hauling out all the rock, hauling in more dirt and redoing all the rock. We just want it to look nice and straight and even with the grass. It is going to be a ton of work but will look so nice when done. We are going to move some of our plants around too.

Here is our garden. I can't wait until we get our first crop!
...
These our are raspberry bushes. We also have a blueberry bush coming.
Here are our strawberry plants. They already have fruit coming so we will have some to eat soon!

Pinata

Abby's friend Adalyn and her mom made Abby a pinata for her birthday. We got together today to break the pinata. Abby's little boyfriend Mathew was there and Adalyn.
Here is abby going in for a hit. She hit it pretty good but just not hard enough. Mathew had to get it open.
Here Mathew had knocked in on the ground but it still didn't break open.
They then took turns hitting it on the ground. Abby was able to get a pretty good dent in it. Mathew was the one who got it open though.
Here they are digging for their find.

It is so hard to get a nice picture of the two of them. I have soo many matching outfits but I have a feeling it is going to take a lot of picture snapping to get a good one.
Here is another matching outfit but still no cooperation.
Poor Emily fell while trying to get out of the sandbox and scuffed her forehead adn nose and upper lip on sand.

Poo

This turns my stomach to even write but I have to share-- Emily picked off a piece of bird poop from the sidewalk and ate it yesterday. I wasn't sure what she was chewing on but saw her put something in her mouth so I moved in closer for a better look. Yep, sure enough it was a big black chunk of poop. I didn't know what to do. I called poison control center, knowing that birds carry many diseases I wanted to see what they recommended. He said that if anything she would just get diarrea and vomiting. Sure enough lastnight she started throwing up. Poor little thing is still sick. It is hard to know if it came from the birds or from church on Sunday. One family showed up with a little girl that had been sick since Friday with puking and diarrea and a fever and she actually threw up while we were there-- Yuck. So- We are supposed to be leaving for a trip tomorrow and now I don't know what we will be doing. I just hope that it isn't a contagious thing. I really don't want Abby to start puking or for Joel and I to get it while out of town staying somewhere else. Why does this kind of stuff happen to me?

A whole new dimension

I never understood why your parents told you to quit playing with your food when you were just pushing it around on your plate. That isn't playing with it-- that just isn't wanting to eat it. I now know what playing with your food is. Abby talks to it. Today the chicken finger was a daddy and the hashbrown was a mommy and they were kissing and telling eachother that they love one another. Then a half of a chicken finger was the little kid and she was being naughty and had to go to bed. It was hilarious. I will never think of food the same!

On Loan

How differently would we treat our children if we treated them as if they were on loan from God? As I was doing my daily devotions today this thought popped into my head. Wouldn't we not worry about them as much knowing that they are someone else's. God has entrusted us with caring for our children but ultimately he still is in control. In a way it is a really scary thought but it is also a relief to know that He knows what their lives are going to be. He knows how long they will live, how they will live, and what they will accomplish. How amazing!! I just pray that I live up to the task He has set before me. I want to make sure I take good care of them not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. I want them to grow into integrity filled women of God. That puts a lot of pressure on me as kids learn by example. God has lots of molding to do with me. I want my little girls to look at me and see someone who would bring back the 10.00 I didn't get charged for at the grocery store that I should have, or the selflessness of taking on those in need. I know they need to see integrity, love, respect, selflessness, and being geniune in my own life for them to take it on in theirs. This is my heart's prayer.

Yard work and chubby baby

Joel dug a trench through the whole back yard and buried our sump-pump line. It was making a soggy mess in our yard and we wanted it to drain at the bottom. He did a great job. He did the majority of it although I did help a little. He is also working on redoing our landscaping so I will have to take some pictures of that soon.
My chubby baby. She puts the necklaces on all by herself now and she gets so proud to wear them.
She is just too precious.

Friend Party

We had a friends party for Abby this year. We took her 3 best friends to the community center to go swimming and then out to the park for pizza and cake. It was a lot of fun. Thank you guys for coming and for the wonderful gifts.

Abby and Sofia-- They have been friends since they were babies
Eva- they met when they were 6 or 7 months old
Here are all the girls, Eva, Abby, Elizabeth, and Sofia. Kristin is Elizabeth's mom and Jill is Sofia's mom and she is holding Emily
Jill and Emily. Emily was a stinker and didn't even want to touch the nice warm water. If her feet even touched it she started crying.
Elizabeth and Emily. Elizabeth is such a sweetheart. She likes babies. She and Abby have been friends since babies too. Kristin and I became immediate friends when we realized we had the same babies. They were both horrible sleepers and very crabby babies. We tried to help eachother through it or maybe better put-- we listened to one another complain about it and knew the other person understood!!

The indoor park at the community center. It was pretty impressive and the girls had a hard time climbing up it.
I climed up it with Abby so here we are at the top

Abby was in the helicopter. It was pretty cool. It was just suspended off of the structure so it actually bounced when the kids were in it.

Abby opening her presents
She got a bunch of great things. She got a dora puzzle that we have already done like 5 times. Thank you everybody for the great gifts. She loves them all.
Abby and Eva opening gifts

My friend Kristin who makes the cakes. This is her 4th cake she has made for us. Thank you so much Kristin-- You really do a great job!!
Here is Abby's castle cake
It was really neat, and good to eat too!
Jill and Sofia
Abby wants to say Thank you to all her friends and that she loves you and she wants to have another swimming party soon. :-)