Welcome to my World

So, these are the bunk beds that haveabecome a thorn in my flesh...they are just taking a lot longer to finish than originally planned! But my honey has done a really nice job on them! He is making them for friends of ours who are currently, as we speak, in Kazakstan picking up their sixth child, fifth daughter. They have already adopted one from Kazakstan and two from Liberia. Exciting stuff... This is my little JoJo pretending that her shoe is a phone! Too priceless! This is at the bayfront fountains, and this is typical Ben! A real boys' boy! Love it! They really had fun, partly because they were almost the only kids there on a Monday evening! Sam...splashing Ben... Climbing... This is just like the picture we took last summer except the kids are a year older! Kinda sad, but excting too! I can't believe I have a six year old and my youngest is almost two! I would normally have another baby by now! But that is not possible anymore and it's kinda sad...maybe God ...

We had a lovely, lazy 4th of July....Brendan's brother Andy was in town and the kids had fun tackling and hanging all over him! It was very warm, but there was a breeze to help keep us cool, as long as we didn't move! The kids enjoyed keeping cool in the little pool that had some issues standing up right! We went to a park downtown to watch the fireworks and it was amazing how being that close to the bayfront gave us a much nicer breeze! The men/kids played kickball, raced, & rolled down the hill while we waited! I got some corn at Target last week for 10/$1! What a steal! I should have gotten more! My wonderful boys helped by shucking it! How sweet! And my precious little girl was copying her brothers by making gun noises with this squirt gun...oh boy...

There is nothing as sweet as a sleeping child... I went to get the children up around 8:00 this morning, which is their normal wake time. But they were all sound asleep! This is very unusual! They are normally raring(sp) to go! So I decided this would be a good time to snap a picture of my sleeping angels!

Our Family in Times Square (above) Let's just say that I was not expecting this trip to be so hard on me. I have been to New York twice before, so I knew somewhat what to expect. But I've never been to New York with four young children and leading a Youth group as well! It was hectic, and stressful, but the children were troopers. It was the hardest on Joanna I think. She's used to getting two naps a day and we were gone almost all day without ONE nap! I have a very strong-willed daughter(wonder where she got that!) who fights sleep. I have to admit that I did use some "sleep aid" a couple of times. You'll see why later... Here is Sam being silly...he did a lot of this...he loved being the center of attention Here we are at the American Museum of Natural History. What an amazing place! Here are some beautiful windows at the museum. Outside the museum We spent this evening in Manhattan without the youth, so we let the kids tromp around in Central park...

There are a few things I thought worthy of blogging about, so I will try to cram them into one post! First, have you ever had a friend who loves you unconditionally? Someone who understands you and accepts you, and you feel completely comfortable being yourself around(besides your husband)? Well, guess what, I have two of those kind of "bosom" friends! Natalie is my college roommate and Christa is her best friend from high school who also went to college with us. I just went to visit them in Minnesota a couple weekends ago and had a fabulous time. We had all lost touch somewhat over the years because none of us are very good at that. So we had a good time catching up. I decided that I have been crippled by them. I know that sounds funny, but in a sense, I have, because now I view each new friendship in the light of these others. And that is not really fair. We had three years to live together and form our friendship, and now I have a husband and a family and don...