Thank you!

To all of you who left comments lately - aww! Thank you very much. It makes me smile. :)
So - what's been going on lately...
School is back in full swing, co-op is going well (Shiloh is knitting now, the other girls are in soccer for PE, and Jackson is doing a letter of the week for his "class" - which is great, because I don't like doing "letter of the week" stuff - I just want to get right to reading. :) ). We went to Octoberfest at the Frontier Culture Museum last Saturday and couldn't have asked for a better day. It was gorgeous weather, and the kids enjoyed the oompah music. Adah thought the skits the dancers did were hilarious. Shiloh and Cora (as you can see in the pictures) were wearing their German outfits passed down from a friend in North Carolina, and they fit right in. This weekend is the ladies' retreat through church, next weekend is our church picnic, the following weekend is the pregnancy center banquet, and the following weekend Daniel leaves for Tennessee with Adah and Abigail for his hunting trip. Then the next weekend we're heading to North Carolina for a wedding, and the Tuesday following that Daniel will have shoulder surgery. It turns out that his muscle is starting to separate from his bone due to an injury in Bosnia (yeah - ouch.). Phew. We have a busy couple of weeks planned. In that time period we will also celebrate Adah and Cora's birthdays - which are on the same day! This will be the first birthday that Adah will celebrate at home, and I am so thrilled to celebrate with her.

We passed a milestone yesterday - it was our TEN MONTH anniversary with Adah and Nathaniel. TEN MONTHS they've been home. That seems incredible to me, both because it feels like they've been home forever and because I can't believe how much progress has been made in ten months. I am astounded at the Lord's goodness to us in allowing us to bond so quickly as a family. I expected the worst, I feared the worst, and the Lord has really given us the best. Yes, Nathaniel still has a ways to go, but part of that is just being two. :) My heart broke and broke again as we waited for them to come home, I lost hope along the way, I regained faith in the Lord's timing, and He has been faithful throughout. Adah and Nathaniel, if you read this one day, please know that your mommy and daddy are so very blessed to have you in our lives. You have added your own unique personalities to our crazy mix, and we couldn't have asked for a better fit. As I danced with Nathaniel this evening to Dean Martin and as I listened to Adah and Abigail giggling in the bathtub, I thought, "The Lord has done this." He has made us one big, loud, crazy family. I'm so grateful.
Have a great day and enjoy the FALL!
Love,
Casey
Adah with her best bud. Next to Shiloh, Roscoe likes Adah best. I think he could take or leave any of the others, unless they were being attacked and then he'd protect them. :) The picture below is the way I first found them. It looks like Adah is hypnotized by Roscoe's ears. It's entirely possible - they are strangely soothing.
The picture below shows one of the blessings of Daniel's schedule with every other Monday off...he's helping Jackson with his reading. Jackson felt like a big boy sitting with Daddy.
Abigail Emma with her sleepy face and bedhead. Oh. My. This child is adorable. I had to take a picture. I think I want everyone to grow up except for her.
Oooh - aren't we fancy? :) This was taken by our babysitter the night we went to the opera. Daniel is wearing the tux he bought in London at the last minute as he ran around panicked. It's a long story involving a rental shop that rented him a dirty, smelly tux so he had to find a replacement in three hours. He came back to the hotel room having BOUGHT one. :) At least he's getting some use out of it. We had a simply lovely time - it was a beautiful theater from the 40s, wonderful performances by Renee Fleming, and two champagne receptions during the intermissions. Too bad I got some sort of stomach flu right afterward and had to pull over from driving the babysitter home because I thought I was going to throw up (I didn't - then). I stayed in bed the next day and Daniel took over with piano lessons, co-op, meals, signing kids up for pictures, etc. What a man!
Daniel brought home his grandfather's steel helmet from Pennsylvania, and Jackson is making good use of it. He also brought home another helmet - civil defense - and I looked out the window while making lunch one day to see the girls pelting him with acorns while he just leaned his head down and let them ping off the helmet. How do they think of these things? They just laughed and said, "Well, he was wearing a helmet and sunglasses. He would've been okay." Uh huh. It's all fun and games...
(In the picture above he's actually wearing Daniel's dad's uniform along with his grandfather's helmet - do you think we can sign him up for West Point now?)

The following pictures are from Octoberfest. This might have been the third try to get everyone to look at the camera. :)

It's not traditional to have miniature ponies at Octoberfest celebrations :), but the kids were thrilled to see them anyway. Nathaniel said, "Moo!" when he saw it. I can see we need to work a little more on the animal sounds. Shiloh beamed the ENTIRE time she rode this pony. (Notice the saddle blanket - very German, methinks :) ) Daniel only had ten dollars in cash with him after buying brats and the boys' hats, so we were trying to decide which combination of kiddos could take a ride (the rides were $5 a piece! sheesh - this economy!). We ultimately decided only Shiloh would ride because she's the horse crazy one. All of the kids had been looking longingly into Daniel's eyes waiting for the decision, and we were so proud to see not one of them pouting afterward. They were so happy for Shiloh instead and leaned on the fence to watch her. We were especially proud of Adah, given her history with pouting and her insistence on "fairness" to all. The bystanders were forming a line to dance through the pavilion, and this lady reached out and and beckoned to Jackson. We can't believe he actually went willingly! He danced around with them for the whole song, and I think he even let out a smile at one point.
The kids are grabbing ribbons from a pole. I think Cora is trying to keep Nathaniel from ripping it off, though. :)
I can't remember what this young woman said she was doing, but it's like a miniature loom. What she was making could be used for laces or for embellishment on her gown. They have four working historical farms at the museum, and all of them had special events going on during the Octoberfest.
Cora is stirring plum butter. The gentleman told us that they would gather as small villages and cook the plums all day in a central place. They only add water at first to keep the plums from sticking, and it had to be stirred constantly. After the plums were smooshy enough (technical term), they would then taste the mixture to see how much sugar it needed. Cora struck up a conversation with this gentleman as well as another one, and then she decided to instruct additional visitors about what she was doing. They might have thought she was a volunteer with the way she was dressed (minus the shoes, of course! :) ).

Blasts From The Past

I came across this photo when I was looking for the vacation photos. This was taken in Florida after Daddy sprayed whipped cream on their noses. When did they grow up??
And this is who started this whole crazy parenthood journey. This was taken in Maryland when I was pregnant with Cora.

And this is the first photo I received of my precious Adah - after agonizing days of waiting and checking email obsessively every twenty minutes of the day. She was only three at the time. My four daughters - I am so blessed!

Home Again Home Again

We're back. Obviously. And on the day we left to come home, I looked at Daniel tenderly and said, "Do we have to go back? Or maybe you could go back with the kids?" We enjoyed ourselves very much, and on Thursday afternoon, I told Daniel that although I obviously didn't want to cut our vacation short, I actually felt rested enough to return to the daily routine. I had just taken a nap in the hammock, so that had a lot to do with it.

Highlights of the trip:
- Jackson's birthday "week" as opposed to birthDAY; we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast one day, ice cream cones one evening, cake and ice cream another evening, milkshakes another evening (see a trend?), opened presents, had gingerale in wine glasses for them, and just generally celebrated all week the fact that Jackson turned four on the last day of vacation
- "Swimming" in the Cacapon River; only Daniel, Cora, and Adah actually got more than 30% of their bodies in the water, and I never actually got out of my cover-up, but we all had a good time playing around on the rocks hunting for snails and other cool stuff; Adah found a crawdad and was disgusted to learn that people actually eat them
- the Paw Paw Tunnel; this was a 3,110 foot tunnel DUG out of a mountain in the nearby town of Paw Paw for the C & O canal; there was a footpath next to the water canal (not very deep) that you can walk on to go through the tunnel; I won't lie - I was a little unnerved by the darkness and so was Roscoe :) Cora and Abigail led the way through the tunnel even without flashlights
- Dancing in the rain during a downpour and seeing all the kids' faces when they saw Mommy and Daddy come running out to join them
- Naps; that's all I have to say about that
- Renewing a Spite and Malice rivalry with Daniel that has lain dormant for lo these many years (it's a card game)
- Taking a night hike with chem lights where Daddy hid behind some trees and jumped out to scare the kids
- And if you ask the kids one of their favorite things, it will be: "Mommy and Daddy let us watch MOVIES!!" :)
A restful and relaxing time was had by all. It certainly wasn't fancy, but it was fun. We can't decide if it beats the beach or not, so we'll go to the beach next year to compare. Only not in September. :)

Jackson has obviously never seen the Spiderman movies, and he had also never seen the Spiderman cartoon (until this trip where he saw his first) and yet he's enamored of Spiderman. Daniel got him this outfit and he loves it.

A little known fact about Spidey - he's also handy with a rifle.

Spiderman takes cover to prepare for his shot. Perhaps his target is the poor little Bambi below? :) We saw lots of wildlife, including a fox one morning running through our yard.

All ready to go before our night walk. Playing in the Cacapon River, a tributary of the Potomac. See all those big rocks? Those big rocks that the kids could hit and then get a concussion? Yeah, my right eye was twitching a little watching them hop from rock to rock. It's all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out.

Adah's crawdad. She started yelling, "Cwab! Mommy! It's a cwab! It's a cwab?? Will it bite me?"

Walking to the Paw Paw Tunnel. We had such a gorgeous day! The Paw Paw Tunnel. See that light in between Adah's and Cora's heads? Yeah, it seems a lot closer than it actually is. It's a LONG way through. Nathaniel walked the whole way, including the .6 of a mile it took to get to the entrance. He had a good nap that day.

Random dinner shot with all the kids. They were happy with their wineglasses and wanted to show them off. Dancin' in the rain. Adah was holding on to me to warm up. Nathaniel lost his shorts at one point because he has no bum and the waterlogged pants were too heavy to stay up. Daniel held him up under the gutter for a shower and he laughed and laughed.On the way back home. This was called the "Panorama Outlook" where you can see four states. Don't ask me where the boundaries are.

Down in the valley was the town of Great Cacapon, which is chiefly known for being the home of Doris' Deli, I believe. We passed through Great Cacapon to get to the cabin.

Plan C

Well, what with all the hurricanes and tropical storms this year, a beach trip planned for September was really NOT a good idea. Also, counting on having a lifeguard on the beach on a military installation after Labor Day was not a good assumption. Thus we discarded Plan A for our vacation - a return to the Dam Neck Annex cottage on the beach where we went last year. Plan B involved extending a planned day trip to Williamsburg into a vacation in Williamsburg where we would see Yorktown and Jamestown as well. Ditto for the weather situation, plus we would need a vacation from the vacation. Plan C is a cabin in West Virginia. I think we're safer on higher ground. And Roscoe gets to go with us! We have river access, a hot tub, a hammock, a screened-in porch, and several acres. That sounds relaxing. We go on Monday, and I'm so looking forward to it. The kids are ready for a break after a rigorous seven weeks of school.

We start our vacation tonight with our homeschool co-op picnic. Cora has already made two friends after only one class at co-op (yep, that's our Cora) so she's looking forward to seeing them tonight. Along with games, a picnic, and fellowship, they're having a nature hike to identify trees, which I thought would be pretty interesting. Our first day of co-op was this past Tuesday, and it was a smashing success. Yes, I took a picture of the kids on the steps like the dorky mother I am, but I haven't downloaded it yet. The kids protested the dorkiness, but I did it anyway. Cora, Adah, and Abigail are taking P.E., Shiloh is taking a needlework class, and Jackson is taking a preschool class. Nathaniel is taking the "play on the playground" class. :)

At the same time that I'm rejoicing in the Lord's blessings to our family - we're happy, healthy, and safe, and we have the means to take a vacation, my heart is heavy over the situation in Haiti and the devastation there. I've been following accounts from missionaries there, and I can't help but think of Adah's birthdad and Nathaniel's birthmom. How are they doing? Do they have a safe place to go if the floods affect them? Will they be able to receive the pictures and updates I send down in December about how well the kids are doing? Here are some links I got from another friend's blog (thanks, Julie!) with some pictures of Haiti and the orphanage (creche) that served as our children's home for two years (over two years for Adah, 2 months less than two years for Nathaniel). This photographer traveled to take pictures to promote support for Hope for the Children of Haiti, the orphanage/school for the older kids that at one time shared a building with New Life Link, the creche for younger kids. We didn't take too many pictures out and about in Haiti both because we were shellshocked at what we saw and because we were so focused on the kids. These pictures give you an idea of what we saw when we went.

http://kristaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/haiti.html

http://kristaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/hfc-school.html

http://kristaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/hfc-life-at-pension.html

http://kristaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/08/hope-for-children-of-haiti-boys.html

http://kristaphoto.blogspot.com/2008/06/back-from-haiti.html

The last link shows the area where the creche is located (actually, they just moved the younger kids to a nicer location). We had to leave the truck we took, go through a heavy iron gate, and then walk down an alleyway like the one pictured to get to the creche. Adah remembers how hard it was to walk down because the rocks were so loose. She remembers the hallways pictured in the first link and having her hair done, and she remembers one of her teachers. She liked her very much. :) Our orphanage director was going to move the younger kids way up the mountain to the building next to the guesthouse (a VERY nice place where we stayed) but most of the nannies couldn't commute up there. It was a little more than an hour out of town. He wanted to keep the nannies with the kids for bonding purposes, so he moved them to another building he bought. In our American eyes, the orphanage looks horrible, but for Haiti, it's excellent care. They have three meals a day, they go to school, they have solid shelter, and they are clothed. But don't those babies' faces just tear your heart apart?? Phew.

Here is a Haitian prayer I also borrowed from a friend's blog (thanks, Ange! :)).
“Senye,
Si n’ap viv jodi a malgre
siklon, grangou, ak maladi,
nou dwe di,
Mesi Senye.
Nou genle la pou yon bi.”

“Lord,If we are alive today in spite of
hurricanes, hunger and sickness,
we should say, Thank you, Lord.
We must be here for a purpose.”

I'm also going to promote a book that we are planning to order for both Adah and Nathaniel as a way to honor their beautiful heritage. Buying the book supports the Livesays (http://www.livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/) in their ministry to the people of Haiti. Here's the link if you're interested:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/283924/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=140x240

Well, I think that's it for my scatterbrain right now. I've run out of time to run on the treadmill, so I need to get to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for our picnic dinner.

Love,
Casey

Tooth Fairy Alert

A very sleepy Jackson greeted me with this announcement this morning: "Mommy, the tooth fairy took my sock in the night. I can't find it anywhere."

I told him the tooth fairy really only takes teeth, but I don't think he believed me. And we haven't found the sock.

Two Posts! In One Day!

I am waiting for Daniel to return from Kroger with a movie for tonight, so I have time to get a video on as well. Here is Jackson, who is at his present age the cutest boy who has ever lived. What is it about an almost four year-old? I love this age for some reason. Maybe it's the moments where they break out into being a kid but they still have the adorable expressions and gestures from their last moments of being a toddler. They're trying so hard to be big, but they're just not quite there yet. Whatever it is, I could just eat him up right now. :)

Visit with Friends

The S family took Daniel in at West Point, and then took me in by extension. They were one of the mentor couples through Officer's Christian Fellowship, and they were wonderful to Daniel and to me. They fed us real food and sympathized when we had huge problems like a *gasp!* paper that was due in a few days!! :)

We've kept in touch through the years, and two years ago we met up with Mr. S and their eldest son at a conference at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. We said at the time, "We really should get together again!" Well, they took us up on our offer of coming to visit, and although Mr. S couldn't come on this trip, Mrs. S came through on their way to Nashville with their seven children. We had such a good time catching up, realizing how gracious the Lord has been to both of our families, and laughing at our kids' antics. I also got MUCH encouragement from how they are living out their convictions and what their family life looks like now that they have teenage sons (yeah - sons that we HELD while at West Point - we are OLD!). We took a walk to our neighborhood ice cream shop (have you picked up on the fact that we very much enjoy having it so close? :) and we got a few stares on the way. Picture two mamas in skirts, thirteen children and Daniel bringing up the rear. I wanted to wave and say, "Well, hi! We just arrived here from Waco! How are you?" :) I just loved to see how their older sons in particular interacted with our little ones. They're so used to having little ones around that they step right in when they're needed/wanted. Abigail took a fancy to their second oldest, and she ran around trying to capture him with the jump rope. By the way, we compared notes on naming children Abigail (their youngest is Abigail) and our opinion is that you don't want to use it unless you're specifically aiming for a spunky child. One of my favorite pictures didn't turn out - Abigail got a shoulder ride from the oldest son all the way home from the ice cream shop and Daniel thought he got a picture of it. Bummer. Abigail told me later that he asked if she wanted to get down and she replied, "No, thank you. I would rather ride to settle my tummy." Uh-huh.

Jackson also enjoyed hanging out with Jonathan and Joshua. Yep, three J's. I wouldn't call it hanging out so much as running around the outside of the house over and over, brandishing swords and yelling. Those three were LOUD. Nathaniel tried to keep up, but he got lapped with his little legs. He contributed to the noise, though. Adah summed it up best as we waved goodbye when she said, "I wish they could stay for one hundred days!" :)

A Self-Realization and a Metaphor

And both of the above came from Abigail. :) Abigail is very blog-worthy these days, I must say. Here's the story:
I took Adah out on a "date" last Saturday. After eating lunch, we ended up - where else? - at Walmart. I had to run some errands, and she had $4 of her very own money burning a whole in her very cute purse. She considered her options carefully, asked me about fifteen times, "Can I get this thing AND this thing?" and finally decided on a purple camera and a Princess Bride coloring book. (Not THE "Princess Bride," just a princess getting married, and in Adah's book, that's perfection indeed.) p.s. Am I getting a little wordy here? :)

Anyhoo, I told her that because she bought these things with her own money, she did not have to share them. However, I encouraged her to do so. Later I heard Abigail ask if she could color in the coloring book, and Adah quickly offered the camera to her. Abigail was content with that. Adah did offer the coloring book to Shiloh, however.

Here was Abigail's observation to me after bathtime that evening:
"You know, Mommy, how those pesky raccoons come into cornfields and peel the corn and take a little bite out of EVERY piece of corn and then all the corns are ruined? You know about that? Well, I think I'm like that with Adah's coloring book. If she lets me color, I will just color a little bit of every page, and then the whole coloring book will just have little bits of coloring, and I don't think Adah would like that. So I decided I would play with the camera. That's okay, right, Mommy? You know what I'm talking about with those raccoons, huh?" And I nodded and said yes, I knew about those raccoons and that I was happy she was content with the camera. I also suggested that we would get her her own coloring book where she could color little bits of pages to her heart's content. :) Sometimes (very often!) you just don't see these conversations coming, do you?

Love,
Casey
p.s. I have a big photo post coming from our visit with mentors from West Point. We had 13 children under our roof last Monday. FUN! :)

Independent Ladies

Yesterday, Adah and Abigail were playing at some length with their dolls. They set up an elaborate feast for them complete with candles and music. All at once, they decided to go on an extended train trip. They packed their bags and announced their intentions to me. I asked if they wanted me to watch their babies for them while they were gone.

Abigail: "No, thank you. They're both six years old, and they're perfectly able to take care of themselves. You might have to drive them to Kroger, though."

May I just say for the record that I have never left a six year-old alone to go on an extended train trip? Poor babies. :)

Glorious Day

We promised the kids some sort of end-of-the-school-year blow-out and with the exhaustion of the move into the new house, we still hadn't done anything. So then we went overboard and told them we would go to the Massanutten Water Park. Then we came to our senses when we looked at the price for four hours of fun plus two hours of driving and looked for an alternative plan. With some trepidation, we decided to try out our local lake, Chris Greene Park. We discussed the plan with the kids, who looked fearful at the thought of swimming among little fishes. We decided to go ahead. BEST DECISION EVER, Mommy and Daddy. "Thank you, Mommy and Daddy!" "We had the best time today, Daddy!" "We liked those little fishes, Mommy!" "It had sand, Daddy! Like at the beach!" "We played all day, didn't we, Mommy?" (We were there from 10:30-4:45!) "When can we go again?" Oh, yeah. We were heroes. For only twelve dollars' entry fee and 10 minutes (literally) from our house. Life is good.
Love, Casey

Abigail is relaxing in a pool of sand and warm lake water.

Nathaniel's and Jackson's drawers were so full of sand that they were both sporting "plumber" looks by the end of the day. :)And this is what happens to one little boy who's had a lot of sand, sun, and water. He crashed in the sun shelter for an hour and a half! (I crashed in there with him for a little bit!)This is the fountain on the "kid's side" of the lake. There was a beach in the middle with a deeper part on one side and a shallow side on the other.Chris Greene Lake as we were leaving. The beach is way out in the distance.

And more videos

I was on a video kick, apparently. Here are two more for you to enjoy. I just had to capture the sound of Adah's braids click-clacking because I love that sound. She certainly can't sneak up on anyone! The second video is of Abigail and Adah singing a song from their Latin curriculum (Song School Latin, Heather - from Veritas Press - highly recommend it so far). They are singing "Quid est tuum praenomen?" and then "Meum praenomen est..." which mean, respectively, "What is your name?" and "My name is..." You can see Nathaniel's little hand sneaking over to Abigail because he was trying to look into the camera. I'm surprised he didn't chime in with "Cheese!"

Love,

Casey

Homeschooling Begins for Nathaniel

Hey, all! We have successfully completed our first FULL week of school, and I am pleasantly surprised at how well it has gone. We actually got everything done! That's crazy, especially when we had piano lessons, a baby shower, and a meal to take to a new mama. My two big girls are so diligent to move from task to task, and the bickering problem that cropped up during our break has been minimized as they realize that they now have limited time to play with one another. That makes mama VERY happy. :)

Nathaniel was being so cute yesterday morning as I worked with Jackson and he worked on his puzzles. I decided to take a video to show you how well he's doing with words. One of his favorite sentences right now is "Gah-gay did it." (Jackson did it!) I seem to recall that that was one of Adah's first sentences: "Abbygail did it." Huh. Nathaniel does know the word tractor, but he started getting confused when I took the video and kept saying it was a train. Notice the word he uses for train. Cute.

Love,
Casey

ARGH!

I started this post on Tuesday evening , thought I sent it to the blog, but Blogger was down and decided only to save one paragraph of my post. ARGH. So I'm finally back to finish the post.
So it's been quiet on the blog, but noisy and busy around here! We started back to school on Monday, and things are going swimmingly. I know we'll have our rough spots throughout the year, but I am so glad to get one awesome week done at the very beginning. (Well, four days anyway because we took a day off for Daniel's dad being here!) We charted the kids' heights as we do each year at the start of the school year, and Jackson grew THREE INCHES since OCTOBER! (Not sure why we took heights in October as well as at the beginning of last year :) ) He won the bean plant award.
Speaking of bean plants, Shiloh's has produced quite a harvest so far. They are YUMMY. We have also had one yellow tomato, a couple of squash, and a green pepper. I put the squash and green pepper in spaghetti sauce, and the kids thought they were palatable then. :) They like the beans raw.
And the main reason I've been silent here is that we've spent so many of our spare minutes in our neighbors' pool. Yes, the same awesome neighbors who have supplied us with fresh produce have also given us access to their pool. May I just say they are awesome? And incredibly generous? AND...Mary Rose doesn't like being cold in the pool at all, so they have a pool heater. As someone who enjoys pool water that approaches the temperature of bath water, that makes me VERY happy. The kids are getting quite brown (or browner, as the case may be :) ) and they are all such water babies. Adah and Abigail are out of their vests (in the shallow end), learning to swim, diving for dive sticks, and doing somersaults. The handstand evades Adah, but she perseveres. Jackson is also out of his vest for swim lessons, and he's all about jumping in over and over. Nathaniel is out of his floatation boat and into a vest, where he's learning not to swallow too much water. He likes to jump in as well. Shiloh and Cora are learning to tread water, the requirement for swimming in the deep end by themselves. They all LOVE the pool, and I'm so grateful for such generous neighbors. Last Friday night we swam and swam and swam, then grilled out, then walked down to our neighborhood frozen custard shop. Life is good. In fact, Daniel bought me a car sticker and mug that say that because it's been my motto lately. I just met a homeschooling mom today who lives right down the street with her kids - 9,7,5, and 3. Praise God for answered prayers! She's running in her first 5K on August 16th, so we made plans for me to run with her. She's also part of the co-op that we've joined, and her 9 year-old is taking sewing and needlecraft along with Shiloh.
Well, here are some pics from recent days (which are just as much for my viewing pleasure as yours since I didn't know half of them existed until I downloaded them from the camera):
Adah smiling sweetly. What a beautiful girl she is, inside and out.
Some of my bathing beauties before pool time one afternoon.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ear...
Extreme close-up - self portrait? Who knows?

Out riding bikes and trying to avoid crashing on our long, hilly driveway.
Dr. Adah R. Houseworth, MD taking care of the household.
Crazy hair photo after swimming.

A picture of Roscoe trying to join the kids' campout. I think he's taking up Shiloh's entire spot, though.
All of these plants are much bigger now...these were the initial photos. Abigail's squash plants are especially huge.

BEFOREAFTER - the amazing squash plant!
This is what Adah thinks about her shower cap that's way too big. :) Not really...she and Shiloh were having a photo session after shower time one night and this was one that Shiloh took.

Hope you're enjoying your July (almost August!!)!

Love,

Casey

Summer

Dear All-
Is it just me, or is moving in exhausting? :) I think it's because we're getting older, we have more kids than when we started moving, and as a consequence, we have more STUFF. Also, our standards haven't changed with regard to HOW we put everything together in the house (that's the royal "we," by which I mean Daniel.) He still measures and uses the level to put up pictures, so it takes awhile. :) But we see the light at the end of the tunnel. He put up the ceiling fans on Monday with minimal help from me, and we are waiting on two chairs that we ordered for the study to come in. And then I THINK we're completely done, or at least until the next project comes up.
We had a great celebration for Independence Day, and I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures. We read some books about the day, made flags to hang everywhere, had some friends over, grilled hotdogs and hamburgers, had red,white, and blue popsicles, and met some more neighbors when we went to the cul-de-sac across the street to investigate fireworks noises. Then the kids had a camp-out on the family room floor, and I put on a video for them thinking it might help them settle down after a big day. BIG mistake. I went in at ELEVEN O'CLOCK to check on them and they were ALL still awake. Yikes. We didn't get out of our jammies the next day until it was time to go to our next social event - dinner at a friend's house. :)
So we're continuing along on summer break right now, and it's been very refreshing for me and I think for the kids as well. We've been doing some sewing and art projects. I'm preparing for next year's school and smelling all the new curricula. We're studying the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation for history. How do I get all that into one year? It's my favorite period of history! Next week we get to do the back-to-school shopping. I love new pencils. :) Our neighbor Oscar has started the kids on a garden project where they each adopt one of his vegetable plants, chart its progress, and harvest the bounty when the time comes. Shiloh picked the bean plant, so she'll be harvesting some today. She figured I might make them eat what they harvested, so there was no way she was picking squash. :) Jackson picked tomatoes, and he's thrilled to see all the flowers on his plant. Our neighbors are awesome. I joked with Oscar that he wanted to do this project to have the kids weed for him, and he said that works for him. :) He's in his late seventies, maybe early eighties, and he gardens with a pith helmet on. He also has a cool accent, saying "peppahs" for peppers. His wife Mary Rose already made us some cucumber soup from the cucumbers in her garden.
Before I go get ready for the day, here's an Abigail story. I was on the treadmill yesterday and saw Abigail twittering about, going in and out of the house. She looked pretty excited, so when she came out with her little pink plastic trash can and a Tupperware, I was a little curious.
Me; "Abigail, what are you doing?"
Abigail (excitedly): "I'm going to catch that chipmunk, Mommy! He's pretty fast, but I got a trash can and I think I can get him in there!"
I was pretty sure she couldn't actually catch him, but even if there is the slightest doubt, I say err on the side of caution and give the talk about rabies and the big shot you would have to get if the cute little chipmunk bit you. :) She gave up her adventure to catch a chipmunk and settled for some beetles.
Love,
Casey
p.s. Julie - Adah LOVES the video and attempted to do one for Beverly yesterday, but there was too much background noise (i.e. Nathaniel wanted to do the video, too). We'll get to it soon.
p.p.s. For those who can commiserate with me, we will be doing the "pooper-scooping" today for testing again. We had Adah and Nathaniel tested when they first got home and they tested negative for any parasites. However, after giving it much time, Nathaniel continues to have some...shall we say...odiferous problems, and we want to make sure. We will be testing every day for three days. Adah seems fine, but we might as well test her while we're testing Nathaniel. Ugh. Adah is grossed out by the whole thing, so the toughest thing will be getting her to agree to help out and do her part. :) At least she understands a lot more now...you should have seen the looks we got when we first tested within a week of her being home!! This is how I interpreted that look: "You white people are crazy, and I think I want to go back to Haiti now."