Twelve years ago...

...God gave you to us.  Your tiny little feet, chubby little cheeks, perfect little hands! 
 

Your were our first and got us hooked on the beauty of life, of the blessing of a baby. 

Even your bigger cousins couldn't keep from touching and smooching you....

You were dependent upon us then, now we are dependent upon you.  You bring such a strength to this house....  your intelligence, playing sweet songs on the piano to calm us, pointing out and making me laugh when my brain gets all boggled and I use the wrong words, although you are the oldest you can get on the floor and play with that darling little sister of yours in a silly sing-song voice, and you jump at the drop of a hat when some chore may need to be done. Your feet are now bigger than mine.  Your hands as well.  Pretty soon, I'll be looking up to you.  I look at you and see blessing times seven because YOU started it all.  We love you, Fone, and are so blessed to be your parents. 

++Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for Fone, who today celebrates his birthday. Bless him with your love and friendship that he may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. May he love his family always and be faithful to his friends.++

9 years ago...

 
God knew we needed another female in this house, so he sent us our first daughter.  He knew I needed her. 

But, he also knew that her daddy needed her... when Neil and I were dating in high school, he was terrified of having daughters of his own someday seeing the way my 3 sisters and I interacted with each other at our "worst" moments.  He even said, may I quote, "I don't ever want to have any daughters".  But goodness me, when this little girl came into our life, he forgot about all those teen girl memories that my sisters and I scarred him with.  My man now had a second girl in his life, and he loved her to pieces!

This little girl is not so little any more.  At 9 years old, I am amazed at how mature and responsible she can be.  She is the "other mother" to baby Rose, and is always so cool and collected when she blurps or cries or gets fussy.  She loves on her, feeds her, plays with her, reads to her, puts her to sleep, and on and on. Melody loves to sing and read and cook and help tidy/clean (she has a little of her mother in her!).  She is our sweet princess, God Girl, and shows us Jesus every day!!  How proud we are of her!  We love her more each day and thank God for the blessing she is to each of us.

Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for Melody, who today celebrates her birthday. Bless her with your love and friendship that she may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. May she  love her family always and be faithful to her friends.

A story of a butterfly (and some overly excited kids)

Ten days ago, I shared our two new additions.  Today a beautiful butterfly emerged out from darkness.  And so much excitement overtook our house.  We were eating breakfast when Mario shouted out "we have a butterfly".  Not knowing when he had came out of its chrysallis (overnight maybe?), we wanted to give him/her a chance to get outside and start "spreading its wings".

So, we took it outside.

It stepped out of the jar.

Walked and wobbled out into the mulch.  

And then halfway across the sidewalk.  

The poor guy just was not ready to fly yet, so the kids had him crawl back into the jar.  He still needed a little more time to dry off those wings and get them working. They helped him get back into his jar, and took him into the backyard and set it out in the mulch and would check back in a little while.  So, they gobbled up their breakfast as fast as they could, washed up, got dressed, and went back out to check on the little guy.  Well, he was really working his wings this time, and flitted up onto some weeds growing up our deck.

Mario and Max stepped up close and one of them reached out to touch it, startled it, then it flew to a sweet little girl's arm....

After many giggles, the butterfly flitted some more up onto the deck - open.  close.  open.  close.

At this point, I had to tend to my duties inside (aka:  sweet baby Rose) and handed off the camera and trusted these bigger kids to take care of their new friend.....  The kids just *knew* it needed a flower, so another sweet girl picked some roses out front, brought them to the butterfly and somehow, it decided to perch on them next.

Then, these silly kids decided the butterfly needed some special time out at the play center across our yard.  I guess it flitted up to the rope ladder next (as the pictures on my camera continued to tell the story!).  Mario was certainly amazed at this.

And, finally, the butterfly who loved Melody most of all had to say "goodbye" one final time because SHE was his favorite....

Goodbye sweet butterfly. We will never forget the fun you found for us during this glorious August morning!  

++Thank you God for nature, for creation, and for our new friend --- the butterfly --- who created so much fun and smiles and memories for my own young'uns this morning.++

Rocket Bob

Yesterday afternoon, we had the pleasure of taking part in an awesome field trip to the home and hovercraft manufacturing facility of Bob Windt, otherwise known as "Rocket Bob".  What a sweet, intelligent, and generous man he is!

"Bob Windt, an aeronautical engineer, is the founder of Universal Hovercraft, USA and created the prototype design for the DiscoverHover One. Windt is considered by the Learning Channel's Junkyard Wars to be "the godfather of personal hovercraft." He is also the designer of the world's fastest light hovercraft and holds the Guinness Hovercraft World Speed Record of 85.376 mph (137.40 km/h). Windt presented a keynote address at World Hovercraft Week 2002, covering the evolution of homebuilt hovercraft in America."    (from Discover Hover)

So what did we do while visiting Bob Windt?  Here's a look....


We went down in his basement to see where he plays with all his toys and creates away. 

Then, he took the kids out to his shop where they learned about rockets and were shown some simple types of boats they could make on their own using some very easy to find materials (rubber bands, foam, Popsicle sticks, straws, water bottles, etc...)

Creation time - building a rocket...

Some finished products....

Fone and a homeschooling friend

Melody and her cousin

Mario and his cousin

Now launching time...

As the world record holder for the fastest hovercraft, they couldn't leave without a trip in one out on the mighty Mississippi...

And you don't want to miss Bob on Junkyard Wars leading a team in building a hovercraft...

++Thank you, God, for an amazing field trip, and thank you for "Rocket Bob" and his generosity in sharing his talent and love for building and creating!++