STRIKE - 10 pins and counting...

...Fone's really on a roll!!  Wishing our sweet birthday boy the best birthday ever. This one is so bittersweet for me - I've been a mom now for 10 years!  It just seems like yesterday that I brought home my first baby from the hospital.  His birthday definitely started the best 10 years of my life (and counting!!).  Here's a quick look at the 10 wonderful years we have had with him....

our baby boy

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

5th birthday

6th birthday

7th birthday

8th birthday

9th birthday

almost 10 years old (minus about a week)

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.

**Pictures to follow on his actual birthday and his birthday party this weekend....

My new 7 year old and her picnic party...

Melody was such a treat on her birthday!  She is almost always seen with a smile on her face and it's because she is such a happy, sweet girl at heart.  Her smile was even bigger and brighter on her birthday, because the whole day was spent celebrating her! 

Here she is in the morning after opening a gift her brother painted for her.  She loved it!  It was so touching last month when he decided to paint a gift for his sister when I took him out painting for his birthday.  I love how my children truly love each other!  Makes a mom proud!

Melody's grandma took her out for lunch and shopping for a birthday gift, and during that time, I prepared for her party that she would have later that evening with her friends/cousins.  She wanted a picnic-themed party, so we chose a perfect picnic menu....

fruit kabobs

raspberry jam roll-ups

egg-n-tuna sandwhiches

and then throw in some cucumbers and chips for the perfect picnic menu!  

and of course, who could forget the ants crawling all over the food! 

Ariel helped fill and decorate the treat bags, while her sister was away with grandma....

In the evening was Melody's birthday party with friends/cousins.  The food was a great hit and I loved how dainty the girls were with the kabob sticks.  They all passed them down to me after the fruit was gone.  I know for a fact that the boys would have been swinging theirs around like swords - lol!  After cake and opening the gifts, they played a few picnic games...  "Find the Ant" and "Melody's Alphabet Picnic Menu" and a "Fill the Picnic Basket Relay Race". It was a great night and a lovely 7th birthday for our dear Melody! 

Oh yeah, one more picture to share - Melody with her Aunt, who also shares the same birthday!! 

A dozen pictures for a dozen kids...

We had six extra kids overnight for 8 nights and 9 days this past week, while my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were traveling abroad to attend WYD events.  That brought the total in our house to a DOZEN kids!  It was busy, loud, messy (especially since we were hit with the stomach flu - yuck!!), but the blessings definitely outnumbered all the burdens.  There was bonding.  There was nurturing.  There was faith.  There was love.  There was service. There were birthdays (2 of them to celebrate).  There were late nights out.  There was sharing.  There was caring.  There were giggles.  God's presence and grace were with us moment after moment.  Here are a dozen pictures to show all the fun we had during the week that we had a dozen kids in the Summer of 2011....

my niece's 11th birthday

picnic!!

4 cute, giggly girls who love to dress up

Pookey and his cousin - naked bellies!!

kid wash!!

Fone and his cousin

Mario and his cousin

My nephew's 4th birthday

A special birthday delivery from his Mom and Dad

playing in the back yard

Melody and her cousin

2011 Young Camp  (this was like the 8th picture I took, and it really was the best one with all twelve!)

7 years ago...

Seven years ago, our first daughter was born and after two boys, our house exploded in pink.  After I found out she was a girl around the 20 week mark of my pregnancy, I even went out and bought a few pink maternity shirts for myself, I was that excited!  This past year, I have seen so much maturing in her and am amazed at the beautiful person God is helping her become.  Melody is so motherly, kind, obedient, and elegant.  What a blessing she is to our family! 

Our baby girl

1st birthday

2nd birthday

3rd birthday

4th birthday

5th birthday

6th birthday

 Melody shares her birthday with my sister.  Here's some pictures of my sister with Melody on the day she was born and also from last year's birthday.  What a blessing it is to share such a special day with her aunt.  Happy birthday to you too, Carie!  Love you!! 

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. 

(taken from birthday blessings)

***pictures to follow of the birthday girl on her actual 7th birthday....

A sad goodbye leading to a happy new beginning....

If you read our multitudes from yesterday, you would have noticed that we had one less body in our house this week.  Our 1-1/2 year old labradoodle, BJ,  had to be put to sleep due to complications from aspiration pnuemonia caused by megasophagus.  It was very sad and hard for all of us - tears were shed from all but Pookey.  But, we were thankful that this was a life lesson that God allowed, in that we were learning about death through a pet rather than a person.  

BJ, and Bingo before him, were our big teddy bear dogs, who served our families as guard-dogs.  And, knowing that we have a need for that still, but no dog, leads us to our new addition to our family today.  First, I wanted to share that Melody won a book from our library's summer reading program a couple weeks ago and her book was about a dog named "Goldie".  She fell in love with it even before she started reading because of a cute blonde puppy on the cover.  Little did we know when she got this book, we would be shopping for puppies in just a matter of a couple weeks.  

Since our last 2 labradoodles were black and male, we thought we would change things up a bit with our next dog and try to get a blonde female.  Of course, we go right to the local ads...  By golly, there were several different ads for labradoodle pups.  In making phone calls, were blessed enough to find a breeder that even had some blonde females available, just like we were hoping for!  Praise God!!!  I made that inquiry phone yesterday and we picked up our sweet, little (not for long!) beauty this afternoon.  We know it'll take lots (did I say LOTS?!!) of work to train this little girl and get her ready for her duty to be on guard for our Young bunch, but it is SO worth it!  Here are pictures of Goldie's first day home from our first meeting 'til right up to bedtime.... 

Mario and Melody and Goldie

Goldie's mom, Rose (labradoodle)

Melody, MJ (the breeder) Goldie, and Mario

My turn!!! 

Goldie saying "goodbye" to his dad, Max (standard poodle)

getting ready for the car drive home

My Goldilocks holding her Goldie pup

showing off Goldie to the crew at Grandma's house

the special book that led us to our pup's name

Melody posing by the book and crate with Goldie

playtime in the kitchen before bedtime

my 4 girls...  Sophia, Ariel, Melody and Goldie