Ring Bearer

Yesterday was our friend Tony's wedding, and Liam was the ring bearer!! It was so fun to get him all dressed up and watch as he stood the all the guys for the pictures, and then walked down the aisle with Belle, the flower girl. From where I was sitting, I couldn't see him during the ceremony, but those who could told me he did great!

Here's some pictures:

Liam trying to get Sam off the light pole:
Having succeeded, Liam got up on it:

Pierce was all dressed up and looked SO cute! (we had my parents watch David so we didn't have to worry about him during the ceremony)

Even Liam got a gun for these pictures and he thought he was so cool:

Tony and Melissa first see each other:

Liam and Belle:

A loving embrace:

It was a lovely wedding and I was honored to be a part of it. I got to man the guest table at the beginning, which was fun. I also helped set up the room and that was really fun.

Thanks, Tony and Melissa, for letting me be a part of your big day! God bless you in incredible ways in your marriage and life together!

Tangible Reassurances

It has been rather hard lately trusting God's timing and provision in the midst of running out of things we need, and bills coming in with no money to pay them...but yesterday God worked through the lives of two special people and showed me in a very obvious way that He IS taking care of us!

My friend Pamela came over to visit, which was itself a blessing beyond words. She brought dinner for all of us and graciously watched my boys while I waited at a food bank for over two hours. Not only that, but she bought some groceries to go with dinner and left the rest here for us.
And, then our friend Tony brought us a bag of food, saying that he wouldn't eat it in the next couple of weeks and it would go bad...

So, we have meat in the house again, and jelly and a bunch of fruit/veg and even some goodies.

God is so good. He knew how much I needed such a reassurance and gave it to me.

an explanation of my silence...

I haven't posted much since getting home from the lake, I know.

Truth is: I've been in a terrible mood ever since.

It was really much harder to come home from vacation than I had thought it could possibly be. Reality hit me between the eyes like a two-by-four the moment I walked through my door and I have to admit, I have not dealt with it well.

Urgh.

Life's lessons are not always easy to learn, but it would probably be a heck of alot easier if I didn't have to struggle with a bad attitude about it.

There are pleasant times ahead and I am trying to focus on them, and not the icky stuff.

And now, I'm off to get a snack made up for the boys and I.

Feet Friday---my guys on the dock

I think that of the 10-15 feet pictures I took at the lake these last few days, this is my favorite.

Lake Cavanaugh

We just got home from our annual trip to the lake with my family and boy did we ever have a ton of fun! Jon, the boys and I arrived Sunday evening in time for dinner. My parents had arrived a few hours before us and we made the most of our first evening, playing in the lake and enjoying the sunshine. Monday was more of the same. Tuesday, Grandma Mardi, Grandpa Bill, Daniel and Faith arrived and our group was complete. The weather continued to be amazing and HOT the whole time, just perfect for vacationing on a lake.
Activities included:
*Canoe rides around the lake
*Jumping/diving off the dock
*Lots of swimming, wading and getting wet
*Floating
*Puzzle building
*Eating, eating and more eating
*Wii playing
*Reading, inside and out
*Games: cards, Yhatzee, dominoes!
*Walks
*Naps
and lots, lots more. I was a bit picture crazy....ended up with over 220 photos! I picked about 10% of that to show you here...didn't want this post to be too long. So, in no particular order, here is a sampling of the pictures I took. If you want to see the rest, let me know and we'll work something out:

Dad, Liam and I taking David on his very first canoe ride:

Liam, David and I went for an early morning walk Monday morning:

David and I on the dock (that's the house we stay at in the background. Isn't it amazing?!):

David and Liam playing around the dock:

Liam and I:

Jandtish girls; mom, Faith and I:

Dad and Daniel having a "who can dive and go farthest under water" contest:

David being "dunked". This was something he wanted to do over and over again! But, just to his waist, he didn't want to go deeper than that!

Liam showing off his new paddle that my dad made and wood-burned for him:

Liam in his goggles, or as he calls them, his "goggle-goggles":

Liam floating and getting doggy kisses:

Faith and Grandma Mardi reading in the yard:

Mom and I playing Yhatzee:

Mom looking so pretty:

David loved wandering around on the dock!

I made it into the water this year! It was cold but so nice!

Dad and Grandma Mardi working on the puzzle:

Little Rosie helping Liam dig:

Mom, Liam and Dad getting reading to go out in the canoe:

Liam wading in the lake and enjoying the waves kicked up by a passing motor boat:

I had an amazing time and was sorry to see it end. Time with my family is always so wonderful, and it's great getting to go away with them all for a few days of rest and relaxation. Can't wait for next year!

Another Beautiful Wedding

Last night we had the honor to attend the wedding of Krista and Uryah. Krista belongs to a family that Jon's fmaily have been friends with since all the kids were kids.
It was a beautiful wedding. Beautiful bride, beautiful decorations, beautiful everything.
They has a twenties theme and let the guests know about it, so over half the guests were dressed up too. It made for alot of fun. I ran out of time and money to dress up special, but got to wear my skirt again so I was satisfied.
Two weddings down, one more to go this month. I'm looking forward to the next one, Liam's been asked to be the ringbeared which is so exciting!

Feet Friday---wedding feet

This feet friday post is going to have more than the usual one photo, as I want to include all the wedding feet from Dan and Faith's wedding. Enjoy

Daniel and Dad:
Me and Jon:
Faith:

Faith and Daniel:

Faith and Daniel:

It was a wonderful, beautiful wedding and there were lots of fun feet to take pictures of!

cloth diapers have made a comeback...

Money has been pretty tight lately and diapers just aren't an expense we can expend right now (gas and food being more important), so the other day, when I ran out of diapers, I resurrected the cloth diapers:

As much as I hate them, it's nice to know I am doing a small part in helping us get through this hurdle. And, I am so grateful that I didn't get rid of them back when I had decided to "never use them again" and had packed them away.

Just goes to show that one should never say never. I think they will stay around until all my kids are out of diapers. Just in case...

Daniel and Faith's Reception

Last night was Daniel and Faith's reception party and boy did we have fun. It was at a cute little bar in P.O. called One Ten Lounge. Jon and I were our groups' DD's. My drink was yummy, the Big Peach it was called. Jon had a virgin mojito which was good too.
We had Rhonda's daughter Shannon babysit the boys, which made for a nice night out for Jon and I.
Here's some pictures...

The adorable couple:
Mom and me

Getting YaYa kisses:

Dan, Faith, Grandma Mardi and Grandpa Bill:

Chit chatting:

The One Ten Lounge specializes in martinis and they had tons of choices. This is my grandma's Blueberry Hill Martini:

from left, Grandpa Bill, Jon, Rhonda, Grandma Mardi, Bryan and Mom:

Eating cake:

Kisses and traces of cake on cheeks. They weren't so nice about feeding cake to each other this time!

Some of us may have imbibed a little too much and were in need of a rest before the night was over:

We had a lot of fun, met some new people, got to see some we hadn't in awhile and had an all around good time.

Baseball

Thanks to our library's summer reading program, we were given tickets to a AAA baseball game here in town. We were excited to go, we like baseball and it was Liam's first baseball game to go see!

They were giving out free lunchboxes to all the kids and Liam thought that was so cool:
Even the cheap seats have a good view and lots of fowl ball catching possibilities:

We ended up going around the field to were there was a lawn of grass to sit on, so the boys could run around a little:

Home team won, 4-0! Liam said he enjoyed it and wants to go again!

It was a very fun evening to spend as a family! Thanks, library!!!