"Corn, corn, corn..." with a little baseball mixed in and a frog...

One of our favorite movies as a family is Secondhand Lions.
If you have seen it, you might remember a line where corn is mentioned a lot when they ended up with a whole garden full! We spent Wednesday morning in a whole field full of corn, thanks to some friends who planted a lot and offered to let us come share their bounty!

Tuesday night, Sayoko, our Japanese student , was amazed by the number of stars she could see in the sky... Wednesday morning, I think she was amazed by how far the corn field went!

She jumped right in and helped us pick! We were picking for our family but also helped our friends pick to fill orders they have.

 

Here is all the kids together for a picture when we were done!

We had around 180 ears to come home and shuck...

Our new pastor stopped by, he helped shuck a bit and went sent him home with a few ears of corn too!

Eli was my kitchen helper, he helped wash all the ears and blanch them...

I cut the corn off the ears and Abigayl bagged it to freeze.

Sayoko wanted to learn too so she tried with some help...

Other highlights of our week included a base ball game. The A's didn't win but we still had fun!

 Can't forget this little guy, our summer has been wetter than normal here and instead of just toads in the backyard, we have little frogs too! Nate caught this one while helping in the garden...

And then there were SEVEN... for the next few weeks anyway!

We welcomed our Japanese student who is staying a month with us about a week ago!

Diving into our large family has been an adventure!

Summertime Life...

has been busy at our house!

June seemed to fly by with Baseball, gymnastics and camps.

July has brought the county fair, swimming lessons and friends.

My camera hasn't been out as much as usual this summer.
Now we are sitting on the brink of August and as I think about summer coming to an end, I am a little sad but I am also ready to return to routine.
Here are a few pictures from the camera,
these kiddos of mine... they are growing up fast!

Yes... Abigayl found this snake in my cucumber patch. Yikes... we have had a lot of snakes this summer, thankfully none of them bad ones!

Miss Jennifer came to visit! This was a highlight!

She brought sweet Baby H and we all fell in love!

The garden has been doing well, someday 40 to 50 cucumbers with the picklers! Yummy! 

Clara has carefully been learning to cut cucumbers and loves the job with supervision!

More summer adventures to come...

Kids Camp at Bent's Old Fort...}

Saturday morning started early at our house with kids piling in the car and heading out on an adventure. The sun wasn't up yet so pillows were situated and kids snuggled down to sleep was we drove.

Our destination- Bent's Old Fort, Kids Quarters Day! 

This year, an extra bonus! Friends making the drive to meeting us there!

 All the pictures are Teri's, in my "pre-coffee" activated morning, I forgot to put a card in my camera before we headed out so I didn't get any pictures. 

Our families have much in common and I am so thankful for this mama's friendship!

And our kids together...

Oh how they make me smile!

These two got to hang out together in January at winter cleft camp, what a sweet friendship they have!

 Thanks friends for sharing this day of learning and fun!

{1 year... A little late...}

Summer is flying by it seems and I am far behind on posting.

1 year ago on Mother's Day in America, this sweet boy was placed in my arms.

 It was a hard, hard day. When I look back at the pictures, my heart still aches for him.  His story is exactly that, his story. One that someday he may choose to tell, but as I think about first seeing his face almost 3 year ago, then think about all the hours of prayer and time waiting to see if he would one day be ours, then reflect on the day he was placed in our arms and look at life today,

I can not imagine life without him in our family.

Every moment was worth it!

His story isn't about him or about us, his story is being written by the Master Storyteller, the one who knew him before he was born, the one who wove our lives together and made it possible for me to call him son. His story isn't over... it's really just starting to bloom!

It's been a busy with year of adjusting to family, of medical appointments, surgeries and first...

looking forward to the many years to come.

We love you more than words, Wesley! 

You make us laugh and smile... 

you amaze us with your JOY everyday!