Good Friends

Annie and I met in Haiti back in 2006.  She was engaged.  Daryl and I were recently married.  A close friendship was formed and it's only grown stronger over the years.  She and her husband, David, came back in Haiti in 2008 for a month right before Daryl and I moved back to Kalamazoo.    Now, 3 kids later for us and 2 kids later for David and Annie, we are close friends separated by many many miles. :(  David and Annie adopted 2 boys from COTP that lived at COTP while Daryl and I were there.  The last time we saw them was in 2009 when they moved out to New Jersey from Montana.  Annie and I have stayed close through phone calls and facebook over the past 3 years but this weekend we had the awesome privilege of seeing them again!  They stopped at our house for the night on their trek back to Montana.  David is done with school in NJ and Annie got a teaching job near where her parents live in MT.  The time spent with them was way too short but we sure enjoyed every minute that we did have!

 Hope and Jeff on the swing.  

 We had pizza for supper!

 Hope loved "playing crazy" with Jeff and Simon on the pool.  Samuel was a little unsure and preferred to watch the craziness from a safe distance!

 Have I said how much I love this family?  These two boys have the best parents.  God sure knew what He was doing when he gave these boys to David and Annie!

 A group shot.  If only we could see this family every week . . . :)

 A backyard race.  Jeff smoked everyone!

 So much fun!!  We already are planning an arranged marriage between Simon and Hope. ;)

Love her.  Miss her!

Hope decided she wanted to head for MT with her new friends.  We convinced her that we'd miss her way too much.  Although . . . I was about ready to hop in the car with her!  That, or slash some tires so they had to stay at our house for longer!  God should have put MI and MT right next to each other on the map.

We love you, David, Annie, Jeff, and Simon!!

When did this happen?

When did my little baby girl . . . 

 Grow up . . . 

 Into a big almost-2-year-old . . .

 Who would rather swing on the "big girl swing" . . .

 Than in her baby swing?

 There are days . . . 

Where I wish I had the power to make time stand still!!

Aunt Anna

One of the many reasons we love having Aunt Anna home from school for the summer:

My kids absolutely adore their Aunt Anna.  She is so good to them and they have so much fun when she is around.  Aliyah always says, "Anna. Funny!" to almost everything that Aunt Anna says/does.  It's so cute.  We love you, Aunt Anna!  You are never allowed to move further than 1 hr away from Kalamazoo. ;)

One-on-One Time With Aliyah

Spending one on one time with my kids is precious to me.  I get to do it with Samuel every day while the girls nap.  Hope often volunteers to run errands with me so we get special Mommy-daughter time that way.  Aliyah often gets her one on one time with Mommy at night after the other two kids are in bed.  She is so much fun to spend one-on-ones time with.  She really comes alive - talking, playing, helping, etc.  She talks a lot with the other kids around too but she really talks when she has all of the spotlight.  She has a sweet spirit and a spunk determination about her that all adds up to a really fun personality!  She also loves to help.  She truly is a joy!  She went on errands with me the other night and she wanted to carry the bag all by herself.  She found silk pajamas (her favorite!) but put them back on the rack without a single complaint when I told her we needed to hang them back up.  I love these sweet moments with her and I want to bottle them up and remember them forever!  I love spending time with you, Aliyah Rose!  You make Mommy so happy. :)

Samuel and Clocks :)

This sweet boy loves his clocks!

Beach Day at Yankee Springs!

A Trip to the Berry Patch :)

Today we headed for the strawberry patch with our good friends!  Because of the warm March and then the late freeze, a lot of farmers lost their strawberry crops.  Thankfully, there was one berry patch near us that worked hard and saved their whole crop.  The season is short this year so Jenny and I decided to head out there today with our kids and pick some strawberries!  The kids had fun running around and playing.  Samuel helped out a little bit with dumping strawberries from his little quart-sized bucket into the big one.  Hope danced around and played with her little friend Abigail and Aliyah stayed busy eating strawberries.  Later, when we were telling Daryl about strawberry picking I said, "Hope, how many strawberries did you put into Mommy's big box?"  Hope answered, "Probably 1!"  I think that is pretty accurate and honest of her!! ;)

Our little "helpers" :)

I think I owe the berry patch a couple more bucks for the strawberries that Aliyah ate!!

When I got home and washed the strawberries, I found these.  I asked the kids who was eating strawberries out of Mommy's box and Aliyah said, "Meeeee!!!"  I don't doubt it for a second. :)