The Moon and Eli

Tonight as we were getting the kiddos ready for bed 2 year old Eli started a cute conversation with Daddy about the moon. Here's what happened...

Eli: Bumped head, Daddy.

Daddy: You did?

Eli: Yeah, moon bumped me on head. (Brief pause) Moon onto sun.

Daddy: So you hit your head on the moon and knocked it into the sun?

Eli: Yeah.

Daddy: That could have cataclysmic consequences; you better be careful.

Eli: Oh.

Then after a few minutes he got out his tape measure and since he measures things in "dollars" and "bucks" (don't know where he got that from!) I asked him...

Mommy: So how big is the sun?

Eli: 14 bucks (pause) moon, 2 dollars

--Our little man...priceless--


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Two Months Old!!!

Little Abigail is two months old already! I thought I'd share some pictures!

Here she is trying to suck her thumb...try as she might she ends up getting her knuckles instead.

She loves to talk to her big brother!

Another favorite thing to do is stare at the ceiling fan! It's almost hypnotizing!

She discovered this cute little girl in the toy mirror the other night.


My how time flies!

Pool fun...well for most of us!

Everyone was ready for some fun in the pool!

Daddy tested the water and convinced them it was warm enough.

Noah was ready...he and Bekah really enjoyed it!

Lydia wasn't so sure about it. (She does like riding in the inflatable raft with Eli...as long as they are not physically in the water they are fine!)

Isaac didn't seem to like it one bit.

Elijah seemed ready but...

Not so much!

Hannah's a water bug!

Elijah liked it with Daddy's help!

Isaac was a little bummed that he didn't like it...he wanted to but the little man who's "not afraid of nuttin'" just didn't like it.

At the end of the day, though, most of us are happy we have a pool!

Strawberry Pickin'

Last week we had perfect weather to go to the strawberry farm.
Here are some pictures of our fun!

Isaac, our eager helper...always loves strawberries!

"They call me Bond, Noah Bond"

Lydie was a good helper...when she wasn't examining them!

Eli loves his "schtwabewwies"!

Nanna kept Abigail comfortable during picking breaks.

We picked over 40 pounds! We made over 20 pints of jam, 10 quarts of sliced strawberries in suger for the freezer, and of course we ate some after picking and during lunch the next day.

I had a lot of eager helpers. The oldest four took turns capping, slicing, mushing, etc. It was great to see them working together -- and it made my back feel better!

Sometimes they had too much fun! Here Noah and Bekah had a hilarious running commentary about killer strawberries and killing strawberries. Too much fun!

Hi, my name is Carmen...

...and I love my neighborhood! Shortly before Nathan got home late this afternoon our neighbors who own the farm next door stopped in for a visit. Not all but some of them. We met the wife/mom and 6 of their 11 children. They were out picking the small amount of cherries they got off their trees that are near our property and decided to come over for a visit. My mom and Nathan have met some of the family but I haven't met any aside from waiving from afar. We had a nice conversation...about an hour long as a matter of fact. They are the Amish family next door. Our children were so excited to meet them and really wanted to play with them (the children that came over were 15 and younger...down to a cutie pie of an 8 month old) but they were a little shy (not my crazy kiddos but the kiddos next door). After a while, though, they were all outside playing and running around. The mom and I and my mom had a really nice visit. We have a cherry tree out back and Saturday our family picked cherries...Sunday we pitted, rinsed and froze over 60 cups of cherries. There are still more on the tree but I think we have our fill. So we offered for them to come over and pick from our tree whenever they wanted to.

So...back to loving the neighborhood...the reason for this post. Tonight after dinner my mom offered to stay inside with sleepy Abigail. While the kids played outside I helped Nathan in the garden and I took in the following scene. At one side of our yard is our neighbor at our tree with 4 of her children picking cherries, our children playing in the yard, neighbor girls kitty-corner across from us (very sweet girls who frequent our house often) waving and yelling hello, and then another neighbor who owns land next to the other side driving by with a wave and a smile. Ahh...the good 'ol country life. It's neat here...I love it!

Hey! Have I told you how much I love our neighborhood?! " )