Verse For the Week: 2 Corinthians 5:7

Summer and Snow

Oh my goodness! We have a bunch of cousins now, could anything be more fun?! Here's Summer and Snow in matching outfits. I'm sure they will have plenty of "twin" moments in their future. Isn't it amazing how much a baby grows in five months?

Thunder

Look at this sweet boy. Or maybe I should say look at this mischievous boy. Or this inquisitive boy. Or this loving boy. Thunder has had a great summer at Grammy's Summer Camp. He's been a huge help with the little cousins. He's always at my elbow when it's time to feed Snow saying "can I feed her, Grammy?" He's quick to help Storm wash his hands, or put on his shoes, or to play cars with him.

Thanks for making my summer so fun, Thunder!

Official Five Month Photo

Snow is the happiest baby I've ever known. She always has a smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She "talks" constantly and is very active. When she's on her back she plants her feet on the floor and scoots around on her bottom. I'm sure as soon as she figures out how to sit she'll immediately move on to crawl!

Verse For the Week: Romans 8:28

Introducing Summer

My nephew and his wife, Matt and Shelby welcomed their first child into the family yesterday! Summer (her blog name, not her real name) was born yesterday afternoon. She was a surprise in more ways than one. She arrived about 2 1/2 weeks early and literally everyone in the family thought she would be a boy.

The cousins are thrilled to have another cousin to play with and I'm overjoyed to be a Great-Aunt finally!

We love you Summer!!

And Then There Were Six...

JD and Janel emailed us some of their Disneyland photos on Saturday. And there in the middle was the above photo. I was on the phone with JD as I was looking at them and I told him thanks. 

He said, "did you look at all of them?"

Me: "Yeah"

JD: "Did you notice the special one?"

Me: (frantically looking through them again) "Do you mean this one with 1st visit button on Janel? I wondered about that because I know she's been there before..."

Then realization struck and and I hollered for Dan to come in and we both were in tears of joy.

Baby Koons is due in late January of 2017 and we couldn't be more excited!

What a cute way of letting us know. Even though I was too obtuse to get it the first time through...

Five!

Thunder celebrated his fifth birthday this past week. He's headed to Kindergarten in two weeks. His official birthday party was at our house last weekend. Then he celebrated again the night before his actual birthday with dinner out at Peter Piper Pizza. Then on his actual birthday we went to lunch at Freddy's and to Barnes and Noble for this free birthday cookie courtesy of the B&N Kids Club.

He got shy and did not let us sing Happy Birthday to him at his party. But he sure enjoyed the swimming, the water balloons, the pinata, and the gifts!

Does this boy know how to celebrate or what?!

 Happy Birthday, Thunder, we love you!

Tio Zach trying to sneak a Tootsie Pop to Snow

Lined up for the water balloons

Tio Zach and Storm finishing off the chips

The Happy Birthday Boy!

Disneyland!

This post will be filled with photos - you've been warned!

We had an awesome time in Disneyland. It was truly a dream come true for Dan and I to be able to take this trip with most of our kids/grandkids.

We stayed at the Disneyland Resort Hotel and it was fantastic. The rooms were spacious and comfortable. The cast members at the hotel were friendly and helpful. The swimming pools were lovely with plenty of towels, lounges, and umbrellas.

We booked our trip through AAA and it was a wonderful experience thanks to our travel agent Annette M. We received some great freebies from AAA and from Disney as part of our booking.

I'll let the (tons of) photos tell the rest of the story...

Thunder and Sunny

Katie and Thunder

Grammy and Sunny

Katie, Gramps, Grammy, Sunny, Gabe

Thunder, Storm, Sunny - "what's next?!"

Storm, Thunder, Sunny fast asleep by 7:15 pm in our room while their parents get a night in the park to themselves

My favorite photo!

Janel and JD at the entrance to our hotel

Jessica, Snow, Storm, Adam with Goofy

JD, Janel, Gabe, Dan

You couldn't pay me to ride this ride.

JD and Janel

Jessica, Adam and kids

having a tea party with Alice and the Mad Hatter

Sunny and I were matching one day

This was Storm's favorite ride!

This is the headboard in our room. 

At night you can turn them on and they play a song while the "fireworks" light up. It was really pretty.

All of us!

Verse For the Week: Genesis 50:20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of lives. Genesis 50:20

I Love My...

Grandkids!

On July 4th the grands all showed up for an impromptu swim party with these super cool shirts on. What an awesome surprise! And no, Snow was not falling off my lap, it just looks that way.

Thanks Jessica, Katie, Zach - you guys know the way to my heart!

Verse For the Week: Psalm 46:1

Happy Independence Day!

Celebrating 240 years of Freedom

1776-2016

Happy 4th!