Emily - 4 years - Aug. 16

We love you Emily!

One Month Old at her first church picnic

  One year old - showing us how she can wink

Two years old - being a diva at the zoo

Three years old - first driving lesson at Idlewild

Birthday Party 2 of 3

We had the opportunity to spend Emily's birthday with friends at Recreation Outlet.

"Please no pictures."

This place wanted $150 just for a room to eat so we chose to eat outside.

Birthday Party 1 of 3

Camping with the Schmidjell's

We had a great time camping with the Schmidjell's a couple of weekends ago.  We went swimming, played on the playground, ahhhhhed and ohhhhhed over a turtle Charlie found and just enjoyed being outdooors. The guys slept in the tent, while Patty, Me and the kiddos were spoiled with air conditioning.  Charlie was able to do some geocaching on our trip home and you will have to ask about the amazing story of the return of his GPS.  God is so good!

Surprisingly our little woodsy girl would barely go near the turtle until after she saw that Kara was ok with it.

Benjamin at 9 months

I totally forgot how much can change in one month. Ben went from crawling slowly on one leg, to off and running - not literally, but he is a boy on the move.  He has so much fun chasing after his big Sister which usually ends with them in the bathroom pulling all the towels out of the cabinet.  The funniest thing to watch is when Ben is using his legs and turning circles on his behind.  We guess that he's either looking for something or that he's pointing himself in the direction he's getting ready to go. 

I call Ben my Water Boy.  He absolutely loves the water.  So far I have not ventured beyond the bathtub and our backyard pool with him, but I can tell he enjoys it much more than his big Sister. 

Ben's first tooth decided to pop out this month and you can tell that it feels like a foreign object to him because he sticks his tongue out a lot.

Here is a picture taken by our good friend Shelli.

Happy Birthday to my Best Friend

C - Caring

  H - Humble

         A - Adventurous

  R - Reliable

L - Loving

     I - Intelligent 

     E - Easygoing

(just in case some missed this picture posted last year)

Happy Birthday Charlie!  We love you!!!

Successful Surprise Party

I'm sure all have heard by now that we actually pulled off a true surprise for THE Charlie Groff who turned 30 this year.  My Sister-in-Law and I worked together to see if we could surprise Charlie.  Who knew that we would actually make it happen especially with a toddler in our house who can let things slip every now and then (and Mommy can too).  We were able to keep it a secret even up to the last second when we drove in Kristen and Jose's driveway because there were no cars in sight.  Charlie's first comment after everyone yelled SURPRISE was "where did you all park?".  It was priceless.  Thank you Kristen and Jose for planning and hosting the surprise and thank you to all those who joined in the fun.

 Wow, Daddy, you look so much taller now that you're 30.

What's a good caption to go along with this picture?

2nd Annual Idlewild Trip with the Groff's

For those that haven't had a chance, you must check out the coolest amusement park ever.  It's called Idlewild.  I've also posted information about this park on our Fun Place Database site.  I don't have any pictures this year.  I used the "Mary photography" from Luke 2:19 - But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  It was a blast and we can't wait to go next year.

Emily - 3 years, 11 mo. - July 16

Here's our growin' little girl.  One minute she's talkin' baby talk to Ben and the next minute she's acting like a 4 year old going on 13.  Her recent nickname is Cat Lady.  She had seen these Beenie Baby cats over at my Mom and Dad's house and asked if she could take one home with her.  Well now she has quite the collection, 7 in total and I believe she's named 5 of them so far.  We mentioned Stripy back in May, and we've added Lilly, Bucket, Brown and Bubble. 

Emily loves to have sleep-overs at my parents house.  This last sleep-over gave us another Emily-ism.  She and my Mom were in their basement and Emily had been sitting on the floor playing on the computer for quite a while.  When she stood up she said "Mommo, my leg is sparkling.  Do you see the sparkles?"   Yes, her leg had fallen asleep and that's how she put things together.  She was convinced you could see the sparkles.  

Emily's recent food combination was blueberries dipped in ranch dressing.  I have to write this for the blog because when she's older she probably won't believe it.

Emily is enjoying having Ben around a lot more now.  It's neat to watch them play together.

Sunday School fellowship

We hosted our Sunday School fellowship a while back.  We had hamburgers, hotdogs and other fixins'.  After stuffing our faces we had a friendly cornhole tournament to which Mr. H and Charlie won. 

Here's Ben's reaction once he found out his Dad won.

Here was Emily's fun with her friend sending bubble bottles down the slide. 

Family Reunion

I love family reunions.  I have fond memories of sitting around with the older folks and hearing stories of what times were like "back then".  I haven't had an opportunity to go to my family's reunion, but I did get the chance to go to Charlie's.  There was great food, great fellowship, and tons of fun.  Emily swam and played on the playground and also had her first dog bite - actually it was just a nip and she was the one that provoked the dog even after Charlie told her the dog was already upset.  Ben enjoyed the scenery, napped, ate and attempted to crawl around, but I'm sure he mostly enjoyed being passed around from one family member to another.  The adults enjoyed catching up with everyone, the games and the auction.  They are already planning where next year's reunion will be. 

I have more pictures, but I seemed to have misplaced our camera so thanks to one of Charlie's family members we have this picture.

Benjamin at 8 months

Ben has a lot to say these days. His most recent sounds are da-da, ba-ba and just yesterday ma-ma.  He loves to make his presence known by slapping his hands on his legs and this usually occurs when he's left in the room alone for a brief time.

Crawling I believe is on the horizon.  Ben now can scooch himself around on his behind and is actually moving some when he ends up on all fours.

Ben loves pretty much all the food he's given, but does seem to really enjoy the flavored puffs and strangely enough, veggie chips.  They actually dissolve pretty quickly.

Summer fun

We found a great deal last Fall on a small pool and finally had a chance to get it set up. Emily loves it and this past weekend was Ben's first pool experience. Unfortunately for Ben the only flotation device I had was quite girly looking. These pictures will be enjoyed by his future wife.

Happy 6 year Anniversary

A couple years later and many fun adventures together.  Thank you Lord for bringing us together.  We are truly blessed.

Emily - 3 years, 10 mo. - June 16

Almost 4 years old - I can't believe it.  This picture cracks me up - skinned up knees and a frilly pony tail which you can't see very well.  Emily is quite the little tom-boy with a little bit of girly in her.  She is a ball of energy, but is and always has been my good sleeper both for nap time and night time.

The recent Emily-ism happened when she and Charlie were watching tv together.  The show was about characters trying to catch shapes.  One character was trying to catch a triangle on a fish's tale.  Charlie teased Emily saying "what if the fish swam away and they couldn't get the triangle?".  Emily gave Charlie a serious look and said "Dad, it's pretend, drawn on a storyboard".  Charlie looked at her in disbelief and asked "What?".  Emily proceeded to repeat herself word for word. Then Charlie asked Emily where she heard that and misunderstanding his question proceeded to explain to Charlie what a storyboard was.  Quite interesting the things that stick in a child's brain.

Emily thoroughly enjoyed Vacation Bible School recently at our church.  I had the privilege of being one of her teachers again this year.  It was a joy to hear her singing the songs and saying the Bible verses.

What a difference soil makes

Here are some updated flowerbed pictures. I know we've received a LOT of rain, but I truly believe the difference is based on the soil.

Benjamin at 7 months

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?  It's amazing how fast Ben is growing.  Thankfully we are blessed to have an abundance of 12 month size clothes.

Ben is not really interested in crawling yet, but loves to sit and soak in his surroundings.  He is our people-watcher and will usually smile at anyone who talks to him. 

Ben has definitely discovered he has a voice and sometimes likes to see just how loud he can get which of course drives his Sister nuts.  Along with talking, we can tell that Ben is a listener.  He loves to listen to music and gives a belly laugh whenever he hears the horn on our van. 

Here's Emily's 7 month picture.

More flowerbed pics.

I am reminded of Matthew 13:5-6 when dealing with our flowerbeds.  Year after year Mom and I would plant new flowers in the beds as our Mother's Day tradition and each year the flowers would look like they were thriving, but soon after being planted they would stop growing.  This year we had the idea to uproot the old soil, add new and the flowers are definitely doing much better.  Thank you Mom for all your help!!!

"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away."

Emily - 3 years, 9 mo. - May 16

Oh, where to begin.  Let's just say Emily keeps Mommy on her toes at all times.  I am more thankful than Emily, I'm sure, when rest time rolls around so I can turn my brain off for a little while.  I do get a chuckle quite often though with some of the things that comes out of her mouth.  These days she has not been dealing well with her brother since he recently found out he has a voice and likes to use it.  She is constantly saying "I can't hear" even if there is nothing on to be listening to.  However, she is so sweet...the second she finds out he's asleep in the van, she wants the world to be quiet so he can rest.

Emily really enjoyed playing in the dirt recently when my Mom graciously came over and helped me "rebuild" our flower beds.  We're hoping to incorporate her help more with our garden this year.

You'll notice a stuffed cat in the picture this time.  This is her newest "pet" Stripy.  Yes, this stuffed animal actually has a name rather than just Kitty.  She now has quite the collection and all of them usually go with her everywhere, but Stripy is notably her favorite.