No, it's not a day care....

Those are our kids! Well, some of our kids. We don't actually have a photo with all of them.

 

Went on a hike today with two friends, and between the three of us, we have 14 kids.

 

All things considered, things went very smooth. No blood. One near miss with a shoe, but that's about it.

 

Try not to look at the moms in this picture, rather focus on the two adorable kids holding hands. I mean, seriously, is that the cutest thing you have ever seen?

 

The kids, and Moms all had a great time, and I do believe the little ones are worn out... although they keep asking about the pool... we'll see.

What I did at midnight...

Before:

 

After:

 

Baby turtles have proven to be very difficult for me to take pictures of. I think because they are so small, I have a difficult time focusing on them. They sort of fly below the radar. And it is funny that I have tried so hard on so many occasions to get a good picture of them, even when I know it most likely won't turn out. A bit like life. We spend way too much energy with our attention on the small stuff that gets blurry when we try to focus on it, and ignore the bigger picture. It sounds almost backwards. Like, I am one person, I can do one SMALL thing, but i think some times, the small things we think we can do, are TOO small. Like little baby turtles. I take way better pictures of big stuff.

 

Frogs and Friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the one I caught, in our grass. I think he is the cutest one for sure.

 

Edit from yesterday

As we were all laying in our bed this morning, I was recounting the story to Steve about Micah asking me to call him 'Your Majesty', and Micah said, "That is not what I said." So I asked him what exactly he did say, and his response was, "I asked if you would call me, Your Royal Highness".
So, you can see how I could make that mistake.
Not, Your Majesty.
Your Royal Highness.

More from the park

So, this little tidbit has nothing to do with the park, but i thought it was funny...
Today Micah asked me if i would call him 'Your Majesty'. Uh, no.

 

The girls enjoyed the park as well.

 

and some construction equipment for Brody.

 

Little boys at the park

 

 

 

 

M & M's

Micah: Mom, I am so mad at Hannah, you know what?
Me: What?
Micah: I am not going to show her my amazing skills until she is 18.

So, tonight at the Chart House...

This one is for you, Jody.
I took all five kids to the water park for three hours this afternoon. Everyone was wonderful, so I decided to reward them by taking them to our favorite dinner hang out, The Chart House. We were order number 49. The kids were still being perfect. I picked up the food, and saw this:

 

Africa in a chicken strip.
I thought about selling it on E-bay, but Brody was too hungry. He did let me take a picture of it first though. Micah spent the next five minutes in tears because I wouldn't take a picture of his chicken strip.

Isaiah caught a baby water snake in the pond tonight. Cute, yes.

 

Another beautiful sunset.

 

my peeps.

 

Sunset fun

My Hannah

 

Ike the baller.

 

Sunset in Iowa

 

THE WALL

In case you were wondering what a wall cloud looks like, take a look at this beauty that blew over our house this afternoon.

 

 

 

Writer's Block

what i appear to have, since i cannot come up with anything interesting to say. so, in an attempt to break through the block, i will write about some of the everyday events we have here...
let's see,

-yesterday brody pooped on the driveway. and with the heat index reaching 113 degrees, it was good times.
-emily made her first appearance upstairs today at 1:30pm. she takes this summer vacation thing seriously.
-steve is gone yet again, and will be back on thursday night.
-micah has been telling some friends that if they can't find anyone to marry their daughter when she grows up, that he will.
-isaiah threw up at 3 am the other morning. he came all the way upstairs to tell me he was going to throw up, and walked past the tile, the wood floor, and onto the carpet before emptying his entire stomach.

well, still nothing. sorry. maybe later, after i take all the kids to the barn, in the heat, and try to keep them quiet so they don't scare the horses.
good times people. good times.

The 4th of July at the ballpark

In this town, the home team takes the field through a corn field.

 

Nothing better than blue snow cones on a hot day!

 

Emily having fun

 

This is the only picture I have of all the kids at the ball park ... waiting for the fireworks to begin!

 

Mr. Sneaky

He practices making different faces in the mirror.
Daily.
This is his sneaky face. Still a little worried about this boy...

 

feeling overwhelmed
by our ability
to be underwhelmed.

it is all so much.

poverty, HIV/AIDS, orphans.

overwhelming.

and what are we, as a nation doing?

sitting in our air conditioned homes, sipping our designer coffee, and talking about what a tragedy it all is.

and i am the worst of these.

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do
The something
That I can do.
-- Helen Keller