Family Night Fishing

 Monday night for Family Home Evening, we headed over to our neighborhood pond to try out Evan and Amber's new poles.  They had wanted to go on Saturday, but I had a bad case of mastitis, and I felt terrible all weekend!!  So Monday, Barth made it home early and we headed out!  We got there and I realized that I forgot the hot dogs for bait, so while we walked on down to the pond, Barth ran back home and not only got bait, but bread to feed the ducks too.  :)  Evan caught the first fish!!  He also caught the most!!  Here he is with the first catch of the evening!

 Brian was next up with the fish.  He was using the lucky pole that Uncle Aaron got for Weston for his 4th birthday.  :)  He caught quite a few, but this time around it was Evan and his new Spider man pole that caught the most!!

 Amber was so happy to have her own pole and to be catching her own fish!  Look at that smile!!!

 Aaron caught quite a few fish too!!

 Barth was the one who took the fish off of the little ones poles.  He was busy making fun of me for teaching the kids to take the fish off of the hook by stepping on them.  It was how I was taught.  Even though I can hold them and take them off, I don't like to because I don't want to get finned!!  :)  As Barth was busy poking fun at me, he let out a yelp and then held up his hand to show me that he had just gotten finned by the fish!  Yep, I will continue to step on my fish.  I don't want to get cut!!  And yes, that makes me a wimp, but I am okay with that!!!  :)

 Weston caught a few fish too.  He wanted to use the salmon eggs that he had bought as bait during scout camp.  That just meant that he didn't get as many fish as those of us that used hot dogs!  :)  He had fun though!

Here, could you take a picture all together for me?  Yep, Barth is just as big of a kid as all the rest of them!!  :)  His being the baby of the family is showing here!!  Boy I love these guys!!!

My Girls

 Sunday afternoon Amber wanted her nails painted with her new birthday nail polish!  :)  She chose blue and pretty butterfly stickers to go on them.  We then did a clear top coat to help keep the butterflies on.  She loves them!

 My girls were matching on Sunday so we had to get another picture!  :)  Katelynn is about too big for this dress, so I had to have her wear it and let them match in it at least one more time!  My baby girl is growing like a weed!!!

 Do you remember when Katelynn and Amber's baby doll were the same size?  Look at how much Katelynn has grown since she was 2 weeks old!  I weighed and measured her yesterday before her bath.  She weighed 15 lbs 5 oz, and was about 26 inches long!  She is getting so big!

Isn't she a sweet pea?!?  I loved this one of her!!  She is laughing now and loves looking at everything going on around her!!  I love my girls and am so thankful that I have them!

My Own Stripling Warriors

 This afternoon after nap time, the kids were all busy doing different things.  And then they all decided that they wanted to make things out of paper.  I was busy with Katelynn in the other room when they started.  First they were doing snowflakes and masks.  Brian was making some paper clothes or a costume of some sort.  Then Amber wanted me to do her nails.  So, I put Katelynn in her swing and painted Amber's nails with some polish that she got for her birthday.  The next thing I knew, Brian and Aaron came in and wanted me to look.  They told me that they had combined their creations and had made Aaron into a stripling warrior!!  They did a pretty darn good job of making him look like a warrior!!  :)

Brian was the one that had come up with the idea!  :)  He then hunted and found the empty wrapping paper tubes that I had left out for the boys to play with after wrapping birthday presents and he taped them all together to make a spear for Aaron.  Then they added a shield in his other hand!

I wanted to take a picture.  Weston came in to announce the warrior (Aaron) with his trumpet, so I had to get a picture of all of my own stripling warriors.

 As they all lined up there in front of my door, I knew that that was exactly what these boys of mine were.  They are all stripling warriors in our day.  They are learning the gospel.  They are leading pure and good lives.  They are preparing to teach the gospel to others.  They may or may not be required to fight as the actual stripling warriors did in days of old, but they are certainly fighting a different kind of battle.  They are fighting in this world of wickedness to be morally straight and mentally sound and strong.  I worry if I have prepared my sons enough to face the world in which they are living, that just as those mothers did so many years ago.  I hope that my testimony will help my boys and strengthen them when they need it most.  I hope that they will cultivate their own vibrant and strong testimonies and serve the Lord someday soon!  I pray each day for these wonderful and good boys that the Lord has seen fit to bless me with!!  I strive to do the best I can to raise them in a home that is a shelter and haven from the world around them.

My hope and prayer is that one day that others will say of them as Helaman said of his 2000 young sons: 

"Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." (Alma 57:21)

"Now this is the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually." (Alma 57:27)

Happy 6th Birthday Amber!

Yesterday was Amber's 6th birthday!!  She had a great day!  I can't believe that my baby girl is so big!!  She had a great day at kindergarten and got a cute happy birthday hat that she wore at school.  She took fruit roll-ups to school for her birthday treat!  :)  Barth came home early since I wasn't feeling well, and so we were able to open presents right after the kids got home from school!

Amber had a lot of fun opening her presents and cards.  :)  She is such an expressive girl and I love to look at the pictures of her and the fun faces that she makes!  She got a cool baton from Aaron that had stars on each end of the baton.

Evan was up next.  It was absolutely hilarious to listen to him read his card to Amber!!

It went something like, "Happy birthday Amber.  I want you to come to my party.  I am going to have a fun party with all my friends.  Lars and Caleb will be there.  And Julie and Avery too.  We are going to have lots of fun at my party!  And so will you.  Love, Evan"  :)

He then gave his present to Amber which was another kind of baton of sorts that had water and glitter in it!  Amber liked it of course.

Next up was Weston.  He made her a fun card too.

She got some fun princess stickers from him.

Brian was up next.  Amber loved all the attention from her brothers.

She got a cool glow in the dark star wand from Brian that was pink!  She can't wait to try it out!

She got a roll of Hello Kitty coloring pages from us.

She was sooo excited about her pink fishing pole!!  That's my girl!!!  :)  She and Evan have asked if we could go fishing today.  Perhaps we will for a little bit.

And here she is with her favorite present.  A pink leap pad!!  She has been wanting one for a year now!  They went on sale a while ago and I got one for her.  :)  She spent her afternoon playing math and writing games.

Daddy got Amber a special present.  He got her a pretty necklace.  :)  She loved it.  She loves any and every thing that her Daddy does.

We had hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner.  One of Amber's favorites.  Later on when we were not so full, we had cake and ice cream.  Amber wanted a pink cake, but doesn't like strawberry.  So, at the end of the summer, I got a pink lemonade cake on clearance and saved it to make for her birthday.  It had pink icing too!!  Then we put on castles, wands, and tiaras on it to make it a perfect girly kind of cake!

By this point my camera batteries were kind of going, so this picture came out blurry!  

I have to say that I am so thankful for my sweet little girl.  I am thankful for her fun and big personality!!  She adds a lot of spice to our lives and I am thankful for that.  It is so fun that she loves all things pink and girly!!  Happy birthday Mambers!  I am so thankful that you are my little girl!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Evan!!

 Today our sweet Evvy Miester turned 4 years old!!  He had a great day!  It started off by making pumpkin muffins and getting to see and talk to Grandma on the phone.  After that, we went and got Evan a special birthday donut from the actual donut store!!  What a treat!  He thought that was so fun!!!  We then headed over to Toys-R-Us to spend the birthday dollars that he had gotten from Grandma and Grandpa W in the mail.  When we first got there, as soon as we were walking in, a nice man at the store asked Evan if he wanted a balloon.  Of course he did!  He picked a blue one and the nice man wished him a happy birthday.  He wore that balloon all day long!!!!  He loved it!  He then got to walk all around the store looking for the perfect thing to buy with his dollars.  He decided on a very cool, big garbage truck that he has had his eye on for quite some time.  He always heads straight to it when we go to the toy store.  He told all his siblings that "it took all my dollars, but that was okay because I love it!!!"  He requested a no nap day today, so being the softie that I am, I obliged.  :)  He was beyond thrilled to get to stay up and watch a show on TV and then get to read lots of stories while Katelynn slept.  He couldn't wait till his brothers and Daddy got home so that he could open his presents.  Daddy got home early, so he was so excited when it was finally time to open those presents!!!

 He chose to open Weston's present first.  Weston had gotten some money from getting our neighbors mail and paper a while back and knew just what he wanted to get Evan.  With Daddy's help, he found the perfect Pokemon cards to get for Evan on Ebay.  Weston knew that he would like them, and he was right!!  Evan loved them.  Weston always takes extra time with Evan, and so Evan loves everything that Weston does.  

 He was so excited about his "cool fire lion that does stuff like Pikachu" as well as the other special cards that Weston picked out for him.  Evan carried those cards around the entire rest of the day!!

 Next he wanted to open Brian's present.  Brian went and got all the rest of the change he had in his piggy bank and made a fun card for Evan.  It was really sweet.  Then he also taped some of his favorite pez candy in it and a toy dinosaur that he knew Evan would like!

 I thought that this one was especially sweet of the two boys.  Brian is showing Evan the card and Evan was laying his head on Brian's shoulder.  (The no nap thing was catching up to Evan by this point.)  All the kids picked out something for Evan at the dollar store.  Brian got Evan a cool wiggly worm.  :)

 Aaron's turn was up next.  Where one boy leads, usually the others follow.  Aaron decided to tape money in his card too since Brian had.  :)  Aaron drew Evan an alien smiley face out of birthday candles on the front of Evan's card.  (Those were his words to describe it, not mine!)  :)

 Then he opened his own big box of crayons!!  Evan was so happy about this, especially since we have been doing "homework" every day at home.  I always enjoy doing a home preschool with my kids when they are this age.

 Next up was Amber.  Since Amber had lost another tooth since Aaron's birthday, she had more money to give away!!  :)  And once again, she gave all of her money to her brother.  I don't know how I got such sweet kids!!  By this point, Evan was really pretty tired, even though it was only 5.  It shows in the pictures.  He was not quite his usual smiley self.  Oh well.  It is fun to have a special treat of staying up sometimes.  :)

 Amber got Evan a fun present, but we had to wrap it up in a corney dog box!  :)  Evan wasn't sure about that.

 He did think that the dinosaur hat that Amber got him was pretty cool though!!

 There are certain advantages to having lots of siblings.  It means that you get to open lots of presents on your birthday! :)  Then came the time to open the presents from Mommy and Daddy.  Evan loved his new fishing pole!  He can't wait to go and try it out!!!

 He had been asking for this Thomas umbrella for quite some time now!!  He LOVED it!!!

 We then had Evan favorite dinner of pizza and grapes!!  :)  Weston had some friends joining him for scouts tonight, so we waited on the cake and ice cream till we got back from that.  While we were at the toy store today, I saw these cute little trains that were perfect for my train boy to go on his cake, so I got them!  He had dinosaur candles too!  Since he loves both things, it was a perfect cake for him!

 Whether it be candles or trains, you just have to lick them off after you blow out the candles!!!  It's just tradition!!!!

 A fun night was had by all!!

 Oh yeah, I had to include a picture of our Katie Lynn from present time.  She was happy on the blanket and smiling away at Brian!

Love my little sweet pea girl!!

I am so thankful for my train loving, block building, sand playing, book loving, cooking, firecracker of a little boy!!  I love his sweet blonde hair and loving smile.  He is such a joy to me!  He was hard work as a toddler, but has been such a joy to me!!  He is a good boy and so kind and loving.  I am so thankful for all the good one on one time that I had with him over the last school year.  He and I both benefited so much from our time together.  I am thankful to have his sweet little spirit in our home!!  I love him to pieces!!  Happy birthday my little Evvy Miester!!  I hope this year is your best one yet!!  We love you!

Serpent mounds

We woke up first thing on Monday morning and ate breakfast.  We opened the windows to try to let some cool air in (although we weren't very successful- it was very muggy and not too terribly cool) before we left on our adventure for the day.  It took about an hour and a half to drive out to the mound.  It was interesting to read the plaque and see how this place was made a historical monument in something like 1885.  Pretty cool.  Once we got there, we climbed a big tower so that we could over look the serpent mound.

The thing curved around either way as you looked down.  The tower that you climbed up was kind of like the towers that they use for marching band only just slightly bigger.  Our family filled most of the standing room up there.  :)

After we looked at the over look, we walked around the big snake.  It is only about as high as Evan, so not all that tall.  From there, we took a hike down a ravine to a creek close by.  There really wasn't much else to do there, so after looking around for an hour and half or so, we loaded back up and headed home.  We saw a sign on the way for home grown watermelons and tomatoes and since the majority of our garden served to feed the deer and rabbits this year, we decided to stop and check it out.  It was a few miles off the main road.  We got a big watermelon for $1.25, and 20 lbs of canning tomatoes for $10.  Up here in the part of the country there are lots of Amish people.  On the way back down the small road, we saw 3 teenage Amish girls out riding scooters together.  We passed one of their houses where we could see the buggy that one of the families used parked in a shed.  Kind of cool.  We headed back home, and stopped at the international market, Jungle Jim's since it was on the way home.  We came home to find that our house hadn't gotten nearly as warm that day since it had been all closed up with the curtains closed while we were gone.  It only got to 82 inside.  I took the bigger kids swimming while Barth kept Katelynn at home.  :)  We had a grand time and got nice and cool to come home and go to bed!  Overnight we had a cool front come though!!!  Thank goodness!  Today was much nicer.  We had the AC repair guy out this morning.  He said that we had a leak in the line, so he repaired it with some sealant.  Since we had almost no coolant left in our unit, he filled it all the way back up!  It wasn't cheap, but I am glad to have it all fixed back up!!!  Today was such a nice day that we didn't even need the air.  It is supposed to get warm again this weekend, so I am sure that I will be glad that we got it fixed.  The days are coming to a close when we will need the air conditioning though.  Fall is just around the corner here!  And that means that it is time for birthday season here at our house!!!  :)

Hot

Sometimes, when the AC goes out, and it's 85 in the house, with 99% humidity (literally-no exaggeration here), the best place to sleep is in the basement because it is a few degrees cooler down there. Tomorrow we are heading out first thing to go see the serpent mound in Ohio. Might as well get out of the hot house as much as possible. Hoping that Tuesday gets here fast so we can get our AC fixed as quickly as possible. Ninety degrees with 90% humidity is just plain yucky!