Attack on my camera!

I think this one's pretty funny. It shows a bit of his "jabber." Kent comments often that he babbles in complete sentences. It really does sound like it.

Spring Wedding

We took a trip to Arkansas for a family wedding in March. What a beautiful time to visit! The children enjoyed helping out with wedding appetizers... taking pictures of the spring daffodils
cuddling with five new little puppies
and enjoying lots of cousin time

Alyssa's 18!

Alyssa celebrated her 18th birthday this month. She's finishing up PSEO classes through a local college and plans on attending Harding this fall. We visited the Harding campus this spring and it was a lot of fun. (It brought back the whole college experience to mind. It's priceless!) It's a beautiful campus (my first time being there) but it didn't seem overwhelmingly huge like some larger college campuses I've visited. We're excited for Alyssa's new path and pray for God's guidance in her first exciting year away from home. She plans on studying pharmacy.

Singing the "big brother tune"

Levi's going to take on a new job - big brother. We think this little family member might be coming in November. That might explain a little why I haven't been blogging much lately. I'm sleepy once it hits 2:30 in the afternoon and I stay that way until bedtime! So I try to get to bed early. Nighttime was when I managed to do most my blogging. I'm hoping to get back on here a little more regularly.

Kent left today for a work weekend up at camp. We had all planned on going but we had a conflict of schedules so the rest of the crew is home.

In the soup pot

Okay...we were walking through the Mall of America and I saw this idea for a photo shoot. Only difference was the model baby had a chef's hat on. I don't own one and thought the pot idea was still a clever one. So if I must make this clear...baby Levi is the chef, not a cute ingredient. Someone thought it sounded weird that I was taking pictures of my baby in a soup pot...until they heard the whole story. It was quite fun.This one "happened" when my backdrop man's arms got conveniently tired at just the moment I snapped the picture. DJ found it to be quite hilarious and, surprisingly enough, so did Levi. Those two!

Racecars

This race car cake for DJ's 6th birthday was a joint project...or should I say, a project for three. Kent made my rectangle and square chocolate cakes actually look like the shape of a race car. I concocted the bright yellow frosting (Can I say it looks absolutely inedible to me? DJ kept saying it was the best part!). DJ supervised the little extra touches - like his picture on the driver's side and Levi's picture on the passenger side, the number "6" above his side and the number "0" above Levi's side. His explanation: Levi is zero. I guess 10 months doesn't count toward much. (Don't look to closely. We weren't going for perfection - just perfect enough for a six year old; the goal was to have it decorated completely before Levi woke up from his morning nap!) We had Grandpa Stacy and Grandma Carol over for a celebration of this special little (or not-so-little anymore) boy! What a joy he is and every day I'm so thankful to be his mommy!

Rugged camping

DJ and Daddy did some great camping this past weekend in celebration of DJ's 6th birthday. Their spot was well-chosen with few bumps on the ground. They camped beside a beautiful stream full of fish and had lovely pine trees full of birds (even snakes) surrounding their campsite. Their adventurous evening (watching a movie about cars) ended with S'mores. The marshmallows roasted nicely for about 30 seconds before removing from the microwave. I had a lovely evening talking on the phone to my Grandma and doing my Walmart run while my boys braved a winter camp-out.