WALKING OUR BABIES

I took some pictures a few weeks back of Amelia pushing her doll in the stroller when I was taking Cecily out for a walk in her stroller.I was initially inspired to take her picture because she reminded me of some of my childhood photos when I had pony tails.
Does she look a little like me?

We couldn't go for a real walk on the road because the boys were busy playing a baseball game on the field with some neighbors and Peter was at a meeting. We walked around the field instead.

There's my baby!

I liked her expression here.

Lovely summer evenings with the girls.

JULY GAMES AND FELLOWSHIP

Games and Fellowship for the month of July was hosted at our house. I took some pictures of the evening. First is Millie, wondering when the eating/drinking part is ever going to get started.She kept hiding behind her doll.
And then peeking out. :)
The men, kids and young adults all played games on our field. I think they played wiffle ball and several others. I only got a picture of some of the young ladies sitting on the sidelines and watching.

We ate out on the deck and in the backyard.

The kids mixed in some play on the swingset.

Good conversation as usual.

This is Evan Falkenstein and his fiancee, Kellen.

Joseph Moss tried hard to avoid pictures, so I had to include this one. He was home, briefly, from Westpoint.

Our last church event with the Stedmans. (Josh is holding the football). We all felt a little sad that evening.

After dinner we ran some extension cords up to the field so we could play music and do some dance practice.

We especially wanted the children to have a chance to learn some of the dances that we would be doing at Matt and Tricia's wedding.

Titus Stedman fell asleep on Mrs. Carpenter's knees. It was really cute.

Yeh Ern Poh so nicely sat with Jonathan Oldland so that his parents could dance and he also ran the CD player.

Mr. and Mrs. Oldland doing some of their first dancing!

John and Sarah Moss, on the right, called the dances (John) and showed us all how to do it. It was very hot and sweaty, but TONS of fun for everyone!

I took a short video of a portion of the Pattycake Polka where all of the children were involved. Everyone got a kick out of Millie's attempts at the dancing. It's brief, but it'll give you the idea.

WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE...

From a discussion during laundry folding this morning:

William: a farmer

Ben: I don't know. Wait, I think I'll be a man who goes around and tells people about God.

Cal: You know. I want to be a fire engine man. Well, first I'll be a fire engine man then I'll be a...chimpanzee! (Peter says, "Reverse evolution.")

Sam: Ichthyologist (fish scientist)

Peter: an author :)

Julie: a grandmother of at least 50!

A WELCOME VISIT

Peter's sister, Leslie, recently came up from Mississippi with her husband, John, to visit us. They stayed over a Saturday and Sunday. Naturally, we celebrated the Lord's Day on Sunday and we took them on a driving tour of Morgantown in the evening. Since Saturday was our only other day with them, we decided to keep it simple and do a picnic lunch at Cooper's Rock instead of traveling to Pittsburgh to do something. We, of course, showed them the lookout and then ate lunch at the picnicing area. Last, we went for a good hike. We took Rattlesnake Trail, which was moderately steep and rocky. We enjoyed it, but perhaps would have been glad for some bug spray. Here are a few pictures from the Saturday picnic and hike.
Aunt and Uncle with the nieces and nephews.

Climbing on rocks by the parking lot.

Mmmm...food always tastes better outside.

Millie wants to do everything the boys are doing. Occasionally a little help is needed!

Thanks, Aunt Leslie!

At the end of Rattlesnake Trail we found this cabin.

Kids in cabin. :)

After the cabin, we took a trail that said it went to Rock City. We're not sure we ever really found Rock City, but these rock walls were pretty amazing.

There's lots here to climb on and explore.

And tunnel-like crevices to go through.

We so enjoyed seeing John and Leslie again and appreciated their desire to visit this big family. The kids really enjoyed the time with them as well. We wish we weren't quite so far away. Hopefully, we'll be visiting Mississippi at Thanksgiving and it won't be long before we're together again.

EATING CHEERIOS

I realize that videos of babies eating Cheerios are not all that interesting to everyone. You almost have to be the mother or grandma to care. So, ignore this video, guilt-free, if you are not related to Cecily or just don't care! :-)

WHUT A WORLD! BY WILL JONES

We were checking on the toads one morning and we could not find Teddy! We found him on Turks head!(Turk is a big toad are naber gave us)Turk sat very still so Teddy would not fall off.

Turk and Teddy liked echother alot(Now they are both in toad heaven)Sam was mowing and he saw a katydid(A katydid is a big grasshopper) We put it in the terrarium .

Jumbo ate it:-)(Jumbo is a toad hwo we got from a different nabor)

ANIMALS,ANIMALS EVERYWHERE ! (post by Samuel from several weeks ago)

We have a terrarium which currently contains two toads. It also holds numerous other bugs which we have caught and deposited over the weeks. When a animal or bug is caught it almost always goes into the terrarium . We named the toads Teddy and Compass. This photo is of Teddy. It was tricky getting a good picture of him.

We caught an extremely large specie of wolf spider and called him Parker.

As you can see Compass is a little bigger than Teddy.

A quick scientific fact,all toads are mildly poisonous,but Teddy's huge cousin,the giant toad is deadly.(Note the poison glands behind Compass' eyes.)

"Hmmmmm,I wonder what that strange flash is?"

We caught this red spotted newt and called him Hercules.

He's quite a good swimmer. : )

Will was mowing our front yard when he nearly ran over a
Garter snake! He got very mad, and started hissing at us. We caught it and called him Fangs the Second.

He's boss over his little tank!