a family outing & exersaucer AJ

Went to the Hardee County animal refuge today...saw ostriches, cougars, a sea otter....and Alice. Alice is the alligator that was being fed raw chicken legs at feeding time. We got caught in an afternoon shower...but the kids had a blast nonetheless! I can't believe I have five children.
AJ in her exersaucer a little less than 3 years ago...

AJ in the twin's exersaucer a couple weeks ago. :)

We've come a long way!!!

artsy palm tree!

anna and i went driving around trying to find a place to take a picture of her with some florida plants for her fundraising picture....while we were at a lady in the church's yard i got this shot of a palm tree. pretty cool, eh? today at church we had our fifth sunday potluck supper after the service. the women's committee of the church bought school supplies for the 5/6 kids in the church and put them on the tables as table decorations....after we ate the kids got to go "shopping" for their school supplies! it was a really creative way for the kids to be ministered to and they had a blast going down their lists and picking out what they needed. :) just one of the many ways that we are being blessed down here. oh, by the way, i weighed myself with matthias today...it seems that he's hit the 20 lb mark. unbelievable!

the twins

Leighton has been spinning whenever she is put on her back (she only goes in one direction). After figuring that out, we decided to only put Leighton on the right and Matthias on the left in their pack-n-play at night. Otherwise (as the picture shows) she ends up kicking her brother in the face. He doesn't like that very much. :) We'll probably have to separate them at night soon.

Tie-dyed shirts!

Here's a pic for Jenna! We tie-dyed shirts with her before we left Virginia...it was a lot of fun!

Here's what we've been up to!

at my baby shower the twins got a ton of 'matching outfits' that i thought would take forever for them to grow into! here they are in two cute red outfits from my friend, Sue. Check out those roly-poly legs!
Josiah lost his second tooth ever this weekend! He was so proud.
My friend, Jane, spent a night with us this past weekend (our second Virginia visitor!). She treated Anna and I to the movie 'Hairspray' which I would highly recommend. I laughed out loud a lot...it was a very fun movie. John Travolta was hilarious!
Here's my attempt at an artsy photo. Pretty good, eh? I love our camera!

tribute to my hapa-friends

I had wanted to post this picture when I had first taken it (the babies were only a couple weeks old) but, believe it or not, I didn't get around to it. These are my hapa-friends (hapa is a term in Hawaii that refers to -in the case of my kids and my friends- being half asian half caucasian). Emily is on the left and Marie is on the right. I wanted to post a blog about them b/c they were such a blessing to me in my transition year in the 'burg...I truly enjoyed getting to know them and my children loved spending time with them. It's neat how, in different places and times, God gives you just what you need. These friends were His provision for me!

Things that I am thankful for...

my friend, Anna. most of you know that she is living with us until mid-september to help us out at home with the babies and kids and the transition in general. Anna graduated from Covenant Seminary in May and will begin training with Wycliffe Bible Translators in September. She has been a tremendous blessing to our family and to me.

We got new furniture! Kylie is always propping a baby or two up in the corner of the cushions. They love to be in the sitting position.

We have healthy, happy babies! They had their 4 month check up last week... it was confirmed, Matthias is 17#8oz and Leighton is 13#12oz...they got their shots and everything looked good!

When we were moving away from the Shenandoah Valley I was sad to leave the mountains... now that we are here in Florida I am realizing that even though things are so flat it really makes the sky so big and clouds are so beautiful! This isn't the greatest picture....maybe I'll get a chance to take some good ones on another cloudy day.

Here is my shout out to Tabitha for the recipe that she posted.

Here's the recipe cut and pasted from her blog:

SAVORY CRESCENT CHICKEN & BROCCOLI SQUARES ~ from Erin Wood (*** I did add or change a few things but it's still her recipe! )

3 oz. package of cream cheese, softened

2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. milk

1 1/2 cup cooked chicken, cubed

1/2 bag of 10oz frozen broccoli, lightly steamed

1/4 tsp.salt

1/8 tsp. pepper

8 oz. refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

3/4 cup bread crumbs or crushed Ritz crackers

1 Tbs. melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350F.2. Blend cream cheese & butter until smooth. 3. Add next 5 ingredients; mix well.4. Separate crescent dough into 4 rectangles. Firmly press perforations to seal.5. Spoon meat/cream mixture into center of rectangle. Put 4 corners of dough to top center of, twist slightly into a knot, & seal edges. 6. Brush top with melted butter and sprinkle on crushed Ritz crackers.7. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.Makes 4 pastries

I doubled the recipe...used fresh broccolli instead of frozen, and didn't use the bread crumbs or butter on the top. it was delicious and the kids loved it!!

This was AJ's portion the day after her birthday with her pink birthday plates and pink tablecloth. Believe it or not all three of my big kids love black olives on their salads!

our fun saturday!

here are pictures of our three little fish! we were at a friend's pool this morning and i got some pictures of all three of them underwater. kylie and josiah passed the beginner's class and love swimming and diving for objects. aj now loves to jump in the water....after we "catch" her we count to three and push her back towards the wall and she paddles her little feet and hands with her head underwater.

our friend, Mr. Bill, drove 2 1/2 hours one way to come and see us for the afternoon! he got some baby time in and of course the big kids spent some time stomping on his feet (a ritual that happens every time we see him). oh- and we got some 'hungry howie's' pizza for dinner (mmmm...black olives and mushrooms!)

little leighton (and her bro)

our little baby doll!

they continue to not look alike. facial features, coloring, hair, even their personalities are so different. it still is a ton of fun to have these two precious babies!

swimming lessons!

the three kids are taking swim lessons...they started last week and are doing soooo great! the first day they learned to jump in the water, go in and turn around and grab the side of the pool. kylie and josiah are swimming freestyle and jumping off the diving board....aj is going under water with no problem and going off the diving board, too. it's been a bit like boot camp, but they are definitely learning to swim and they're enjoying the water. We are very proud of them.

Misc. and AJ is 3!!!

Another sleeping baby shot. They're sleeping from 8 to 6 or so with one 3 o'clock feeding for Matthias.

I can't believe my little 2lb 13oz baby is three years old!! We celebrated at home yesterday with a waffle breakfast after opening presents and then she chose to do mcd's for dinner. Today we went to Chuck-e-cheese's with our friends, the Weavers, as a semi-celebration, too. She was very excited all day on her birthday...proud to be 3!

Here's our little man. Tom stood on a scale and approximated Matthias to be 17 pounds and Leighton to be 13 pounds. She's still in 0-3 month clothes, but he's wearing up to 12 month outfits!
Here's Kylie with Rohan, Tony and Dianna's dog. She really enjoys using him as a pillow.