William's Tooth

William lost his first tooth! He has now joined the missing tooth club.  We seem to have teeth falling out constantly around here.
He is such a goofy little guy that is was hard to get a picture of his missing tooth.

 Nice smile but I can't see the gap...Then he put his fingers in his mouth to try to move his lip out of the way and of course all I could see was fingers.

 you can see the hole in this one

 Being goofy but I think you can still see the gap.

He is growing up!

Juliette

Wow!  15 years old.  Hard to believe.  We were very happy to celebrate 15 years with our Juliette.

Russ was back to work this week so we got up to eat breakfast with him and he surprised us by joining us for lunch.  I know Julie appreciated that.

We had a special breakfast, followed by presents scattered throughout the day.  We enjoyed looking through old Julie scrapbooks and having a relaxing morning.  We met the Carpenters at Chik Fil A for lunch and then came back home and just hung out.  Julie wanted a nice relaxing day for her birthday.  Thank you God for blessing us with Juliette and for allowing us to watch her mature into such a wonderful young woman!

 Decorations!

 Apple spice Dutch Babies for breakfast.

 Looking at Baby Julie!

 Presents

We love you!!

Surprise

On our way back home from Biloxi, we had an opportunity to drive my Grandparents to a friend's house in Prattville, AL.  We had fond memories of a park we always played at when we would visit them, so we took the kids there for one last time to get out wiggles before finishing out drive home.

As we enter the park, a girl runs by me and it looks like my cousin's daughter (who lives in FL and I haven't seen them in 4 years).  I yell out her name and sure enough it is her!  We track down her mom and my cousin with her 3 kids in there and my aunt and uncle are on their way too.  It was truly a blessing arranged by God for us to meet up at this park.  I know it will be talked about for years to come.

 Cams and Akira, only a few months apart.

 Emily and Jayde (don't know if I spelled it right) a year apart

 Kal-el and Logan a few months apart

 trying to get a group kid pic

 boys!!!

 ok now its the girls!!

 everyone look at the camera!!!

 oh which camera? there were only like 4!! :)

 Now everyone attack Ashley with goodbye hugs.

 What a wonderful surprise ending to our trip.

On the road to MS

While waiting for Russell's new job to start, we thought it would be a good time to visit my grandparents down in MS.  The kids were very excited to get a chance to see Grandpa and Grandma Peterson again.  The drive went very well and didn't seem too long.

It was so good to see them and we also got to see my Uncle Mike and Aunt Susan who we had not seen in quite some time.  Their son, Chris, was there and we got to meet his son.  It had to be a quick trip but it really was lots of fun.  We enjoyed hearing lots of stories from Grandma, and getting to see their new house. 

Another special part of going down there was driving through Ocean Springs, Gautier, and Pascagoula.  This was were Russ was first stationed after we were married.  We showed the kids were we used to live, where I worked, and other fun things we could remember from the towns.  I think we enjoyed that more than they did though.

We took a little tour of the Biloxi visitor center, and a nice park on the beach.  It was a very nice trip.

 Cozy on the drive.

 The beach park.

 Playing checkers with Grandma at the Visitors Center.

Jackets

We found some cool new jackets for the boys.  The hood becomes a mask. We know they will get lots of enjoyment from these.

AWANA

The kids have enjoyed AWANA for several years and really wanted to continue here in AL.  We found a church close to home that offers the program.  Camie is in her last year of TNT, Truth and Training. She is looking forward to earning her Timothy award this year.

 Game time!

 She made it to first!

 Now on third.....

 And HOME!! Yay Camie!!

 Crazy hair night.

 Indoor game time.

 Snack and verse saying time.

Singing at the end of group time.

Art Lessons

Juliette has been enjoying her art lessons this year.  I am grateful that Russ has been able to do art with the kids off and on throughout the years.  Once he starts back to work I hope he will still have time to do lessons once in awhile.

Dublin Park

For Rylee's birthday we met at a new park, Dublin Park.  I think it is destined to be a favorite of ours.

 It is a wooden park with a Fairy Tale theme.

Thank you Rylee for letting us share your birthday with you.

Car Wash

The kids were excited to be able to help wash the van again.  We were not allowed to wash our van at our house in CA.  Going to a car wash is not near as much fun as washing it yourself.

I think they kids had fun...and the van was mostly clean too. :)

Homeschool Group

Our base offers a homeschool group.  They do P.E. in the gym, have arts and crafts, and they do some computer activities.  They will offer field trips throughout the year too.  We decided to give it a try.  Will is too young, you have to be 6 and up.  There aren't many older girls in the group so Julie may not go all the time.  Camrynn, Logan and Emily seemed to really enjoy it and want to continue.

Canning!!

I ordered about 60 lbs of fruit from Azure Standard so I could preserve some.  I won't be able to order every month so I wanted to be able to save some for later use.  They were out of apples so I didn't get my 40 lbs. of apples.  My pears, nectarines, and peaches kept me busy.

I bought some apples so we could make pear/applesauce.  We also made a ton of pear/apply jelly from all the cores and peels.  I canned some spiced pears, nectarine jam, peach butter, apple/pear sauce, orange marmalade, and some spiced peach butter.

 Julie getting started on apples and pears.

 Camrynn made the marmalade.

 It was fun to have my three girls all working together in the kitchen.  We were joined shortly by all the Carpenter girls too. 

 Getting the marmalade cooking.

 Kiddos playing while we were working.

 Blending the apple/pear sauce.

 Getting it in the jars.

 We did the processing outside so the stove wouldn't be too crowded and because of the heat.  It worked very well.

 Part of the bounty.

 We continued for about 3-4 days doing some canning.  My pantry looks great!

It was a fun day! I can not wait to do more next year and hopefully get a pressure canner so I can do vegetables.