New Find!!

On Friday Micah, Cooper (Micah's best friend), and Jeremiah found 2 deer heads.  They were ecstatic, to say the least!!  On his own, Jeremiah called grandpa Schuldheisz to see if he could help them take off the horns.  Bless his heart - he drove over (w/his grandson, Jacob, Jeremiah's best friend and his grandaughter Lilly - Micah's classmate, as well).  The boys loved watching him saw them off and clean them up a bit...and of course pull out the teeth!

Manual Labor never looked so good!!

This past weekend Rob spent 10 1/2 hours in 95 degree weather working on our yard; on Saturday only.  Bless his heart!  He excavated the front and back yard on Friday evening - pretty quickly too.  Saturday was filled with laying some pipe down and putting in the "hubs" for the sprinkler system.  We were blessed with a couple of friends helping him do that.  Rich spent several in the heat as well.  He is the head guy, for a local company, in the irrigation department.  He volunteered his time and also allowed us to purchase the "equipment" needed for his price - a huge blessing!!  Thank you Rich and Mindy!!

Muscles!!

Jeremiah showing off his finest

Micah showing all he's got

Alayah...not to be outdone

YEAH!! They are "getting" it!!

On our way home from VBS this morning, the boys were pretty much having a brawl in the back of the Suburban.  I told them to go straight to the utility room when we got home (that's where the disciplining takes place at our home).  Things were totally calmed down by the time we arrived at the house, so I told them we would eat first and then talk.  After we ate, I told them they needed to work together - nicely - stacking the wood and then folding the load of laundry in the dryer.  They left and I put the girls to bed.  A bit later, Micah came inside and said he wanted to talk with me.  Off to the laundry room we went.  He said we needed to wait for Jeremiah to come in also.  Once J came in, Micah immediately apologized (very sweetly) for behaving that way in the car - Jeremiah's apology followed.  I felt like crying - to have Micah, so sweetly, apologize "on his own" was huge!!  Thank you Lord that our training is showing itself.  Even little by little is good :)

Aren't they cute??

Grandma Nina bought the girls matching outfits - I love it!

God's Goodness & Peace

Early evening yesterday we experienced God's great peace and faithfulness to our family. We decided to take the kayak to the river and play a bit. After Rob & the boys rowing to the island and back and 2 out of 3 girls having a short ride close to the shore, Rob and the boys decided to practice rowing. The kids have life jackets, but the adults do not...yet. After about 5 minutes practicing rowing, in the middle of the river, the kayak took on too much water. I heard Rob yell to the boys to hang on. I looked over and saw a small amount of the kayak still in the water with them hanging onto it. I called our friend, and other PT - Eric, and asked him what to do. At that point there was no kayak, just 2 boys & daddy quickly floating downstream. I called 911. I never panicked, but was nervous. I knew they would make it to shore, but to have my husband and 2 young boys floating on the river very quickly downstream wasn't pleasant either. They floated very quickly downstream toward the bridge and after 5 minutes were out of sight. I was on the phone w/911 the whole 13 minutes until I was told they were on shore. I was very thankful for the Hispanic family (who spoke a bit of english) that took over taking care of the girls and the husband who helped try to wave down a boat. No boat help out; they thought we were just waving. The boys & Rob were finally able to swim to shore and get out of the water. they went quite a way in the river. No one was hurt; Rob said that Jeremiah was phenomenal and kept saying "I'm OK dad, I'm OK." What a trooper! Micah was pretty nervous a few times, but all kept swimming. After we got into the car (pretty soon after "the event" everyone was totally fine and decided we should go to Sonic for dinner - that was fun! Everyone slept well and God's peace that passes ALL understanding certainly does reign and rule in this family! Praising God for his love and faithfulness to us. We will now pursue wisdom and buy adult life jackets:)

The Weekly Find

OK...so last week as I was sewing for my friend, my boys came in very excited to tell me that they found a dead squirrel. "OK", I said, "put on gloves". So they did. It was just a skeleton with fur on it's tail. They proceeded to pull out the teeth and chop off a leg (w/claws). They had great fun. I let them keep their treasure in a ziploc bag....until dad came home. He's a city guy - it was thrown out the next day. I could kick myself for not taking a picture.
So, this brings us to this week. They found a dead crow. I took pictures this time. They pulled off the head and both legs. It was not "just" a skeleton. It stunk - BAD! I let them keep it anyway...until that night. It's no longer with us. Here they are with Jeremiah's baseball teammate.

Our New Table

This is the table that Uncle Tony & Auntie Leslie had made for us. It is a beautiful house warming present - Thank you Wisdoms!!!

New pictures