Sweet To The Soul

This makes my heart so filled with JOY! He learned this prayer from my mom (Mimi) and cousin Eli. He wants to be the one who prays at almost every mealtime. He sings with such passion, although I don't think singing is in his future :).

You probably need to hit pause on my music playlist so that it doesn't
interfere with hearing this precious voice!

This one he is doing it very quietly and repeated the first phrase
over and over... haha he was a little stuck.

Here are the words so you know what he is trying to say:
God Our Father
Once Again
Thank you for our blessings
Ah- Amen!

ENJOY!

A Week With The Browns Minus One

OK- So I think this may be the most pictures I've posted in one time. Sorry - just didn't want to leave any out. My sister Jen and her three kids (Caleb, Josh and Lauren) came to visit last week while her husband, Shaun was taking a sabbatical. We had such a great time together. Family is such a precious gift from God!
We played in the creek, went bike riding, played put-put golf, went to the park, played tennis, went swimming in the lake, went on the boat, went fishing, and went blueberry picking. The kids all had a blast together and were worn out by the end of the day.

Oh, I forgot to mention.... we have TONS of frogs/toads around our house (I HATE them with a passion) and Josh and Caleb LOVE them! So they spent many hours playing with frogs of all sizes. (huge momma ones and tiny baby ones) What more can a boy ask for? I was happy they were taking most of them away from my house!

The new park - Josh and Will in the sand/rock pit.

Caleb and Lauren on the horses.

Eating smores by the campfire one night.

Lauren eating her first smore.... she finished it pretty quickly!

Cute Lauren with her favorite teddy.

Will and I on the boat.

Will and I tubing. It was his first time tubing and he loved it.

Jen and Lauren tubing together. Lauren didn't want to get off.

Lauren swimming with Uncle Josh.... she was a little scared by him and his wacky personality... but she put that aside because he was the only one in the water that time and she wanted to swim.

Relaxing on the boat. It was such a beautiful night.

This is the day we went to the lake to swim in the shallow area.

Will and Lauren in their tubes... they are both saying cheese right now :)!

Love the hair!

Abby with her messy face of snot... yeah gross! She had been sick on and off all week but still was a trooper.

The kids playing in the sandbox by the lake.

Lauren and Will playing ring around the rosie... their favorite thing to do together.

Enjoying the creek.

Josh caught a tadpole and he was showing it to the kids.

Lauren and Will loved going down the slide into the creek.
The water was a perfect temperature.

Abby hanging out on the horse.

Caleb and Josh looking for crayfish, minnows and tadpoles.

Lauren didn't want to touch the rocks with the algae on
them so she was holding herself up for a while.

While Josh and the boys played mini golf, Jen and I walked around downtown Corning and took the girls to see the fountain.

YEAH! Well at least thats what Lauren thinks... Abby not so much.

Abby and I at the lake... she loved it!

Thanks for driving all that way to visit with us. We miss you all already! Love you!!!

Needing a Bath...

ASAP!
We were playing out back near the creek and abby fell on a stick that had been burned in the fire a few days prior so it had soot on it. She didn't get hurt... just very dirty.

Time to get cleaned up.

I Did It Mom!

The current job we are working on with Will is putting his pants on after he goes potty. He is doing SO well with making it to the bathroom but then runs out with a bare bottom. We are trying to show him how to put his shorts back on. Do you think he has the hang of it yet??

Our First and Last ...

family bike ride.
We drove about 45 minutes to the PA Grand Canyon bike trail. It is beautiful...
We put Will and Abby in the pull behind bike trailor and Abby lasted
about 10 minutes. Our trip in total was almost an hour, but Abby cried just about all
of that. So much fun!!! We won't be doing that again for a while. She
is a little too small for that bike trailor - she kept falling onto Will. Will was a
trooper though. He kept saying "this is fun!"

We stopped for an early lunch.

Will found a centipede that he loved.

We watched the horse and buggy go by.

Will kept wanting us to watch him hop on one foot... great entertainment.

And daddy played with the camera.
It was fun for me because I didn't have the kids on the back :).

Too Cute For Words!

Sittin' By the Fire

Last night we had Will's cousins over for a bit. After dinner we headed out to the creek in the backyard and made smores.

Getting the sticks together

Starting things up

Our little firepit! Don't worry, right after
this picture we moved the toys far away.
Especially since we put Abby in that car one
behind so that she couldn't crawl near the fire.

Here is a picture of the clearing.... now that all the weeds and brush
are gone, its nice soft dirt for the kids to play in.

Aiden eating his smore.

Yum

Annie. Nice marshmallow goo on the lips - thats the way to eat it!

This was Will's first smore... he loved it of course.
(since he doesn't get chocolate very often)

The marshmallow roaster, we couldn't let the kids try and
roast any because we only had mini-marshmallows
on hand...so Josh had to roast them all, very carefully!


These are the steps Josh just started digging in the dirt so that
we don't have such a hard time walking down the steep bank.

The boys floating in the creek.

And ending up muddy messes!

What more could a boy want than to be covered in mud?!

The bath tub looked real pretty after they were done...