Oh Baby!

 In a brief 'interruption' from catching up on posts...  I'm an Aunt again! 

Derek's brother and wife had a beautiful baby boy on August 24th.  

Mason Timothy Mleynek

(6lbs 10oz, 21in)

Hey look, an actual current photo on my blog!  We hit the road on Aug 27th to spend Labor Day weekend in Kansas, so we stopped in Kansas City and got to meet this new little guy.  It makes us happy.  :)

Very happy.

Actually the boys were way more entertained by Uncle Ty's fish pond than they were by their new cousin.  That's okay, more baby snuggles for me!

It was great to see Tyler and Lauren, and meet Mason!

We're in Wichita now and I got to kiss sweet Alexa's cheeks too!  

More to come later on this trip! (of course.)

Fishing for Snails

Our one year anniversary of moving into our house came on July 27th.

(Yep, another month has passed since then!)

So, in celebration, we took a photo in front of the house after church.

Then Miles had a nap... but when he woke up, he immediately got 'dressed' to go fishing.

It was a beautiful evening for fishing.

But it did require more clothes than Miles originally tried to leave with...

He was dressed properly and fishing in no time though.

The fish evaded us on this night though.  The only thing caught...

 (Miles actually reeled in this leaf and saw the snail on it)

Besides Cooper's stick...

Were snails.

He had a pile of them going on the dock but then accidentally stepped on and crushed them. 

Daddy helped him collect a few more hard to reach snails. 

And by the time we left, three snails went with us.

(But only one made it out of the car.  We don't know where they are!) 

A bad night fishing (snail collecting) is better than good night doing most other things.

Jude

Some of you may already know the story, but a family at our church have a three year old, Jude, that was involved in a lawn mower accident in June.  Jude is Miles' age and in his Sunday School class.  Jude lost his left leg just below his knee and his right foot in the accident.

So many of you that don't even know them have reached out and encouraged them and prayed for them.  Thank you!  I got to deliver a package of sweet notes from the kids at my parent's church.

Because her kids were asking what they could do to help, another friend at church organized a bake sale fund raiser for the kids to take part in.  A handful of families showed up to help out.

 The kids manned the tables.

And sold lemonade.

And cookies.

All on a donation basis.

They spent a couple hours pushing lemonade.

Or sometimes playing in the backyard. 

Or entertaining babies.

But they all took shifts at the selling table.

When we decided to shut it down, there was much celebration when the kids were told the tally came to just over $1000!!! 

So proud of these kids and their hearts to help out.

(And thanks to Erin for organizing!)

There were some unsold items left, so next the kids had a treat. :)

...my Grandma sent a donation in the mail too.

Again, thanks to our friends and family that have reached out to and prayed for our friends, Team Hill!  You can read more about them and Jude's story on their caring bridge site:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/judenolanhill

Jude is healing well and they're trying to adjust into a life of new normals. (They homeschool and started that again this week.) Jude has also started the process of getting his "special feet".  I know they would appreciate you continued prayers.

VBS Program

There was a closing program the Friday of VBS week.  All the parents were invited and the kids got up front and sang a few of the songs they'd been singing during the week.

My boys love VBS songs.  We still have and listen to the last two year's CD's occasionally, and we're still going strong with this year's every time we get in the car.

I won't complain about my kids singing about how they want to be like Jesus.

I love the message of the songs and am glad they've learned them.

Really though, the highlight for the kids that night was someone was getting slimed!  There were teams during VBS and the team that raised the most offering (going towards buying soccer balls for our Sports Friends missionary friend's in Zambia)

 The team that won chose Cameron, who is our life group leader.  Miles was happy about he outcome, he actually cried when someone suggested Miss Jess might get slimed! :)

We finished the evening with cookies, lemonade and coffee.  Mmmm!

In closing, check out the VBS wrap up video Derek put together with some fun shots of our fun week!  Played to the theme song.  Beware: Tune sticks in your head!

Apple Orchard

I guess because we weren't busy enough the week of VBS...  :)  We agreed to meet a group of friends at Tanner's Apple Orchard Friday morning.  It was rainy so it ended up being just us and Downings.  I asked the boys to pose with this man while we waited for the rest of our group.  They were hesitant and didn't agree that it looked like their Daddy.

They preferred killing time watching the fish in the pond.

Once the rest of our friends were there, we grabbed our free donuts.  Yep, free apple cider donuts (and coffee!) because it was opening week.

Then we headed outside to check out the animals.

Miles begged to get in there and hold a chicken. 

But settled for feeding goats.

We headed to the playground where all those boys climbed around on a pirate ship.

And I joined Miles on a see-saw.

He climbed on this swing and declared,

"I'm riding a goat!".

And then said his favorite thing about this place was tether ball.  Huh? :)

We hit the hay bale maze.

And explored the train car.

And squeezed in a quick trip up the climbing wall before it started really raining.

At that point we gave up and headed for home.

It had been busy, this guy had a nap to help re-energize. 

It was a short and fun time spent at Tanners.

...and we were really on in it for the free donuts!