News

We have been having a wonderful summer break!  It's just wonderful having Aria and Nina home with us every morning, and David also has a little break from school! Although he's studying now for exams, he's been around a bit more the last couple of weeks, which is just super!!!

We have not yet mentioned this here, but we are all VERY excited about something!!!  We are expecting another little baby!  Lord willing, our little ones' arrival will be sometime mid-January. We just told our kids several weeks ago, and they are SO excited!!!

"Behold, children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward." Ps. 127:3  (NASB)

Well, what have we been doing over summer break? 

No, we are not planning on going on a vacation anywhere. (For David and I, traveling and sleeping somewhere overnight away from home, would NOT be a vacation!!!)  But, we are trying to do some special things with the kids during the next few weeks.

Recently, we took a day trip to a local amusement/animal park. The kids all really enjoyed it! (And I only got this not-so-good picture of some of the kids in the caged-in "monkey train".)

One needs to paint their toenails in summer, don't you think?

One night, we all slept out on our balcony! (Well, the younger three stayed up a bit past their bedtime, and then were tucked into their own beds. :D)

We went to a nearby sea for a day with David's sister and her family.  Madelynn loved playing in the sand... and eating!!!

Oh, and something perhaps not-so-fun, but oh so necessary... we've been potty-training the twins. Potty-training, otherwise known as "patience training for mommies" in my book. Goodness. The laundry had multiplied those first couple of days. I'm telling you, mil-ti-plied!

The first couple of days, H & H pretty much hated that little potty they were to sit on (even though they've been sitting on it for the past 6 months on and off!)  And oh, they despised their underwear. It didn't matter how pretty they were, they wanted their beloved diapers back! That first day, by 10am, I wanted to give up. It didn't matter to me if the twins wore diapers until they were 6, I was done with this potty training thing!!! I went into our basement, laid on the floor, and in the cool quietness, begged for His help.  Since then, things went so much better, and I can now say, that I really think both H & H are potty-trained! (At least, they both stayed dry all day yesterday and today!) Thank-you, LORD! (We were SO tired of changing diapers!!!)

So far, we've had a relatively mild summer here.  But, the few really hot days we've had, we have really enjoyed.  The younger three really enjoy playing with water and toys outside.

One morning, the kids made a chocolate cake (well, actually it was a Zucchini cake, but they just called it a chocolate cake with vegetables :D).  I then told them they could each invite a neighborhood friend over and have a little tea-party. So that's what they did.

And a trampoline is so much fun with balloons!

These three just really enjoy playing together!

Just thought Heidi looked so cute there, looking at a book.

And just yesterday, we celebrated David's birthday! Happy Birthday, David!  I think that he had a wonderful day! The kids and I had a special breakfast for him in the morning, and his family came over for a grill-out in the evening. 

Tomorrow, David and I are planning on doing something we have not done since Aria was born. As my present for him this year, we are going to go on a 24 hour get-a-way! Just David and I! We are SO excited!  We are splitting the kids between David's mom and aunt, and we will go away, just the two of us (or, technically the three of us :D)! So, so thankful for the opportunity we have to do this!!

Oh, and I had a doctor's appointment on David's birthday, and we were able to find out the gender of our little baby! I'll try to share that in the next post or so... hopefully sometime soon. :)