60 years!

On Friday, my Grandparents (Granny and Gramps) celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary! On Saturday a lot of the family got together and enjoyed a meal together before a reception in their honor. Here are just a few pictures of the time!

Eli, really enjoyed the meal

Time to talk

Eli was especially helpful when Granny and Gramps began greeting their guests. He walked around with Granny and wanted to shake every ones hand. We thought he might be getting annoying, but they all seemed to love it!

60 Years!

Congratulations Granny and Gramps! We are very proud of you. Ron and I began to think a little about even our 50th, which is actually 40 years away. He's not sure he'll make it (not the being married to me part but living that long :))

Anyway, we are blessed to have 2 people at the core of our family who love the Lord and each other and who the Lord has blessed in marriage for the past 60 years. Thanks for the wonderful example!

Books and Reading

Around here, we like our books.

Sometimes we just surround ourselves with books and read away.

We love it when Grandma reads to us.

Sometimes we read with a friend.

Sometimes we snuggle up close and read.

And sometimes we just sit quietly and read to ourselves!

No matter how we do it, we love to read!

Buckeye Birthday

Last night, as you know, we celebrated Nathaniel's 6th Birthday. He is getting so big. We have a few traditions that we do a birthday time around here. I always make a cake - so far the kids have picked what they want and it has worked okay. Then they get to pick the kind of ice cream too. Nathaniel wanted chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. When I said, "ok, I"ll get Neapolitan" his response was, "NO, I want chocolate, vanilla and strawberry." One last tradition is that the kids can pick their birthday meal!

I'll show you a little of this "Buckeye Birthday" in pictures.

being interviewed by daddy (on camera)

Nathaniel really wanted an IHOP supper. So we decided instead of taking all the time to go to Ft. Wayne we would bring IHOP to us. He had his eggs, sausage and the yummy pancakes with strawberries, bananas and even cool whip.

Then after a couple of little gifts we went outside for the...

Buckeye Bike


Then after many trips around the house on the new bike, we went back in for some Buckeye cake.

As Nathaniel climbed into bed he said that the bike was just wanted he had pictured and that he had a great birthday.

A Gift from GOD!

For those of you unfamiliar with Hebrew...Nathan means "a gift". But, Nathaniel means "a gift from God." Six years ago today Nathaniel came into this world and our family. Our beautiful 8.5lb baby boy was a wonderful baby. He was quiet and took a lot in with those big brown eyes. He loved to watch his big brother and learned so much from him.

Now that beautiful baby boy is becoming a little man. He's much louder but much more handsome as well. He's smarter and much more adorable. He's all boy and yet so sensitive too. He's a beautiful wonderful gift from God!

And he's 6

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NATHANIEL!

WE LOVE YOU!

In Training

Here she is...our Mother in Training! I'm not exactly sure how the cell phone plays into all that, but we'll see!

O-H-I-O

A couple of weeks ago I was distraught. I love my buckeyes but it seemed we would be unable to watch their regular season play, check it out here. But what a difference 2 weeks can make. Ron decided that we could spurge a little and signed us up for a cable upgrade for a couple of months! Gotta love that husband of mine. I guess all the babysitting has come in handy! Whatever it was - I was pumped today.

TODAY, we watch the Buckeyes. OK, so they were only playing Ohio University and should totally blow them out of the water, but we finally get to watch it. YIPEE!!!!!!!!! We were all ready for the 12 noon kick off. The boys had their lunches on the Buckeye trays, it was perfect.

Maddie...well, she is still learning that PB&J is not nearly as important as the Buckeye game. She's got some time. I'm not sure I want her to react like her daddy does during games. Thankfully there was a flag on the the play he is distraught over in this picture and so he was quickly cheering again.
After the PB&J, Maddie thought she would get into the action. Thankfully Ronnie was kind of paying attention to her as she "tackled" while sitting beside him.

The commercials were filled with football plays in the living room. Not sure how they know it's back on, but I got this snapped just in time.

And of course we had to practice our O-H-I-O. Looks like we will need lots of practice this year before we can get these letters looking right and get the coach out of the picture. Come on kids...make us proud!

In case you couldn't tell we had a fun afternoon watching our favorite team. And yes, for those of you yet to purchase the Big Ten Network - they won!

Outside and Boys

This past Monday was a day off for Ronnie and Nathaniel. They were so excited to be able to play outside and have Brett here too. (Brett is the little 4 year old that I babysit for). I actually attempted to take all 7 kids outside. It last for about 45 minutes - I was pretty proud of myself. I didn't get all of them in pictures, but I got a few.

These first 2 seem pretty innocent:
Nathaniel posing...

4 calm boys with ornery looks on their faces.

Then comes the real story. The four of them played an played in this wagon with only 1 minor injury :)

They had a good time and Ronnie wanted to know, "when is our next day off when Brett will be here?"

Pigtails

Pigtails...I knew they were coming, but I'm still not ready! My little girl is big enough for pigtails. That statement alone brings fear into my heart, and not only that, they make her look even bigger. I can tell after only a couple of attempts that it is going to take some practice to figure this hair thing out. I was excited for a little girl, but I knew in the back of my mind that there would be challenges that may never get mastered. I mean really, I can't even get my own hair to look decent, let alone someone else - who doesn't want to be still for me to do it.

So for now, until Maddie can do her own hair, she will have to settle for crooked pigtails that don't look even and don't include all the hair up that they should. The funny thing is despite my crazy attempts at hairstyling, she looks stinking cute and even bigger than her age. Maybe we'll save the practice for another day...or year!

A Visit from Grandpa and Grandma

Grandpa and Grandma Adkins came for the weekend. Of course being the great mom that I am and the wonderful blogger of great pictures (can you sense the sarcasm?) I got tons of pictures, but pretty much right before they left on Sunday. Oh Well, enjoy!

Maddie laughing at pictures of herself.

I love this picture.
Deep in thought with Grandma.

The Browns were playing on TV.

Ronnie wanted to get this picture of 3 Ron's. He said they had to stand in this order too!

Maddie and Grandma rarely get a picture together.

All 4 with Grandma and Grandpa Adkins.

"BYE"

Service in the Park

Yesterday we had a combined Worship Service with Farmer and Ney at the Ney Park. We had 76 people join us for Worship, Food and Fellowship.

After the meal, the kids and "Pastor Ron" took to the field! Despite some minor injuries I think everyone had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the game.

The food was delicious!

The fellowship was good too!

I think everyone had a great time. Although some tired sooner than others! (yes, that's my Maddie. Even being kicked by the newest Ney Member (yet to make his appearance - Christine is due in a month) she still slept!)

All Dressed Up...where are we going?

Maddie likes to play dress up, already! Below she is pictured with Eli's hat and Ronnie's camo bag.

She even looks cute with a baseball cap!
Oh wait...don't forget the shoes!

"When I go back to little"

That phrase, "when I go back to little" has been repeated several times around this house lately. With Maddie being younger and now babysitting younger kids, Eli comments every now and then how when he goes back to little he will do this or wear that or be such and such. I smile every time I hear him say it.

Oh how I wish I could take him back to little! My big boy is growing so fast and in all honesty we will never be able to go back to those days of Eli being little. He's only getting bigger. All by babies are growing and developing and changing! I know that's the idea and I should be grateful that they are developing well and growing normally, but it's so hard not to want to keep them little.

NO, I don't suppose my Eli will ever "go back to little", but I'm thankful he thinks about it and knows that there are things he has left behind in his "baby years".

The Bible says, in I Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." So when we are a new creature in Christ we put away childish things. We change, those things are behind us, not to be revisited, but perhaps to remind us of our past. Our lives without Christ and all the sin that He has saved us from.

How about you? Do you ever contemplate your future or do you think about going "back to little"? As Eli reflects on his time of "being little", we too can reflect on our time before Christ and then Praise Him for His Amazing Grace.