The Blanket People

Have you heard of them before?  Quite curious looking, I must say.  Three of them came for a visit today and all in "stair step" sizes, too!

They have quite large feet for their diminuitive height....

Surprisingly, they can walk in them pretty good and they for sure know how to strike a pose to show off said feet.

The best part is, they are very helpful.  Emptying the dishwasher, setting the table and even vacuuming as of late!

Summer Recap

Anybody out there? We've been a tiny bit...make that ALOT absent in our bloggy home! With good excuse though :)
We relocated our real home from beautiful mountains to the sunny south. The dust still hasn't completely settled, but God has still been showing Himself faithful to us through this transition time!! Most of our things are still in the boxes waiting to be unpacked.....

We left our handprints and a chunk of our hearts behind......

Before leaving PA, we squeezed in as much family and friend time as possible! The cousins were in town so we made an attempt at a Grandparents/kids picture. Nana purchased all the matching outfits for the kiddos :)

Aunt Jess was a huge help packing up our house (THANKS!) and lovin' on three of her nieces....

I just love this picture of Jaron's grandparents with the girls!! They are sweet people. Grandpa calls the girls his "Dollies" and Grandma usually has a twinkle in her eye!

The church threw a surprise going away party for us...unfortunately I don't have any pictures of that. I need to get some emailed to me. We also went to Hardings for mini-golf and ice-cream with the youth group. It was fun and bittersweet and now I'm regretting not getting a group picture!!

I did get a picture with one of my best friends, Vonda :) We have laughed, cried, commiserated, schemed and planned...and boy do I miss her!!!

We also spent a week in NY at our church youth camp. One of the days Vonda and I took our girls to Otsiningo Park! We ate lunch first and then hit the playground. The girls had a blast! We wore them out good ;) while I tried not to think of how this wouldn't be happening for a long time....

It also happened to be Katrina's 6th birthday so we were celebrating that too. (Pictures to come from her party!)

Can you tell we were trying to fit in last minute fun things? HA One of those things was blueberry picking. Another good friend, Nellie joined my MIL, the girls and I for that!

When we got to Uncle Bud's farm, we found out that Pastor Byer, Jeffrey and Janessa were already there :) The kids enjoyed playing together, running in and out of the blueberry rows!
I tried to get a decent picture of the four of them, but you can see that I wasn't very successful :)

I did manage to get a good one of Jeffrey :)

After picking blueberries, we took our picnic lunch to Roadside Rest, filled our tummies

and dipped our toes in the cool, mountain water :)

A few days later my parents flew in to town and helped us move. Dad and Jaron drove a 26ft Penske Truck with a Uhaul trailer attached (yeah, we have a lot of stuff, apparently!) and Mom, the girls and I drove the Jeep. I should have taken pictures of our "caravan", but really just couldn't bring myself to do it. Our 'travels' went well and without mishap!

That pretty much wraps up our VERY eventful summer .... we'd love to have you stay tuned for this new chapter we have started :)

First. Second. Third.

First.

We are moving! Wow, huh!?! Now you know why the 'ole blog has been quite sporadic. And will continue to be for a little while. Until the 'dust' settles.
We are excited about this new chapter and also sad about ending this current chapter. But, most of all we want to do the Lord's will! So if you think of it, would you send up an extra little prayer for us as we go through this transition time? It would be much appreciated!!

Second.

Amongst all this 'moving stuff' we have been squeezing in little bits of fun here and there. One of our favorite family activities is going to tractor pulls. Some of the trucks and tractor are noisy and loud, so the girls wear foam ear plugs; like the ones you see Courtney wearing. When I got ready to take this picture, she put her hands under her chin and just 'cheesed away'.

Jaron's uncle pulled a tractor that belonged to a friend of his. Unfortunately he didn't get that far - the clutch went out.

These next pictures are of one of my "favorite" pullers (pullee?), George. He has several tractors he pulls, this one is called The Big Moose. This guy has been pulling for years and really knows what he's doing! We first met him, when we rented from his ex-wife. Here he is just gettin' ready to start down the track. He always puts off an impressive smoke display. We've seen him blow smoke rings or fire right out of the stack and sometimes bring the two front wheels right up off the ground as he takes off!

In this picture he was passing 150 feet. The weight in the sled was completely to the front and he was still going strong!

still goin'.....

See the "Full Pull" sign?

Made it!! Past 300 ft!!

Third.

Benji was able to stay over for a weekend - that was a real treat! He helped Jaron and we stayed up WAY too late!! Just like old times! HA
The girls were just THRILLED to see him! and even more thrilled when he helped them catch fireflies! We put Courtney to bed then the rest of us went outside to catch bugs, yeah sounds like fun, huh ? Really it was pretty neat! Just something magical about a bunch of little twinkling lights on a cool summer evening!

and now...back to the boxes :)

5 more pages

The girls and I have been reading through this children's classic and yep, we just have 5 more pages before we're done! They have really enjoyed this and it's a great length for a continued story for them.

Tomorrow after we finish the last page, I have a coloring page for them that I printed off from here. Unfortunately I don't have any carrots in the house, but I do have celery. So we'll find out if they like celery - raw that is and I'll probably glob on some peanut butter for them :)
What have you been reading this summer?

Berry Pickin'

Nothing says summer like fresh-picked berries!!

Katrina, so excited over berries - she can't keep her eyes open :)

To say Courtney enjoyed herself would be a major understatement!! She had berry juice dripping from just about everywhere :)

We asked Nana to come with us....

...and we're glad she did!

Katie and Courtney looked so cute walking among the rows, until I brought the camera out and then Courtney quickly changed her mind. hmmm...

We picked off of the twelve rows that were .75 per lb. that day. We had to do the berries up right away, but there wasn't a thing wrong with them!! They were so yummy and juicy and warmed from the sun. I guess you get the idea!

The weather was a little nuts for June. First we almost didn't go because it looked like rain. I was glad I'd brought our jackets, it was cool and windy and we ended up needing them! All in all we had a really great time! and at least we weren't sweatin' to death! HA

and we sure are enjoying the Strawberry freezer jam! YUM, YUM!!

good times

We have had quite a bit of family visiting this summer :) Steve and Ang and their boys came up for a weekend. We always enjoy spending time with them! and most every time we get together fishing is involved :)

Katie's first catch - a Sunny. I have a picture almost identical to this of Katrina's first catch!

Steve and the boys trekked to the other side of the pond for a little bit...

Ang can cast pretty good :)

It was also opening day of Bass - between Jaron and Katrina we brought home 4 bass!

Don't they look cute?

Katie caught 3 sunny's, one right after the other. She was pretty excited about that :)

"My" little hummers

One of my 'simple pleasures' is watching "my" hummingbirds. I first put out feeders three years ago and have been hooked ever since!!
For the longest time I've been meaning to get my camera out there and take some shots of these winged wonders and finally I took the time to just do it!!

I have two hummers that come very frequently and are best enemies!! They WILL NOT feed together they are constantly buzzing the other away from the feeder. They have provided us with lots of entertainment!

I was SUPER pleased to get these next two shots! Since they are best enemies I didn't think I would be able to get them both in the same frame!!! and relatively clear, too!

This year I was hoping to "add" another hummer. I know this may sound silly, but I actually prayed about it and not many days later a 3rd little hummer showed up at my feeder!!! (Thank you Jesus for caring about my simple prayers!) He hung around for a few days and I was able to get the three of them fighting over the feeder, unfortunately they are all blurry :(

This little guy prevailed over all the fighting that day! He would hover over the feeder keeping the other two away or he would rest in the foilage below the feeder.

I'm still trying to figure out what kind of hummingbird he is. The other hummer has a ruby-throat, but this one is white. Need to do more research! :)

He turned around a few times and I was able to get a back shot of his pretty colors. It was more towards dusk, so his plumage doesn't show up that well.

We also have other birdie friends that we enjoy watching on the feeders or in the bird bath. How about you? Do you have any fine feathered friends?