handsful

Our “old” friends from NC, the Clade’s, dropped by for a visit.  They were on their way to see family down south, and fit us in their schedule!  Awesome.  We’ve known them for about 15 years, and our oldest kids are less than a year apart.  Val and I learned how to be moms together :)

Speaking of our oldest kids, here Abbey is showing Zack how to work his new Facebook account. 

Interestingly, our youngest kids are also less than a year apart.  Josh and Lainey take a swing together. 

Marley and Danielle are about 3 years apart, but have always been close friends. 

The big kids…Ethan is holding Christopher.

Bob and Val, we LOVED having you here…when we get together, it’s like no time has passed.  Can’t wait till you stop in again soon :)

In August, we made our annual trip home for Cousin’s Day…a full 24hrs worth of crazy fun for Randy’s dad and step-mom Kathy.  The very first CD had 5 in attendance, I think.  Kathy, correct me if I’m wrong.  With Abbey being the 3rd oldest, that would be maybe 9 or so years ago.  We’re now up to 17, with our Lainey being the youngest!  They were all there this year…

Out of the 6 or 7 pics I took, this was my best shot.  Hopefully, Kathy got a better one to use in her annual Christmas card :) 

It’s very unlike us, but we barely took any pictures during our trip to NC.  Not sure why, other than we were just so busy not being busy.  It was a nice trip (with the exception of bringing home the flu - amazingly 13 / 17 grandkids got this!)  Here are some shots I did get:

Granpa and Ethan having a jam session. 

Grinning with Granma

Lainey attacking Granpa with her black bear.  I’m not sure who was laughing harder. 

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting with my Grandmom.  I just love her! 

Have you ever seen a sweeter picture?!?

Now for the “comings”…

Randy’s mom and step-dad Paul came down to FL for a visit this past week.  We had no big plans…they relaxed, we went out to eat, we swam, etc.  It was a really nice visit for everyone…

Gram brought her crocheting and knitting bag and was instantly swarmed by Lainey and Marley.  She makes little caps and booties to give to her local hospital’s NICU and she taught Marley how to make them. 

She made 4!  (Today, I used my 50% coupon at Michael’s and bought her her own knitting looms)

Lainey spent a ton of time at her feet, cutting and winding yarn.  I guess I know how to keep her busy from now on. 

When she wasn’t “knitting”, she was sitting on Pa-Paul’s feet.  Weird kid. 

Everyone went swimming on Friday…Gram was really looking forward to that.  She looks pretty happy to me! 

Gram and Pa-Paul, with 5 of their 11 grandkids.  Thanks for coming to see us!

Under rainbow skies…

Living “on the way to Disney” has it’s advantages.  Mainly the chance to see friends and family that we miss from NC.  The Deckert family stayed with us last night, leaving this morning for Jeff’s business conference / family vacation to Orlando.  We’ve known Jeff and Jan for years, we were friends BK (before kids) and our children played together when they were little. 

Here they are playing together now that they’re bigger :)  Nice shot, Abbey.

Boys, stop squirting the girls so I can get a decent picture!

Thanks…here’s Abbey, Taylor, and Marley

Payton, Ethan, and Ryan

Randy snuck up and got a pic of Jeff and Jan. ;)

Thanks for taking time to hang out with us during your vacation, guys!

My parents came down for a visit in early July and I’m a bit late in posting the pics (much to mom’s impatience…ha).  So…

It was a great weekend, with no huge plans other than hanging out together. 

Granma brought a fun toy for the kiddos to play with…they played so hard, one of the handles broke.  Another item for the sewing basket. 

There were presents to open (they brought b-day gifts for L, M, P, and E) and dinner to eat (Times Grill…yummy).  Lainey ended the evening for us with a happy dance. 

Granma and Lainey enjoy the fine art of sidewalk chalk on the back porch. 

Sunday morning came way too soon, and they had to head back North. 

Till next time…we’ll see you in August and you’ll be back here in November!

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Our good friends from NC, the Nash family, paid us a visit on their way to visit family in Sarasota…we get most of our visitors this way, since almost everyone visiting Florida is heading south and we’re “on the way”. We love it. We only had about a day/night with them, but we packed it in…dinner here, church, lunch out and shopping! Our girls have been friends since they were little, so it’s neat to see them as teens/pre-teens now. Course, us adults haven’t aged at all :)

Here is Abbey’s softball team, after winning their last game last Friday night.  They had a 10-1 season, finishing in 1st place!  Can you tell it was COLD?  It was 45 degrees cold!  Those of you up north, go ahead and snicker. 

Lainey congratulates her sister…yes, I try to keep gloves and a hat on her.  She rips them right off. 

Yea!!  I can go home!!  Uh…I mean…they won!! 

Switching to baseball…the next afternoon, we headed to EJ’s championship baseball game.  As you can tell, they won, too!  They are the Rookie 10 champs. 

The score was 0-0 up until the 4th inning.  We had a guy at 2nd base.  Then, EJ came up to bat.  His bunt got it all started.  :) 

That bunt scored 1 and the next time up to bat, he got a hit, scoring 2 more.  The final score was 9 to 3. 

That afternoon, our good friends Bob and Valerie Clade came to visit us.  They were on their way to the Orlando area for Thanksgiving…we get most of our visitors that way!  We’ve known the Clade family for more than 12 years.  Their oldest, Zachary and our Abbey were babies together…awww!!  The 7 (our 4 and their 3) big kids are in the tree picture. 

Here’s Lainey trying to give Joshua a squeeze…this is the only pic of him I got, other than one when the little kids were losing it fussy.  Josh is younger than Lainey by 2 months, but is so much bigger!  Lucky kid looks just like Valerie.  No offense, Bob ;) 

Don’t they looked thrilled?  We just had to get a new pic of them together…we still remember them toddling around as babies.  Boy, does time fly by or what. 

It was a fantastic weekend, with the business of ball games to the “volume” of fun that 13 (most of them kids) can make.  :)

We were thrilled when Bruce, Karen, and their son Micah were able to stop by for a visit, on their way to Orlando last week!  We met them in Beijing, they were part of our travel group.  They received their son in a different province than us, and then we met up again in Guangzhou.  You know how you just “click” with some people?  It was like that with Bruce and Karen, like we’ve known each other for years.  Their son Micah recently turned 3, and was also born with a cleft lip and palate, like Lainey.  Here are some other photos from our time together…

Sharing is still being learned by both…

Karen shared her camera with Lainey, and she LOVED it.  I’ve always wanted to capture a picture of Lainey looking at a just-taken picture!  When we take her picture, and she hears the “snap”, she immediately runs over to see and just smiles and giggles. 

Micah loved all the kids (and they loved playing with him…Ethan’s comment was “he’s fun, he can actually talk”….I guess Lainey needs to step up the speech progress!).  But it was obvious that his favorite was Marley.  Guys always go for the blond. 

About a zillion tries, and this is our best shot of them together.  They were climbing all over those stairs!

Good group shot!  Is Micah blowing raspberries?  Boys…

Bruce, Karen, Donna, and Randy

Thanks for a great visit, guys! 

Yes, the obligatory “stairs” picture!  For some reason, that’s the place for group photos in this house.  This is my parents with their five grandchildren.  I’m an only child, and since we never intended on having more than 2 or 3 kids (God sure did change our minds…), they’re thrilled to have so many!

Granpa was really entertaining Lainey, making her laugh her little head off. 

And, granma was equally fun…here, Lainey is trying her best to steal her watch. 

We really enjoyed our time together…the girls went shopping (the guys stayed home so Lainey could nap), we all went out to eat, grilled out steaks and chicken, went swimming in the pool, were lazy during an afternoon thunderstorm, and finally took a trip to our local museum of science and history…here are pictures of that!

A, M, P, and E and L in her snazzy pink stroller

I love this picture!  Randy stood on the other side of the cage, so he could get Marley posing with one of her fav kinds of animals.  I think they’re both smiling!!

Payton, the cool big brother that he is, shows his little sis the fish! 

The museum had an exhibit called “Giant Insects”.  They weren’t kidding, these things were HUGE and had very life-like movements.  Lainey was freaked and only wanted me to hold her…until Granpa rescued her by taking her out in the hall! 

Payton and Ethan do a good imitation of fighting stag beetles!

They had a section that was a visual timeline of Florida history, which this homeschool mom enjoyed very much.  Abbey is really into the Little House series of books right now (she’s read all of them, and is now starting the Rose Years books).  So, she had to pose in front of this scene.  :)

This sign was in a room displaying the movies that have been made in Jacksonville throughout history…too funny. 

There was a beautiful fountain just down from the museum, so we stopped to see it.  Lainey loved feeling the mist coming off of it. 

A few more steps, and we were at the river…so, more pictures. 

Thanks for the wonderful time!  We’ll see you again in August :)