Dolphin Cove

Pictures of Gabriel and Alayna at Dolphin Cove -

I figure they aren't going to make the blog too much the next three years living in San Diego, so I'll show them while I can. Today they are traveling down the Florida Keys.
            

                                                                                   Jenny

                                                                                                                                

Girl Goat

 We had a pretty rough day around here yesterday. When we arrived home from morning swim practice, our sweet baby goat, Chewie, was dead in the yard. He was a bit of an escape artist and got out while we were gone and killed by a dog. We had several hours of crying and JD came home from work to help with the burial. I am never in a hurry to replace animals, but it isn't kind to have only one goat since they are herd animals, so I called the lady that I bought the goats from and met her this morning to purchase another one. She still had the female goat that I had originally considered (and didn't buy due to her price), so we now have a girl goat that I will breed next year. I didn't plan on breeding or milking this batch of goats, but I will at least do a round next year to recover the cost of the three goats this year. (For those of you wondering, I had a bad experience with a goat disease called CAE several years ago and was willing to pay extra to make sure that we were buying from a disease-free registered herd.)

May I introduce Princess Leia -

With her colors, she reminds me of a fawn.

Hans, who is supposed to be happy to have a companion goat, is making sure she knows that he is in charge.

We have lost so many animals in the eight years that we have played farmer - honestly, the goats are about my favorite and I pray these two live long and healthy lives.

We let the goats out while the kids swim since there is usually someone taking a swim break to pet them; otherwise, they just eat grass around the pool.

Selah loves to swim! I don't think that child has ever volunteered to get out of the pool. Bella, however,  will only "swim" if a big person is holding her.

Summer is flying by!

Gabriel and Alayna in Miami

The newlyweds sent pictures from Jungle Island in Miami today -

(I want to go there, except I'll skip the snake!)

A Glimpse of the Wedding

 Gabriel and Alayna's wedding went perfectly yesterday. I don't think it was evident that we did not have as many months as we would have liked to prepare, due to Gabriel's orders to San Diego. I am so thankful for all the hard work that Alayna's mom and step-mom did to make the day special for them. Everyone worked well together and the two little ring-bearers and three flower girls walked down the aisle right on cue. At the last minute, Bella walked barefoot since she was in tears about the blisters that her new shoes were causing, but it was sweet in her big white dress. The only picture I took of Gabriel and Alayna was this one from the reception; thankfully it turned out well. I'm super excited to see the official pictures from the photographers!

My oldest son, Gabriel, and my beautiful new daugher, Alayna
 

This is Elijah with Alayna's three younger siblings. He had a great time with them.

Elijah danced with Rachel, Wendy's daughter -

While Selah and Bella enjoyed Gabriel's friends attention on the dance floor -

This one also shows little Elijah and Lauryn dancing between the big boys. Check out Bella's big smile.

Alei and Alayna - friends and sisters now.

Moriah and baby Ruthie -

This was a quick shot taken this morning with cousins Chris and Jason before they headed back to PA. It was such a pleasure to have some time with family and friends that made it for the trip!

I can't wait to be able to show the "real" wedding pictures - hope they don't take too long!


Tidbits of the Week

 The days have been so busy that the last week is almost a blur -

What I can't ignore was our 4th of July celebration. These are Gabriel's friends from his church internship program in Colorado. They all flew out for Gabriel and Alayna's wedding. They enjoyed a few hours on the morning of the 4th shooting guns with JD.

Along with the guys flew Shannon, a sweet friend that we have enjoyed having as well.

 

Alei, Shannon and Alayna definitely won the most spirited outfit award for the 4th.

We had a full house, which is what we truly enjoy.

Tonight was the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It went very well and I have great hopes that all three of my little guys will walk down the aisle as planned!

The hero of the night was our friend, Tonya; she manned the children table during the rehearsal dinner. It was a long wait for a table of 3-5 year olds wanting their chicken tenders!

While I hope to get more pictures of more relatives, I need to take this opportunity to introduce Uncle Greg - who is also now known as the cat whisperer. While there were people everywhere, the cats seemed drawn to him. (He appears to feel the same about them.)

Wedding Prep

I have had no time to blog and we are  now on our way to Gabriel and Alayna's wedding rehearsal. They are getting married on a Sunday since our pastor isn't home from a Haiti mission trip until this evening. (We are praying that the plane comes in as scheduled!) I was hoping to post some pictures of all the craziness that is happening at our house, but now it's going to end up a post-wedding review. Stay tuned...

The Pool

Remember the pool that I was so excited to get out of the front yard? Well, it's still here; thankfully it didn't sell because we really didn't end up having the time or money to purchase and install a larger one in the backyard. We haven't opened it for the year until now, however, because JD didn't want to have to take care of it amidst all the other projects. Since Gabriel came home and volunteered for the first round of cleaning, the cover finally came off.
 

The forecast is rain all week, so we have to get out and enjoy the breaks between the rain. All the rain sure has helped my baby grass grow, so I'm very thankful!

Selah is a farm girl through and through. She loves everything we do outside; especially the goats. She is my most reliable bottle feeder.

Call From Africa

 Alyssa left exactly two weeks ago for Africa. Yesterday, I received the first call from her since she left the country. The connection was poor and she stated right up front that she only had 2 minutes to talk. Since I was driving on 95 with two kids, the first 15 seconds was spent with Julia whining, "I want to talk to Alyssa; I want a turn" and me frantically shaking my head no. I then pulled way off the road and got out of the car, only to discover that the trucks speeding by were actually louder than Julia. Thankfully, once I got back in the car, Julia was quiet. I was able to get that Alyssa has stayed healthy and is remembering to take her malaria medicine; she said that she didn't want to leave the kids in Zambia and there was an 11 year old girl, named Sarah, that she wanted to bring home. I reminded her that adoption isn't an option in Zambia. Not much more was said before the phone cut out. I'm hoping to hear from her when she is at the airport moving to South Africa.


The cats are hanging out higher these days to avoid Alayna's dog, Harley.

We are working hard at wedding projects. I can't believe how difficult is has been to find the little girl's flower girl dresses and shoes. We finally scored dresses yesterday, but are going to have to go with white sandals since white Mary Jane shoes seemed to have disappeared from all stores. Our "ring-bear" suits came in, but Macy's ordered the blue and yellow instead of the blue and purple, so now we have to go on a purple tie hunt.

Gabriel is on his way home, he spent last night in Atlanta and should arrive this afternoon. We have some excited kids!

I'm thinking the goats are supposed to be off their bottles, but they aren't happy with that idea.
 

Gardens and Swimming

 I don't know why I didn't consider it before, but I spent the last few evenings laying down recycled soot fencing and mulch in my garden walkways. In years past, we mowed and weed-whacked through there until the cantaloupe and watermelon start growing in the walkways; then the grass would grow so high, I would literally lose the melons in the high grass. This year my beds are so full, because so many extra plants volunteered, that I realized I needed to get rid of the grass between the beds to keep it all under control. I think this is going to make it much easier. I am anxious to add more garden beds next year; I currently have four, but would like about eight to ten.

We did our first green bean picking. It was actually the first year I grew them and am amazed out how many beans those plants can grow. I picked five large bowls and left the smaller beans for another picking in about a week. The kids weren't too enthusiastic about snapping the ends until I announced that there would be no activities that involved a screen until all the beans were done. They really picked up speed once they realized that I wasn't going to take over the task. I blanched and froze most of them; I plan on canning a later picking.

Just for humors sake.... We had a swim meet tonight. It went incredibly late due to a thunderstorm that delayed us for about an hour. I brought the three youngest home once the storm hit, then returned for Tori and Julia at 9:30. When I found Julia, she told me that she didn't swim the back-stroke. Since she took first in it last week, I asked her why. She told me that she was scared. I asked her why she would be scared since she is very good at it. She said, "I had to pee really bad, and since we are not allowed to pee in the pool, I was scared that I couldn't hold it all the way to the other side of the pool."

I think if she had elaborated on her fear, the coaches would have allowed her a bathroom break before the event. I hope we don't end up losing by only a few points!