Monday, July 25, 2011

can you believe this... well yes you probably can


we were out quite late tonight and sky (the man of the house today) was helping G get out to walk in the house. This is how far G got from the suburban before he layed down and fell back to sleep. luckily "snaps" always has a camera ready. we really were laughing so hard it took us probably 20 minutes to actually get him in the house. One of those moments I hope I never forget!

Bible school 2011 complete


so this year our theme was DRIVE and Motorman Mark was our leader. he entered everyday in his high speed racer

the kids were mystified all week at where his power came from. note I didn't post this until after Bible school.


this was sky's first time leading on this stage and next to dad, how sweet is that?


every year in Bible school we have a fund raiser for a mission and whoevers bucket weights the most gets a pie. Out of the 4 gym (boy) helpers who had the heaviest bucket?
yep my boys and a far and away 54 lbs. A total bonus is that pastor Rob got to have the pleasure of giving the pie this year instead of getting one!


5 pies you say? yes we put out a challenge if the kids could raise over 100 lbs all 4 guys got it AND if they got over 140 lbs Motorman Mark gets one too (we love mixing fun with everything) our kids raised 161 lbs which transferred into $591 to buy Bibles in macau which can be freely given out in the town square there. God gets all the praise this week, David and I were not capable of putting on this awesome week together. it was only because of Gods grace that it turned out at all and He did a stellar job! take a peak at the daily videos at bethelcommunitychurch.org

Sunday, July 10, 2011

a wonderful day to celebrate adoption.


children's hope which is our adoption agency had their midwest picnic yesterday. Over 400 people all families who have adopted through CHI (not only China all countries). It was such a beautiful sight to see all the "colorful" families like ours. right away we saw a family we had traveled with to China whose baby was now 3 and so big! when we sat down at the table we quickly met a family from Arkansas who had adopted 5 kids from 3 different countries 1 who was from Mei's very orphanage! (if mei tells you that act excited she"s VERY thrilled at that info)

these two pictures are important women who helped in bringing Mei home. Melody on top works in China CHI and mary on the bottom is director here. It was so awesome to meet the voice we spoke to on the phone and emails so so many times. What awesome jobs they have right?


one of the activities was a martial arts demo. these pics turned up out of order but you get the idea, at the end of the show they let all the kids come up to break a board and they got to take it home. It was really cool for the kids, except now my living room has turned in to a Kung fu gym.



mei had a great " ha yah"

celebrating with the Rill's

FYI it is my opinion blogger has a mind of its own and has no feelings on what order I want pictures in! I love big guys (yellow shirt) face in this one, pure delight at the thought of a toasted marshmallow. He made some for me to so I had the same smile on!

Davids folks had their 50th anniversary and we had big fun

the weather was great and most the family was there, Dave rocked the BBQ and Kathie's new fire pit was the cats pajamas.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Finally~ here is the real fun




these two were total buds



little love (i'm all about nick names if you don't know) and I sat in the sun tent and she loved my hat, I does look fetching.

the weather did not give us as much time as we wanted at pilgrim pines so we rode right over the first day to squeeze in as much as we could. here they are trying to catch fish with cheezits

this baby loves the camera, my kind of girl!

at camp they have this huge water slide which I'm sure would have been much more fun had there actually been water on it, as I always say, you can find fun any where, even a waterless water slide

B had the energy to take on J


bed heads


the took us to this yummy ice cream place and this is their kids cup

needless to say we all got kids size


ice cream lunch, nothin better

a self portrait, so cutie

a stop at the candy shop

we brought our bikes, as always, and they got a lot of use

I love this one! here we are at the bowling alley, another rainy day activity





this is at Yankee candle in the winter room where it snows every 4 minutes. really fun


I was thinking this may be a Christmas card pic but as you see its a big NOPE



this candle said it would take 7 years to burn down

the kids made their own candles.


looks like great music right? none better

this baby got plenty of attention

if you know these two you know this is picture is sooo perfect. J there will be 1 in the mail for you soon!



because of the crummy weather we had an indoor picnic
we stopped in at camp to say see ya to jimmy c
on the way home we had a jaw breaker contest Gray came out victorious and got the prize