Is it just me...

Or are some of these cards REALLY funny?

What's left after Sharkfest... hmmm..... Olympics?

Hey all, as many of you know, Steff and I recently participated in an challenging swimming event called Sharkfest. We let the news spread far and wide that we were doing that. All went well and we appreciate all your support.

What many of you don't know, is that we've also been training for another event. We weren't sure how things were going to turn out, so we've been keeping it under the radar until we knew more. Well, we recently finished up the event, and we're happy to say that things went fantastically. So now we are proud and happy to share with all of you, our 'special' day at the Olympics....

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4th of July

The fourth of July was perfect this year. We had a nice BBQ with neighbors followed by lighting off fireworks in the street. It was nice, laid back and fun. Here are a few pictures from the fireworks...

Cute little Cassie enjoying the show

Some of the Dads

Matt let Winston light off some of the fireworks this year. Still not sure how I felt about that.

Some of the Dads ended the evening by playing Rockband at our house. It was a happy holiday.

(Hey, if you could just pretend not to notice we still haven't finished painting our back wall, we would really appreciate it. Things have been a little busy...cut us some slack, man!)

Happy Birthday Charlie! (late post)

I'm trying to catch up on a few posts from the last month or two. We'll see how far I get tonight... :)

On July 2, Charlie turned the big 3 years old. It was fun this year to think back to when this funny little guy came into our lives. We had about a week to spare after moving into our new house before Charlie made his debut. I was so happy to bring him home to a roomy house with a yard (well, dirt) where Winston could play. Charlie was such a fun baby. He smiled all the time and loved to play and snuggle. He has been such a blessing to our family. Even though he can be a little frustrating at times, there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't make me laugh out loud. He's a very funny kid. He gives fantastic bear hugs and loves to do "steamroller" with Mom, Dad and even Winston. We love you Charlie and we are so glad you are part of our family!

I made him a bunch of cupcakes for his birthday but he still didn't quite grasp the whole birthday thing. He was squirming too much for me to get him right up in front of the cupcakes with the candle. So, this is the best picture we could get. Hey, I tried!

The morning of his birthday, I decorated the downstairs with balloons and a sign that said "Happy Birthday". We put his present a the bottom of the stairs. As you can see from the picture, it was a hit!

He loved it. He didn't even care if it was moving or not. He just loves to sit on it.

He still hasn't figured out how to push down the pedal and turn the handlebar to get it going but Winston is more than happy to help him out. Everybody wins!

Charlie Update

It's been a while since we've given an update on Charlie. There's been a lot going on with him lately. The long and short of it is that we had Charlie evaluated by a child psychologist and she determined he has autism. Apparently, it is very common for a child with autism to have seizures. It's not news that we wanted but it is good to know what is going on and to have some ideas of the direction we should go with some of his treatments. We are seeing a new pediatrician who deals with a lot of children with autism and we are hoping he will be able to help us. We just keep on trucking with hope and faith that things are going to get better for us and our little boy. Thanks again for all the prayers and support all of you have given us. We couldn't do it without you.

Our Garden

This is our little corner of country living (please don't look at how yellow the lawn is -- I over-fertilized).



Currently the harvest is good. We're pulling spaghetti squash off the vine in handfuls, the strawberries are so thick we're needing to pull every other plant out of the ground, the corn is on the brink of picking, the tomato plants are heavy with bulbous green melons, and I have no idea how I can possibly eat any more zucchini.

There have also been a few surprises along the way: despite Charlie mangling all our onion plants, they've actually produced quite well. Another addition we found, as we pulled out our pea plants, is that we've got some potato leftovers from last year. Sah-Weet!




Anyways, anyone in the neighborhood who wants tomatoes, give it another week or two and we'll have more than we can handle... Big boys, early girls, cherry and roma varieties.



tomato plants in front, corn behind


onions, spaghetti squash, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, chives, basil, zucchini, oregano