We're BACK!!!

So, I know it has been wayyy too long since I posted!! Since we have come home, I've had no time to do any blogging... and it hasn't helped that my computer browser seems to hate blogger and closes every time I try to log on. Sigh. Life is finally starting to feel more normal.. thank goodness! For the first three weeks, life was pretty hectic.. and that's an understatement! Adjusting to being home came harder than I thought it would, since I was gone practically the entire month of August. I came home to a pile of schoolwork needing to be done, mountains of laundry and dust an inch thick on the shelves in my room. (And I HATE dust with a passion!!) Not to mention on ornery little brother who seemed to change his mind and all of a sudden hate me for the next three weeks. But.. that's life, and it's definitely gotten better.
I added some new picture below, and I'll try to add a new post each day for the rest of the week. (Note, I said TRY!) I still haven't even blogged about my Haiti trip.. and I plan on doing that just as soon as I can. I'll also be posting an update on Asher over on his blog.. and eventually getting it to where all of the blog updates are on here instead of having two seperate blogs.
I'm exhausted right now, so that's why my thoughts are all scrambled and I probably misspelled a few words too! But I wanted y'all to know that we are still alive and doing well.. just very busy!!
More blogging to come!

Down at the Dock

Looking through my binoculars, what do I see?

A big ole lake, some trees and fish!

And my sister Emma, of course!

Sisters

Here, let me give you a kiss!

Elena's Sweet Sixteen

On September 17th, Elena turned sixteen so we had her birthday celebration the weekend before. We had close to fifteen teenage girls staying in our house for a sleepover and tubing the next day. It was a little crazy, to say the least! However, it was a lot of fun and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, especially Asher!

Elena (second) with some of her friends..
and you can see Kayla there in the background.

Asher was absolutely delighted with the variety of food we had.. chicken nuggets, sandwiches, fruits, veggies and chips! I think he tried everything at least twice.

The twins climbed into one of the present boxes and thought it was about the funniest thing ever. Better yet, all of Elena's friends thought so too. I don't think either one of them was put down the entire evening!

Umm.. can I get some help out of here?

Elena and her cake

Make a wish and blow those candles out!

Asher's first taste of birthday cake
(wait til he realizes his birthday is 1 1/2 months away!)

The next morning we headed out onto the lake!

This was Asher's second time on the boat, but my first time watching him.

The first run of tubers- Kayla, Ian, Kendyl and Abby

Ian trying to stand up...

Asher and Maggie
(I think he has a thing for blonde's..)

Esther

and little Emma

Don't forget.. he's only been home for three weeks.

Emma playing with Emily

Esther and Abby

Brianna and Asher
(Brianna's family attends our church and they were some of the first people to meet Asher once we arrived home. Asher just ADORES Bri and her older sister Sara and they are so good with him, even when he's pushing the limit by choking them!)

Haven't shared a good picture of Ian in awhile..

Another tubing run.. looks like a storm is coming!

Elena and her friends tubing

Asher couldn't wait to get on the tube.. just look at that face!
He sure is a ladies man.

I wasn't sure how he would do..

But by looking at that face you can see he was loving every minute of it!

Emily, Maggie, Kayla, Asher, Elena, Lauren, Stephanie & Marygrace

Some of the girls

Right after I hopped on the tube, the boat started moving and the tube started sinking!! See my head just barely sticking out of the water??

But, we all held on and were back tubing in no time.

Little known facts about Elena:

• She was the first one of us to get stitches, earning them on her 9th birthday
• Was the only one to have curly hair as a baby.. and now it's straight- go figure!
• Is the only blond child and happens to be the spitting image of my mother
• She's been blessed with the gift of wanting to serve others, and is always doing that
  
• At 6 months old, she weighed more than I did.. and I was two years old!
• Got her first haircut at age two, when I took the scissors to her locks.
• She's (almost!) always smiling and in a good mood.

Happy 16th birthday Elena!!