Austin turns 11!

 We flipped another calendar page and it is HOT outside!  I'm very thankful for AC in the house to keep us from overheating!  I'm thankful for the sunshine but we need rain!  The grass is so brown and dry.  Please, send us rain Lord!!!!  July has a few fun events in store for us!  Austin turns 11!  We celebrate our nations 250th birthday!  We head to the cabin for a fun weekend!  Sparklers are lit!  Pool days, beach day and days in the garden!  It's summer time so I'm sure there will be lots of moments on the back porch!  Hello July!

We got the banners and flags hung!

Wyatt sent Austin a fishing backpack for his birthday and he is SO excited about it!!!!  Thank you!

We have veggies ready from the garden!

Sunsets here are stunning!

Austin woke up to another fun birthday!  I had the birthday tunes going and he wanted coffee cake for his birthday cake!  With candles all over his piece of cake, he made a wish and blow them out!  Opening up his gift and finding new baseball gloves and a leg guard was exciting for him!

Gunnar FaceTimed to say happy birthday!

We picked up the cousins and they hung out all afternoon!  We grabbed lunch at the Village Cafe and they played squishy ball in the living room!  It was too hot outside to play fast pitch tennis they said.

These boys are Austin's best friends!  I tease Austin all the time that he's growing up too fast and looking back on pictures, I had them all line up to capture their height!  I keep thinking about in five years .... what Will our kids ages be?  How tall will they be?  What will life be like then?  We will have to look back on here in five years to see!

When we took the boys back home, Austin took a quick swim in their pool.  That's been so fun for him!  And then later we met up with them again at the ballpark!  Go Stormers!

And on this hot day, the wheat field got cut down.  I love watching this happen.

And we have ourselves some pretty July blooms!

Happy birthday, Austin!  We love you so much!  I can't wait to see what God has in store for you!!!!

Goodbye June.

June was full of great memories!  So many things are blooming around me!  The weather is warm.  The grass is thirsty but the garden is thriving!  Take a look ...

The hydrangeas are beautiful!

 

The sugar peas did not do well so are happy with what we pick!  

The little cactus has blooms in the garden!

The field of sunflowers and zinnias are starting to grow!

We swung by for some ice cream before going to watch Matthew and Jeremiah play ball against each other.

Austin was under the weather for one day and I sat beside him listening to Adventures and Odyssey and putting this puzzle together.  

The morning walks are beautiful too!

We finally got to the pool for a day and baby dear loved it!

Ashlyn and I both had appointments at Turnpaugh to get blood work done and we are on a journey to better health.  Ashlyn deals with headaches and acne.  I just wanted to check my levels.  We had to fast before our blood work so we got Agape afterwards!

We got results back a few weeks later and now we are on supplements to help our low iron levels.

  

Saturday night, Mike's birthday, we celebrated again with Mommy Lapp treating us all to ice cream from or favorite spot!  Strasburg Creamery has Meadow Tea Sorbet and Ashlyn can have it!  Yum!

Gunnar was our happy shopper at another thrift store!  Mike and I went to celebrate at the LCC for dinner and I love this 49 year old man so much!!!!

Austin wrapped up his first baseball season and the time of his life!!!!

And now he begins softball!  Another sport with the time of his life!!!!

We sent the boys off for a birthday surprise for Austin while us girls found us some gluten free, dairy free, grain free foods!  

Off to Dude Perfect!!!!!

They each loved the event!!!!

And these June skies are paintings of God!!!  I see you God!

Dienner Reunion.

Reunion number two for the summer was with Dienners!  This is my mom's side of the family!  We all gathered at my parents farm for a family reunion and we had a wonderful time!

My nieces painted faces!

Games were played!

My dad made chicken BBQ and we ate in their barn!

Great grandchildren are starting to show up family reunions!

It was on Father's Day and we ate well!

My parents had two pickleball courts set up out back and a wiffleball game was happening in the meadow.

A soft serve ice cream machine with toppings and brewed tea and meadow tea are always expected at these gatherings!

Spike ball played by the teens and a bouncy house for the littles!!!!

Mom got a clown outfit that Austin put on during the candy scramble.

Cutest little guy!!!!!

And here are my mom's siblings!!!!  As they decided how to stand, the two youngest came up asking where Mommy D's favorites should stand!!!! 🤣

All the Aunts and Uncles were able to come!  All of these people are special to me and we did miss Daudy and Mommy D on this special day!!!!

I grew up living next to some of these.  Some have children exactly my age that I still see often!  Almost all these men had open heart surgery in the past or some kind of heart procedure.  One Aunt had a stroke.  It's a blessing to have them all gather together and have fun!

We were coming to the end of the day when Matthew and Daisy showed up.  They had just come from the pets emergency because their dog Ridley took off after a ball while being tied on a leash and she paralyzed her two back legs.  This was of course devastating to us and especially for Matt and Daisy.  I could tell they were barely keeping it together.  They love Ridley and she's still so young.  Ridley loved them!  They had to decide to put her down the next day because caring for a paralyzed dog is just too much.  She was not well.  Sometimes we don't know why things like this happen.  We try to remember that it's just a pet but it's also a pet they loved and entertained and wanted for many years!!!!

It was dark before we said goodbye to family and friends.  I love the Dienner family!