A little more.....

It was "Community Days" in the town my parents live in. They had a parade and then the kids BEGGED to go play on the jumpie things. They had a total blast!

A little from our weekend

Zachary & Abigail waiting for the parade to start

Abigail & Zachary with Paw-paw

Grandma was also waiting for the parade
This is my older sister, Naomi
Cat In The Hat was a HUGE hit!!!
Zachary & Abigail thought it was cool getting their picture taken in front of the semi There was TONS of candy thrown...

looks like paw-paw was enjoying it too
Zachary will his little hands FULL of candy
Abigail picking up all she can

After the parade was over there was a lot of candy laying on the other side of the street no one picked up so Abigail, Zachary & paw-paw took an interest to do it.

Our 4th of July

BANG

BANG

BANG

Ok, so normal people spend their 4th of July having cookouts & watching fireworks....we of course are not normal....we spent ours in the Emergency Room with Zachary. We did end up getting to fireworks though. It all started July 3rd. Zachary outside riding his bike when he was stung twice by a bee. It was on the left side of his nose. He seemed fine after mommy made it all better. That night we went to one of the local church around our area that was having fireworks. They passed out glowsticks to all the children. Zachary's somehow busted and the stuff inside got all over his clothes and hands. At first, he thought he was pretty awesome because he was glowing in the dark, but he realized not long afterwards it was not so awesome. He rubbed his right eye and yes you guessed it...the glowy (is that really a word LOL) stuff got in his eye. Zachary began SCREAMING...MY EYE IS BURNING!! Needless, to say we were almost in a panic. With all Zachary has been through we never know what might happen with him. Thankfully, the church had thought ahead and had paramedic guys on the ground. They rinsed his eye with water several times and it seemed to have helped. We were told they were non-toxic so he should be fine, but of course to keep an eye on him. With all that taking place, we didn't watch much of the fireworks because this all happened just as they started. We knew the next day was the 4th and had planned to watch more that night anyway. Well, when Zachary woke up Wednesday morning, his left eye was swollen almost shut. We called and spoke with his doctor and because of Zachary's history they thought it best he be checked out. They were concerned he was having an allergic reaction. So off we go to the ER. Well, long story short, it is just a normal reaction when around the eye like that. He is not necessarily allergic to them. We Praise the Lord for that! They said he will probably swell more the next few days so we just have to give him Benedryl & eye drops till things are better. Through it all, Zachary was a little trooper!

Sometimes, this is like our 2nd home...

kind of scarey huh!
Being a little trooper!
Results of a bee sting
Face Painting of a Cat
Face painting like fireworks

New Addition To The Family

We have now adopted a little puppy...ok he is about 10 yrs old but he LOVES the kids! This is the dog my parents were taking care of. The owner decided he wasn't going to be able to care for the dog like he needs and wanted to give him to a good home...SOME HOW HE FOUND HIS WAY TO MY HOUSE!!! Ok, MAYBE, I let him move in. For the most part Cuddles is a very good dog!

This fuzzy wuzzy little puppy....
has had a makeover....
I thought this picture was so cute. He looks as if he is praying...he is really BEGGING for food. Just so you know, NO HE DID NOT GET ANYTHING!
Zachary with Cuddles
Zachary & Abigail with Cuddles

More from our weekend

I debated whether to add the following 2 pictures because they are sort of dark. I have decided to include them anyway because it was part of our weekend. This was my 4 month old nephew, Aaron's Dedication.

My 2nd Cousin holding Aaron as he was dedicating him back to God.
L-R

My Grandmother, Naomi, My Mother Cathy, My Father Phillip I,

My Brother & Father of Aaron Phillip II & Sister in law & Mother of Aaron Merrie Beth

Grandpa & Grandma were playing games with the grandkids...
They loved this game...they had to get 2 balls to stay inside the parachute. SO MUCH FUN

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The children LOVE to pose for pictures and Aunt Sarah (and Mommy) is ALWAYS ready with her camera

Steven ~ 7yrs old
Jason ~ 7 yrs old
TWINS ~ Steven & Jason ~ 7 yrs old
My darling daughter and I might add the ONLY granddaughter in my parents 7 grandchildren...she isn't spoiled at all (haa haa)
Abigail ~ 7 yrs old
The three-some
Jason, Abigail & Steven

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And yes I have MORE............Luke Thomas

Luke playing with his bow & arrow
Although he was not using arrows, he enjoyed picking bark off the trees and sticking in the arrow and shooting. (And yes I do have a picture of that also ~ **smiles**)

Nanny, as referred to by the children (my grandmother),
lives on a hill. The children thought it was AWESOME to walk down in her field & play.

More picture of of the children
down over the hill...

...and at least one more...

Our Weekend Part 2

As I told you in previous posts, my brother & his family were in from Kansas for 2 weeks. We took advantage of this and 'tried' to get everyone together for a family picture. Have you ever tried that with 7 children under the age of 7....WHEW!!!! WHAT A JOB IT WAS! Here are a few I picked out to post.

The Grandchildren

Standing ~ Steven & Jason

Sitting ~ Timothy, Zachary, Abigail holding Aaron & Luke

This is my little family L-R
Tony, Sarah, Zachary 4, Abigail 7
My brother & his family L-R
Standing Jason 7
Sitting Steven 7 (yes they are twins), Phillip holding Luke 2,
Merrie Beth holding Aaron 4 months, Timmy 4 (on ground)
My Parents
Cathy & Phillip

Our Weekend

We went away for the weekend to my Grandma's. She lives in Southern Ohio. On Saturday we had a Family Reunion on my Grandma's side. There were close to 200 hundred people there and many, many others who were not able to make it. Here are only a few pictures I took (I took close to 200 pictures). We had a GREAT time. It was nice to see family who we usually do not see for another year.

This was a memorial table for those who have passed away. We lit a candle for each one starting with my Great Grandparents down to the lastest passing which was a cousin just losing a baby she was due for in July. Very sad!We have a silent auction as well as a live auction. This helps raise funds for our Reunions each year. It is usually a BIG hit! We had 7 tables FULL of items being sold. In this picture the lady happens to be my grandmother and my nephew.
This is not even part of the food that is provided. Each family usually brings dishes to pass. We NEVER run out of food. We definitely cannot go away hungry. There is always a good variety.
There are even games for the children as it is sometimes hard to occupy them or keep them out of trouble.
This year we did something different. We had a Family Tree. The picture in the middle of the tree is my Great Grandparents. The branches are their children and the leaves are those who were actually at the reunion. As you can see, there are quite a few empty spaces and even branches that have leaves not all their family was even there. Talk about a big family!!!!