Well, summer is over for us! This is my fond fare well to the summer of '07. We start with our trip to SC for my sister Virginia's graduation.








While in Columbia we celibrated Jeremiah's 1st birthday!

Samuel had his first piece of cake,

a dirty bracelet, and some cheetos!

We had a wedding shower for Mercy out at the lake.
Family is such a preciouse gift from God!
Our loving families are a fuzy image of our
eternal family...can you imagine!

Samuel had his first boatride. I know, he looks beautiful and serene. But, he really pitched a fit! On the ride home, after he had eaten all of my breakfast, he settled in for a nice nap.

We left Columbia and were off to Florida. Lillian puked corn and watermelon for the six hours we were in the car (sorry no picture). Janna graduated high school. Now, she's off to California.

Samuel met both sets of great grandparents while in Florida. He also discovered swimming!

We had a adjective day at Disney.
We did see Marry Poppins on the carousel,
but Lillian was glad the horses didn't get loose.
Quite a spirited filly that one!

Samuel gave Excaliber a go,

but alas he has a yet unkown destiny.

Mercy's destiny to become a Clonts however, was decided, as was the bright stage futures of Misses Niah Grace and Lillian Cates. If you missed the performance, you really missed a good one.

At the end of June the kids and I went to help Keely in Greenville. She started a new job, in a new town, with a new baby on the way! Every one screamed simultaneously in my car for an hour during the ride to her house. By this time we had some where between 30 and 40 hrs of sitting in car seats within a month to cope with. Loads of fun! Lillian begged me to never put her in the car again. We spent a week with Keely and Jeremiah. This is the percussive"recycle" session; the kids enjoyed that.

Jeremiah is a sweety and hungry too!

Greenville is a great little city. It was very good for me to have the opportunity to spend the time with Keely. But, also with my other sisters. Virginia came up and spent a few days. Mercy, James, and Stephanie paid a visit. I realized, pleasantly, that in spite of the multiplying (and long dividing?) individual family units there is still a sybling solidarity.

Nick baught a backpack carrier for Samuel. So, off we went hiking in the Virginia hills. I love these Virginia hills! Nick and I drove through Virginia while I was pregnant with Lillian. I told Nick I would love to live in these hills for a few years some day. God is so much fun!

Lillian was keeping a pouty eye out for bears and such.

I think she was envious of Samuel's ride.

Our last summer hike! Last weekend we hiked 2 miles into the Jefferson National Forest to the Cascade Falls. It is a lovely walk, punctuated now and then by birdsong, a tiny snake on the path, and "my legs are tired, will someone carry me?" Samuel didn't mind that the water was probably less than 70 deg.

One of many rest stops.

I think I carried my livley girl a mile down the mountain.

This picture I think was taken last year. I was very pregnant at the time. Samuel and I had more fun on the hike this year! Nick starts class tomorrow. We are in for a hectic semester! All of the iterviewing is finished. So, we will know in a few short days (likely) were we will be moving. Lillian starts k-4 in two weeks, I have to get ready for an art show in October (yippy!), and Samuel will be packing the house for us. I always feel sad about summer's end. It happens too fast. I want to sit on a screened porch, drink sweet tea and walk around without shoes on for another two months at least.

This is my son, "Cowboy Jiffy". His sister named him that. He likes plastic pickles, swimming with his face in the water,rolling around in piles of clean laundry (an unfortunate clue about my housekeeping), pulling his sister's hair, and wrestling with his Daddy. This week I caught him holding on to the sofa, trying to kick Nick's soccer ball down the length of it. I am having a wonderful time getting to know him. His personality is really emerging. He isn't afraid of much. We had a few weeks of vacuum insecurity, now he is thinking about riding it with his cowboy hat on. He will not eat Cheerios unless they are in a Ziploc bag (he is not "brand" sensitive, he only wants to dig for them himself) nor will he drink water unless it is in a BIG boy cup, that means no lid and no handles. He compromises a lot! But, not with out some drama lately. Samuel and I love sharing fruit. Right now his favorite are peaches; afterward we both need a bath.

Lillian and Samuel are beginning to play together more. This includes but is not limited to, big sister watches movie while little brother gets Dad's stinky sock from laundry and pretends to bath her. Lillian builds a block castle and Samuel knocks over the block castle; Lillian and Samuel wrestle (because he tore her castle down, or because mom has held him too long, or because he so stinkin' cute). I have found him under a pile of sheets and towels with her jumping on top too close to his head and him laughing hysterically.

Lillian is growing up fast! It is hard to believe that she is four and a half. She is becoming aware of the preferential differences between the sex's. For instance "Mom, I don't want to wear that, the boys don't like the color pink". More of me is coming out of her than I expected. She is not the least bit prissy but...she definitely has an opinion. It tickles me to see the Nick/Leah dynamic in her (poor girl?), sober with a dramatic flare, brutally honest but with such sympathy in her voice and a gentle pat on the back. At a soccer game this season she was being bullied by some older children. I decided to observe and learn (although that was not my emotional response!). These older kids took away the large rock she was playing with and tossed it over a very high fence. They towered around her saying smarty pants things and appeared to feel very pleased with them selves and their unified front against the little four year old. Well! Lillian looked appalled for two seconds, put her hands on her hips and within five minuets had those kids crawling under that fence to get her rock back. I was so pleased...but it did not last. She turned around and really dished it out. I actually thought I might need to bully her a little bit, those poor kids had no idea what they had gotten themselves into.

Lillian took this picture of me and Samuel.

Yes! My children are cleaning!

Nick is off to Tampa today. Lillian has been in front of the TV all day so that I could be "creative". I am looking forward to painting tonight, once the little ones are in bed. I have been so bland about art lately. I feel a glimmer off creativity.

These are pictures we took in Seattle two weeks ago. Nick is in charge of taking documentary photos in Tampa since I can't be there. Maybe next week I will submit them for review. We thought Seattle was a lot of fun!

Someone very close to me keeps nagging me set up a blog.
Here it is!
We are excited to see what our heavenly Father has planned for our future. The next few months are going to be really interesting - we look forward to a new job, house, town, state, friends(hopefully), dog (maybe-Nick thinks domesticated animals are supposed to be food), etc. for Christmas.
I think we might need a bigger Christmas tree!

Meanwhile Lillian and Samuel are wonderful! We have alot of fun. Today we walked to the library and then on to the farmers' market. It was so hot! I ended up with both of them, wilted, riding in the stroller. Samuel dumped all of my water on his head (smart kid!), and Lillian kept cool by smearing ice cream all over herself. I pushed them both up hill and tried to be pleased with the excersize. Samuel is trying to walk, run, and fly simultaneously. It isn't working so well for him but he sure has fun doing it. Lillian wants to learn to read. More on that later!