Father and Son

After I looked at these pictures of Joe and Magnus for a while, I started thinking about their wonderful Father/Son relationship, and how it relates to being a child of our Heavenly Father. How dependent we are, how we need protection and someone to take our hand and help us walk through this troubled world, and how we can have such meaningful and wonderful conversations with the one we trust and adore most. Man; created in God's image - the apple of His eye. How amazingly wonderful it is to be accepted as a child of the Great Creator and King of the universe! Loved beyond measure; held closely to His heart. Hand in hand we walk and talk... If you've never let God be your Father, I suggest that you let Him take your hand! You'll never want to let go.

Sprinklers are fun! Well, most of the time...

Joe made Magnus his very own little sprinkler to help him beat the heat this summer. He loves it! It did squirt his eyes pretty good a couple times though, and I was glad to have caught that reaction on camera!

Family Vacation

At IRCHA - helicopters EVERYWHERE!

Steve & Sheryl Clemens - aka PaPa & Nana by the grandkids.

Magnus - 1 1/2 & Reagan - 2 1/2

We just got back from our little vacation yesterday morning at 8:30am. (After driving all night!) We made the 11 hr. drive - to and from Muncie, IN - during the wee hours for Magnus' sake. We did end up taking quite a few naps on our vacation because of it though! (Maybe sleeping isn't your idea of a vacation, but I happen to be rather fond of it myself, so it didn't rain on my parade at all.) Our reason for choosing Muncie for our vacation was two-fold. One reason was that IRCHA was being held at the AMA headquarters there. IRCHA is the biggest annual R/C helicopter event in the country (world?). There were around 800 pilots (Joe included) that registered for it, and many more spectators. We enjoyed watching the world's best R/C heli pilots do their thing - it was quite impressive! Joe spent much more time at the event than Magnus and I though, since Magnus would have to get his daily nap-time in, and then just wanted to play with all the toys at Steve and Sheryl's. Which brings me to our second reason for choosing Muncie. The Clemens' have always been good friends of ours (they've known Joe forever) and we've been wanting to visit them for a while. They also have 3 children around my age (the 2 boys live nearby - see blogs "Shawn & Melanie" and "Scott and Kristina") who each have 3 children of their own - all aged 4 and under. So, Magnus got to play with 6 of the grandchildren after church on Sunday, and we got to visit with some of our favorite people. They treated us like family, and we had such a great time visiting. We kept Scott and Kristina's little boy Reagan (2 1/2 years old, but just Magnus' size!) one day/night, so that was extra fun for Magnus. They had so much fun - Magnus followed Reagan everywhere, and Reagan followed me everywhere. Then Saturday we ate supper with Shawn and Melanie (and kids) and they joined us later on for the helicopter night-flying at IRCHA, where they put neon lights all over the heli's and fly them after dark - very cool! Plus the kids were all given glow-sticks which made it fun for them. Shawn and Melanie have 2 Mastiffs, and though I didn't get a picture of their big male named Xander, you can imagine what he looks like if you close your eyes and picture a dark brindle colored dog that weighs over 180 lbs and has a head the size of a pumpkin, paws the size of my fists... and a neck girth of over 30"! He was so sweet, and I fell pretty much head over heels. We told them to put us on their waiting list when it comes time to have puppies! (Probably next year sometime.) Anyway, we had such a wonderful time with everybody that when it came time to leave, we couldn't believe that we'd been there 5 days already! All we could say was, "Man, I wish we lived closer!" We will miss them - until next time!

Silly Boy!

Magnus was "smelling" my silk flowers, then made this face. This guy is a hoot!

7 Happy Years

Joe and I celebrated our 7th wedding Anniversary yesterday! Now, I'm sure you're expecting me to write a bunch of mushy-gushy sentiments at this point... and since I have such a servants heart, I wouldn't want to disappoint you! =) We have had the best years of our lives these past 7 years, and it gets sweeter and better every day. We can't even look back on the years and remember one real fight between us. Our household is one of no bickering, no bad attitudes (unless you count Magnus on a teething day!) and no harsh words. We are so very happy, and no, you can't move in with us. As a bonus, last night as Joe and I were walking hand-in-hand to the barn (after Magnus was in bed) to let the horses out to pasture, we talked of our happy life and gazed at the stars. All the sudden Joe said, "Look at that!!" As we watched, this amazing shooting star went across the sky like a brilliant firework. It was unlike any we'd ever seen, and we stared after it long after it had gone. It was a definite blazing white ball, with a perfect tail that was first blue, then red at the last half. It appeared to leave it's colorful tail behind it at one point which looked as if it sparked out, then it disappeared also. We were completely awestruck, and will never forget it. I thanked God for such a lovely "heavenly" anniversary gift!

Richmond Mommies Playdate

Look at all the kids! Watch out for that boy on the far left - he has a water gun & no scruples!

Drinking deeply...ahhhh! This sprinkler was Mag's favorite.

Waving at mommy across the lawn. Look out for the crazy blonde driver in your rear-view, Magnus - she's not looking where she's going!!

Magnus attended his first play-date yesterday afternoon. To say he had a "blast" would probably be an understatement! I'm part of an online forum group of ladies called "Richmond Mommies", and they hold play-dates quite often. We live farther out than 99.9% of the other mom's though, so this was our first time getting together with them. It was held at one of the "R.M." moms' house, and she had every backyard toy, playhouse and kiddie sprinkler imaginable! Magnus loved the water toys, and even let them spray his face. (So why do I have so much trouble just getting his hair washed in the tub??) A couple of the bigger boys were a menace though, so I had to watch Magnus carefully. They had squirt guns, of all things, and even squirted some moms and small babies in spite of their mothers' harmless "threats", counts to 3, and 30 second "time-outs". (Note to self: these disciplinary measures produce no effectual results.) We were served some anti-salubrious hotdogs afterwards, along with snacks, cupcakes, chips and cookies! Magnus and I will have to go on a vinegar & water diet after all that junk to purge our poor systems!

Baby's First Haircut

Careful, Dad! Watch out for the ears!!!

This kinda tickles! Are you sure you've done this before?

All done... and the ears are still intact!

Well, I have to confess and clarify... This wasn't his first. FIRST haircut. I have trimmed his hair with scissors since he was teeny tiny, since I hated the way it got on his ears and poofed out from his head. (No son of mine is gonna look sissified!) Although, even with his little trims, his hair was getting completely unmanageable in this raging VA humidity, so I knew it was "time". It would flip out and curl straight up on both sides of his head, as if he were a full-curl Ram! Or a Great-horned Owl. (Lori will know from whom he inherited that trait, but I'm not saying any more about that, and I know the secret is safe with her.) Joe got the clippers out and insisted he didn't need any assistance, muttering something about "years of experience"... I was a TEENSY bit skeptical though, since his idea of a haircut is buzzing his own head with a #2 attachment (it's perfect on him - and it's free!) and I was afraid he wouldn't get Magnus' straight, he'd mess up the top, blah blah blah... (Aren't wives annoying?) All my *teensy* bit of worrying was in vain (again) though, and he got Magnus looking just the way I'd hoped. You rock, Barber-Dad! Do mine too?? Just kidding. It would be great though. Sometimes I get kinda' tired of dealing with all this "glory". =)

17 Months

Here's a sleepy good-morning smile from our 17 month old little man. =)

Horsin' Around

~Joe and E-Z~

~Xena being worked in the round pen~

~Magnus' First Buggy Ride~

~Helping Daddy Drive Jake~

Joe has been getting up early every morning (before Magnus wakes up) and playing with the horses. I have rolled out of bed several mornings to join him in the fun, but I haven't made it EVERY morning like he has! Somehow I just don't have that manly sort of stamina. Jake has not been limping much lately, so we pulled him out of retirement for some light riding/driving. I rode him one morning while Joe rode E-Z (his usual mount). Joe's also been helping with Xena's training, and has worked with her in the round pen several days this week. We've been making great strides with her in the past week, and it's exciting to now officially have another riding horse! I can thank my very own horse whisperer (Joe) for that though, as he is more assertive in his training and helped get her over the "hump" with some things that I was hung up on. Grant it, you wouldn't want to stick your grandma on her just yet, but she's doing great and we're very excited about knowing that we're training her all by our wittle selves!

Wonder Horse is Back!

This thing is HOW old?!

Yeehaw! This is fun!

People who know me well enough already know that I'm terribly sentimental, and have lots of toys and "treasures" from my childhood. (Although, I have to thank my parents for not throwing out some of it before I reached the age of sentimentality.) Well, you people can laugh all you want when you go upstairs and see my stack of boxes, but it's a good thing I hang onto some of that old stuff. Just check out Magnus here enjoying Wonder Horse! This is the same horsie that my brother and I used to ride as little tots. Dad said we used to ride it so hard that it would "walk" across the floor. Magnus is really enjoying some "yeehaw" on that old thing now too!