Zachs first lost tooth

Zachary lost his first tooth today. He has been way excited every day that it got a little more loose. So finally I asked Mike to check it out. He was just going to pull it, but no, you know my husband, he has to be a little crazy. So he tied a piece of floss to Zach's tooth and held the other end.  Then he asked Zach if he was ready and counted down and yanked.  BAM! Out flew his tooth across the room. It was kind of fun and luckily Mike had put a little numbing stuff on Zach before he did it. The root was really long so it did a nice number on Zach's gums and lip on the way out. Zach took it pretty good, but I don't think that he realized that it was going to bleed like it did, it scared him at first. But then he was fine about it and he loves it. I love the first picture, that was just right after it was pulled, the look on his face is priceless! He really loved when the tooth fairy came that night. Man, he is growing up so fast, I can't believe that he has already lost his first tooth!!!

Chilling on the deck

Here the kids are having fun and enjoying a popsicle on the deck.

Say cheese! 

I love this picture of Tyler, it shows his true sweet side.

I thought this one of Henry was so funny.  Mike just
stuck him in the seat and he just sat there!  It was so funny,
he stayed there for like 5 minutes just watching everyone.

Popsicle envy...

Goof balls, but we love them!

Henry 3 months old

Yes, I know, I am a little slow with this. Especially since he turns 4 months old in three days. Oh well, better late than never, right. Henry is such a blessing. He is just so happy and fun. He just smiles all the time, especially when you talk to him or just when he looks at you. He also talks, okay babbles, all day long when he isn't sleeping. I love it! I truly am blessed to have four such wonderful children.

Oh boy Ike!

Well, I didn't think much about Ike except to worry about those that we know that were in the path and praying for them. I had noticed on the news that it was heading this way, but I didn't think much of it. The projected path had moved over supposedly missing us, and I figured that by the time that Ike got clear up here in Ohio it wouldn't be much more then a little tiny storm. Boy was I wrong. On Sunday afternoon the wind started blowing. Next thing we knew, peoples trees were blowing over, siding off of houses, our rain gutter blew off, etc.. Then, no power. It went out at about 3:00 and we didn't think much of it. It came back on about an hour later and we were excited. But then at about 5:30 it went out again. Still not thinking much of it and just thinking that it would come back on soon, we made dinner on the grill. Then the missionaries came to see if we were all okay. And we were, minus the power problem. They told us that a lot of people were with out power and that they had seen a lot of trees down on cars and also a bunch of power lines broken in half, on the way to our house. Great! It had been a pretty hot day so we decided to bunker down in the basement for the night so that it would be cooler. So we dragged all the kids stuff and ours down stairs. Luckily we had a few candles, a wind-up flashlight, and a wind-up lantern that my mom had given us. (thank goodness) So it was a long dark night, Henry didn't like it at all. The next morning was Alyssa's birthday, which was kind of fun because Mike was suppose to work from 10 - 9 and we thought it would be nice to be able to have him home. Well, they did cancel Zach's school, but as for Mike's work, nope. Half of the city that he was working in had power so they made him come in. To say the least, I wasn't too happy having to spend the day with out power taking care of the kids and doing Alyssa's birthday all alone.
Anyway, that morning we found out that about 1 million people in Columbus were without power. So Mike went out and found some of the last ice in town and bought Alyssa a cake (since I couldn't bake her one like I had planned). And he tried to find a generator, no luck around here so he ran home and got us and we headed to Costco, but nope, they were only letting the Executive members in to buy them. So then he had to go to work and realized that Sears would have one and he could get in before everyone else. I was so glad, but then of course he gets there and goes in. All they had were five generators and the mean people said that the customers take precedent over employees (although Mike isn't really their employee). Oh well, another miss. So I just headed home. The day wasn't too bad, but for some reason the kids were bouncing off the walls. For dinner we decided to take Alyssa to McDonald's. So after driving around for about an hour to find one that had power, it was so hit or miss around here, we finally found one. Then luckily Mike got off a little early so he was home by 7:00. I had been praying pretty hard all day, as had most of our families for us. At about 6:35, right after we got home from McDonald's, BAM! the power came back on. I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I know a little dramatic, but if you have been without power for two days you will know how it felt. Today I realized how much I love electricity. We rely on it way too much. I also realize though how blessed we truly are. It could have been a lot worse than it was. We didn't loose any trees, nothing came off the house beside the one rain gutter and it didn't even break so can be easily put back on, we still had water, only the ice cream in the freezer got ruined we saved everything else, and no one we know got hurt. I truly am thankful that we were being watched over. Some people in the city still don't have power and I feel so bad for them. Well, I just thought I would let everyone know our fun adventure. Be grateful for that load of laundry, load of dishes in the dishwasher and the light the next time you turn them on...

Our first house

I am finally posting some pictures of our house. Well, the outside anyway.

Our backyard

This is a picture from our road.  Yeah, I know, the tree hides most of it.
We also want to paint the door and shutters black one of these days.

The view from our back deck