Krissy is 2 and is as sweet as can be.

The lighting was off but had fun trying to get a good pic.

Mom Krissy got your card all the way from Maine.

Thank you, love and miss you.

Krissy came into the room and looked around and then all she wanted was....

the balloon!

Daddy scooped her up and we lit the candles. She sang happy birthday to herself but was not sure what to do with the candles so Daddy and Krissy practiced on a pin wheel.

This is more fun then I know what to do with.

Krissy loves to bedazzle with her Daddy. They are working on a picture frame.

Aaron is showing off some of the things he got for party favors.

I like my new hat and all the cloths were ok too.

Krissy this is how you do it.

A talking turtle. How neat!

Every time she riped the wrapping paper she would say "owe". It was too cute.

Randa paid to much for this horse and Krissy wouldn't have anything to do with it.

She wanted her talking turtle back. Look at all that confusion. There are 9 people in the pic. all talking or doing something different.

How does the talking turtle work? Push this button and the light comes on, see.

I was cleaning up the kitchen and heard something in dinning room, I quick ran for the camera and got a pic of our 3 little ones playing so good together.

Krissy loves the new doll house thanks Grandma and Grandaddy.

Krissy is now officially two! She has had her cake.

Monday I had to have Daniel in Macon for an infection on his thumb. The dr. thinks it is molluscam warts gone crazy. His hand was black and hurt to move all the way down to his wrist. I considered taking him to the emergency room with it on Sunday. But then they would not know his case and it was best to wait for Dr. Provisor to take a good look at it. He stepped up Daniels antibiotics to a crazy amount and a week later it is looking much better.

On Tuesday I had to go to the OBGYN and had some disturbing news that I have a prolapsed uterus and will have to have a hysterectomy on Nov. 1. It's wild how hard this is to hear even though I have been sure for a while that this is what was going on, but to hear it for certain makes me sad. There are a few other things that have to be fixed while he is operating and all I keep thinking is this is something for old lady's not me. Ha Ha Ha. When I went shopping for Krissy's birthday I looked at all the baby things and said, "It will be so fun when we have grandchildren." Trying to convince myself that it's going to be ok. I know it will. There is a season and a time for everything.

On Wednesday I had to have Suzanne, David's Mom, up at the hospital here in Dublin for a heart cauterization. It was going to be on an in out bases. When the dr. got in there he looked around and decided we needed to get her to Macon where they could take a look at her and get a bypass. She was whisked off in an ambulance and David and I followed behind in the car. She ended up having a double bypass and today got out of CVICU on to the step down floor. She is doing great from the operation but is in great discomfort and lots of anxiety.

So a quick post about our week at the dr. and at the hospital with Suzanne. The children have been great and doing their school work with Mary. Krissy's is now two years old and I don't know when we will be able to have a party to celebrate. I so love birthday parties. Grandaddy is taking the children fishing a few at a time. Stephen and Aaron caught over 40 fish and they gave them away to someone who was going to have a fish fry. I hope Lawre, Daniel, and Sarah have as much luck. They will have a good time even if they don't catch any fish.

Thanks for your prayers.

Toinia

"Camp Sunshine"

Here we come!

First we have to get this and everyone else in the van.

Krissy taking a nap in the van

1st morning at camp and the kids all just jumped in and played together

After breakfast everyone made a family flag.

I thought it would be cute to get every one's pic. in front of their bunks.

Look between Mary and James and you will see cute little feet.

James took Stephen and Aaron over to the tree house to their class.

Mary took Sarah and Daniel to the media room for their class.

David and I took the 2 little ones to the little peoples class and had a blast.

David traced the children on the ground with chalk.

Krissy

Kiare was one of my special little friends.

We both have our birthday's in Sept.

Daddy and Krissy worked a long time bedazzled a Mountain Dew holder.

Daddy wouldn't take a million for it.

Lawre loves to paint.

Look who is bedazzled.

James doing the wave

Nap time

Daddy and Aaron fell asleep

The rest of us waited for the time to pass.

Mary and James were off doing what ever the big kids were doing.

I tried to turn this pic but, it is as goofy as Daniel is.

Saturday at Camp Sunshine.

It was a great time with the family.

Saturday afternoon.

Daddy had his nap while we all watched and waited for the time to quickly go by so we could get out there and have more fun. James and Mary were hanging out up at the gym.

Daniel liked finding treasures in the dirt. James was a good sport with all the children. There was all kinds of children coming up to James to have him play and help them. Earlier this day James helped organize games with a group of children and from then on they just all loved him.Mary helped Lawre. She was such a big help for the whole weekend. Thanks Mary for all you do but most for who you are. Love you.
Aaron said, "there's gold in these here hill's" Then he checked it to see if it was real. I cringed at all the germs. Hand sanitizer yes but in the mouth. Ugh!
When we got done Mining for Gold we went to the Put-Put. David and Lawre teed off first. Then I was with Daniel, Sarah, and Aaron, James was with Stephen and Mary was pushing Krissy who was still asleep in her stroller. Mary was keeping score and that was wild. Daddy would call out I got 2 on hole 8 and Lawre got 3 on 8, in the mean time I was trying to tell her what we got on hole 7 and so forth and so on. In the end I think all of us except Daddy got one hole in one. It was the hardest course we have ever seen. It was a full 18 holes. Lawre like the last one cause his ball went threw a hole in the wall and came out on the other side. He had to do that one a few times. We were loud but had lots of fun playing put-put. We didn't have time to take pic. but Mary left the camera there. When we got done with put-put we realized that if we didn't run we would be late for our wall climbing appointment at 3:30. These two activities couldn't be more apart. We had to jog across the hole camp to make it on time. The helpers took the children who were going to climb and quickly had them harnessed up. Daniel and up climbed and all reached the top and rang the bell. The guy at the bottom helped a little. Stephen and James raced and Stephen was in the lead until right at the end Stephen slipped and James rung the bell.

The climbing wall is not far from the Tree House. The children couldn't wait to show me it. We raced over to it just in time for drum lessons. This was the biggest class of 13 playing along learning how to play Camp--sun--shine on the drums. Sarah, Daniel, and Mary had a class earlier that day and they showed us how to do it. The tree house is so neat. There are trap doors, grass on the roof, slides, porches, grass on the roof, and a tire swing all made for all the children to enjoy.
While we finished out drum lesson David took the little ones and Mary on the long nature trail around one of the lakes. On the way they saw some cool statues. One was like a snake that a ball rolls around. I could never describe it like David told me so next time we will have a picture. We missed snack but made it back for the scavenger hunt.

For the scavenger hunt that took place between 5:00-5:45 we ran all over the camp trying to find everything. While I was looking for animal tracks down by the lake I took a pic of the duck that Aaron said his name was Herman. At lunch Aaron had snuck some bread in his pocket but Mom saw him and when asked what it was for he said to feed Herman. A counselor heared him and said he couldn't feed him cause he bites. The scavenger hunt was right up our alley. We had two list and we split up and looked everywhere for everything. I dug up a worm in the woods and James took the stuffed squirrel out of the tree house. Loved it!!!! We were the first losers. Sort of like coming in second but David wanted to be first.
Between 7:15 - 8:30pm David and I took Sarah, Daniel, Lawre, and Krissy back to the cabin to clean up a little and rest before the camp fire. The rest went to the show. After wrestling around a little we settled down to watch a movie.
We meet up with James, Mary, Stephen, and Aaron after they got out from the creative arts building with Mr. Tone. Mr. Tone is a clown that does magic tricks and gets everyone involved with his act. At one point he had some kids and adults on the stage. Well, he called James up and he was on the adult side. Mr. Tone had the kids toss Cheese it's at the adults and if the adults could not catch them in their mouth then the adult had to bark like a seal. When it was James' turn he caught the cracker and by doing so then he got to put a pie in a child's face. Yup, a cream pie right in the middle of his face. On our walk to the fire pit I heard a Dad laugh and say that's James the one who smashed and I don't mean a little bit of pie in that kids face. Ha Ha Ha. Can you imagine the surprise of it all. I wish I had gotten that on film. Needless to say the kids totally loved the show. It is a long walk between the two lakes and then down by the rock wall and over to the fire pit but it was so beautiful of a walk that I just loved it. The stars were out and they had taken bags and cut out pumpkins on them and put a tea candle in the middle to light the way down our long path. (Karen dose that sound familiar.) When we got close to the arena at Turtle Cove there was solar lights lighting up the rest of the way. The children also had flashlights and they liked that a lot too.

I know this is a little blurry it is but I just love this pic. Sarah and Matt are playing rock, scissors, paper while the rest are waiting patiently for everyone to get here.
Michelle is giving us directions on how the smores are to be made with like 200 people. In a few min. a lot of helpers showed up down front and it was very organized, fun, and yummy.

Krissy likes hers.

Each child went up front and cooked their own marshmallow. Then they went over to the table and got it put together. Finally they ate it all gone. While they were still making marshmallows Justin started to play music. It wasn't long before everyone was singing, clapping, stomping their feet or jumping around. It was a cool, crisp, dark, night with the stars out so bright that it made it so that you just wanted to stay out all night and enjoy it, but...

Daddy set our alarm for 6am so we could be dressed packed and have the van all loaded. He didn't want our stuff out on the front porch and have to have the cart with the trailer take it up to the parking lot. So Him and the boys I think Mary made some trips walked it up and it was a long walk to the van. Stephen is on the top bunk, Aaron under, then Sarah with Krissy beside Mary who is snuggled under the sleeping bag. Wake up you sleepy heads.

Daniel all cuddly and warm

Lawre sleeps as hard as he plays.

Early Sunday Morning we walked out between the two lakes. The dock in the back ground is where the children went fishing Saturday morning. Aaron caught 3 fish and was given a blue bandanna to wear to show that he caught the fish. After you caught the fish you had to give it a kiss and throw it back in. Lawre has a bandanna on that we got when we were doing the scavenger hunt. I needed a fish so I went to the fishing dock and they gave me a bandanna

with a picture of a fish on it.

This is the proof that we were early for breakfast. The children started off with cereal and then we had pancakes and sausage. We ate good. After everyone got to breakfast we said the blessing and then they sang happy birthday to David and a little boy. Well, Kelli said for David to stand up and he said "NO" she said she would make him and he said go a head. She jumped up and he stood up. Kelli won.

I always feel like we are such a big family that we are odd and don't fit in but at this camp everyone made everyone feel welcome. It was good for us and a good lesson for us also. After breakfast was over I talked with a home school mom Kelli who has 3 precious daughters and a sweet little baby boy Abe. Her and her husband Mike have been on a tough journey with the Lord but say they are stronger and closer with him and each other. PG. Her strength is just amazing and what a testimony she has for Christ. I hope David and I will be able to go to one of the monthly meetings and get a chance to visit with the family more. This weekend was so packed that if I could change anything it would be a few min. on the last day to visit more. There was Sarah, Cofer's, Mom who I have read about. It was so good to meet in person. We will try to catch up with them when we are in Macon. There were family's that we have talked to a little bit in CHOPs, how good to see them laughing and playing not sitting with worry by their baby's bed. The Reynolds family from right here in Dublin. With the patient confidentiality laws you can hardly find out anything. Their daughter Shakema has had treatments right where Daniel gets his and we didn't even know we were from the same town.

After breakfast was over we went over to the media room to say our good buys and to watch a slide show of all the pic. Ms. Jane took for the weekend. She captured the best moments on film. Defiantly a Kodak moment. Major high light! It was amazing how much we did and how much time we spent

Michelle was the camp directer for the week and she was fantastic.

She loves circles.

She gave us all a piece of yarn that we gave to someone in our family to tell them what we think they did special or what we were proud off for the weekend. It gave us a min. to reflect on the time together and to see how we each had gained from our experience with Camp Sunshine.

This is the blessing they say before every meal. I think it is off of Johnny Appleseed.

This is sort of like watching star war out of order. I will post the morning of Saturday tomorrow. We had such a blast and have learned so much about our selves and each other. Thanks for dropping in and having a peak at a weekend in our life is like.