Team Osborn - first football practice

With flag football season starting in a couple of weeks Daddy and Nolan spent the day catching long passes and sweating under those manly football pads. Abigail was the cheerleader tonight until she decided she shouldn't have to sit and watch and she decided to play too. Barefoot and in her pajamas she was a tough bird. I realize most people think the "M" on the helmet looks like a U of Michigan helmet. HOWEVER. It is a MATTAWAN helmet, the town where we live. I'm sure everyone saw the Notre Dame jersey he has on I just wanted to clarify those who were wondering if we switched teams.  NO!  :) LETS GO IRISH!

SET!

HUT!  GO! GO! GO!

This is hard to see but this was a REALLY long pass that Nolan caught all the way across the yard!  I'm zoomed in of course so the picture doesn't do it any justice.  Nolan and Dad call that play the "Golden Tate"

Cheerleader Abigail!!  Cheering "Lets go Nolan" from the front stoop!

In the huddle with Dad.

Cheerleading is for the birds, she wanted to play some ball!!!  SET!  HUT!!

Abigail was spiking the ball here. :)

My big guy, a sweaty mess! 

Summer Fun

Fun on the swings!  They are swingin' ALL the time!

Noodle Time! 

Swimming again, and again, and again......

I'm not sure what's going on here.  The bedding is missing on the bottom bunk and they were laughing the hardest I had ever heard them in Nolan's room!

First dentist appointment!  No crying!   YEAH!

This is my little shopper ready to go with her purse on her shoulder.  When we arrived home these were the goofy 2 boys waiting in the driveway to take in the groceries. :)  Notice on the tan lines on both of them :)

My sweet Logan asleep on the picnic table. :)  Yes, on top of the table :)

My hammock :)  So peaceful :)

My peaceful view from the hammock.  So tranquil.  So quiet.

It didn't last long, I had a couple of kids that wanted to snuggle :)

And my hubby did too!

Then the ticklers came and the peace was over. :)

Once Lizzy started coughin on all the sticks she was eating.   Hammock time was over at that point. :)

Well the summer seems to have lasted forever for us.  I think it's because we've been in hot weather since March!  But I admit the last month has absolutely FLOWN by.  It's hard to believe in a month we will be returning to our fall activities and school will be ready to start again.   It has been SOOO nice to have all 4 of us to just enjoy each other.

Abigail had her first doctor and dentist appointment this week.  NOT FUN :(  Well it was fine until the point of 4 shots!  She SCREAMED at the TOP of her lungs as we had to hold her down, it was horrible.  Ouch!  Poor girl has to go back in August for 5 more.  But she was brave.  The part that touched our hearts the most was when she was in there getting her shots Nolan had to wait in the hallway.  When Jason went out in the hall he was crying his eyeballs out.  He just felt SOOOOO bad for Abigail because she was hurting.  I have such a soft hearted kind boy.  He has such a kind and caring soul and I'm so proud of him.  He just loves that little sister of his so much.

Tonight was the first night I made it out to my hammock to relax.  I used to use it a lot but this summer I've not made the time to get away and do that.  It's so relaxing, I Just love it out there!  I was looking at our yard and our house and I just feel so blessed to have all that we do.  We are so fortunate.  I am sometimes embarrassed at all that we have knowing people out there have nothing.  Ahhhh.....still trying to re-enter. 

I posted some pictures of our summer fun adventures.  I think all but 3 days we have been in the pool everyday.  My kids are like little guppies swimming around now.  Abigail puts on her floaties and away she goes!  Nolan took 3 classes of swimming this winter and I can't believe how well he's doing!  It's just been so fun.  Abigail is riding her bike by herself now too so that's fun for the kids to do together. 

Today Abigail and I went to Sam's Club for some shopping.  She is quite the shopper.  She had her little purse and checked the items off the list, then she neatly stuffs the receipts in her purse.  She just thinks that's the BEST time and feels like a really big girl helping.  She loves to shop!  That's not gonna be good when she's a teenager!

I was excited to see my kids get up in the front of church today and participate in all the activities they learned at vacation bible school.  So I'm closing with a bible verses that they acted out and recited this week.

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.  Genesis I:27

I am humbled.

Blessing this week!

Heather

On the mend.......Still

Just when I think I can add more activity to my day my feet say NO WAY.

There was another POP in my foot on Tuesday so once again I'm back to as little activity as possible and no weight on my foot.  So I'm laying around once again.  I actually have made it a habit of falling asleep on my pool floaty as there seems to be not much else I can do right now!

We are leaving for vacation in 9 days.  My kids can HARDLY wait.  The constant questions and excitement have filled our house.  I'm staying off my feet as much as possible because almost everything we are doing involves walking on vacation.  I'm just praying for healing.  Just when life gets hectic I think it's God's way of saying ENOUGH!  I've heard rumors that my feet can take up to a year to completely heal.  As discouraging as that sounds I am also grateful at the fact that they WILL heal.

Can't wait to spend time with my family and all the nieces and nephews.  It's been over 2 years so it's a well needed reunion.  This is the first official Osborn family vacation so we are SOOO excited.  Jason and I vowed that we would never upgrade our home but we will be taking vacations every year.  I want that to be something my kids look forward to and remember every year.  Who knows, next year we might be back in Uganda for vacation. :)

A dear friend of ours told us today that he has cancer.  We were heart broken.  I don't feel at liberty to share who this person is yet but any prayers directed this way for him would be much appreciated.  When I am tempted to complain about my feet I am reminded as the things I DON'T have to deal with right now and I am eternally grateful for that.

The kids went to Vacation Bible School this week and had a blast.  Abigail was a little apprehensive at first because mom and dad were leaving her somewhere but she soon realize how fun the 2 hours would be when we were gone.

Jason and I took advantage of those two hours.  We have had any alone time or date night time since March 2nd.  So we planted ourselves in a coffee house (our favorite thing to do) and spent some nice  time chatting with my best friend.  With NO kids.  It felt VERY strange!

The summer continues to fly by, I am amazed everyday that Abigail is home with us.  We are so proud of her and so grateful that God has blessed us so much.  We have all that we need.

I will get more pictures posted when I get them downloaded!!!!

Tigers Game

I literally found out this news as I was preparing this post.  There was a bombing in Kampala, Uganda today that killed 64 people.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/af_uganda_explosions  My stomach sank when I read this because it was at a restaurant called the Ethiopian Restaurant that was only about a 3 minutes drive from our guest house.  We drove by it everyday, in fact one night planned to eat there but never did.  I feel so sad for my Ugandan friends and I'm asking everyone to please keep them in their prayers.  I can't even begin to tell you how glad that Jason and Abigail are home right now.  It feels so strange to read about this place!  It was right near where we stayed, we ate at restaurants next door! I'm praying that God will be with them as they endure this horrible tragedy. 

OK, so here's what I wrote and the pictures I posted before I found out this sad news......

Well we took our first venture as a family out of town this weekend to a Tiger's game in Detroit.  Jason and I have SOOOO many Delta air miles that we decided that instead of using them on airfare we'd use them on hotels and take a few weekend getaways this summer.  It was SO nice and SO exciting for the kids.

It's funny because even though the kids swim everyday in our pool at home they were still excited to go to the hotel and go swimming in the outdoor pool!  Both the pools are the same depth but I think there's just something about being in a hotel that is fun for kids. 

We took in the Tigers game, GO TIGERS, ate, swam and had a good ol pillow fight. My kids love the song Jesus Freak by DC Talk so we were jammin to that the whole way up. It was so fun.


I posted plenty of pictures!!!

Such a tired girl. She fell asleep in the 5th inning.

She was really out here, she curled right up and slept

4th of July

First Day of Church!! 

More boat riding in the pool!!

Waiting for fireworks!

First fingernail polish!

And toes!

And Nolan's toes too!

Awww....these are my other favorite girls.  Not sure why Lizzy has her tongue on in both pics but it was too cute not to put it in!

Happy Belated 4th of July to all!

What an awesome weekend for our family.  We finally got to settle down and spend some well needed time for the 4 of us.  We honestly spent almost every second of the weekend in the pool.  It was in the 90's here so we're all looking MIGHTY tan!!

Abigail enjoyed her first set of fireworks (See pictures).  She literally watched them with her mouth open.  She was amazed.  We watched fireworks with our friends the Parans and it was a blast.  We grilled out ate, swam, ate again, swam, pretty much the whole weekend.  Abby played football with the boys

Our dear friends the Brokemas brought us chicken enchiladas so I got an evening off from cooking tonight!  That was SO SO SO nice.  We've just been going a hundred miles an hour the last 2 weeks!

Tonight Abigail got her nails and toenails polished.  She giggles through the whole things because it ticklers her so much.  Nolan didn't want to be left out so he got the smiley faces :)  Dad's not really excited when nail polish gets on his boy but he'll have to live with that. :)  And as for my toes, Nolan wanted the honor of polishing them.  I might not have enough nail polish remover to solve this issue but I love them because he and Abby both RAVED about what an amazing job he did!!!

Jason and I are just kicking back and enjoying life.  It really doesn't get any better than this!  We're anxiously awaiting our vacation to Minnesota in August for a week so my side of the family can meet Abigail.  We decided to meet there so it's not as far for everyone.  Nolan and Abigail can hardly wait to play with cousins.  We're also stopping in the Wisconsin Dells for the 3 of us to have some well needed vacation time of train rides, fishing and water slides!  We can hardly wait!  It's been almost 3 years since I've been home to North Dakota and even though we're meeting in Minnesota it feels good to finally be heading west.  I taught Abigail how to say OH YAH YOU BETCHA!  Nolan was so excited to hear the Mall of America has a Lego Land that we had to establish rules about how many times a day he's allowed to ask about it. :)  There is a limit of 7 times.

God is good in every way and we are praising him for this amazing time that we have together right now.   Jason and I were talking about our next adoption and our next trip to Africa.  We sure do miss Africa and are looking into options after retirement!  Abigail and Nolan both said they'll move with us and help kids. :)  It was cute.