Lily & Violet

Hannah had to say good-bye to her first best friends.  Lily and Violet have been with her for just about everything, literally since they were born.  The girls are two weeks apart from each other.  Before they moved, we had them over for a few playdates:

Snowcones and making our own pizzas!

The girls have been wanting a sleepover for awhile.  We didn't make it all night, but we tried...

I made a photo book for all of the girls to keep.  Here are a few pics showing the girls' history:

 

It's not easy to say good-bye.  We will really miss them at church, and Hannah will especially miss them at school this fall, I'm sure.  We are praying that they do well ministering in Iowa, where God has called them.

4th of July

My dad got us a flag for Christmas which we finally made a point to get up for the 4th of July!  

Taking pictures of 4 kids including a 4 month old is harder than with three:

Aunt Courtney got Aleah this outfit for Aleah which is oh-so-fitting, "Miss Independent":

We had a fun dinner at my parents' house on the 4th and played some games:

Aleah crashed:

We sat with the Rancurets at fireworks in Homer that night:

Happy 4th!

Jacob: Braves T-Ball

Jacob played T-ball and was on the Braves once again this year.  Uncle Jordan head coached, and Josh helped out.  He got to play with cousin Landon:

He had lots of family come to watch him.  Great Uncle Art was at the first game:

Papa Steve was at almost every game and even got to play catcher at the last one:

Grandma Jody came to a couple of games and took us out for pizza afterwards:

Aleah hung out with Liam in Lydia's stroller seat:

Jacob loves T-ball.  He has a nice swing.  He hit the ball well all year.  I'm very proud of him!  I hope he continues to love the game like his daddy!

Father's Day

We did Josh's Father's Day on Saturday this year.  I made breakfast, we went to see Finding Dory and ate at Buffalo Wild Wings, and we got him a fire pit and everything to make s'mores:

I have especially been thinking lately that Josh Downing has to be one of the best dads ever.  He ALWAYS has time to play with his kids, even after a long day at work.  He does a family devotion and prays with the kids every night.  Not to mention the fact that he works hard every day so that I can be home with them.  I am so thankful that he's in this with me!  I absolutely couldn't do it without him.

12 Year Anniversary

Josh and I celebrated 12 years of marriage this year!  Emily and Keith kept the three older ones while we took Lucas to dinner with us at the Possum Trot.  Our date was on June 4th, which was 12 years exactly to the date of when our rehearsal dinner was there!

We've celebrated our anniversary several times with a baby; this just might be the last time!  Isn't he sweet?  He was a good dinner companion.

Josh got me flowers for our anniversary and is looking into getting me a smartphone of some sort.  I had a metal print made of one of our wedding pictures for him.  It was one from our proof book that we had never done anything with, but I have always really liked it.  Josh loved it way more than I expected him to, which made me really happy!  (Notice the cute baby in the bottom right of the picture, haha!)

Happy Anniversary, Josh!  Here's to a several dozen more!