eat sleep and farm

Our Pastor's wife Angela {I posted about her colon cancer several weeks back} went into premature labor with her 4th son, Samuel Thomas, and he passed away just a couple hours later. Angela is in critical condition and needs your prayers. Please visit this link for more details.

Time flies when you have a house full of company and a packed schedule full of summer activities. My in-laws were here, followed by a week of VBS and fun with friends, followed by a week with my parents visiting. The victims from the Colorado shooting are on my mind a lot these days; how their families are coping and dealing with such a tragic thing. I hope to remember to pray for them all, long after the news stop covering it. Political conversations are all around us. I find them all pretty lame and probably because I don't care for either man in the running. Its really the first year I pretty much don't care. Kind of feels nice. One thing I will say is, Obama hasn't been trained to speak well in public, but he sure has been trained how to throw out good insults. And that's all I say. Miles is either growing or teething or both. He is pretty miserable when I'm not holding him and isn't sleeping well anymore. I can't complain though. Not sleeping well

Dear Rachel,  Here I am writing you a letter on the eve of your 6th birthday. How did six years go by so fast? How did my little, chubby, first daughter become such a tall, confident big girl? You are tall. People tell us that everywhere we go - "Wow! She's not a twin to your son? She's SO tall!" I'm doing my best to keep up with your journal and take notes here and there to remember these amazing days of your youth. You still can't say your 'R's' and a few weeks back you heard a little girl {on our Steve Green CD} with the same speech accent as you and you said, "oh! so that's what I sound like. Interesting!" :) We all laughed out loud at that one. You have a very good sense of humor and tell pretty awesome knock-knock jokes. You make up fun stories and entertain Kara at bedtime with them. There's always a princess, always a scary scenario and always Daddy {the Prince} saves the day at the end. You love to play 

We took Grandpa and Grandma into Seattle the day they went home and we had SO much fun! It was a beautiful day and we packed it full of our favorite things to do.  Ethan loves Seattle ;-)   best.crab. ever .  laying on his changing mat while we eat lunch.     I love the way he looks like he's admiring Grandma's food :)    our favorite lunch spot.

If you're on FB and friends with me on FB then you know that I posted about our Pastor and his wife about a week ago. I'll give a quick background here for those of you who don't know... Our Pastor {Thomas} and his wife {Angela} found out a week+ ago that Angela has stage 3 colon cancer, while 17 weeks pregnant with their 4th son. A website has been created for them to leave updates, prayer requests and a place for donations to be made. I wanted to share that with you all, since I know many of you are already praying.  I linked their website on the right hand side of my blog. Its titled "Hurst Family {our Pastor}" Please be praying for them. The power of prayer is stronger than anything else. Thanks.

 this year we brought 4th of July into our backyard.  Since it landed on the night our Community Group meets,  we had everyone over to our house for BBQ and festivities.  Because we were actually the ones setting off fireworks, I don't have  any pictures from late in the night.  But I can tell you we had fun.  S'mores were roasted,  fireworks were set off  and fun memories were made.  saw this idea in Martha Stewart Living and loved it. They were so yummy!     the infamous zip-line.    Kara, setting off one of her first sparklers!  this is what I call martial bliss.  husband + wife, deeply in love.  {a.k.a Nick & Ally}

   We started off the 4th of July greeting this cutie boy's smile.  He flashes smiles at Daddy every morning, on his way to work.  Jason says all is right in the world when he sees it :)   We enjoyed breakfast at our favorite joint and then a trip to     Mercer Island Park in our patriotic clothes.   There's a song I've heard on the radio that has made me cry.  Its a country song {somewhere Jason is cringing} and a couple verses in particular get me.  They pull at my heart.  When I see pictures like this, I think of those verses in that song.  Remember when the sound of little feet  Was the music we danced to week to week Remember when thirty seemed so old Now lookin' back, it's just a steppin' stone To where we are, where we've been Said we'd do it all again Remember when Remember when we said when we turned gray When the children grow up and move away We won't be sad, we'll be glad

Jason's parents visited us last week!  The kids were counting down the days to their arrival like it was Christmas :)  This was their first time meeting Miles...   I think he was happy to meet them too.      "I'm your Grandpa!"     his onsie says "Team Grandpa"     a relative on Grandpa's side of the family made pillow cases for the kids!    Grandpa & Grandma sing songs...