Flashback Friday

exactly 1 year ago

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for the rain {and a little break from the oppressive heat}. Everything is looking greener and who doesn't love to lay in bed listening to a thunder storm. Yay, God!

Have a great day!

Summer is here & I'm on the mend

Well, summer is here and it's in full swing. YIKES! Currently I spend my mornings running people to this and that like a mad woman trying {often without success} to get everyone to their stuff: band camp, VBS, playdates, day camp, swim team practice. If there were 2 of me, that would be ever so helpful! Maybe it will be more manageable this week, since on top of 7 people needing to be, seemingly, at 65 different places all at the exact same time I was also pretty sick. H1N1 maybe . . . I don't know, {I'm mostly kidding with that one. I don't think that's what I had . . . but you know since it's going around like wildfire around here . . .} but whatever I had it was nasty and lasted about 8 days before it started going way! I'm still not 100% yet, but I'm so much better than I was on any day last week! So I'm optomistic that this week things will be lookin' up! If not, things look like they'll slow down long about the first week of August. Think I can hang in there for 7 more weeks? I'm not sure, I'll have to get back to you on that one. Until then, Mondays and Wednesdays are completely insane and the other 3 days of the {work}week are manageable. Afternoons, thankfully, are blessedly unevently for the most part. Pretty much everyone is home from their stuff by lunch and we can relax and read or play or nap or just hang out at home for the afternoon. Then, you know, Dad gets home and the fun begins all over again!

It seems I often get sick about this time of year. I'm not usually one to get sick too often, but when I do it's usually pretty nasty. The Elliott's may {possibly} remember 5 years ago right about now I was kinda sick . . . did I mention that when we were at your place, guys? I can't remember! John? Do you remember me being a tad bit sick when we were there? Literally in May/June of 2004 I was sick for the better part of a month. It was terrible and I might possibly have mentioned that fact while we were staying with our dear friends the Elliotts in Idaho on our vacation! It may have gone something like this: "I can't believe I have been sick for 16 days now." "Well, you know, I've been sick!" "Do you know I've been sick?" "Honestly, isn't 18 days long enough, already?" I can't say that I remember exactly, but that, I think, is a pretty accurate approximation . . . John, Robin, Rachel, David: feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, the 2009 version of the early summer crud wasn't as bad as the 2004 version, but it still was no fun and I'm so glad to be on the back end of it! Hopefully now I'll be healthy as can be for another 5 years.

I didn't take any pictures this week . . . I was super busy and, did you know that I've been sick? Anyway, I completely forgot to take any on Father's Day too. Shoot! But, we did have a very fun Father's Day celebration at my parent's house yesterday with my brother and his family and my grandma and her sister, my parents {obviously} and all of us! Dads are great! So you can pretend that there is a super cute picture here of Kirbs and our 5 adorable kiddos . . . and maybe a sweet one of me with my dad, too. Oh, and for good measure you can also imagine one of Luke and sweet little Haddon . . . aren't they great pictures? . . . You don't see them?! Honestly people, get some imagination!!

Just for fun though, and visual efffect, here are a couple random pictures that I think are cute:

Flashback Friday

June 2007

Thankful Thursday

I'm so thankful for my washing machine. You can read the story of my washing machine here if you don't already know it.

Kids get extra dirty in the summer {and we have plenty of kids!} and with Rebekah on the swim team and in the pool at least 5 times a week on top of the fact that Anna wears cloth diapers {and we only have enough to last about 2 days} we get TONS of use out of our washing machine. Plus, I'm thankful lately that we've had splendid clothesline weather. I love drying our clothes on the line . . . it makes me feel so domestic, plus they smell all sunshiney, I have to be careful what stuff I put out there though, since Lydia & Jacob both have some seasonal allergies and don't sleep too well on sheets dried among all the pollen and such!

silly boy!

As we were driving along the other day, Joe came up with this extra funny thought. It's so classically "Joe":

I wish we had a big, big, big, big, big white house with an outside upstairs where we could watch fireworks . . . like Ama's

In case you've never noticed, {and you enjoy funny Joe -- and other Stoll kid -- quotes} there is a whole slew of them on the right hand side of the blog. Just scroll down a tad, look right and you'll see 'em. Enjoy!

sweet girl

sometimes you just need a little cry . . . and your sister's necklace!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Roger!

Kirby's dad is 67 today. We love you Grandpa, have a great day and wish we were there to give you a big birthday hug!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday, dear Grandpa!
Happy Birthday to you!

With TONS of love,
Kirby, Shana, Jacob, Rebekah, Lydia, Joey& Anna

Verse 12

Mid June already . . . incredible! I've been reading through Praying the Scriptures for your Children (again) lately. It recently moved from my bedside to the living room, but I'm still trying to read it most days. I got this book as a gift for my 30th birthday (almost 5 years ago) and it's a great one to read again and again! (thanks "grandma" Phyllis!) My chapter this morning (when I was deciding on my second verse for June) was on our children's areas of giftedness and praying that they would use their gifts to serve the Lord and others. I chose this verse to memorize next:

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully admistering God's grace in its various forms. (I Peter 4.10)

If you don't know about my "resolution" to memorize 24 scriptures in 2009 and you want to know what in the world I'm talkin' about, you can check it out here.

A worship?

A little conversation that took place when we were trying to leave the Y this morning:

Joe: I have to get my worship out.
Mom: What?
Joe: I have to get a worship out.
Mom: How do you do that?
Joe (sits down on the sidewalk): Like this. (takes off his shoe and dumps it out, then puts it back on).

. . . ah, I see . . . a woodchip!

Twins, take 2

Anna & Ava meet again {and match . . . again}

School's out for summer!

"I'm finishing 'this' grade today"

"By the end of today I'll be in 'this' grade":
{hopefully, anyhow!}

waiting for the bus:

more waiting:

and they're off:

after school::
{they ALL graduated to the next grade}


Jacob & Mrs. Heille:

Rebekah & Mrs. Kakaliouras:
{it took me pretty much all year, but I think that's spelled right!}

Lydia & Mrs. Norgon:

The whole school staff comes outside and waves goodbye as the busses leave on the last day, it's pretty sweet:

We celebrated with a fun night at Como Town::
Daddy & Anna on the train:

Joe & Jacob drive the engine, Lydia & Sam are in the next car:

Lydia & Sam in line for the cars:

Flashback Friday

June 2006, Falcon Heights 1st grade "graduates" of Mrs. Nelson & Ms. Plathe's class:

A party at the home of a classmate of Jacob's on the last day of first grade . . . she had hats and balloons for everyone and had them march out the front door to "pomp & circumstance".
Here's to the conclusion of 4th grade, 2nd grade & 1st grade . . . and a really fun summer!
Woo hoo!

Thankful Thursday

Hand-me-downs are the best if you ask me. I am so thankful for them. Just the other day I got a great box full of stuff for Anna from my friend Kelli. It was so fun to go through. In there was this great dress that will fit Anna perfectly this fall and winter {it's a tad big right now} and the most fun part was that the big girls had these same dresses a few years back . . . so now I have it in 3 sizes. Anna will probably look back at pictures of her childhood and wonder why she was always wearing the same dress. {I think the other 2 are a size 4 & 5, or something like that, so she'll get at least a couple years off in between this one and those}. Oh well, honey, that's just the life of a 3rd girl in a family . . . especially when the big girls often have matching stuff.

Anna in her "new" dress:

I know it looks like it hurts, but she sat in that position for quite a while.
Babies are bendy . . . that's what I always say!

here we all are in 2005, the girls sportin' their dresses:

So thankful for free clothes . . . and the friends who give them to us!

Twins, take 1

Al called on Saturday night to see what fun, matching outift we were going to put the girls in on Sunday, since their family was coming over for LJ's party. It was the girls first time being all matchy! How fun! {Too bad we couldn't get them to sit next to each other while remaining still and looking at the camera all at the same time . . . oh well! At least you can see that they match, thanks to Al's shopping skills a few months ago which resulted in these cute matching shirts.}

with their loving mommas:
best friends all around!:

Birthday Party

Well, we've had our final birthday party of the spring. We celebrated Lydia's 7th birthday with our family on Sunday afternoon. (She & Fran will spend an afternoon at MOA going on some rides and having lunch one of these days in the near future . . . she chose that over having a "friend party" at home this year).

One of her very fun presents
(paid for by Ama, picked out by her big brother):

The ice cream cake she requested and picked out at DQ
(she wanted the one "with lots of gel", how appetizing!):

What remains of her black eye
(she got kicked in the head standing near the monkey bars the other day at recess and had a nice shiner for her 7th birthday):

Most of the "girls" at the party:
(Ama, me, Anna, GG, Al, Ava, Rebekah & the birthday girl):

After a whirlwind season of celebration (5 kids with birthdays all in 10 weeks) we can sit back and relax for another 42 weeks and then do it all over again (we have 11, 9, 2, 5 and 8 coming up in 2010!)

Happy 7th birthday, LJ!

7 years ago today

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Lydia!
Happy Birthday to you!



This is us 7 years ago tonight. What a crazy time in life! Jacob had just turned 3 and Rebekah was just over 14 months (about Anna's age right now . . . a baby herself!) I was very certain that I was having a boy, but was surprised when I found out that all this time, the baby I had thought of and imagined as Jonah Carl wasn't a boy at all. Rather, he was lacking some important anatomy, making him not a him at all but rather a her! And Lydia had arrived; she keeps us on our toes to this day with many surprises at each turn! Happy Birthday LJ, we love you!

Here is the birthday girl more recently:

As "the little red hen" in her first grade play on Tuesday night:

before school the other morning:

this morning after a sleep over with her best pal, Frances:

Time sure flies!

Flashback Friday

How sweet is she?

Finally a preschool: big girl!

September 2004

Thankful Thursday

I'm so excited (and thankful) for summer! By this time next week school will be out and the kiddos will be free for a few months. I'm excited for the change of pace and to have the kids home more and for all the fun and adventure (and books!) that await us this summer: day camp, swimming, Stoll reunion, swimming, THE STATE FAIR, band camp, more swimming, family camp at Trout, swim team, bike rides, swimming, reading and more swimming! Whoo hoo!

Jacob's TV debut

See if you can find Jacob in this news story from last night. (The 2-second interview was with Jacob's buddy, Andrew. Jacob said they interviewed him, too, but I guess he didn't make the cut).
Way to go, Falcon 4th graders!

Verse 11

Welcome to June! I've been reading through Praying the Scriptures for your Children (again) lately. I keep it by my bed and try to tackle a chapter a day. I got it as a gift for my 30th birthday (almost 5 years ago) and it's a great one to read again and again! Since I'm focusing on praying for my kiddos (and praying more in general, too), I am going to focus on this verse for the first half of June:

Never give up praying. And when you pray, keep alert and be thankful. (Colossians 4.2, Contemporary English Version)

I pretty much have had it memorized in the NIV (Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful) for a while now . . . except I never knew the reference . . . so I was looking at other versions and really like the way it was written in the Contemporary English Version, so that's the one I'm going to work on. (I also liked the NASB which said, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving" but I don't want to confuse myself, so I'll just go with the CEV)

If you don't know about my "resolution" to memorize 24 scriptures in 2009, you can check it out here.