Happy 5th Birthday Laura Jean!!

 

Well, the time has finally come. We no longer have a 'baby' in the house!  Our big-little girl has turned 5 years old. She is such a blessing in our home. Always smiling and blessing us with her even personality and temperament. She and Grace are the best of friends- many times reminding us of yesteryear when Ashley & Amanda were growing up as sweet little girls together. Laura loves bugs of any kind and, if missing, can most likely be found somewhere in the yard, flat on her tummy inspecting some creature or wild flower in the grass. She really likes baby dolls and ladybugs. We are so blessed that God allowed us this one last little one. She truly holds a special place in all our hearts.

 

Mama made Laura a dress & matching dress for her doll also!

It is such a blessing that she was so excited about such a little gift. We never regret the change we made many years back.. scaling way back on birthdays and gifts. We love to only give one gift and a special cake, made from the siblings and a choice of dinner, made by mama.

"look Grant!"

 

Now its time to open her dress

It doesn't take long before she is out to show us all her dress

...and thank mama

Ashley & Amanda made this lovely lemon meringue pie, at Laura's request.. Grant helps Ashley light the candles! The missing guest was brother Ryan who is, as I write, working long hours at his summer job. Glad it is only 5 weeks! We miss having him here for family times! :-)

 

 

    Happy Birthday Laura Jean!!!! We LOVE you!

Friendly Reunions!

We were so blessed to have the Beutler ladies come over for a visit. It had been 7 long years since we had seen each other. During the visit, Amy and I realized that we have known one another for over 20 years! Where do the years go?

Tessie and Laura had so much fun together!

They seemed to enjoy meeting the farm animals

Peeking at the baby bunnies

 

The last time we had seen the Beutlers, Katie B. & Grace were babies!

 

Tessie loves the baby filly

 

 

 

It was so fun to see these guys together again. Amy and I always enjoyed taking group shots of them when they were all young. She and I shared a love for scrapbooking back in the late 90's..

 

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The Seben Children

We were so excited to hear that our friend Jake Sebens was home for a visit from Belize. Grady was driving that day so he was able to meet us at Burger King in Chehalis on his way back from Seattle. We had a wonderful time of catching up with Jake and two of his sisters who came along also.

 

Grady pulls in. It was a blessing that he was able to meet us too..

 

We were so excited that Jake had remembered to bring us the Belizean ricado and Marie Sharp hot sauce! :-)

                               
                                                                             Group Shot!

 

Family Fun & Fish Fry!

This year we were able to take advantage of Oregon's free fishing day. Anyone, with or without a license was able to enjoy fishing around the State for free! The Kings had heard of a nearby stocked pond at a hatchery where they were allowing visitors to come and catch a limit of 5 trout per person, young and old. It was a pretty hot day- maybe 96 degrees out!

We enjoyed the only shady spot as we looked on

 

 

We watched the bigg'uns swimming in and out of the culvert. The biggest fish were smart and stayed in the middle of the stocked pond

 

Ashley was the first to catch her limit! The locals  who were also fishing kept saying things like "that girl over there caught ANOTHER one!" It was hysterical. Everyone in our party agreed that we all had such great success catching fish because of the specialty power bait that Ryan had brought.

Very serious business!

Jonathan King throws in his line.

Even Mandy caught fish! Grady was teasing her that instead of reeling them in, she liked to 'beach' them and then have Rye take care of the rest for her!

A rare sight- Amanda holding a F I S H

Even little Laura, with the help of daddy, caught a few!

Rye was the go-to guy- all around the pond you could hear "RYAN!" He would run off and cut lines, bait hooks and help reel in.. he loved helping all the kids

He was quick to get his limit

Little Matthew King caught the biggest fish of all!

After Grant caught his limit he helped Joshua King

It only took about 2 hours for most everyone in our party to catch their limit!

Time to head home to gut and bbq some fish!

Becca King tells a whopper!

Reliving the exciting catches of the day!

Some of them were enormous! All together we caught around 50 fish

Joshua King shows us some prize trout

It was a blessing to see the older kids gutting all the fish

Some were prepared for dinner that night and many were bagged for the freezer

After Jeremy King put some wood into the BBQ, Ryan helped keep an eye on the fish while it cooked/smoked..

It turned out DELICIOUS!

We all decided that fishing in a stocked pond was the quickest, most fun way to take little kids fishing! Thanks Ryan for helping all the children!

Grant and Timmy were such a blessing to the younger children too. What a fun day!

Has it been 9 years? We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends in the King Family. We have had so many fun adventures together.. this day was no exception! :-)