We're ALIVE!

I cannot even believe that the summer is over and the kids are all in school!

  

 

Yes, we are still among the living!

I never imagined that it would be so difficult for me to find time to blog, but boy oh boy, it's been tough!

That's 5 "Oh boys!" for anyone who's counting!

Among other things, the summer has brought a lot of "boy time", lots of work at Lifeline, and a family move to a new home around the corner.

A couple of weeks ago, we were blessed to move into our very first home as a larger family.  We had been praying for months that the Lord would provide that one perfect, affordable home for us with more than 3 bedrooms and He did!

Better yet?  It was 4 doors away from our previous home, so the move wasn't even that bad.

Of course, finding a home in our hood that we could afford to buy took some patience.  The house we purchased had been empty for around 3 years, so needless to say, there was some work to be done, inside and out.

I look forward to sharing more specifically some of our "before" and "after" pics, but for now, here it is!

If you look closely, you will see the 12 foot bushes in front of the house...

We now have 5 bedrooms allowing no more than 2 kids per room!

(Great except I think Tommy is missing his big brother Cameron being in his room with him!)

Our new 16 year old, Colin, 

(CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT HE IS ALREADY 16?)

now has his own room, Connor and Cameron are together and Tommy & Cooper are sharing.

That leaves another room for the boys to claim as their "play space" for games, TV etc.

We even lucked out that it isn't 6 feet away from the living room anymore!  

We can actually all be doing something different and not constantly asking the other room to "quiet down!"

(Our old home often had dueling TVs!)

In addition to our move, we had a wonderful Father's Day on the beach with Tom,

the boys enjoyed becoming more involved with the Karate dojo,

 

 Colin and I went to Long Beach, NY to help rebuild some houses damaged in Hurricane Sandy with the youth at Lighthouse Church, 

and of course fit in a little time at the beach!

 

Back in May, Cooper had surgery. A tough three weeks for our littlest Rylands, but he made it through and is doing great now!






We celebrated many birthdays these past few months too!

Cooper turned 10 

 

 

 

 

 

Connor turned 14
(at home with his family! PTL!)

 

 

and Colin turned 16!

Of course, one of my all time favorite (NOT!)
activities of each summer is the dreaded
"School supply shopping!"






I mean, who doesn't look forward to elbowing 25 other mothers as you grab for that one "perfect" purple folder with two pockets and the three hole punch. Or was that orange? blue? yellow?

UGH!





Cameron, frankly, was enjoying this "adventure" a little too much.
He is my born shopper and always loves an excuse to go shopping, no matter how painful the experience might be!




As always, the summer was filled with silliness from our crew...









and lots of sugar!

 

Even the big kids get in on the act every once in awhile!

 

 

 

 

I do hope that you enjoyed a blessed summer as well.  I look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us this Fall!

So far, it's been anything but boring!