Mark and his brother Ken trying to get some hay out of the oncoming rain.

Tossing bales

The adopted cousins

Introducing Nevaeh to a baby moo moo.

Having fun.

Grandma and Nevaeh

We had the chance to visit with our newly married niece.

Yes, I know! Some of you are waiting to see pictures of the wedding. My personal camera card was accidentally erased be someone other than me and I was just able to acquire more pictures of the wedding. I will share some in the near future.

This is Greg and Rebecca Miller.

Pappy and Nevaeh


On the last day of our vacation, my three sisters and I had a retirement party for my dad. He finally retired from the Standard Steel after 43 years of dedicated service. The party was a great time and very much fun. It was awesome to see extended family and meet some of the guys that dad worked with.

Lewis E Stoner - My Dad

The honored guest.

The cake

My wonderful family

Front center is my oldest sister, Erma. She's daughter #1. Clockwise is Jen. She's daughter #3. Then Mom. I'm next and I'm daughter #2. Then there's Dad. He deserves medals for putting up with all of us women. Last and certainly NOT least is my little sister Sherri. She is daughter #4.

I found this guy sitting in the back seat of our van on the ride home.

I wonder who he is.

Hmmmm........

THERE he is!!

New Fwimmin' Pool

The following pics speak for themselves.

Nevaeh obviously loves her new pool and it has received much use in the last couple of weeks. We have to watch her closely when she is outside or she jumps in fully clothed!

Soggy diapers are YUCK!

V.B.S.

Summer is the time for vacation Bible school. One more time, our church engaged the services of Barry and Gertie Mason. Their theme was the Gristmill Kids. The mastermind behind this very creative curriculum was Barry Mason himself. The curriculum is one that identifies with every teen and kid today. He used a giant cell phone texting to get his messages across to today's kids! If something like this curriculum appeals to your needs, you need to contact Penn View Visuals.

Some of the bright backdrop.

Bro. Barry Mason

Rob and Nevaeh
On the last day of VBS, our church does a balloon release. The children and their families love this. We make little cards sharing our church's basic information, date and occasion of the balloon release and invite a response.
We have received a postcard from an Amish family who lives in Jasper, New York. Two sisters found the fallen balloon and attached card when they were taking a walk.

Count down. 10, 9, 8..........3, 2, 1!!!

UP....

....UP.....

.....and AWAY!!!

VBS was great this year. It always is!

I got the idea of using the central backdrop as a photo op for some of our church kids. I got some really great shots. I want to play with a photo editing program and try some color washing, then I'll post the finished product!

Summer Smiles

Summer is most times, too busy for all mankind. Sociecty has educated us in the many facets of excess. I have been learning, for physical reasons, to pay attention to the voice of my body. A pity that often that voice must scream before I pay heed. However, I decided that someway, somehow, in the fast pace of summer activities, I would find the time to smell the flowers, feel the sun and enjoy the smiles of summer. While obligation and responsibility took the men of our family to youth camp, Nevaeh and I took a trip "home" and spent a week with my youngest sister, Sherri and her family. While the photos below do not show my hunky BIL, he was there. He's not overly keen on having his picture taken but sometimes I try to sneak one in. I love Tom!!

Sherri wanted our week to be relaxing, yet fun and indeed it was. We did little projects with the kids, picniced out a couple of times, visited a really great thrift store where we got some smashing great deals, had a pretend birthday party for Zack since I was unable to be there for the real one in June, were visited by Grammy and Pappy and best of all, took naps!!

I tried my hand at face painting for the first time. Naeh was too little to hold still, but Zack and Natalie graciously became my first guinea pigs! Well, not pigs exactly, as you can see. Zack wanted to be a white doggy like the ones that ride the fire trucks. Out of all the pictures that were in the book, he had to go and pick something that was not. So I took a deep breath and started. Voile! What you see is what he got and he was soooooo happy with his dalmation face that he slept in it and wore it part of the next day. It was a little worse for wear because he tried to get a shower before bed without ruining his dog face. I'm glad though that a little bit of paint brought such great smiles to my two little piglets!!

Zack and Aunt Laura
The little guy crawled around on the floor and panted forgetting that he didn't need to let his tongue hang out as there was one painted on his face.

Natalie and Aunt Laura
Since Aunt Laura managed to come up with a dalmation without a sample in the book, my sister Sheb thought she'd stretch my level of creativity even farther and set a stuffed monkey in front of me telling me to paint that on Natalie. Well, my palette did not have brown paint to match the actual stuffed animal, but I'd have to say that the monkey face turned out pretty well in spite of that fact. The monkey was definitely more fitting for this little girl than anything pixie that the sample book had to offer! I even painted part of her ears.

My nephew and neice.

All together now.

Another time, Zack got a dolphin. A fat dolphin, no less, but it is still a dolphin.

Then Pap and Grammy came to visit the night we had Zack's pretend birthday party. We had a picnic on Sherri and Tom's back patio. Nevaeh wanted to try out the scooter that Zack was riding. What I thought was interesting was that Nevaeh would stand on the scooter with just one foot and she would try to use the left foot to push the ground. She must have been watching Zack closer than we thought.

Then Grammy asssisted Nevaeh in driving her first four wheeler ride.

Thought I'd put a close up of this ride so you could see Nevaeh's face better. What a smile!

We attempted to tie-dye some t-shirts but they didn't turn out very well. It must not have been the right kind of dye for the colored t-shirts and too much color washed out of even the lighter ones to consider the attempt a success. Oh, well, the kids had fun trying!

Pardon the hair do. I hadn't combed my hair yet before sitting down and doing a craft project with Zack. He was soooo excited about making a little dog that he wanted to do it right away! This was the craft where you use plastic colored pieces to form a picture, then you iron the finished shape to melt the plastic pieces together. You can easily see that we have a dog in the making here. Zack was able to place the pieces in the correct place all by himself.

While Natalie was taking her nap, I put most of her butterfly together. Then using tweezers, I helped her put the complete outside around the butterfly before melting it with the iron. Natalie is only 2 and doesn't sit still as long as Mr. Zack.

Aunt Sheb introduced Nevaeh to the "art" of licking the spatula.

Mmmmm! Chocolate brownie batter!

Going back for another bite.

Mmmmm. Want some more.

Natalie liked "hiding" between the hutch and highchair so that she could snitch the food off Nevaeh's tray when no one was watching. Do ya' like Nevaeh's tea towel bib?

Zack and Nevaeh

Zack loves Nevaeh so much and is so sweet and gentle with her.

Cute cousins

Sniffing Aunt Sheb's fowfers!

Zack wanted to try to take a picture with my camera. I'd say he did pretty well.

Aunt Sheb and Naeh

Those cute cousins again.

Girl hug.

Zack

Natalie

All good things must come to an end. The last couple pictures were taken right before I left to head home home where my guys were already and waiting. It was a wonderful and best of memories kind of week. Thanks Sheb! I love you!