Faith

We've been on the hunt for a missing Ipod in our house. It's a really old Ipod that never gets used, but Brad has found a use for it at his office and he's been looking for it as have the rest of us. We're pretty sure Ryder was the last one to play with it and so it could be anywhere. We've searched all week, the kids even said a prayer today that we'd find it, but no such luck.
It's always a bummer when a prayer isn't answered positively, but as we were driving home from going out to dinner tonight Ryder started talking about Jesus for some reason. He said, "Dad, Jesus can help you with your Ipod." It was sweet to hear his faithful statement and to know that even though we didn't find the Ipod, Ryder still knows where to turn when help is needed. :)

We picked Brad and Kade up from the golf course to take them to dinner and Kade taught Ryder how to putt.

Bike Rides in the Rain

We went on our first family bike ride together today since Luke joined us. The weather was cool and we ended up getting rained and hailed on! It was quite the fun adventure and luckily didn't last too long. We mainly had sunny skies.
We also tried a new route and biked for 14 miles. Kade did an awesome job. He's a rockstar! Our other kids were perfect as well. Bike rides make me happy.

Morning Routines

Luke has been doing a good job at waking up at about the same time every morning and I am loving having a normal morning routine. I wake up to make Brad breakfast and lunch for work and then by about 7 or 7:30 Luke wakes up for the morning and is ready to eat. I feed him in bed and by the time we're done I usually have all four kids in bed with me hanging out. We all take turns snuggling Luke because we can't get enough of him, then when we have the energy we get out of bed and eat breakfast.
We turn on Pandora to listen to music while we cook and eat and Luke hangs out in his bouncy chair. He eventually falls asleep on his own before we're even done. Then we head downstairs to exercise. The kids join me or they get their morning chores done so they can have some electronic time.
Each morning this week has had the same rhythm and it has been great. The kids are happy and I'm happy. I hope we can keep this going all summer!

This afternoon we went in search of a new park to explore and have a picnic at. We found one not far from our house with a huge slide. The kids probably went down it over 20 times. I even tried it out at the request of Tenley. It was a lot of fun! It wasn't our favorite park yet, but we enjoyed trying something new.

Smoothie bowl. My new favorite breakfast. Perfect food to eat while I try and prepare a lesson for Sunday.

Friends

It was a scorcher today! Not really, but it's funny how sunny skies and a high of 80 degrees felt so hot to my kids today. They must be adapting to Montana weather.
They got a lot of friend time today which they loved. Dr. Bigelow is an endodontist here in town with five beautiful girls around the same ages as my kids. We go to church with them and have hung out with them several times. Every year Dr. Bigelow brings the ice cream truck around to the dentists to give free ice cream. He always makes sure to invite me and my kids as well. We loved it last year, and we loved it this year as well. It was a fun afternoon to meet up with friends and have ice cream!
Then Brad and Tom (Dr. Bigelow) had a meeting together tonight so my kids and I had the Bigelow girls over for dinner. It was fun to hang out with them some more!

Summer

Summer time is crazy. Keeping up a normal routine with the grocery store, bookkeeping, and house cleaning has proven to be extremely difficult. I feel guilty that I'm not playing with my kids when I'm doing those things and I feel stressed if those things aren't getting done. I need to find a balance and fast! It's almost July and before I know it Summer will be over again and my two big kids will be headed back to school.
I saw a quote today that said something like "You only have 18 summers with your kids and this is one of the 18." That put things into perspective for me. Maybe grocery shopping, bookkeeping, and house cleaning will have to wait until midnight so I can play and have more summer fun with my kids.

Tonight Brad taught Kade how to mow the lawn. He did a pretty great job and it was fun to watch him!

Summer Storms

We had another big rain storm roll in tonight during our FHE lesson. We saw a bright flash and then not too long later we heard the thunder. Then the rain poured like crazy! For a few seconds it was as heavy as the rainfall we would get in Indiana. It was pretty.

All the rain we've had lately makes the parks less fun to play at though...

Luke's Smiles, My Dad's Pictures

My parents had to leave this morning. I'm so glad they came to visit and we got some one on one time with them. It was such a great weekend! My dad got a great picture of the river. We were hoping for a sunset, but the clouds from the storm covered that up.

Luke and I went to church with the family today! It was so great to be back and especially to see my young women. I've missed them!

Luke has been smiling a lot at us. Until yesterday he wouldn't ever give me a smile, but yesterday he looked me right in the eyes and gave me two big beautiful smiles! Oh man, he is the sweetest, cutest baby ever! I'm so in love. I really wish I could sit around and cuddle him all. day. long.

Picnics

We took the family to the Lewis and Clark museum today. It's so green and pretty here right now and I'm enjoying it! After the museum we had a picnic at the park. One of my favorite things ever to do and with my favorite people there it made for a great day! A storm rolled in so we had to run to the car, but luckily we had already finished our lunch. I love summer rain storms! We ended the night with delicious pizza.

My Parents

Today we had a fun adventure at Giant Springs State Park. It was raining pretty hard when we arrived but we waited it out for a bit in the car and then enjoyed the sunny skies and the beautiful scenery. I love having my parents and brother here! It's been fun to just hang out with them. They're the best.

Live Music

Brad worked today and my parents and Danny all got to go to the office to get some cleaning done. When they got back Ryder kept my mom busy with basketball, soccer, and paper airplanes. He's a busy boy and she's been so nice to entertain him!
This afternoon we went to the mall while Kade went to his last day of basketball camp. He really didn't want to miss it! When he was done we tried out a new restaurant I've never been to before called Bert and Ernie's. It was so yummy and they had live music! I love restaurants with live music. Then we took them all to Ryan Dam. The river has been flooding here. In fact all our youth and a lot of people from our church were at Home Depot all day yesterday bagging sand bags, so the Dams are pretty cool to see right now with all the water.

Surprises

For the past several weeks we've been hiding the fact that my parents were coming to town this weekend from the kids. There were a few times where I almost accidentally let the secret out, but luckily we pulled it off.
This evening right after Brad got home with Kade from basketball camp the kids received a message from Grandpa on our Amazon Echo. He said they were at the airport and they needed us to come pick them up. Kade sent a message right back that said, "Ya right! You've tricked us with that before!" We then had Kade ask Alexa where Grandma and Grandpa Woodruff are. Brad had prepared a response to say that they were at our front door! Kade rolled his eyes, threw his hands up in the air and said, "I'll check." He opened the door and there they were!! Tenley and Ryder jumped around excitedly and gave them all hugs. Kade stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out how it was all possible. They're so excited to have them here for a few days!