Eight is Great

Craig and I have been married eight years. We took a canal boat ride in Canal Fulton to celebrate. Great Grandpa and Grandma came with us. The kids enjoyed it.

A Great Ending

Summer is coming to an end for us. We topped off a great summer today with Great Uncle Jim and Aunt Elaine. We headed to Olmsted Falls to see where Uncle Jimmy was born (as Luke says) and where he grew up. We climbed some rocks in the local park.




















A few years back, maybe about fiftyish...some vandal coincidentally carved Uncle Jim's name in one of the rocks. How weird.









After Olmsted Falls, not to be confused with North Olmsted, we headed to Berea to watch the Browns practice. Luke was so excited. No, I mean SO EXCITED. He loves football. We figured this is the year the Browns are going to turn it all around and we wanted to have some part of it!!


Colt McCoy is the one on the left, orange shirt, riding a bike with the other injured (we assumed).

Defense drills

During the practice local college kids walk around and hand out tickets to kids to get autographs. Luke didn't get a ticket, but another kid who didn't want his gave his to Luke. How nice of him. You don't know who will be in the autograph tent beforehand. Luke's ticket sent him to the brown tent and it was perfect because Josh Cribbs was one of the six players who ended up signing in the brown tent. It's run very well because it only for kids. Parents have to get out of line when the kids get near the tent. We coached Luke on what to say and he did great.

One of the college kids who helped him through the line.

Josh signing away.

Sorry...I had to throw this one in for all you Steeler fans.

Luke on the way home.

We had the best day!!!

Out With the Old

Last weekend was the Route 30 Buy Way Yard Sales. I decided to rid the entire attic of baby paraphernalia. Holy cow. There was a lot. I went through everything and kept the most sentimental items. I saved my favorite outfits Luke and Mal wore, their crib, some toys and other stuff, but the rest of the stuff/junk/unnecessary things you use in a kids first year of life, I priced and set out for complete strangers to critique. It wasn't as busy as I hoped, but we got rid of a lot of stuff and Luke and Mallory's bank accounts increased!!

They played with these 'baby' toys so much the three days!

Luke wanted me to carry him in this car seat again, but I wanted to make sure I didn't hurt my back....the kid's huge now!

It's hard to believe he once barely took up 1/4 of this tub!

He's 4 Now

He's just so big. He's four now. At least that's what he tells us when he does something new. For example...he can buckle two of the three car seat hooks now. Why? Because he's four. He can make his bed each morning. Why? Because he's four. FINALLY, he can swing all by himself now. Why? BECAUSE HE'S FOUR!!

Cousins

Jerry, Laura, Mikala, and Kaden came to visit in late July. Luke and Mallory loved being with Mikala and Kaden as well as all their other cousins! We were very busy while they were here. Enjoying the Akron Aeros game.

Mallory and Kaden

Celebrating Craig, Steph, Laura, Kaden, Jerry, Ellie and Luke's birthdays.

We were able to get family/cousin pictures while they were home too. Bryce did a great job holding this 'thingy' for the photographer. I'm sure the professional pictures will turn out much better than mine.

Brianne and Luke sporting the latest in baby fashions...the giant (and I mean GIANT) flower headband.

Cousins...Emma and Mallory.

Bean Tragedy Turns Out Okay

It was a sad day in the Stutzman house last Friday. After numerous emails to my gardening guru, Sue, it was determined my beans have blight or something else that have made them inedible. Bummer!!! I was looking forward to canning some beans and eating them in the winter. However, my cousin Darrell has traded his old ways for some new found, earth friendly ordeals. You see, Darrell tills our tiny little garden for us with his tractor. He also planted corn for us this year at his house in his enormous garden. He has quite the spread. Darrell also had the 1 place prize winning beans at the Carroll County Fair. Yep, I typed that right...prize winning beans, onions, and potatoes too! Read about it here. So what would this tragedy stricken cousin do? Steal some prize winning beans! Thanks Darrell and Steph.

My horrible beans!!!

Yuck! They were pretty much empty on the inside except for the beans.

Here is Darrell's spread. Nice!!!!!!!!!!!

Darrell's beans canned

160 ears of corn from Darrell's too.

My corn assembly line. It only took an entire day to pick, shuck, boil, cut, bag, and freeze.

Vacation Fun

We left for vacation on July 8. Darrell and Steph took Rocky for us and from what I hear, he really enjoyed the freedom at the Shafer's house. The rest of us headed for Raleigh, North Carolina. We drove about 8 hours and the kids did wonderful in the car. We stayed Thursday night and Friday night with Craig's friends from college, Mike and Selena. Thanks for having us guys!!! Saturday afternoon we left Raleigh to head to Ocean Isle, North Carolina. It was only a 3 hour drive from Raleigh. We arrived at our beach house to meet Craig's parents, brother Bob and family, and brother Keith and family. We were able to spend a week at the beach eating lots of food, playing in the water, sitting on the porch, and kicking the guys but at Guesstures. The following Saturday we headed out and made a pit stop at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where Bob is currently stationed. We got to spend another night with cousins and get a tour of the base. After that stay, I appreciate those who serve even more. We headed back to Ohio Sunday morning and made it home in about 8 hours. Thanks to Alison's wonderful photography skills I have about 800 pictures of the beach, so I tried to narrow it down to my very, very, very, very favorite pictures.

We were able to celebrate Luke's 4th birthday at the beach.

Luke's Dad played with his new toys. Luke is really into Star Wars, so he got a bunch of Star Wars toys and Ironman stuff too!

Uncle Bob is the slowest eater ever! Every night we would have the dishes cleaned up from 16 people and left overs put away before Bob was close to done. He had to dig his second helpings out of the fridge if he wanted any. The time in the picture above was 6:40. He started eating at 5:40. This was the fastest he ate all week because we started a pool to see who could pick the time he would be done. Ironically, his wife picked 6:45. He knows who to keep happy. (I picked 7:00 and wasn't even close)

Poor Craig had to do actual work while we were there.

We played a friendly game of charades, boys vs. girls. The boys tried every angle to cheat us out of a victory, but the ladies prevailed. Just for the record gangsta is just another way to pronounce gangster.

There's another picture right after this, where Grandma Peggy, but not kids, is on her butt. Apparently a 'big' wave came in. I didn't put it up here for the world to see. Love ya- Grandma

All the kids from the top: Caitlyn, James, Riley, Mira, Luke, Peyton, Brooke, and Mallory

The fresh air, sun, and water really wore Mallory out.

So, we had to take a lot of naps.

This is my favorite picture. Grandpa Rob took it.

The End!!!