Lincoln, on the verge of smiling. That's his sister Cheyenne's hand, hovering over. There's usually some sibling body part in Lincoln's vicinity.
Enjoying wiggling.
Intelligence shining forth. And fat fingers.
Silly little girl with curls.
Cheyenne was busy pouting about admonitions to let Lincoln have room to breathe, but she still looked pretty.
And Elliott, in a rare moment when he WASN'T making a funny face.
These pictures are a little further back. Rilla wanted me to put a barrette in her hair. I just stuck it in there quickly, then she wanted a picture taken. No points for hair styling here, I just like her look of pride.
Elliott, sitting on the table watching Grandma Jill peeling potatoes. Grandma and the girls pulled in on Saturday afternoon with supper in tow, then proceeded to make lunch that Sunday. It was all very yummy, and fun to sit around and talk.
I haven't heard that Richard Simmons died, but my daughter is re-incarnated as him, nonetheless. I couldn't find pajamas for little girls in Wal-Mart, so I just bought her this shorts set, which is quite the 80s styling. Coupled with her hair, it looks a little too much like a manic fitness instructor for my comfort...
Evan has been a ball of energy around here, doing outside projects. Here's my new clothesline.
The finished shed, and Evan's new garden. I want nothing to do with a garden this summer, I argued for constructing the beds and a composting system and waiting until next summer for actually planting something, but Evan was too enthused to wait. I figure producing a baby was enough work for one summer, so the garden is his baby this summer!
It is a cute little garden, I have to admit.
My mother's day geraniums. Since I've taken this picture, they've exploded with blooms. This was a true test of Evan's love, buying these for me on Mother's Day-- he hates geraniums, but knows I like them!
When Dana was out here to meet Lincoln, he did lots of landscaping work for us, including putting in the stones here to corral the drainage gravel, and planting grass seed to cover the places Evan had dug. The grass has flourished!
Our porch is getting quite finished looking! It's hard to believe there was ever a time when we DIDN'T have a porch!
Evan got a flagpole up, after not having one for two years. We had one up for a couple of years, but in April of 2008, a teenage driver from up the road lost control and went plowing through our yard. Thankfully, the only things that were hurt were our flagpole and a couple of landscape timbers, and the insurance reimbursed us for those. Actually getting a new flagpole set, though, has taken some time!
Our lovely friend, Mrs. Amy Wise, showed up to surprise us one morning on her trip up to see her mom!
She brought donuts as a hostess gift.
Do you think she has a firm grasp of what kind of donuts kids like? :-) There were lots of sprinkles, fillings, and artificial coloring, and my kids fell on them like starving wolves. It was great to see Amy-- it would have been fun even if she hadn't brought such satisfactory bribes!
My little girls, playing together nicely.
Not that they don't fight, but I am enjoying the times lately when the kids do enjoy each other's company!
Miss Tori spend several days at our house. She was a wonderful help, taking kids for walks and helping out around the house-- when she wasn't being brilliant, solving crosswords. She also picked me that chicory in the vase. Chicory is one of my favorite wildflowers, I'm always excited when I see it for the first time in the summer.
The Cottens stopped here on their epic road trip to Colorado. The girls were wearing cute pajamas-- and as many of the girls' play hair barrettes as they could cram on their head!
Adorable bottoms in cute jammies-- quite fun!
Lincoln, hanging out in Daddy's arms, where he is lots of evenings!
For the Fourth of July weekend, we took Lincoln on his first trip, to New Hampshire for a Chappell family reunion.
We stayed at Kent and Sharon's, where we had this lovely king-sized bed!Of course, when it came time to take family pictures, I didn't get a chance to hand my camera off to someone, so I have no pictures of Mammy's branch of the Chappell clan!
The George Chappell branch, getting settled in, with lots of great-grandkids to go around!
The largest contingent!
Descendants of Aunt Alice Covill.
Aunt Julia's branch. Evan is related to this group two ways-- on the Chappell side, he is third cousins with Dale and Betty, and on the White side, they are his first cousins.Is it any wonder it took me a while to sort out how Evan was related to everyone in New England? I always say he married me just because I was the one person he WASN'T related to!
Aunt Nancy and her crew.
Aunt Tessie's bunch.
Auntie Bea and her kids. (Who are double cousins to Evan's family!)
The West Family.
The six Chappell "kids" in a classy automobile!
I was impressed out how easily they all hopped up in there!
Some of the teenaged girls had helped make a spiderweb for the little kids!
Of course, the big kids got involved, too! Evan was in there, helping Elliott follow his string to the prize.
Lots of action!
Lincoln wasn't too sure what to make of this drastic departure from his normal routine, but he was still cute! He's even wearing a holiday-appropriate shirt-- a hand-me-down from his cousin, Levi, who is three days shy of being three years older than him!
Marilla loved the baby donkey!
She didn't have the art of petting fully realized, but she was enthusiastic!
All the kids had learned some patriotic songs for the occasion, and they serenaded everyone before supper.
This was right up Cheyenne's alley! I don't know if I'll ever get the song, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" out of my head-- she sang it solid for the two weeks leading up to the reunion!
Marilla didn't want to take a nap, but she finally conked out in Auntie Lisa's arms!
You can tell we are at Milford-- her little bare feet were covered in pine pitch!
Deeply asleep!
There were lots of kids there-- here is Stroller Row! Since we had missed the last two family reunions, it was fun to meet lots of new people-- there had been quite a few marriages and births since the last time we were there in 1998!Sunday, we were back at the farm for a Sunday morning meeting with all the friends in the area. It was a wonderful experience, and it was great to see lots more people. The potluck afterward was unreal-- if you took a teaspoon of each of the foods, you would have had at least three full plates. It was hard deciding which foods you had to have, and which ones you really couldn't manage to fit on your plate. Of course, I don't have any pictures of that wonderful day. Once you get four kids, the hands needed to operate a camera always seem to be full! We had a surprisingly good ride back to NY-- Lincoln slept a lot of the way, and the other kids didn't make too much fuss. It helped that Auntie Lisa was in the van with us!
Then, home to freedom! Rilla doesn't worry about conventional things like clothes and shoes, she just likes to run in the backyard!
Evan and Cheyenne checking out their garden!
Cheyenne is VERY conscientious about weeding and watering.This last weekend, Cheyenne went down to Pennsylvania with my parents to attend a party for my Aunt Emma, who is turning 90 this week! She was our family representative, since the trip to Milford took all our traveling energies for quite some time! Sunday night, Mom and Dad came back through, and stopped here for supper.
Elliott and Livie are a good match-- she likes taking pictures, and he likes having his picture taken!
Rilla got in a picture, too! I love her little eyes-- I don't think I've ever seen eyes that sparkle so much!
Owen and Ashley were here that night, too, on their way to vacation in South Carolina. I wanted to take a picture-- Owen was busy saying something about hating pictures in this one!
Trying to wipe his contempt for pictures off his face in this one...
but couldn't help rolling his eyes!
There, it didn't kill you, Owen! What a stunning young couple! :-)
Evan is probably making some sort of emphatic point here, as he holds forth from The Blue Chair-- his command post and favorite spot.
Mr. Lincoln, curled up on Daddy's chest, fast asleep. And fast asleep is where I should be right now, so good night!
