the "b" birthday for soph

This was a "b" birthday for Sophie.

bike 

blender (yes you read that correctly. That was her #1 asked for gift)

beads (the kind to make a necklace and the kind on the pegboard)
backpack

 She turned 6 yesterday. Ca-razy!

Just a couple of highlights from year 5 and some of our favorite things about Sophie:

- Kindergarten: she has loved every second of it. In fact, with only 4 days of school left, she is telling us not to talk about summer because she will miss her teacher so much.
- reading sight words
- starting piano lessons
- riding the bus
-  2 lost teeth
- 2 boyfriends at the same time (cameron & owen)
- two words: arm farts
- the beach: just call her Sandy
- 2 times a flower girl
- 1st Pirates game (she was over it by the 2nd inning)
- 1st WVU basketball game (Oklahoma State)
- learning to ride a bike
- learning big kid games (especially Skip-Bo)
- showering herself
- girl has some fashion sense
- her love of dirt AND fancy things
- she may or may not be a little bit of a hoarder (some people might call it a "collector")
- her love of shoes
- her snuggles
- she brings the funny to our family

Sophie Tuel is hilarious. It's in her personality. We laugh a lot when she's around and it's such a gift. She gives the best hugs and we have the best conversations. I have watched her learn and grow so much this year and it's been so fun to watch her soak it all in. We say that she will stop sucking her thumb this year.

Olaf from Frozen

We celebrated in New Martinsville on Sunday.

Girl asked for a blender. We've had smoothies everyday!

A new bike!

John Pap with his favorite granddaughter and one of his favorite grandsons.

Doh makes the most beautiful cakes.

Smoothies all around! Cheers!

We got her those beads you put on a pegboard and then melt together. Our dining room floor is covered.



And just to review years past:

Ruby Slippers (She wore those things all the time even though her feet were CRAMMED in there and they STUNK to high heaven.)

I really thought we cut her hair when she was 2. I saw this picture and it really threw me off. I loved those braids - but not enough to keep them.

Happy Birthday, Sue! 6 is gonna be great!

beth anne & nick

These two kids got married yesterday - Nick Allen and Beth Anne Isaacs. Aren't they the cutest? We were incredibly honored to be part of their day. We did their pre-marriage counseling and Ben performed the ceremony and then helped DJ. They got married on the Isaacs' family farm. It was a fairy tale wedding. 

To top of the beautiful ceremony, the amazingly fun reception and a weekend away - the best part was being with people who are so dear to us. Some of our dearest friends and favorite people on this earth were there. We laughed, we danced, we celebrated. Although I would love to sit and talk with each of them for hours and catch up, it just can't happen sometimes. But at the same time, I can still spend this time with them and know that we really do love each other. And there's a very special part of my heart and life that are reserved for their friendship and the impact they have had on me. 

On our way home today, I texted Adrienne who was driving home to Lake Champion. I said, "Even though we've been gone for 4 years, it's times like this weekend that make it so hard to get in the car and drive north." It totally caught me off guard and I cried in the car when I wrote it. 

It's been an incredibly emotional and difficult week. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights, we spent with 3 different people weeping over life altering events in their lives. Heartbreaking and life changing events - all completely different. Ben and I are both so emotionally tired and drained. I think that's why the emotions were at the forefront today and it was a little hard to go "home." It was so good for our souls to celebrate this weekend.

Note: Instagrapp is my new favorite app. I took a lot of these pics from Instagram today on the car ride from Ripley to New Martinsville and NM to Morgantown. I'm giving credit where credit is due.

[Photo Cred: Bethany Ward]

"So grateful for these men in my husband's life.
There's a lot of character and integrity in this lineup."
Jay Teodoro, Dave Bishop, Corey Palumbo, Greg Isaacs, Pastor Mayhan,
Ben Tuel, Steve Grimm, Monty Barnett

[Caption & Photo Cred: Michele Bishop]

 [Photo Cred: Rusty Isaacs]

[Photo Cred: Joe & Lindsay Fiani] They paused this on the wedding video. I love this so much!

Nick, BA, Adrienne & Brian 

[Photo Cred: Adrienne Von Bloch or whoever took the pic for her]

 the dj's giving us some serious dance music - ben & jordon

 

 rehearsal dinner fun 

[photo cred: Greg Isaacs who stole Meredith Isaacs' phone]

This should have said, "My love for you . . ."

 Rehearsal Dinner

And this pictures just makes me smile!
JB, Greg & Ben

Beautiful bride and groom. Beautiful wedding. Beautiful family. Beautiful friends.

God's beautiful grace in all of our lives.

Check out the professional pictures HERE. They are stunning.

baseball, family pics & the moutaineer

We are in the throws of baseball season. Ted loves it. He's doing pretty well. 

The picture of Graeson I was looking for!

At the ultimate frisbee tournament a couple of weeks ago. It was super windy that day.

Being a good big brother.

 

 

Sophie's outfit of choice for several weeks.

Family pictures for Terri's birthday.

clothing, insects and trips

Sometimes I want to write a note to my kids' teachers that says something like, "Please don't judge parents by what their children choose to wear to school (whether it be mismatched, has holes in it or not appropriate for weather) and what their hair looks like. It's not a battle I'm willing to fight. I give my input on the weather every morning. I let them choose. I would much rather them be independent and dress themselves or feel the consequences of poor weather choices so they'll listen to me next time."

Case in point - complete color overload.

And self hair do's.

Ted's clothing choices usually dressing like it's the middle of summer when it's really in the 50's.

This is my dining room table for the rest of summer. We shuffle things around for breakfast and eat outside for lunch and dinner. It's awesome!

We went to Clay-Battelle for a softball game a couple of weeks ago. It's quite the drive.

We saw Aunt Belinda, Uncle Todd & Graeson. CB played Paden City. There's a picture somewhere of the kids with Graeson but I can't find it at the moment. Love getting to see her play softball.

We went to New Martinsville to do family pictures for Ben's mom's birthday. Those pictures are on Ben's computer so I'll get them someday.

We stopped by Uncle Charlie and Aunt Valerie's to see the progress on their new addition and lots of renovation. Bill happened to be there helping. It's always fun to see him!

And guess what? Charlie  & Val are pregnant! Yahoo! It's facebook official as of tonight. We are so excited. The baby is due around Thanksgiving - hunting season! They are going to be the best parents. I am so very, very excited for them. And my Mom is going to have a grandbaby down road . . . 

We got to play with Henry and Isaac. They are both getting more mobile. My kids loves these babies so much. It's surprising to me sometimes and so sweet!

After family pics we headed to Stonewall Resort for a WV Young Life Staff family overnight. The kids swam the entire time.

David, Sophie, Mary, Ted & Emma

The very nice captain of the ship let the kids tour the boat and feed the fish.

Sophie's most recent self-portrait

We've been doing lots of yard work and gardening. Sophie LOVES all the insects we fine.

Slugs and rolly polly's are her favorites.

A sweet friend of mine recently gave Sophie a Bitty Baby with about 8 outfits, a crib and some other accessories. Those are the American Girl baby dolls. Sophie is in love. It came with one of the baby bjorn type holders and Sophie takes her everyone. It was such a sweet and generous gift!

My other yardword helpers.

Two of our YL leaders got married last weekend - Joe & Meggie. Such a fun day!

It was 85 degrees today. That means one thing - swimming suits and water guns. They laughed so hard! We have officially given up things like homework and practicing the piano. It's too much fun to be outside.

Then we took a walk on the trails in White Park tonight. The kids collected caterpillars along the way. Sophie had 6 at one point. Ted held on to 2. We made it home with 1.