4th of July

4th of July already seems like a long time ago!  Looking back,  one of the things that made it special was having Aaron, Naomi and the girls here.  Esther is such a sweet cheerful little girl!

We headed over to my parents for a family picnic and my dad did the grilling.   Mmm, so much good food!

You can't see Daniel or David's faces but they are really, REALLY, thrilled to get a ride on great grandpa's four-wheeler.  

We got a picture of my parents with all their great grandchildren. Landon didn't want to sit,(he always wants to go, go go), so Natalie held him.

At Arthur's side of the family his dad also did the grilling. More GOOD food!

It's been awhile since we've had a family photo with the married kids on it so we grabbed a chance to get one.

The little girls enjoyed Miriam giving them pushes on the swing.

On the afternoon of the fourth we headed uptown for the parade.  The boys bags are empty here but by the time the parade was over they were half full!  I enjoyed seeing Daniel helping his little brothers get candy in their bags.

We always sit at the beginning of the parade and so there's not a lot of people here.  Arthur is driving the old Farmall for our maze float.  He enjoys visiting with neighbors as he drives along and even got some farm work  with a neighbor discussed as he drove along!

I know it's not overly creative but here's our float for this year.  Miriam is acting the role of Buttercream the cow and enjoyed how much the children loved seeing her and taking her picture!  All along the parade route boys enjoyed "shooting" the deer.  Not politically correct I know, but up here its a given.  As you can see, the corn was only about knee high when we put it on the float.  Yesterday I went out to the field and much of it was up to my waist or higher! Anna especially loved the the cow.  She is such a quiet little girl most of the time but when Miriam came out at home wearing the costume she got so excited and wanted the cow to hold her.  Esther was a little more cautious.

Most of the maze workers were on hand to pass our maze ad cards along the parade route.  We live in a small town with a population of about  1, 700 and they managed to give out over 2,000 cards, mainly to adults so we were very happy! THANK YOU those that helped!!!!  

Esther showing her daddy all the candy in her bag.

In the evening most everyone headed to town again for fireworks.  Priscilla and a bunch of her friends went around handing out free 180 DVD's and got to witness to some of the people waiting for the fireworks to start.  Joanna, is that you? :)

And what a good ending to a fun 4th of July celebration!

God is so good.

One other thing, for those of you praying for Pam J., she is out of intensive care, and has started taking some steps and sitting up some.  They put in a trache and a G tube so she no longer has tubes in her mouth so that is also a blessing.  Continue to pray that the doctors will be diligent in treating her and for complete healing.