Walter Henry turns 1!!!

Walter Henry you are ONE year old!!!

Your last picture as a "baby".

You haven't grown much in the last month so all of your sizing is the same. Way to be consistent! LOL :)

However, You have mastered crawling. You follow Mommy (and Sissy) all over the house.

You finally figured out a sippy cup WITH a valve - this is major! No more soaked clothes.

You have yet to meet a food you didn't like!

You still love to suck on the middle fingers of your right hand.

You visited your birthplace on your birthday {HA!},

and you had a birthday lunch at the first restaurant you ever visited (Don Jose).

You received 3 birthday cards in the mail and 3 homemade cards from Madisyn, Ty and Griffin, as of today.

You get to have a party with Griffin on Monday and brownies tonight!

Oh, what a difference a year makes!

Ride, Unc, Ride!

For Madisyn's birthday, she received a "big girl" bike. She has been zooming all over the yard and driveway having a great time. In her discussions with everyone about her new bike, she asked Unc to come and join her on a ride.

So, one Sunday afternoon Uncle Kirk brought his bicycle to the house to ride with the kids. Griffin *had* to go first. We let him ride on the highway from one driveway to the other and he thought he was something. I wish I could have captured the magnitude of the grin he had.

Next, Madisyn, Ty, and Unc were going to head down the road. Ben didn't know that he liked this plan. What was he going to do while they were gone. . . .

So, Unc gave him a couple of pushes on the tractor and all was right with the world again. :)

Ty was at a great disadvantage because his bike had much smaller wheels. The poor boy was pedaling about 10 cycles to Madisyn and Kirk's one. {Can you guess what he wants for his birthday? :) }

When Ben fully realized that he had been ditched by Unc, he busied himself by getting Daddy in on the action.

Even better than a pedal tractor - a lawn mower!

Ty soon gave up his bike riding ambitions as it was just too hard to keep up. Madisyn and Unc headed down the road in the other direction for another ride.

When they returned Griffin learned a new way to ride a bike! It's a bicycle built for one and a quarter. ;)

Somehow Ty worked through the pain of a inferior bike, by consoling himself with driving the lawn mower. He had a hard time reaching the pedal and being far enough back in the seat to keep it running.

Where was Mommy? After these pictures were taken, she attempted to take a nap. She knows better than to lay down when the kids are playing outside. Is it the thought that counts on naps as well? :)

Going Down Town

After we left the state house, we did some walking downtown.

It really was quite neat to walk up and down city streets. The kids spotted policemen in cars, on motorcycles and on horseback. We looked for some on bicycles but didn't see any.

Once the crowd cleared out, we headed back to the the Riverfront park. It's really a neat playground. The slides and tunnels are multi-level. It's a little hard to keep up with kiddos though. I DON'T recommend going alone! I'm one of those overprotective types who likes to be able to see my children when strangers are walking around.

Daddy even got in on the "fun" of climbing up and down the tunnels.

Ben worked extra hard at his play. He always took the hard way back up the slide, took the longest tunnel around and of course needed help getting up the rope ladders.

We had to take a little break for baby feeding and I got this picture of Madisyn. I love it. She does look more grown up that I think she should but it's a good picture nonetheless.

To conclude our trip we walked out the on the pedestrian bridge. It's an old railroad bridge that has been redone. You can actually walk across the Arkansas River. Madisyn was not sure that she wanted anything to do with it but she wasn't about to stay behind either!

Ben wasn't really sure about the bridge and don't you just love the look on Madisyn's face!

The view from the bridge is spectacular!

Now for those crazy Mashburn kids ;) - They had no problems with the bridge. Their parents must be a little more adventurous!

By the time we left, the boys were willing to venture to the sides and look around. You can see where Madisyn (and Kent!) stayed the whole time. :)

A bit of Florida comes to the Mid-South

I feel like I have known Dana for years, she's just one of those super sweet, thoughtful Christian ladies that everyone wants to have as a friend. The entire family recently took a vacation and were coming trough our area.

I was so excited to meet her. I think we both were a little bummed that McDonald's was going to be the best meeting place but we were willing to make it work. Then the Lord worked out something so much better.

Heavy rain hit Arkansas and they were traveling home. The rainy weather was set to follow them all the way back to sunny Florida. Unfortunately, the driver's side windshield wiper quit! How can something like that just up and quit when you need it most!

I knew they Lewis family had a larger than average vehicle {with 9 children, it's a necessity}. It seems little things always go wrong when you don't have the right tools or somewhere out of the weather to fix them.

So I offered Kent's shop. I'm nice like that, I'm always willing to impose on someone else. :) Luckily, Kent didn't mind and thought he might know what was wrong. If he and Tony couldn't figure it out, he was hoping they could come up with a solution that would work until they got home.

See, my sweet angelic sons decided to play with the rear windshield wiper on my van. When I turned on the wiper would barely go up and then fall and point straight down at the bumper.
When it fell off completely Kent realized how to fix it.

Though the Lewis family boys had nothing to do with their van troubles, the problem was the same. After a few twists of the wrench, everything was as good as new.

And the plus side - we got to spend almost 2 hours visiting with this wonderful family. Their children range in age from 17 to 18 months. They have two girls and 7 boys {which really excited my boys - another mostly boy family!} . Even after being cooped in a vehicle, riding in the rain with almost zero visibility - they were so pleasant.

They were extremely well behaved and tolerated Ty and Griffin's tour of the equipment lot. I'm sure they endure a few "know it all" speeches about the various pieces of equipment and maintained a smile on their faces the entire time.

I enjoyed my visit with Dana so much! I only wish the shop was set up a little better for entertaining. I have a feeling that if I started arranging couches and club chairs, Kent and Kirk just might throw me out.

I think Kent enjoyed getting to talk to another "dad of many". I'm hopeful the next time they come through we can hang out without any van repairs necessary. :)

Of course, we couldn't let them head home without outfitting them in Witcher Auctions hats. Isn't Isaac adorable? I think we could put him to work with Madisyn and Ty and our carry-out labor shortages at auctions would be over. :)

It was truly a blessing to finally get to *meet* the entire Lewis family!

Dana also runs a couple of businesses so check her out!

She makes adorable cloth diapers at Wonder Unders and the whole family helps out with Lewis Family Mercantile where they carry everything from clothing to photographic prints to knitted snakes!

Sheep Shearing 101

Ben has been sporting a 'buzz' cut for sometime now and Griffin kept saying he wanted one. Kent was all for it {less $ at the barber! LOL}, but told him Mommy had to approve. I love Ben's buzz.

When Ty was 2-3 he had a buzz cut and Griffin has never had one. I told him yes on two conditions. #1 I got to take lots of pictures, including before and after. #2 I got to video the whole process.

Being the ever shy, backward {cough, sputter, NOT!} child he is, Griffin quickly agreed to soak up all the attention from it he possibly could.

He giggled and smiled the whole time. He didn't like it when Kent had him turn away from the mirror so he could cut the other side.

He really liked watching Daddy complete the masterpiece. :)

He couldn't wait to see the final product.

It's different! I don't know if this will be Griffin's permanent look but it works for the summer and NO MORE BED HEAD! :-)

The Old State House

After our visit to the Steam Engine, we headed downtown to check out the Old State House.

They have a wonderful kids "discovery" room. The theme of the room is political train stops. They had a HUGE train set, dress up clothes from the 20s and 30s and the rear of a caboose for waving to your hopeful supporters.

The boys enjoyed the engineer outfit.

Griffin was quite a bit shorter than the other kids and he could barely look over the railing.

Madisyn thoroughly enjoyed dressing up!

We went through the exhibits. Griffin started to write a letter at the 1920s exhibit.

Ava enjoyed her Momma's sunglasses. You have to do something to stay entertained when you can't read!

The boys were all fascinated with the police exhibits.

I think they were on the wrong side of the bars! LOL

Ben and Austen found a great window with a view {of the construction crew below!}.

Here's a shot of turkey #4.

She looks like a hardened criminal, doesn't she?

I think Austen was having too much fun behind bars.

The State House has beautiful grounds. We really enjoyed the fountain.

The kids also enjoyed checking out the cannon.

Say Cheese!