Passion Flower

Have you ever seen these? It's called a Passion Flower. I've never heard of it, but a customer who owns a greenhouse gave one to Rod today at the shop. She explained some of the symbolism of this flower, and i found more online...

The 10 petals represent the 10 disciples (leaving out Judas and Peter)

The purple ring has 72 filaments, the number of thorns in Jesus' crown

The 3 pistils in the center are the number of nails (they look like nails)

The 5 stamens underneath the pistils, also in the center, represent the number of Jesus' wounds

The spots underneath the leaves are the 33 pieces of silver paid to Judas.

Maybe a little far fetched, but a beautiful flower none the less!

Big cousins

The Montana cousins are in town for a 3 week summer visit. i'm so thankful the boys have been healthy and have been enjoying their cousins. The boys are very blessed to have older cousins to play w/ them, help them, and of course spoil them. The twins were still pretty young the last time they were here, so it's fun to see them interact w/ Caleb and Rina this year. Their visit is about 1/2 way through, here are some photos thus far...

Ben did not appreciate the kiss from the Llama....

Adam was still recovering from the beach trip!

Father's Day Gift

for father's day, the boys 'surprised' rod with rod's auto body shirts. i tried to get some pics this morning before church!!

This one is my favorite :)
Happy Father's Day Rod!

Beach!

My mom, Adam, and i had a wonderful couple days at the beach. The last time Adam was down, he was 8 months old, so he doesn't remember anything. He loved the sand, he played non-stop in the sand for 5 hours the one day. Not a big fan of the water though. We had one nice, sunny day. the other 2 days were mostly cloudy. My grandmother and her sisters were down the same time as we were. We arranged to meet up with them, not knowing where they were staying. Turns out they were staying at the motel directly across from ours!

Here's the kiddie pool at the motel. It felt like bath water.

I call the mess on top my head "beach hair"....

This boy with Adam is technically my 2nd cousin. He was along w/ my grandma and her sisters and families.

We rented the surry bike the one morning....

This was at a restaurant one evening. He played hard, and didn't take naps!!

Here's Adam at the same beach, 3 years ago!!!
Now off to fold all the laundry!

Name

Yesterday i was inside reading to the twins, and Adam comes running in from outside and says "MOMMY, i spelled my name!!". Well, i had to see this, a couple weeks ago i tried to get him to write his name and he was very uninterested so i left it go.
When i walked out, this is what i saw all over the walks! Pretty good i thought. Must be more fun to use chalk and sidewalk, instead of pen and paper :)

After that we worked on "D", now just a matter of getting them in the right order! No hurry i guess since he's only 3!

Close-ups

I know noone asked to see close up pictures of the boys, but these were too funny. All i did was say "smile" i did NOT say "make it look like your face is going to burst!". Brad's is rather normal...
So funny, these little dudes :)

Neat story behind this silly little table

This is one of those Thomas train tables, we got it at a yard sale. But you have to hear the whole story....

We went yard saling on Saturday, and i saw a Thomas table, marked at $50.00 and thought "that's not a bad price". Rod thought it was cool too, but said we'd come back later and bargain with them. So we went back later (this was a development sale, so we didn't have far to walk back) and it was marked at $40.00 and i started getting excited, imagining the boys playing around this table, not touching each other or fighting (it's pretty big)! It was perfect! So Rod said offer him $20.00 and see what he says. Well, he counter offered at $30.00, so Rod said we'll come back later and if it's not sold we'll buy it for $30.00......SO, after fixing lunch, and hooking up the trailer I drove back, with Adam, to hopefully pick up the table! i was really hoping to get it. We get there and it's still there! But the man said, someone just came and put money down and is coming back to pick it up. I was disappointed, but didn't show it to Adam and he handled it very well. I told him someone needed it more then we did and that's ok. I felt like yard saling more, there were a lot of development sales that day. So Adam and I drove around and stopped at a few. We were keeping our eye out for a bike that's been on our yard sale list. The last yard sale in the development had one sitting out so we stopped at that one. Turned out the bike wasn't for sale, but here in the corner sits a Thomas table EXACTLY like the other one that just got sold!!! I couldn't believe it! I never saw one of these things before at yard sales, and here there was 2 in one day! I was like, "Lord, you didn't have to do this!" It was $20.00 and i got it on the spot. I told Adam God was really pleased with the way he handled the situation before, and He wanted to bless us with this table. God is so good!

some updates

Adam had 3 days in a row of napping without any accidents! At 3 1/2 yrs, this isn't neccessarily a big deal, but it's big progress for him. the boy likes to drink! So i'm hoping for a lot more dryness and less washing his blanket/sheet!
The twins also are making progress....NOT in the potty training area, but in Sunday school. They now have 4 consecutive sundays of not crying when we drop them off! again, not a big deal for a 2 year old, BUT a big deal for them! Now they happily walk in with their 25 cents for offering and get down to business (toys:) so proud of all my boys and their areas of progress.

We might be hosting a Lancaster Barnstormer this year! of course i'm excited about this. He came sunday with his current host family, and looked at the place. He wants to talk to his wife first, she likes city life! But hopefully she can adjust. His wife and son come weekends when he's playing in Lancaster or York and the current host family doesn't have room. Just a couple hours prior of getting a phone call about us hosting, I was praying that God would send someone our way that we can bless. (the couple staying with us now are moving out this weekend). Hopefully we'll hear soon if it's a "go".

The boys and i are having a playdate on Monday with a set of triplets! Rod's aunt nannys them, and i've been in contact with the mom, sharing experiences, etc. Her triplets are roughly 5 months old, and were about 10 weeks early as well. I'm looking forward to getting together with her and her little ones.

Mom and I are going to the beach next Sunday - Tuesday! yay! We're bringing Adam..Mom thought we had to bring at least one kid. bummer. haha- just kidding. he'll be fun. Actually i'd love to bring them all. but let's face it, that wouldn't be a vacation! My dear friend Krista will be watching the twins, when Rod's at work (unless she gets a job in the meantime!)

After we get back from the beach we're hosting an extended Gingrich fam reunion here, and celebrating my dad's 60 bday. Lots of fun stuff happening in June.

~Have a super weekend

Just some pics of the boys enjoying their summer...

Ben....Brad....

Adam hauling the kitties around..

"Sons are a heitage from the Lord, children a reward from Him." Psalm 127:3