Yeah, I know...long time, no write

Hello to all of you out there....I find it's kind of hard to know where to start after not writing for so long, but I'll do my best to sort of fill in the blanks.
First of all, thank you to all of you who keep checking back and encouraging me to keep writing...I'm not really sure why you do but I'm really glad that you have. It makes me feel a little more connected to everyone.
We have had an eventful start to a typically busy summer, as I'm sure most or all of you have as well. We've already been to the beach, had VBS, had a(mini) family reunion, and summer is barely started. At least it seems that way to me. I keep wishing that I could make time stand still so that I can figure out what all I want to do this summer, but as usual...time waits for no one and I find myself being pulled along in the flood of happenings.
I have to say, it has been so great to get to see and catch up with all of you whom I've visited with in the past several weeks. Even though it's physically tiring, it was emotionally and spiritually refreshing for me.
I also want to say how excited we are about Mom and Daddy and the girls coming home in a few months!!!! Yay! It seems long from now but it will be here before we know it. We can hardly wait...I can't believe it is 4 years since they were home for an extended period of time. Time flies.
In the pint-size department ( I know that's what ya'll are really wanting to hear about), all the kids are continuing to astound, surprise, delight, exasperate, amuse, and thoroughly keep us busy. Kyla is pulling herself up on everything and scoots (instead of crawling) at an amazing speed where ever she wants to go and keeps us busy scooping stuff out of her mouth. She is just as cute as ever (in my humble and honest opinion, of course) and had the best time getting to meet some new cousins last week. =)
Levi is about to make me pull my hair out ( in the best possible way), by getting into more trouble than I could possibly relate in the amount of time I have. Ughh, I have to tell you this story though....
The other day, I was doing my best to recover from several days worth of accumulated cleaning and laundry and it was getting on towards 8:00pm and I was washing dishes when a friend unexpectedly appeared around the corner of the fridge. She had come to drop off her laptop for Ed to work on, and though I knew she was coming by, I hadn't heard the knock. Apparently, Aaron had opened the door without letting me know there was a knock ( a forbidden action) and invited her in. Aside from being totally embarrassed, I was fine with her coming on in,.... but you should have seen my house. There was stuff strewn from the front door to the kitchen and then some ...all the kids were bouncing off the walls... there were baskets ( and more baskets) of dirty laundry stacked by the washroom in plain sight, I looked like wreck, and I had Levi tied to my waist with a piece of rope. Yes, it was a last resort measure, but I was at the end of my rope... pun intended. So.... as you might imagine...I felt completely flustered and I'm sure they left thinking that we do indeed run a zoo. Just so you know, I don't normally keep Levi tied to my waist, but I had just spent all day (with nothing to show for my efforts...obviously) doing damage control and I was tired of running in circles. BTW, my friend thought it was hilarious that he was tied to my waist, and her husband asked for the number for DHS (in jest).
As a follow-up, sort of, to this story, we were at Hudson's the next day and as we went to check out, the lady gave a piece of bubble gum to each of the kids for " listening to your parents and not running around the store".( huh, whoda thunk it.) She laughingly told Ed, " My sister works for the DHS and she said that it's not bribery, it's positive reinforcement, and when they are tied to a tree, it's not abuse, it's 'Cowboys 'n Indians' ". We both laughed and laughed over that.
Moving on....
Isaac is as precocious as ever..when asked if he was the one who had scribbled on the bathtub he replied "No sir, I was drawing a swordfish". He didn't see me laughing in the background.
Alyssa, Lela, and Aaron have all had a ball meeting and getting to spend time with new cousins. (BTW, thanks a ton to Steve, Jen and all the other family members who spent time playing with the kids and taking them on walks. They still talk about it all the time.) I think they are still recovering from all the excitement, and trying not to be bored now that we are back to the same-old-grind.
Well, I guess that sort of catches ya'll up a bit on our doings, so I'm going to sign out for now.
Love to all.