Bible School

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Well, Bible School is over and John has the Chick-fil-A graduation certificate to prove it. The last night I was having bible study at my house and so Chris took John to VBS. He brought home a craft he made for me that was a stainglass window made with tissue paper. I of course adore it as it is his first “official” craft. I am sure this will be the first of many. I don’t have a whole lot of time to type, my best friend from high school Ruth and her husband Justin are in town for the day and we are going out to dinner in an hour.

John’s beautiful artwork!!!

John has a need to always be in front as close to the action as possible. In this first picture all of the other 50 kids are sitting down learning the hand motions to the Beach Bible songs. John of course was up at the stage getting as close to the song leader as possible. When he got bored with her he decided to examine a little boy’s Crocs that were sitting on the stage.
Here John is intently watching the screen with the “surf instructor” teaching him how to surf!
The second pic is Uncle Mike leading songs with the kids.

If you are wondering why everyone is wearing green, it’s because each night had a theme color and this night happened to be green.
My sister…the VBS director!!!
Some special church friends…Amelia and Camden!

I also wanted to post a few pictures of the backyard which we finally been able to do a little something with. Chris worked so hard to get it landscaped this week. We love our view out the back door. I try to pretand like I am waking up at a bed and breakfast each morning and drink my coffee outside looking up at Massanutten mountain!

Mom and dad got us this canopy that goes over the patio for some extra shade. We are loving it and it makes a huge difference!

Happy Father’s Day!!!

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I love celebrating people. I think parties and presents and hugs are the best and good food makes it even better. Since becoming a parent I’ve realized I really get what feels like 2 birthdays a year, 2 days where it’s all about you! So today felt like Chris’s birthday! As a matter of fact, John kept singing “Happy Birth-Daddy’s Day”. He seems to be thinking like his mama. As I was getting Chris’s gifts ready today, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude to get to be parenting with him. I’ll never forget when I worked at the Pregnancy Center and I came in one day to find Chris snuggling one of the babies we were placing for adoption and he was feeding her a bottle. I remember thinking “I can’t wait to watch him be a father to our own children.” Let me say, it is a treat everyday to witness him loving and nurturing our boys with patience, wisdom and joy. What a lucky girl I am!

Chris spent the greater part of the day at the baseball field working high school camp, but when he came home he was greeted with hugs and singing. We had Chinese for dinner and proceeded to gift opening. I intended to get Chris a gift card so he could go and buy several new CD’s. When I got to the store I had a wild hair and decided to buy him some music myself. For those of you that really know me you can go ahead and laugh. As much as I love to sing, I never buy music and I really don’t have a clue when it comes to pop culture. But I did my best. 2 of the CD’s I did pretty good on. I got the “Juno” sound track and the “Once” soundtrack. He may actually keep those. He will definitely be returning the third. I thought I was purchasing a Ryan Adams CD, when in fact I purchased a Bryan Adams CD. In my defense however, the BR was covered up on the front cover and all I saw was.. YAN ADAMS. We got a good laugh!

We also gave Chris a 42 slot enormous picture frame with pictures of him and the boys. I used each picture to illustrate what came together as a letter from John and Ben to their dad. I was excited about the gift and even more excited that it touched Chris so much.

Of course I captured these precious moments to document our fun for all to see.


John’s beautiful artwork
The pictures/letter from the boys
John really likes putting boxes on his head! I think his smile in his picture is so sweet. I think I will zoom in and cut out the box!
on the stairs!

Thanks Chris for loving my sons so well. And thanks to my daddy and to my father in law for having such a great influence in our lives and the lives of their grandchildren. We certainly count ourselves blessed! Happy Father’s Day Daddy’s!

God Bless America!

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God Bless America is what the cake said that mom bought from Cosco to feed the five thousand. We only ate 1/20 of the cake. It has been packed up and put in the freezer for a 4th of July Party. John’s version of “God Bless America” doesn’t sound like it should. Come to think of it, it sounds an awful lot like “Happy Birthday.” Anyone who would like to come for cake on 7/4/08 you are all invited! In these first pictures John’s “Nellie” is trying to teach him to salute. He was more interested in putting his fingers into the cake than by his head.

Our men were hard at work yesterday! Dad grilled steaks while Mike built a custom sandbox for Mom’s backyard and Chris was working with the James Madison University Baseball Team, the newly crowned Colonial Athletic Association Champions! Go Dukes! They will be traveling on Wednesday to Raleigh for the NCAA Tournament! I am so delighted that Chris will be able to travel with the team.

The kids had a blast yesterday. John got 2 really fun sprinkler’s from Montica and Raegan for his birthday. We busted them out and the kids had so much fun running down mom’s hill into the wiggly sprays of water. Here are some fun pics…

One of my very favorite places to be is on Mom and dad’s back porch. There always seems to be the most perfect breeze no matter how hot it is ouside. She has a great porch swing that the kids love. We put Ben’s exersaucer on the back porch and he loves the breeze blowing through his new “fluffy” hair as John calls it.

We had a great day yesterday. We just wish we could’ve been with all of you too! We hope your day was filled with fun and laughter as you each celebrated this great country we live in and the brave people that fought and are fighting so hard for our freedom!

Love to you all!

Walk For Life

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Yesterday was quite a day. Unfortuntely my camera battery died during the first part of our adventures so i can only share a few pics to document our FUN! We started the morning with the “Walk for Life.” My passion for the unborn has once again reconnected me to Crisis Pregnancy Ministry. I am serving as a liason between our church and the Harrisonburg Pregnancy Center. It feels good and right to be joined up with this cause once again. Chris, mom and I took took the kids to the walk. Chris pushed the big used double stroller we received and got a work out. We told John we were going for a walk for babies like Anna who lived in there mommies tummy’s. John chanted from his front seat in the stroller. ” 1,2,3… Come on everybuggy, Yuv Yalk for Anna!” It was sweet!

At the end of the walk we found a beautiful clearing with a rose garden and water fountain on EMU’s campus. John of course loved the water and had a big time. Chris and I did double duty around the circular fountain to keep John from jumping in the big, fun, bathtub as I am sure he saw it.

From there we went to the kid’s festival at JMU. Free food, crafts, music, and several dressed up characters from the local public television station. Characters included Clifford the Big Red Dog and the chick-fil-a cow and 2 renaissance dancers that seemed very out of place.
Chris and I went out on a date that night, something we never seem to find time to do. We decided we would put the kids to bed at mom and dad’s so we could extend the date. Seems simple enough right? Not so- packing to go anywhere with a 2 year old and 6 month old seems like packing for a vacation for a week to Florida. So after we loaded 1/2 our house we took the kids to mom’s and had a great night out. We ended the weekend with a fun church picnic and everyone napped at mom’s afterwords.

So- this is kind of a boring blog but it’s a bit about our weekend. Enjoy the pics.


John excitement over the water!!
cute pics taken after the walk.

Love to you all-Kate

Happy Mother’s Day to Me!!!

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I am so blessed! I woke up at 8:15 am because sweet Chris got up with our kids at 6:00 am. John was yelling “Happy Mother’s Day Mommy” as I walked down the stairs and was thus tackled by his affection and smothered with kisses. John, Ben and Chris proceeded to give me letters and cards filled with presents all based on the theme, “a whole day.” Gift certificates to all my favorite places for some “no kids allowed time” presented themselves. Chris had a game to get to but promised a delicious supper out when he came home later that evening. I wanted to go to Tutti Gusti, an italian bistro that we ordered into the hospitol after Ben was born. So DELICIOUS and promised 50% off to mom’s and free pizza to kids!!!

I met the rest of my family at church where dad delivered a beautiful and inspiring message on the mother nature of God. He shared about lessons he learned from his mother and how those lessons reflected Christ’s love and actions toward us. He challenged mothers to be windows into God’s heart for our children. I felt proud to be his daughter and proud to be a mother! I cried during church as we sang “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” and as the words described singing along with the fellowship of the saints! I have a daughter who is a saint and she is in the company of angels singing praises to Jesus…. Whoa! I feel proud to be her mother and grateful that she is safe in the arms of GOD.
We went to Jesse’s for Mother’s Day hotdogs with the Sloop crew: Kristen, Mike, Nana and Pop, Mom, Dad, Dave and Melissa…and all our kids. It has been our after church lunch spot for over 20 years. It is greasy and good and if you have ever come for a visit we have certainly taken you there! I felt exhausted and dizzy (mono effects) and was ready to go home and get in the bed praying the boys naps would coincide. Happy Mother’s Day to me…they were right in sync. Ben woke up however during the middle of an afternoon thunderstorm and so we took a precious nap together. My arms and my heart are so full!
My joy was overshadowed today by thoughts and prayers for my dear friend Alicia who was enduring the day with the absense of her baby boys Jacob and Caden who were stillborn 6 months ago. My heart was also heavy for Erica Carter, who I’m sure was feeling the grief of this day having lost her daughter Nati 9 months ago. This day of honor represents such joy and fulfillment for so many and such suffering and emptiness for so many more. John overheard me talking about Alicia and he said, “Oh no Mommy, what happened?” What happened, is a statement John makes about a hundred times a day. I explained that Miss Alicia was sad because she missed her babies very much that went to live with Jesus just like Anna. I asked him if he wanted to pray for her. He prayed, “Dear Jesus, Thank you for Alicia, thank you for babies, help sad.” Bitter-sweet is this precious day!

I thought a lot this weekend about the role of mothers in our lives and how overwhelmingy blessed I feel to have the mother and mother-in-law that I do. What beautiful, fun, loving women we have to take care of us and our kids!! So, thank you and I love you to my moms!
As all mothers of 2 year olds know, it is very difficult to get a picture of your child that works…eyes closed, head turned etc. Not to mention the tensions that rise when you try to control it too much… which is what I did. Then again, control of any kind sends John over the edge. I just really wanted a cute picture of me with my kids….didn’t happen. But here are some cute pics that do work!!!!

Could this be a GAP ad or what?
John of course would not let me take a picture of his Sunday best!

Proud! Proud! Proud!!!!! God thank you for these boys!!!!

Ben’s Baptism

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This Sunday Ben turned 4 months old and was baptized. Since many family members were in for Pop’s birthday we thought it would be a good time for the baptism. We were nervous for how John would act in the front of the church, but he did suprisingly well- other than calling out dad’s name a couple times and for spotting cousins in the congregation. It is always special to have Dad perform a baptism, it was especially precious that Dad asked Pop to come up and to pray for us and Ben. That was a suprise to us and one that brought many tears. Pop has also written a beautiful prayer for Ben which is framed in his nursey. Also, Dad chose to have “Great is the Faithfulness” sung after the baptism which is our Sloop family song and was sung at Anna’s memorial service and John’s baptism. This also brought many tears. In our recommitment to Christ and in Dad’s challenge to Chris and I he told us that “Kyle” Chris and ben’s middle name means “near the chapel.” He encouraged us to always keep Ben near the chapel, near to Jesus. Chris and I feel so blessed by the 2 boys God has given us to love and to nurture and to raise knowing and loving him. Oh how we love our boys! Happy Baptism Benny!

Dave Wilcox

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Last night my family had the awesome, once in a lifetime opportunity to attend a Dave Wilcox concert hosted by my brother for 40 of his closest friends. He won the concert in a contest he entered. We are all huge Wilcox fans and the whole night was just cool. He played for a couple of hours- talked lots, sharing great stoiries about his music. His personality is so refreshing and his spirit so unique. He has a new album that just came out yesterday- you should get it for sure…”Windstream” i think. Anyway- a special thanks to my friend Laura who babysat our kids so we could go…and for dad who bought our dinner…and for David who won the contest.