Box Of Blocks!

On Saturday morning, Scott and Isaiah were grocery shopping.  An older gentleman made a point of stopping them and said hello to Isaiah.  A few minutes later, they 'ran' into him again.  This time Scott noticed he carried a large box under his arm.  His initial thought was, "Oh great, what's he trying to sell?"  Or he thought maybe he was asking for $ and Scott quickly did an inventory in his head of how much cash he had in his wallet.  What happened instead left Scott reeling.

He asked Scott if he was Isaiah's 'big brother' (mentor), Scott replied that no, he was his father.  He then asked Isaiah if he had any brothers or sisters at home!  Haha, Scott had to help answer that question and replied that indeed he did, in fact Isaiah is #9 of 11!!  :)  He told him briefly that we have several children who are adopted and we are pursuing an international adoption to bring home a special baby with Down syndrome.  He doesn't usually offer so much information but he felt it was right with this man.

The man got tears in his eyes when Scott shared these things with him.  He handed Scott the large box and explained his story.

It was a box of Blocks.

He explained that he had been a teacher for 33 years, teaching Biology.  He noticed in the late 60's that there was a lot of scrap wood that was not getting used from projects in the wood shop class.  He got permission to collect the wood and started making these boxes.

For the past 50+ years, he has been making these boxes and has given away more than 1500!  They can be found in 20 different states as well as foreign nations (including Russia, Yugoslavia, Israel and Cambodia).  He has sent them to well known families as a way to say thank you for the good they do.  He sent one to Bill Gates and his family, Sarah Palin's family, Curt Warner's family, etc,

He always writes a message on the bottom of the box.

Along with the box, he gave Scott a piece of paper.  On one side was his testimony of Jesus Christ.  On the other side was his story of how the boxes started and why.  He also included some 'tips' on playing with the blocks (some ideas of different ways to play with them).

He wrote the younger 4 kids' names on the box (as you can see in the first pic), handed the box to Scott and was gone.  Scott tried to follow him out of the store to see where his car was or see what he was driving but he was gone.  He had seemed to vanish into thin air.

It's only been a few days since the box of blocks joined our family, but they have been used by the 6 younger ones for hours each day.  They have created castles, designs, houses, etc. They have played together as well as individually.  There has been no fighting or arguing while playing with the blocks.

We have had blocks before.  In fact, we have always had blocks.  No one has ever played with them.  They have sat in the bin, untouched for years.  I'm sure they are jealous of these new blocks that have already received more attention in these few short days than they ever have!!

Gary Nichols is the name of the man that created this box.  He's from Klamath Falls, Oregon.  I'm not sure what he was doing here in Idaho, or how many more boxes he gave out while he was here but he touched my family with his kindness, his generosity and his love of the Lord.

Safe travels, Gary!  And thank you for our box of blocks!  They will be treasured for years to come!!

Birthday Boy!!

Oops, forgot to post this one from last week!!!!


Yesterday we celebrated Tanner's birthday!!!  What an amazing young man that boy is!  Turning 14 means starting high school in the Fall.....he is sooooo excited!!

Ice cream cones......never cake for this kid!!!  He doesn't really like it!

Awww, so cute.

 



 Earlier in the day we went to one of the local cemeteries and Levi, Tanner and Thomas went in full scout uniforms because they were asked to post the colors during the Memorial Day ceremony.  What an honor for them!!!!  They did a great job and it was a wonderful experience for them.  The rest of us enjoyed the ceremony as well!

 

Such A Great Weekend!!

Some weekends are pretty ordinary......however this past weekend was amazing!!!  On Friday we celebrated Miss Vanessa's birthday!  Picking up Sabrina at the airport made the celebration even sweeter!  To top that day off, we got a new cow!!!!  Best day ever!!!!!

Saturday was our 'day of service' at church!  Scott was involved in a mini home remodel for an older lady.  He took his sprayer and painted her living room and a hallway.  They took out the old carpet and installed new!  They replaced the old windows with new vinyl ones.  The boys helped out there and then a bunch went over to the church orchard, where they thinned peach trees with a bunch of people who were already there!  Vanessa was already there helping and they got so much done!

While all of this was going on, Levi was volunteering at the local Special Olympics.  For the past few weeks, he has been helping to coach the Special Olympics basketball team at his school.  Saturday was their big day!!  He was gone most of the day and had such a great time!

Just when I thought the day couldn't get any better, Samantha, Colt and Calvin showed up!!!  So fun to have them here!  Later that afternoon, Talisha was baptized by her Daddy.  What a special day for her!  To top off the evening, we all headed back over to the church for a big bbq!

I love my family!  I love their willingness to serve others!  I have truly been blessed to have such an amazing family!!

Enjoy the pics!!

 Birthday Girl!!

 

 Beautiful Girl!

 

 Special day!

 

Just love this picture!!

We love you, Talisha!

Such a great pic!

 Love this one too!



 

Everybody loves the quad!!!  Haha....

 

Papa and Calvin!!

 

 There he is, cute little steer.

 

Even though last Friday was the first official day of summer vacation, today feels more like it since it's a Monday!!!  So far, so good!!  :)

Annnnnnd......The Winner Is........

My cousin emailed me privately and gave me her guess.....she was right on the money!!!  Kandi, you came in second with the right answer!  :)

We are very excited to announce that we are officially in the process to adopt another child!!!

Once again, Zachary opened up our hearts to the possibility of adopting a child with special needs.  We never felt qualified before he came along.  We realize now that we can do this!!!  We are excited to go down this road.  There are a lot of unknowns and there are a lot of questions but we know this is what we need to be doing right now!  Plus we know we have a small angel in Heaven, that will be cheering us on!  Stay tuned! We will keep you posted along the way!!! 

Big News!!

Let's see how many correct guesses we can get for our 'big news'!!!  Stay tuned........

Oh, The Stories They Would Tell......

This morning as I was putting away Isaiah's boots, I stopped for a moment and really looked at them.  They are full of adventures! They have been there, done that!!  He wears them to play basketball, ride his bike, chase goats, play tether ball, run through the irrigation, climb in the tree house...and just about anything else boys do!!!

That kid never has a boring day!  He is always full speed adventure!!!  He is always doing something!!!  In fact, some of you may remember a week or two ago when he filled the gas tank in our 15 passenger van with water!!!!  After we towed it to the dealer, we also discovered that the tank was full of rocks!!  I would love to hear his reasoning for those rocks in the tank.....but then again, we were just happy to pay them almost $1000.00 and drive our van home and call it "done". 

That boy is a joy to parent and no day is ever the same with him!!!  Keep having adventures, Isaiah!!!

Birthday Weekend!

This past weekend, we celebrated my grandmother's 93rd birthday.  As an added bonus, Samantha and sweet little Calvin made the trek to celebrate with us.  Colt had to work and wasn't able to make it so we missed seeing him this time around. 

We took lots of pictures and loved spending time together. 

Uncle Levi snuggling with cute Calvin!!

 

Uncle Thomas and sweetie pie!!

 

Aunt Savannah feeding her adorable nephew!

I just love this picture of the two of them gazing into each other's eyes!

Yup, so cute!!

Tanner eating his ice cream with Grammy!

Levi, visiting with Grammy.  She was just sure that she was the same height as Levi!  Haha, until I told her how tall he was......

Look at that silly Papa making faces at his cute grandson!!!

 



5 generations!  My grandmother became a grandma at the age of 42.  My mother became a grandmother at the age of 42.  I became a grandmother at the age of.......42!  Weird huh?

 



 Such a great time!  We sure love you, Grammy!!!

 

We had a couple of kids that hadn't seen Zachary's headstone yet, so we stopped by the cemetery on the way to church!

Lots of hugs! 

All the kids.....just missing Sabrina.  We love you Zachary!!!