Garden Update

Here is a mid-summer update on our garden.

Grace holding our first zucchini we picked. So far we have gotten 3 and I have made zucchini fries and shredded some to freeze for zucchini bread.

A bad storm passed through Hannibal on a Tuesday afternoon downing two trees next to our garden. One of them did some damage.
Paul's corn was hurt the worst.
Grace picking a pepper.
The two huge trees.
Grace showing our damaged garden. (love the sad face)
Our broccoli crop. I have never grown broccoli so it took a bit of research to know how to harvest it. I have learned a lot and I think I would definitely try it again. So far I have made Beef N' Broccoli and Broccoli Cheese Soup with broccoli from our garden.

We spent a lot of time helping our friends pick up tree limbs. This picture just shows a few...they were everywhere!

Fourth of July

Fireworks at Grandma Holst's house.

Aunt Jo Jo and the future Uncle Jake (Josie got engaged on Friday night!)

Parade:

This year we were in the parade for Jeremy's company Reliable.






Fireworks on the 4th:

We watched fireworks across the river from Hannibal on the riverfront with our friends the Whetstones. It was a great spot...although Titus didn't make it through and I ended up with him in the van.

Sweet 2 the Soul

One of our newest ventures to make money for our adoption fund is a homemade cupcake and cream cheese mint business called Sweet 2 the Soul. After my failure as a jewelry saleswoman I knew I wanted to do something to continue to build our fund that didn't involve a party business. I have always loved baking, decorating cakes, and custom designing decorations for parties. However, with three little ones at home I wasn't sure I could deal with the stress of making cakes. So after I made these cupcakes for a family going away party (and a few episodes of Cupcake Wars) the idea of a cupcake business was born.

The Going Away Cupcakes that started it all... (Very appropriately since they were for Jamie & Kara who are also adopting :)

These I did for a baby shower I hosted for my best friend Karen's new baby boy, Micah. The letter M's are held on by a baby clothespin.

I guess she liked them because she became my first official customer. She gave me this napkin and I designed cupcakes for her son Logan's 2 year birthday party.

When I sat down to come up with a name for my business God totally gave me some great inspiration. I wanted to try and involve scripture so I began looking for passages with the word sweet in it. I stumbled on Proverbs 13:19, "A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul." and I knew it was perfect. Not only did it sound catchy it tied our adoption right in. I know that someday when I meet our child it will truly be a longing of my heart fulfilled. And so Sweet 2 the Soul is born, waiting to see how God blesses.

If you need cupcakes for a special event find us on Facebook or send me an e-mail jenniferhumiston@hotmail.com. If you are local PLEASE share this with others and help me get the word out.

Until our Child Comes Home,

China here they come!

Earlier this month we said "farewell" to our cousins, the McClintock Family, as their family heads to China for approximately two years. We however are looking forward to seeing them at Christmas. It was a great time to spend visiting before they left. I know we will miss our recent tea parties and play dates!

The girls and I made these cupcakes for them. They say "farewell" in Chinese and have the Chinese flag (colored by the girls) on them.
We finally got a good picture of Lilly & Grace.
Jeremy and I spent most of the night playing "tag." We had to take turns keeping an eye on Titus as he was into everything! And while this picture shows him playing with toys it was a very brief moment in his evening of adventure.

Psalm 139:9-10

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast."

We know God is "holding fast" to our far off family!

My Curly Headed Kiddos

Who would have thought God would answer all my wishes for curly hair growing up with 2 or maybe 3 (Titus is still TBD) beautiful curly haired children. :)

Cars 2 Movie

For our play group this summer the local theater did a special showing of Cars 2 just for us at 10 in the morning. I normally wouldn't try taking all 3 of the kids to a movie, but since it was an exclusive "preschool" showing I knew it would work. Grace & Faith made it through the entire movie and seemed to enjoy it. The plot of the movie is definitely a bit more complicated. (I was even a bit confused towards the end, but I was wrestling a toddler) Titus did okay until the last 30 minutes or so... But, luckily I could walk with him and know the girls were being watched by all my other mom friends.

This was Titus' first movie. Here he is sporting his Cars shirt. I look forward to watching the movie again someday when he is old enough to be excited about it.

Impromptu Zoo Trip

Earlier this summer a huge storm came through our area in the middle of night. It was so strong it woke us up and within minutes we got the text saying that we were under a tornado warning. Quincy, the city Jeremy works in, was hit the hardest. Most of the city was without electricity for several days. Jeremy went to work but was unable to do much due to all the business being closed and so he got off work at 11 am.

We had been wanting to take a family trip to the zoo so on a whim we quickly packed a lunch to eat on the road and headed out for the zoo. It was very cloudy, but the weather was mild so we decided to chance the rain. As we drove the sky cleared off and it was the perfect day for the zoo!

Faith's favorite- the pink "tamingoes"
This was our first zoo trip that Titus was actually interested in. I enjoyed seeing him point as he spotted the animals.
Another pink bird Faith loved.
We had to go into the antelope house to see the giraffes.


A baby born this past spring.

Grace loved posing with the statues. She really enjoyed playing "I Spy" looking for all the tiny snakes in the reptile house. She was a quicker spotter than her parents.


We stayed until the zoo closed at 5 and then hit the road. We stopped for dinner at Chile's on the way home and even that went fairly smoothly. We were VERY hungry by that point. Our kids were asleep before me made it back to Hannibal.

This impromptu zoo trip couldn't have been any more perfect if we had planned it!