Zoe Poppins

Here's a recent shot of our family's little miracle!
Zoe Layne Nowling

Our Old Girl...

She's still around and kickin'.
Isn't she pretty or as Zoe would say, "Purty, purty, purty."

The Panty Hose Bandit

This series of pictures does not bode well for Gus' future
career path. If he starts having little baby-friends nicknamed
"Lefty" and "Fingers", I'm gonna worry.

He found the drawer that my hosiery is kept
in yesterday and spent most of the afternoon trotting
around in this pair of old panty hose. I'm thinking that
it's good to stock up on ammo now so that when they're
teenagers, I'll be able to influence their behavior
with a quick flick through the pages of my scrapbooks.
HAHAHAHAHAHHA! (That's my evil-mother laugh.)

Stick em' up...

Look at all this loot!

Ah, shucks, captured. Baby jail is no fun.


Nighty-Nite panty hose bandit.

Important Lessons Learned While Washing Cars

Uhm...so, don't eat soap.

And don't let your seven year old have free rein with the hose...

Oh, look...Eli has a big, rotten idea. Hmmmnnn...wonder what it is?

Okay so, after this shot of Matt all wet, they spent quite a lot of time
and water fighting over the hose and drenching each other.
There's 10-15 pictures of that but I was in the cross-fire trying to
keep my camera dry and they're not so great.

The Wax Job

The Wax Job

Another drink...

The Ground Supervisor

Eli (my ever eager entrepreneur) quote, "Mom, do you want
that just shiny or extra-shiny? Our special today is the
extra-shiny. Am I gonna get paid for this?"

Workin' at the Car Wash...

Papaw doesn't know WHY The Nana bought those toys when fellers
can have a bunch of fun just doin' chores....

Playing with Nana's New Toys...

We were down there SO long that Nana HAD to go buy some
new toys for the babies. What's the best thing to do after
you get all wet in the new sprinkler? Play in the new
sandbox naked, of course...silly...

The View from Mom and Daddy's Front Porch...

So we were in Scottsburg a little longer than planned due to the funeral and I got to spend some time sitting with my Dad on his front porch relaxing as rain showered down. I made a nice memory that day. Here's what we saw...you'll have to excuse the fuzzy image. The telephoto lens wanted the tripod but all that was available to steady the shot was my hand.

Eli and Nana were in a heated game of monopoly and were totally unavailable to do ANYTHING but talk hotels and rent and get out of jail free. Isaac and Matt sawed some logs but not like you might think....

Then on July 5th our Hearts were Broke...

We were spending a low-key day at Nana's trying to recover from our big party at Kristen's when we got the news late that afternoon that my Dad's sister Karen had been
in an accident while mowing her yard.

Southern Indiana is hilly in places and my Aunt Karen had a really nice place at the top of a hill. She has always loved being outside and July 5th was an extraordinarily beautiful day. It only figures that she'd be out mowing. Apparantly, she'd gone over a hill, and flipped over with the mower. The first phone call told us she'd been hurt, was critical and was being stat flown to Indy. The second call, shortly thereafter, told us that she didn't make it.

This is the first tragic death of this type in our family in decades and my Aunt Karen was the first of my Dad's siblings to pass away. We were all stunned and devestated to say the least so... if you go to pray for us, please pray especially hard for her husband Keith, her daughter Julie, her friend Sally, her son Michael, his wife, Lisa and their little boy Blake. Their loss is too great to bear and her death makes no sense. She was deeply loved and much needed and her absence from here will leave a gaping void for them that only the Holy Spirit can understand or help to heal.

She was a beautiful person, a Christian woman, a loving wife, a good mother, an adoring, devoted and blissful grandmother, a fun aunt, a passionate friend, a hard worker, a sunshine lover, a flower smeller, a noodle maker, a cobbler baker...she was crafty, she sang. She told you what she thought. She was steadfast. She LOVED children. She perserved family heritage and history...she remembered things and held them dear. She was so much more than could ever be written and I'll miss her to my depths but... I'm joyful yet because I know where she's at and that I'll see her again.

Aunt Karen and Isaac (9 months)
Needler Family Labor Day Picnic 2005

Camp Challenge

Right before he left for camp, Eli and Matt finished up the VERY big job of cleaning up the fence row. Eli has been helping tons this summer and enjoying it a bit, I think. Anyhow, the fence row looks all tidy and neat without all the grass growing up in the shadowboxes. It took us most of the day over a couple of Saturdays to get it done and it was so hot. Eli had a really good attitude and truly helped finish the job. We're so proud! It really helped on the last day when Eli and Matt had their "tunes" to work along to.

It has been a long month since our last post. It began with Eli spending three days and two nights at Camp Challenge in Bedford, Indiana . This was his first overnight church camp experience and he loved it! He left with all the "bring to camp" items crossed off of his list and came back with everything except his little flashlight. He liked being on his own and deciding things for himself. He took one shower. He brushed his teeth ONCE. He wore a pajama shirt and swimming trunks one day all day. So, virtually everything came back EXACTLY as it had been packed. He spent all of his canteen money as we expected. They swam and played basketball and took midnight hikes and worshiped and sweated and studied their bibles. He loved it! Here he is the day we dropped him off.

Isaac and I went to spend the days at Nana's while Eli was gone at camp. We were packed up to stay through The Fourth of July. Aunt K and Uncle Eric had a hugemongo party at their new place in Seymour. Here's some of the highlights from that...

The new baby at Aunt K's house...Jackson Romar.


Uh...Trouble with a CAPITAL "T". Here's Richard Needler's little brat's brood minus the babies on the trampoline where they watched the fireworks that surrounded us on THREE sides. What a sight! They only got in trouble 1,562,438,999 times that night. They look sweet but WATCH OUT!


Okay so...these two were SO up to something. There's not much else that can strike a smile on your face quicker than the sight of these two jokesters together. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Matt laugh a lot when they're together and they like to "team up" on ya!