We were blessed with a visit from our friends Lindsey, Abigail, Susanna and Lydia! Yehoshua, Ruth and I joined them for this picture. (L to R: Lydia, Susanna, Yehoshua, Lindsey, Ruth, Tammy, Abigail)

They drove all day to get here. We were excited to see them pull into our driveway about 6:30pm! I introduced Yehoshua and Eliyahu to everyone, and the boys very quickly started asking our guests to play with them. ;)

I had some leftover beef and barley soup to warm up, along with fresh homemade bread, cooked green beans, and a taco/bean dip with chips. I am always glad when guests come with an appetite! I guess when I serve food to others, it makes me feel like I'm doing my job as a hostess. :)

Ruth (6 mo.) sat on my lap while we ate. She's doesn't get any solids yet. :)

Abigail, Yehoshua and Eliyahu's "Auntie Abby" made them cover their eyes while she hid some surprises in the living room. They were very curious and had a lot of fun finding two wrapped packages, two outfits for Ruth, and a set of pajamas for Yehoshua. :) Yehoshua's gift was this screened-in bug box with a green plastic tweezers. He knew immediately what it was for (some friends of ours have one like it) and got very, very excited.

We told the boys that when the fireflies were out, we'd take them outside to catch some for Yehoshua's box. Here they were asking Lydia if the fireflies were out yet. :)

Finally it did get dark, and we all went out bug-hunting. We found a cicada, june bugs, a big red beetle (cicada-sized!) and lots of fireflies. When we were ready to go back inside, we let the bugs out of the box and discovered that while the cicada was inside, it had molted and was now a soft, wet green thing! Fascinating. :)

Lydia holding Ruth. Ruth was smiley and happy all evening. :)

Lindsey and Ruth, with the quilt that Lindsey's twin sister Erin made for Ruth. Ruth sleeps with it every night, holding onto the fringe with her little fingers... so sweet! :)

I had never met Lindsey in person, though we've known each other online for many years. It was fun to get to talk with her... our visit ended too soon! :(

Yehoshua and Auntie Abby... very very special buddies! This was their third meeting in person. Yehoshua could not have had a better time... he was grinning the whole time!!

The next morning, Auntie Abby and Yehoshua played banjo together. Yehoshua loves banjos, but had never seen one in person before.

Yehoshua also got to use her camera (with help, of course!) and he took at least a hundred pictures...

...including this one of all of us! (L to R: Joshua, Abigail, Susanna, Yehoshua, Lindsey, Lydia, Eliyahu, Ruth, Tammy)

We had waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. Eliyahu got to lick the beaters! Abigail took this photo and I love it! She's very good with her camera. :)

Ruth looks stylish in Yehoshua's sunglasses.

And she loves to smile at the camera!

Up on her head... look, they hold her hair back out of her eyes!

I love happy giggly babies...

Babies are such a blessing!!

This is Ruth's most-beautiful-dress-that-fits-her-right-now! My friend Tanya made it for her. Yehoshua took all of these pictures of Ruth, by the way. He loves his little sister... he even tried to get her to use the camera with him!

Before she left, Abigail took a picture of our whole family! Joshua (age unknown), Tammy (me -- 26), Yehoshua (4), Eliyahu (2.5) and Ruth (6 mo.). Wow... I loved having several cameras in the house... I didn't pick up mine the whole time! (I actually don't really enjoy photography that much... having to grab my camera always kinda ruins the fun for me!)