Michelle's last four months

Luke turned 9 on April 30.  I LOVED taking his pictures at Loussac Library!!  He poses so nicely and doesn't mind going to several different spots to get the best scenery.

School ended in May.  All four kids had excellent school years this year!  They all loved their teachers and got really good grades.

In June, we went to the annual family picnic with the Down syndrome group.  This year, we had horse rides and carriage rides.  The kids really enjoyed that!

I really don't remember why Luke and Seth decided to dress up in their Batman costumes, but they were SO cute!!!!

 The family 4th of July cookout was at our house this year.  Gavin was excited to climb up into our tree house:

 Makayla enjoyed having Makenzie push her in the swing:

 Another July event was Makenzie's haircut.  After four years, she was ready to donate her hair to Locks of Love again.  Before:

 After:

      An unpleasant event in July was the return of "the Herbert."  We named him that because when Luke was a little younger, he didn't know exactly how to pronounce "pervert" and so it came out "herbert."  So that's the title we've given to the guy who on April 13th was half naked in our shed.  At the end of July, he once again got high and then jumped over our fence.  Even worse than trespassing, though, was that he then removed ALL of his clothes and was in the middle of doing something to himself that people should NOT do in public (let alone in a stranger's back yard) when Jason decided to go close the blinds and saw him.  When Jason yelled at him, Joel and I ran out to the kitchen to see what was going on.  We were shocked and disgusted to see the guy STAND UP and slowly put his clothes back on, slowly jump back over the fence, and slowly walk away down the street.  The cops looked for him, but couldn't find him.  The next day, Jason saw the Herbert walking down Northern Lights Blvd, so he followed him.  The guy was supposedly staying with a friend in the house right behind us!!  So Jason called the police who came and arrested the guy again.  As far as we know, he's still in jail and will be charged with the felony of indecent exposure to a minor since Joel saw him like that.  A VERY unpleasant event!!  One month later, and I'm still rattled and nervous about going outside or even looking out the window.

   We ordered this shirt from a Down syndrome group in Texas:

 Seth turned seven last week!  Luke decorated a special balloon for him:

 We invited all the Hofacker/Nelson crew, of course, and also some friends that are like family from church.

 Seth gave his 7th birthday a good thumbs up:

     Now the kids are all back in school and starting off this school year very nicely.  I'm glad they have something more productive to do with their time than watch movies and play video games!  I'm also glad to be able to go to work and do my job completely and more slowly than I had to do over the summer.