fivecrazymatchells: 4 goats, 6 cows, 3 Horses and a '98 Ford Windstar

We decided it's time to rethink the cultural norms regarding arranged marriages. After spending a weekend with some of our best friends from college, we fully realized that we want to guarantee that they are in our life forever. Their firstborn son is a precious little guy who is only a few months older than Anna, so... no brainer... we are drawing up a permanently binding contract between the two. Unfortunately, someone beat us to Anna's dreamy intended and offered a few goats, cows, and horses as a dowry for his hand. So I thought I'd up that a bit, while throwing in the extra car we have on our lawn--keepin' it Arkansas style.

In all seriousness though, we are just planning on exerting as much parental pressure as possible to make sure Anna marries Will. If she rebels against our authority, we will not lose heart (or maybe we will, but that will be for a whole other bucket of problems) and we will draw up a contract for Mikaiah and Cooper. They are only a few months apart as well and would make a precious couple. (Except that whenever Cooper would try to snuggle with Mikaiah she would stand up and yell "No thank you, Cooper!" Way to keep him honest, Kai.) Or we can just set our hearts on both. Which would be my favorite option.

Anna and her intended:

Or Mikaiah and her beau:

We got to see the awesome Smits family two times in two weeks! It was absolutely fabulous! I drove up there with the kiddos for a quick trip to meet their precious new little one, "Baby Joel" (who oddly enough, did not make into even one picture from our trip!) He is a beautiful baby and such a sweetie to snuggle with. Despite having a 3 month old, plus 2 other crazy boys, Sarah was a total rockstar and planned some super-fun activities to keep the weekend hopping. We had a play-date with 16 kiddos, went to a park/splash park, and Conner Prairie (History lessons, hands-on things to draw in the kids... um, could it get any better?? I think not.) And then Pat got the Super-Star award of the weekend by not ONLY babysitting all 6 kids so Sarah and I could go out, BUT THEN he came to rescue me when I got a flat tire. Thank you, Patrick. I look forward to many holidays spent as in-laws in the future. :) It was a seriously wonderful weekend seeing precious friends and their sweet children.

Our future Vet got to pet a wide variety of animals and even help feed a baby lamb!

Here are 5 of the 6 kiddos completely mesmerized by a man in period-style clothing from the Civil Way era throwing pottery.

The three 5 year olds enjoying some hands-on play in the children's section. Building dams for boats to sail around.

Our Jolly Captian steering a ship.

Mikaiah "working" behind the counter at a store for Civil War soldiers.

After our weekend in Indy, Pat's parents very graciously invited us to crash a day of their family vacation in Branson. It was wonderful seeing Pat's parents and siblings again, and we got to enjoy a day full of swimming and wiffle ball at their classy hotel.

Anna's future father-in-law pitching to her: