Brace yourselves....(and I just added a few pics!!)

With the exception of Josh, we all have new hairdo's!!

Carrie buzzed Luke's head b/c he had greasy, stringy, comb-over hair! then, I got my hair chopped last night in a bob. Rebekah's hair has been getting tangled every day, all day in her boogers or food, so it was time! Her wispy locks are gone and she has a big-girl haircut just like Mommy! Carrie did a great job!! We love it all! (all these are from Carrie's house)

Found some markers...and some sunglasses!

Time for the cut...









Luke loves being talked to up close and having his lips rubbed...so funny!

Little man amongst dolls...

Thought y'all deserved some new pics of the kiddos!! They sure are cute...We took Luke in today for his sonogram to see if his kidneys are still dilated...we'll hear soon. It was a good reminder of how much we have to be thankful for. For the most part, Rebekah and Luke are very healthy and happy children. It's easy to get caught up in the diapers, crying, naps (or my lack thereof :) ), and even the sweet smiles and forget the bigger picture- that these children are the Lord's and my job is to rear them in such a way that they return to Him- not that I have control over that, but that their salvation thru Christ is of utmost importance. So, if I am stressing about lack of sleep, packing and moving, schedules, etc., then that is not reflecting th Gospel of Christ. It is my prayer to model His security and love...I have a long way to go!

Rebekah thought it was a good idea to put all the babies together...(no, she did not place Luke here :), just her dolls)
LOVE his sad face...look at that frown! (Notice Rebekah's sweet little hand patting him, telling him it's okay)

I told Josh this was his father's day present- apparently he thought I meant the child! It took him a minute to notice the shirt!

Luke LOVES his duckie! I spent months trying to get Rebekah to like it as a baby, but she is just now interested in it! Luke spends lots of time cooing and grinning at this duck!




Rebekah and Grace hangin' on the hammock...so sweet!

(always a wayward leg)


Rebekah-isms:

-R sees Josh far away and heads for him while yelling, "I'm comin', Daddy! I'm comin'!"

-She looks at something and says it's green. I say, no it's not. She thinks, then says, "You're right, Mama. It's white. You're right."

-She notices I have something she wants and asks, "What you have, Mama?"

-She gets excited about an outing and asks, "Where we goin', Mama?"

-We had ice cream last night. I got a special waffle cone- she had not had a cone before. She looked at it and said, "Want sum! Want sum' of Mommy's.....ice cream stick!" You better believe she got some. :)

-Bekah puts something back together and says, "There you go, Mama. Bekah fix it!" There you go is frequently used.

-She almost dropped something and caught it and said "Gotcha!"

-She is big on planning things out and organizing things and narrating things. She said, "I'm gonna set my milk down first."

-Josh put a full-size door in the van to return to Lowe's. Rebekah loved having "the lid" over her head! She asked for "the lid" multiple times today!

Happy Father's Day, Dad

Reasons I love my dad:

Besides my husband, he's the smartest guy I know

He makes me laugh

He got mad at me for sneezing in the deer blind

He took me to gut a deer and I loved it!

He adores my children

He taught my daughter to say Bah!

He told me I could go to Texas A&M or....Texas A&M

He is such an amazing servant

Once he puts his mind to something, little can stop him

My son looks like him!

He's only as happy as his unhappiest child

When he laughs hard, he cries

He will sit outside and talk about anything with me

He will build anything for Billy or me (except install French doors- don't love that about him)

While Mom shared Jesus with us, he taught us the more important lessons in life, such as hush puppies put hair on your chest

He taught me to wait to pee on an airplane until it took off because it had to fall out in the sky- something I didn't figure out wasn't true until my honeymoon and I almost cried I was laughing so hard when I actually thought about why I was waiting!

He always has a good word of encouragement, such as that's what pliers are for! ;)

He thinks I'm smarter than I am

He is proud of me regardless of what I do

Dad- I am so proud of you and the man you have become- So many men think they have come of age, that there's nothing left to know, but you never stop learning and evolving, a trait I immensely admire. I imagine you have some regrets in life- we all do- but know this- I regret nothing in my relationship with you. I love you so much and cherish every minute we have together. Moving away was so hard and a lot of that was leaving you.

I love you! Happy father's Day!!

Flood in Iowa

We are doing fine, but our town and state are suffering badly. It seems surreal b/c our neighborhood has been untouched by the flood waters (PTL), so it's hard to imagine that this is reality. I keep trying to get across town, only to get caught in crazy traffic and have most of the roads closed. Our town is divided by the Iowa River and the fact that it is swelling over its banks is wreaking havoc on the whole area. Most of the east/west travel across town has been halted and our church looks like it will be ruined. The flood waters have broken all previous records and it's not even over! (over the 500-yr flood plane)

Aerial of our church (white outline is sandbags b/f the water went over them)...


Behind our church...


Church offices- the water reached about 4 feet up the walls of the church yesterday. They did evacuate this area of town and emptied the whole building in about 3 hours. The water could go another 4 1/2-5 feet! So, 2 days of sandbagging ended up being for naught!



The stop sign for the back way to our church...



The church playground...


More of the church...


The strip in Coralville (the next town where the mall is)...

Rebekah-isms

Funny things R said today:

Your bag's falling off, Mama!

I like noodles, Mama! (essential that it's yelled in delight)

I would like a noodle, Mama, please!

I like Baby Luke, Mama!

Did you find a spoon?

Play with Baby Luke's blankie...play with Snoopy! (Snoopy is on the blanket)

Want some Fergus...Biscuit! want some Biscuit! (this one you need background on- Biscuit and Fergus are dogs in her favorite books- at breakfast I was eating a biscuit and she wanted some but got her terms confused)

Get ice cream out of trough! (her bib has a lip to catch food that we (and apparently R) call a trough)

Thank you, Jesus!

Well...it has been a crazy week! On Thursday, Rebekah was fussier than usual (she's not a fussy girl at all), so I should have known...we took both kids to eat at a friend's house and they even noticed that she oscillated b/w hot and cold and had very glassy eyes. She wouldn't leave my side...that night we put her to bed and she fell asleep the second her head hit the pillow. Then, an hour or so later, we ran to her b/c she sounded like a squealing pig! In hindsight, I think she was hyperventilating because she was scared. Her fever was breaking- she was soaked in her own sweat and her cheeks were flaming! Josh grabbed "Lump" (what he lovingly calls our son) and almost forgot to put him in the carrier (Josh just had him in his arms :)) while I rushed out R. We drove to the ER- on the way, R was able to breath again and by the time we checked in she was delightedly running up and down the hallway. Wanting to avoid a hefty ER charge, we went home. She has had a horrible cold since then and has been fussy and clingy, but fine.

Luke had a couple rough days this weekend- never happy when awake- very frustrating. Every time I tried to put him down, he flipped out! So, that coupled with a clingy girl was trying. Our church is close to being flooded, so we have been up there packing up Josh's office so as to not leave without all his books due to inaccessibility. While doing that yesterday, Luke slept in his carrier in an adjoining office. As we were preparing to leave, L started fussing. R immediately popped his paci in. To her chagrin, he kept fussing and it fell out. "Keep it in, Buddy!" (such a parrot) He did not, which perplexed her, I am sure. All I know is he started screaming and choking horribly! R had taken her water bottle (about an inch full) and poured it in my baby's mouth! It was not malicious- she was really trying to help, but he was soaked, shocked, and sputtering, but otherwise okay! Then, 2 nights ago I noticed thrush in Luke's mouth (white patches along his tongue and lower lip). Indeed it is and we have antibiotics to hopefully treat it. My prayer is to not contract it myself through nursing. :)

So...I have asked the Lord to help me see good things in the midst of sleep deprivation and clingy children...can I say I am so very thankful for my children and the fact that they are alive and mostly healthy!

Iowa City (& some cute kids)

They are predicting a pretty bad flood for IC this week. Our church parking lot and surrounding area are already flooded and more is coming, in addition to releasing dam water. Yikes! Back in '93 they had a pretty bad one- I think 6 feet on the church wall- this year's is predicted to be worse. See Carrie Sterner's blog for more flood info. (it's on my links)

Rebekah's conversation (all from the past few days):

Mamama and Grandi in Texas...see them in couple weeks!

Pink....kinda purple.

Yellow...kinda orange.

Head is sick (she has a head cold).

Luke's sweatshirt! (his swaddle blanket)

Paci in! (She is the paci patrol)

He spit it out (referring to paci, of course).

Luke's crying...he's okay, Mama.

He spit up a little bit.

Bekah spilled a little bit.

Did you hit him? (meaning, yes, she just did)

Right now she is chatting in her bed: Pray decorations...okay! Pray Grace...okay! Pray zebra...okay!.....

I took her in to see the doctor on Friday- thought she had strep. We left Luke with Josh- as I coaxed her to walk in, she wouldn't budge from her station by the minivan. I was perplexed until she said "Get Baby Luke?" Again, she is more on top of it than I am!

This is our church's parking lot...

Off Dubuque, the main road into town- it's the green area outside our church...

Dubuque- the main road is closed.


Church members making and placing sandbags at the church...

A sweet little chapel at which Josh officiated a wedding last night.

Sweet Luke this morning- seemed happier today ad not as fussy! (maybe b/c he slept from 10:30pm-5:15am!)

Always game to play with her brother!


I am smitten with this yard!!! It is a a couple's from the church- she is from South Africa and loves to garden. This is the fenced-in area right behind the house. Then, the rest of the property slopes up- it is AMAZING!!!!! I am dying to live there!


Downtown...

Hug, Hug, Kiss, Kiss

I tell you what- Luke has his moments, but his grins sure are sweet!! I laid him down on R's bed while I changed her diaper and she was jazzed to "get next to baby Luke!!" She squeezed herself as close as possible and hugged him and kissed him! She now says "Hug, Hug, Kiss, Kiss" a la Nacho Libre. Luke mostly loved the attention... :) In other news, I actually got to rock him to sleep yesterday afternoon (R was down for her nap)- I was mesmerized by Luke's sleepy smiles and then awed by his giggle- I kid you not, he laughed in his sleep! Our kids are definitely advanced!





My 2 most favorite boys!




This was at our church's congregational meeting. After dinner, we sing a few praise songs...I realized that Rebekah had never been a part of corporate worship...she intently looked around at all the adults standing up and singing...Bekah softly started singing "lullabye...lullabye... lullabye..." She seemed surprised that the song did not change to Jack Johnson's lullabye song...go figure. This was right after she was singing- the camera missed the actual singing...when did she grow up to be big and so darn cute????

On a side note- we had the pleasure of our dear friend, Matt Morton, visiting us for a few days on his sabbatical. We went to the Amana Colonies and the Chocolate Haus- Josh bought Rebekah some gummy bears- so sweet! Anyway, Rebekah was very excited about the "yummy bears!"

Little Smiley...

Just thought y'all would like to see little Luke smiling...Josh gets the best pics! Actually, here's the deal- I feed Luke at 10 pm, 2 am, and 5am...after 5, I get to put in ear plugs and Josh handles things until 7ish or whenever Luke decides he's ravenous again! This means that Josh gets up with Rebekah and pacifies Luke as long as possible. Josh says that Luke is very social- doesn't need to eat, but wants to be a part of things- he says that he gets all kinds of smiles like these in the morning! :) Yes, he's grinning at himself in the mirror...











Rebekah likes to wash her hands- i.e. splash a lot!! Thought these were cute!

Rebekah's newest phrases:

Bekah be right back! I told you we'd get home! I told you I'd be back! Grandi gonna get you in the car! (excited about flying home with Mom and getting picked up by my dad) Bekah's in the phone! (she loves that her pic is on my phone!) Who's that?/What's that? Mommy feed the baby! Read it one more time! (she can finish most of her books from memory)

We did have our first notice of Samson's absence- she asked if he was downstairs...it made me cry a little...

She also noticed that Josh got his hair cut- she rubbed his head and said "Daddy's hair cut"...speaking of, we love some of her sweet little habits- she rubs my earrings and Josh's beard stubble when she's tired...

Bekah's imagination has been developing, too- while I was washing dishes, she pretended to wash out bottles at her own sink. She also clanged some measuring cups and spoons around in Luke's room while I was nursing him and told me, "Bekah's making dinner!"