Open House

We are gearing up for an open house so that the church can check out what's been done to the house. Also we have our downstairs buddies moving out. The Harmons are at 100% and going to Uruguay. How exciting! But we have really enjoyed this little time that we have had with them here in the house. And then we will have the Balls moving in - also missionaries to Uruguay. They will be living in the downstairs apartment while they are on deputation. It's kind of comforting to hear other people moving around sometimes when you're alone in this big house. So the house is as it is. Still a work in progress - still need curtains and living room furniture. OK those are just things I really want but not necessary to live, I guess. But we really love living here. It's so peaceful and such a nice, large open room for company. We have been inviting the church people over little by little; and I am slowly getting over my fear of cooking for large groups. Of course, Matt is a huge help!

So we have been busy. May might be a little quieter for us than April. Here's hoping! We definitely picked up in our busyness since moving over, but it's church stuff and that's what we wanted and love.

Vacation

Well, we are back from sunny Florida. Sorry we didn't bring any sun back with us, but glad that at least it is in the 50s now! Here is a picture of Jack's first time at the beach. He didn't start out this happy, but ended up loving it.



We did lots of fun things, but mostly just enjoyed being outside in the warm weather. We were able to stay with Uncle LA LA and Carol which was more beautiful than a hotel. They live on 2 golf courses with everything you can imagine to do. We went to Sea World, Busch Gardens, and Cypress Gardens. And then shopping and the beach, and of course Matt got some golfing in! How fun! Nice that we missed the 10 inches of snow here and that it's mostly melted now. Hopefully that will continue, and we can have green here ourselves soon!

Happy Easter!

Here are some pictures of our new place. We still have some things to do, but at least we are in and it's a start.

And here's our little Easter Bunny!

Working Away

We have been busy, busy, busy!! We have been getting the ministry house at the church ready for our move in, which will be March 14th. We have been removing wallpaper, repairing holes, spackling, sanding, painting, etc... We are getting closer, though. Jack loves the new place and he loves helping out. When I am sanding or spackling a wall, he will come over and grab something and rub it on the wall to help me out. He also loves to sweep. We have this little broom and loves to grab it and drag it along the ground. One of the pictures I am including below has him with his broom.

Here are some before pictures of the main room. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. We will include some after pictures when we are done.

Here's Jack helping out.

I have to explain this next picture. We do not make it a habit to shove a blanket in Jack's mouth when he is being too loud. He does it himself. You see, Jack used to be a thumb sucker, but a while back his thumb got really blistered, cracked and sore because of all the sucking. Therefore, he couldn't suck it. This really bothered him and he had a lot of trouble going to sleep for a couple of days. We tried to give him a pacifier, but he never wanted one. It would just make him angrier. But then he figured out that he could suck his blanket. So now when he gets tired, instead of sucking on his thumb which has healed now, he just shoves a bunch of his blanket into his mouth. We thought this picture was pretty funny!

The Move

Well, looks like we'll be moving in about a month - yay! And we will be putting our house back on the market, so it would be WONDERFUL if it would sell. But God knows, so we will see what He has for us.

Jack's really taken off - literally! Practically running, so it is fun. He finally noticed Legoland in one of our walks around the MOA, so we stopped and let him run around for a while with all of the big kids! He loved it and of course was trying to do everything they were doing that they weren't supposed to be doing (i.e. climbing on the Lego walls and animals, etc).

Promise we will keep the blog up much better once we move since we will have internet again.

Jack's Birthday

What a fun time we had for Jack's party. We just had some family over to our place and had some cake and pizza and presents. He was a little more aware of presents than at Christmas, so it was very fun. He got lots of fun things - my favorite being walking shoes - yay! Matt is glad he doesn't have to hear me griping and grunting every Sunday morning trying to get his shoes on! It was very frustrating; but I like shoes, so I kept trying anyway. Anyway, thanks to everyone who came and shared in our little boy's birthday.

Everything else is going well with us - still caretaking and still commuting a ways to church. We will be moving soon to the parsonage at our church, so that is very exciting. We will be glad to be closer to church and family. Just staying busy with life, I'm sure, just like you all are. OH! We ARE coming up on our 5th wedding anniversary, so we're planning a fun trip to Florida soon. 85 and sunny - here we come! After windchills of 50 below, I can't imagine that. Today was 40 and felt quite tropical. Here are some pictures of Jack's party.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Jack is 1 today! We are very blessed to have him in our lives. I have been saying for a while that I was going to get a video of him walking. Well here it is. I have combined it with one of his birthday gifts. We were going to wait to give him this present, but he found it and wanted to play with it. We'll still wrap it up and let him open it tonight.