Better Late Than Never...

Wow!  It has been one intense week for our family...

We found our little mover this past Friday scooting herself under the couch.  We cannot keep that little girl still, and now that she can roll and get on her hands and knees, she is never in the same place we put her within moments.  Ezri, of course, thought it was fun to be under the couch and joined Alora, wanting Mommy to get under it too (yeah right!) 



Sunday brought a long morning for the girls as I sang with the band.  Early morning practice and two services really can wear them out!

Sunday evening we celebrated Scott's birthday with him with our usual dinner together, followed up with cupcakes and ice cream :)  The kids get right to playing together and Ezri is great with the little ones, often more helpful than necessary...

Monday found us visiting (Great) Aunt Nancy at East Lake, just around the corner from our house, for a day of swimming in the lake.  Shortly after we got into the water, Alora was off to dreamland for nearly an hour, floating along with not a care in the world, comfortable as could be!

 Ezri quickly found fun in the sand and water and even made a friend, Lilly.  Those girls played together all afternoon, and at one point when we had left the water and gone back to the campers, Ezri told me she was going to go to the next camper over (where Lilly was staying) and "go see my best friend" :)

Of course, Aunt Nancy was as much fun for Ezri to play with, and Ezri got plenty of time in following her around, splashing and playing.  She just loves to visit and play with "Ancy"

 After a long afternoon of swimming, the girls were wore out and Alora soon crashed again...

 But soon was awake and rearing to go again!

Later in the evening, Daddy joined us to play.  After supper, we got to go out on the boat with Uncle Ryan.  This was the first boat ride for either of the girls, and Ezri was very excited!

After we got to the middle of the lake, we jumped in to swim a bit and Ezri followed suit, no fear at all for the fact that we were so far from shore, she swam and played in the middle of the lake without a care.  Thank goodness for life jackets!  Then it was back into the boat to drive, back into the water again... over and over until we were all ready to head back to shore.

Alora stayed in the boat - no deep water swimming for her - but thoroughly enjoyed being in the boat and watching everyone play in the water :)

Ezri finished up the evening by getting her fingers and toes painted by Tara :)  It was a really relaxing and enjoyable day for everyone!

Tuesday found us home with a very tired toddler and an ambitious infant.  While Daddy was away at a meeting in Fremont, Alora decided sitting on her own was on the agenda for the day and, if propped up with her hands, could stay upright for a minute or so.  Quite proud of her skill, she's hot stuff :)  So much for my baby!

 Sunday was the beginning of what soon became an emotionally exhausting week. We first learned of a friend's loss of her nephew (26) at church. Several hours later, we received a phone call from Oma informing us of Alex's cousin's child (4) being struck by a vehicle and killed while walking with his grandmother (Alex's aunt) when camping that morning.

Gavin

And then came the phone call letting us know my grandmother was in the hospital with stroke like symptoms. I was afraid for the phone to ring another time!  Thankfully, Grandma was able to come home Tuesday, with only a little weakness and some memory struggles.

Our week became a whirlwind Tuesday evening and finally slowing this evening.  After driving all day, Alex got home from Fremont just to load us up and head to Coloma for the visitation of my friend's nephew.  Wednesday, afternoon, we again packed up, dropped Ezri off at Grandpa and Grandma's for the evening, and went to the extremely emotional visitation for little Gavin (with an estimated 1500 attendees).  Thursday brought the funeral for Gavin, for which Ezri again stayed at Grandpa and Grandma's. 

We find ourselves shocked and completely at a loss for understanding.  And even more so, we have been doing a lot of extra hugging of our precious girls, praying we never have to experience such a tragedy ourselves.  Suddenly, little annoyances are more easily ignored and the little triumphs become great accomplishments.  Or hearts break for Gavin's family and we are filled with sadness at the loss, grateful for a strong faith within his family and praying for strength and peace as they begin a very difficult time.

The family loss brought Aunt Becky to town for a couple of days, so today she got to join myself and the girls for the morning as we went to get Alora's 6 month pictures taken today.  Following the pictures and a little shopping, we enjoyed lunch together.  Ezri did great, with only one little oops during pictures when, while my back was turned to her posing Alora, she snuck out of the studio and down the store aisle to the front to look for Aunt Becky who had not arrived yet.  Fortunately, another mother waiting for her appointment saw Ezri leave and immediately came to get me so I could fetch her.  A little scare for me for the moments I could not find her, and I surely got looks yelling her name down the aisle, but thankfully she was soon in sight and came right back when I called her.

As we reflect on our week, we find our hearts heavy, yet filled with thankfulness.  How to put into words the emotion...  I just keep shaking my head...  so much to process that I can only pray and sneak into the rooms of our sleeping girls to peek at and touch them again, thanking God for how truly blessed we are with these precious girls who enhance our lives so greatly and complete us.





Rain and Train

We finally got some rain!  Not much, but we were sure celebrating last Friday afternoon when it rained for a short bit, and we even went out to play in it :)

 Ezri was quite excited to put on her rain boots and use her umbrella :)

 We also got a storm full of rain to come over our house all night Wednesday and we were sure grateful.  Though it looks like we're done with rain again and back to dry hot weather for a bit again, we sure appreciated the break!

Our weekend was rather full this past week.  We celebrated this Mommy's birthday with some friends at a local restaurant for lunch on Sunday and then the girls got to spend some time with their Uncle Michael Sunday evening.

Alora seems to have grown by leaps just this past week alone.  We're now seeing her get up onto her hands and knees often and rocking for a moment before laying back down.  We can't keep her off her tummy anymore, and changing time is a challenge to say the least.  We've had to catch her from launching off the back or side of the changing table several times.  We're also seeing her shake her head from side to side quite often, and she finds it just as amusing as we do :)

 Very into what Ezri is doing, she's grabbing everything is sight and Ezri is beginning to learn she's not the only one who wants to play with her toys anymore.

 Tuesday evening we got to spend time with Aunt Kerri, Uncle Mike, Aubrey and Wesley at the pool.  We grilled out and enjoyed our time together swimming and cooling off after another hot day.  The girls love the water and it was fun for Daddy and Mommy too!

Wednesday was a special day for us, and especially Ezri, as we got to ride a train!  We, along with Andy and the Rollandini family, took a ride together on the Coopersville Marne Railway.  On our way there, we passed the train we would be riding and it happened to blow it's whistle as we passed.  Ezri then was excited about how the train sounded, and proceeded to inform us at least 5 different times with a scream what the whistle sounded like :)  While we were waiting for the train to arrive, we took advantage of some photo opportunities by an old train...

 And then we excitedly watched the train we would ride pull up to the station. Ezri commanded those around her to clap their hands as it pulled up :)  She was so excited to ride on a train like Thomas!

 Having her friends West, Lainey and Faith along did not hurt the excitement any :)

 Once on the train, Ezri immediately got to work watching out the window...

 While the car we were riding on had air conditioning, it was not working and it was very hot, so eventually we opened all the windows for a little relief (which had us a bit worried about children hanging out or dropping things, or having the very old window come down on a little arm).  Fortunately, everyone walked away with all body parts in tact, though definitely very hot and sticky from the ride.

Kids don't care about that stuff, though, so we just tried to overlook our discomfort and enjoy the time and watching Ezri especially enjoy the experience :)

Picking and Swimming

We have officially reached drought status here across the state.  Things are not looking good for crops, with corn and bean fields so dry that many are dying :(  With our early spring warm up followed by frost, most fruit crops have been affected (few apples, peaches, etc. survived, blueberries down in number, etc) and now summer crops being hit, grocery costs are sure to be rising here soon.  We need rain so bad! 

Fortunately, the heat wave has "broken" and we are back in the low to mid 90's.  Last Friday we reached at least 106 here (this thermometer was in the shade all day)!  We spent the night at the pool - until 10:30!!!  The water was so warm (90-92) that it was hardly refreshing, but at least more comfortable than the air outside.  We swam in the dark, and Ezri was thrilled to do so while watching the "flashlight bugs" and the bats swooping and diving at our heads.

 Saturday morning, Alora got right down to business jumping her little heart out.  She just loves to jump, doing so even when not in the jumper if held right.  Growing so fast... we've caught her pushing up on her arms this week, sometimes up on her toes and other times rocking back to her knees!  She is growing too fast!!!

 Saturday afternoon we went to Opa and Oma's for a TenHaaf family reunion of sorts.  It was a busy, HOT afternoon full of people the girls were unfamiliar with.  Alora took a nap for a while as the chaos outside and on the porch ramped up.  Ezri joined some of the younger children outside, getting right down to business bossing the little boys around.

 Sunday was another long day for us at church followed by an afternoon of rest and an evening with friends.  Alex, Andy and Scott got out the potato gun and soon the neighbors began joining us and then passers by on bicycle.  We had quite the crowd watching as we all stood in the street talking and enjoying the activity.  Ezri spent her first night in the big bed and was awoken by the sounds of the potato gun, so she joined us outside to see what the noise was and then caught some "flashlight bugs" before heading back to bed.  She slept the whole night in her big bed, and has every night since with no fuss, and this all on her own decision to sleep there after starting the night in her crib!  Sadly, I do believe the crib is soon to be on it's way back to the nursery - my baby is growing up!

Monday afternoon, the girls and I met up with Grandma to pick blueberries.  It was another hot afternoon, and it took several hours of picking to get a gallon bucket filled as most of the larger berries were killed by the frost leaving lots of little, longer to pick berries.  Still, we got some for the freezer and enjoyed ourselves while picking.  Ezri liked to help too!

Alora did great also, playing on a blanket after a short time in the wrap prooved too hot. 

Soon she was napping, and then Ezri was down for a rest as well!

After picking, we went to Grandpa and Grandma's for supper and play.  The girls found themselves in an old baby buggy that belonged to my grandfather's family, used with him and his siblings as infants.  A family antique, it was fun to have them in it :)

After such a busy couple of days, we spent some time at home working in the garden, playing outside and napping.  We were all tired!

After one day of napping, I found Ezri (who had decided she would rather lay in her room talking than sleep that day) watching out the window with her barkies and kitty all lined up to watch with her :)

 Thursday, we spent another warm day at the pool, this time with Aunt Kerri, Aubrey and Wesley.  It was a really fun day for everyone.  Ezri and Aubrey are so much like sisters - best friends one minute, fighting over the same toy/floaty/person the next...

 Wesley and Alora took it all in from the shade most of the day after swimming the morning away.

 We sure did have fun, though!

 Even Great Grandma stopped by later in the evening to have supper with us and hold Alora for a while :)

We're so glad we have that pool so close by!  Especially this hot summer - some days I feel we'd be better to pack up and live in their yard as much as we're back and forth :)