Judah Learns to Walk

Well our baby is officially a toddler. He has been cruising along furniture and walking while holding our hands for a while. He finally let go and took a few steps a couple days ago. Yesterday he started walking across the room by himself. I think Asa walked slowly to keep his balance. Judah almost runs. He goes fast and falls easily. I put a short video on my Facebook page but won't bother on the blog. It's really not that good. I'll work on another one!

New Game

Here's a game that's very popular with little Judah right now. All you need is a ball you can hold in one hand. Or half an Easter egg will work as well. First you throw the ball then run-crawl over to the ball and pick it up. Then you throw it again, crawl after it and pick it up. You can repeat this over and over, giggling all the while. It's really a great game; Judah loves it!

Anniversary

Our six year anniversary was Sunday. Last year we talked about how the celebrations keep getting more and more lame every year. This year was less of a celebration than last year but we had a great day! I woke up early to make breakfast. The boys slept until we had finished our candle light breakfast. After church we had a church picnic. It was dreadfully hot but we survived and had fun. Judah and I sat under a tree and talked with friends while James and Asa played disc golf. Asa got pretty red from being so hot. Next was a little drive home followed by nap time. We decided to go to a greasy burger joint for dinner: Five Guys Burgers. There was an attempted but failed shopping excursion to get some more undies for Asa. Stores aren't open very late on Sundays.

I think we will be redeeming our anniversary celebrations. I found out that Relient K (one of our favorite bands) is going to be in Kansas City in October. From what I have seen, the tickets are affordable and I'm planning to get some when they go on sale tomorrow. Whoo hoo!

You may be wondering if we are potty training Asa. No, we aren't. We only have three pair of underwear. He wore it once and had an accident after a few minutes. I'm not giving up, I am just looking for more affordable undies!

Job

A few months ago a friend mentioned to me that they were in need of a couple teachers for the preschool she teaches at. I talked with the director about the position and filled out an application. I had an interview the week we moved and am happy to announce that I got the job. The preschool is at a church about 15 minutes away and meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30-2:30. I will be teaching about six kids who are right now turning three. I really have no experience with teaching little ones and I'm a little bit nervous about how it's going to go. My boys get to go for just $15 a month each. I think it will be good for all of us to get out of the house and have a little structure in our week. School starts September 8.

On a side note, Asa had a drippy nose yesterday. He did a great job getting kleenexes to blow his nose. Today he woke up and asked, "What wrong my nose?" It's starting to get dry and chapped. He isn't a fan of blowing his nose today. Judah also has the drippy nose now. He is pretty drooly as well so he gets to wear a bib all day!

The Grand Tour

We Moved!

Well, we have been in our house for about 17 days now. 14 of those days we have had guests! The move went really well. We had several people help us, I didn't get a head count. We got everything out of the old place and into the new place in about three hours I think. Our house has felt like home from the very first minute. The day after we moved in I cleaned our apartment. I talked with our land lady this week and she said that they have never had the place left so clean. She said that she cried when she saw it. I was a little surprised because I didn't feel like I cleaned very much. I guess we're just clean people.
Anyhow, James' mom flew in on Saturday (July 25). Sunday after church I headed out for Nashville with our youth group on a mission trip. James and Sandy survived with the boys for a whole week without me. Asa, Judah and Sandy took turns throwing up. I think Asa had the worst of it. The other excitement of the week was the refrigerator's slow death. They ended up taking the frozen items to a friend's freezer and putting the food from the refrigerator side into the freezer side. Other than the puking and broken refrigerator, everything was great! (I'll write about the mission trip later.) When I got home Saturday evening Asa was really excited to see me. Judah acted confused. He seemed to prefer James that evening but Sunday he clung to me. I can't believe that he survived in the church nursery without me.
My mom got here Sunday afternoon (August 2). We all drove up to the airport to drop Sandy off for her flight home. We didn't do much exciting during my mom's visit. She helped me clean and organize some things. The boys sat and listened to her read books for what seemed like hours.
Wednesday morning my sister Melinda and her family came. We all went to our favorite local place for lunch: Neighbor's Cafe. After we got back to the house, my mom headed out. The Stonebrakers went to the Royals game while we went to a meeting at church that evening. Thursday we took the kids to the park.

Friday we went to Fritz's train restaurant at Crown Center followed by frollicking in the fountains for a while afterwards. Let me just say that Melinda's kids enjoyed it more than my kids did.

Friday evening we went to Blues and Jazz Fest in downtown Lee's Summit. We didn't last very long with the kids. Once we had all the kids in bed we were free to do our favorite thing: play cards and eat snacks! When we all lived in Oskaloosa we played cards all the time. I really miss that the most. The Stonebrakers left Saturday after lunch.
As I look back on all of our guests, I didn't feel very stressed. It was great to have so much family here. We have the house to ourselves for three days before James' sister gets here! I don't know what we will do in September with an empty house!