Monday, July 28, 2008

Wordle

I found something new the other day, thanks to one of our Facebook friends. It's a website called Wordle that creates a word "cloud" based on text you paste in. The more frequently a word is used, the larger it appears. Then you can play around with the colors, fonts, etc. Here's a Wordle from one of our earliest blog posts, as we were getting ready to leave Bakersfield and move to St. Louis to begin seminary.




And this one was from a stewardship post Don did a while ago.








Here are Hannah's and Elizabeth's birth stories that I wrote soon after they each were born:










We've had fun playing around. Don also plugged in the gospels, the book of Philippians, and some other things. Maybe we have a little too much time on our hands... :-) Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Booster Club (edited)

Hello! We have been enjoying our summer and keeping busy. The girls and I went to the local community pool today and had a blast. They have a huge zero-depth entry wading pool with a slide and fountains. The last time we went the girls shivered through it, but really enjoyed themselves today. Bethie had great fun crawling around and playing with all the toys she could get her hands on. She still isn't walking, but loved the relative freedom the pool gave her. Hannah splashed and waded, going deeper than she had last time. We'll probably go back this week again and take Noni when she's here next week.


In other news, Hannah is now sitting in a booster seat in the car. She's quite proud of her new "grown-up" status and Mommy's glad because it'll be a lot easier to move the carseat and carpool with friends to outings. Hannah's been playing with friends as much as she possibly can this summer. Our new downstairs neighbors have three boys, 5, 3, and 1. Yesterday Hannah played in their wading pool with them and had a blast. It's so great to have neighbors and playmates right here on campus.


If you have any contact whatsoever with my mom (Noni), you already know that Elizabeth is beginning to speak in sentences. Most are just two (maybe three) words, but her longest one of note was, "Milky milky please thank you Daddy." She does a great job telling us what she wants and most of what she says is easily understandable. Execptions to the rule are "kee-nahn" (carrot) and "goy-yo" (yogurt). The word "Bible" is very clear; the problem is that "diaper" also sounds like "Bible." Go figure! Any animal vaguely horse-like is a "ho-see" (one of my favorite words by far). She copies everything she hears us say ("Yi yuv you"). Her funniest non-sequitur is "feet!" She'll be playing, babbling, or talking about something else when suddenly she'll exclaim, "Feet!" It cracks us up every time. When Don asks her for kisses she shakes her head back and forth, which usually means that she wants a nose rub (Eskimo kiss).


To wrap up, here's a photo of the girls having a tea party at the Magic House. And we pray you're enjoying your summer as much are we are!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July!

We have had a great day today. We headed over to nearby Webster Groves with friends to watch a parade. We sat right at the end of the route and had great seats in the shade. It's been a gorgeous day - breezy, low humidity, and in the mid 70s. We came home and packed up lunch stuff and headed two buildings over to our friends' house for a BBQ. Bethie slept, the grown-ups ate and visited, and the other kids screamed and ran up and down the hill jumping into one or the other of the two kiddie pools. The weather was still beautiful and we had a wonderful time. We're home now, Hannah's watching Monsters, Inc. having some quiet time on the couch. Soon Don will have to try to get some homework done. We still haven't decided if we're going to go out tonight to try to see some fireworks. It depends on how the evening goes. Here's a photo of us at the parade:
God's blessings on your 4th of July celebrations - thanks for checking in!