We have an update too :) It's been a while since we've sent pictures so... here you go! I can't believe he's getting so big - Noah too! Matthew's world is expanding day by day. He is loving his rice cereal and trying to sit up. He's got the rolling thing down pat. He can actually get around that way :) Well atleast to the other end of his blanket. He's been a stinker the past couple of days. He went hours and hours without eating monday and tuesday. I think he ate 4 times each those days. I don't know. He just looked at me and just screamed when I tried to feed him. Worry wort mommy had the doctor see him. I thought maybe he had an ear infection, because that's the way Ryan used to act when he had one. But, of course, he's fine. In fact he's making up for it today. He's been eating ALL day.

Ben and I have both been busy with VBS this week. It was a blast - but very tiring :) There was one teen saved - Romeo, that I know for sure. I'll have to ask Ben later(he's still there cleaning) I had the 2's and 3's. We didn't do too much, but we had a good time. I taught them a new song and a little memory verse. We made crafts 2 nights. They were too scared to see the firetruck that visited tonight. One little boy actually started crying and ran off. I guess it can be overwhelming. Each night there was a puppet show in the closing assembly. Ryan loved it :) My kids were good too!

Our garden is growing leaps and bounds! The beans died, but that's okay, because they didn't taste good - stalky. Our cucumbers are yummy, and now we are getting some squash and tomatoes growing :) The watermelons are about the size of Matthew's head, so they're getting there. The pepper plants are getting bigger, but no signs of peppers.

My bed is calling... ahhh heavenly pillow and soft sheets.......of course, Matthew is also calling... hope everyone is doing great!

Summer Days!

We wanted to post the latest update from Oregon. Noah turned 9 weeks a few days ago. He got a check up on monday and everything looked great. He is 11lb 12 oz and 24 inches long. He has already gone to his first birthday party for a friend that turned 1yr and has logged in quite a few hours of "work" on the deck of the pool. He is growing up so fast! We started putting him in his nursery for the first sleeping stage of the night and then bring him to bed with us at about 2 or so. He has started sleeping for 5 hours a night which has been fun. We don't have a lot to compare with but he seems to be a pretty content baby.

Erin has started to bring in a few more piano students and is only scheduled at the pool once a week but is able to sub for people every now and then. I am pluggin away at work and am trying to get the firplace at home finished before mom and dad come. I am being held up waiting on my plumber to connect the gas line. I don't really want to mess with gas, it scares me :)

Well, i think thats it for tonight. My nose won't stop running (something got me when i was mowing the yard) and I am longing to go sit on the couch with my boy! Love you all,

HAPPY 56TH ANNIVERSARY

GRANDMA AND GRANDPA celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary yesterday, June 23rd. We all worked on making a special meal for them - from placards, using our Czech goblets, and having a corsage for grandma. Marie and I found a baking tray that had 6 mini bundt cake tins and we made individual bundt cakes, frosted them with melted choc chips and had dishes of chopped candy to put on top. Also skewered strawberries and fresh pineapple. It was alot of fun fixing it. Everyone got involved. Will printed the placards and the girls helped with setting the table. I think grandma and grandpa enjoyed it.

Marie, Will and the girls came to visit Thursday after Will got off work. They were here before I got home. We had a fun visit - went to the beach on Friday and the girls had a ball swimming. Dad sat in his chair on a dry spot that eventually became part of the ocean. It was funny to see him and William sitting in chairs in the middle of the waves. When he finally decided to come in he'd lost his land legs and rolled around for a few minutes. It was quite funny to watch - at least we all thought it was except Katelyn. Even though dad was laughing she was very concerned and even after we got in the car kept asking if he was okay.

2 weeks from Tuesday we fly west - can hardly wait to hold Noah and play with him. I'm looking forward to some berries too!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Mom

Just ramblings...

Hi All! Sorry we haven't posted in a long time or even written comments. We've been checking the blog daily though! I (Amy) have been pretty tired and trying to keep up with Abigail and the house fills up my time pretty quick, that and we're in our busiest season now. I have updated our other blog (including Joel's first Father's Day) a couple times though if you'd like to see what's been going on with us.

We are full at both English camps. A single girl from Good Shepherd (Kaitlin Barker) that has been traveling through Europe is coming to stay with us through our first camp and she'll get here tonight, then a couple that will be here until August fly in tomorrow night, then the team from Cornerstone flies in Friday morning! Bing, bang, boom! The High School camp starts on Monday. We'll be in a new location this summer, it should be good. The Amazing Race this year is going to be the best one yet! I can't say where it will go though, because some of our students "Google" us and they might read this...tricky, tricky!

After High School camp the team is here a couple more days, then Joel has one day off before the next team comes for the Jr. High camp. It's also in a new location and will be really great. This is the first year for it to be an overnight camp, so the students will love it!

On the Cornerstone team is a young couple and they're bringing their daughter who is about Abigail's age, so I'm looking forward to that. I'll be helping to take care of her (Maiya) and hopefully her and Abigail will have fun playing together. The parents too, will take turns stepping out of things at camp to take care of her so I won't have sole responsibility for two little baby girls.

Joel is off to Lake Bled today with his Bible, paper and a pen preparing for camp talks and other talks he'll be doing in the next couple months. I've been praying that the Lord would fill him with inspiration so he doesn't feel rushed at the last minute. The Lord has given him a creative mind though, so I'm sure ideas will just flow today.

Abigail is doing really great...just growing, growing, growing. She wants to be walking so badly at times. She sort of walks/crawls now, it's pretty cute. She's getting great balancing skills and understanding so much. She's also communicating a lot now, often times inappropriately! We've been doing sign language with her for several months now for feeding, but she's never tried it herself and would rather whine to get her way. So we're trying to nip that one in the bud before it becomes her normal way of communicating. Thankfully, she is tender-hearted and responds quickly to discipline and learns to obey quickly, so that's nice....at least for now, huh? People always say, "just wait until...blah, blah, blah" and we've decided that we don't like that phrase and will not use it on other people...it's like they want you to have a hard time or something. No thank you! We'd rather them say something useful or encouraging than to curse us. : ) We know it's just a "phrase" but really, how are you supposed to respond to it??

Well...this has turned out to be pretty long, so I'll stop rambling now! We've enjoyed reading updates on you all! Keep posting!

kids....

Matthew gave us a huge scare last night! Ben calls me at work and I can hardly hear him Matthew was screaming so loud! He had been screaming for 40 min like he was in horrible pain. That says a lot for a kid who never cries. I ran home and told ben to call our pediatrician. We thought maybe he needed to poop? So Ben got him to poop a little, but still he was screaming. The pediatrician said to look him over and call back if it kept up. We gave him a bath and he was happy :) We thought it was all over, but he started up again just as quickly as he stopped. We were so scared! He was all balled up so tight and just screaming like I've never heard a baby scream before. (again, that says alot since Ryan's been screaming since day 1:) We called back and his doctor thought he would be okay, but it might be some horrid intestinal thing and if it kept up to take him to the ER. THANKFULLY, he finally stopped after over an hour of screaming off and on. WHEW!!! He's still cranky this morning, but better after he's pooped some more. So scary!!! But hey, atleast we have health insurance now, so if it was something horrid we're covered :) Oh and an update on my garden.... I have about 10 baby watermelons :) They're so cute! My tomatoe plants have grown to be about a foot and 1/2 tall and have blooms. Everything else has blooms, but no fruit - except I have 1 squash growing and a bunch of beans. I don't know when to pick stuff though - the beans are long and bumpy and look ripe, but how can you tell? Maybe you know Erin? Mom?

Wilds and Bust!!

Wow what a week. We four got to take nine teenagers to camp at The Wilds of North Carolina. It should have been 8 hours one way be we were able to stretch out the fun for 10 on the way up and 12.5 on the way back. We learned that 13 year olds have a hard time giving you warning if they have to pee and when Ryan says his belly hurts something is bound to explode from one of two areas (we were privileged to experience both:) )We weren't able to stay with the teens on the campus so we rented a cabin over a mountain(foothill) about 40 minutes away, only 16 miles- but you know how a 15 passanger van takes mountain turns and hills. It actually got kinda fun going around the turns with an empty van and 10 cyllanders(sp?) of raw power under the hood. Anyway it was great to get away for a while and experience new things with Ryan and Matthew. The pictures are of out hike that we took on morning, that was alot of fun. You know you've crossed over into parenthood when your backpack is stuffed with diapers and changes of clothes :) While we were on our trip, Matthew took his first bite of real food.(if you call rice cereal real food:)

Now we are home - yeah!! But I guess Ryan has caught the stomach bug? Ewe. That would explain the blow outs on the way home. Anyway, that's it here!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATELYN!

Katelyn's birthday is Tuesday - the BIG 9! Grandma made her a cake and we chose our parts last night. Marie, Will and the girls came Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend. We were all going to the beach yesterday, but grandpa called at 5am and said he had called the paramedics to pick up grandma. She was having chest pains and everyone thought she was having a heart attack. She started having problems with her heart rythm again this week and was actually wearing a heart monitor overnight. After 8 hours of sitting in the ER (she was laying, grandpa and I were sitting - in case you're confused) they determined that she has pleursiy and told her to take alleve. They sent her home but she is still not feeling well, is nauseated and very weak. Grandpa is very concerned. Please pray for them and if you have a chance I know they'd appreciate a call! Katelyn and I are going shopping for her birthday gift today. She can't decide what to get - but then, that's most of the fun!

Loved the pictures of Noah - he's sure growing! What a cute, bright smile! Can hardly wait to hold him!

Love you all,

Mom

P.S. I talke to Ben and Debbie a couple times this week and their week in the mountains at the Wylds went well. I'm sure they will share the highlights when they get back and recover!

Oregon Coast!

Hey Everybody,

Erin and I just got back today from a nights stay at the coast in Cannon Beach. Erin's mom watched Noah (and Bree) for us. It was a great time to get away and spend some quality time together, just the two of us. We celebrated four years of marriage this past week. FOUR YEARS! It is such a long time! :) Soo, we are just gearing up for another week of work. Noah has been doing well. He and mom get their Six week check up on mon. He has been sleeping a little longer each night now and has grown out of his new born onesies! He is soo big now he has to wear a small :) Especially with his cloth diapers. So here's the highlights of the next few weeks for us.... Erin has started to take on piano students and have been putting in a few hours at the pool. We are planning on purchasing a fireplace this coming weekend and begining the install in the next few weeks. It will be a built in gas fireplace with a fan so we can heat the side of the house we use the most during winter and not have to heat the whole house. We're pretty excited about this. My work is going well, I won't bore you with the details of the project I'm in charge of but it is on schedule and moving along well. And last but not least, we are getting ready for mom and dad to come in 5 weeks! It will be soo fun to have them here.

Soo, here a few pictures of life here. I don't think I ever put up a picture of the finished nursery. So here you have the final piece fr the room, the wardrobe! And I guess now that the nursery is done we can tear up the living room for the fireplace! :) we are getting close to finishing the house though. The is an end in sight Marie. :) Love you guys!

camp

Hey, please keep us in your prayers this coming week. We will be leaving Monday early and coming back late Saturday. Please pray for us as we travel, as well as the hearts of the young people we are taking to camp. I was saved and called to the ministry at this same camp almost 15 years ago. Pray especially for Katy and for Sean. They have such a desire for the Lord, but no support at home. Thanks! Hope everyone is doing well.