Baby Girl Faces Front

Hope is 1 year old and 20 pounds. That means she gets to face forward in the car! Jackpot!!!

Gideon's Crush

One of Gideon's favorite people in the entire world is Rhonda (Ditty). She is a lady in our church who is VERY involved in my ministry. She has an art shop in downtown Moline that we frequent often. Rhonda's shop shares a pass-through door with her daughter's top-notch beauty salon. And Gideon has been smitten with Kristen for years. When we visit the shop, he'll just stand in the doorway looking at Kristen (won't talk to her and jut buries his head in our shoulder when she speaks with him. So today I finally got a picture of him just staring into the salon. It is pretty cute to watch him.

The T's & the Williams'

We had Matt and Laura Williams and their kids over for supper last night. After supper, Hannah stayed at our house and we went to Williams' to watch a movie. So much fun!

Hope's Present From the Wilson Fam

Our friend Tara brought two of her daughters over (Jasmine and Vada) when Tara came to take our Christmas picture. They surprised Hope with a pretty sweet birthday present. Thanks Wilson family.

Hope Sleeping

Most of the time Hope is awake when we go get her from her nap. Not on Friday, she was out.

Hope Standing

Hope is getting much better standing on her own. Here's proof!

Sydney's Back

Sydney is back from Bethel and spent the day with us. She is a lady who was a 5th grader when we came to FUPC and is now a junior at Bethel, studying Spanish and Youth Ministries. Good to see her.

Time With Uncle Zach

This past weekend my younger brother Zachary came and stayed with us. He is always very busy with his job in Chicago, so having him with us was very special. He and Gideon went and saw The Lion King in 3D. It was Gideon's first time going to a movie. We hung around home mist of the weekend, went to church on Sunday, had a family from church over for lunch, and had a great meal out on Sunday night. Zachary was the best man in our wedding, so it's super-awesome seeing him invest in the lives of our kids. Thanks for coming, Zachary, I love you.

Family Day at Naibi Zoo

The children's ministry at our church is awesome. And with that, our family attended the free day at the zoo on Friday. Gideon loved it. Hope was agreeable, and we had fun participating. Memories, gotta love em.

Geocache Follow-up

So the prize that Gideon traded from the cache was a heart erasure. On the way home he said he wanted to give it to Mama as a present. I believe this is the first time he's given her a present. I love his thoughtfulness!

Gideon's Geocaching

Took Gideon out for an hour of geocaching. Found three, twice stumped. Here was his favorite so far. A birdhouse along a bike in Moline. He loves treasure hunting. I loved walking a path I didn't even know existed.

Geocaching

Gideon and I went geocaching the other day and I got a bit of video since this one is in a Halloween series of caches.  He found three of the four of the ones we found in a half hour.  Super-fun!
\

Hope and Friend Vada in Matching Outfits

Here is another link to Tara Wilson's blog.  She posted pictures, and some funny comments, about the girls and their matching outfits.  Enjoy!

Family Camping at Whitman's (Thanks for the blog post, Tara)

I'm adding this link to the blog.  Tara is a friend of our family.  We spend oddles of time with them.  As I was so impressed with her blog entry, I'm linking it hear for you to read her blog.  Enjoy the pictures!

Mama playing trains in the fort

The perfect day. Mama. Fort. Trains. Enough said.

Double Ear Infection

This is what a girl with double ear infections looks like. Pretty obvious isn't it? It wasn't to us, either!

Fort Fridays

So I moved the fort to the three-seasons porch today. Kathee thinks I'm getting a bit over-the-top the last few weeks.

Here is a view of the porch prior to beginning Fort Friday

Stringing rope to assure proper roof strength

Stringing the rope to hold up the blankets

The blankets are mostly up.

A view from outside the house.

Gideon LOVES his forts.

And when they are on the porch, so do Mama and I.

D&D with Gideon

So this morning Hope has a doctor's appointment. So Gideon and I walked down to Dunkin Donuts for a donut. I love spending time with Gideon. I am willing to bet Gideon will blow our cover THE second he sees Kathee. I love my boy!

Geocaching with Gideon

I'm hooked on geocaching. Basically, geocaching is treasure hunting with a handheld GPS. There are over 1,500,000 caches worldwide, with one in at least every country of the world. I started doing it as an opportunity to get outside and spend time with my family. It has now blossomed into a ministry tool as I've taken multiple kids from the youth group. A few weeks ago I took my high school guys RIOT group caching.
Gideon enjoys treasure hunting with me and so today we made a quick stop on the way home from an errand to grab one (while Kathee and Hope stayed in the car).
To date I've found 80 caches, but more are on the way!

Here we found the geocache "Day Trippin."

For Gideon, finding what's inside the cache is the treasure.  For me, it's just finding the cache!

Gideon loves to play with the treasures we find inside the cache (the rule is to trade.  Putting in something and taking out something else of equal value).  Today he decided he wanted the dried-up Play-do that we promptly threw away because, "this one has salt all over it," whatever that meant!

Video

Fort Fridays, Part Deux

After I built the initial fort, I found two more blankets, so we added to it.  

This made it a two-level fort, as I again used the landing as part of the fort... with a window to boot.  He played in it for hours!  I love Fort Fridays.  Now I have to think about next Friday's fort.  I'm running out of space in the living room!

Fort Fridays, Part 1

So I pretty much rock at building forts

This one started in the closet...

And moved out until I ran out of sheets and folding chairs. 

Gideon again had his head lamp.

And as you can see, he loves this one!

Camping Trip Part 3

Back at the camp site packing up and getting ready to head home.

Solomon, 11 years old, did LOTS of this this weekend.  

Gideon and T helping each other get a drink of water from the well.

A closer view.

On the way home, we stopped in Iowa City to go to the mall to check out Scheel's, and outdoor sporting goods store, to look at camping supplies.