In Alaska

   Hi! Sorry I haven't posted yet...We got here Late Monday night. Our flights went well, but as you may suspect, it was very long. Evangeline was a champ and listened to all in-flight directions, putting on her seatbelt when required. She looked out the window a lot, did a little ipad, and watched a few movies (or parts of them). She slept for a couple of hours on the second to last flight. Irene, on the other hand, slept for about a half an hour the whole time and never stopped moving. She ripped up a Skymall or two, flapped her arms constantly, stood up on Grandpop's lap for the majority of all 4 flights. She laughed a lot and found people to smile at. She wore us out. Both girls did a bit of crying but not too much. Irene fell so soundly asleep on the car ride home she was snoring.
   Since our arrival there have been lots of aunts and uncles and cousins stopping down to say hi to Evangeline (her third summer here) and meet Irene. There have been a couple dips in the cold, cold lake, a sauna, and even a trip to swim in the pool during GG's therapy session.
   I'll post this now so I get back on the blog train. Ammi's 90th birthday celebration is tomorrow, so Evangeline is out helping Grandpop with the lawn.

iPad lesson for Ammi

Irene masters the triangle

Bath!

Land of Lincoln Part II

After departing Worden, we trekked about an hour across Illinois to Effingham for the Lueth reunion. Three to four days of heat, cousins and beer. Sounds good to me.

It was somehow still deathly hot. Evangeline decided to spend hours floating in beautiful Lake Sara.
Wrinklehands Mietzner was in full effect.

Irene took her first dip and totally loved it.

Irene likes people in general, but she LOVES Aunt Beth. Yes. Another Aunt Beth.

We gotta get some stumps like this back home.

The Leuths make babies that all look the same. With one exception. Irene is the best looking of all of them. There is also only one boy in this photo. Micah is all on his own, but there are a few more on the way.

Once we got home, Evangeline wanted to take some pictures of things that are important to her.

Oh yeah, its still hot.

Land of Lincoln Part 1

We didn't want to stay put in hot NC for too long, so we packed up and Joaded our way out west to Worden for a few days with the Curtis. It was hot there. But I think it is hotter here. The kids were all pals right off the bat. We got along fine with their parents too.

Evangeline had to hold back for a while, preferring a cool attitude, while Irene showed off her bed toys to Linus and Eve.

They pretty much play with the same things we do. Wooden spoons. Magnetic letters. Pans.

Evangelinus were in full effect. They really loved picking apples and discarding them after a single bite.

Yeah, you only have to take one bite, then you can leave it where ever you want.

Dude, seriously, you just take ONE bite and then throw it.

Irene is a good porch monkey. Poor kid can't run around and throw the parachute guys.

Mary wins the prize for best baby kid.

Evangeline picked up the climbing habits of the Curtis children. They jumped off of this thing, but she never worked up the guts. Maybe next year.

We made jiaozi for my second anniversary of ordination.

Evangeline is really into taking pictures lately. I thought this one was pretty cool. This  is Eve's zimbelstern. Evangeline had taken a few pictures of it not moving, and then spun it and took a few of it spinning. We are wondering if it is too soon to give her a camera.

Evangeline tried to import thug life into Worden.

True love?

Hey There!

Hey! I've been sick! So the blog has not gone on as usual due to Kyle taking care of business over here and me, well,  being sick. I had some sort of food poisoning is the best I can guess, since thankfully no one else came down with my trajectory-enhanced state of being. So I am better now and thought I'd better update this here blog. So enough about me.  Irene also had a bit of a fever yesterday, and I can't say if it was related or not to anything I suffered, but she is doing a lot better today and is pretty much back to smiles and grabbing. Evangeline missed all the action and is plodding her way through more days of merry toddlerhood, talking moreandmoreandmore every minute and putting her pants on backward. Kyle has been busy taking up my slack and also being a pastor. So we don't relax too much,  we are heading to Southern Illinois for the week to Kyle's family reunion. We'll leave at night to hopefully lull the children into a nice 12-hour sleep (normal for Evangeline, but Irene...we'll see...) Anyway, here are a couple of pics to make up for my delinquency.

The Sickness has led to lots of watching of the Muppet Movie. This
is Evangeline being Animal.

She's really good at finding okra the right size to pick. Really.

Did you know that okra flowers were this pretty?

There are no pictures of Irene here, but she's just about to crawl. Which means the peaceful days of her sitting for hours playing with lots of little things are over and she often needs help out of some tight places she can't get out of.

A Few Eventful Days

We went over to the Haugen's to celebrate the rebellion of the colonies.

Independence!

Independence!

Dependents.

Ebenezer's new vicar and his family came over too. All the kids totally loved the dog door.

Reme is a grabby eater these days.

On Friday we wen't up to Asheville to see the grandparents new place. They moved out of their house a few weeks ago and have since settled in a sort of commune with a bunch of other retired folks. I think they might be hippies these days.

We had an ice cream party in the kitchen, which might actually be larger than their old kitchen. Evangeline enthusiastically led the way.

It was only a matter of time before we all crowded in to eat our frozen treats.

We then went to Biltmore to see the animals. 

She reaaaaaaaaaally wants to get some goats.

The goats reaaaaaaaaaaaly want to eat our stroller.

The horse is a bit too large and scary.

She packed a suitcase to go to Alaska. It has a pair of pants, a onesie, a magic wand, and one of my shirts in it.

Eight Months

 I was so proud of myself for remembering to take this Irene/8 Month, Evangeline/2 and a half yesterday photo, I completely forgot the most important thing about July 2: Happy 46th Anniversary Mom and Dad!We love you and can't believe you've been married for so long :). (Evangeline thinks maybe you can buy her an ice cream to celebrate when she gets to Alaska.)

Messy Eating and things

Here are a few things that have happened.

Evangeline discovered that she can just put the glue on top of
the macaroni and beans. Hm.

Our garden is exploding.

Higher Things conference at Wake Forest.

Add caption

Irene gnaws on a rib bone. Feminist statement?

And it's really hot so we've been waiting till late to
eat ice cream on the porch. Katie is in trouble for picking a fight with a
Pitbull, so she gets to be on a leash.

She likes to call herself "ice cream face Mietzner". Really.