Clouds

Without power this past week, Matt & I spent the evenings outside (away from the heat inside!). One night we were fortunate to witness some beautiful...yet strange...clouds.

Slip N Slide

I bought this slip n Slide last summer on clearance and thought I would get it out for the kids to use this weekend. They weren't quite sure how to use it, but had fun tiptoeing through the water! When mom got home she jumped right in with the kids and showed them what to do. They had a blast! Thanks Mom!!

Power outage

Update: We are back up and running! As of 8:30 this evening, a utility crew from St Louis got us going! There are still over 32,000 out of power. Keep praying for our area. Thanks!

Monday morning we woke up to the electricity going off and sirens blaring. I woke up Matt (that boy can sleep through anything!!) and we grabbed the twins and headed to the basement (the girls' room is in the basement). The storm lasted 30 minutes (if that long!) but the devastation is enormous. Most of the Illinois Quad Cities has been without power since Monday...some gradually getting power restored. I am currently at Mom & Dad's house checking email, paying bills, etc because we still don't have power. We dumped out 6 garbage bags of food yesterday (today was garbage day). Driving around, though, we realize how fortunate we are. We don't have trees laying on our house or across our car, on the street or driveway. Every other vehicle you see is a utility vehicle. Bless them & their families, Lord. They are our heroes this week! The airport reported winds of 95 mph. There were no official tornadoes, they are calling them straight winds. Either way, they were devastating.

I took some pictures, but my camera is at home. Once our power is restored, I will upload the pictures. These pictures don't do justice to the damage so widespread. Please pray for this area as we are supposed to get more storms tonight.

Ag Day - John Deere

Matt took the girls to the John Deere Pavilion to plant a letterbox today. He arrived to a crowd at the Pavilion! He debated about coming at a later time but decided to give it a try. He soon found out that it was Ag Day (sponsored by John Deere)! The girls had a lot of fun. They got to drive a pedal tractor (received a John Deere hat when done with that), make crafts, climb on tractors and go to a petting zoo.

Vandeveer Park

We headed to Vandeveer Park yesterday to find a letterbox. We haven't been to this park for 2 years and enjoyed our short time there. It is such a beautiful park. Unfortunately, the letterbox is gone but we got some good pictures and family time!

"Laura & Mary heading to school"

Saying Goodbye

We bid a sad farewell to Grandma & Grandpa yesterday. We went to the mall yesterday morning to let the kids play in the play area. The girls got a special surprise of going to the $1 store to buy whatever they wanted! (with a limit, of course : ) ). They came away with lots of stickers, books and a toy fishing pole. We then ate lunch and headed to the airport to get Grandma & Grandpa on their flight back to Oregon. We realized, while at the mall, that we hadn't taken any "family" pictures, so we rounded up everyone and took this picture on one of the benches...Grandma & Grandpa - we sure enjoyed your visit and we can't wait to see you again! We love you.

Letterboxing and house projects

This past weekend we were blessed with a visit from Matt's parents, Ken & Connie, from Oregon. We did some letterboxing together, did a few projects around the house, ate lots of food and laughed a lot together. It was an enjoyable time. These pictures taken at Sunset Park in Washingon, Iowa. The girls & I played while Matt, Ken & Connie checked out the letterbox.

This park is in Iowa City - Reno Park. The girls played and then we all stamped in to the letterbox.

Will & Maddie were sitting side by side for breakfast and Alex sat next to them with her chair...promptly telling me "mommy, take our picture!".

We have lived at this house for 7 years and have never enclosed the back porch with spindles. Now that we have the back yard fenced in, we realized it was a serious need to get the deck enclosed to so the kids don't have access to the driveway (unsupervised). Ken set to work on this right away as well as putting lattice underneath the deck. The deck looks WONDERFUL and it is so much safer now!!! Thanks so much Ken & Connie for all of your work!

How did you know???

I walked into the kitchen this evening to find this...(notice finger prints...in form of 2 hands...)

Then I noticed this...

Then I noticed this...

So, I called on my eldest...the only child still awake...

"Mommy, I didn't think you would find out"...

The Oregon Harts and Snoopy

We are preparing for the arrival of Grandma & Grandpa Hart. We are all so excited to have them here! Matt, Katie, Alex & I drove to Oregon to see them last summer, but the twins have not seen them since they were 5 months old! I think Grandma & Grandpa are in for a treat when they see how much energy the twins have! We look forward to some letterboxing, a few projects done around the house and some wonderful food! Most of all, we look forward to sharing funpacked days with them!
The John Deere golf tournament is this week. If you watch golf at all, you know that the Snoopy Blimp travels with the tournaments. We have seen Snoopy flying a few times this past week and were lucky enough to watch it land one night! The kids have loved spotting it and keeping track of it. We drove out to the airport last night to see it up close.

The girls posing at the zoo

The girls in their 4th of July outfits

Happy Fourth of July

Tonight we headed out to the Milan Fireworks. They were beautiful...sorry, this pic is not from tonight! : (

While heading out of the neighborhood to get home, we passed a house that was having a big party in their driveway. It was hilarious when Alex shouted from the back seat, "Look Mommy, there's a garage sale!!". That's my girl...

New Closet

I put together a make shift closet for the girls yesterday. Their room is in the basement and they have been sharing a closet with Maddie in the twin's room. They were so excited to see the finished product. Alex was with Grammy & Grandad last night so Katie got the priviledge of showing her the closet this morning. When I showed it (all finished) to Katie last night, her response was "Hooooly Coooow!". I have never heard her say that, so that made it even funnier! This picture shows how excited they truly are (the picture doesn't show it all that well, but they are mid-jump)!

Concert Time

I bet you have never heard "Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple" sung like this before...