Then we hurried up and packed up and went to Iowa last week for revival at New Testament Christian Chruch (Mike's home church). His brother Matt was preaching, and his brother Mark was leading worship. We had a great time visiting with family and friends there. The church provided lots of lunches and things, so it was fun to have a chance to catch up with the folks there. The cousins enjoyed hanging out, too. I think the highlight was the last day when Papa Gene pulled them around in a wagon behind his lawnmower. They loved it! On our way to Keokuk and on our way back to Inidana, we stopped at my parents' home. My sister Sarah and her husband John were there the first time we stopped. We had fun talking with them. They just bought their first home, and Mom and Dad had been "dog-sitting" for them while John installed their new electric dog fence. While we were there Carrie took her first steps! She took three tiny steps! I think it was being cooped up in her carseat that inspired that. On the way back to Indiana we stopped in La Harpe again. We stayed two nights there. That way we could go to Burnside Christian Church's revival one night. Again, it was great to catch up with the friends we saw there. During the day, the girls had fun feeding the cows and playing with the toys I used to play with as a kid. I always love going home--it's such a sweet place, isn't it? Anyway, then we came back to Indiana. We've been desperately searching for signs of spring lately. It seems like such a long winter. We've been seeing robins for a while now, and today I saw a butterfly! The irises are starting to come up, and I saw someone elses crocuses blooming yesterday! So not much longer, right? And since we've been home Carrie has been practicing her walking relentlessly. She will stand up and fall over and over and over until she gets her balance. Then she can take up to seven steps without falling. She's enjoying carrying things around now. What an inconvenience crawling must be. You've just got to deal with things being where they are and you can't take your favorite toy to your favorite spot. Or like yesterday, you can't take your diper rash cream into the living room and throw it at Daddy! She's also getting really good at throwing a ball. She's always been interested in chasing one around the room, and now she will stand up and throw it, saying, "Uuup!" And at one year she can say lots of words: hi, bye-bye, dada, mama, tickle, What's that ("a dat"), no, uh-oh, woof, Bible, boom, and she revs like a car when she's pushing something ("v-v-v-v-v-v" usually with a lot of bubbles coming out her mouth!), and she can repeat lots of words.Then there's Easter. We came back in time for the kids to hunt eggs at our church's huge Jesus is Alive party. It was freezing! But we went anyway, grabbed a few rained-on eggs, went inside to dump the candy into their baskets, and left. I had a bad cold on Sunday, so we had Dairy Queen burgers for lunch, and we went back in the evening to get ice cream. Not a bad Easter dinner after all!
