Birthdays, Revival, Easter, etc.

Wow! It's been a long time since I've written. We've got a lot of ground to cover, are you ready? OK... We celebrated two birthdays in one week--Alli's March 9th, Carrie's March 13th. Carrie didn't seem to care that she was given a big piece of chocolate cake, she just ate it like it was the rest of her dinner. She did make a mess, though.
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!

flu, prayers, and puddles

We finally got the flu bug! Just the cold/flu type thankfully! I came down with it on Monday, then Alli got it yesterday. So far that's it. I'm starting to feel a little better, though, so I should have some energy back to deal with the sick kids as they all get it...it's inevitable isn't it?

When I have strange things the kids say, I don't know the best way to lead into it, so here's one thing: Whenever Hannah prays she says, "Dear God, please watch over the people in Haiti and Africa, and the people who Joy prayed for." Her cousin Joy prayed for the children in Cambodia once while we were visiting, and Hannah hasn't forgotten it--except where they were from.

Last week (or was it the week before?) when it was warmer I let the girls go out to splash in the puddles. I thought that would give me a chance to clean the house up a bit. It worked for about 10 minutes! Then Hannah came to the door saying Alli needed my help. I went outside to see what the problem was and Alli was stuck ankle deep in sticky mud! I went after her and got my shoes ankle deep in sticky mud, too. But we got out and came inside and cleaned up. Needless to say, the "cleaner house" wasn't anymore!



We have been playing with these silly balloons lately. We figured out how to make several animals with them. Hannah likes to play with the finished animals. Alli likes to twist them over and over fearlessly until they pop!

Bedtime buddies

The girls always want to take something to bed with them. After they get their PJs on and they're in bed, right as we begin the story, they usually "remember" they forgot a toy they wanted in the living room. So we let them have one trip to get one toy they "forgot" to bring to bed. Hannah's bed is half-full of stuffed animals and dolls. Alli, on the other hand, likes to bring the strangest things to bed with her. The crazy things she has brought to bed have been: a pair of toy garden clippers, the lid of a watering can, a can of pretend soup, a dump truck, a xylophone. Last night she wouldn't go to sleep without a bandaid right across the end of her nose. Usually when she comes in the room carrying her treasure Hannah, Mike, and I can't help but laugh! I can't remember all the funny things she likes to get for bed. I'll have to keep you updated.

Some things I don't want to forget

Lately Hannah has wanted to play "Queen Esther" ALL THE TIME. She dresses up in a fancy dress-up dress, walks regally, and asks if anyone knows a king that she could marry. Sometimes she's playing and I don't know it until she solomnly hands me a rolled up piece of paper as a scroll. Almost every time it says "QSD" which is how she spells Queen Es-Der. This week she has been adding the letters "RRRRR W M K." I thought she was writing that (Haman)Wants Me Killed. But luckily I asked her what it spelled first because she said, "It says, 'I Really Really Really Really Want to Marry a King."

Alli LOVES to help in the kitchen. Anytime I'm in the kitchen she runs to the bathroom, grabs the stool, and joins me. And she's really good help, too. She doesn't mind running things to the trash can, throwing things in the sink, or even just standing and watching. But often I have her shake the spices or stir or taste or spread things or set the table. She and Hannah really like it when I make yeast bread/rolls. (We've been making a lot lately.) They each get some dough and flour and make a big mess, but then who doesn't make a mess with that?

Carrie has been trying to say a few more words lately. She says "daaa" for Yeah when she gets something to work right. Mostly she immitates me still, but she does a good job of getting the important sounds right. Today she copied me saying "pretty." She can already pull up and walk around holding on to a table, chair, etc. She's starting to let go and stand briefly. Today she stood for about three seconds. She really wants to walk, and loves walking while holding on to my fingers. When she was just learning to push up on her arms she would rock back and forth, shifting her weight from one arm to the other. And when she learned to sit she would rock back and forth. Now that she's learning to stand/walk she gets so excited that she straightens out her legs and shifts her weight side to side!

I've been everywhere, man...

Wow! We've been everywhere this past week it seems. Every year there is a conference for Christian Camp Leaders (CCL) in January, and this year it was in Asheville, North Carolina. We usually go every other year, and this was our year to go. So, we planned to go and take our family, too. However, the conference was being held at The Cove (the Billy Graham trainging center) and they don't allow children. So Papa Gene and Gramma Kathy graciously offered to go along with us and stay in a hotel about five minutes from the conference center to keep the kids for us and to keep Carrie during the day. Hannah wanted to ride in the "rocket van" (that's what the Proctor cousins call Gene and Kathy's red van), so she and Carrie went with Gramma and Papa on the eight hour ride to Asheville, NC Monday morning. We had two extra people from camp in our van. So over the Smokies we went--I LOVE the Smokey Mountains! When we stopped for lunch at a Wendy's along the way, Hannah was talking to the lady cleaning tables, and at one point she stopped, looked up at the lady and said, "You look OLD!" Mike was speechless, but he quickly whispered to Hannah that she should say "you look nice." We got to the Cove, and there was an armed guard at the gate! He told us to "go to the top of that mountain, and your building will be on the right." So straight up the mountain we went, ears popping all the way. Just that short drive was so picturesque as there were a few deer beside the road and a family of turkeys. We dropped off our luggage and went to G&K's hotel to drop off their luggage and our kids, then we went back to the conference center. Gene and Kathy had a great time playing with the girls each day. They had two ajoining rooms so there was a little bit of room to run around and play. They did crafts and hide-and-seek and they fed them and put them to bed... What a blessing to have them along! They have such funny stories to tell about all the silly things the girls said and did! Everytime I went to the hotel to drop-off/pick-up Carrie they all seemed to be laughing and giggling!

Doug Aldrige from Ozark was the speaker for our main sessions for the week, and Andy Schroder was the worship leader. We met several new people and caught up with some friends we met in past years. Tuesday we spent more time in workshops and main sessions. Mike got a tour of the Cove's maintenance department. He was impressed that their twelve maintenance men each had their own personal leaf blower hanging on the wall in their shop. I drove around downtown Asheville and went to the Folk Art Center during our free time. Wednesday we went to the Biltmore Estate during our free time. What an impressive property! It was beautiful! Then we hurried back to the Cove to go hiking with our girls and G&K. We got permission for them to visit us there from Billy Graham's grandson himself, Will Graham, who is the Ass't Director of the Cove. The girls had a great time "hiking up a mountain" (Hannah had been asking to do that)! We hiked from our lodge to a chapel/visitor's center on the property. It was a beautiful hike! The next morning we checked out, and went to G&K's hotel to gather our things. We had lunch with them, and then we headed to Atlanta, GA to see a camp and a friend we've known through these conferences. Along the way there I heard Hannah sing this made-up song to her toys,
"Friends are friends eternallyyyy
Just like Ruth and Naomiiiii
Because that's what friends should beeeee
Cause friends are friends eternallyyyyy."
She made that up right then! She's been doing that a lot lately--making up rhymes and poems spontaneously! And Alli? Well, she tries to sing a song that we all know, but she gets the words all wrong; it's pretty funny to hear the combinations. She was singing the lullaby that I sing to the girls every night. It goes, "There's a tired little camper..." She sang it like this, "There's a tiger little candle..."

We got to Atlanta (through seven lanes of traffic) to the friends/camp we wanted to visit. They were so kind and hosted us at their home. They have four year old and ten month old sons. We spent the next day visiting and touring their camp. The pine trees there are amazing. Kevin (our friend) said they are Southern Yellow Pines, and they are at least 100 feet tall! They have this viney stuff that can grow all over everything. They call it Kudzoo. He said someone planted it as a ground cover, but it takes over entire fields, covering fences, trees, stumps, and everything in its path. We saw it a lot on the roadsides hanging from trees. And there was at least one pasture that was completely covered, acres of it! Anyway, we left there in the afternoon and drove to Murphysboro, TN and got a hotel room for the night. The next day we made it home in the afternoon. What a trip! We saw a lot of interstate, but it's good to have a little vacation. And will all that, We only got one picture of the Biltmore estate. Oh well, we have lots of memories!

Funny things

There's not much news here. We've been trying to get back into our routine. It's so nice to take a break from routines, but it's good to get back, too. Some funny things that have happened lately...

At the table, Hannah usually prays something like, "Thank you, God, for our food and for everything that's good..." Today Alli wanted to pray, and she said, "Thank you, God, for our food and for everything that's gross..."

When Hannah wants to say there is a lot of something she says something like, "Do you know how many stars there are? Like 62!" Or any number in the 60's. So today she said, "Mommy, do you know how much I love you? Like 65!!"

At lunch Hannah said, "Mommy, I think I know how to spell 'quiet' because last night in bed I wasn't very 'H-S-S-S-S-'" (She spelled the letters out.) What she mean, of course, was Shhhh!

Holidays

It's been a long time since I've posted on here, so this might be a bit long...sorry. We had a great Christmas break. Matt and Katie and their six children came to Indiana this year. They got to Plainfield on Friday the 14th. We joined them there on Saturday just in time for a huge snow. The kids played outside quite a bit. Hannah's dream since it started getting colder this fall has been to make snow angels and throw snowballs. So she got to do that! The kids all had a huge sleepover at Mark and Julie's house. Mark and Julie told stories, and Mark played the guitar and sang them to sleep. The next day we went to Plainfield Christian Church and were able to go to one of the services that Mark leads worship for. That evening we all came down here to camp where we all stayed in Lakeview Lodge. We ate our meals in the dining hall so there was plenty of room to run around. The kids, again, had great big slumber parties at the lodge! On Monday night, Matt spoke at the area men's fellowship that supports the camp. Then on Tuesday, Mark and Julie had a moving crew come to move them into their new home. So while they were tied up with that, the rest of us took the kids to the Children's Museum--13 kids and 4 adults! We stayed as long as we could, and we had so much fun! On Wednesday we played outside--walking trails, crossing the swinging bridge, playing in what snow was left, etc. Actually at this point it all starts to blend together, so I'm not sure what we did which day...but anyway, we had a LOT of fun having everyone here! The weather was perfect! There was snow, but the temperature got up to "almost warm" some of the time. We went to Plainfield on Thursday afternoon to see Mark and Julie's new house--beautiful! Then we said goodby to Matt's family as they were leaving on their long trek back to Joplin via a couple of extra visits along the way.

Then... We stayed home a few days and left on Sunday after church to go to Mike's parent's house because the next morning we wanted to go to Bloomfild, IA to see his grandparents. It's so special to see them, and we had a great time visiting. Then we went to my parents' home on Christmas morning. My sister Rachel arrived later that day and Sarah arrived late that night. They had snow, so the next day the kids played outside in the snow, and just enjoyed getting to know one another again. Again, all the days start to blend together at this point. Grandpa Humphrey had to be plowing the streets quite a bit of the time, so he took each of his granddaughters with him whenever he could. We built a giant snowman together, fed the two-week old bucket calves, Cutie and Beauty, . Fun!

I guess this is mostly a who, what, where, and when account but at least I got it down. The best part of all of it was just spending time with grandparents and parents and siblings and nieces and nephews. God's love pours out through each person. We love our families and are so blessed to have them as role models and friends.