And the Hispanic Ministry Grows.....

At church one Sunday












On the left here are Edgar and Rosa, who have been staying with us, and on the right are our friends from church Ernie and Nelly who have been involved in the hispanic group since the beginning and just moved in five houses down from us! What a blessing! They are also good friends of Edgar and Rosa, so it has been great to have them so close.







This is Rosa's sister Maria, who came to visit from Guatemala for about ten days. She is such a sweet lady and we really enjoyed having her.














A couple weeks ago, we had a cookout with the group and the rest of the pictures are from that night. We had a nice group there and a great time!

Bowling

Well, a few weeks ago, we went bowling. :) This is the first chance I've gotten to post about it, but anyway, it was fun! It was the first time we had been since our honeymoon, and hence, the first time the children had been. They earned free passes from the library's summer reading program, so we decided to go while we had that going for us. Still, it is an expensive sport for a whole family!
We had Sofia with us this night, and they all had a blast!










Unfortunately, bowling alley lighting does not agree with my camera very well. Or, maybe I just don't know how to do it right, but anyway, I tried! Here is Sofi.











Israel didnt get in on the action this time, but he did enjoy watching. :)
For a little while, then he pooped out and slept through most of it, even with Fabio and I switching him back and forth in our arms to take our turns!



























The children getting a tutorial from Daddy.

















Trying hard to push the ball! It still took about five minutes for it to get to the pins!

The nice thing about modern technology in bowling, though, is that when you type your names in the electronic scoreboard, you can check for each person whether you want bumpers or not. So, when it was each of the children's turns, the bumpers automatically came up, and then automatically went down for Fabio and I. So, at least Dominique's balls did eventually reach the pins!

I can't say so much for Fabio and I! I think we should have left the bumpers up for us too!




Dominique receiving her congratulations from Daddy


















Ready, set, go!


















He's got his game face on here, expectantly watching to see how many he knocked down!


















And a BIG high fiver from Daddy!!!!
















I thought I would add in here some of the "darndest" things that Dominique has been saying. :) She has been really talking up a storm lately and it is fun to see her putting ideas into expression and to find out what is going on in that little mind.

A couple days ago, she said to all of us in the car: "I'm so sad." We asked "why?" and she replied with a mournful face, "Cuz I not have *any* childrens..."

Then the other day when my mom and niece were over, they commented that something was stinking outside and Dominique quickly said, "Someone died."

I know there are fifty more from this week alone, but I'm drawing a blank now. I'll try to think of some others and make a note of them before I forget them too!

Israel chasing the bunny

Here is a quick video of our littlest sweetheart so you can see how he moves these days! He definitely is getting around and is SO fascinated by the bunny! They both get their exercise crawling/hopping up and down our hallway. This video was about a week ago, I think, so Israel was about 7.5 months old. He is also standing up to the furniture and starting to climb now. He is wasting no time in trying to keep up with his big brudder and sister, that's for sure! (You can see a little of them tormenting him in this video too....)


I thought I would quick edit this to add some of Israel's antics with the bunny lately. First, the other day he was trying to pull Rabby's towel out of the cage and succeeded, pulling with it a few terds onto the floor! I scrambled with the help of Rosa and Sofia to pick him up and clean up, but we were too late... one of those terds made it into Israel's mouth!!! YUCK!!! Rosa extracted it and cleansed him thoroughly...
Then a couple days later, he tried pulling the towel out again. This time Rabby didn't like it, and grabbed the towel with his teeth and pulled the other way - so Israel was playing tug-of-war with the bunny! It was too funny! So, I decided then to let Rabby out, and he took his towel with him, which he had never done before, and took off TEARING down the hall. Well, I realized then that he didnt have the towel in his mouth and wondered if it was stuck somewhere? Turns out the binding had come off of one side and was around his neck! No wonder he didn't want Israel pulling on the towel - it was choking him!
And the last couple of days, the biggest temptation for Israel has been to yank Rabby's water bottle off the cage and take a quick sip before I can get to him! Yuck again, but not as big as the first yuck!
Ai, yai, yai.......

The Monterroso Family

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have a wonderful family staying with us for the summer ~ the Monterrosos! They are originally from Guatemala, and have been living in Spain as missionaries for the past five years. Prior to that, they lived for a year in this very house, before we were here, of course. We have been having a wonderful time with them! Edgar and Rosa have three beautiful children: Sebastian~17, Isabel~15, and Sofia,11.










A beautiful couple!















Sebastian has been playing this for our home group worship times!













Israel just loved playing this drum!


















Last Saturday they made crepes for us for breakfast!










The Crepe Chefs, Sofia and Rosa




















Rosa enjoys volunteering to hold Israel when he is sleeping. :)
















The other day Fabio had a day off and so we took them to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm. Neat place! If you've never been there, I recommend it. It is one of the largest dairy farms in the country and they give a fascinating tour.








The milking carousel, otherwise known as the dairy-go-round....











Isabel trying her hand out at milking.














Sebastian having an udderly good time.























a drink of warm milk......





























Elizabeth and Isabel




Sebastian and Israel playing lincoln logs













Sofia and Isabel enjoying some good ole American ice cream!




So, if you dont hear from me on the blog too often, this is my current excuse! We've been having lots of fun and there is a lot of activity going on around here all the time... :)

Bath Time..... in the Sink

7 month old Israel's Experience in the Kitchen Sink "Bathtub"



What am I doing in here?













Hey, I think I like it! This is pretty fun stuff!
















It is rather frustrating to not be able to get ahold of this water, though.....















Ai yai yai ~ a face full of water! That was unexpected!




















How could you have let that happen to me? I think I want out now!


















All clean and dry now!

Starved Rock

Well, as usual, I have a lot more to post than I have time to post it, so I figured a little something was better than a lot of nothing, right?

So, without making too many lofty promises of all that I intend to post, for now I will share a few pics of last Saturday when we took a family field trip to Starved Rock.

Oh, and so as to not keep you in suspense about Joshua, he went through two series of blood tests and first the Doctor was suspecting Kawasake disease, but after more tests and time and exams, he seems to be just fine! So, it was likely just a really tough virus that took his body about three weeks to fight off. The doctor just told us to watch him like a hawk and call him if we notice any change, but he seems to be finally back to his old energy level and also has a ravenous apetite and has regained the weight he had lost. So, I am fairly certain that he is fine now and I am SO thankful that it was nothing serious. God is good!






Viewing the scenery at Starved Rock with Daddy.































This way, Daddy?
























All the walking and running and hiking and stair climbing wore them out good!
By the time we were done, we were dragging Dominique, but Joshua was still running! It was a very good sign that he was back to normal, praise the Lord!














Israel was sound asleep through the first hour or so of the hike, so he was like a dead weight on my back, but I guess that gave me a better workout, right?










Lover's Leap.










The last time Fabio and I were here was seven years ago, before we were even engaged, and we took pictures right here, at Lovers Leap. Now we return with three children.....











End of the trail.


We have a wonderful missionary family living with us for the summer that have three beautiful children, so it has been fairly hectic around here, but fun! I will try to post more soon!