Group Hug!

The other day, Steve and I were having what I would call a "lively" discussion. Judah came in the room and put his finger to his lips and started saying, "shhhh" every time one of us would try to say something. I assured Judah that Mommy and Daddy were NOT arguing and that everything was just fine. Immediately afterward, Judah said, "I have an idea, GROUP HUG!" We both cracked up and, yes, we did have a group hug. :)

Judah Starts Preschool!

Judah began attending Noah's Ark Christian Preschool this fall and he loves it. He has two special friends there named Madison and Mackenzie. He calls them "My two girls." The school is just a 10 minute walk from our house so we have fun exploring on our way to and from school when the weather permits. Sometimes Cassidy even comes with us!

One of Our Favorite Things To Do

One of our favorite things to do on Saturday mornings is go to the Farmer's Market in Downtown Davenport, Iowa. We often ride our bikes there, which takes us along the bike path on the Mississippi River. Beautiful! Below are some pictures from a couple of our visits to the Farmer's Market. The first two photos are on a glass walkway that crosses River Drive and looks out over the river. Judah loves to play on the playground at the Market as you can see. There is often a guy there who makes balloon "thingies" for the kids. Judah is sporting a "Britney Spears" mic and two sword-like shapes. I think one of them is actually supposed to be either a flower or a wand of some sort. I think he found those two on the ground. We don't let anything go to waste in the Meek family! :) Lastly, I wanted to share a short video of Judah enjoying some live music at the Market. The trio are playing Django Reinhardt, who is one of my favorites! Judah just plopped down in front of them--right in an area that people walk--and sat there listening quietly for a good 10 minutes. The funny thing is that, once Judah sat down and listened, lots of other people stopped what they were doing and stood there (and some even sat!) listening too. Judah's our little trend setter.

Making Our New House Our "Home"

We are slowly working on making our new house our "home" and our first big undertaking was putting up a privacy fence in the back yard to keep our little rascals (Cassidy and Judah) contained. Steve's parents graciously took Judah for a whole week so Steve and I could put the fence up. I say Steve and I but really it was all Steve. I was merely the post-holder/leveler and I hammered a few nails. Steve was the mastermind and muscle behind the entire project. Might I add that, for a couple of amateurs (and for how steeply sloped our back yard is!), the fence turned out pretty well. Here are some before and after pictures.

Our next big project was creating a walkway at the bottom of our deck stairs that lead to the back yard (our deck is on top of our garage if you were wondering why it is so high off the ground). We decided to create the look of paving stones using colored concrete poured into a cobblestone-look mold. It turned out pretty well too. We will need to put some shade plants in the mulch alongside the walkway to complete the project but, for now, it serves its purpose of keeping the mud and dirt from coming inside. As you can see, Judah thinks its purpose is to serve as a road for his trucks and diggers. :)

The rest of the pictures are of the living room, dining room, office, Judah's room and foyer window seat. We still need to paint, replace all of the screens in the 3-season room, etc. etc. etc. but we're well on our way to feeling like this is home and we're meeting lots of our neighbors, which is great.

And We're Back!

Okay, so we've moved, gotten settled and now we're back to catch you up! Unfortunately, in the move, our camera broke so we did miss capturing a few of our fun and memorable moments but we're back on track with that too. Woo Hoo!

SUMMER FUN!
Judah loves riding bikes. Whether it's a Big Wheel at one of his grandparents' house or his own "big boy" bike on the bike path. He is one FAST kid!












Whenever our schedules jive, we love getting together with my sister and her four kids to play. Here they are (with my Mom) at Longview Park in Rock Island.


















NORTH CAROLINA COUSINS VISIT
Teri's sister, Debbie, and her family came for a nice long visit. Judah had lots of fun hanging out with all of his Barman-family cousins. We even got all of them together for a "Grandkids" photo shoot!

Getting Settled

We have some exciting news to share with everyone. Steve has signed on full-time with Heritage Church as the Children's Pastor AND we are finally able to get settled in our own home. We found a house that we love in Davenport, IA, which is a 5 minute drive to the church. We close on June 30th and will be officially moving in on July 1st. Steve and I were talking this morning that we were officially "released" from serving at Coram Deo on July 1st 2008...ONE YEAR AGO to the day that we will finally move into our own home here in the Quad Cities. It's been a challenging year but one full of many lessons learned. Of course it's during the challenging times that God tends to teach us the most as He stretches and grows us in our walk with Him. We are thankful for those lessons but also thankful that we are able to begin moving forward in our new ministry (both at the church and in our day-to-day lives). You can take a closer look at the house by clicking this link: 2021 Elm St. Davenport, IA 52803. If you're in town, we'd love for you to stop by! We love to cook so we might even feed you!

Boys, You Gotta Love 'Em!

Lately, Steve has been teaching Judah the fine art of spitting and, seemingly all on his own, Judah has discovered the joy of dropping trou' wherever he feels like it to enjoy the freedom of peeing outside. A couple weeks ago we were in the front yard of my parents' house saying goodbye to my sister and her kids when I turned around to see Judah with his pants around his ankles going pee right in the middle of the yard. As a side note, my parents live on a busy road with lots of traffic going by. A few days later, my mom looked up from the kitchen table to see Judah, once again with his pants around his ankles, peeing on the deck. I'm glad he has finally gotten the hang of potty training (see previous post) but I guess I was just hoping he would be a little more discreet about it. I guess I'm just too much of a girl!