So Close!

It's official: Warren is close to walking! This is how it started with Jake, he kept trying over and over to stand up and within a few days (if memory serves) he was walking by himself. So we'll see if Warren does the same thing.



This is just too cute, I love watching him do this!
As for all the background noise (if you have your speakers on) my dad was holding Jake and wouldn't let him go because he kept trying to knock Warren over! Jake was having a fit and Ryan was attempting to calm him down. My grandma was also over so there was lots going on!

Lines & Snoozes

One of Jake's favorite things to do with his many many cars is to line them up. Sometimes they are side by side, sometimes end to end. He also likes to create patterns and shapes with his cars; he's pretty creative.

Here's Jake and Grandpa hanging out after church yesterday. They were pretending to sleep.

Coming Home

Well, we have one more week to enjoy Castro Valley and grandparents. We leave next Friday morning to drive back home to Temple City for one last semester at Master's! Truly a bittersweet time, as leaving here will be very difficult for us, especially the boys who have had so much fun here with Grandma and Grandpa, but it's also exciting to have this end in sight with seminary.

Speaking of The Master's College and Seminary, USNews and World Report came out with their list of top colleges for 2008 and Master's placed Number 2 for Baccalaureate Colleges of the Western Region of the US! The Lord has been good and faithful to Master's as the people who run it seek to make it a place where students not only get a top notch education, but are taught and nourished spiritually as well. We can attest to that having been at the seminary now for 3 years. We are so thankful for John MacArthur and his vision for the college and seminary.

Swimming

Last week we had the fun pleasure of being able to go swimming at my aunt & uncle's house 2 days. My mom and I took the boys last Thursday and Ryan and I went 2 days later on Saturday. The boys had a very fun time and Jake quickly got over his fear of the big pool, as shown in this photo! This is my cousin Josh with Jake in the picture.

On Saturday we had quite a scare with Jake when Ryan saw him under the water struggling to get to the top. He had fallen in during the few seconds we weren't watching. Ryan quickly jumped in and got him out and the Lord thankfully spared Jake. While we didn't forget it soon, Jake was once again jumping in the water after a few minutes. Brave boy.

Spits

That's Warren's new nickname according to my mom. He spits all the time. Especially when he's angry. And frustrated. And mad. It's gross. It's not just the cute little raspberry noise that babies do when experimenting with their mouths. It's the full on saliva-draining-out-of-the-mouth-in-mass-quantities-spray-it-everywhere-spitting. It was actually kind of cute at first, but now we have discovered it is a defiance/rebellion thing, so we are trying to put a stop to it. Not an easy thing with a very strong-willed baby.

On a drier note, he's become quite the little adventurer and climber. He loves to climb up and over the coffee table just for the fun of it. It scared us all at first, but he still has not had a major tumble off the table and it's nearly impossible to keep him off of it, so we just laugh when he does it. The other day I witnessed this scene unfolding at the toy box:

What a funny guy.

A Passion...

One of my passions is politics. Perhaps some of you may not know that, but I do care deeply about this country and its future. I've been following pretty closely the race for the 2008 President and Mike Huckabee is standing out more and more and a very exciting candidate. He was a Baptist minister for much of his adult life and then turned to politics, being the governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007. He made some incredible changes to the state which you can read about on his website. So anyway, here is a YouTube video compilation of the best of Mike Huckabee. It's around 8 minutes and well worth the watch.

A Few Weeks Old...

I forgot to post these cute pictures of Johnny and Warren sitting together. They sure had fun playing when Jess and Isaac were out here.

Counting Down the Summer Days

Summer is one of those times of the year (much like the Christmas season) that I anticipate greatly, goes by extremely fast, and long for once it is over. We have had a fantastic summer this year. Really, one of the best ever. It has been a season of many firsts, great joys, and delighting in the people around us. This summer has been so full of many wonderful experiences, people, and growth that we are sure not to forget it any time soon. I began thinking about all this after we bought our tickets to fly out to Kansas to visit at the end of September. I can honestly see us ending up out there just from our initial meeting with the couple over lunch some months ago and our strange draw to Emporia and a small town. In my craziest dreams I never imagined we would end up in Kansas, and even now it does not seem real that we might be leaving the only home we've ever known. So all that to say that I am really trying to savor our last few short weeks here and take in all the cool Castro Valley weather I can before we move back down to the furnace that is Southern California!

Here are a few pictures from Warren's actual birthday. We didn't do much, my parents got him a musical set with a drum that holds a few music toys which Warren (and Jake) loved.

And what post would be complete without a messy face picture?

This is Warren enjoying some scrumptious homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies: