"I Will Praise You Through the Storm"

I will, I will, I will, no matter how much water comes into our finished basement, I will praise you through the storm Lord! We had a great weekend with Micki and Lucinda, just truly wonderful! I fell into bed Sunday night ready for some sleep! I heard the rain and thunder at midnight and at 2:30, the rain was still coming down so strong my gut told me to wake Dave to check the basement. He came back upstairs to tell me Layla's room has water. Uh! I was so mad, I had just reorganized her closet and cleaned that room. Well, little did I know that was the least of my worries. We had water coming in everywhere but Dave's office. It was coming in so fast, we didn't know where to start. Our house is a walk out ranch and has always done very well with mass amounts of rain. It is tiled underground to run all rain water to our pond. Well, as the sun rose that morning, we soon understood why the tile wasn't working our pond, which is normally about 1-2 acres and about 100 yards from the house, was backed up over our driveway. No wonder Dave and I couldn't get ahead of the water in the basement. It kept raining until 5am that morning. Praise God for our friends and neighbors, the Englands. I called at 3am and they were there in minutes helping us haul furniture upstairs, rip out carpet, pad and vacuum out all the water. By 6am, it was under control. Another praise, we really did catch it early enough that no furniture was ruined. Our carpet, brand new in November, can also be salvaged.
So now, with the basement out of commission and all of the basement furniture upstairs, we are living in only about 500 square feet of our 2600 square foot home. I'm praising the Lord for this wonderful bonding time! :) Here's a picture of the sunrise Monday morning. I was never so glad to see the sun and never to discouraged to see all the water! Those of you who have been to our house will probably be able to make out the actual shore line. The water was past the willows.

Our "Farm" Girl

So we don't exactly live on a farm, just in the country. But, it's Iowa, so we'll call it a farm! Layla is a girly girl, who likes being outside getting down and dirty with daddy. Its an interesting mix! Note her outfits in these pictures. We've fallen into a nice evening pattern. We eat dinner, clean-up, then Layla and Daddy go out to do dog chores and train while I feed Cooper and enjoy the 30 minutes of peace and quiet. Last night, I hear little feet climbing the deck steps and then a knock on the patio door. Apparently, Layla had slightly fallen into the pond and been jumped on by our 10 week old puppy. I'm very impressed at how tough she has gotten around the dogs. When our puppy jumps on her, his paws are as high as her shoulders. She just shoves him down and tells him no. Last night the puppy jumped up on her while she was walking and she didn't miss a step, even with him hanging onto her shirt with his mouth as she walked. Of course, she had her jewelry, princess hat and fancy boots on while doing it!

This week we are greatly anticipating the arrival of our Denver Friends, Lucinda and Micki. These are 2 of my best friends from college and Layla is so excited! She didn't eat all of her Cheerios this morning because she wanted to save some for Micki and she wants Lucinda to sleep in her room because "Cinda is the best dancer". Not sure where she came up with that one and Micki has challenged Lucinda to a dance-off. Hmmmmm, should be an interesting weekend!

The Art of the Roll

Here is Cooper's first roll-over from back to stomach. He's been working on it all week. I sensed it coming to fruition yesterday and was able to grab my camera in time. He works the legs over, gets stuck on his shoulder, stops for a thumb snack, then a pose for the camera until finally the belly is reached. The funny thing is, he hates being on his belly and I could see the disappointment in his face when he worked so hard to roll over just to find out he was somewhere he didn't really want to be (hmmmmm, kind-of like we still do as adults at times). He doesn't understand he can roll over again to get back to his back, which he started doing 2 months ago!

I wish the name Joy was socially acceptable for a boy (but we all know what happened to a boy named Sue). Cooper's personality and attitude are so sweet and so delightful! He is almost always happy and content. The only time he grumps is if he's hungry or tired, but all I have to do is make eye contact with him and he grins from ear to ear. Yesterday was also Cooper's first day of dog training. Every time I would throw a little rubber duck to the puppy and yell, "hup, hup, hup" to get its attention Cooper would start belly laughing. For once, I didn't mind helping Dave with marks!

Sibling Rivalry Already?

..back to our wedding pictures. Whenever Layla looks at our wedding pictures she wants to know if she was at our "wedding party." Dave and I laugh and tell her no. So today, she looks at the picture, asks me the same question and I, as I do 10,000 times a day, answer her questions on auto pilot. But, my staple answer of, "no you were not at our wedding" didn't suffice. Here's the conversation......

"Mommy, was I at your wedding party?"

"No baby, you weren't"

"Where was I?"

Slight pause

"God hadn't given you to us yet."

"Was I with God?"

Slightly longer pause

"Yes, kind-of"

"Was I in heaven?"

"No, you weren't in heaven. You were in God's plans, his thoughts, he just hadn't made you yet."

Very long pause by Layla, I thought I was out of the woods

"So are thoughts in our heads?"

"Yes, Layla, thoughts are in our heads."

"So I was in God's head?"

Mommy is now growing a little weary

"Yes baby."

"So why was your tummy big with Cooper?"

Hmm, she has now lost me, but this isn't unusual

"Layla, what do you mean?"
"Why was I in God's head but Cooper got to be in your tummy?"

Way to Go Daddy!!!!!!

Our biggest moment of the Ohio trip was Dave's annual banquet. For those of you who don't know, Dave's company hosts an annual kick-of mtg. at the start of each fiscal year. They always include the employee's entire family and take us somewhere fun! This year was Sandusky, OH (see previous post). The annual banquet includes awards for the previous year and this year Dave's region won The Cup, this is the region with the highest volume increase and is the biggest award of the year and night. Congrats to Daddy we are very proud of you! Great job to all the guys in region 7 and your families. You do an awesome job. It's not always glamourous and this year was very challenging, but you and your families were rock stars! Here is a picture of Dave accepting the award for his team.

As we were in our room getting all dressed up for the banquet, Layla was watching Dave very closely as he put his tie on. "Daddy," she said, "when you get your bow on are you going to marry mommy?" So cute! Whenever she looks at our wedding pictures she never comments about my dress or how I look, she always comments about Daddy's handsome tie.

We're Back!

What a great time we've had on our little summer adventure. Okoboji and Ohio were fantastic. As I previously blogged, we left Cooper with Grandma Faye and Marcia for 2 1/2 days each as Dave, Layla and I journeyed to Ohio. There were some tears from Mommy and even Layla over the week, but over all it was great. Although Layla has flown many times, this is the first time she remembers. Our resort in Sandusky housed the largest indoor water park in the world, had an amazing outdoor water park, afternoon crafts, games and was basically like a cruise ship on land. Sandusky, OH also has an amusement park (Cedar Point) that has the fastest roller coaster in the world. I waited in line for an hour for a ride that went 120 mph and was over in as many seconds. I LOVED IT! Cedar Point was Layla's first amusement park. I wasn't sure what she would think, but she just hopped up on those rides and away she went.

Dave was in meetings most of the time so Layla and I got to do everything together. We had slumber parties in our room, ate pizza in bed, painted pottery, swam, went down many water slides and our favorites were the lazy river and the ferris wheel. Our friends, Jerry and Jaime also came to see us. They took Layla on a date Monday night and she returned with A LOT of lute, including a new baby boy doll she named Cooper. Thanks Jerry and Jaime, we love you!

Here are just an assortment of pictures over the last two weeks, including one of Cooper I took upon our return. The Grandmas must have treated him good! He can't stop smiling and talking since he's been home. Layla and I now call him tank and hunky. He is 3 1/2 mo and weighed in last night at 17.5 pounds.

Vacation from Blogging

We are three days into 14 days on the road, so don't expect any postings for awhile! We're spending the 4th of July week in Okoboji as Dave works and travels from Mom and Dad's house. The rest of the family joins us tomorrow night for the long Holiday weekend. Dave, Layla and I hop a plane to Sandusky, OH Monday morning for a week of water parks and amusement parks. Coopy is staying the week with the Grandmas. We are having a great time with Mama Faye this week. We took the boat out yesterday afternoon and I taught Layla to tell Daddy, "I have the need for speed!" I've never heard her squeal with such delight as Dave flew across the lake. We docked and ate supper at the Warf and made it home for some swimming and fishing off the dock. The boat was like a drug to Cooper, he was out for the whole adventure. Although when we stopped for supper he was plastered to the back of his car seat in a little ball. I'm not sure what he thought of Layla's "need for speed!"