Happy Birthday Arlan!

We don't WANNA live without your love! 
Happy 39th Birthday babe!

the group

We spent the last weekend in January in South Haven, MI with our out-of-state potluck group...we don't really like the term potluck, so we lovingly named ourselves "the group"...I know, original.

We left pretty bad snow/roads in Central IL but ended up making great time to South Haven where they have a lot of snow...folks, I'm not exaggerating. They.have.lots.of.snow.  So much snow in fact, Jon's Aunt & Uncle who live up there said they have no where left to push the snow so they are taking it to the lake & dumping it on.  The lake is frozen 25 miles out from shore & Lake Michigan itself is over 65% frozen.  Unbelievable numbers even for them.

It's been about 3 years since we formed "the group"...click here for the first post.  This group of friends has been a great sounding board & it's been humbling to see how God is working in each of our lives.  As Believers. As Dad's. As Mom's.  As people.  And this was the kid-free weekend...so we had lots of great uninterrupted conversation!

 Our house in S. Haven was amazing!  Huge. Very large.  Very nice.

7 + bedrooms and 5 bathrooms...and Jon B. got us a great deal during off season!

 while this was the kid-free weekend, any nursing infants are welcome and thus we had two darling infants...Charis Schlipf...

 ...and Callum Virkler.  They were both such good babies!

 The fabulous Mexican restaurant we went to again...Su Casa.

 Based on this picture, you'd never guess we really like each other!

January happenings

While the weather has been frightful, we have tried and made the best of it from time to time with some travel (when possible) and get-together with friends.

 One Wednesday after library story time, I had an appointment downtown Bloomington at the Health Dept. so I treated Havers and I to lunch at Lucca's.  We walked in & she instantly wanted to sit at the bar...she thought the high bar stools were real cool. She, of course, instantly hit it off with the bartender :)

In mid-January, Arlan had his first mentoring training in Alto, MI.  So off we went with him, staying with Holly's parents, Howard & Kristin Plattner & spending Friday night with friends...Titus (Aaron & Bekah Plattner), Judah (Matt & Shelli Oesch), & Haven had a swell time playing.

And by that Sunday afternoon, the stomach flu hit our house starting with Haven...Arlan enjoyed the 24-hour bug by Tuesday and on Wednesday, it finally got me.

The bad roads didn't stop us from traveling to Gridley one Tuesday to get our Jeep worked on at Schlipf Automotive & gave Havers the excellent opportunity to play with cousins in Aunt Twyla's basement.

Her new Wedgit set has been a hit this long cold winter & she's loving making new creations.

 After a trip to the library...books get broken in very quickly!

Technically the next several pictures are from early February...we headed over to our friend's house last week to see if she needed help shoveling her driveway while her husband was traveling...she, being the wonder woman she is, had already dug herself out but her kids & Haven took advantage of the decent temps to shovel for a few more minutes.

[note-by "decent temps" I mean like 20 degrees]

Mr. Carter Jackson was welcomed into the world on 2/4/14...Congrats Jeremy & Rachel!

He's a doll!

Haven had the fun privilege of a friend over the other day...her & Charis hit it off beautifully & had quite a fun time coloring...

 ...reading books...

 ...heading to Ironkids Preschool together...

 ...a lunch date...

 ...and ehem, "quiet time" :)

 This past Friday, I had my 30 week sono (although I'm actually 32 weeks, almost 33 weeks pregnant) and so Havers and I turned our Peoria trip into a play date with the Hodel boys at the CAT museum.  It was a great way to spend an hour on a cold afternoon as the boys & even Haven LOVED the big construction pieces to climb up on & pretend to drive.

And last not but not least, we traveled to Urbana to get together with some friends, Jeff & Gretchen and their four boys...it was WAY past due!  Haven started out pretty shy but by the end of the night was jumping/running/wrestling with the best of the Moser boys!