a mover and a shaker...

Boaz may be tiny, but he's getting strong!! He is on his hands and knees all the time. He rocks and rocks, and scooted a few times yesterday. We are ordering a safety gate for our stairs today!!

** the blankets that are all tucked into his crib are to prevent Boaz from playing his new favorite game - "poke the pacifier through the wood slats." It was especially fun for him to make it slide down the wall behind his crib and then watch mom & dad try to crawl after it! Yesterday, he managed to slide it between two blankets and launch it into the middle of his floor. Smarty-pants. :)

doctors.

Wednesday was a day of doctors visits. We started off at Luke's post-op appointment. They took off his first splint to look at the incision and take xrays.







Here is his first moment of freedom in two weeks. He was really careful not to move his fingers.

(don't look at the next picture if you hate medical stuff...)






Here's the incision. The doctor thought everything was healing very nicely. The xrays looked good!








Getting all the stitches out wasn't very fun. But now he's sporting a nice blue cast. (I'm sure I'll have pictures of that on here soon.) He will wear that one for two more weeks before he's free of casts, and then will start physical therapy to regain movement.








Here are the boys interrupting my work time in the morning... Boaz likes to come in and check up on me. Only a few more days to be interrupted! My last official day of work is Sept. 1, but I'll have some meetings and things to wrap up next week.

After Luke's appointment Wednesday, we went to Boaz's 6 month check up! He got some shots- which he loved- and was given a clean bill of health. He's doing great... but he's small!! He weighed 14 lbs. 12 oz. and was 25 inches tall.... placing him in the tenth percentile!!! We couldn't believe it! We knew he was a little guy, but wouldn't have guessed that little. He's well proportioned, and Dr. Riggs said there's no concern... there's hope that he'll be tall like daddy yet??? Boaz got to start eating vegetables the other day. He wasn't sure what to think of sweet potato at first, but now is quite fond of it!

ozarks vacation. warning- tons of pictures!

We just returned from our yearly Bartlett/Potratz family vacation to Osage Beach, MO. As always, we had a wonderful time. On Sunday, we celebrated Luke's 31st birthday with cake, Randy's custard, and good friends.

Despite Luke's bum arm, he managed to get in on a lot of the activities. Shuffleboard is a staple of our Ozarks vacations. With many competitive guys along on the trip, there are bound to be brackets and tournaments involved.

Boaz had a blast in the pool. He's a water baby, for sure. He looked adorable in his swim gear and loved kicking and splashing in the water. There were several little girls at the pool each day that adored him.





The pool was so much work that Boaz slept a ton every day. He took MANY long naps... almost anywhere! This day, he slept in his floatie and Uncle Justin kept guard to make sure he stayed in the shade... rotating the floatie as the sun moved across the sky. (thanks, Justin!)




This is the whole group at mini-golf. Pirate's Cove... aargh.

Luke missed out on going to the real golf course this year, but was able to get in on this!





And of course, this was competitive mini-golf. Luke 'the One-Handed Wonder' ended up beating everyone!! And his mom came in second. Nice work, Babe!






Boaz & I didn't attempt to golf. I loaded him up in the front carrier and we walked around watching everyone, touching plants, smelling flowers, and documenting the evening with pictures and video. He especially liked to watch all the waterfalls on the course.





After golfing, we all headed to the go karts. The boys broke all of the 'rules' of the course... no swerving, no bumping - yeah, right! They had a blast.






There's Luke and his bandaged arm... in the brown shirt... shortly after getting passed by his mom!







We had plenty of time to relax in the condo in the evenings and on a couple of cloudy days. Boaz enjoyed time playing with his grandparents and Uncle Justin, as well as the Potratz clan. He went on a lot of walks and got to feed the ducks with them. (he was a little spoiled on this vacation and we'll see how he adjusts to just having mom and dad around this week!!)



Luke did something on this vacation that hasn't happened in a long time... he finished a book!! He read one that his dad brought along, called 'It." Ron heard a guy speak at a Willow Creek conference about this book... why some churches have 'it', and some don't. What is It, how do you get It, who gives It, etc. It was a good book and we had some good discussions about It. (that's a lot of its in one paragraph!)


Pool time is the favorite activity on these vacations. We do lots of reading, napping, chatting, and horsing around with giant beach balls in the pool when we need to cool off. Here is a line up of readers, sleepers, and deep discussers.... I think the boy's topic was global warming at the time this picture was taken! :)




Sitting around at the pool. Luke and Boaz are talking with Svend- Kristena's dad.







My favorite picture of my favorite two boys.

There is an outlet mall nearby. We all went to it while the other boys were golfing. Luke decided Boaz needed to go to 'man stores' while we looked around at girlie things. So he took Boaz in the stroller to golf, tool, and toy stores!



Most nights we take turns cooking dinner and eat at the condo. This night, our family went out to eat at a mexican restaurant in town. (not as good as Las Margarita's or Chapala here in Wloo!) Boaz really would like to eat everything that we do. Here he is trying to eat the leftovers. (he always forgets he still has a pacifier in his mouth)



Our last day there, we went out on the boat! Here is Boaz in the cool surf outfit Grandma and Grandpa Glace gave him. Sitting in his carseat, he was having a great time out on the water... still tied to the dock.









Then they made him put on the lifejacket....








And the fun boatride turned into a horrible idea. We started out on the water thinking he'd get used to it and calm down. We decided after a few minutes that it was going to be a long 4 hours if he kept screaming, so we turned around and Boaz & I ended up spending the morning poolside instead. Next year we'll have to find one of those swimsuits with the jacket built in so he's more comfortable. We think he'd love boats if it weren't for the moldy, constrictive, Snoopy lifejackets!!





More pool time with Uncle Justin.

This vacation is one that we look forward to every year.
Great friends, great fun, great memories.....

big day.

It has been a wild couple of days at our household! Boaz has been so great... he's been along for the ride- happy as ever, eating cereal like a champ.

Luke had his surgery yesterday evening. He went in at 4:45. We anticipated being done and home after 8pm or so. However, a bad reaction to the anesthesia coupled with dehydration kept us in the hospital all night long. It was a ROUGH night! We came home at 9am today.

The surgery was very successful. He now has 6 pins in his left hand. This is the splint/ace wrap he will wear for the next 2 weeks. Then we'll have the post-op appointment and he'll get a cast. He's feeling much better this evening after a couple of long naps today and some good pain medication.




Yesterday Boaz turned 6 months old! The time has flown!! He's scooting and rolling all over our home. It's time to start baby-proofing! He just figured out that his wrist can move in a circle and thinks it's funny to drop his pacifier out of the crib- especially on the wall side where it makes a cool noise on the way down to the floor.



We sure are loving our little boy!!

hand.

Luke broke his hand in a softball game Monday night. He was diving for a ball and somehow jammed his left fingers straight into the ground with his full body weight on top. These pictures do it no justice. As you look at the left hand, the bones under the ring & middle fingers are broken. The fractures weren't perpendicular, but were really long along the bones.



So..... he gets to have surgery today! He'll go in at 4:45 this afternoon to try and get his hand repaired. They estimate at 3 pins in each bone. Luke hit a homerun in the game shortly before this happened, so it wasn't all bad. He said he's made it 18 years of playing without injury.

We leave for our yearly Ozarks trip on Saturday- no water fun for luke. So sad...

Play Time...

A few days ago Emily, Katie, and I got together at Katie's place. This was the first time all of the cousins have been together since the new additions! Above- Brenna, Boaz & Zachary... All born since February. Below- All 6 of the 'Glace' cousins!! What a good looking crew! Notice that Boaz doesn't have clothing on in these pictures. In our 'quest for frugality' we decided to try Aldi diapers. There is a reason that they don't cost much!!

Boaz loves to be outside. It's been beautiful in Iowa the last few days, so we've spent a lot of time hanging out on the porch. Being outside seems to calm Boaz down anytime he's a bit fussy.

After playing so hard, Boaz loves his naps and still sleeps well at night. One of our favorite times of each day is waking him up from a nap. He's always so excited to see us. This is the face he greets us with... along with squeals of excitement and lots of leg kicking. Here's a video of some fun we had playing in oatmeal. We tried doing this a few weeks ago and Boaz didn't like it. This time he had a lot of fun sliding his hands around in it. This is part of my attempt to start getting used to kids being dirty all the time!!

** Can't get the video to load. Anyone have any tips? I took the video on our powershot camera and it's saved in zoombrowser on our computer. :(

resignation.

I turned in the letter below on Tuesday night. I'm going to stay at home beginning September 1!! It will be hard to leave, but I know God is calling me to be at home and live a 'normal-paced' life. (all you current stay-at-home-moms can laugh at that- there probably isn't a normal pace, huh?) Luke and I have been brainstorming ways to cut our costs and save money to make this work. It may be pretty tight, but we know God is going to bless this decision. I shopped at Aldi this week and spent only $40!! I'm in love. And Fareway had a GREAT special on 93% ground beef... only $2.49/lb in a 10 pound tube. I stocked up. :) Any other money-saving tips out there?

LETTER OF RESIGNATION ::
It is with both joy and sadness that I write this letter of resignation. My 8 years working at Orchard Hill Church have been life-changing. I could not dream of a better job fit for who God wired me up to be. I’m thankful that you took a risk to hire a recent college graduate to be on your college ministry staff for 5 years. And I’m thankful that you saw it fit to hire me for the adult small groups role as well. I’ve grown tremendously both spiritually and emotionally as I served here at the church.

But now I’m growing into a new role… that of a mom. The past 5 months with Boaz in our lives have been indescribable. I’m enjoying motherhood more than I thought possible. With lots of prayer, Luke and I have decided that I will stay home with Boaz and our future children. While my job here provided incredible flexibility, I seek a singular focus in this stage of life- raising up godly children. It is incredibly hard for me to leave my position at Orchard, but I know God is calling me to the job of motherhood.

I imagine that I will continue to serve in many ways here at Orchard, but look forward to doing so ‘on the side’ for a few years.

With many thanks and much continued support-
Becky