Six Months!!!!!!!

Six months....that is how long I've been away from this blog! I was doing so well at keeping up on things and then...well life changed in so many ways I could barely keep up with the changes at times, let alone blog about them (I very limited internet access as well). Six months is also the age of LydiaSue...and a few short days she'll be seven months! So many changes in her little life that I haven't recorded here - that being one of the main reasons I just had to sit down and try to play catch up. I want to start archiving her first year, but it's already half way done!

So much has happened in such a short time I won't try and cover it all, but I would like to at least recap the major events and throw in some pictures along the way. God is so great and has been so faithful in His provision to our family. We made it home from England safe and sound and finally got settled into a place of our own. I loved spending the last five months at home with my children and have just recently returned to work. Wow, so so much has changed!

So after we celebrated the Fourth of July (my last entry) we thought it fitting that LydiaSue become an American citizen. She made her first trip to London to get her passport and here she is outside the embassy. Our friends took a similar picture of their little girl that I loved so I copied them!


The next major thing that was accomplished before we left for home was Brandon finishing the entire Summa!!!!! If anything I can't believe I never even blogged about that! The whole reason we even went to Cambridge in the first place. A monumental task accomplished and I never posted even on that (well, of course blogging isn't the only way I communicate with the world)! So for the record here is a picture of him and Peter their last day of class!

And here is Brandon pictured with the entire Summa Theologica....he was even the first one to officially read the whole thing. I'm still so proud of him! (He read a lot of other books too!)

So the next major action item was to get home. Brandon's Mom MarySue came all the way back over the Atlantic to help us home, and man did we need it! What a blessing. Long story short she was a life saver when my sweet little Lydia developed colic (crying for hours at a time) and Alyas decided to model a perfect demonstration of what a terrible 2 year old could look like on numerous occasions. Wow, did we ever have some difficult evenings that week but all the same I still had wonderful final memories of a beautiful town and great friends!

We made one special trip to Blenheim Palace again on a gorgeous day!

We had to say good bye to all our friends and leave behind a city that had made a big impression on our lives. I have a lot of pictures of these last days and it's too hard to pick through them all. So, instead I will post a picture of another great friend who stuck with us through thick and thin during our time in Cambridge. It was the fuel for several jokes and helped us discover many new recipes. All in all it was the most ghetto thing we owned in Cambridge....the Blender!


The duct tape was due to a large whole that was created in its side after Jill decided to whip up a metal spoon in her smoothy. The rubber band kept the whole thing together more or less. I just had to add it to this blog. I feel that for all the ways it served us it deserved some recognition. There was enough fungal activity growing within the handle of it (which didn't come in contact with food) that it may be one plastic item on this earth that may actually biodegrade.

And then many hours later we made it home. LydiaSue started to calm a little bit and our flight was actually peaceful and without major complications. We were welcomed home to a lovely basement at the Wall house situated just for us and Iowa summer heat with all its intensity!

My Mom and Dad came up the end of our first week to meet LydiaSue and give us all big hugs!


After leaving Ames we lived with my parents for a few weeks before finding a great little home to move into just down the road from them in Council Bluffs. We had a great arrangement for free rent for 3 months in exchange for painting the house. Well, we not only painted the entire outside of the house we pretty much covered every square inch inside as well. The providence of God was manifest as we later discovered how perfect the arrangement really was when I couldn't find work until just this last December. This little country home is quite cute and Brandon is now a "man of the land" in some regards. He has begun to learn how to cut wood for his newest love - our wood burning stove!



And now I'm working for a brand new family practice clinic that is entirely Christian, pro-life, and heavenly focused. If I have to leave home during this time in our lives I'm so so thankful to be able to do this kind of work. We hope to officially open March 1st (more on that later).

To end, a little bit about my kiddos. LydiaSue is now a very, very happy and is a considerably easy little girl. She is a joy and we are so thankful for her life! She LOVES her older brother and is always on the look out for him. It is so fun to watch them interact, laugh, and begin to even play together. She is a three meal a day eater at this point and is very close (maybe even days) from beginning to crawl. I'd say her most striking feature is her big, bright eyes that always look you right in the eyes. She is eager to explore the world and greets everyone with a big smile!


And Alyas too has changed so much. He's definitely come along ways in the last 6 months. His speech is head over heals entirely different and expanded since we left England...which is a relief because I found myself wondering if he would ever talk in sentences for a while. He biggest loves these days are his musical instruments and his super heroes. He's backed a little bit away from the guitar and is all about drums and the piano. He can keep a serious beat and his favorite song is "Come Thou Fount". His imagination has started to develop which lends itself to a lot of pretend play. His first super hero that he latched onto was Super Man and now (after watching his first real full length movie Toy Store Three) he's all about Woody and Buz Light Year. We hear all day long "Ok, Mom you be Woody and I'll be Buz Light Year!" and "To in-fid-ib-ly (infinity) and beyond!!!!" His action figures accompany him every night to bed and are usually the first thing Brandon and I wake up to in the morning as well!

How's that for an attempt to sum up 6 months? Well at least now I have a starting place to continue on from here....