Busy Busy Busy

(So you know, this post is dated Aug. 22 - that was the date that I started uploading pictures. It is now Tuesday, Aug. 25 and I am finally getting around to publishing this. sorry for the delay.)

These last two weeks have been something of a blur. Is summer really over and another school year here already? Wow. We have been quite busy these past few weeks - filling our days with all sorts of projects, activities, visitors, etc.
First up... Matt's mom and friend, Fran, came to visit. I think I mentioned that in the last blog entry but I could be wrong (my memory is not what it used to be. I blame pregnancy/motherhood). They stayed with us for a few days before going on a weekend cruise in Mexico. It was so great to have them here. Luke got some quality time with Grammie. We enjoyed good meals, great conversations, walks around Redlands, and of course, some riveting games of Dirty Board! It was so fun simply just being together again.

We were told about a restaurant in Redlands that serves Chicago style pizza - the deep dish, stuffed kind. Mmmmm. Delicious! Luke didn't get any pizza but he seemed happy enough to eat his fists.

We went to Market Night in Redlands and walked around looking at the various booths. It was fun just to 'people watch' and walk around after stuffing ourselves with Chicago Pizza.

Luke didn't care so much about Market Night.

We had a good competition of Dirty Board. Mom and Fran gave us a run for our money but in the end Matt and I pulled through and took the winner's title. :)

Grammie gave Luke a little plastic ball. He LOVES it! It is perfect for him to grab and can be squished and can even go in the dishwasher for cleaning, how great is that?!

Mom DeBoer and Fran left on Friday (August 14). We had the weekend to ourselves. We spent the time getting the house cleaned up again, relaxing and visiting with friends. Then Monday (August 17) my sister, Erika, came out for a visit! I tell you we are getting so spoiled with all this family time! I guess now that Luke is here he is like bait - getting all the family from far away to want to come more frequently. We'll fish for family anytime. :)

Erika is now about 20 weeks pregnant and is doing so well! She looks fantastic and now that the first trimester is over with she is feeling fantastic as well. We didn't do anything too exciting (I have this thing about needing to be a good host and entertain our out of town guests with various activities around Southern California) but Erika assured me that she was happy to just hang out, so that's exactly what we did. We got a set of bibs that have a cross stitch pattern on them that we worked on throughout the week. We went shopping, helped Matt set up his classroom, cooked, played with Luke and relaxed. It was such a perfect time! I miss having my sister close by. We really need to have these kind of get togethers more often. Although, now that we'll each have infants/toddlers that might be something of a challenge.


You can't really see Erika's baby bump in this picture but it's there...cute little belly

Playing with Luke on the floor. Good thing that she came out now before she gets too big in the belly or getting on the floor for playtime could have been tough.

Erika got an arm workout playing 'airplane' with Luke. He's also wearing the Snoopy onesie that Uncle Aaron gave him. It's nice and slobbered on in the second pic.

I think they were talking to Uncle Aaron on speaker phone when I snapped this picture. You can see that Luke is quite interested in the voice coming out of the phone.

Chill time with Auntie Erika. I think Erika was more ready for a nap than Luke was.

Erika got a taste of what life is going to be like for her as a mom in just a few short months!

Luke was a good 'tester baby'.

Thanks for coming to see us Auntie Erika! We love you!

This would usually be the part where I say that life is returning to 'normal' for the DeBoer house. However, that is not the case. For those of you who may not know this... our family has grown! No, I'm not expecting another baby and NO, we did not get a pet of any sort. We currently have two foreign exchange students living with us! They arrived last week. Jung is from Korea. He is a junior in high school. He has been going to ACA now for three years so he is pretty well adjusted to our culture and the community. Charles is from China. He is a freshman and this is his first year at ACA and in the United States. He has attended a boarding school in Taiwan for the past two years (I think) so he's used to being away from home but this is a new transition for him. Actually, its a transition for us all. Matt and I were realizing that we have been catapulted 15 years into the future! We now have to assume the position of "Parent of a Teenager"! My, My how things have changed in the DeBoer house! We went from just the two of us to having a house full in just a matter of months! So far things have been going very well. The boys started school yesterday. They are very nice and polite young men. Although, we have been told that this is the 'honeymoon stage'. We'll see how things go. We have done a lot of thinking, talking and praying about this and truly feel that this was God's plan for us this year. It will be exciting to see Him work in all of our lives this upcoming school year.

I don't have any pictures of our students yet.... I thought that might be a bit weird/invasive - "Hi, welcome to America! Let me take a picture of you to post all over our blog!" I'm sure that we'll get some pics eventually but let's let them settle in a bit and feel a little more comfortable first. :)