The Flood

This post is mainly to update our friends and family who dont live near by. 

As you may have heard/seen on the news, parts of IL and IA have been flooded from the past weeks storms.  Our town (Freeport) has been effected pretty badly but not too severe compaired to what happened in some other areas.  MANY roads have been flooded, highways flooded, businesses under water, TONS of crops ruined, our beautiful park is now pretty much one huge body of water, bridges covered, some homes completely underwater and destroyed, MANY homes with permanent damage, and almost everyone with water in the basement (anywhere from inches to feet, or in my dads case, completely full)  It has been somewhat surreal to look at!  

We were lucky enough to have been minimally effected.  A little water in our basement and a minor roof leak is all.  My dad on the other hand, was not so lucky. His house is on the other side of town by the river and is currently surrounded by water waist deep. He was able to get out before things got too bad. The house sits aways up off of ground level and last he checked water was only a foot away from coming in the front door and it was still rising.  So for now he is not able to get to his home or enter it.  You cant even drive close to his home, you have to park and wade through waist deep water to get to it.  Until things subside, its hard to tell what the damage will be.  There are so many people who are ok but have lost their water heaters and furnaces due to flood damage. So Im sure that Ryan will be quite busy in the next weeks installing new equipment into homes all around town and the surrounding area.   A small town about ten minutes away from us (Pearl City) has been pretty much completely underwater.  This is so sad to see and scary to think that they are calling for more rain in just two days.  I dont know exactly how or when things will get cleaned up but Im gessing that this will take a while.  We are so thankful that we directly werent badly effected.  But please pray for our town and for my dad. I cant imagine what it must feel like to have lost so much!

Here are some pictures:

The below is a photo of a bridge (underwater) at the back entrance of our park

Another photo of our park underwater. . you can normally stand under that road and still have a few feet of room above your head

This is the same bridge/road

The above is a photo of our race track completely underwater

The above two photos is one of our fire stations

Toddlers

tod·dler   
–noun
a person who toddles, esp. a young child learning to walk.

Toddlers?? Is that right?  They arent babies any more? 
 
Madaline started taking her first steps around ten and a half months, and Mason about eleven and a half months.  Mason caught up to Maddie and They are now both walking and "running" everywhere!  Crawling is no longer their main mode of transportation.  So, Yes. I guess that would make them toddlers. 
 
Since their first birthday two weeks ago...Mason has now gotten his 2nd hair cut, Maddie has sprouted two more teeth, both of them no longer use pacifiers, and bottles are being phased out. (they love their sippy cups, so this transition is going well so far)  Oh, and Maddie has figured out how to take her diaper off. (something I am not so excited about) 
 

Happy Birthday!!!!

My babies are officially ONE year old!!! 

We celebrated this past weekend with a BEACH birthday party!  The above picture is my attempt at making their birthday cakes. I decided a while ago that I wanted to start a tradition of making their birthday cakes myself.  (hopefully I will get better at it as each year passes)

What a party! We had great weather, lots of food, a slip n slide, kiddie pool, bags, some friends and family, presents, and best of all...eating cake for the first time! Mason was not quite as excited about being messy with his cake as Maddie was.  She had so much fun playing with her cake that it eventually ended up on the floor! ...so much fun to watch!  They both had a great birthday!! THANK YOU to everyone who came to celebrate with them and THANK YOU to everyone who couldnt be there but sent cards or birthday wishes!  It has been a very fun 1st year!