Great is Thy Faithfulness

This week, Jack's grandma, Lucille Bode, passed away at the age of 87. That means she was around 10 years old during the Great Depression, 20 during WWII -- certainly old enough to remember experiencing both. During the funeral service, the Pastor mentioned she knew what it was like to appreciate "Give us this day our daily bread" -- something we all too often take forgranted. She also had already fallen in love with Grandpa Jay before he was sent off to serve in WWII -- I can hardly imagine saying goodbye under those circumstances. Grandma and Grandpa went on to have 6 healthy children, 17 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, and 64 years of marriage. She died peacefully in her sleep after experiencing a rich life full of the love of her family and her love for her Savior. What a blessing. Great is Thy faithfulness.

It's Official

It's official ... I've got two crawlers. I'm not saying they are super fast or very efficient at it yet, but they are both getting the hang of the crawling movements -- from the lunge and fall, to the army crawl, to the real deal -- and are getting to where they want to go (generally in the direction of something I don't want them to play with ... ie. the remote, my laptop cords, etc.). Tyler is also working hard at pulling himself up. Lots of activity around here!

God Bless America

Fireworks, parades, baseball, and burgers .... how much more American can you get? We had a very busy but fabulous weekend celebrating the Fourth of July. We went to the Holtvluer cottage on Friday, Ashley and I walked in the Caledonia parade to support Justin Amash for congress on Saturday, had a VLugt family Road Rally Saturday night, played in the baby pool on Sunday, went to the Grandville parade and hung out at the Ploegs on Monday, and saw our friends from NY on Tuesday. Phew! No wonder the kids (and mommy) took a 2.5 hour nap yesterday morning!