A few weeks ago, we gave Imanuel his first haircut with clippers.  Surprisingly, he thought it was fun.  🙂  Anyhow, here are some pictures from before and after.  The first pictures are from early June and the last ones are from just a few days ago. 

Hiding between the couches

A rare picture of all our pets together (and Imanuel’s head).

Imanuel stuffing his face with grapes.  He’s been on a grape kick for a few months now.  I’ve resorted to washing a bunch at a time so I can just pull them out.  Even now as he’s looking at these pictures, he keeps saying, “UVAS!  UVAS!”

Notice the nappy hair

Israel in his new office in the basement

After the haircut!

Imanuel loves sitting in the front seat and pretending to drive.

Israel got a trim too.

This picture looks so funny to me…I don’t know if it’s because his head looks so round and chubby.

In this picture, he’s saying, “open!  please!” and I kept taking pictures of him.  Israel’s glasses case has become one of his new favorite toys.  And, check out his farmer’s tan on his arm. 

It’s so fun to see how Imanuel tries to utilize all of his words and signs to communicate.  Just today, I was on the computer and Imanuel comes over to me and says, “Mama…mama…(he points at Bentley)…bba bba (which is his word for food)…uvas…uvas”.  I didn’t get what he was saying at first, but then when I went over to Bentley (he pulled my hand over to him), I realized that Bentley had stolen one of Imanuel’s grapes and was trying to eat it.   Both Bentley and Imanuel are fierce defenders of their own food.  (Of course for Imanuel, it has to be food that he likes.)

His newest phrase that we’re trying to teach him is “no, thank you”.  He started saying “no” recently and he already knew how to say “thank you”.  Finally after a couple weeks, he’ll now say “no! … thank you!”  when he doesn’t want something (like a certain type of food etc.)  But, he’s learned to use that phrase on other aspects too.  For example, I’ll tell him that it’s time for a nap and he’ll say, “no! …thank you!”.  But thankfully, he’s quite compliant still. 

Copy-cat.  Imanuel is starting to try to discipline Bentley like we do.  If Bentley puts his paws on the table, he’ll tell him “Down!”  Or if he’s trying to get at some food in Imanuel’s hand, Imanuel will say, “No, no no!” while shaking his finger at him.  When Bentley is bullying the cats, Imanuel will bring it to our attention by saying “Bentley” and pointing.  And, whenever Bentley’s food bowl is empty, he’ll bring it to me and say, “Bba bba”.  He’ll then come with me to put more food in his bowl and he wants to be the one to carry it back to where Bentley eats.  It’s crazy to see the transition to where now Imanuel feels dominant over Bentley even though Bentley is so much stronger and older than he is. 

Anyhow, life is exciting.  Except for the weather.  We don’t have AC and last week we almost melted.  I never thought I’d say this, especially living up near the arctic circle, but I can’t wait for the weather to cool down!

It’s been a while since we updated our xanga page.  So many things have happened since Memorial Day so hopefully within the next few weeks we’ll find time to include the many memories that we want to remember.  Right now, we have a satellite team of magabookers up here.  Remember to pray for them!  They are a real blessing to us because we’re planning on having an evangelistic series here in October so all of the Bible study interests will be followed up to prepare for that. 

The past couple months have been full of traveling.  We had two weeks that we spent down state for Camp Pitch and MI Campmeeting.  Then we flew from Detroit to California where Israel spoke at CAM.  Imanuel and I went along for fun so we had a nice time spending time with our family over there.  Then we came back, drove back up home for a few days, then drove right back down for CAMPUS leads.  We spent a lot of time traveling so it’s really nice to be back home.  I think the pets think so too.

Bentley has a new friend.  One of our neighbors just got a new puppy and the other day he discovered that Bentley lives next door.  His name is Duncan.  He treks through the couple hundred yards of tall grass that separate us a few times a day to come and visit Bentley.  Bentley’s tick problem (yes, he had a major problem) has seemed to go away ever since we bought a riding lawn mower.  Israel cuts our grass so low to the ground that just about no living thing could live in it.  Our grass almost burned to death were it not for all that rain that came recently.  But at least we don’t have a tick problem anymore. 

Imanuel has become very chatty this past month.  His vocabulary has increased so rapidly that it seems as though every day he picks up a few more words.  His favorites at the moment are “hello”, “ball”, “GOOOOAL!”, “amen”, “apple”, “please”, “thank you”, and “mama”.   Despite all of the caution we’ve been given about him beginning to walk, I personally think it’s so much easier and convenient now!  He is in such a fun stage right now.  He loves to laugh and he’s just so silly.  Anyway, we’ve also begun potty-training so we would like to solicit all of your prayers. 

***

Right after Petoskey (beginning of June), my older sister, Julie came up to visit with us for a couple weeks.  She skipped out on her med school graduation to come to Michigan.  So, as her graduation present for becoming a doctor, she cleaned/rearranged/organized our entire house.  No kidding, it was her idea!  I felt like we were on TLC’s show “Clean Sweep”.  Our house is so clean and organized.  I don’t know why she decided to become a doctor.    Imanuel really took to her and learned many new things.  He invented his own sign for “smoothie”, he learned to say “imo”, he learned how to tell Bentley to “shhh” when he barks, and he learned how to lick his fingers after eating.  We were able to take her to a couple nice scenic UP places as you’ll see in the pictures.  But it was fun just hanging out and relaxing (when we weren’t cleaning or rearranging furniture).  Here are some pics from her visit:

Hopefully there will be more to come in the near future…