family update

heron:  potty trained!  yes!  amazingly, this girl made the decision & potty-trained in a week.  one thing, among many things, that we've noticed about little blue heron (who will one day be great), is that she's super self-motivated.  she will push herself much harder than we would push her, but it has to be her idea, her timing.  if we push her too hard, she'll run the other direction.  but everything lined up perfectly with this, and she's now out of diapers, except for nighttime, but even during naps.

shepherd:  scooching!  not quite crawling, but maybe this is how shepski will do it.  it seems to get him around alright.  today was the first official day of scooching, & i was glad that i had the baby gate closed at the top of the stairs, or he already would've taken a big fall.  he's also starting to say new, very important words like "mama" and "dada", as of this week.  and... gives me big slobbery open-mouth kisses on my face!

josh:  preached for the first time in two years today.  it was AWESOME!  he's still got the special sauce!  we've found such a great church here in portland, in our neighborhood, and are excited to get more involved.  this week we'll start hosting + leading a weekly community group in our home.  and josh has joined the pool of pastors, and will be preaching every fourth sunday that we meet as a church.  (we meet every other sunday as a gathering of all community groups, and meet weekly in homes as smaller groups over a meal)

mitchy:  just finished my first online photography class.  but what about OCAC--the reason we moved to portland?  not happening (though it got us to portland, and we're so glad it did!).  but i've found so many other ways to learn, & have found myself to be very self-motivated in these environments.  online learning works so much better for my family's schedule, & then i can maximize the free time i do have for learning/creating rather than commuting.  i'll be taking one class at a time or so, and beginning work on josh's album design in the coming weeks!