I can't believe it's been over two months since I last updated this web site!  So much has happened.  Will finished his first year of pre-school, tball, and both the boys turned a year older.

I've got their cute portraits to post from their 1 yr old and 4 yr old sitting...they were too cute.  Everyone's doing well...I think the biggest thing that has gotten me behind was the cool new camera I got for my birthday/mother's day.  It's a super zoom, high speed shutter camera, and I've taken over 3,000 pictures since the middle of April!!  I'm in the process of whittling them down!  So that's why there's been no new photos posted!

Hope everyone had a great 4th.

Every night when we eat dinner, we say our meal time prayer.  It always starts with the sign of the cross and Will always leads it.

Tonight, when I said, okay let's pray, Sam put his right hand up to his forehead to start the sign of the cross!!  He doesn't know the words, but he knows the beginning motion and when it ends.  So when we got done saying the prayer and were doing the sign of the cross again, he put his right hand back up to his forehead with us for that part!

He'll be doing the whole thing before long.

It was a scorcher today!  It was too hot to go outside and do anything but swim.  We went to our neighbor's pool and Will and Sam had a great time there.  Will was really apprehensive at first, but then he warmed up to the pool and gained his confidence - since he couldn't touch bottom anywhere - and learned how to swim in his ring.  I was very proud of him and Sam is also a fish...he swam for about 1 hour and a half!  He floated in his little baby boat and then enjoyed being pulled off the side of the pool into the water.

Will can't wait to go back again!

We found out at the last minute that Will had his rescheduled practice tonight.  He is playing for our Parish league and it's kids 3-5.  We had no idea what to expect.

When we first got there, Will had been asleep in the car, so he was pretty groggy.  It was a beautiful evening.  He wanted to know what everyone's names were.  We recognized one girl from his preschool, but no one else.  He was shy and didn't want to meet his coach...he was hiding behind my legs which he never does.  Nick and I played catch as Will sat in the grass...he started catching stray balls.  Then once batting practice started, he perked up.  He came over and hit the ball very well of the tee.  Then he had to go and play outfield, so he put on his glove and went out to catch the balls.  He was very competitive with the other children and wanted to get ALL the balls!  Then we found out the tball rule is to get 4 pitches, and then if they can't hit it, they can hit from the tee.  So Will tried to hit the ball from the pitch for the first time and actually hit it a coulple of times.  He started warming up to the idea of all this and met some of his other teammates. After a couple times of switching off batting and fielding - it was time to run the bases.  Will picked it up pretty quick. He wanted to be the first one as they all would run around the bases, instead one at atime!

Then his coach, Coach Miley brought out the snacks!  Hi-C's and Doritos!  YUM!

Will went from not even wanting to meet his coach to an hour later thanking him and saying to me, "Mommy, that's Coach!"

His first game is 4/28/08 - it'll be hilarious I'm sure! 

Mama!

I had had a long day at the office...I left before the boys were up, before 7 a.m., and I didn't get to pick them up until after 6 p.m.

The best part of picking Sam up was when I walked into the older infant room, and he looked at me and beamed, and said, "Mama!" for the first time!  I wanted to cry with joy!

Ms. Stephanie said he had been saying it all day.  I told her I didn't get to see him this morning, so he was probably wondering where I was!

Then when we came home, and I was putting him to bed, he pulled himself up in his crib and was standing there looking at me when I came back with water for his humidifier.  It's amazing how quickly they grow!

He's also conditioned to my camera.  So when he sees it go up to capture a pic of him, he immediately smiles.  This is from our portrait sitting for Easter pictures.

Coming home tonight, our "big giant waterfall" as Will called it was flowing full speed.

I hope it's not indicitive of more flooding to come.  I don't think the ground can take much more water!

Will was armed and ready with his umbrella!  Sam was fascinated with the big golf umbrella I was holding! 

We were finally able to get out of our road by Friday afternoon.  I was actually sad when the cars started zipping down our road again...our peaceful retreat was gone!

We had some good family bonding time and enjoyed the flood from afar.  Thank you to all who wished us well.

I had to take this picture from the truck as we were coming up to W Friday early evening because there were cars right behind us...ready to get out, too I guess!

The Bonacker House was also out of the water

By the next morning when we were leaving to go to Nick's parents for Easter celebrations on Saturday, you could see most of our field again.

Then Mother Nature decided to throw a curve ball and we had a Semi-White Easter!

Fortunately we are not having to be evacuated because our house is flooding like our neighbors at the end of the road, but we are “trapped” on our road.  It’s about a mile stretch either way on Byrnesville.  If you click the link below, the flood waters cross Byrnesville Road at Hwy W and at John McKeever.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=63051&ie=UTF8&ll=38.419419,-90.616672&spn=0.019838,0.046778&t=h&z=15

We have about 210 feet of Big River front property, and today that’s more than quadrupled!  It looks more like lake front property!

View from our front porch…as you can see, our house is far from the flood waters.

Two Different Views:

1 - taken 03/04/08 - snow in the field

2 - taken 03/20/08 - river in the field!

Our river front is usually about ½ mile down the field from the road. As you can see from the picture, it’s right at the road!

We went for a walk to assess the situation.  It was eerie.

It was eerie because we were the only ones on the road.  As you can see from the map where the road is flooded, no one can get in, no one can get out.  We ran into a couple of our neighbors driving down the road to assess the situation, too.  There’re only 10 homes and a business between the flood waters, so here Nick and Will are walking down the middle of the road, and it’s desolate and deserted.  It was very surreal.  We felt like one of those movies where a nuclear fallout or aliens wiped out everyone and we were looking for any living survivors!

We eventually came to the flooding about 300 yards from Hwy. W.  Several cars were hanging out near our neighbors’ 200 year-old farm house whose basement was flooding.

One of our neighbors had posted this "Private Property" sign on a telephone pole in the field.  It is usually about 6 feet from the ground!

Dead End on the West

Dead End on the East

 This is Byrnesville Road looking from Hwy W.  This is the other side from the east dead end picture.

 Nick and I took our four-wheeler through the back of our property and adjoining properties to go see the affect on Hwy. W.  Our neighbor, Paul, watched the boys, and we saw the bigger affect of the Big River.

Below is Fox 2 News capturing the awe of the rising river from Hwy W just north of Hwy 30.  The police were not letting people over the bridge unless they were local since W was closed a little further down near Hoene Springs.  The Bonacker's ended up on Fox saying they would not go, they were the 5th generation and would stay as their ancestors had.

Once we got back to the house, Nick and Will went down to the road and skipped rocks into the river!  Byrnesville Road was like our beach - again, so weird with no one coming or going.  We’re on our own private island!