Blocks

James loves these blocks. These movies are from a night when Jon was not home. James was entertained for a long time doing different things with his blocks.

Stuck?

Maybe not.

James is always trying to get under the table. I do not know why, but he likes to get under there. For some reason, the other day, he decide not to move the chair, but to go under it. You will also notice that he looked through the ads we get in the mail.

Ball

This is the best dollar Jon and I have spent.

James loves this ball and will play with it for hours.

More About the Tornado Relief

Today, I found this story on the church's (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) blogg.  I also attached the video of the news story.  Jon and I were among the volunteers from our stake.

Mormon Missionaries Lend Helping Hand to Ohio Tornado Victims
June 16, 2010Posted By Doug Andersen

A vicious tornado that made its way through northwest Ohio on June 5 has left many in the damaged area in need of helping hands.

Toledo, Ohio's WTVG recently reported on the cleanup efforts of 200 volunteers in Ohio's Fulton County. Approximately 50 of those volunteers were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, wearing yellow Mormon Helping Hands T-shirts.

New Hat

I got some Youth Conference Registration Forms in the mail a while ago.  James took the envelope and this is what he did with it. 

Thank for the hours of entertainment Sister Tucker!

If You're Happy and You Know It...

James recently learned how to clap his hands. It took Grandma through SKYPE to teach him. I tried for a long time, but was never successful. This is a video from him talking to Grandma on the computer.

Tornado Relief

It has been a crazy couple of days here in Ohio.
Sunday, we only had sacrament meeting.  The rest of church was cancelled so we could help in one of the areas of our stake that was hit by the tornados a week ago.  We went to the Delta, Ohio area.  It is amazing the amount of damage caused by natural disasters!

Thanks, Jill, for watching James so both Jon and I could go help with the clean up.  We mostly just moved trees and brush out to the side of the road so the county could come and take care of it.  It is amazing to me the resources the church has readily available for natural disaster.  As you will see from the pictures, all of the members of our church got yellow T-shirt.  Plus there was all sorts of equipment, like chainsaws.  There were also hygiene kits to deliver.  Local businesses also donated work gloves, sunscreen, bug spray, and band-aids (along with other things).

Here are the pictures I took while we were there.

and Congratulations on another little boy!

First Responder

Jon was a first responder for a tragic accident this afternoon.  It is a really sad story.  If you want to know more of Jon's story, you will have to ask him. 

Here is the news coverage.  If you look close, you can see Jon.  He is in a blue shirt and khaki pants.

Child critical after being struck by car in South Toledo: "An accident on Heatherdowns Blvd. near Byrne Rd. Wednesday afternoon has left a child critically injured."

Tornados

We had some tornados move through our area on Saturday Night.  James slept through it.  I mostly slept through it right next to the window.  The Tornado siren woke Jon up and he turned on the TV to see what was going on.  He came back to tell me, but I never fully came awake.  I do remember the lightning and thunder were pretty incredible.  Really bright flashes and big booms.  I also heard the second tornado siren that went off.  I woke up fully when our windows leaked a little and Jon needed help getting the water soaked up and putting towels in the bottoms of the windows.

Sunday morning, I turned the TV on so James could watch something while I got him dressed.  He holds still better if he is a little distracted.  The news said that they had 6 tornados touch down (I guess some could have been the same, but I don't know), and we found out later that 7 people died in the storm.  It was pretty crazy.  I am glad it was not worse.

Here are some You Tube videos (which I got off a friend's blog, thanks, Stephanie) of the destruction.  It is pretty crazy.  Lake Township (where these pictures are from) is really close toToledo.





Side note:  I am going to try and get some pictures of James posted today.  They will appear before this post if I get them up.

Lima, Ohio

Sunday, we went to the Lima Ward Conference. In the Lima Ward they have sacrament meeting last, so we started with the combined Young Men and Young Women Meeting. James went to nursery. He still loves it. Hopefully, he still will when he is going to the same one every week for a few months. I hope he is not too used to going to a different one each week.

Fun Fact:  The Lima Chapel is on Brower Road.  My maiden name is Brower.  It is always fun to see my maiden name on a street sign.

Young Women's went well. There were a lot there. Lima has one of the higher numbers of Young Women in our stake, but there were also 4 visiting from other wards (Bowling Green and Perrysburg). James and I ended up in the hall at the beginning of sacrament meeting. There was a gentleman in the hall that asked me if I was a member. I told him I was there with the stake. He said he was security. Apparently they are having problems with people breaking into cars and stuff, so they have to have someone in the halls and watching the parking lots during church. Crazy!

We only stayed long enough for the sacrament this week. Jon had to go to Chicago later that day, so we had to get back. We actually got home about the same time we would have if we had gone to our own ward.

Here is James picture from Nursery (and finished in sacrament meeting).

After church, Jon packed and left for Chicago. He is taking Step II CS today. I hope and pray that is goes well and he does not have to retake it.

When Jon left, James and I went to a barbecue and swimming party here at our apartment complex. Here is a picture of James playing with a broken squirt gun.

He had lots of fun playing in a few buckets of water sitting out to fill up squirt guns. He was wet and muddy when we came inside. It was fun to play outside for a little while. I hope you had a good birthday, Ashlee!