Randy L Wohlford

Our Great Uncle Randy (Mommy's Uncle, Papa's brother) passed away suddenly last week. We were so sad to hear the news. Here is a little bit about him:

Randy Lee Wohlford, 54, of Lena died Thursday, May 22, 2008, at St. Anthony Medical Center, Rockford.

He was born May 5, 1954, in Freeport, the son of Delbert and Edith (Witt) Wohlford. Randy married Peggy Ann Moen on June 18, 1977, at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Freeport.
Randy was a carpenter for more than 25 years.

Mr. Wohlford was a member of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.

He enjoyed hunting, fishing, hunting for morels, and he loved the outdoors.

Survivors include his wife, Peggy Wohlford of Lena; his mother, Edith Wohlford of Freeport; two sons, Joshua Wohlford, 2nd Lt. USAF, Randolf Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, and Justin Wohlford, Cadet 2nd Class, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.; three brothers and one sister, David (Joyce) Wohlford of Surprise, Ariz., Sheila (Dan) Sadler of Elizabeth, Larry (Dave Goodwin) Wohlford of Goodyear, Ariz., and Edward Wohlford of Stillman Valley; two sisters-in-law, Mae (Delvin) Trost of Lena and Carol (John) Nielsen of Mount Horeb, Wis.; father- and mother-in-law, Charles and Della Moen of Freeport; also four nephews, seven nieces, nine grandnephews and two grandnieces.

He was preceded in death by his father.

Uncle Randy taught Mommy how to hunt for mushrooms when she was little. He also brought mushrooms for family gathering each year - yummy! Daddy really loved that! One good thing happened, and that is that they were able to donate his kidneys, liver, and corneas to other people who needed them. We pray for Uncle Randy's family as they are so sad and miss him so much.

A Bittersweet Trip

We went back to Illinois last week to say good-bye to our Great Uncle Randy. We are going to miss Uncle Randy so much. He was a great man and we really liked him.

While we were in the midwest we also got to meet some relatives that we hadn't met yet - Great Uncle Ron and Aunt Karen, Great Great Aunt Carol, and our newest cousin Logan. We also got to meet some of Daddy and Mommy's friends in Iowa. The following are entries from our trip.

The Trip

On our travel day we got to ride in a mini van, bus, plane, and car. It was quite a day!

Here we are on the plane: We were so good on the plane. Daddy and Mommy kept telling us how proud they were. We slept for a while, then just sat and cuddled, ate our sandwich, and played and cuddled some more. Daddy and Mommy said they had snacks and toys for us, but we didn't need them because we were so good!

Here we are in the car:

Here is an amusing picture that Mommy took. She thinks it's funny to have a can of chili that big.
On our way to Uncle Dale and Aunt Judy's we stopped at Culver's and got pork tenderloin sandwiches. We like them sooo much! That is always a recurring theme in Daddy and Mommy's travels to the midwest.

There's More of Them?

When we got to Uncle Dale and Aunt Judy's house Nana and Papa were already there! We also got to meet Great Aunt Karen and Great Uncle Ron. It seems like we keep meeting more and more relatives!! We were so happy to be out of the car and we got to run around in Uncle Dale's back yard.

Here we are trying to get Aunt Karen and Uncle Ron to play ring around the rosey: This is Aunt Karen and Nana playing with us:
We tried to get them to fall down, too:
Here is Jonathan snuggling and giggling with Uncle Dale:

Logan Joseph

Somehow we missed putting up our welcome announcement for our newest cousin!! Logan Joseph was born on April 7 this year to Mommy's cousins Lori and Joe. We got to meet him for the first time while we were in IL. We love Logan so much!! We wanted to see him as much as we could, and always said, "Baby!" when we saw him. We want a baby brother or sister - can someone tell Mommy and Daddy to order one for us?

Here is a picture of Great Grandma Wohlford with baby Logan: Welcome to the world, Logan!

Happy Birthday to You

We got to celebrate Nana and Mommy's cousing Ryan's birthdays while we were in Galena. Mommy's cousin was in a bad accident a year ago and was in the hospital for his last birthday. This year he is a walking miracle! We were all so glad to be able to celebrate with them - the fact that we got ice cream cake helped a little, too...

Here are the birthday girl and boy trying to get ready for a picture:Here's the picture the way it's supposed to look:

Is this Heaven?

On Tuesday we went to Iowa to visit some of Mommy and Daddy's friends. Mommy said she liked being back in Iowa, but we don't know why she likes it.

Here's one of the things that Mommy found amusing (and a little heartwarming) - something you won't find in AZ! See - we told you we don't know why she likes Iowa:

Yes, this was us in the car when we woke up in Iowa. It did get better, just not right away.

Fun With Friends!

We met up with some of Daddy and Mommy's friends in Iowa. We ate at Bennigan's and Mommy let us have some of her Montecristo sandwich. She said it wasn't good for any of us, but we all ate it anyway! Our friends were lots of fun to play with. Miss Rosie showed us where a fun play area was and all of us kids played while Mommy, Daddy, Miss Rosie, Mr. Buck and Miss Jesseca watched us (and maybe they got to talk, too, but we know we're the important ones in this story).

Here we are climbing around: We think it's funny that we're moving, but Brennen must be going faster than us because he's blurry in the picture!
This is Graysen. He didn't play in the play area, but he smiled a lot at Mommy!
Here is Jonathan trying to climb up:

Mommy and Miss Jesseca were trying to get a picture of Jonathan and Caelan. Maybe you can see it from Miss Jesseca's viewpoint on their blog:
Look - four kids in one picture! Miss Jesseca, Mommy, and Miss Rosie.
(check their blogs for more pics later)
Five kids, two funny faced Asians in the front:
Big smiles from Gabby and Caelan:
We're done with pictures:

MMMMMM...Whitey's!!!!

After playing so hard at the play area we walked all the way down to the other end of the mall and ate Whitey's ice cream! It was so yummy!!

Here is a picture of our friends eating ice cream: Apparently Brennen wanted gummy bear ice cream, without the gummy bears:
We were all impressed that he put them on the napkin. We would've thrown them on the floor.

Evening Entertainment

That evening we met up with more friends in Iowa! We met Mommy's friend Eryn and Chris and her other friend Erin. We ate at Happy Joe's and it was so good! Daddy and Mommy had taco pizza and we had Happy Joe's Special. We really liked it. But what we liked best was playing peek-a-boo with Mommy's friends! We didn't really have much to play with, so we used our straws. It's a good thing our eyes are small!!

Here is Josiah:

And here I (Jonathan) am:
And here is Chris:
(We were going to put Chris' last name on here, but then decided maybe he doesn't want everyone he knows to google him and find this picture.)

After dinner we went with Erin to see our friend Linus' grave site. It was so sad. We didn't really understand what we were doing there, but we could tell that Mommy and Miss Erin were very sad. Linus has a plaque that has Linus from Peanuts on it. We wish we could have met Linus, but we know he's waiting for us in heaven and we'll get to see him there someday.

Then we went back to see Miss Eryn and Mr. Chris' house. Mr. Chris had to go to a meeting, so we didn't get to play with him for very long. We loved their house and their doggie and their piano, though! Here are some pictures of us playing piano:





Mommy and Daddy thought we'd be so tired after that long day, but we didn't fall asleep until right before we got back to Uncle Dale and Aunt Judy's house. We sure fooled them! We had a really fun time seeing Mommy and Daddy's friends in Iowa!! Thanks for taking time to visit with us!!

Did We Mention...

That we got to visit Dr. Vandigo in Galena? Yes, it's true. After our big day in Iowa the boys' coughs just weren't getting any better and Josiah woke up with a fever and one side of his face and one ear were completely red. We decided we should make a trip to see a doctor there. Dr. Vandigo was great - but his news wasn't so pleasant. Josiah has pink eye, an ear infection, and his cough/cold needs antibiotics. Jonathan's cough also needs antibiotics. We really liked Dr. Vandigo, but hope we don't need to see him every time we go back to IL. We got to bring back a whole bag full of medicines on the plane with us - two antibiotics, antibiotic eye drops, ibuprofen, tylenol, cough medicine...is that it?!

As a side note, the boys didn't travel so well on the trip back. Josiah had no problems with his ears, but both boys were fussy and Jonathan really didn't appreciate being cooped up on a plane for over 3 hours. We made it back and hopefully they are both on the mend!

One Last Thing...

Because we like to take pictures of things that amuse us...

Here is a picture of the info board for the Freeport High School:

No Hearing Aid Needed

Here's a typical playdate with our friend Isaac:

From the AAP

The AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) has this to say on their website (italics, bold, red type added by me):

Can you give me some meal suggestions that are tasty, convenient, and nutritious for my children?
From breakfast through dinner, these ideas will please even the fussiest eater.
Off to a good start. . .the breakfast bonus
Breakfast provides energy to carry a child through an active morning. Children who skip breakfast may not concentrate well at school or may lack energy to play. Not everyone enjoys traditional breakfast foods, such as cereal and toast. These breakfast ideas are a little different:
Breakfast shake: combine skim or l % milk*, fruit and ice in a blender.
Frozen banana: dip a banana in yogurt, then roll it in crushed cereal. Freeze.
Peanut butter spread on crackers, a tortilla, apple slices or jicama slices.
Leftover spaghetti, chicken or pizza: serve hot or cold!
*Skim and l % milk are recommended for children over two years old. Children under two years of age should only drink whole milk.

Here's the actual link if you don't believe me:
http://www.aap.org/publiced/BR_WhatsToEat.htm

Swimming Day 3

We are taking swimming lessons now! We aren't really learning how to swim using strokes as much as learning how to get to the edge of the pool and rescue ourselves if we fall in. We go to see Miss Cari every day in the morning and she teaches us what to do in the water. We've only been to three lessons, but here is what our morning was like today:

First, we get up EARLY and eat breakfast. Today we got to eat at our little table, and I (Josiah) decided I was going to wear my pajama top and a diaper. My brother is wearing his pajama tops and bottoms.Here I am hugging Miss Cari. I like to fake cry during lessons to see if she'll rescue me, or if Mommy or Daddy will hold me. It usually doesn't work. However, Miss Cari will let us give her hugs in the middle of lessons sometimes!

Here I am practicing going from back float to front to swim:

Here is Jonathan doing his lesson...

First hugging Miss Cari:

Here he is getting ready to swim to the bar:

This (hopefully) is the video of us swimming this morning!


Jonathan always says, "No" when Miss Cari asks if he wants to swim to the bar. Then he tucks his chin, pulls his legs up, and pushes off of her legs. He then proceeds to swim to the bar and hold on. I say no, cry, and then when she puts me in position I swim to the bar. We like to cry through the whole lesson, but Mommy sees right through it. She always says how proud she is of us and how well we're doing. Today I floated on my back, and Jonathan really tried to swim! Mommy is going to try to remember to take videos at the end of the week so we can show everyone how much we progress! If you want to learn more, you can visit the ISR Website, or see the Today Show clip about it!

*Mommy is having some technical difficulties with the video she took - hopefully we'll be able to post our swimming from today soon...

A Silly Afternoon

We had a silly afternoon a couple of days ago. Mommy realized that she hasn't been taking as many pictures as usual, and she thought we might be entertained by the camera. I (Jonathan)didn't really care, but my brother really hammed it up!

Here we are on the couch: Here is Josiah winking for Mommy - I'm in the background, probably getting into trouble while Mommy was distracted.

Play Pen

We have the play pen that us usually at Aunt Mary's house and Mommy set it up for us the other day. (*she says it was for when Isaac came to play with us, but we know better*) We thought it was lots of fun! Here we are playing in it:

Josiah: Me (Jonathan): Look at me being silly!!

Playdate

Here are a couple of pictures of our playdate with Isaac. Mommy had to be away for the afternoon, so we played Isaac and Miss Sheri came to keep us company while Mommy was gone. You can also see some more pictures of this event on Isaac's blog!

Here I (Josiah) am sharing a chair with Isaac (note - Chloe at our feet): Here is all three of us watching our signing video - Isaac and I still sharing the chair!

And More Playdates!

Apparently we've been having lots of playdates with Isaac! Here are some pictures from the beginning of May:

We love our table and like to sit and read our books there. Isaac likes sitting above us and just using the ottoman. :)

Here are all three of us with distinctly different expressions:
I think Mommy and Miss Sheri were trying to get us to smile or wink:
Josiah's natural (?) expression:
Me (Jonathan) and Mommy taking our own picture!