Happy Fathers Day!

Luke enjoyed helping Daddy open his father's day gifts. He even let Daddy hold his pacifier for a bit today while watching Sunday morning Curious George :) Special ! We also spent time with the family having some beer-can chicken on the BBQ and corn on the cobb. Yumm! Temperature's still scorching us in the hundreds, so we spent very little time outside. Not even a good pool day for the kids. Zach is ready for a cold front, morning frost or a transfer to Alaska or Canada.

Luke visited the library. He really enjoyed reading in the castle by the children's section. I think he could have spent all day in there. We'll have to check into getting him signed up for story time at the library soon with it being so hot out lately.

The Heat is on!

Luke had is first swim lesson on Friday. Daddy enjoyed the pool while Mommy took pictures to capture the moment. He did great and his teacher Mrs. Debbie said that he is a natural in the water!

Watching the rain fall is one of Luke's past times these days. Lots of rain and Hot weather here in FL!

When not watching the rain we dust. I bought Luke a new duster and he goes to town and helps me keep the house clean. Teaching him young:)

Luke and I went along on one of Daddy's business trips to GA a couple weeks ago. While Zach worked we got to spend some time with our friends the VanOrden's. Carter, Campbell, and Luke had a great time catching up with a little pool time and play time. It was nice for me to get together and chat big people talk with my friend Scarlett too. Zach and Brandon got to chat a little about hunting as well. We even snuck in a game of Taboo after the kids went to bed. Such a fun game! Goes well with a peach margarita! Thank you again VanOrden's for a nice visit :)

Flying time and a walking Luke

Oh wow is what we are thinking, now that we have started back to blog the events of this past month. Where have the past 3 weeks gone? Times flies when you're having fun and so fun is what we must have been achieving. Upon our return from our trip to the midwest we were welcomed by the burden all Floridians seem to praise......humidity and staggering heat. Grandma and Grandpa Schleif as well as Baron and Angie all came over to our house, for MOTHER'S DAY, so Baron and Luke decided it was finally warm enough to get the pool out, with built in sprinkler of course. NOTE: $1Dollar Store pool=good clean fun:)

These two little heartbreakers showed their love for their mother's that Sunday. We enjoyed lunch at Longhorn, while Robbie worked, but at least the family was still all together.

Child locks, elementary, McGyver here managed to bypass these secure cabinets with a fireman's hat and a small tupperware bowl. Eat your heart out Chuck Norris, excaping from any small bamboo built prison camp is just plain 1980's.....mental note: next boy?? middle name?? should be mcgyver or norris....... Upon further inspection of these precious metals he was excited to realize it was truly himself he was looking for in the end.

The woods are alive!!!! Yes Miss Jenny those are real 'morel' mushrooms. Jenn's exquisite taste of fine delectible goods sent her to Decorah, Iowa in search of these tasty treasures. We joined our good friends Chris and Gwen VanGerpen at their farm in Iowa for a couple of days. The weather is just starting to turn right here in Iowa for the mushrooms. Chris managed to find the worlds smallest morel, in which he claimed himself as the world's best morel hunter due to this accomplishment.

The "girly girl" in Jenny finally came out. The icky woods and snakes etc...etc...etc.... LIONS TIGERS BEARS OH MY!!! I'm like are you kidding me. You've been gator hunting and dog trainig and some leaves and sticks in the woods are freaking you out......oh boy....back to 101.

One further note on mushrooms hunters. Never trust them. They will tell you straight to your face that yes the shrooms are just up and down the next ridge. They didn't mention to you that it was through a briar patch, around a cliff, over the flooded river, up an old 45degree logging road and then the several other small gorges and valleys in-between the ridges. No this did not happen to us. We just walked out the back door and found them, but there are all kinds of stories you'll hear in Satre, Ia. Seriously, if you're near Decorah, go check out Satre, Ia. You will not be dissappointed.

Above, Luke tries on his first hunting jacket that Grandma/pa Raulie gave him for his 1st b-day. Good thing he gets a couple more years of growing before this is too big.

Among other adventure's Luke got to see a raccoon, trapped by Chris. Mr. Raccoon had been stealing Gerp's feed from his deer feeder, so we disposed of him appropriately. Here, Pickles the wonder dog shows his hound-worthy skills corralling the masked theif.

There were many sights to see in Decorah. It is truly one of my most favorite places to visit. Not only for the world class turkeys and deer, but for the whippy dip, trout streams and yummy mushrooms. We saw lots of deer, talked to quite a few turkeys each morning, who talked a good game, but never made the commitment. All the songbirds were arriving as well and Jenn is reallly beginning to get this camera thing down.

Here's Luke showing his driving skills on his new fire engine that Courtney and Evan gave him for his birthday. While now in FL he is finally able to operate the buttons that power the wheels and we're just now working on merging onto a highway, right-of-way and parrallel parking.

Oh boy was Luke excited when we arrived at the Welliks on May 3rd. A real farm!

Chickens, horses, pigs, cows, dirt, real farmers, corn, beans, dogs and of course, black coyotes. So minus all the items but Cleo(the dog) Luke did manage to check out Roger and Sharla's farm. Roger took all 3 of us for a ride in his big John Deere. Luke was amazed at the size of the tires and the impression of this ride will not fade for some time. I think Jenn was amazed the most. Not sure she had ever ridden in a real-world modern tractor. "A/C in a tractor she said. This isn't farming".

As we drove away that Sunday morning we're pretty sure we saw Roger polishing the big steel grain bin you can see in the background. THANKS ROGER AND SHARLA.....AND CLEO!

I guess a trip to MO/KS isn't a trip for the Raulie clan if you don't stop by Cabelas. Not like I haven't seen their magazine before or their credit card in my wallet or worked in a similar store with all the same stuff for 4years at one point in my life, but either way it was a neat experience for Luke, checking out all the animals. We think his favorite was the elephants as he finally got to see them upclose instead of in a kids color cardboard book.

Above is a nice collage Jenn put together of several of the places we saw while Gwen toured us around Decorah.

We are aware that Zach sent out an email thanking everyone already for such friendship and family bonding as 3 quasi-Floridians could get in 2 1/2 weeks of travel through the homeland. We can't THANK each and everyone of you enough for the good times and memories we will never forget.

We anticipate, each day, the very moment we can again share with every one of you.

So after all our fun was had and the time had flown by we enjoyed our leisurely 22+hr drive home to Cuba....I mean FL. As luck, the hand of God or usual tardiness on our part we had left Iowa several hours later than we had planned, but for good reason to see some more of our great friends. Unknown to us was the storm headed through Illinois that day. By the time we headed south through Illinois the damage was done. The local radio station in Southern Illinois said it was a "land based hurricane" with 106mph winds. For about 15-20 miles we saw what seemed to be tornado damage all over the interstate. Good for us though, as if we would have been on time we would have been right in the middle of it. We made camp that night near Nashville due to the worsening road conditions and storms and finished our trip the next day arriving at our home late the next afternoon, tired, but glad to see our house, Zoi and Holly again.

Ah yes, Luke is 'officially' a walker. For some time now he has watched cousin Baron pull off this 2 legged step action, but the confidence was slow to show its face there for him to attempt such a feat. At times he finds himself standing along with no assitance then to just fall back on his rump for safety. On mother's day he took 2-3 steps all by himself and within 24hrs he was walking from one room to the next. He still finds speed and ease in his crawling, but his new adventures on his feet seem to be a joy to him. His mind is racing 1,000mph and luckily his feet haven't caught up with that. We find his expressions while first standing are of amazement and joy. So now our real job begins.

April Showers bring Birthdays!

LUKE'S 1ST BIRTHDAY!














We are very excited to say that Luke is almost 1 year old. Though not exactly his b-day, we celebrated his first birthday this afternoon with all of our FL friends, family and relatives. We soon plan to spend another birthday-day in MO with all of my family. Jenn spent many hours testing icing, making trial cakes to finally decide to build this masterpiece. I guess you can see the theme was more centered around Mickey Mouse, who is by far, Luke's hero, mentor and best friend. *oh toodles!:)













Luke received many nice gifts. We got a really cool swing from Will, Julie and Aiden that daddy will install on our backyard tree. Lots of toys and books from the Haney family. New Strideright shoes from Angie, Ben and Baron just to name a few. And of course, many different Mickey Mouse items. Daddy even got Luke 2 new books from Bass Pro Shops teaching luke about the animals in the forest and a story about a fawn lost in the woods.

Luke and Baron, of course, are up to their old tricks with the most exciting part of today being ice cubes in a 5 gallon bucket. Seriously why do companies even make toys when true excitement comes from cardboard boxes, balloons, ice cubes and dirt?












Our party today was just as nice as the weather. We had a hot dog bar with chilli, cheese, cole slaw and the other traditional extras. BUT, all the excitement wore the birthday boy out. He did manage enough energy to tear into his birthday cake and boy did he realize how much he now loves cake! Pure joy watching this little guy get his cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY! FROM MOMMY AND DA'DA!!

April has already started out with a bang. Easter came fast for us this year. We enjoyed a great day with Jenn's entire family and our brother-in-law's parents as well, at Mark and Jeanne's house. There was no shortage of good food, as usual, with the Raulie and Renberg chef's doing there thing and Mark's superb ham! We also stole a great new recipe for a broccoli salad from Ben's dad.

Of course, Easter time isn't without coloring eggs. Jenn found probably the best recipe I have seen for creating very good looking eggs. Here is Luke helping out.

Baron and Luke hunted easter eggs, fed the ducks and played well all day. Grandma's house is such a playroom now. The boys know where the toys are stored and do there part pulling them all out during each visit. Such good little troopers, yet Luke still insists on talking louder and louder during prayer at church:)

We have really had some nice cooler and breezy weather for this time of year. Though last week we had torrential rains, 65mph wind and many tornado's in FL. The good thing is that all this rain is bringing back our frost-bitten yard that didn't fair so well during the "FL Winter".

We have also delivered 6 of 7 puppies to their new owners during this past week. We received many compliments from the new owners on how well each puppy is doing thus far. It was good to see them go to so many good homes. I don't think we were heartbroken at all. They were beginning to become quite a handful for Jenn while I have been traveling so much. We have Evan's puppy, Kimber, until next Friday when we will meet him in MO at the Pantleo farm.

Zach attempted his first take at Jury Duty in Clay Co. Florida last week. His straighforward common-sense answers were enough to get him booted out of the courtroom by 2pm. From his comments the attorney's wanted the jury to be more forgiving and understanding. All he told them, when questioned, was that people need to be responsible for their own actions and learn to be defensive drivers. Sometimes the truth isn't what the attorney's want I guess. Zach also celebrated his birthday this week with Jenn's family at the Longhorn Steakhouse. Zach stated that he has heard that 30 is the new 29? Jury is still out on this:)

We are anxiously awaiting our trip we will be taking to MO,KS, NE, IA & MN at the end of next week. We hope to see you all soon.

Outdoor Play Time

All the little ones are now just edging on 5 weeks of age. They are all eating real puppy food and drinking water out of a dish. They are very energetic and lively, especially when we are around, as they are ready for feeding time. For the most part they are 99% weaned off Zoi. Zoi is showing more signs of wanting less and less to do with them, but still has the instinct to want to jump back into the whelping box to play mommy for a few minutes each day.

Next weekend we are planning on introducing them to some live clipped-wing pigeons at our friends home south of Jacksonville. We are having more and more of the future owners stopping by each week to visit and see their little ones grow.

zach & jenn