Sibling Reunion

Letter From Helen

Hello All!

Grandma wrote this a few days before she left here. Iowa is a lonelier place without her, I can tell you that! Sally flew home with her on Saturday.

In true Helen fashion, although I have scads of lovely writing paper at her disposal (not to mention plain notebook paper!) she chose a used Sudoku puzzle page to write her blog letter on. (On a side note, please don't laugh at the puzzle - I'm trying to learn sudoku and I JUST DON'T GET IT!!! It's probably not even right!)

Hope you can all read this. I think if you click on it, it will enlarge and you can read it better. If not, let me know and I'll figure out some other way to post it.

I hope everyone's summer is going well. I'd love to hear what you all have been up to. I have more pics to post and will try to get to them soon.

Kelly & Steve, you are still on our hearts and in our thoughts and prayers and we love you. Wish we could help in some way. If we can, please tell us how!

Love,

Toni

and then they were six

So...I guess Mom kind-of already spilled the beans but we too are looking forward to a baby and will be six sometime around Christmas.

We have made it successfully through our first trimester and the boys are particularly looking forward to momma's "big fat tummy"! Ethan already talks to "baby hos" and informs us that it will be a girl. There are new questions every day. This should be an interesting pregnancy!

How's Karen?

Can someone give us an update on Karen? She is due soon, isn't she? We're praying for you in Iowa, Karen and Joe and Baby!

Love, Toni

Planck Baby

Greetings! As many of you have already heard, we are expecting a new Planck family member. Our due date is December 6th. Here's the first photo of the little one, taken at 8 weeks on April 28th.

We're a little concerned beacuse of the early resemblance to an alien. Not quite sure what we've created! We're through the 1st trimester with little to complain about. Hopefully the next 6 months will be just as smooth.

Memorial Day Weekend In Iowa

Last Friday evening Ted, Sally, Toni, and Helen went out to Toni's cemetery (http://wmpcem.googlepages.com/) to see all the flags and flowers. These not so great pics were taken there.

Unfortunately, this was the last nice day we've had since Ma has arrived. It's been very stormy and miserable. Many of you probably saw the news last week about the tornado that hit near us in a town called Parkersburg. That's about 30 miles from us. The devastation is unbelievable! We are very thankful that we were all safe here in Waterloo. However, they are forecasting more of the same type of weather for us in the next few days so we would appreciate your prayers for safety!

Will try to post more pics soon. We're having technical difficulties here, but will try to straighten them out soon.

Ma sends her love to all of you.
Love,
Toni

New York City!

David and I visited New York City this past weekend. The weather was perfect and the trip was flawless. We managed to squeeze a lot into our one-day stay. The main reason for the trip was to catch a Yankees game. Here we are:

After the Yankees game we went to the "Top of the Rock" at Rockafeller Center. We had some amazing views on such a clear evening.


Besides the usual sight-seeing, we also saw some unsavory things, like a guy defecating in an alley and an Asian kid peeing in the subway station. Ahhhhhh, New York, New York. Here I am looking for rats in the subway station. We saw quite a few. David fed one a twizzler. (Sorry, no photo of that...)

All in all, it was another sucessful adventure!

The Great Gulah Has Landed

Well, Grandma has arrived safe and sound here in sunny Iowa. Dad flew with her to Cedar Rapids and Mom picked them up there. They had a good flight. Went to Toni's and unloaded her stuff (which is considerable LIGHTER than past visits!), and then over to Carrie's to say hello. Nathan talked her ear off the whole time and tried to get her to play Parcheesi (he's been practicing and is determined to beat her this year!), Madeline showed off all her new ballet moves, and Andrew tried to get her to play video games with him. Then back to Toni's to unpack and head to bed. She was a tired camper. We both got up about the same time this morning, and she said she slept like a log.

We have some activities planned this weekend, so I'll take some pics and post them. Hope you all are well. Love the grad pics, Aunt Sheila, and the house pics, Aunt Paula! Keep 'em coming!

Love to all -
Toni

Ma & Julie

Thought since I'm getting good at this, I'd add one more

Grad & party afterward

The group is at the party afterward. Couple people missing, but we were all there

( I had problems posting these. Be advised)

This is really Megan's graduation

Megan graduated summa cum laude from Kutztown 5/10. She has a job already. 8th grade English at Signal Knob Middle School in the Shennadoah County Public Schools. Yes not far from Julie & Al. Big party in York afterwards. Fran, Jeff, Ted, Ma, Julie , Al, etc in attendance.

Megan's Grad

This is a visit at the Noel's when Fred & Paula were visiting.

Raising the Roof

This is how our soon to be home looked as of today, May 7. As you can see, we have quite a view. The right side of the second floor is not done yet. They have moved the flag up each level as they are able to.

Better Late Than Never?

Hope better late than never is an acceptable phrase for my very late contribution. I have greatly enjoyed reading up on what everyone has been up to and hope everyone continues to post. Over the past few months (probably closer to a year) since Toni has initiated this great idea, I have spent my time either at work, in school or studying. Nothing all that interesting to post. However, in about a month I will be spending 10 days in Russia (Moscow & St. Petersburg) as part of a course in my MBA program. I am very excited because it will be the first time I will be traveling overseas...and to Russia of all places. Never thought I would ever go there. So I thought I would familiarize myself with this whole blogging process. The picture is of Peter & Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg... one of our sightseeing stops.

Take care & keep them coming!

Easter in the 'burgh

We had a wonderful weekend until Sunday when Karen had to leave and Paula got sick. Until then we had a wonderfully blessed time with family and friends.

Karen was much blessed at a shower for her. The cake bore a reminder of her and Joe's bridal dance, "That's Amore,"

Karen has decided on a jungle theme for her nursery. Here's a sample.

Then we had our annual egg coloring--at the Bowman's this year. 25 of us colored, critiqued, etc. Next pix shows part of the gang.

My nephew Scott's two girls are learning the facts of life (!) from a close up examination of Karen.

The last pix shows Giuseppe's (think his name will be Joseph John III) first field trip to the Carnegie Museum to see the dinosaurs on Saturday. We told him all about it.

Toni, I am really trying!!

easter weekend

We spent Easter weekend in Estes Park, CO just outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park...one of our favorite places. A friend's friend (who turned out to me my high school jv softball coach and 9th grade math teacher...strange!) allowed us to stay in their vacation home (with 3 other families... 8 adults, 11 kids) free of charge. None of us have family in town and it was a nice way to spend the holiday weekend...together.

5 of the 10 boys present for the weekend

Easter worship service

boys and rocks are inseparable...big or little makes no difference...rocks or boys

Owen goes for the biggest splash

our own easter bunny

FOUND THEM!

The gang's all here
(notice the one pink spot...Audrey is the only girl of 11 children!)

Easter Diners

Happy Easter! We had a nice gathering here in Lancaster. Here's a pre-dinner shot of the group. Don't we all look hungry?

Of course, who really cares about dinner when there's dessert to follow? In the following two photos, take note of which side of the table is eating dessert and which side of the table declined.




Alright, alright, since Aunt Sheila and Uncle Les will be checking up on this, I suppose I should confess that we ALL had dessert. The older generation went with the traditional pie and ice cream while the youngsters chose cookies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And it was all delicious! Happy Easter!

nemo

A friend blessed us with tickets for the Disney on Ice - Nemo Show.


We went last Thursday and what a treat. The kids loved it...even Audrey was spell bound through the first half. It is the first thing like this we have done with the kids and it was more enjoyable to watch their delight than anything else. Ethan kept looking up at Mark with a huge grin.


As an extra treat, Mickey Mouse showed up at the end with Minnie, Donald and Goofy. I wish I could have captured Owen's glee when he saw that Mickey was on the ice. I haven't been this close to Mickey since we moved from Florida.

New Noel

We were waiting for some really big news to publish again & here it is.

Steve & Kelly told us the exciting news while we were in CA, but she just had her appointment today, so we waited to pass it along.

Due date Oct. 16-19.

Les & Sheila

Strawberry Time at Plant City

Since we were in the Strawberry Capital of the World, it seemed only fitting that we make some strawberry jam. Three batches later, here is our handiwork.
More pix of our activities later.