Our Past And Future A Year At A Time

Wow!  Is it possible that 2011 is over?  Didn’t it just start?  Weren’t we just expecting a newborn, dealing with Josiah’s terrible GI issues, and hoping for more precious time with Deda?  Well, all of those major things are over.  They are in the past.  How is it that time just moves right on by despite what seems to be big events in our lives?  It will always be a mystery, I think. 

I feel like I can hardly remember the blur, but this year has been good overall.  We are in pretty good health despite the frequent mild illnesses that have repetitively passed through our family.  We started 2011 with Josiah being plagued by one minor illness after another on top of his ever nagging and worsening GI issues.  We were also frantically trying to get Josiah settled in his new room and the nursery ready to welcome our sweet newcomer, Elijah.  Then there was my ailing grandfather who was doing relatively well, but on his way to declining faster than any of us realized.  Those three things seemed to be the biggest on our plate.  Well, since January those three things that we were bracing for and dealing with have come and gone.  Josiah’s health has improved well past the point where we were crying nearly daily, though he still has hints of an issue here and there and there is still some concern.  We have welcomed a handsome and fun little guy into our family and dealt with, or in truth are still dealing with, the adjustments that that brings.  He, along with Josiah, has filled our days with so many smiles.  And, sadly, we have said goodbye to our beloved Deda.  Though we continue to mourn him, we are thankful for so many things about his life and passing. 

Jacob has continued to grow his fledgling bee business and now has 50 hives and gets calls from other beekeepers to “hire” his bees.  We also have a fun stash of honey to draw from.  I say “fun” because it isn’t worth enough to live off of yet, but we sure enjoy it!  He’s still doing some lawn care while the transition continues.  My job is working out well in that I basically share a full time position with another working mom.  We even use the same babysitter so she can always count on one of us being there.  We are able to communicate easily with one another to arrange a schedule that work for both of us.

We were hoping to begin building our house this winter, but with all the rush of the year, we were just too slow in getting that underway.  It is just as well because the last thing we need right now is more chaos.  We will be having professional drawings done after the first of the year and the current hope and plan is to have everything ready to break ground in early fall of 2012.  I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, but there are SO many reasons why we want and honestly need (or at least I have so convinced myself) this.  We’ll see!

All in all, it has actually been a fabulous year!  Who wouldn’t love spending time with two awesome little boys and a fantastic husband?  And Deda’s death, while sad, was also merciful in many ways.  Besides, he was just what I needed while here on earth, so how could I complain?  Also, in general, our health is good.  We have jobs that fill the need and keep us mostly stimulated.  And greatest of all, God is good!  He has the master plan that makes sense to him and will work for the greater good.  Sometimes I get blinded by the present, but when I take the time to look up, stop being anxious about the future, and just have faith that he will care for me, I get really excited for what he has in store.  It should be interesting, to say the least :)

So, what will 2012 bring?  Well, we’re pretty tired, so some rest would be nice!  We are trying to focus more on quality time together and fine tuning our efficiency to remedy that.  I plan to thoroughly enjoy my boys so that their development doesn’t just pass me by.  And maybe a steady flow of vitamin C is in order to help stop this ridiculous trend of sickness we’ve been on!  Other than that we are just planning to slowly plug away at life while expanding the bee business and planning that house.  I’m pretty hopeful and excited about it all, actually.

I hope you all have had a wonderful 2011 and that 2012 is even better! 

For The Love Of Tractors…

…And One Little Boy

Several months ago I started looking into where to take Josiah to look at lots of tractors once the weather turned nice (so much for the nice weather!) and I found out about an antique tractor show in Starke at the beginning of December.  So, several weeks ago, despite freezing temperatures, overcast skies, and occasional light rain, Jacob, Elijah, Mom, Bill, and I loaded up for the short road trip.  All for the delight of one little guy.  Let me tell you, he is one loved boy!  We all froze and came home tired, but he loved it and keeps asking to go back.  (Yes, we are a little redneck but not as redneck as the guy at the end of the post!)

This was by far Josiah’s favorite.  He kept trying to get on it even though there was no seat.  The trailer was full of corn cobs.

Yes, it was that cold!

  Poor guy!  I forgot his gloves so I gave him mine.  That only lasted a second and he decided his pockets were better.

This was after I taught him peek-a-boo while we waited on the men.  He loved it!  So funny watching him try to do it himself!

This man was barefoot with flip flops tattooed on his feet!  I guess that allows him to go into stores where shoes and shirt are required :)  I don’t know if he noticed me taking a picture of his feet.

 

Oh, and there happened to be a horse show next door and while they hadn’t yet started before we left, we did get to see some horses and horse trailers (Josiah’s favorite), too.  We’ll have to look into doing that next.

Week Two Of Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent doing some last minute preparations then heading over to Mom’s for a mini get together.  We had a feast then went to the candlelight service at church.  It was packed and our boys were on the bored side, though the service itself was good.  I think we’ll probably skip that for a few more years.  Afterwards we headed back to Mom’s to open presents.  Tommy took some great pictures of our family, but I’ll have to post those later.  I only have a couple snapshots for now.  I think I’m fried with picture-taking.

We got to spend Christmas day here.  It was nice and relaxing.  We had Christmas morning with just us, then my Dad, Gram, Jesse, and Savannah came over for a way-to-big lunch and Mom joined us after church for present opening.  Sadly Caleb’s family and Denise missed out because of work.

My boys!  I love them like crazy.

 

We didn’t get the boys a whole lot of gifts, mostly books and puzzles, because they really didn’t need much and I knew they’d get lots of gifts elsewhere.  (So many, in fact, that I don’t know where we’ll put them all!)  But we did get Josiah this one special thing… He’s wanted this, a truck and horse trailer, for MONTHS.  We figured any 2 year old that can stay focused on one thing for that long deserves to get it!

The family get together: He’s drenched in sweat because he and Savannah had such a blast playing outside.

I think I spent all of Christmas fetching paper from his mouth.

  Josiah and Elijah got cowboy hats for Christmas!  Oh, and these toys are just a drop in the bucket of what we have.  I think something is going to have to go!

9 Months Old And Lots of Fun

Elijah is nine months old!  He’s a wonderful little boy with the greatest smiles and giggles.  He’s moving right along in his development and his personality blossoms more by the day.  Our guy is so much fun to interact with and he and Josiah have a blast playing together.  (I had to scrounge for pictures for this post because I’ve used most of them already in previous posts.)

He loves to swing now, but we don’t get to do it nearly enough.  Poor 2nd child!

This little cutie has his normal smile, his super happy smile, and his goofy tooth bearing grin.  He’s such a cutie that sometimes I can hardly stand it!  He now has 4 teeth and a space between the top two that he inherited from my side.  Mine and my brother’s went away, so we’ll see.  Elijah does this funny little thing where he points to something or holds something up and with the most serious look on his face he babbles like he’s telling something how it is.  He’s an entertaining little guy.

This was seconds before Elijah’s first busted lip that he gave himself when he flipped over that bar his hand is on :(  Don’t they look cute playing together though?

Elijah learned to pull up to a stand a little over a week ago.  He also pushes up to his feet while crawling with hands still on the ground.  When Josiah is laying on the floor, he’ll “wrestle” him by climbing on top of him.  I taught Josiah to hold still and be gentle to help keep this safe.  They both love it!  It is so fun to watch, too.  Elijah has gotten so mobile that sometimes Josiah needs a break and asks to put him in the exersaucer for containment :)  He’s starting to protect his toys from him now since he has fewer safe places for them, so we are working on sharing.

Here’s the silly toothy grin!  He’s so proud to be standing.

It drives Josiah nuts not to be able to eat in peace!  (I know, I know, he’s way to big for the high chair, but he loves it because it makes him tall and I love it because it keeps him seated.)

Elijah really loves to eat now.  It’s like a switch has been flipped or maybe he is in the midst of a prolonged growth spurt.  He is great with finger foods, but he tends to hold remnants of them in his mouth for hours afterwards.  Savor the flavor!  In addition to the past mentioned foods he has now tried pumpkin, turkey, black eyed peas, black beans, rice, cheerios, and probably more things I can’t think of.

Isn’t he a handsome little guy?

Christmas brought yet another bout of congestion for Elijah.  I didn’t think that was very nice of Santa!  Especially since it brought a poor night of sleep for Jacob and I that night.  He wasn’t really into opening presents, but loved eating bows and paper.  As is typical, he prefers Josiah’s presents to his own.  Josiah has enjoyed them all, though!

Silliness!

With 3/4 of his first year past, we can’t believe that time is moving along so quickly and that he is moving along in life, but we are so thankful for what he has become so far.  His laughs are contagious, his antics are laughable, and his fits, though thankfully few and far between, are impressive.  (He had his first real fit about two weeks ago when I took something away from him and had nothing to replace it with.  He turned beat red, shook like he was freezing cold and cried hard, producing big tears.  Yikes!)  Everyday when I kiss his hands while nursing, I can’t help but think about how all too soon they will be large and calloused and it will be weird and inappropriate to kiss them so.  He will always be cherished, but I’m soaking up his babyhood for all that it is worth.

Guess it is time to start thinking about a first birthday cake!

Week One Of Christmas

Last weekend we headed to Jacob’s grandparent’s house to celebrate Christmas a little early with his family.  We had a great time visiting, exchanging gifts, and eating some yummy food.

 

Opening his gift from Nana and Dandy!  He and his cousin Will got a leather belt with a belt buckle with a revolver on it!  We made him stop opening presents long enough to put it on and model it – that’s why the long face :)

 

Elijah liked the bows best, but really enjoyed paper, too!    

I had more pics of family opening presents, but my computer died while I was viewing them and they are now gone!  But here’s Mikayla happy with her Lite Brite gift.        

This was one of Josiah’s favorite gifts.  It was his Daddy’s when he was a boy.  It is a rusty truck and flatbed trailer.  He used it to haul his new truck.  The other day I heard him showing it off to Savannah as they were telling each other about their Christmas gifts, and her response was “Oh wow, that’s um…um…” said in a monotone.  I laughed.

   

Granny gave Josiah this rustic sheriff-type star to decorate his room and he immediately put it on his head as a hat, then on my head, and finally on Jacob’s head.  He cracks me up! 

We spent the night, so there was time for a little fishing in the canal.  I think this is his first-ever fish!  You can’t tell it here because he was mesmerized, but he loved it!