My Littles

Life is moving in fast forward around here.  I am finding it more and more difficult to document about our life.  Not that our calendar is really hectic but just that every minute of my day is spent doing hands on things like helping my son learn to walk, and getting hungry kids fed, playing at parks, teaching my daughter pre-school.  I remember a time before kids when I could reflect more and blog about life.  Now I just seem like I'm trying to keep my head above water that, sadly, I don't have as much time to document our moments.  This is such a great stage the kids are in... but boy is it exhausting and oh so rewarding!

 {Oliver}

 He is my little gentleman.  He's such a laid-back, joyful little dude.  He's 13 months now, and loving life and all of it's adventures.  He LOVES going to the park "pak", trucks "ca", food, doing whatever his big sis is up to.  This kid can climb a slide by himself, but finds it challenging to walk across our family room.  I think I'd classify him as a "laid back monkey" if there is such a thing.  He is a social butterfly as he is learning new words everyday and babbles on and on in baby language.  As long as he has his "Daniel Tiger" (lovie) and his two fingers to suck on the world is good;-)

{Anya}

Anya is now 3 years & 4 months old, which is such a surprise to everyone who meets her as she is as tall as most 4 & 5 year olds.  She is such a beauty inside and out.  Anya is my big helper.  Any household chore I ask her to do, she does...with joy! She loves helping me out with Oliver in any way I let her.  Sometimes she gets too much in the way!  She is such a lover of life and people.  When she wakes up at 6/6:30 each morning she's happy and ready to start her day.  This morning I found her upstairs helping Gigi pack her lunch.  She's very excited that "fall is here" and can't wait for the upcoming holidays.  Anya will introduce herself to just about anyone (so far she's always asked permission) and makes friends easily.  The other day at the doctor's office she asked me if she could say hi to a lady waiting in the office.  It was humorous to me to see how quickly she opened up to the lady about herself and her brother after the lady said "hi" to her.  She has a will of her own and enjoys being in control of things...to put it nicely.  Anya has a growing curiosity to learn about God, Jesus and Heaven and I've gotten in some deeper conversations with her than I have most people about faith.  The other day she asked me who answers the door in heaven and was happy to hear my response was Jesus.  I was impressed with her imagery of heaven and the "door" image (as it is described like that in scripture).  This girl has a huge love for baking, doing preschool with Mommy, listening to stories about Anna and Elsa that Mommy and Daddy make up, and playing outside. 

 The love these two have for each other is the sweetest thing ever!  I love watching them hold hands in the car or how they giggle when they play.  They are so blessed to have each other!

August 2014

Oops!  I am a *little* late in posting our family recap for August.  This was a big month for us! 

Josh began his new career with Farmer's Insurance and loves it!  God continues to amaze us and He guides us along the narrow way.  Josh feels a strong calling to what he is doing, and it's awesome to see the passion in what he does.  

Like every month during the summer we had our flea market shop!  What a great month it was...and beautiful weather too!  Always a success there:-)  Katie is amazing at what she does.

Oliver turned ONE last month, and continually amazes us with his joyfulness.  Jolly Ollie!  We had a family party at the petting zoo/ park nearby and had a great time.

We also went on a family vacation with my parents and sister Katie to Door County.  What a blessing that was to get away and enjoy good quality family time.  We enjoyed visiting the eclectic coffee shop in walking distance from our inn every morning, and ice cream at Wilson's for dessert.  Al Johnson's for breakfast, and walking around and enjoying the sights of  Lake Michigan and the shops.   We even got a date night at an outdoor winery!   This month Josh and I took a day away and went downtown to celebrate his belated birthday and new job.  We visited Didi at her salon and then went to dinner at Melting Pot.  

Anya started Preschool with me at home.  She is so eager to learn and frequently asks if we can do Preschool rather than play.  Crazy girl;-)

We made our trip out to Didi's house later in the month to celebrate all of the August and September birthdays (Nana, Oliver's, and mine).  For those of you who are new to reading my blog, Didi is Josh's biological mother whom we met December 2012!!  We have developed great relationships with her entire family.  We are blessed that they live in the Chicagoland area so we see them often!  It's been an amazing ride!  

We found a new church home just ten minutes away from our house (it's amazing to be SO close to church!!)  It has a similar style to our old church and we are anxious to get plugged in!  Next week we start our marriage group.  Our heart will always be at Christ Community Church and we hope and pray to one day be apart of that community again.  Best. Church.  Ever!!!

At the end of the month we did a surprise service project at my in-laws house.  People from the church helped us serve them...because they do so much for everyone it was time for us to give back.  My kids now have a wonderful play area in their backyard for them to use when we visit them.  

As for me...my two littles are keeping me SO busy!  I hardly have time anymore to do the things I love, like take pictures and blog....or just breathe for that matter;-)  But it's a good problem to have and I am so blessed by my loves.  I'm sure I'll look back and say this was definitely one of the more challenging times but one of the best!

So that was our August in a nutshell...:-)