Christmas Letter 2011

I'm short on Christmas cards this year by pure stupidity :) I'm hoping some of my friends and family will hop over to read this. Sorry. I'll do better next year! Merry Christmas/Happy New Year! Imagine a pretty card with our pictures on it! You know...like the gigantic picture at the top of the blog! :)

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December 15, 11

Dear Friends and Family,

Hoping this letter finds you well! 2011 was somewhat of an eventful year for us, so we thought we would catch you up with a nice ”little” letter J

I celebrated my 30^th birthday in February…kind of distressing and hard to accept…ha! But, my husband threw me a lovely party in the midst of our massive ice storm and I was loved on and celebrated by dear friends and family. I’m more than thankful when I look at my life and recognize that I’ve been able to be blessed with so much in 30 years…an education, a good job, a home, a loving husband and two beautiful, healthy boys. God really has been so kind to me!

Among other things that took place this year, Josh treated me to a long weekend out east! I have always wanted to take a trip to the east coast in the fall to enjoy the scenery and get away. We went over Josh’s fall break to Portland, ME and had a wonderful time visiting lighthouses, eating lobster and even taking a day trip to Boston, MA. It was a great trip and we hope to go again with the boys!

Josh applied for and accepted a new position at the end of September. He took a test to become licensed in teaching secondary English (high school) this summer. He officially left his position teaching special education at the Alternative Learning School in Perry Township and moved over to Southport High School to teach lower level English courses. This was a great move for him since he already coaches and manages the soccer program at the high school. Its fun for him to finally be part of a “normal” school and although somewhat surprising to me, he is doing really well teaching English! J (I joke with him because I am the one who always proof read HIS papers in college!) I love the fact that I finally have papers to help grade (something I’ve always wanted to do as a teacher’s wife!) and he is looking forward to helping the English program develop and move forward at Southport. Along with teaching, Josh continues to coach varsity soccer at Southport and as well as head coaching for two club teams with Westside United.

Owen started his first year of pre-k this year at Traders Point Christian Academy. He has really loved it! I knew that school would be something he enjoyed, and I was right! J He goes M-W-F, from 9-1 and it is just the right amount of time. A few things that he has really mastered this first semester are: recognizing and writing each letter of the alphabet, recognizing and writing numbers 1-10, drawing shapes, cutting along a line, and the pledge of allegiance! We are looking forward to next semester and are prayerful about where we will send him to kindergarten next fall. Such big decisions! Some other fun things that Owen did this past year includes : learning how to swim (and he can REALLY, TRULY swim!) playing soccer for Little Kickers in Zionsville, attend preschool camp at Traders Point, and continue on for his second year of Cubbies (AWANA) at our church, College Park. He is a busy kid and loves people. We are so blessed by him!

Wesley turned ONE in October, which is completely hard to believe. He is a lot of fun and has much passion and spirit J He is finally happy (well, happier) to be part of the nursery on Sunday mornings, and does even better at my Tuesday morning bible study childcare. He started walking between 13-14 months and he is going to keep all of us on our toes! We love this little guy a lot and are excited to see who he will become.

Our biggest news is that we sold our home in September and we are waiting to close on a new house in Brownsburg on Dec. 22! It is a lovely, older home located near the middle school…and we are so excited to have our own space again and put some updates in to make this house great. It will be a wonderful spot for our boys to grow up in and we are feeling so blessed that we were able to sell and buy in this economy…it was harder than we anticipated! We look forward to having you to our new place and hope that you will come visit us soon! Our new address is:

3 Fairwood Dr.

Brownsburg, IN 46112

We hope that you have had a wonderful 2011! Praying that 2012 is a year of blessing and growing in God’s grace for you and yours. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

The Brown Family

Josh, Kim, Owen and Wesley

Owen's Christmas Program

Owen had a Christmas program at his school (Traders Point Christian Academy) today :) I feel like a semi-terrible mom, because he is definitely under the weather. In fact, I raced him the Pediatrician on Tuesday late afternoon because I thought he had strep. We found out he didn't...just a nasty virus that is being passed around, and that he wasn't really even contagious. So, we've been drugging him with ibuprofen (Owen's wonder drug) and gatorade. He feels great about an hour into the ibuprofen high, so I tried to work it so that that high would take place during his program. I kind of made it...he did ok. He definitely looked a little zonked, but I'm glad he got to participate. :) He came home, ate lunch, watched a movie with dad (who took the day off of work to see Owen's program...SCORE!) and then he slept from 1 pm-6 pm! My poor little bubby! Feel free to intercede on our behalf by asking Jesus to show us kindness and mercy and SPARE the rest of us (especially Wes!) this nasty virus! Yuk!

Here are pictures from the program this morning :)

Wes can walk

This post is so anticlimactic. My littlest booger can walk. We've known this for awhile. He has just chosen not to. He prefers crawling. He prefers this weird scooting around on one knee, dragging the other leg behind him. Supposedly, this is faster. He will tease us every so often with a few steps here and there, but mostly refuses. We spent the past weekend with the Gross family. Will, their youngest...(he's twelve months old...a good month and a half younger than Wes) walks. I think Wes felt the peer pressure. He came back from our visit walking a whole lot more. He still doesn't walk all the time, but he walks more. His first consistent steps were right before his birthday. I guess he likes to do things progressively.

That's all. Wes can walk. When he wants to, I mean.

(Wes also is a screamer. Any thoughts on that?! :))

Thankful

I realize this is a post-Thanksgiving post, but that's ok.

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We celebrated with Josh's family on Thursday at Caleb and Heather's home and with my family on Saturday at my mom and dad's. It was very low key. I did a little cooking. (homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese and pumpkin bars) Which I love :) I got to see my brother, and meet his lovely new girlfriend. We took the boys downtown to see the lighting of the Christmas tree, which was fun...kind of...but mostly chaotic and paranoia inducing because of the large crowds and small children who eventually became overwhelmed by the crowds. Oh well. Its all part of the experience! :)

I'm tempted to be thankful for the same things that I'm always thankful for. And I am. For my children, my husband, for provision, for health, for family and friends that make my life so full. I'm thankful for specific things like...an able and generous father who loaned me an extra car when my ENGINE died in our Saturn Vue. WHAT?! I'm thankful for a generous engineer friend who will be able to fix said engine after the Holiday's at a fraction of the price it was going to cost us to do ourselves (well, not ourselves...but at a shop..you know). I'm thankful that we have generous family who are helping us through this transition time.....and I'm thankful that we have an accepted offer on a lovely older home in Brownsburg that we expect to close on at the end of December! Yay! (more details to come later...we are pending inspection and I don't want to celebrate too early...but we are pretty confident! :) Yep, I'm pretty grateful that when I look at my life...barring a few complications and setbacks along the way, God has pretty much given me everything I have ever hoped for....even if it hasn't come packaged in just the way I had thought it should or would!

But ya know what else? I'm pretty darn thankful that God is doing a huge work in my life and heart right now. I'm humbled and grateful for the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Realizing that mercy and grace and the conviction of the Holy Spirit is big gift from my Father...I look forward with great expectation to see what God is going to do in my life, in the life of my husband and my boys.

There has been this theme that God has brought me to lately of "everything is GRACE". Yes, Ive read that outrageously popular "1000 Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, but even outside of that...via church, small groups, bible study, personal devotion...I've come to a weird but precious place in my life. I feel a big shift washing over my life from what I used to value....to what I am now seeing is truly valuable. Like, our house. We choose...somewhat weirdly BUT happily to buy a home that is priced 100k less than what we felt comfortable buying. Our home is old and outdated. And ya know, while I look forward to putting new things into that house and making it "better" I care SO MUCH less about it than I ever thought I would. Our cabinets are nasty. The laundry CLOSET is in the KITCHEN! Guess what?! I don't care! ( ok, maybe I care about 5%, but really..what's 5%?! :)) It doesn't matter! You know what IS great? I HAVE cabinets! I HAVE a washer and dryer! Its wonderful! :)

I'm starting to naturally look past the surface and find blessing in everything. This is huge in my life! Even things that don't seem great. Who am I to know the mind of God? If I can see my life through the lens and filter that "everything is grace" then even hard stuff can be joyful. I believe that even the "bad" stuff is God's grace in my life. Without it....how would I know that I needed a Savior? His grace and mercy in NOT giving me everything I think I want/need to make my life great...is for my sanctification...and I'm starting to embrace it. My response to his direction in my life is the only way I have to honor Him. Oh I want to do it well. I need eyes to see and ears to hear...I pray this for you too. Whoever still stumbles upon my blog from time to time, may God be gracious and kind to you...to give you eyes to see and ears to hear...that which is truly important and will count for Jesus and his kingdom. Its so tempting to take the easy road, to live for ourselves, for our comfort...to make ourselves our own God...but its so very dissatisfying.

So that's it. I'm thankful. And I'm hopeful that I can live this life well and do something that will make a difference for Jesus. I'm hopeful that I can teach my boys what it means to love others and to have a generous heart. Thanks Jesus for not giving me everything I think I want and need all the time, every time. I'm afraid it would make me a pretty nasty and ungrateful person!

‎"Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me

Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause
As I go from nothing to Eternity"

-Hillsong

Trick or Treat

We did a few things for some Halloween fun this year. We went to Zoo-Boo at the Indianapolis Zoo and we went trick or treating with our cousin Bailey! Fun! We all know how much I love Halloween and I think I've somehow managed to create a child who loves it just as much as I do. Owen and I counted down the days together until Halloween and several of his comments just made me laugh..."Mom, Halloween is my FAVORITE time of of year" :), etc, etc. You know the sentiments. We celebrate halloween for the fun that it is....dressing up, handing out candy (which we didn't get to do this year :(), being with friends and family and indulging in the beautiful season of Fall. I think as long as we keep our perspective on loving Jesus and making it kid-friendly, we'll be ok. That's my plan! Here are some pictures (in no particular order of course :))

Lots of run on sentences and I used the word "excited" a lot. And I said "like" a lot. You have been forewarned!

Josh and I went to Maine. It was beautiful. Basically I want to move there. Josh says no. Or, he says...maybe, but we don't have jobs. Details, details. We also went to Boston for the day. I also want to move there, but we'd have to live in a box....when here in the midwest we can actually own property. Its a no-brainer I guess, but oh man...its beautiful out there. We took a sunset sail in Portland on our last night there...it was amazing! Right up my alley. We sat next to a couple who were just our age from Boston. They had just gotten engaged, were renting an apartment and said they were years away from having kids. Funny how lives can be so different. :)

We are still living with Josh's parents. Its really going very well. I mean, I guess I'm speaking for myself here, but I think its going ok. :) We looked at three houses on Saturday. We weren't excited about any of them. I'm going to see a house on Wednesday morning that screams PROJECT...and I'm weirdly excited about it. Its an older home and listed WAY below what we are pre-approved for. I'm kind of getting really excited about the idea of living below our means. Like this would be well below our means. Its appealing. I don't need huge. I need cozy and safe. This house might be a good fit...but you would have to bear with us as we updated and renovated. It could be an adventure :) We'll see what I think after I actually step foot inside....I'll let ya know!

Owen is doing well. Still loving preschool....spends most of his free time running around trying to be a jedi knight, a transformer, or batman. We are really into superheroes over here. He is a true boy. Goodness.

Wesley is crazy as always. He refuses to walk, but he can. He just won't. Whatever. He's taken screaming to new levels and I'm not sure what to do about it. Yes. I have a screamer. God help me. He is also cutting his two top front teeth. That could be the reason for some of the screaming. Sheesh. We love him. He's crazy. The end.

This next weekend we are heading to Grace College for homecoming and staying with our friends The Knoops for a bonfire! A whole bunch of our friends are coming and I'm so excited to get our kids together! What fun. Loved my college. Loved my college years. Loved my friends there...can't wait to go back and relive some of it!

Stay tuned for trick or treat pictures! Happy Fall!

"THIS for THAT"

Our church just completed a building project. Well, half a building project. We have a new sanctuary. It was desperately needed. Prior to the opening of the new sanctuary, people were crunched and crammed into the old sanctuary, and we had overflow....where our family would end up most weeks because we just couldn't get to church early enough to make it into the regular sanctuary. Most Sunday's overflow would become too full and there would be standing room only. More than once I decided to just go work in the nursery (because they are always desperate for workers anyways) instead of standing in overflow...or because I felt guilty....I never knew who was leaving overflow because I was sitting in a seat instead of them...what if that person didn't know Jesus? What if they really, REALLY needed to be there...I couldn't live with the guilt :) Anyways, I digress. We needed a new sanctuary. We got one. (nice how that works right? we needed something, we got it. Somehow life doesn't always work that way...this time it did. Its nice) Right now there are major renovations going on in our old building/sanctuary to create a new children's wing...which is also desperately needed.

Anyways, the theme that our pastor's have been trying to communicate since we've had the privilege of being in our new building (that seats 1800 people, has luxurious seating and ample space in the atrium, hallways, aisles...etc!) is...THIS, for THAT. Meaning....lets keep our perspective here....we have this great new building and the awesome opportunity to constantly be surrounded by good teaching and people who love Jesus...SO THAT we can do a better job of bringing Christ to the nations...sharing Jesus with those who do not have Him. THIS for THAT. I love it. It reminds me to be very careful lest I soak in all the goodness that has been handed to me and think that I'm deserving and not responsible to do anything with it. Oh man. We are so responsible.

I want to implement this perspective heavily in my own life. THIS struggle, for THAT move towards holiness. THIS blessing so that I/we may bless THAT person. Whatever has been given to us...its always leads to something else. THIS for THAT.

When we were trying to selling our house and realizing how terribly upside down we would be, I struggled with how we immediately felt like we didn't deserve to be stuck where we were. Like living in the house we were living in was so completely unacceptable....we were better than this, our neighborhood had taken a nose dive and OUR children had no business being brought up in a area like we were in. Man. When did I become such a SNOB!? :) Ha. I tell ya, I really really wrestled until God brought me to a place where I was completely happy to stay in our little home on the west-side of Indianapolis. Where our neighbors blasted loud gangster rap that shook our walls and teenagers walked the streets at nights looking like they were up to no good. I had to take a good look at my heart. Who am I to know the mind of God? Who am I to question what he has for my life? What if our neighborhood to be our mission field? Maybe. And I tell you honestly that if God asked us to stay there for the rest of our lives, I would have been peaceful about it. True story. However, he made a way for us to get out. Barely :) But we did get out. And now, when I think about what we CAN have....a safe neighborhood, a much bigger/better house, good schools...neighbors that do NOT blast gangster rap :) You get the idea. I think...man, I really want all of this prosperity to be put to good use. THIS for THAT Lord. Your blessing to us in exchange for YOUR glory! I'm ok with having good stuff if we can use it to bless others. I'm praying that God will keep our family sensitive to know how we can use our lives to serve others. I'm not that good at seeing it. To date, I have removed myself from a consistent situation I had to share Jesus. I am now a stay at home mom with my children. I attend church, I go to bible study, we attend a small group, my best friends know and love the Lord...you get the picture. I felt like at least when I was working I had the opportunity to be around people that I could love on for Jesus. And now, I'm just praying that I will be wise enough to see where Jesus would have me to go from here. Vision trips? Doing more to support or missionaries? Standing on the street corner telling others about Jesus!? :) I don't know, but I know it has to be something.

THIS for THAT Jesus! I want to know you more :)

Sugar Free?

So, about two weeks ago I decided that my life was not chaotic enough. It wasn't enough that I am currently without my own home, or raising two rambunctious boys, or waiting for my husband rejoin me in life (i.e.: finish soccer season which demands 90% of his time)....I decided it would be great to make myself somewhat miserable and give up sugar for 30 days. Why? Because my friend Missy did it awhile ago and blogged about it...and I thought...hmm...maybe I should do that. And then, well...then...my idol, The Pioneer Woman did it. Ok, deal sealed. I needed to try it. So, Monday, Sept. 26, was my first day being "sugar free". And I'm talking about actual sugar here...like, the white stuff. The stuff that I live for in my favorite drink...sweet tea. In theory, I understand that nearly all food is actually sugar. Bread? Sugar. Pasta? Sugar. Everything I enjoy? SUGAR! But, I doubt that I have it in me to give up all carbs for 30 days. So, I'm on day 15 of attempting to be sugar free. I haven't been perfect. In fact, I admit that I took a cheat day on Saturday. I hadn't planned on cheating, but I did...and its over, and I'm moving on :)

This is what I've learned. 1. I consume too much sugar. (earth shattering, right?) 2. I like sugar 3. Sugar makes things taste better 4. I can do this 5. I can return to minimum-moderate sugar consumption and live a happy life. 6. I wish I enjoyed water. I just don't. It doesn't taste good to me, but its what I've been living on.

I have been FIFTEEN days without a sweet tea. I can't believe that. I really, really can't. I live for sweet tea.

I've lost 3.5 lbs and if I hadn't been so blasted sick this last week (strep throat)...then I'm sure I would notice a difference in how I felt. I can at least say that I have a bit more energy.

All that being said, I have no desire to attempt to live my life completely without sugar...however, I do plan to be MUCH more moderate. Like having one cheat day a week. Or being bad would be considered something like having 2-3 sweet teas in a week. NOT, 2-3 sweet teas in a day! :)

That's all. Also, Josh and I are taking a small vacation next week to Maine. It is unlikely that I will see this through to 30 days because...lets be honest, I'm going to want some kind of dessert with my honey while I'm on vacation. That's ok. I've learned a lot through this. I can do better. I will do better. The end. :)

Wesley, you are ONE!

Well Child Check up- 10.12.11

Stats:

Weight- 20 lbs (ok, on the scale it said 19 lbs, 15 3/4 oz! We are calling this 20 lbs since you had socks and a diaper on! :)

Length- 39 inches (I'm rounding up!)

HC- 46 inches

Dr. Pedersen said you were doing wonderful. She gave me little to no grief about putting you on cows milk when I did (shew) and today we did the flu shot and chicken pox vaccine but we are holding off on MMR until 15 months. Maybe longer. I haven't completely decided yet.

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Sweet baby boy. How is it possible that a year has come and gone already?! I don't quite know how to wrap my mind about it.

I reflect on your first year and I think about some really cool things that God allowed me to experience through your birth and life so far.

First of all, God gave me the chance to really know what its like to experience childbirth. I'm one of the crazy people that wanted the full experience. With Wes, I got it :) I got to "go into labor" (instead of being induced) and even though I took a smidgen of nubain :) (narcotic) to help me through transition...I was able to deliver vaginally without an epidural. Again, something I really wanted and something that became somewhat important to me. This whole method of birthing babies became important to me because I'm really big on experience. I kind of get caught up in wanting to really know what things are like. I didn't like with Owen that I couldn't really tell anyone what a contraction felt like, or that I had no idea when I needed to push because the epidural totally took that away from me. I wanted to KNOW. And even now, even though I know how horrible the pain really is...(and it really is horrible! no getting around that!) I'm so glad that I did it. I'm so glad that I know and that I got to experience it in all of its glory. It wasn't about being a better mom than someone who did it differently than me. It was about me being able to really understand what childbirth was all about - minus drugs. And man. I got it. Jesus was really kind to me and let everything move quickly and fall into place. I won't recount the birth story because you can go read it here if you really want to Wes Birth Story, but it was a super cool/super crazy/super hard experience for me....one that I'm SUPER thankful that God allowed me to experience.

Secondly, breastfeeding. I had a terrible time nursing Owen. It just didn't work. I don't know why. I think some of it was inexperience/nerves/mental issues while now a large part of me just thinks that I kind of really had an unwilling baby. As someone who has really read up on the whole lactation process, I hesitate to state this...but nursing two babies now I kind of believe that its true. Owen was a bad/unwilling nurser; Wes was a great/willing nurser. I begged God to let me nurse my second baby. Again, it was something I really wanted. I decided that I would CHILL OUT and not get anxious about nursing a baby this time around and just "do it" :) Somehow that worked. A few other things that I think helped was "nursing early and often". I put Wes to the breast about 10 minutes after delivery and he nursed for about 30 minutes. In the hospital, I paid attention to every cue and whenever it seemed like he wanted to nurse, I put him to the breast. Something worked. Again, God was kind. AND, again...my baby was willing :) Makes a huge difference. I set out to do a year and Wes told me we were done just shy of 11 months. It was a nice ending to our nursing relationship- letting him tell me we were done was much easier than stopping it myself.

I could cry when I think how good God has been to me. Two things I really wanted: 1. To go through childbirth without an epidural and 2. To nurse my baby. He gave both of those things to me. I'm so grateful.

Wesley, you are like your big brother in many ways. A lot of your developmental milestones are similar. You got your two bottom teeth around the same time. You crawled around the same time. You "walked" around the same time (we're still working on this, but Wes tok a few steps on his own yesterday and Owen started taking steps on his own around 11 months). On the other hand, you are very different. Owen has always had a very laid back personality. YOU have fire and passion :) Owen loved everyone. YOU are a huge momma's boy. Owen was (is) a picky/small eater. YOU eat nearly everything and you eat a LOT! No worries about your weight over here!

I have yet to take you in for your 12 month check up (that happens on 10.12), so I don't know your current weight or length yet. I'll come back and add that later.

What I do know is that we love you. You fill our hearts. You make us busier and at times you have us shaking our heads at your "fury" and passion :) But we know that God gave you to us to make our family complete...and you do that in so many ways. We are so happy that God made it so that you and Owen would have each other. I'm so excited to watch you grow up together. I know you will fight and try to kill each other from time to time, but I have this dream...that maybe someday you'll be best friends. You can always be there for each other. You have this unique advantage (in this day and age) of having the same parents, living under the same roof (even if it is Grandma and Grandpa's right now!) and having lots and lots of love and support from so many different people who not only love you...but love Jesus.

I'm more than excited to see who you will become. We love you Wesley J. Happy Birthday big boy. You are ONE!

Here I go again...trying to change the picture and making it ginormous once again. So annoying. Blogger drives me crazy. It will probably be three weeks before Josh can walk me through shrinking the blasted thing. Sorry :)

P.S. Copyrights to the nice family picture go to Caleb and Heather Brown since we took this at their home....you know, being homeless and all :)

Wes 1st Birthday video

Wes's first birthday party

We had Wes's birthday party on Oct. 1. Josh will potentially be involved with Sectionals for soccer the actual weekend of Wes's birthday, so we celebrated a week earlier. It was a nice/cool/windy fall-ish kind of day...I wished it was a little warmer/less windy since we had the party at a park...but oy vey. It went fine. I don't think anyone caught pneumonia :) .It was a smallish gathering compared to the event we had for Owen, but eh...the second child always gets gipped, right? :) I don't think he'll care. He got a nice stash of presents...consumed a large amount of sugar (which may or may not have prompted the massive amounts of vomit that ensued later that night...the jury is still out on whether or not he is really sick)...and was loved on by dear friends and family. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

We've moved

Here's the funny (read: stupid) thing. I named my blog by the name of the street we live on. Duh. Why would I do that?! Can I rename my blog?! I have no idea. Help anyone?

I think anyone who knows about our lives know that we are hanging out in Brownsburg (well, technically Pittsboro) with Josh's parents until we can find our next home! We are looking! There hasn't been much on the market that we are too excited about. We will consider south-ish Carmel (106th and below), Zionsville (as close to 65 as possible) and Brownsburg. I imagine Brownsburg will be the best compromise. (since Josh works south, but doesn't want to move south and Carmel and Zionsville tend to be on the high end of our price range) We'll see. I'd love to live right next to College Park. That's my # 1 preference!

Pray for us! Jeff and Anita have graciously made it "easy" to move our family of four in to their home. We are grateful. Short-term leases are hideously expensive and not something we wanted to do...but we also want to continue liking our inlaws/parents and having a friendship with them so mentally we are hoping to be out in 3-4 months tops. (Please Lord!) Actually, I've secretly asked God to give me a new house for my birthday. He has a couple of months to work on this. As long as Jeff and Anita will have us and let us look...we will do our best to make the living arrangements work :) Its a step and journey of faith for me for sure...but its a good way to grow myself and depend on the Lord!

Anyways, that's my short update. We have a P.O. Box in Brownsburg if anyone wants to send us mail :) here it is: P.O. Box 331 Brownsburg, IN 46112

11 months

Sheesh. 11 months. Its hard to believe. This has definitely been the fastest year of MY life.

Here's a brief recap:

Weight: 19 lbs

(I don't know length or head measurements because we haven't had a well child check up...I only know the weight because I took him in to have his ears checked :))

Sleep: all through the night-up around 7:30; morning nap from around 9:30-11:30; afternoon nap around 1:30-3:30 and bed between 8:30/9:00

Food: We quit nursing just shy of his 11 month birthday. (reference post below :)) This was completely baby led. At the advice of well seasoned breastfeeding mothers I tried to push through to see if this was a nursing strike or if he was really done. After two weeks of trying to push through, I decided we were really done. He eats table food wonderfully and drinks from a sippy (filled with cows milk or water) cup fantastically. He recently started exhibiting a displeasure for...wait for it....macaroni and cheese?!?!!! What!? Its true. He takes it out of his mouth and hands it back to me. OK. He loves meat. Loves it. Will gladly eat a hamburger, meatballs, steak(!)...yah. Eats veggies well. Loves green beans. Eats all fruit well. Prefers bananas.

Mobility: Crawls like a pro---and is a FAST ONE! Watch out! Pulls up to stand easily and now scoots around the couches and anything he can hang on to. Can actually stand unassisted, but prefers not to. Will walk around holding someones hands.

Personality: I've been saying for months how fiery and temperamental he is and I think this past month he has been a little bit more cool headed. He has been a bit more love-y and snuggly and a BIT less prone to bouts of screaming and baby temper tantrums :) They still exist, they are just a bit less frequent. He watches Owen every second he can. However, Owen has started to tell him no about things he doesn't want him into...which results in a desperate-mad scream and fist pounding. Wonderful :) He has successfully lasted in the nursery for the last 6 weeks and I feel that it is getting better....but he is still quite upset at drop off and I often find him being strolled around outside of the nursery when I pick him up. We will continue to press on in faith and confidence that he will enjoy "Sunday School" someday. :) On the flip side, I attend a bible study at church on Tuesday morning and he spends 2.5 hours in childcare during that time....and does exceptionally well. He will even nap! I don't quite understand the difference. Oy vey :)

I think thats about it! Next month I'll be doing a one year post! Agh. Can't believe it. I need more babies. Or maybe not. But, gah. Does it really need to go this fast!? Love my Wessie. So glad he is ours!

It is finished.

Nursing my baby that is :) Silly to blog about it, but I wanted some kind of record :) I've spent the last three weeks or so trying to outlast my maniac of a ten month old. I've mostly gotten screaming and hitting when I've tried to nurse him...not so much fun for me...so I mentally decided I would keep offering until he flat out refused me...and that happened yesterday. Today we woke up and didn't nurse at all and its been fine. I really wanted to make it to a year, but 10 months and three weeks is really close. I'm ok with it. (but sad because he's my baby and its something only I have been able to do for him for the past 11ish months!) I'm also really happy about how it all went. I've been on both sides of the breastfeeding spectrum. I had a terrible time with Owen. I mostly pumped for four months and bottle fed him breast milk before quitting altogether. Wes on the other hand has always been a boob man. :) Latched on perfectly after birth and we didn't look back. Not a single problem. I'm so glad God gave me the opportunity to see things from both sides. Its given me empathy when I hear about other people struggling with breastfeeding--I know the struggles are real. I've been there. And on the flip side, God gave me a wonderful nursing relationship with Wes...something I really, really desired. So thankful he fulfilled that desire!

Pre-K

Owen started school on Monday, August 29! It was sort of anti-climactic because it was a half day...and he already only goes half day, so I dropped him off at 9:00 and picked him up at 10:30...he was like...."its time to go home already?" :) Today (Wednesday) was his first "full" day of school. He goes from 9-12 on Wednesday's and on Monday and Friday he stays from 9-1 and gets to have lunch. He seems to really like his teachers and classmates and I think he's pretty excited. He has 11 kids in his class; 8 boys and 3 girls! Shew! Poor teachers! His teacher, Mrs. Schmitz is cute as a button and we really like her. Today he learned about reading a calendar (among other things, I'm sure)...when he got in the car he said "Mom, today is Wednesday. August 31, 2011." Thanks preschool :) Pretty exciting times!

God would ask us to move during soccer season! :)

Our house is sold! Well, kind of. Nothing is ever really sold or official until closing, but we think we have sold our house. OK. We have accepted an offer and are working towards a closing date of Sept. 19! Realizing that things can always fall through, we believe that this might actually happen this time around.

So we are packing. A little every day. I don't really know how to do this. Josh packed up our house in Warsaw because I was working and he was only working a little bit (part-time). Mostly, right now... I'm throwing a lot of things away. How do we accumulate so much STUFF!? Its disgusting. And then there are the: I-can't-throw-this-away, but-what-do-I-do-with-it things. Like: Josh bought me a Winnie the Pooh snow globe for my birthday when I was in high school. Ha. I'm sure I loved it at the time. Its a nice one---he probably spent some real money on it (at the Disney Store)...but what am I gonna do with THAT? We have no girls. Do I just keep it in a box forever and ever until I die and my boys go through all my stuff and ask themselves..."what am "I" going to do with THIS!? Good grief. Its so hard. And then Owen is collecting all of this "artwork". And its only going to get worse with preschool starting at the end of the month. Do I save every little piece? I mean, I just can't. I'm going to have to pick and choose. And THEN there is the question of all of our baby gear. Do we keep it? In the event that there is a third child?! (I mean, in the event that hell actually freezes over and Josh agrees to a third child..OR an "accident" happens and voila...baby?!) I can't decide. Its very traumatic for me over here...packing up...making decisions on what to take with us and what to get rid of. Geez.

For now we are going to be living with Josh's parents in Brownsburg. We are really grateful that they are going to let us stay. Otherwise we would have to find something to rent...but this gives us the opportunity to put some $$ back in our savings since we are really taking a pretty big loss on our house.

We are looking every day for a new place to live. We are considering: Brownsburg, South Carmel and Zionsville. We are trying to stay away from the vinyl siding communities since we consider that to be our starter house and hopefully where we end up moving will be our forever kind of house. I'm choosing to be confident that God is going to bring us our perfect house at just the right time...or at the time where I decide I can't deal with not having my own place to raise my children anymore. Whichever comes first! I trust you Lord! :)

Ok...that's that! Here we go!

10 Months of Wes!

Our baby is 10 months old! Here are a few highlights of this past month:

- He went from scooting only around on his belly to full fledged crawling....to pulling himself up to his feet....to trying to stand on his own! (so far unsuccessful! :))

-He continues with two good naps a day (he usually goes back to sleep about an hour after he wakes up! just can't keep those eyes open!) and sleeps all night. (generally 10+ hours)

-Continues to be a great eater. We aren't sure but we think he MAY not love noodles! Funny since that is all Owen will eat! A couple of new things he has tried this month are: hamburger, eggs, real life adult oatmeal and maybe you had a bite of mom's corn dog at the fair. We are STILL nursing! We are consistently 3 times a day now: morning-afternoon-night. Its lovely.

-Loves Owen....loves to crawl after him around the house..."play" with him in his room....pull himself up to him...stick his fingers in his eyes...you get the idea :)

-Doing better in the nursery at church. We pulled out our tough love of "you page us when you can't take it anymore" with the nursery workers and he is going on three consistent weeks of being in the nursery the whole service. Last week was the first week he didn't cry the whole time. It also took Owen three weeks. I hate doing this but it is SO worth it when we can drop him off and enjoy the entire service without having to juggle a baby during service! I told the nursery workers to just feed him cheerios the whole time...and I think they do :) Someday we will have to work on "food does not = happiness!" :)

-He is still in a size 3 pamper and really has grown out of any six month clothing--solidly into 9-12 months.

We love our fiery, but lovey redhead! He makes our life better! (and sometimes crazier! :))

Whoops

The differences between the first child and second child in our house amuse me sometimes. For instance: I followed every single parenting guideline presented to me by my pediatrician with Owen. (I mean, for the most part) With Wes, not so much. The other day, Wes toddled over to Owen's cup (which had a lid with a straw) and partake of some good ole'....cows milk. Gulp. Yep. Not so much supposed to have cows milk until you are one years old these days. He didn't drink a little...he drank like...all of it. A big cup of it.... In about 14 seconds. And just now, I momentarily lost my mind and filled his little sippy cup with...yep. Cows milk. So, I guess he's drinking cows milk now :) Just a little shy of his 10 month birthday. I'm guessing he'll survive.

(still breastfeeding too....trying to figure out how much longer. We'll see. Josh and I booked a vacation to Maine for just the two of us at the end of October so we'll have to be done by then I suppose!)

Twins are here!

Kendall Lynn and Korbin Alan were born yesterday (7.20) around 6 PM.

Kendall was 5 lbs 15 oz and Korbin was 5 lbs 10 oz.

They are very sweet! Heather is a superstar and is doing good!