Getting Settled

We have been in our new home for about 5 weeks now and it is starting to feel "like home." One of the first rooms that we completed was the family room. It is so nice because thanks to our generous sister and bro-in-law we have new furniture to park it on and room for plenty of guests to park it on too:)

Our kitchen

and dining room

have been the catch all for our projects so far.

The current project is making Wyatt's curtains in his room a little more fun and also adding fabric to make them like a black out curtain, in hopes that when he notices night and day he will sleep longer when morning rolls around:)

The bedrooms haven't had too much to do except get things hung on the walls and finish patching the master bedroom wall. The house is pretty fun because there are so many storage closets and cabinets!

It has been so fun to things put away and throw out those cardboard boxes! It is beginning to feel a lot like 'home'. We have also been pretty busy doing a lot of outside stuff. The house sat vacant for quite a while so there is a lot of overgrowth that we have been working on to cut back and spruce up!

(This pic is just for fun...Wy guy enjoying his first time in his new swing:)

Just for fun...

Here are just a few videos of our little guy....wow he is growing fast and developing more and more of personality! The one year mark will be here before we know it!

9 Months!

I never cease to be amazed at how quickly a little 20 lb. body can learn something! One day Wyatt is content to play on a mat with his new talent of sitting up then the next he dragging himself to the dog's water bowl!!! How can he learn so quickly and master it so well in such a short time? If only we as adults could do the same thing!

Here are the highlights from the past month:
*Sitting up is now 'no thang' for this little guy...also falling out of his Bumbo seat because he can:)

*This kid can eat!! He loves pieces of cheddar cheese, little pieces of chicken, toasted bread, and just about every kind of fruit and veggie!

*He now has 3 teeth!! The bottom 2 came in last month with no problem, however, when the top front tooth decided to make its way down it was not a happy time...runny nose, hard time going down for sleep.
* He can wave "hi" to us! It is really cute because he also makes a sound like he is saying 'hi'! He is also the little charmer...when anyone says anything to him while we are out he gives them a big wave too!
*He is officially on the move..

His biggest motivation to get from one place to the other...a cell phone or remote!

I actually had to buy a new cell phone because it had water damage from him! I guess I learned my lesson the hard way!
*As I type this he is making his way across the room to get to Daddy's slippers! He seems to like to go after the 'yucky' stuff...shoes, slippers, dog bowls and tails....
*He is now starting to mimic us...Daddy clicking his tongue gets him trying:)
*He is also clapping! and raising his arms for "Sooo Big"

Just looking over this list amazes us at how much he has grown in the past month! The days are easy to wish away but so much happens in those days! It is a lesson in living our lives for today and thanking God for the joys of each minute He gives us to live.

First Mother's Day!

So happy to enjoy a beautiful first Mother's Day with family this weekend! Jonathan's parents and sister and her friend made a surprise visit on Saturday night after Allison's graduation from Calvary and we were able to enjoy guests in our new home!

It was so nice to be able to visit and celebrate Mother's Day all together:) We enjoyed some Chili's lunch after church before his family headed out. That afternoon we also went on a walk at a local park and enjoyed the nice dry weather!

What a sweet day to be reminded of my little man and the joys of motherhood:)

Baseball and Star Wars, Huh??

Our local single A baseball team is the Peoria Chiefs and on Saturday night we had tickets to see them play and enjoy some fireworks afterward. On our way to the game we were listening to some pregame stuff and they were saying that Star Wars was going to be at the game! Who knew Darth Vader liked baseball?!?

Wyatt got to enjoy fireworks for the first time...the loud bangs and flashing lights didn't bother him a bit!

Our little family of 3 getting some quality time together:)

It's only just begun...

Wyatt is already making us laugh and keeping us on our toes! We can't imagine what it is going to be like when he is really on the move and we are going to have to keep him in our line of sight at all times! These are just a few of the pictures from the past month or so and what he is up to!

He is finally sitting up to play!

Guess he didn't get enough at lunch time!

His hair is long enough to rock a mohawk now!!

I came in to find that somehow he had wrapped himself up in his play mat, our little burrito:)

Such a sweet, got you wrapped around my little finger smile:)

He LOVES bathtime and his squirty toys!

Moving Time: Part 1

We have officially moved into our new home!! Wow, it was a whirlwind weekend. We had some amazing help from family and friends to get us into our new place and we couldn't be more thankful for the wonderful people who sacrificed their time and weekend to get us from one place to the other.

My dad was amazing this weekend...he did lots of painting,

trim work, electrical, wood cutting, carpet fixing stuff for us too! We had some friends from church come on Friday and Saturday to help us clean carpets, cupboards, disassemble then reassemble beds,

and haul every last piece of our earthly possession to the biggest debt investment we will ever have!:) My mom, sister, brother-in-law and little nephew also made the trip from St. Louis to help us. It was so great to have them here because they are great at organizing and putting things away! My sis filled my kitchen with all our pots and pans while my mom filled our hall closets with everything from towels to light bulbs. Dennis installed our ceiling fan

while Koby and Wyatt got to spend some quality time playing together.
My amazing hubby worked such long days....having to work at his job AND home that same weekend....crawling into bed was probably a blessed relief after all that. Some pics will follow once we get the chaos organized a little more:)

8 Months!

Wyatt is eight months old! As a parent I wrestle with the joys and sadnesses that come along with watching her little guy achieve new milestones in his little life. Like 2 days ago went to Target and he sat in the cart for the first time! I was so excited to see him with this 'first' but sad at the same time because my sweet little baby is slowly getting closer and closer to a toddler. It is a never ending cycle! Some of the highlight of Wyatt's this month are:

*finally sitting up--he'll still topple over, but he's getting the hang of it:)
*da-da-da is his favorite phrase to repeat over and over again
*screaming is also his favorite:)
*his new favorite toy is our cell phones or the remote...wonder if the cell company has a policy on slobbery phones?
*he is starting to get an attachment to a blankie at sleepy time...when we put him down we will throw it over him and he will grab it really tight and put it in his mouth! When we get him up it is usually under his head like a pillow:)
*he is still an easy going, laid back kind of guy...not much throws him or scares him
*he is still big into songs! I love to see his big smile light up when we start to sing him 'his' song each day (Each morning we sing to him "This is the day that the Lord has made", right now I think it is more of reminder to us to give the day to God, but hopefully when Wyatt is old enough to understand it can be the same reminder to him to live his day out to God and not for himself)

*he is no longer easily confined to a play mat...he's a little roly poly that goes all over the place!

*my little man will eat ANYTHING!!! There is not one thing this kid doesn't like to shovel in his mouth, whether it's food or not! Just praying that it lasts throughout his life time! It would make my job a whole lot easier:)

A Visit from Auntie Alli!

Auntie Awie came fo a visit last weekend! It was da best time eber:) She took me on walks, pwayed wif me and my toys, wet me hewp her cewebrate her birfday and gwuaduation fwom cowwege...it was soooo much fun! Tanks Auntie Awie fo coming to see me ( and fo pwaying gowf wif my daddy:)

We're Moving!!

Well, the process has seemed to be slow and full of lessons in patience. We started the house hunting process some time after New Years and it took us 3 months to find a house that we thought we could make into a home for our little family. We put our offer in and it was accepted!! No going back and forth to get somewhere. Wow, we never thought it would happen that fast. This house filled our heads with lots of 'stuff'. There were issues that would need to be fixed or updated before we moved in and there were things about the house that we didn't love but we thought "hey, we can live with it." This house was in foreclosure...a.k.a. EVERYTHING TAKES FOREVER. I don't think we will ever consider a house in foreclosure again...too much uncertainty and need for an overabundance of patience!:) We were going to close on this house April 1st...just a few days before then we were told by our realtor it just might be a good idea to start looking at other houses in case this one fell through. WHAT?!?! Great...we just came full circle from where we were a month ago only to sit at the starting line again. God is so dedicated in His passion to teach me the meaning of trust and patience. I was really needing it!

Well, March 31st came around and I was again out with our realtor searching for a house...telling her that for some reason beyond my comprehension I had peace that God was going to work everything out for good. Hmm, sounds a little like a Bible verse I grew up knowing! That peace walked us to a house that can now (almost) call our own!

In all our searching God had the perfect home for us...but, we were tied up in a deal with a house that WAS NOT perfect. We believe that God's hand was on us in all of this because if we had not been waiting forever for the foreclosed home to get their act together we probably would have found another house that we would have just settled on. God is so good!!

Now our heads are filled with lots of ideas for this new house...ideas to make it a home:)

Easter in the Country

We were able to go to Hillsboro for Easter....it was so great to get away from the city for a while and enjoy playing in the woods, being with family, and having fabulous weather!!! Oh, and probably eating way too much too!

A Time of Dedication

Here are a few pictures from the weekend that our families came in town to be here for Wyatt's dedication. It was so wonderful to have them all here at the same time!