Merry Christmas!!

It has been a month since I posted pictures. I thought it would be a great Christmas present for those that have been waiting impatiently for new pictures to put some up. So Merry Christmas!

Since I last put up pictures we have:

Moved into a new house. This is me cleaning up the debris Jason made while having too much fun playing with a chain saw.

We decorated a Christmas tree. This is Josiah and I putting up the first Christmas tree we have had since 2003. Yep, it has been 5 years since we last decorated for Christmas.

We have done a lot of laughing.

Josiah ate his first snowball.

Went for a walk in the snow.

Made a snowman

Went to Storybook Land. Storybook land is a place that you walk through and you see displays of different stories. Josiah and Jason are looking at Teddy Bear Land. At the end there is a model train display. Josiah enjoyed looking at that.

Then on Christmas we opened presents. Here is Josiah enjoying all the stuff he got.

Update

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. It just hasn't been convenient for me to make to the UCC and post. It is difficult to put pictures up with a toddler who likes to play with computers. I still don't have pictures with me, but I thought I would give an update on what was going on anyway. We are getting closer to being settled into our house. We are in the process of finding a reasonablely priced closet organizer so Jason can finally put his clothes away. Other than that we only have one more room to get organized, which is the the office/guest bedroom. I have to get it organized by next Sunday because that is when my sister, Katie, comes to visit and I promised her she didn't have to sleep on the couch. We set up a Christmas tree and hung some lights outside. This is very exciting for us because haven't decorated for Christmas in 5 years. Jason never saw the need since we always went to Wyoming.

The students are on Christmas Break for the next 3 weeks. Jason is frantically trying to clean up the paper work off his desk so he can start planning his classes for next term. I am going to be teaching a college ladies class on Captivating next term, so I am trying to get that organized on top of cleaning the house and running after a hyperactive toddler. So though it is Christmas Break we don't feel like we are having a break.

Sunday night an artic front hit Corvallis and we received 2-3 inches of light powder snow (not the heavy, slick, Cascade crud). Yesterday we took Josiah outside to check it out. He enjoyed playing in it, but he could only take being outside for 10 minutes before his nose turned bright red and he started to shiver. He cried when we took him back into the house. Today it is sunny, but still cold. Tomorrow another snow storm is suppose to hit. If we are lucky we might actually have a white Christmas in the Northwest.

Well..my son is starting to give me the sign that he is done playing by himself so I better go before he gets himself into trouble. :) Jason and I are probably going to Port Orchard later this week to help with Celebrate Jesus and visit his friend Rob so we probably won't be looking for internet until next week. Sorry!!! If I don't write anything until then, hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

New House

Well...we finally closed on our house Wednesday. Yesterday we went over and did some stuff on it to get it ready for our stuff to arrive. The house hadn't be occupied for several months so I had to go in and vacuum up all the cobwebs and spiders, clean the cupboards, and bathroom. Jason was concerned about the large amounts of leaves and needles in the gutters and on the roof so he cleaned them out and chopped down a lot of branches that went over the roof so he wouldn't have to go up on the roof once a week to clean it off. I had taken pictures but I think I left the camera at the house. :( Tomorrow people from the church are coming over to help us move out stuff. We are all ready for this move to be over and be able to move on with life.

After I make this post I am taking our internet stuff back to the Comcast because our rate is going to go up. So we are going to be without internet at home for awhile. That means updating the blog will be less frequent. Hopefully we can find a good deal on internet soon.

Fun Pics

So life in the Swick family, is busy at usual. Last week we were busy preparing for Fall Retreat. We had 15 students from our campus ministry and 3 students from Boise State attend. Saturday afternoon Jason went out and played 4 hours of tackle football. He came in with an injuried larnyx. It hurt so back he couldn't swallow or talk. We thought it was broken. He was able to swallow some pain meds, which dulled the pain a little so we figured it was just bruised. Now he fine, thank God. This week is jammed pack because I am filling in for the church secretary while she is out of town. On top of that we close on our house on Wednesday and the church is coming over on Saturday to help move us. So on top of working, I have to pack the house up because Jason is busy with work and trying to write a 20 page paper for his class. I am so grateful for our church family here, though, because I have gotten numerous offers from people offering to watch Josiah or help me pack. So I don't have to do this alone.

Before I move onto stuff about Josiah we would ask that you pray for Jason's best friend Rob and his family. This past week Rob's two year old son, Hunter, was diagnosed with Leukemia. Please pray for healing for Hunter and for comfort for his family has they go through this rough time.

So onto Josiah news. He is developing both mentally and physically at lightning speed. Four molars finally came in and he has two canines on the top coming in now. His motor skills are improving as he now able to build towers with his legos. He also has become a dancing machine and he has started running (usually away from me). His verbals skills are improving. He tries to pronounce the last word of every sentence I say. If he can't pronounce the word he just says, "Yea." He is starting to learn letters and the sounds they make. I can show him the letter P and ask him what sound it makes and he say, "pp, pp." He knows the sounds for 3 letter right now. He knows where his nose, eyes, ears, mouth, and belly button are at. It amazes at what he is learning and remembers.

Now here are the pictures:

Josiah found these gardening gloves in the laundry and decided they need to go on his feet. He walked around with them for a good 30 minutes before he decided to take them off.

This is Josiah finishing up a bowl full of meatballs. But he decided they were so good that he....

licked the bowl.

"All done!"

Super Man!!

On Halloween we were blessed to have Super Man come to play with us. Here he is flying through the air.

Josiah and daddy getting ready to fly off to fight crime.

Look...Super Man is waving at me.
Only "real" super men have a pacifier and a teddy bear to carry with them.

And at the end of the day, no matter how many wonderful deeds he has accomplished, Super Man still needs his mommy.

15 months old!

Wednesday Josiah had his 15 month doctor appointment. He is 32 inches long (77%) and around 23 lbs (30%). His head is 19 inches around (88%) That means he is tall, skinny, and has a big head. He is his father's child. :) He didn't get any shots because he hasn't been feeling good. He ran a low grade fever on Tuesday and hasn't been his normal energetic self since. He hasn't been eating or sleeping well. Tonight he is suppose to go trick or treating with some of the college students. They called us up asking if they could babysit while Jason and I went out on a date. Who would refuse an offer like that? So if Josiah is up to it Jason and I are going to go out for dinner and a movie. Don't know what movie yet. I don't have any new pictures right now.

Fun Videos

Here are some videos of Josiah. The first one is Josiah attempting to do push ups with his daddy.




This one shows off Josiah's ability to make animal sounds

Showing God's Love in a Practical Way

Here in Corvallis, the church has life groups that meet on Wednesday nights during the school season. They take the summer off and then new groups are formed in the fall. This year Jason and I signed up to be part of what is the named "The New Format" Life Group. This new format group meets together in homes to eat dinner and study the Bible together, but it also makes it a point to at least once a month be involved in some kind of service to the community. In other words, it is a group that wants to put into action what we read in the Bible. A couple of weeks ago, several members of our group served meals to the homeless. Yesterday, we met together in the morning and drove up and down streets near the church building finding yards that needed their leaves raked. We would stop, knock on the door and explain to them that we wanted to rake their leaves for no charge. When asked why we were doing it, we answered, "We are from a near by church and we want to serve our neighbors." For those that wanted to know more information, we left a little flyer that had the church information on it. Everyone we asked were shocked and grateful for what we were doing. It was a lot of fun to serve just knowing it was what God wanted us to do. Below are some fun pictures of the event.

group picture

A picture of the group finishing up one of the yards. If you look closely you can see a little boy in the pile of leaves.


Josiah even helped. He would throw leaves onto the pile.

Josiah picking up leaves while mommy raked.

The Pond

Yesterday Josiah and I went to the park that is only a 5 minutes walk from the house. There I met two other moms with their young boys. Josiah enjoyed playing with boys his own age, and I enjoyed talking with other adults. After playing at the park we all decided to go for a walk through the wetlands that are right outside our apartment complex. The two moms showed me a pond that is hidden back in the trees. Today Josiah and I showed Jason where the pond was. Here are pictures of what we did.

This is a picture of Josiah and I at the pond. The trees are turning color which made the area so beautiful.

What are these two trouble makers up to?

They are throwing rocks into the pond. Josiah throws the rock into the water and then giggles at the splash it makes.

This wasn't taken at the pond, but I really like it so I decided to share it. This is Josiah and his daddy playing with his fire truck on our back porch.

Mary's Peak

Last week we enjoyed one of the last beautiful sunny days of the season and went to Mary's Peak. Mary's Peak is a 30 mile drive outside of Corvallis and is the tallest peak in the Costal Range. It was kind of hazy, but we were told that on a clear day you can see into California and Washington State. Even though it was hazy we could see about 100 miles in any direction.

Jason and Josiah enjoying lunch on the top of Mary's Peak. This is looking north toward Washington.

Another picture of Jason and Josiah. This is looking west toward the ocean.

Josiah playing with the rocks.

This was the view looking south.

A day with the family

After a great week of campus ministry and football game last night, we are taking a break as a family. Here's how our morning went...

Hippy boy goes fishing. :P

Next we went to the park to have some fun on the slides.

It was a great morning. Josiah just woke up from his nap so it's time for lunch and another adventure.

Mt. Rainier and Multnomah Falls

Sorry it took me awhile but here are the pictures of our Mt. Rainier trip.

The first day we got to Rainier after dark and had the joy of setting up a tent in the dark with a one year old running around. Things went smoothly, though. This is a picture of the family cuddling in the tent before we went to bed.

This is a picture of Mt. Rainier as we were headed up the trail. This area is one of the prettiest places I have ever been to. I hope Rainier doesn't decide to explode between now and the time that we can go back.

It was really windy the first half of our trip so a mile up the trail we stopped behind some rocks to eat our lunch and give Josiah a break from the wind. You can see part of Rainier in the background.

Josiah and Jason at the top of the ridge that overlooks Rainier. Notice house Josiah is all bundled up and not looking happy.

After we got off the ridge the trail headed down into a valley and the winds went away and the sun warmed us right up. So after we being cold and assaulted with wind for an hour, the warm sun put Josiah to sleep and he slept most of the way back to the car.

One the way back we stopped at Multnomah Falls. This is one of my favorite pictures of Josiah and his daddy. Multnomah Falls is in the background.

This is Josiah and I at Multnomah Falls.. Notice how he has his finger in his mouth. Yes, it is because he is teething. Right now he is in the process of getting 4 molars. The top two are starting to poke through, but the bottom two are still really bothering him.

Josiah Update

We just got back from spending some time at Mt Rainier National Park and visiting friends in Port Orchard. I want to show you pictures, but Jason left for his student leader retreat today, and took the camera. So you will have to wait on pictures. To hold you over until then, I thought I would give an update on some of the fun things Josiah is doing now.

The biggest news is last week Josiah started talking. His first word was ball. This is not too much of a surprise since that is his favorite thing to play with. He can only say one syllable words so mama comes out as mom. The list of words that he has said up to this point is ball, bird, dog, book, mom, da (dada), milk, duck, pa (papa), nan (nana or Grandma) and uh oh. It is a lot of fun to hear him talk.

Josiah can also blow bubbles in his bath water. He is pretty good at. Sometimes, though, he starts blowing out before his face gets to the water and then inhales when his face gets to the water and sucks water up his nose.

He is also working on getting some molars. There are two on the left side that are starting to poke through. It will be good for him to have his molars so he can eat chicken easier.

I think that is all the exciting stuff. Jason will be back Friday, so hopefully this week-end I will be able to put up more pictures.

Josiah's first camping trip, Crater Lake National Park

A couple of weeks ago we set up our tent in the living room and camped out to see how Josiah would sleep. He slept great so Jason and I decided it was time to go camping. So we packed up and embarked on our first family camping trip to Crater Lake National Park. We all had a great time hiking around and enjoying the beauty of God's creation. We took over a hundred pictures so it was hard to narrow down the pictures for the blog. I guess if you want to see them all you will have to come visit. :)

The first day we got settled into our campsite and went to Watchman's Peak for a hike. At the top of the peak is a platform the National Park service uses to watch for forest fires. From the top we had an amazing panorama view of everything. This is Jason and Josiah at the top looking down on the lake. The island in the background is Wizard Island. It was formed by volcanic activity after the lake was formed.

Another picture of Jason and Josiah at the top.

The peak in the background is Watchman's Peak, the peak we just hiked.

The next day we took the trail down to the lake. Crater Lake is an amazing blue color and is really clear. On a clear, sunny day you can see over 100 feet down. The water is really cold, around 38 degrees, but Josiah enjoyed dipping his feet in it.

As we were hiking back out Josiah was just too tired to stay awake. He finally checked out halfway up the trail. When we got to the car he couldn't even open his eyes as we were transfering him into his car seat. He slept for the next two hours.

While Josiah was sleeping we drove around the lake and took pictures. This is a picture of Jason and I with Phantom Ship in the background. Phantom Ship is supposedly a reminant of a little volcano.

Then it was back to camp for lunch. This is a picture of our camp and Josiah drinking from a camelback. Dehydration was never an issue for Josiah because he thought drinking from the hose was fun. He was constantly asking for a drink.

After a long nap and some food, Josiah was ready to play again.

Josiah playing in the black volcanic ash.

This is the beginning of Josiah's first hike, a 1/4 mile hike to a view of the lake. I think he is pointing at a tree.

Headed up the trail.

About half way up he started to get tired so he laid down in the dirt to take a breather. We were willing to carry him but he wanted to keep walking on his own.

As we were hiking along the trail, Josiah really taught us how to stop and smell the flowers. Every single flower along the path. :)