Random pics of the past few weeks

As the story with everyone else, we are busy. Jason is working hard with the college students and I started babysitting. Here are some random pictures of the past few weeks.

I was making a large amount of taco soup for fall retreat so there were many cans of food in the kitchen. Josiah decided to make a tower out of the cans.

Playing with dried split peas during his independent playtime.


Jaron after eating blueberries. I thought he looked cute with them smeared all over his face. If you notice he has his pointer finger out. He always has his pointer figure out. He waves to people by pointing his finger at them and shaking it up and down.

Another cute picture

Proving once again that battery powered toys are a waste of money. Why have a battery powered toy when you can have a ball (one of his favorite toys)?

Josiah riding his scooter and Jaron riding the tricycle.

This is Kahlil. He is our "part time" addition to the family. Right now he comes and spends three days with us. He is 2 months old and a sweet kid despite the fact he gets stomach aches often. Josiah is a great helper, getting me stuff for Kahlil when my hands are full or singing to Kahlil when he is in the bouncy chair. Jaron just points and laughs in delight when he sees Kahlil.

Josiah's First Beaver Game

Josiah went to his first Beaver football game. Before the game they had stuff for kids who signed up for Generation Beavers. He got to jump in a bouncy house, which he loved. He was one of the smaller ones in there. He got knocked over a few times, but he just got back up and bounced some more. He was excited about the game for the first quarter, but since the game was during nap time it wasn't long before he lost interest and just laid on my lap. By the third quarter he told me he wanted to go home and sleep in his bed. To help the time go by faster for him I gave him my phone and he took pictures for the rest of the game. Here is the Beaver game from Josiah's point of view.

Not a bad picture of the east side of the stadium.

Mommy and Daddy

My new shirt. I had been to a game before but I was pregnant so I wore one of Jason's shirt. I never bought one my size until the day of the game. I am not a fan of orange so I chose a black shirt.



This is one of about 20 pictures of daddy.

The score board right behind us. Because we were in end zone seating, it was hard to see what was going on the other end of field. It was nice to have the T.V. right behind us.

The crowd cheering after Jaquizz Rogers ran 70 yards for a touch down.

Jaron is crawling and Josiah is biking

It has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged, but I don't have any new pictures. I have a video but I haven't been able to get it to download so I will just write another update.

Jaron is army crawling now. He is very good at it and can get where he wants to go. So far this hasn't been a problem for me. I guess the house is pretty baby proof. The only issue we have is Jaron getting stuck underneath his crib or in the space between the couches. The only person who might be a little frustrated with Jaron's mobility is Josiah. While Josiah does like the fact that his brother can follow him around (and Jaron does follow him around) Jaron also likes whatever it is Josiah is playing with. So there have been moments of frustration as Jaron is grabbing for Josiah's toys. It has been great learning experience for Josiah on how to play with others.

Jaron has also been busy cutting teeth. He has 6 teeth now with one more almost through. You wouldn't know that he has been teething because he is still his smiley self. He is developing a sense of humor and likes to laugh to get others to laugh with him. He is sleeping straight through the night now and he and Josiah don't get up until 9. I am feeling much better these days, but running after 2 boys leaves me tired at the end of the day.

Josiah's energy level has increased so I have to make sure we find a way to burn lots of energy everyday or I pay for it. :) We have been going for walks in the evening with Jason. Josiah rides his tricycle now that he is good enough at steering to keep the bike on the sidewalk. He turns the wheels as fast as his legs will let him. Jason and I get a good workout trying to keep up. We have also been going to the park to enjoy the last few days of nice weather.

Josiah has been experimenting with talking back lately. It is really funny watching him try to belligerent because he is really not that type of kid. Of course he gets to spend some time by himself and we talk about better ways to deal with anger. He is responding well and I am always amazed at how much he understands and takes in.

School is gearing for the year. This week all the students move in and next week classes start. This year Jason will be teaching on Practical Christianity. His goal is to challenge students to take what they read in the Bible and actually do it. He has some great classes lined up and I am excited to see what God will do this year. While Jason will be busy again during the year, he won't be taking any college classes so that will relieve a lot of stress. Pray for Jason as he tries to reach OSU this year.

As for me, I am continuing my pursuit to get the house and my time organized. I start babysitting a boy from church in 3 weeks so I am getting food, house, and Josiah's preschool curriculum organized. I am excited about having Khalil be with us, but I know it will be a lot of work (especially since he will only be 2 months old when I start watching him). I am also working on being an encouragement to others. Jason and I are committed to having people over on a regular basis and I have found a new love of writing cards to others. It is a way for me to still do God's work while raising little children.

I think that is it for now. Have a great day everyone!!!

Since we've been home...

It has been one month since we got home from our trip to Wyoming and Colorado. What have we been doing since we got back?

Working on crawling (haven't gotten there yet)

In the words of Josiah, "Building masterpieces."

Playing at the park

Camping

Swimming

And going to the fair

Basically enjoying the last few weeks of summer.

Jaron can sit up

I know some of you want to see pictures of our trip to Wyoming and Colorado. Well I don't have them right now but I have a few pictures I have taken the last couple of days.

Jaron can sit up on is own which has been wonderful. No more lugging the carseat into the store because he sit in the cart. He can take a bath with his brother and he and Josiah can play on the floor together. I love it.

Jaron is 6 months old

Yesterday we had Jaron's 6 month appointment. He is now 27.5" long (75% percentile) and weighs in at 18 lbs. 3 oz (50% percentile). Josiah was 26" long and weighed 17 lbs 4 oz at this age. Since I last blogged Jaron has learned to roll from his back to his front so he now mobile. He rolls around trying to find stuff to play with. He can't sit up yet, but I think it is because he would much rather stand than sit. When I put him in the sitting position he tries to push up with his legs and he falls back into me. He also has two teeth on the bottom coming in. He woke up yesterday with a fever so he didn't get any shots. He is very fussy. You can tell he just doesn't feel good.


Jason had his MRI on Monday and while we were at Jaron's appointment the doctor gave us the results. He has hairline fractures in his tibia. He doesn't need a cast, he just has to stay off of it for a few weeks to give the bone a chance to heal. No surgery and no physical therapy. Praise God!

Here is a video I took while Josiah, Jaron and I were in Port Orchard. We went to visit a friend while Jason was out of town. Enjoy!!

Grace

I know I haven't posted pics in awhile. I will do that tomorrow since Jaron's 6 month appointment is tomorrow and I can tell you how much he has grown. Today I have a great story to tell.

As many of you know, Jason hurt his knee a couple of weeks ago. He is still on crutches and today he is having an MRI done to find out what is wrong with it. Jason isn't able to help much around the house or take care of the kids. The house isn't has clean as I would like it, but God is giving me the strength to care for my family.

The hardest part of the whole knee thing, is how we are going to pay for the MRI and subsequent treatment. What if he needs surgery and extensive physical therapy? We have an emergency fund, but that got dipped into when Jaron was born and we haven't been able to add money back into it. We've also had unexpected expenditures with the car and house stuff that the thought of a big medical bill is scary and overwhelming.

Saturday night I picked Jason up at the airport (he was in Memphis). As we were driving home we began to talk about how we were going to pay for his knee. Should I go and get a part time job? Is there something I can make and sell to get a little extra cash. We finally decided to not talk about it. We decided to trust that God would tell us what we needed to do when the time came and there was no point in worrying about.

Well...the next day, we were sitting in church and the preacher, Greg, told the congregation about our concerns for Jason's knee (which by the way, we didn't talk to Greg about our concerns). He went up to the alter and laid a check down. He said he was going to help us and if anyone else wanted to they were free to donate. By the time we left church we had enough money to pay for Jason's MRI. I looked on line as to how much an MRI for a knee costs in our area and it said $1300. Guess how much money we got? You guessed it. $1300.

After church we ate lunch and went to life group. When we got home we found that our lawn had been mowed. Jason can't do it, and it is hard for me to find time to mow it while taking care of the kids and Jason. Someone from church had asked Jason about it and came over and mowed it while we were gone.

We also got a call from one of our elders this morning saying someone wanted to donate more and wanted to know how much more we needed. We won't know the details of the treatment Jason will need until later this week, but needless to say I am no longer worried about how we are going to pay for whatever medical expenses come our way.

So we give praise to God for his provision and his faithfulness. He has explained to me that grace, which means an undeserved gift, is more than just Jesus' sacrifce on the cross so we could spend eternity with God. Though that in itself is way more than we deserve, he provides us undeserved gifts in this life, too. We have the gifts of the church (which was God's idea) and our loving and supportive families. We do indeed serve a loving and awesome God.

I hope this story strengthens your faith, as it has mine. I hope it reminds you to thank God for all the wonderful gifts he has given you. And as you think about all the gifts he has given you and you just get so full gratefulness that you feel you are going to burst, share with someone else. They deserve to know about God's abundant grace, too.

P.S. For those of you that worship with us in Corvallis. We love you and are grateful for all you do for us!! God couldn't have blessed us with a more loving, supportive church to work with.