"Summer" Time

I put the word "summer" in quotations because it is not a normal summer yet. However, I am not complaining. I am enjoying the upper 60s-lower 70s weather. I don't like being hot so this weather is ideal for me. I love that I can work in the yard and not overheat. I can still use the oven without worrying about overheating the house. We are able to get out an enjoy without getting rained on, so I am content. Here is how we have been enjoying our summer.

The boys have been enjoying basketball. Josiah is really good about taking turns with Jaron.

We have been doing lots of yard work, though it doesn't look like it. I feel like I work on it all the time and it never changes. *sigh* Perhaps one of these days it will look good.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jim the farmer has been giving us tips on organic farming. He uses fish emulsion (poop) to fertilize. It is cheap and it works great. My peas were over five tall last year and we couldn't keep up with the picking. Below is Josiah fertilizing a new plant we put out front.

We went back out to the farm. I finished doing a job I was assigned to do and went looking for Josiah. This is what I found. A boy covered in mud stealing eggs from the chicken coup. :)

Brothers

As a mommy, I am very blessed. Both of my boys are very fun, energetic, loving, and obedient kids. As Jaron gets older, the more and more Josiah and Jaron are becoming friends and I haven't had to deal with many fights between the two. Sure they have their moments when Josiah takes a toy away from Jaron because he wants it or times when Jaron throws a fit because he wants what Josiah has (okay lots of those moments). But overall the play very well together. Josiah loves to give his brother hugs and is so excited when Jaron wakes up from his nap. Josiah also doesn't like to go outside to play without Jaron. They like to take turns shooting the ball into the basketball hoop or ride around on Josiah's John Deere Tractor. Jaron likes to model his brother and wants to do whatever Josiah doing. I have issues with them making faces and giggling at each other during meal times instead of eating. For being the ages that they are, they do a good job playing nicely together.

Here is Jaron and Josiah "washing" dishes together. They played nicely in the water for 1 1/2 hours before I decided they needed to eat lunch. Jaron threw a 5 minute fit when I took him off the chair.

Sharing the John Deer "tractor".

Playing in puddles together.

I know there is a real possibility that they may not play with each other this nicely as they get older, so cherish in my heart the wonderful memories they are making together now.

Working on the Farm

A friend from church owns a farm, and due to the economy was unable to hire as many people to help on the farm this year. So Jason recruited some help from church members and college students to go out and help Jim for a few hours on a Saturday.

One of the tasks was to removed 4 tons of debris. Below is Jason on the red tractor and a friend on the green one scooping up the trash. Jason loved that part. :)

Josiah hanging out on the lawn mower

Josiah and a friend cleaning buckets.

Jaron spent most of the day in the pack so that I could help out. Toward the end of the day I let him out to play. Yes, I realize he is wearing a a winter hat at the end of April. Trust me, he needed to wear it, but I won't talk about what the weather has been like because it is a depressing topic.

A couple weeks later we went back out and got a tour and the owner explained how he runs things. The boys got to play around while he talked with Jim. Here is Jaron chasing chickens.

Josiah got to feed the chickens. Some ate from his hand but he didn't like the feel of them pecking the food from his hands, so daddy did it instead.

The boys spend most of their time playing in puddles, while Jason and I walked around.

Just as we were getting ready to go, Jaron did a face plant in a big puddle. We had to strip him down and put him in the truck to warm up.

We are going back this coming Saturday to do some more work. We have really enjoyed helping. It is nice to work outside plus we are learning a lot about organic gardening.

Easter Egg Hunt 2011

A family in our church organizes a large Easter egg hunt every year. There are over 3,000 eggs that the college students stuff with candy the night before. It was a beautiful day. The first day this year where there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature hit 70.

Here is Jaron and Josiah putting eggs into the basket.

Daddy and the boys with their loot.

Here is mommy helping get the candy out of the eggs afterwards. Josiah found one of the eggs that had paper in it, so he won a prize. They didn't have anymore boy prizes left, so he got to pick four toys from the Bracht boys' room. He picked out two toy planes, a motorcycle, and little skateboard. That was his favorite part of the day.

The whole family together.

Papa Darrell and Grandma Nancy's visit

I know it has been a long time since I last blogged. I lost my camera and found it just the other day. I am going to try to catch everyone up on what has been going on.

In February Auntie Pam came to visit. I can't find any pictures of the trip (I think they are on the camera Jason has a work) but it was nice visit. The boys warmed right up to her. We kept the visit pretty low key since Pam is pregnant and we didn't want to wear her out, but we did take a trip over to Newport to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. It is free and very well done. The kids had fun watch the octopus swim around and touching the animals in the tide pools.

A week after Pam came to visit, my parents came to keep me company while Jason was in San Fransisco for the spring break mission trip. Below are some pictures of their visit. I am having trouble with loading pictures today so the pictures are out of order and some turned the wrong way. Hope you enjoy them anyway.

On my parents' last day here we went to the Gilbert House in Salem. It is a village of houses that have fun activities for the kids. They had a 0-2 section and Jaron enjoyed practicing going up and down the stairs.

We went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory one of the days. Here is mom and the boys in the Mini Loaf Van.

Here is another picture from the Gilbert House. They had a room dedicated to bubbles.

Dad brought several projects for the boys to work on. Here they are making an airplane. Unfortunately a couple of the planes never made it off the production line due to "Jaron the Destroyer". (That is what Josiah calls him as Jaron enjoys tearing things a part.) But one plane made it and Josiah enjoyed taking it outside to fly it.

Snow Day

We have been getting snow flurries off and on this winter, but nothing ever stuck. Finally Wednesday night it snowed about 3 inches. So Thursday morning while the babies were still sleeping, I woke Josiah up and we went to play in the snow before it melted. We had a snowball fight and made a snowman

Josiah has been asking to make a snowman all winter. Here is his friend "Frosty." Frosty melted before the day was out.

Later that day I took Jaron out, too. Here they are on a sled ride.

Jaron did not want his picture taken. I finally got this picture as he was moving his head. Jaron liked the snow, but he did not like his snow suit. He can't walk in his snow suit and that really frustrated him.

He finally got frustrated enough with me trying to take his picture that he crawled away.

Josiah my big helper

It can get crazy around the house when you have two babies that our a year old or younger. I don't know what I would do without Josiah. He loves babies and he usually takes care of one of them while I am attending to the other. However, when he just playing with Jaron, Josiah is not as giving. He likes to take whatever toy Jaron is playing with and he likes to try to wrestle him (but Jaron likes to take Josiah's toys so they both need to learn).

We are continuing to do school time at least 3 days a week. He loves school time. He loves doing the worksheets. He likes to write but doesn’t really like to color (doesn’t hae the patience for it). I have been focusing on writing his letters and number recognition. He is able to recognize most of the numbers 1-9. We've practice letter writing A-H. We continue to do that but I want to add learning about important character traits along with academic stuff. I know Josiah will learn his numbers and letters at school, but they won't teach him how to be encouraging and hard-working. That is not the teachers' responsibility. So I am working on how I am going to introduce those ideas.

During devotional time at home he is doing the song leading. His favorite song is still "Awesome God." He also leads "Firm Foundation," "Ain't No Rock," and "This Little Light of Mine." I am memorizing the book of Colossians as my spiritual goal for the year. He is memorizing parts with me. He has Colossians 3:1 memorized and then he has most of Colossians chapter 1 memorized as well since he listens to me recite it. He is very smart kid.

Below are some fun pictures of Josiah.

Sailing in a boat

Josiah tells people that Jaron is mommy's baby and Khalil is his.

Josiah Kung Fu Fighting

Helping make Christmas ornaments