Family Pictures

I have been complaining that whenever Jason needs a picture for the newsletter or the website he always chooses a picture with just him and Josiah. The main reason being we never have someone around to take a family picture or the picture of the two of us together. To fix the problem, one of our students who is working on a degree in photography, took some family pictures of us. Below are a few of the pics. And for those who wanted to see the size of my belly, I think the first one and the last one shows it off pretty well.

Ultrasound Pics

I didn't realize it until just now, but Jason scanned the ultrasound pics into the computer. Here are the first pictures of our second baby boy. They are kind of small because Jason scanned them into the same file. If you click on the pictures I think you can get a better view. The first one is my favorite because you get a good view of his whole body. You can see the little vertebrae on his spine and his feet kicking up. The dark spot in the middle of his chest is his heart beating. The doctor said that from the looks of the ultrasound, he is a perfectly healthy baby boy.

Blueberry picking

I haven't gone through any pictures to post. I keep forgetting and frankly with everything else going on, it hasn't been a priority. We have been very busy praying, planning, and getting things ready for school to start. I feel like God has given a vision for next year and we are excited to see what He has in store for us. It would be great if you could pray for us as we begin our second school year.

I am almost done with my 25th week of pregnancy. While in some ways it has gotten in easier (not so tired and nauseated) in other ways it has gotten harder. I have been having a lot of pain in my lower back and hips. My doctor is out of town so I am waiting until my appointment next week to discuss options for helping it. I have about 2 hours of mobility in the morning before I have to rest with heat on my back so I can walk again. Then another couple of hours in the evening to cook dinner and clean the kitchen. Both Jason and Josiah have been very understanding about my condition. On the bright side, I have been able to help out a lot with planning for the ministry because most of it consists of praying and reading. But despite the pain I am getting very excited to meet our new baby boy. I can feel him getting bigger and stronger everyday.

So to make up for not having pictures I decided to tell a fun story about taking Josiah blueberry picking.

A couple of weeks ago we all went blueberry picking. Of course Josiah was very excited to go because he loves picking everything from veggies to berries. When we first started out he was very good about picking the berries and sticking them in the bucket. But I think as lunch time came nearer, he began to eat more than he put in the bucket. At first he tried to hide himself in a bush so we couldn't see him and he would eat all the blueberries he could until we found him. When we told him he had to stay with us he just continued to eat blueberries instead of putting them in the bucket. When we would tell him to put them in the bucket he would tell us that he would hold on to them. Which means, "I will hold on to them until I eat them." Jason told him that if he didn't put them in the bucket he would have to go into time out. Josiah ate them and Jason told him to sit on the ground and not to move (which Josiah was very upset about). When timeout was over, Josiah was very helpful for about 5 minutes. Then Josiah decided he didn't want to put the blueberries in the bucket anymore. So he picked them, put them in his mouth, and then put himself in timeout since he chose not to put the blueberries in the bucket. I heard Josiah announce to his daddy, "I didn't put the blueberries in the bucket, so I go to timeout." I peeked over the bush and found him sitting in the dirt for his timeout and Jason trying to hide his laughter. It was at that point we realized in was lunch time and you just can't expect a hungry toddler who is addicted to blueberries to have that kind of self-control. So we left and had lunch.

Trip Home From Wyoming

Sorry that it has been a week since I last posted. We have been busy meeting with people trying to get things in place and organized for the school year. Last week was just crazy. Jason is off hanging with college guys today. They are rafting some river in southern Oregon. I am trying to catch up on some much needed rest. Anyway...so here are pictures from our voyage home from Wyoming.

We went through Yellowstone National Park on our way back. This is Josiah throwing sticks into the lake. If you look in the background you will see a black cloud dumping rain. We thought we were going to drive into it, but it moved and we had nothing but sun the entire day.

We stopped off at Old Faithful and walked the boardwalk and looked at the different smaller geysers and hot springs. This is Jason and Josiah standing in front of one of hot springs pools. Josiah loved to watch the water pour out of the holes and geysers. He would look at them and yell, "Holy Cow!" and point. He made many a passerby laugh.

That night we stayed at a campsite that had a hot springs pool. Josiah loved the pool because it was warm and there was a section shallow enough for him to walk around. He cried when it was time to go to bed. But needless to say he had a great night sleep.

The next day we continued our journey and ended up staying in Pendleton, OR. When one is riding in a vehicle for an extended period of time you must use your imagination to stay occupied. Josiah did just that. He discovered a french toast stick from Sonic makes a great play phone. Here he is talking on his "phone."

The hotel we stayed at had a pool. Here is Josiah and daddy enjoying there time playing together. Josiah couldn't play in it as long as the hot springs pool because he got cold.

Josiah riding on a fish one of the other hotel guests let him borrow.

That ends our trip to Wyoming. I guess now I need to sift through my pictures and show you what we have been doing for the past month since we have been home.

Phase Three: Worland

It is 103 degrees outside and 82 inside my house. Not a good combination when you are almost 5 months pregnant. My feet are starting to swell despite my best efforts to drink lots of water, so I decided to sit on the couch and relax for a few minutes. Hopefully the temperature starts to drop soon. If not, Jason might be taking me dinner tonight. Some where air conditioned.

Anyway...on with our Wyoming trip. On June 28th, Josiah and I drove up to Worland to visit Jason's side of the family. When we arrived we had the special treat of being able to spend a day with Jason's grandparents. The live in Nebraska and were attending a high school reunion near Worland. Josiah immediately warmed up to Grandma Hansen (probably because she bought him a Lighting McQueen ball).

While we were there Josiah enjoyed helping Grandma Debbie pick mulberries, as seen below. He climbed up on the fence and picked whatever he could find.

He also had a love/hate relationship with the cows. When the cows weren't near the fence he would yell, "Come over here cows!!" Then when they came over they made him nervous and would yell, "Go away cows!!" Needless to say, they never listened to him.

On July 3rd my parents came up and we had a little birthday part for Josiah. He got lots of fun toys and got to spend a lot of fun time with his whole family. But even with all that...I still think his favorite part was when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he got to blow out the two candles. Here he is enjoying his brownies and ice cream. (A word of caution. If you value your life, don't try to take Josiah's ice cream from him.)

Then on July 4th we went to the Ten Sleep parade. Ten Sleep is a little farming/cattle town outside of Worland. It was a fun parade. They threw a ton of candy, handed out Popsicles and ice cream bars, 20 oz bottles of pop and toward the end of the parade the local dentist handed out toothbrushes and floss. Despite all the candy, Josiah's favorite part was seeing all the horses. This is a picture of him waving at the horses.

That night we also went to watch firework. Josiah enjoyed them for the first 5 minutes, but it was so late he just wanted to go to sleep. He ended up just chilling me my arms while I covered his ears. He was so tired that he fell asleep in the car on the way home, and when we got home I changed his diaper and put pajama pants on him and he never once woke up.

I think that about sums up our Worland trip. Next time: Our trip back to Corvallis.

Phase two of Wyoming Trip- Lander

After spending a couple of days in Cody, on Monday June 22, Josiah and I headed down to spend the week at my parents house. I don't have many pictures from our time there. I think I ended up taking a lot of pictures with my mom's camera. One of the days Josiah got to help Papa Darrell put new stairs on the deck. Papa would push the drill down while Josiah pushed the power button. Josiah loved that. Josiah also helped water the garden and weed the tomato plants. We had to put a stop to weeding when we discovered Josiah had picked one of the tomato plants. :)

Josiah also enjoyed feeding Yoda his dinner every night. Josiah would take food from Yoda's bowl and hand feed him (see picture below). My mom said that Yoda got spoiled and had a hard time eating the next week.

I think that sums up our week there. It was relaxing, which is what we needed after a long trip from Oregon. After the week was up we headed to Worland to visit Jason's family. That will have to wait until next time.

In other news, Josiah and I had a wonderful birthday. It actually has lasted about 3 days. On Thursday we took Josiah to the Aquatic Center in town. The outside is a miniature water park and they have toddler time from 11:30 to 1:00. Josiah had a lot of fun going down the slides and having the freedom to walk around the water. That night Jason treated Josiah and I to our favorite meal...pizza.

Yesterday we dropped Josiah off at a friend's house for an all day play date and headed to Peavy Arboretum and hiked up to a pond on top. We ate lunch, watched the fish in the pond, and talked for a couple of hours before heading back down the hill. It was nice to be able to have some one-on-one time with Jason. After the arboretum we went to a u-pick blueberry farm and picked blueberries for an hour. Between the two of us we were able to pick 15 lbs. of blueberries for the low price of $18.25. One of the many reasons why I love where we live.

Today we went garage sale shopping and picked up a scooter and a bike for Josiah. Josiah hasn't got to see them yet, but when he wakes up from his nap, I know he'll be excited to play with them.

First leg of the trip to Wyoming

So...I finally got the pictures downloaded and had time today to post something. Here are pictures of the first part of our trip. We left Philomath around 9:00am on a Thursday and drove to Spokane, WA and stayed at a KOA. Jason and Josiah had fun playing in the swimming pool, but we didn't get pictures. On Friday we drove to Billings, MT. Then Saturday Jason boarded a plane to Memphis to take a graduate class.

This a picture of daddy and Josiah cuddling before Jason left.

After we dropped Jason off at the airport Josiah and I drove down to Cody, Wyoming to spend a couple of days with my Grandpa. My dad drove up from Lander for the week-end as well. He brought with him a Josiah sized John Deer tractor and some bubbles. When Grandpa and dad first pulled out the tractor Josiah was excited. But once they got it working it scared him.

This is a picture of Josiah on it when they first took it out of the box.

After they got it working I tried to get a picture of him on it, but he didn't want to have anything to do with it. As a compromise, he decided I could take this picture with him on the grass.


Since the tractor was a bust, my dad pulled out the bubble machine, which Josiah loved.

Later that day we went up and looked at the horses. Josiah got to feed Gracie some grass.

That was phase one of the trip. Next post will be about our time in Lander.