104 days of summer vacation...

May 17th was Josiah's last day of his first year of preschool!  He had fun, learned a lot, and met a lot of new friends.  It was a great outlet for him, even if he was the youngest kid in his class.  The last week of school they took a class field trip to Jump Mania.  He had a lot of fun until close to the end when his chin had a collision with his friend's head, causing him to bite his tongue.  Mouth injuries always bleed a lot and look really bad, but thankfully they heal quickly!  No stitches required.  Also thankful he was wearing a red shirt!

Josiah has had a fun and busy summer so far!  The day after his last day of school I took him to Bass Pro to celebrate.  They had a big pool set up so people could try out the kayaks.  He had a blast and didn't even tip over!  :)  He also got to play on the boats, 4 wheelers, and gators, as well as play with the toys.  His idea of a perfect day!

The next week (21st), we had Josiah's cousins Trent (6) and Bryan (16) stay with us for a night.   Josiah had SO much fun playing with them.  They drove around in his police car, climbed trees, and basically did as many boy things as they could think of.  That night they went fishing in the back yard and then made s'mores.

Here is a turkey that lives in our woods.  We occasionally get to see her come drink out of the pond.  Josiah is hoping she has babies so that he can kill and eat her, then raise the babies.  Then when they get older and have their own babies, we will kill and eat them, and raise their babies (and so on and so forth).  He thought up this plan all on his own!

On Sunday the 27th we went to Branson with my side of the family for a week.  Josiah loved getting to play with his cousins, and Levi started to warm up to them by the end of the week.  :)

A few of the things we did in Branson:

1. Relax (it was a much needed break!)















2. Play on the playground and eat popsicles.

 3. Silver Dollar City (Josiah even rode a couple of roller coasters!)

This is one of the kid rides, but they still love it!

 A ride where you get a gun - not entirely sure Josiah didn't invent this one.

 They even had stuff Levi could do!

 Thankfully he didn't try to eat the balls!

 The day we went was nice until the afternoon when we got drenched on a water ride, and then the weather quickly cooled off and it started raining.  This is the kids trying to warm up when we got back!

4. National Tiger Sanctuary - this place was really cool.  You are literally 3 feet away from these 600-750 pound cats.  The pic below is one of the smaller tigers.  They have about 10 tigers (some of them white), 1 lion, 1 panther, and 1 cougar.  It was a little intimidating being that close to such powerful animals.  Even the 70 lb panther - it can carry a 200 lb person 50 feet up a tree!  All of these animals were born in captivity and rescued - a lot of them were being kept at people's homes as pets.  Craziness!!

Since our Branson trip, we have also visited Grandma Regehr and made a trip to the pool.  It is shaping up to be a fun summer!

Levi now has 4 teeth - two on top and two on bottom.  He has more hair than Josiah had when he turned 2!  He is 11 months old now and I have started weaning him, which he is not a fan of.  It has been a little rough but he is starting to get used to the idea.  He is not walking yet but I know it won't be too long.  I love my little joyful baby!

Josiah is getting so big.  He wears a lot of 7T shirts and he looks so much older than he is.  He makes us laugh every day.  He is still having some tummy issues, but seems to be doing a little better as of this post. 

The heifers are doing great, and hopefully next year they will be moms!

We have officially been in our house for over a year now.  It is hard to believe it has gone by so fast.  It has been a very intense year of change and transition, but we are very thankful for everything God has done for us, not the least of which is surviving it all!

Quick update

This picture was taken at the end of April, but I just had to share how stinking cute he looks in his Carharts!!

Also at the end of April, Josiah went to a birthday party for a couple of his classmates.  He had a great time!

 They had a pinata at the party, and after all the candy had been spoken for, a couple of the boys (including Josiah) decided to destroy it.  Being the good mother that I am, instead of stopping them, I just took their picture.

 On 5/4, Josiah was in a presentation for his school.  I don't think he sang at all, but at least he did some of the hand movements.  He mostly stood there and scowled because he didn't like the light in his eyes.  :)

 Taken on 5/9 - just a cute pic of my boys playing together!

Our chickens are now free range.  They decimated our broccoli plants in the garden, so we had to move their coop to the other side of the house (they don't stray too far from the coop).  But now they are right outside our bedroom window, and the roosters are now experts at crowing.  Every morning at about 5:20 I am ready to go out and butcher them myself!!!!

We went to visit my parents for mother's day weekend.  Just had to share this picture, because this is how Levi reacts when almost anyone besides Jason or me tries to hold him.  He is pretty comfortable now with my mom and Jason's mom, as long as he can't see me.  

 Bike races!!  After several times down the hill there was an inevitable crash with skinned legs, but they still had fun!

 You just can't beat a tire swing.  Hours of entertainment.

 Happy mother's day to all the moms out there!  I love being a mom to my boys!!

Another update coming soon!!!

Levi

Levi is 9 months old now (almost 10 months old as of this post)!  We took him to the doctor on 4/18 for his checkup.  He is 20 lbs 10 oz and 28.25" tall.  That puts him in about the 50th percentile for both weight and height.  He is so much fun.  He loves to stand up (holding onto something), although he has fallen over a couple of times.  He also loves to walk around while holding onto someone's fingers.  He is starting to get over his separation anxiety a little, but still prefers mommy over everyone else.  He babbles a lot, and smiles at everyone (as long as mommy is holding him).  I have been trying to upload a crawling video to no avail.  Hopefully it will work soon!

A month of firsts

 The past month has flown by!  Here are some picture updates.

Truman facing off with Darth Vader.  Thankfully the cats have not tried to go after the chickens.  The chickens do not seem to be too afraid of the cats.  They will walk right up and peck them in the face! 

Easter weekend was a big one for Levi - he started clapping his hands, saying Ma Ma, and crawling!  He is still a pretty slow crawler, but he can definitely get around.  Videos of Levi coming soon.

Dying eggs for Easter.  Josiah had fun but a couple of the eggs did not survive. 

Easter egg hunting at Grandma Regehr's house:

 More egg hunting, with a bonus pic of the new ride!

Josiah has become quite the tree climber.  Every tree he sees with low branches is fair game. 

4/13 - Josiah's first x-ray!  He has been having some ongoing constipation issues, so we are checking things out.  After this x-ray, the doctor told us to come home and have a clean-out day, where we give him 1/2 bottle of Miralax.  That was a long day, but he survived!  He has a follow-up appointment next week.

4/14 - The completed chicken coop!  Jason built the whole thing by himself with no plans or anything to follow.  He specially designed it to be able to check for snakes before grabbing the eggs!  He did a great job.  It is really heavy/sturdy - we have joked that it could be our storm shelter!

This is how we got the chicken coop into our yard. 
Good thing Mary Anne is strong enough to pull it!
It is nice to have the chickens out of our garage!

4/16 - Josiah's first dentist appointment (we were going to take him last year, but with the move and Levi's birth and everything we just didn't get it done).  He did SO great.  He didn't like the light shining in his eyes, so they gave him these glasses to wear.  He sat still, didn't complain, and was very cooperative.  AND, no cavities!! 

Bass Pro brainwashing at it's finest:

Have I mentioned that we planted 2 apple trees on 3/14?  Here is one of them leafing out (taken 3/31).

More tree climbing.  The branches were too high on this one, so he had some help getting up there. 

4/14 - Levi sitting on the tractor with daddy for the first time!

Josiah was the ring bearer in Jason's cousin's wedding last weekend.  He did a great job and LOVED it.  He thought he was the star of the show (in our minds he was!).  Congrats Jared & Mikayla!

This is at the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding:

 On Sunday Levi got his first (much needed) haircut!  Thank you Aunt Ericka!!

Our friends the Buhrles stopped by for a short visit on their way through town Sunday - it was great to see them!

We had a fun time at the Springfield zoo this week with some friends we met through Josiah's school:

Feeling super blessed!!!

Happy Early Easter!

Levi's amazing dance moves!

And on that farm he had some chickens

After 2 months of putting me in a zombie state, Levi started sleeping through the night again this week! SO SO happy!! I now have the stamina to blog!

Here's Levi's first time swinging (1/31)! He gave me this half smile the whole time. He didn't act super impressed, and seemed unsure if he should laugh or cry.
Just a fun pic. Love those little guys!

Jason's birthday was 2/10. We had a low-key celebration. We were planning on going out for dinner and leaving the kids with his mom, but then Levi got sick (and got his first ear infection!). Poor little guy - he was miserable. He is such a happy baby normally, but when he got sick he turned into a little monster! I guess I probably act like that when I'm sick too. Thankfully he got over it and returned to his happy self!

Just hanging out and being cute.
Josiah loved the snow we had on 2/13. He cried when it melted. Even though it was freezing out there, he insisted on playing in it and would not admit that he was cold. The cats however, were not shy about admitting they were cold. Daisy just wanted to curl up on Josiah and sleep. He thought it was a fun tackling game. Either way they both had fun.
On 2/29 we got chickens! We have 10 of them - 2 buff orpingtons (the cute yellow ones), 4 barred rocks (black and white), and 4 Rhode Island reds. They were born that morning so they were very little. Josiah was at first not excited about letting them use his little plastic swimming pool until they got big enough for a coop. He threw a big fit about it, saying "but I love that pool! I don't want to swim in chicken poop!". But when Jason brought them home and he saw them, he quickly changed his tune. "I love chickens, they are my favorite animals! They can have my pool, it's okay, I don't care."

More hanging out and being cute. They just can't help it.
Josiah discovering the wonders of fun dip.

The chickens are growing SO fast! Here they are after one week. Their wing and tail feathers are coming in, and we are starting to be able to tell the roosters from the hens. Poor roosters. You will probably end up on our dinner plates.

Josiah "helping" daddy do some work.
We have been busy around the house/farm, and are loving the spring-like weather! Here's to more sleeping through the night (which translates into more frequent blogging)!