Ethan's 1st Birthday!

Today is Ethan's 1st Birthday.

Ethan, in 34 minutes at 9:53pm, you were born. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be your parents. You are sweet, smiley, expressive, boisterous, strong-willed, strong, and oh so fast. You Papa and I are amazed at the way in which the wonders of your life show us the wonder of Christ's creation.

This month you are obsessed with pulling up, cruising, sorting, stacking, matching, pointing, working on more words, and you've started to let go and try independent steps (you need to get a little stronger yet). Your Papa was working away for a while and he was AMAZED at how you advanced in that time.

We love you so much, and we love every new milestone and phase. Although, we pray to hasten the day that your milestone will be salvation. Oh what a joy that will be to witness.

Happy Birthday sweet angel!

Listening to the still quiet voice

It's been a while since I've posted. And, basically since Ethan started crawling I haven't been posting regularly. While Joel's been gone this fall I've had a bit more time to contemplate. For me, too much time to think usually isn't a good thing:), but God is always working.

I'm a big fan of rules, order, keeping everyone safe by following the rules. And yet, God never said that His way for me, or my family would be safe, or orderly. Instead He said it will be just where we're supposed to be, just what we need.

If I've ever talked to you about our life in the Army, you've probably heard me talk about how Army life affords us the unique opportunity to come face to face with our dependency on God's sovereignty in our lives. And I do truly believe that. And I do truly believe, at any given moment that I'm striving to live that out. And then God shows me yet another area of my life, where I've drawn the boundaries and said but I don't have to trust you here because I've got this area covered. It's plenty safe. It doesn't real need to be a God thing.

When Joel leaves for training, I am forced to face the reality that his next deployment is closing in on us. As nutty as it sounds, the combat part isn't what's getting me right now. I suppose the Lord has chosen to keep him safe thus far, and who am I to worry about the inevitable danger he will be in?! But now, I am a scared parent. Scared that I can't be enough for Ethan. Scared that he won't melt in Joel's arms when he comes home. Scared that I'll resent him for missing a year of Ethan's life for a job I know he is called to. Yet, there is a real part of me that wants loving Ethan and I to mean that this job isn't worth it. It's so hard for me to comprehend leaving Ethan for a weekend, so how can he leave for a whole year?! Even beyond that, how can he want to leave.

And yet, the still quiet voice says, "Have I called you to this place?" "Yes Lord." "Then that is all you need know."

Tomorrow is our 6th anniversary. Joel is out of contact for the next 2 weeks+. I am more in love with Joel now, then I have ever been. I am deeply thankful for the Godly husband, and father that he is, and for our sweet Ethan. I know that God has our steps laid out for us, and it's not for me to worry about how inadequate I am as a mother, or how Joel's time away will effect his relationship with Ethan. Ultimately, I make God smaller every time I doubt that He is big as I know He is. He's got this. I'm the one who needs to let it go...yet again.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we had a lovely outing, with Kirsten, to a local pumpkin patch. I believe that the last time I visited a pumpkin patch was on a Butler field trip or preschool field trip, is that right mom?

Yeah, not our best shot. A nice gentleman took this photo of us...without the best results. But, we captured the moment:).

We also ventured into the corn maze, a new experience. While we didn't cheat and cut through the corn rows, we did end up exiting the maze at the entrance. So we made our way around the maze...talking all the way...I'm not ready to admit that our chatting had an effect on our navigation;).

Ethan had a wonderful time sleeping during most of our visit. He woke up just as we were finalizing our pumpkin choices and he LOVED the pumpkins!

At first we were trying to capture him and he kept being distracted by all the bright orange "drums" around him:). So, we decided he needed a pumpkin in front of him to play with if we wanted to get a photo of him! All in all it was an easy, inexpensive outing, and one that will continue to get more fun through the years as Ethan, and subsequent children, grow.

Clearing out the digital camera: Videos

This video was probably from 2 months ago shortly after Lady had her last haircut. We had been having trouble with Lady scavaging Ethan's food while he was eating it in his highchair. We had ended up escalating the volume of our voices in exacerbation. Not productive. And definitely not the sort of example we want to set. So we went back to a training technique we learned in her puppy obedience classes many moons ago-the spray bottle.




Shortly after Ethan gained proficiency at hands and knees crawling, he started to discover his room. In anticipation of the play opportunities that he would have with bins of toys within his reach, I reorganized his room a bit for our crawling man. So, I heard some noise in Ethan's room and came in to discover he had taken his block bin out and was tasting his blocks one at a time:).




I wish I had captured Ethan's first go round of this exercise. He was absolutely SLAMMING the highchair. He had a delightful time all along, as you can see in the video.

Ethan is 10 months old!

Ethan was 10 months old as of Saturday. He is still in love with crawling as his mode of transportation and is not super interested in practicing walking. Instead, he is very interested in crawling, sitting, and dancing. Then, sitting and figuring out how to manipulate objects. He loves to try anything that makes lots of noises and involves banging. He tries to make drums out of lots of items. He also spends a lot of time dancing on his knees and singing to himself. It's neat to see him develop his own play, and of course, play with Lady. Ethan is finally more interested in assisted standing. He really enjoyed standing early on and then, I suppose because he is so proficient and speedy at crawling, he become downright opposed.

Ethan is saying his own version of: yes, that, Lady, Daddy, Dada, and Mama. Some words are clearer than others but, it is great that he is getting to a stage where I tell him the name of an item/person and he attempts to emulate the sounds. Ethan is also waving with abandon and more clearly communicating when he is ready to get out his highchair.

I cannot believe how close he is to being 1 year old?! It was so delightful to see his cousin Ella 2 weeks ago, and marvel at what we have in store in a mere 5 months.

Baby Sam

UPDATE: Baby Sam was born healthy and they are still figuring out if he will need any surgery or treatments. Thank you for all your prayers.

A friend of a friend is 37 weeks pregnant and just discovered that their son, Sam, has at least one serious heart defect and will likely require immediate surgery. I have added Sam's button to my left sidebar. Please feel free to click on the button and read more about Sam's story from his parents. Please pray for the wisdom of his medical providers and parents. That his heart defect would either be healed or else, that is something that can be healed. Finally, pray that Sam's family is a light for the Lord in the way they approach the thrown of Grace throughout this trial and entrust their son to Jesus.

Ethan is 9 months old!

Thanks to my neighbor for supplying these photos of Ethan and Sophia. Ethan is into kissing girls these days:)...oh man!

What a sweet boy!

Wow, I am seriously remiss. My last post was when Ethan turned 8 months old...

It has been a wonderfully busy month!

Mom and Dad came to visit at the beginning of the month and we had a lovely time, I will post about that soon.

As far as our sweet little man well he's busy! He still prefers to have us close by, really he wants us within touching distance:). He has made the transition to full on hands and knees crawling and now he's lightning fast! He spends a great deal of time taking books off of shelves to taste every book and bang them against each other, taking clean clothes out of the laundry basket for shaking, and attempting to yank cords, a CO monitor, and safety plug covers, out of the wall. He now eats lots of different table foods and needs 3 meals a day. Cashew butter+____ is still his favorite food option. I am particularly amused by his plum skills. He likes to suck the essence off of paper thin slices and then, and only then, chew them up. Ethan is also having more temper tantrums but part of that is a 9 month ramp up, part of it is a need to eat more frequently, and part of it is temperament. I am certainly in a place of prayer asking God to make me calmer as he ramps it up, I am the model for how to handle his emotions...with the Lord's help:).

Ethan still hates being in the nursery at church on Sunday, and chapel during Protestant Women of the Chapel (PWOC) bible study. I am toying with the idea of scrapping the nursery all together and just keeping him with me...any suggestions?

I love you my sweet Ethan, you are a joy and a blessing, and I'm so thankful to be your Mama!