One, Solitary, Step

Yeah, Jaron took a step today, yes, just one, and as soon as we try to get him to go again he curls his little legs up and refuses, so stubborn, ha! But he is pro at finding things to push around the house for practice! He's such a cutie, other new tricks of his are: giving an attempt to say "please" in sign language, getting a molar and a front tooth at one time, waving hi on occasion, drinking cow's milk, pointing the remote at the TV and stacking blocks! :-)

Ellie had a great morning, we had fun cleaning and playing, and she randomly told me she loved me, which is always a favorite, then a while later, (while she was in the bathroom) she told me I was her best friend So Sweet, I almost teared up. Of course, apparently she doesn't treat her friends that great because all through lunch she was naughty. But I have to give her the benefit of the doubt, it is super hard to stay with mom at the table or go with mom to the car, when there are all these fun Joshua student around showering her with attention. But...she should still obey. A nap fixed that and she was good the rest of the day.

Rich has been in Texas for the last couple of days and we are looking forward to his return tomorrow night! Unfortunetely, he leaves for Las Vegas on Sunday for a week, so we will be flyin' solo again. Thank goodness I have such a great community up here, that looks out for me.

I, am thinking of giving up laundry and dishes for lent, oh, is that not how that works, hmmm, I'll have to stick it out then. Boo. But really, I am trying to wear my hiking boots regularly to break them in for Israel. We just had Bible study here tonight and it went well. My partner in leading it was there for the first time after having her baby last month so that was fun.

Okay, that's all for now. Enjoy.

Horsey Ride

We just had the best couple days, we went to visit Rich's old college roommate up in Manteca. He is home from Israel where he now lives and goes to school. So you know they had a lot to talk about! Then we headed to Oakdale to our friend Bailey's house, and her family are so sweet, they just welcomed us in, made us home made lasagna and let Ellie ride their horse Lil. She was so excited and she wasn't even nervous to get on her. She had so much fun, Bailey just walked her around the property, and at one point Ellie started singing "Giddy-up, giddy-up, giddy-up let's go, let's look at the show" She's a doll! Then she got to help brush Lil's hair and get her hay and everything. We slept great, despite a small bed and a cat in the house. I think God was just protecting our little family time away. We had a pancake breakfast, then got on the road to Fresno where I got to get a haircut and then we headed to the last Hume Vision dinner. It was really neat to see Hume's "vision" for the future of this ministry.

Silly Jaron

Oh, Jaron, he's so silly! He still has his moments, for sure, and he still doesn't sleep through the night, even though he will be a year in two days!, but he sure is fun when he is in a good mood. He cracks me up. Today, he was "dancing", and he is getting better at standing and pushing things around, every day. He was even "singing" the other day on the Kareoke microphone, and lovin' it! He also has developed a sweet tooth, immediatly after having his first cupcake, and grunts for the cupboard with the dried blueberries in it. (Those are his new favorite)

I'll leave Ellie out of this blog, because she has been a pill lately, and no one wants to hear about that. It's much nicer to picture her as the obedient, sweet little angel that is inside her, instead of the feistyness that has been shown lately. :-)

Hope you have a happy day!

Almost One!

Sorry it has been so long since a blog. We have had a fairly uneventful couple of weeks. Although, it was fun to have Dan and Kristen, Kaia, and new baby Elijah come to visit, it was great to have the little cousins playing together and meeting each other. And Jaron has been learning a lot. He has been standing for little chunks of time, which is so cute, and last night he finally learned to clap. We’ll see if he remembers today. He has been trying more table food, which is fun and usually kinda messy. We are busy planning Jaron’s 1st Birthday party. Him and his friend Corin, who is 3 weeks older, are going to have a joint party. We put out a ton of invitations, so we will see how big a turn out we have tomorrow. Rich has been in LA all week with the Joshua students, and we have been doing okay here without him, mostly just meal times are tricky. You should check out the joshuawilderness.org site for updates on his trip, they have added some cool features.

Ellie's 3 year old spoiling!

Our sweet Ellie just turned 3! It has been quite the week too. Tuesday morning we had her "friends" party here at our house. It was so fun, there were like 10 kiddos here, running around everywhere. They colored and decorated cookies, and ate their creations, and played with all Ellie's toys, it was so fun! Then Wednesday morning was her first Ballet class, and she had lots of fun there. And then Wednesday night was her Joshua Party. Now the week before the cooks had asked her what she wanted to eat on her Birthday and she said Macoroni and Cheese and Corndogs, so that's what they served. Then Rich asked her if she wanted it to be a theme night and have people dress up, and she said yes, like Princesses. He asked, what about the boys, and she said they should dress up like ducks. Ha! I think because in her mind she remebered Halloween when she was a princess and Jaron was a duck, so it made perfect sense to her. Well, the Joshua students love her so much and everyone dressed up. In fact, when we arrived at the building, probably half of them ran out to greet her and wish her a happy birthday! Rich played all her favorite songs, you know, Stuck in the Middle by Lenka, Are we Human or are we Dancer by The Killers, Glamorous and Big Girls Don't Cry by Fergie, some Coldplay, you know, all the normal songs that 3 year olds love. BaHAhaha! She was so cute, she would get kinda nervous and shy, then she would here one of "her songs" and run to the middle of the dance floor and jump and dance, then run back to her seat. I don't think she even had one whole bite of her food because she was so excited and nervous. Then we brought out her cake, which I had attempted to decorate a crown on but ran out of frosting and I had forgotten the candle, so they just sang while I brought it to her, and then I took it and cut it. It was really yummy despite the unpolished decoration. Then as the students cleaned up and got changed for their meeting we had some family time (Rich's parents are up) and Ellie opened her presents. Thank you one and all, she absolutely loved everything! It was so cute as she opened them and would realize what something was, at least three times, she was like, "this is what I wanted". Well done! Then Thursday morning we had her 3 year old Doctor visit and she had to get shots, sad day, but she was a trooper, as soon as they gave her a sucker, she got over it. It was just her and me who went down together, so it was special. We went to Chevy's and they sang to her and brought her the sombrero and ice cream treat, so fun! She was very confused why they did not sing the normal Happy Birthday song, I told her it was complicated. Anyways, that was our week, well besides the baby shower I hosted on Monday night, Bible study on Tuesday night, a women's event and then Broom Hockey on Wednesday night, the Passover Sader at Joshua on Thurday night and dinner with the family at the Hospitality House tonight, whew! What a Birthday Week!

A Good Night Sleep

Rich and I got brave and decided to leave the kids here at Hume with some very sweet and willing Joshua girls, while we went down to LA for our friend's wedding. We had a great time and had a late anniversary dinner at the amazing Ruth's Chris. Yummy! Steak, Lobster, Creme Brule, and NO KIDS! Whoo Hoo! Okay, so we love our children dearly, but it was so fantastic to have a whole nights sleep, all in a row. It was very timely, since my brain had begun to quickly deteriorate with the little sleep I had been getting. All refreshed and back at home. Oh and the wedding was great too! The bride plays Belle at Disneyland and played Jasmine at Disney, Tokyo, so the special music was phenominal and of course, she looked gorgeous! If they made a "Belle gets married" Barbie this is the dress she would wear. And they are a very sweet couple who have been dating for several years. The groom runs Reflect ministry. A ministry to the poor children in Mexico. Very cool. Anyways, the girls survived and gave us hope for the future, particularly the Israel trip. No pictures, sorry.

So many things

Okay, so first, Happy New Year! We went to our friend's house and just ate and let the kids all play, while occasionally checking in with the ball drop. Pretty low key, we left before midnight, wow different stage of life. But the best part of the night was by far, when I randomly said "Happy New Year" to Jaron in this funny voice and he just thought it was absolutely hilarious! The next day, nope, he was over it, but that night he would just laugh and laugh. I hope you enjoy the video.
Well first event of 2009 for us, was going to Pine Valley for the week with the Joshua kids. The trip went fine for most of the students, but for our little family it was rather tiring. We were all sharing a room, which is always interesting, and our sweet little Jaron must have not felt very good because he spent most nights crying/screaming for several hours of the night. I took him driving one night and Rich took him the next. It was pretty sad and exhausting but luckily Ellie slept through most of it.
The students got a lot of work done at the camp and then had a free day in San Diego. I took that day to do a little shopping and then head up to mom's to visit with Josh and his family and mom. (And to let Rich get a good night's sleep before driving all day) Saturday, I met up with all the vans and grabbed a couple girls to ride with me. They were a big help in the car and the trip up went really well.
We are home now, and tomorrow should be interesting. I'm taking Jaron, hopefully, to the doctor, and Rich will be back in the office at Joshua. The whole class and staff start a fast tomorrow, so hopefully that will go smoothly. And it is the first "normal" week since the students Christmas break, so there will be a lot of catching up to do.
We are looking forward to having Rich's parents up next week and for Ellie to start Ballet and have her birthday. All very exciting!