My Poor Attempt to Update.......!

                                                               12 Weeks! (2 weeks ago!)
Tom and I are excited about our expectation of TWINS to our family but no doubt that this reality comes with a little anxiety at least for me!  When I think naively, as a new mom does, of having two little precious babies to cuddle I am very excited!  But when I think of all the work, as an experienced mom, I become overwhelmed in my thoughts of caring for two vs one and still wanting to be the best mom I can be to my first precious gift from God!  At times I have cried over the overwhelming thoughts of it and yet I don't want to be unthankful for these precious gifts!  My husband ALWAYS lovingly reminds that God has provided these two babies and blessed us in that and He will provide for us in our needs for them and our strength and our patience comes from God alone.  Another dear friend reminded me over tea that God would never bring anything into our lives that would be detrimental to Titus as I worry about being a great mom to him while caring for two infants.  It is funny to me how many women have told me "I always wanted twins!" and I think "Really?, the reality of it just seems a bit overwhelming to me!"  We both have always thought that twins is something that happens to other people but we wouldn't have them ourselves!

My pregnancy with them has been one of feeling great thus far!  My biggest challenge has been sleeping and I think from not getting enough sleep at times I seem to have minor headaches now and then.  But I have been blessed in both pregnancies to be able to eat what I want whenever I want and not suffer from morning sickness!  I am naively excited about getting a little further along when I can feel them both moving, I say naively cuz I am sure at some point the size of my belly will just be an unbearable discomfort and I will just want them to be born.  But I always have thought pregnancy and feeling that life in you is one of the most amazing gifts God has given to women!  I have felt them move now and then already, starting around 11 weeks was when I first knew it was them moving and not something else!

Titus continues to just grow up so fast!  He is gaining in his vocabulary with words like "ca" for car, "ball", "Pooh" when he sees Winnie the Pooh, "tee" for teeth and a few others but those are his most used!  He understands so much like "time to brush your teeth" and "time for a nap or bed", he runs to those places to 'do' those things!  Last night he slept with 3 balls in his crib with him!  He loves to watch both basketball and football, and practice those different 'throws'.  Even from watching hockey he likes to find something to push the balls around on the floor with like he is playing the game!  He loves to eat just about anything, veggies are his biggest struggle while fresh fruits are his favorite, but he will eat or try just about anything else you put in front of him!  I tried to get him onto drinking cows milk by putting Nesquik in it, the least amount I could and it still taste like chocolate and that lasted about 2 weeks and then he didn't really enjoy it anymore.  But he loves water so that is great!  I haven't even desired to introduce him to juice, he can discover that on his own, his Pediatrician said it doesn't really do anything beneficial for them and eating fresh fruits is much better because of the fiber than drinking the juice alone so we'll just stick with that as long as we can!

Well obviously we are going to have to move from our 2 bedroom place before these babies come!  We feel most comfortable and at peace continuing to rent a place, we already have to buy a car that will fit all of us with the 3 car seats we will have and with the twins coming this year we feel that those two things are big enough to take on without a house payment and all the responsibility that comes with owning!  We feel we would have a little more financial freedom if we continued to rent rather than own.  We have looked at a few places and none of them either seemed big enough even as 3 bedrooms or they are too old with things outdated that we are not comfortable with with small children around!  We have one lead that we are waiting and praying for!  A man in our church approached Tom about a split level house him and his wife rent out in a nice location of town near our church!  It has 3 bedrooms plus a bonus room with 2 bathrooms, a gas fireplace downstairs, a dishwasher and lino on the dining room floor!  We currently have carpeting in our dining room which is ok with 1 child but I don't think is so wise with 3 and I have not had a dishwasher in the last 6 years I've been in this place!  It also has a nice yard and is on a quiet street!  We haven't seen the inside of it yet and they currently get $1000 for rent plus the tenant pays all the utilities but he said they would be willing to negotiate on the rent!  Our current budget only allows for around $1000/month to put towards all of that and we would be living pretty tightly for a while til Tom gets a raise.  He was going to find out what is paid in the current utilities and set a time for us to look at it and then we can talk!  We probably wouldn't be able to move in there until July as the current renter is staying until school gets out for her kids.  So we are very hopeful on this place and looking forward to see what God has for us no matter where it is!

Wow! Hello December!

Man alive, I have gotten terrible at keeping up with the blog and I blame Facebook!  I apologize for those of you who actually may enjoy reading this and I have not posted recently!

Our family is doing great, all is pretty much healthy besides the normal cold here and there!  Titus and I both have that right now but that is minor compared to dealing with health issues on a daily basis.  Tom's work at Allegiance is going well, he just changed shifts again from 7-4 to now 6-3pm!  He is still adjusting to this change, his lunch is now at 10am and I don't think he feels like he is actually hungry at that time for a 'lunch'.  And usually Titus is napping at that time so he can no longer come home for lunch otherwise 99% of the time it wakes Titus up early from his much needed nap. 

Titus just reached the 18 month mark and will have a well baby check on Monday!  I am actually in the process of weaning him right now!  Since about a year of age I would say, he has only been nursing first thing in morning and then naps and bedtime (4 times a day) but since this last Saturday I have only nursed him twice a day and yesterday I tried to get away with no nursing at all but he was very upset at his nap time in the morning with this and therefore no nap occurred!  Today so far a success, no nursing and nap is being enjoyed right now!  We will see!  I am excited at the possibility of being free of that but sad too because that means he is growing up that much more and needs his mommy for one less thing.  But I think emotionally for him is it better now than to wait from things I have heard from other moms who have continued past 18 months.

Titus is getting two more teeth in, making it 14 teeth now!  He looks more and more everyday like a little boy and no longer a baby.  And he has an arm on him and loves to 'play catch' the best an 18 month old knows how!  He loves gadgets and electronics and the toilet right now.  Thankfully he has yet to flush anything down it but he loves watching the swirl of the flush!  He continues to love his bath time and splashing mommy or daddy as much as possible!  And he loves climbing anywhere he can get!

Our Thanksgiving was eventful!  We were expecting to spend it alone or with maybe some college students  who had no where to go since Tom's parents already planned with us to come for Christmas!  But what was going to be their trip to WA to spend with their other son and his family turned into all coming to Missoula for a better part of their trip to spend with us and my sister-in-laws family who lives in Lolo and Bozeman!  It all worked out and was much fun for Titus with his cousins, aunt, uncle, grandparents and others and we will get to see the grandparents for Christmas again!  It would be nice to see my parents for Christmas and the invitation is there but I don't think they will make it considering the long drive on possibly very scary roads!  I have to admit that I felt very upset when I found out that one side of the family was getting us for both major holidays and felt that no one had thought about how I would feel about that.  But the Lord calmed those angry feelings one day and although I wasn't really looking forward to Thanksgiving it went a lot better than I expected and all the things that I get very anxious about when it comes to in-laws never really transpired.  Which I keep finding that 90% of the time that is the case, all my anxiety is for nothing!  Praise God for that!

Anyway I think that is all for now!  Hope you enjoy some of the new pics and music I changed out on the blog!  We have a snow covering here in Montana, how is the weather where you are?  

Hiking Adventures!

Fourth of July weekend we did a hike down in the Bitterroots just past Hamilton called the Sawtooth Trail.  It was very pretty, Tom says it was about 6 miles round trip, and a lot of it was along a creek which was so beautiful and when our trail would go along the creek it would be cool temperatures from like our knees down and felt so good in the hot warm sun.  Lots of the trail was shaded but still warm.  Our intention was to hike into a pond so that Tom could fish and catch us some trout for a late lunch.  Well you have to cross the creek towards the end, about 1/2 mile, from the pond and the crossing log had been washed away!  So Tom tried fishing the creek in that area where we were supposed to cross and had caught one small one but otherwise no luck.  He thought about keeping it just to show Titus but he didn't want to waste a fish.

Titus did ok on this hike, it was a little bit long I think and we also had to drive about 1 hr and a half just to get there!  So overall I would say he did good for his first long hike!

In the lot before we left, Titus' first exploration of sand and gravel!  He was so cute playing in the "dirt".

Titus and Daddy with his fly rod!

Some of the raging creek, so nice and beautiful.  Titus had fallen asleep on the way in and I think this is where he got disturbed from the raging of the water, he was not a happy hiker then!

Titus loves clapping, he had just discovered it that weekend!  We were in a little 'camping' site here eating some snacks that thankfully were packed while we were waiting for our fisherman to catch us good one!  Better fishing next time!

This last weekend we went up the Morrell Falls up in Seeley Lake, MT.  Titus did really well for this hike and was even playing with, ok pulling, Mommy's hair on our way back out!  He did not complain at all unless he was hungry.  This hike is 5 miles round trip and has a beautiful waterfall at the end of it!  This hike is very easy, only about a 250 ft. elevation gain on it, if you have not been there, you need to go!  The waterfall cascades and is 200 ft. total but you only see about 90 ft. of it because of the cascading.  Still so beautiful and it was very cool in there from the mist of the falls!  Little Titus' lips and hands were purple but he didn't care!

We could not get Titus to look at the camera, the falls were just to exciting for him!

We also took my cousin Nate basically on the spur of the moment with us, he hadn't been there since he was in a backpack himself and I bribed him by telling him the falls were 900 ft.!  Whoops!  Before we left I got out my day hike book and found out that I was mistaken!

Mommy and Titus on the creek crossing bridge, clapping!

Walking, Climbing & Much More!

More and more I know I am really enjoying my time at home as a full time mom.  Titus is just growing into this fun little boy and he is so precious in so many ways.  His smile is precious, his personality is precious, his learning capabilities are precious, his tender heart is precious and his spirit is precious.  Thank You Father for such a precious child to call my own for the time he is here on this earth.  May I be faithful to nurture his heart into a young boy who loves You in every way.  He has already shown concern for others, when we are around other children and they get hurt or start crying for other reasons, he goes to them and seems as though he is curious as to whether they are okay.  I just love watching his interaction with others, he is very curious and ready to "play" with others.  Makes his mama's heart just melt.

Daddy captured a great smile that I wanted to share with you all!  He has 8 teeth!

My cousin Heidi just graduated from Valley Christian High School here in Missoula last Sunday and this was a toy that my uncle put out for the kids to play with, his old set of roping horns!  Titus loved it, notice the verse reference on the "ear tag".

At 49 weeks, last Saturday, Titus started taking his first steps!  Every time we would get out the video he would resort to crawling!  He is doing it more everyday, I WILL catch him with my video eye!

Trying to get him to balance to walk on his own at the dance following the graduation party!  A first ever Valley related dance, woohoo go Valley!  Daddy dressed him for church that day!  Can you tell?  Mom picked the shirt out at the store though!

We did our first backpack hike last night!  Very awesome!  We went up to the "L", only 1 1/2 mile round trip and elevation gain of 500 ft.!  It was much easier than the time we did it last year just after I had Titus!  It was a breeze compared to what I remember then!

"L" stands for my Love and Lil Muffin in my opinion!  Ha!  Titus loved the backpack, he was just "chatting" away and enjoying his snacks mommy brought him!  I was shocked, he did much better than the first time we tried it, course he was much smaller then.

The view of good ol Missoula from the "L".

Some beautiful wildflowers we saw on our hike included the Indian Paintbrush!

Titus missing his oldest cousin, Gracie!  He was "chatting" away at her pic and loving the frame she is in.

Can you say "spider man!"  He climbs up on the rocking chair himself and then decides he wants to go for the speaker and climbs the back of the chair!  Yes, he does know the word "No!" already but I wanted to get a pic of it first!

Growing Boy!

So I took my sweet little man to see the pretty nurse today to see how big he is getting! He has officially outgrown his infant car seat which makes his mommy sad, that means he is that much closer to turning 1 yr. physically to me anyway! He is now 30 in. long and weighs 19 lbs. 3 1/2 oz., but what should I expect, I am 5'9" and Tom is 6'4". So now we can install his "captains chair" as I will call it, that is what it looks like straight off of Star Trek! Ha!

I am so excited though this weekend we are going to make a big purchase for Titus, he will get a Chariot Carrier Cougar 2 Stroller/Trailer Chassis, Lord willing! But it has different kits you can buy to attach to it for use also in cross country skiing, jogging and hiking! So it is like a 5-in-1 deluxe carrier! We thought it would be best to purchase the 2 passenger one because we plan on having more than 1 child sooner than later. It is $85 more and holds a 100 lb. limit rather than the 75 lb. limit of the 1 passenger Chariot. But we have our member dividend back from REI and 20% off a full price item to use this weekend so those combined alone will make purchasing it AND a kit about the same price as the Chariot Carrier 1 passenger alone! So that is awesome!

Tom has gotten a cold this week and actually stayed home from work yesterday, which takes a lot for him to stay home. But he's starting to feel better and he is making salmon tonight, mmmmm, he got some out today to thaw from his ice fishing catch this winter. So excited, he also has a break from youth group tonight because of the kids' spring break!

Titus is starting to eat peas, green beans & broccoli, he also loves his bananas with yogurt!

Well I best be going, hope you have had a wonderful God blessed day!

What Would You Do?

Hey I would totally be adding pics today of my handsome boy but Tom has our camera and he is with his friend Mike up Lolo Pass tonight to spend the night in a snow cave that they will build for themselves!  They will return early tomorrow in time for church.  Sounds fun but Titus is a bit to young for that, so fun pics shall come later this week if not tomorrow!

Titus is making more and more gibberish noise everyday, I mean I know he is talking, I am just not clued into what language it is yet?  Anyway whatever he is saying is sure cute and interesting to all of us!  He is so close to walking, with your help he will walk straight forward on the length of the living room to the kitchen no problem.  He is getting two top teeth in, one front one and one beside it on his left side.  Makes for a cute smile, why is a smile like that so creepy on an adult?  Anyway good times with him, he remains a generally happy baby despite all of his tooth action going on.  He is such a sweet little blessing and I am so excited for his first words and for him to be able to talk!  Can you imagine?

I wanted to tell you of an interesting incident that happened earlier this week.  On Wednesdays I have started to help Daisy with her kids for almost a few hours in the afternoons.  Something that makes her life a little easier AND gives our children some time to play together on a regular basis so that they know each other.  Well this last Wednesday I got home around 6:30 I figured out from looking at some of my text, and one of our neighbors (lives in same building, which is like a 12 plex but it split up into 3 sets of four if that makes sense?) who lives one section up from us, same as us, upstairs and to the left, was sitting out in his big Chevy truck listening to music loudly.  Like his doors were shut but it sounded like church bells were ringing from downtown, that is how loud it was but muffled because doors were shut.  This is very unusual for him, never seen him do it before, him and his wife have lived here since I believe Tom has, I remember them moving in shortly after we got married.  They are older, like old enough to be my parents and from the south, they have those neat accents you always wish you could perfect yourself and they have always been really nice whenever we have talked in passing.  Anyway Tom left for youth group about 6:50 and he was still in his truck listening to his music Tom said.  Well Tom likes to chat with Brian usually or students can be slow at getting out of the youth room, so yg is usually from 7-9 but Tom honestly rarely gets home before 9:30 and sometimes closer to 10.  Well I laid Titus down just shy of 9 and I just simply take him in his room and lay him down, I don't turn on lights or anything, he is in the front room of our apartment right next to the entryway.  And then I made sure the door was unlocked because it never fails that every time Tom comes home, lunch time usually, but sometimes on Wednesday nights too, he wakes him up getting his key in the door and getting the door opened.  Well I went and sat down on the couch and all the sudden someone basically sounds like they are running up the steps and comes in the apt and kind of slams the door I would say compared to how Tom and I close the door.  I knew it wasn't Tom!  He would have been home way to early and he never is that loud coming up the stairs or coming in the door!

Now what transpired next only took place in about the span of 2-3 minutes but seemed like 10 to me!  I immediately began to question "who was there?"  And I received no answer, I had the TV on too so I am not sure if he thought it was the television but I thought I was asking rather loudly in a demanding voice.  "Tom is that you?",  no answer, "Who is in the house?" no answer.  Soon he turned on the hall light and he said "What is this thing?" referring to Tom's Chimney Starter for his charcoal grill that was sitting in our entry area.  If you don't know what it is, google it, it is kind of a strange looking thing if you don't know what it is or use a charcoal grill.  Well I was standing near our bedroom door in the back of apartment when he asked that ? because I was going to get the shot gun in our bedroom because this stranger was not answering me and he was right next to my sons bedroom!  When he posed that ? I said "you are in the wrong apartment" and he apologized and turned around to leave.  I recognized his voice with his accent when he apologized and then I went to see him out so that I could see him and make sure it was who I thought it was and all I saw was the back of him as he left.  And I smelled cigarettes for sure on him and possibly more like alcohol but I'm not sure, all I know is he reeked! 

Titus woke just as the door shut and started crying and my heart was beating so fast, I don't think I have been so scared since crazy incidents happened to my sisters, mom and I when I was in junior high!  Titus was really upset I think because he heard me basically yelling at this guy with my ?'s and mommy is never that loud when he is sleeping!  Now I think it was an honest mistake on his part coming into the wrong apartment, we both live upstairs on the left and when he finally turned on the light he voiced a ? like he didn't recognize where he was and immediately apologized and left.  But it is strange that if he came to our apartment directly from his truck, why that happened, he parks straight out from his own apartment and always has!  But possibly he was sitting out there smoking if his wife doesn't let him smoke inside (these are no smoking places) and he went down to the dumpster to get rid of his ashes and such which is down past our place and walking back up towards his place, he turned in to go to his apt. one sidewalk too soon?  I don't know, I talked to our neighbors downstairs that I would trust with anything and they thought it was a complete accident from what they know of him.  They tend to get to know the people around them if possible cuz they are old and retired and he does all the snow shoveling around our building and cars.  And he helped this couple when they moved in since their moving trailer blew out a tire.  Plus they are Christians and watch out for me like they are my own grandparents.

But there is always ?'s of whether it was an accident or not.  I told my mom the following morning and she and my dad both thought that at best an incident report needed to be given to the police in case it wasn't an accident and it happens again!  The concerned grandparents and parents that they are, which they should be, immediately thought of all the worst case scenarios that could have happened (baby kidnapping, rape, sexual abuse) and that was all that I thought about the next day while Tom was at work.  And this world is crazy and only getting worse despite what people living in denial want to believe.  But there isn't any of those listed offenders above living in these apartments, as I checked online and the closest is 1.45 miles away according to familywatchdog.com.  And I believe that God is Sovereign and knew what was going to happen, maybe this accident happened for a reason.  Maybe this is a wake up call to get to know our neighbors and reach out to them.  My neighbors downstairs did tell me that this guys dad just had a stroke like this week and he may need to travel to OK for him.  All I know is we are praying about our response to this incident because we do feel we need to approach them about it in some way.  But what would you do?  Our natural reaction is to assume the worst and fight, and our natural reaction comes from our sinful nature of Adam.  But what is our supernatural reaction supposed to be, coming from our new nature in Christ?

Sorry this is extremely long but I wanted to share this story with you.

My Handsome Boy!

It has been a little while since I wrote last, but I joined the whole Facebook scene and have been reconnecting with people from way back on there.  I was so against the whole thing for a while obviously but I figured that if I really want to reconnect with people and stay connected with them, that was the thing I needed to do.  I prefer the blog thing because it is more personal and in some ways more user friendly, like if you want to see all the old prego pics of me you can just click on pregnancy under labels and voila you have all my entries from when I was pregnant!  Haha!  And you get to decorate your blog which is more expressive of me than a white wall!  Plus I don't really like how on Facebook you are told of every move someone makes including friends of friends that you don't even know yourself!  That is my friends business not mine.

Anyway, it has been spring weather for sure this last week here in Montana!  So beautiful, I have even broke out my Capri's which some people have commented that it is a little early but it is beautiful.  Yesterday it got up into the 60's and we went for a little family stroll on a trail that kind of goes through town and it was very busy with bikers, dogs with their owners and others like us.

Another fun thing we did this weekend was go to Pier 1 Imports, we wanted to check out there sushi dishes and supplies since Tom wants to start making our own sushi at home.  What a fun store, I was wondering why we didn't register there when we got married.  I was wishing that Tom made like 20k more a year when we were in that store but then we wouldn't fit in our apartment!  Course we probably wouldn't live in our apartment if he did!

Titus is just a curious little man as I am sure any baby is, he is exploring cupboards and anywhere he can get his little body into.  He has balanced standing about a handful or so times this last weekend hands free!  I am sure anytime he will just take off walking.  He is so much fun and such a sweet blessing.  He is just starting to get his first top tooth in, I have seen it peering under the gum line for about a week now and I think it is just breaking thru!  That will add his fourth tooth to his sweet little grin! Oh and he loves papaya, new food on his list.

Titus with one of his favorite new toys to play with, thanks auntie Rachelle for thinking of him when you needed to get rid of it.

I think his favorite part is when you look in the mirror with him and say, "Who's that baby?"  He always gets a big grin on his face.

Hello All!

It has been a little while since I actually wrote an update, so I thought I would do that this morning even though I am sure most of you just enjoy the pictures of our adorable little blessing in this home!

As you can see from my design change I am getting anxious for Spring to arrive, just to get outside and enjoy beautiful warm sunshine with Tom and Titus will be fun and refreshing.  We did get some fresh snow last night so it does look quit crisply beautiful outside now.  And we always have visiting deer outside our living room window in the gully below our apartment and they are much easier to spot with fresh snow on the ground than dead grass at this point revealed through as the snow melts away.  So I will be thankful for the snow but still long for Spring to come in my heart. 

Spring brings newness of life and reminds us of the new life we have in Christ especially with Easter approaching and we get to celebrate Christ's victory over sin and death in this world with His Resurrection.  He takes the old sin nature we have and gives us the opportunity to live with a new sinless nature, reminding us that every morning His mercy is new for us.  We have a choice of which nature we want to follow and please, ours or His?  Do we want to speak words of death or words of life into someone else's life?  Do we want to live a defeated life or do we want to live a loved life?  Do we want to feel like an old muddy pond day in and day out or a spring in the mountains with fresh, clean water coming up through us each moment?  Do we want to feel like we live in a rut or live with purpose and a mission in life from the Author of Life Himself?  Just some food for thought for you.

This last weekend we got to enjoy some time with the Sells (smallies) kids.  Daisy had a little weekend "getaway" with a girlfriend here in town, they didn't want to travel far because you never know what the weather might do here.  So Sunday after church we went over for our "shift" of the weekend for her which was till she got home around dinner time.  It was so much fun, if we had a big enough place I am not sure that 5 children would be that bad honestly.  Mia wanted to make some of her own kitchen creations so I was up for letting her get into it.  She made a "blueberry shake" with the blender.  Which included of course frozen blueberries, ice cubes, a little water and a little strawberry syrup?  Her and Sior thoroughly enjoyed it so I guess it was good.  Then she wanted to attempt to make a homemade cinnamon roll!  She mixed some flour, water, an egg and some cinnamon together and we baked it in the oven!  I knew it wouldn't turn out but I was kind of busy making lunch and then trying to get Titus to nap and the twins to nap while she was making her concoction.  And when it came out of the oven she put a packet of that raspberry Emergen-C stuff on top of it!  Yikes!  Then Sior decided he wanted to get in on the fun so we made a real yellow cake from a box and decided it was a "Welcome Home Mom" cake, (auntie Carrie's way of not letting them eat some until mom got home).  It was complete with Rainbow Sprinkle frosting!  And then I decided I wanted to make banana bread too since Daisy had some good ripe bananas perfect for it.  Both Mia and Sior helped me with that too.  They actually did the mixing and cracking of the eggs and most of the work and I loved it.  So I told them that they will have to come spend the night with us and we can make real homemade cinnamon rolls.  Poor Titus did not nap for us though which we were afraid that would happen, in a "strange" place and the twins love to make lots of noise and play very loudly before they actually fall asleep so it was not going to work for him.  But Tom ended up separating them because he could tell one was sleepy and the other was just instigating.  So only 1 out of the 3 children needing naps got one.  But Titus went to bed pretty early after we got home cuz he was so tired so that was nice, I just felt bad cuz he got extremely crabby.

Titus got to explore crawling up steps for the first time two Sundays ago!  I knew he could do it if given the chance, we just don't have any steps so we tried it at church and he went right up them!  I was kind of surprised!  Then this last Sunday we did it again and again during the Sunday School hour, I guess the part I will have to teach is coming down the steps?!

Oh I am attempting to learn how to knit!  I bought this teaching book with the tools and an instructional DVD too.  It was funny, with the first two lessons in the book so far it has been hard for me to just get it and then I watch the video and I still have trouble.  But my wonderful husband who probably wouldn't want you to know this is a quick learner and after watching the video he knew what she was doing and he taught me the first two lessons which is all I've done so far!  He is amazing, I told him I married him because he would teach me how to knit!  Lol!  No then I told him it was because he can do anything he puts his mind to!  That is partly true for me!  So I am very excited because I have recently just wanted to learn something like that where you can make your own things and I think my first project will be a baby blanket for my precious boy!  Can't wait, I will have to post pics.

Must go my sweet little man is awake from his nap now.

Happy Valentine's To You!

I thought I would post a cute video of our sweet man for you on Valentine's Day!  Sorry it is sideways, I thought YouTube would flip it the right way but it didn't, learning for next time for me.  Enjoy and remember to scroll down to music player at bottom of blog to pause the music so you can enjoy the sound on the video.

Baby Food Cooking...

So for now anyway I make my own baby food for Titus, it is cheaper, healthier, tastes like real food of course but not necessarily easier.  Although, it is fairly easy just not as easy as picking something off the shelf at the store.  I have a book that helps me a lot with knowing what to do and what to offer him for first stage weaning and second stage weaning called The Healthy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel. 

Here I am steaming pears, as steaming is the best way to preserve the vitamins and fresh flavor.

Here is my little food processor that I picked up at a rummage sale long before I was married!  Perfect for pureeing baby food!

And here is my ice cube tray with the pears for freezing the perfect portion size for Titus!  Just put them in a Ziploc and label and date them, will be good for 8 weeks! 

And it seriously tastes good, I always try it and if Titus doesn't finish his portion then I do because it actually tastes yummy.  So far we have done apples, sweet potato, carrots, pears and parsnip.  Parsnip looks like a white carrot and tastes like a cross between carrot and sweet potato to me.

Does this count for sitting mom?

Titus loves sitting on his bottom like this now!  This is his favorite spot to sit too, next to "his" pot in front of the entertainment center glass.  He can see someone in there (his favorite reflection) and bang on "his" pot.  Man once he started crawling he is just catching on to everything, sitting so his legs help balance him, pulling himself up to stand and now just in the last few minutes he seems to be waiving at us?!  Not sure if that is really happening cuz mommy is terrible at showing him to do that but that is what it seems like he is doing to both Tom and I.  He is getting his third tooth this last week to, all three on the bottom.  Makes his smile even more cute.

33 Weeks and Crawling!

I decided to rename our blog because I think the title with the description subtitle fits us more appropriately. I either write about Titus or the fish my dear husband catches..... both which bring me much joy and whom I am very grateful to our great God for! Let me know what you think of it vs the old one.

So Friday evening Titus started crawling pretty confidently. It is interesting cuz it is slow and steady and you almost don't know if it is really happening. I usually text our family as soon as he does something new in his milestones but I waited til Saturday to make sure he was going to keep doing it! He still army crawls sometimes but I think he likes his new found ability! We are so excited and wanted to share it with you all!   There is sound, so you will want to scroll to bottom of page first to pause music so you can enjoy!

Changes....

What a blessing it is to be able to be home with Titus as he grows through all of these precious stages. I finally felt after about 6 1/2 months to get a routine down that makes both of us happy. That seems kind of long to me to catch on but at least it isn't longer is all I figure. He takes a good nap in the morning and then usually a good one in the afternoon, sometimes those ones are shorter than I would like but at least he takes one routinely. I still need to work on my time management skills with actually getting some things done around the house on a more routine basis, but that is coming and hopeful since he does take a couple naps.

I momentarily stopped going to BSF because of our car situation and I really want Titus to be crawling before I put him in the children's program there. But the car situation is close to being completely worked out and more details will be coming once it is final! Thank you to any of you who have been praying for that situation for us.


Titus is very close to crawling, he will get in the position and either rock back and forth or he will actually take a few strides and then fall to his belly!


He is almost learning two things at once, it is funny to see how it all works because I would have thought sitting up would come first. But they are kind of coming at the same time, he does this all the time now, soon he will realize he can plop himself up and over onto his bottom.


Mealtimes... he loves the spoon and wants to grab it and do it himself all the time. Right now he loves his rice cereal and we are working on sweet potatoes and apples and carrots.

6 Months Old!?

What? Where has the time gone? I can't believe Titus is half a year old already and my heart can't believe it either! I was pathetically crying to Tom on Saturday night about the time going so fast and how much I don't want Titus to grow up and get older. I want him to stay an infant even though at times this stage can be trying for me at least. He is just beginning the stage where he is clingy and I thought it was tough before, at least he enjoyed his toys for a small amount of time without Mom being there but now he does on rare occasion. If mom tries to have him entertained with his toys so she can do the dishes, man that is a no no! I try to reassure him that he is okay without picking him up but that rarely works. And it is hard to find peace or pleasure in letting your little baby cry because you know they are okay but they don't think they are. Anyway he will only continue to get older and eventually won't need me and I don't like that idea. He is also starting to get snugly and that will someday go away too!

Well we introduced rice cereal yesterday as you can see in this cute pic of his first bite. Daddy got to feed him too, he took about 5 or 6 bites I would say and then he wasn't interested anymore. I think he liked it just not as much/long as I thought he would but what do I know, it was his first time. I would say he swallowed half of what we fed him and the other half ran down his chin! Anyway it was very cute and exciting. Although I am not excited for stinky solid food stool! With breast milk it barely stinks ever except when he passes gas!


Then we took him outside to see what he thought of the snow since dad was out there grilling some pork ribs, which were so delicious by the way. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Course dad thought he would like to taste the snow since he likes to put everything else in his mouth. That lasted a short bit and then he was cold.

Today was his 6 month well check! He is 16 lbs. 11 1/2 oz. now and 28 1/4 in. long! It is always interesting, every time he has a Dr. appt. and mom wants to get there a little early he has a blow out at home before we leave and I have to change his clothes along with his diaper and practically wipe his whole body down! So we still get there on time but just once I would like to get there early! He is starting to army crawl also! Very impressive to me, he gets his knees up under him but he doesn't put the two together yet. I don't think it will be long though.

Well I should go, we are trying to get things in order to leave for IL on Monday! Not long away, so excited! Oh just a prayer request if you think of it, my old red car that I have had forever (1996) I think has seen it's day! We are pretty sure there is a head gasket problem because the car is overheating and the oil looks like the coolant is leaking into it. It would most likely cost more to fix it than what the car is worth. So we are praying for what we should do, it will be interesting to see how the Lord provides for this need. This week Tom is driving his car to work, which I have been using since Titus was born, and we either go with him to have the car for the day or we stay home all day with no car. Our budget is pretty tight to be able to afford a monthly payment on something so we are not sure what is going to happen?

Hellooooo!

Well since I last wrote obviously life has gone on and Titus just keeps developing into the cutest baby boy I have ever loved, which has not been a whole lot in my life, Sior (pronounced like shore) and Jayce to name the ones I think of immediately. Oh I remember when Sior was a baby and I would hold him and I just remember thinking I want one these precious baby boys of my own. Now he is five years old and I do have one of my own! Anyway we had a busy day on Halloween since it was Sunday, there was of course church, then we did family pictures and then Sior had his birthday party which was a harvest party. His birthday was on the 29th and we were supposed to come dressed up but Tom and I both refuse to participate in teaching our child anything that has to do with Halloween, even if it is made as simple as a harvest party. We both participated in it when we were children but it is interesting that both of us on our own had decided that was something we did not want for our kids. Anyway it was a fun party with great food and company and fun for the birthday boy and that is what matters.

We went to one of our favorite places up the Rattlesnake for our family pictures. Some pictures were taken on the this bridge that we have played cribbage on a couple of times up there. I was very nervous because I think my smile is always fake but what a blessing it was to get them back and find that you couldn't tell that and most of them turned out awesome. Our photographer was a girl from our church who really got into it once she started having kids and she did a great job with posing us and making it comfortable and natural feeling. She spent a little over an hour with us and then she goes through all the poses and pics out her favorite one in each pose and sharpens it in color and then pics out her second favorite in each pose and turns it black and white and then erases the rest of the shots and gives all of them to you on a cd for you to do what you want with them. So we actually got about 58 pictures back, which I think is awesome. And she was very affordable!

Oh the total proceeds of the pumpkin patch ended up being over $18,000 to go towards the Great Commission Fund of the Alliance Missionaries! How awesome is that?!

Titus now always sleeps on his belly, we initially start him on his back but he always rolls over now. Which is awesome because now his little bald patches can grow back fully that his mattress has rubbed off.

Tom went hunting this last Saturday with Brian and Ronnie but they did not have any luck. They are going to go again next Saturday and we will be praying they get something between the three of them. Titus and I hung out with Rachelle and her kids and Dawn and her boys at Brian and Rachelle's house while the boys hunted. That was fun for the all and good soup for dinner.

Oh Tom and I did get to go on our first date also on the 30th. Thanks to Brian and Rachelle, they not only sponsored our date by giving towards pretty much the whole meal but they watched Titus for us. I was so relieved, I knew that he was in good hands and I was able to fully enjoy myself and time with Tom. We went to Johnny Carino's and I got my favorite eggplant dish there! Then we also went to Starbucks and got some non coffee beverages and then we went for a short walk in a park near Brian and Rachelle's house and when we pulled up to the park we got a text from Brian that said "no hurry but he is starting to get fussy." So we did our short walk and got over there and he was crying really hard and his face was all red and he just looked mad. He was hungry which I knew he would be getting, we were out about 2 hours and he ate before we left their house but that is about how long he lasts before he is hungry again. Otherwise he did great and he didn't complain or anything till he got hungry and he loved playing with Kezia, Shaelie and Jayce. And Rachelle was so sweet, she knew he was hungry and she couldn't do anything about it and she just tried to comfort him till we got there.

Anyway that is about it, I do have most of the family pictures uploaded to Costco.com, if you want to see them and possibly order some, I can send you an email invite to view them. They will have you set up an account to view them but that does NOT require a membership to Costco. Just let me know by email, tom.carrie.johnson@gmail.com, and if you don't have a Costco near you to order some to pick up I can upload to WalMart and you would be able to pick them up there, I have done that for my sister and Tom's parents already and WalMart online is pretty easy to work with also. Otherwise we will probably send out one for a Christmas card but it may most likely have typing on it.