WOW! Where Have I Been?

Well, since I last blogged, forgive my slackness, I don't feel like we have had a busy summer but I guess we have had lots of fun!  My sweet cousin, Lauren Cross, married the man of her dreams at the end of July, which brought lots of family to Montana from IL!  My dad has 6 siblings including his sister Mary here, and basically 3 siblings and their families came out for the wedding plus my grandma!  That was a ball and all my family came except my dear brother-in-law, next year we are going to get his butt out here!  Pardon my typing!  My family and my cousin Laura were blessed to spend time up at Flathead Lake at the Cross' cabin.  Tom, Titus and I camped one night in the yard there!  We all went to Glacier Nat. Park from there and did an amazing hike at Avalanche Lake there!  I was so excited to show my family the beauty of Montana and to make sure they had a good time.  We came back to Missoula for the wedding and before they all left we did some bike riding and we took my nieces to a sweet park and the Carousel while my parents and sisters went rafting down the Alberton Gorge!  My nieces are 8 yrs. and almost 2 yrs. and both of their first times here and Titus had a great time with them.  Gracie was a great helper with the two younger ones and Bella said Titus' name with the cutest ring to it, I miss hearing her say his name!

We also went for about a 20 mile bike ride on the path along Hwy 93 from Lolo to Florence and back!  When we pulled up to Subway in Florence to eat, this is what Titus was doing in the bike trailer!  So cute!  I thought I was going to die that day and I WASN'T pulling the trailer, Tom was!

We have been enjoying all kinds of food and smiles this summer!

Including trout on the grill and zucchini!  Mmmmmm!  Go hubs!

We went for a hike along Cache Creek Trail down off Hwy 12!  Titus loved the water and loves throwing rocks in the water (or down the neighbors stairs).

We made our first homemade ice cream with the ice cream attachment for the Kitchen Aid (we have had it since we got married in 2009).  Mmmmm!  Homemade Flathead Cherry Ice Cream!  Go hubs!

Labor Day weekend we traveled over to WA and visited some dear friends, the O'Dells, in Spokane.  Titus is missing due to the fact that he had not woken up for the day yet and this was at about 9 am their time!  Yes these 5 adorable kids are all theirs!  (L to R: Acacia, Naomi, Adelyn, John, Justus, Joyalise & Beth)

Once Titus woke up that morning, we headed on to Richland where Tom's brother and family now live.  We enjoyed our time with them as well and the girls definitely enjoyed showing us their ballerina moves, thank you Zowee and Noelle for always being ready to entertain us :)

We got one night of real camping in, which was interesting, Titus woke up and it felt like he was awake for about 2 hours before I could get him back to sleep!  Like our Jumbo Marshmallows?  The smores that night were terrific to say the least!

Our campsite out at Trout Creek off I-90, yes we have a little 2 man tent, which we love and stay warm that way on the cool Montana nights!

Our little camper and his poking stick that he loved walking around with!

The Anniversary Evening and Other Things...

Well we ended up going out for dinner at the Mustard Seed Restaurant here in town, it is Asian style.  Very good food and great company!  I am very grateful for Tom's job at Allegiance, not only does it provide good enough for our family that I can stay home with Titus but it provides great benefits for us including a gift card on his birthday for a nice place to eat like that!  Titus seemed to love his babysitter once again!  To end our night we watched our wedding video with him and then after he went to bed, we enjoyed a game of cribbage, which Tom beat me at!  (He also beat me on my birthday!)

This was the dessert we shared, Chocolate Cloud Cake, a flour less cake dessert, mmmm so yummy!

We went camping back in mid June and I never shared our experience.  We had been planning to camp up on one of the lakes near Seeley, MT, there are many different lakes up there with campsites.  We were planning this little outing with my friend Daisy and her four children but one of them came down with a cough and so we moved out camping expedition to her backyard here in Missoula!  She has one of those off the ground fire pits and so we were still able to cook hot dogs on the fire and have smores later, but since we were at her house we also got to enjoy a rhubarb strawberry pie that I made there!  Mmmm so yummy!  Her and her two oldest kids slept outside in their huge tent, the twins were just not going to to sleep so they got sent inside to sleep.  And Tom and Titus and I slept in our two man tent.  I was worried about Titus getting cold so I put him in this "layette" thing that makes him look like a fluffy teddy bear complete with his pj's and wool socks!  He slept well and stayed warm but he could not move around in this thing if he wanted!  So about 3 am rolls around and he is starting to try to move and I am trying to help him without waking him up but that did not work!  He was wide awake for about an hour, "talking" to us and slapping our faces and laughing and then I finally got him back to sleep.  But I took him out of that thing and he actually slept out from under our sleeping bags for the most part up by our heads and he stayed perfectly warm!  I was surprised but I think it helps for sure to have a smaller tent for the heat rather than a big one for space.

Here is the little teddy bear fast asleep in the tent by himself, while we are enjoying the smores!

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!

A Family Picnic Date & Rest of Weekend!

It has been so nice to have Tom back home from his trip to Wilsall, MT with the high school youth group.  Which by the way, they had a very good trip there and God did some great things through them.  The students led VBS there all week at the Wilsall Community Church, teaching the story of Daniel with storyboard form.  I think the all time high attendance for the kids was around 30, quit a difference from ours here but Wilsall is a much smaller town.  In the evenings they did different community service things and they even got to go work on a ranch there and their entertainment at the ranch after the work was all done was shooting gophers!  How about that for a missions trip adventure?!  Love it!

But I survived 5 nights without my love and so did Titus, although we missed him very much and at one point when Tom called, he was good and called everyday, Titus I think cried most of the phone call cuz I would have it on speaker so that he too could "talk" to daddy.  We are glad he is back indeed!  This weekend we just relaxed and went to our annual church picnic on Saturday and I took a hot out of the oven Strawberry/Rhubarb pie with even a homemade crust!  I am loving making those lately, it is so easy and quick to do.  Then yesterday we went on a picnic up on Mt. Jumbo, Tom made us some turkey, bacon & avocado sandwiches to enjoy and we packed some snacks for Titus too and even some toys for him to enjoy.  I think he loved it, he has really loved the backpack experience so far!  I think we will be trying it at the Saturday markets with him, he loves his jogging stroller but not there for some reason, I think there is too many people around or something and he wants to see them all and not be down in a stroller?

Our little picnic area on the Mt. Jumbo saddle.

Also yesterday, Titus and I got to go meet one of my old MVC co-workers new baby!  She is so sweet and tiny and beautiful, what a treat!  Titus was having a hoot with her 3 cats and really busy trying to get into everything!  He also got jealous while mommy was holding the baby and threw his first fit on the floor when mommy had passed baby Jaylin to her mommy and then I picked him up before I realized that I wanted a picture of her and her baby.  Well I set him down and the next thing I know he is laying on the floor crying!  Wow!  So it begins, teaching him the right reaction and behavior, God give us wisdom on this!

Jaylin Joan Watson 7lbs. 14oz., 20 in. long, June 21st @ 9:39 pm.

She is so cute and precious and tiny and 5 days old here!  Makes me want a second one!

This was the kitty Titus wanted to chase around, it has it's summer do on!  Got shaved most likely for the hot summer so his tail looked like a fluffy cotton tail at the end of it!

This poor kitty had to flee for it's life, Titus seriously cracked up when he found it here, it was so funny!

Beautiful new momma Janiece and baby Jaylin!  Her name is combo of Janiece and her mom, grandma Linda, isn't that precious!  Her onsie says "Mommy adores me", um who wouldn't? 

Summer Adventure Week!

What a blessing to be part of SAW this last week with Titus!  This was the first year that I had the privilege to help out with this huge event that our church holds every summer!  SAW is also better known as Vacation Bible School (VBS) and I am not quit sure why they decided to change the name but they did, so you go with it!  Our congregation is huge (our sanctuary seats 700, and between our 2 services I am not exact on attendance but I am sure it is around 900!) so this event is huge in every way!  The upcoming kindergartners-6th graders come Monday-Friday for a week from 9-11:30 am everyday and they are split up into 5 different age groups and each age group has two groups to it because the attendance is so large!  The kids earn points for their attendance, if they bring a friend and if they memorize a verse, which there were 6 different verses selected to go with this years story for them to memorize!  I was so happy to be a part of this because that meant I got to memorize God's Word and hide it in my heart too!  Every morning we would ALL be together for music then our groups would leave the sanctuary from there and get to enjoy a different drama, activity & snack and a craft or experiment every day!  VERY ORGANIZED and it's FREE! 

This year they did the story of Esther from the book of Esther in the Old Testament!  Esther was chosen by God and the King of that time to be Queen and God used her to save her people, the Jews, when the 2nd man in command, the bad Haman, plotted to kill the Jews with the King's permission when the Jew, Mordecai, Esther's cousin, would not bow to him because he served God and only bowed to God!  The King did not know that Esther was also a Jew, so Esther went to the King, unsummoned, knowing that she could lose her life unless the King extended his golden scepter to her to spare her life!  She knew even then that 1) Salvation is found only by trusting Jesus and that 2) God has a plan for every one's life & that she needed to 3) Follow God even when it's hard!  "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14

It was so amazing, I mean can you imagine all the little kids as they watched this played out with live people dressed like bible times!  By Friday we had 449 kids in attendance, the largest ever!  It was so cool, and very glad there was 200 volunteers around to put this on!  I just got to be a "guide" meaning I was with half (about 40) of the 3rd & 4th graders as they moved from drama to activity to craft/experiment places and helped them along and kept them paying attention.  They do provide nursery for the volunteers kids and even have groups for the pre-school age kids of volunteers but Titus was not up for the nursery.  We tried Monday and Tuesday morning to go early and mommy tried to lay him down because that is usually his nap time and he just screamed.  I think it is just too many kids, I am not sure?  He did well in my backpack going to everything tho and then we would come home and eat something quick and he would just nap all afternoon!  So that worked and the kids in my group loved him anyway and a few other moms did that too.

The kids also had a chance everyday to hear the gospel and make a decision for Christ!  Many did, Praise God, many of these kids don't even attend church on a regular basis!  And they also had a chance to give an offering everyday that went to a local need, the Carole Graham Home, a place for single moms and their children to live while they get back on their feet.  The total offering given by the kids was $1,059!  And on Sunday, yesterday, was SAW Sunday, so the kids are encouraged to come and bring their families to church and they get to redeem their points that they have earned all week for different toys and such!  And the congregation gets to hear all the awesome songs that the kids have been learning and they get to see a part of the drama that the kids have seen earlier in the week!  They actually did 2 of them yesterday!  Can't wait for next year, they are doing the story of Moses!

These are some the girls that just loved Titus!

Peytyn & Katy with Titus!  Peytyn kept asking me all about Titus and if we are coming back next year and she kissed his hand on Friday before she left!  So sweet!

What a sweet smile!

Titus' face is so funny here!

Grandpa & Grandma's Visit!

It was so good to see Rich and Carol the 3rd -12th of June here.  They made it just in time for Titus' 1st birthday party and spoiled him rotten the rest of the time too!  Tom had to work a couple of days while they were here, so one day Grandpa & Grandma took Titus and I out for breakfast at one of mommy's favorite places, Paul's Pancake Parlor!  We actually all got pancakes, usually I do not!  I tried their strawberry Swedish crepes, Carol tried their German pancake and Rich got some other pancake that looked more normal than ours but I forget the flavor!  Titus' liked my Swedish ones!  Tom and Rich went fishing a few days that they were here, the first two tries though they got a little wet from the rain but the last day on Saturday that they went, they got to go on a boat with a friend of ours up to Browns Lake near Seeley and they brought home 3 trout to eat!  Mmmm so yummy!  Meanwhile during the boy's fishing Grandma got to play a lot with Titus and she had also brought some of her art supplies with her and she made a beautiful watercolor picture while she was here of a nature scene!  I wished she had grabbed a local Independent paper to see what all was happening around town on those days that the boys were gone.  Grandma, Titus and I could have got out a little and enjoyed some stuff around Missoula!  Next time I will remember!  We did make a trip to Costco hoping to get Grandma some chips but that was unsuccessful, she needs the real salty ones for when she gets low on sodium.  On Saturday before the boys left for fishing we did all go to the market which was fun.  I had wanted to show a couple of neat vendors to Carol while there but we didn't find them!  But we got some fresh rhubarb and I made a pie that night for us to enjoy after the boys finally returned around 10pm!

This was just the neatest little "garden" I thought, this vendor uses mortar in the bottom to hold the rocks together and then she plants plants in them.  This one she called a "fairy garden" with the little fence and there is a clothes line!  So cute, she said she would be there all summer, but she wasn't when we took Rich & Carol!  And she had really reasonable prices!

I thought this coffee table was super cool!  Did not see this vendor there again but I had not asked them if they would be there all summer!

I loved these lamps, but this vendor was from WA and just passing through the weekend we saw him at the market!

We did take Grandpa & Grandma to some our favorite places to eat, like Vietnam Noodle & Fiesta En Jalisco for some good Mexican on Sunday before they pulled out of town to head home! Thanks Rich and Carol for coming to visit! Titus really loved playing with grandma and it was so enjoyable to watch!

P.S. They stayed out at those Jellystone Cabins which were really nice for anyone that may have family coming to visit sometime but the bed was not comfortable for them so they used our air mattress with the mattress on the bed and that worked well for them. 

Our first bicycle ride!

We did our first family bicycle ride on Saturday!  REI is having their anniversary sale this week and we got the cycling kit on sale for our Child Transport System just in time for summer and to practice up for when my family visits in July!  We want to do the Route of the Hiawatha then with my parents, sisters, and nieces!  That trail is 15 miles long but very easy as it is an old railroad route, so it has many tunnels and trestles along the way!

We just did a 8 mile loop from our place around the Miller Creek area!  Tom thought this was only like a 4 mile loop, but we checked it yesterday in the car and it was 8!  My guess was at least 5 miles but I was wrong too.  Titus did pretty good, he got crabby a little over halfway through I would say, but he wasn't too bad.

Daddy did the harder job!  Although he said it was pretty easy.

Who is that little man, eatin his snacks?

This was along the road, I thought it would be cool to get a pic!

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!

Mother's Day Weekend with Some Family!

Tom's brother and his family made it here this last weekend after a busy week for them in their travels from AZ.  They visited family in Great Falls, Bozeman and Missoula all in the span of 10 days with their two girls!  Saturday we met them at the market downtown, yeah for spring, that is one our favorite spring/summer things to do, go to the Saturday Farmers/People's market and get some fresh produce while drinking some good coffee and eating yummy pastries from the great vendors down there.  This last weekend had only been their second week down there so some stuff is missing but I was surprised that there was still a lot of stuff there.  Then we went to Costco to get a few things and some of us ate some lunch there and then the boys needed to hit REI to look for some shoes and us girls headed back to Lolo where they were staying for the weekend so that the girls could possibly take some naps!

Cousin Zowee (6 yrs.) & uncle Kevin (ageless!) enjoying some kettle corn at the market!

Cousin Noelle (3 yrs) got to ride with Titus in his chariot when she was tired of walking at the market!  So nice!

Titus got his first taste of chocolate on the way to Lolo that day by surprise to all of us except little Noelle who was trying to feed it to him! It was in a kid's Clif energy bar so needless to say the poor boy did not have enough teeth to chew what he had been given and sadly the poor baby ended up choking on it! Poor Zowee was very grossed out by his chocolate puke all over his face and little Noelle did not know any better and little Titus I think was as scared as his mama was, he was crying and I was about to continue freaking out after my initial reaction but the Lord quickly reminded me that that would not help the situation and Noelle didn't know any better. It had slipped our adult minds to remind them not to give the baby anything without asking the mommy first! Anyway, enough of that, we learn from our mistakes!

We had a little cookout that night in the fire pit at the place where they were staying (Carolyn's parents' place). Had some good turkey dogs. We didn't stay too late, Titus needed to get to bed and hadn't had both naps he usually does during the day. He was very tired!

When we got home Saturday night, Titus pretty much stayed asleep from car seat to house!  Daddy was enjoying this!

...and an hour later, before we decided to disturb him to put his jammies on him.

 Sunday morning we met them at church and we attempted to put Titus in the nursery for the first time! He is just in that stage where he wants to be moving around and so we thought the nursery might be a better option for the time. Well he was not about to adjust to that the first try. He lasted about 10 minutes before our little number showed up on the screen to let us know we were needed for him. We will keep working on easing him into it. Then we all went our separate ways so that Titus could nap and they could get things in order for leaving on Monday. After his nap we went out to Lowe's to look for something to plant some flowers in that we can hang over our rail on our little porch out front and we found something that we think will work. Then we met up later with the fam at a Mexican place in Lolo and that was oh so delicious and stuffing! And then we went back to their place to hang out for a little bit and have some dessert! Carolyn had bought a pie at the market, it was supposed to be a blackberry? pie but it did have an M on it so maybe it was Marion berry? either way it was very yummy!

Uncle Kevin reading Titus a book just before we had to say goodbye!

How was your Mother's Day weekend?  Hope you spent some good time with family whether it was just your own or relatives included!  It was so nice for the cousins to get to play together and see how much Titus was interested in being with them, so cute!  And we had some really good time with Kevin and Carolyn and the girls, although I don't know how fond Zowee is of not having her uncle Tom to herself, now she has to share him with Titus and Noelle.  Noelle has grown so much in many ways and LOVED playing with Tom and I which was something new for us!  So special!