Life Lately (last week)

Last Sunday Jaxen and I decorated our “Halloween House”.

He did a great job, too!

I had to help with a bit with the icing - it was hard to squeeze - but he did most of it by himself.

There is nothing quite like playtime with dad!

Lots of screams and tickles!

Thursday, Nik went out with a friend so I had the boys to myself...

and they were wound up!!!

It was fun though, because since I started working I rarely have time with them by myself.

After baths, we played in their room before bedtime. 

I was trying to get a picture of just them…

look at Zane ‘cheesin it up’!

They love to jump on their bed. 

And I totally let them.

I’m pretty sure my mom did not let me…so that’s why I probably let them. Ha!

But they have the best time doing it (of course).

I love these next few pictures...

I finally got them settled and took a selfie :)

Then it was night-night!

Life Lately (2 weeks ago)

Jaxen really loves to do crafts right now. 

So I found an old craft I’ve held on to and pulled it out.

Jaxen hammered and painted away, having the best time!

The next day, he added stickers to make it look like a firetruck.

He is so proud, and loves playing with it too.

I pulled out the 18 month pajamas and look how cute the “footsie” pajamas are!!!

We are now “settled”.

Now that the TV is mounted. Haha!

Nik went with Jaxen to Donuts with Dads at his school :)

He’s just too cute, right?!

These two love to sing, play guitars and give us concerts!

That’s life a few weeks ago…It’s my plan to blog more this week!

Sunday

Sunday. 

We should be at church right now, but we are not. 

Jaxen woke up around 6am with some tummy issues and 

Zane was diagnosed with croup yesterday - so today, we are laying low. 

Football is on in the living room, 

Bubble Guppies are playing on the tv in our bedroom and 

the boys are going through all the rooms in the house playing with trucks / watching 

a little tv here and there. 

 I just pulled out Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins from the oven. 

I don’t think I will make these again. 

I have decided I don’t really like chocolate and pumpkin together. 

But, if the boys will eat them for breakfast or snacks, it is time well spent.

Later on, I have a fun project for Jaxen and I to work on:

I purchased this at Trader Joe’s yesterday 

and last night I hot glued it together (making it more durable) 

so we can decorate it this afternoon!

This morning I have done laundry.

A lot.

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled out all of Zane’s 18 month clothes

(such memories from Jaxen!) and now I’m getting them all washed

so I can put them away and pull out all the too small 12 month clothes.

I also worked on Jaxen’s clothes. 

We have been so grateful to get hand me downs for Jaxen from birth until about now.

I have a few shirts stored away for him, but we had to buy him a few new things.

Shoes being the main one.

I feel like in just the last two weeks, he has outgrown all his shoes!

So we bought him a pair of flip flops and tennis shoes.

That will be good for now.

I’m pretty sure we have a pair of snow boots packed away that we bought last year.

Don’t these look like such “big boy” shoes?!

Oh, and the other thing I purchased yesterday was this:

First of all, it's a small back pack for Zane.

And second….it’s a harness!

Yes, you read that right.

 

I am that mom, who bought a harness for her kid :)

Zane wants to do everything Jaxen does, and it is really hard to keep up with him!

I really think this will help, especially when we are in stores and places where it’s

okay for him to walk, but yet we need him to stay close and not touch all the things.

And look how big Zane is!

I hope to go for a walk later, maybe a Sonic-run.
And finish meal planning / getting a grocery list together.
And then - rest!
My allergies have been pretty bad lately.
I’m trying to rest up and get healthy.

I always miss church when I’m not able to attend,
but the nice thing about the church we are currently attending,
is that I can watch the sermons online later in the week.
So I plan to do that!

Fall has Arrived!

It sure has not felt like fall here that last few weeks (until today - fall finally arrived!)…we have been in the upper 80’s. Which is really hot to us, especially after the cool summer we had! But regardless, the calendar said fall started. So we celebrated this weekend!

Saturday we met up with the Robbins and headed to the Louisberg Cider Mill.

We walked through the vendors, Jaxen played on some bounce slides 

and then we found the Kettle Corn :)

Even Zane enjoyed his first Kettle Corn!

We stood in the longest line, ever, to purchase cold cider and apple cider donuts.

Yummy!

After, we took the obligatory pumpkin pictures.

We did not buy pumpkins yet…too hot. And I don’t like to buy them until October.

But it was fun to look at them!

The best I got of the boys.

But look how cute!

And, of course, a group selfie!

Zane enjoyed picking up the pumpkins and moving them from one place to another.

I’m pretty sure we will hit up a pumpkin patch this October - looking forward to it!

Life Lately

Here is a little life lately for you….

Last Sunday, Jaxen got injured and had to have a staple in his head.

He was fine…and even went to school on Monday,

but it’s a bit scary when your kid injures his head!

Today, he got to get the staple out!

He did pretty good as they pulled it out, and he is all healed!

Afterward, I treated him to a little ice cream from  McDonalds.

Side note: this was our first McDonalds visit since leaving NY  :)

Last Sunday, Zane and I stayed home from church.

And I got all the cuddles!

(Which was good for my momma heart, after starting work that week).

He was not feeling well (allergies).

He was much better the rest of the week and today, but now I am struggling with allergies!

Why are little kids so cute in their sunglasses?!

Last Wednesday, I asked Nik if we could go eat at Chick-Fil-A.

I needed a change of scenery from home / office / home / office…it’s all I had seen for a few days!

Some of you may remember Zane’s first year of life - he was attached to me. 

Attached.

It’s so cool to see how far he has come!

He loves his daddy and looks forward to cuddling up with him now!

Jaxen has a job everyday after school.

It is to get the mail.

And he does it all by himself - He is so proud!

This little guy.

He is into everything!!!

Good thing he is cute while doing it :)

We like to go for family walks on the trail once or twice a week.

This time around, we let Zane out of his stroller, and he had the best time exploring!

How cute is this????!

Friday, Nik brought the boys to my office.

I think it was good for Jaxen to see where I worked

and I loved having all my office people meet my family.

The boys just want to touch and play with everything!

This guy was pretty happy because he got a bath all to himself!

And that’s a little bit of life lately!

The Next Chapter

FYI - you get no pictures with this post. We are having trouble linking our photos. I put in a request to my cutie husband to take care of that for me soon (on behalf of my bloggers)!

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If you have not talked to me in awhile and all of a sudden you are reading about our move from NY to KS and wondering what is going on…well, hopefully I can answer some of those questions here. I’ll try :)

As I stated before, the month of August our family was in transition and I took a blogging break. And I have to say…I missed blogging! I missed sharing our days with you. I missed recapping the funny and the mundane. I am trying to pick it back up, although it may be slow going for awhile - be patient with me.

So, the short story of it is - Nik surrendered his credentials (pastor’s license) and is no longer a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene. Because our house and income was based on his job, I sought work and evenutally got hired at Jesus Film Harvest Partners, in Olathe KS. So we moved the first part of September. Jaxen started school, I started my job, Nik is taking care of Zane during the day, and that’s that!

This was a long (to me), hard process, to figure out what to do with our life after the turn of events happened with Nik’s job. But let me say this... The Lord has been faithful to us the entire time. Although this was unexpected to us, this did not take God by surprise. He is all-knowing and knew what road we would be walking. I knew I could walk this road one of two ways: with God or without. And trust me when I say this… there is no way I would have wanted to walk this road (or any hard time, trial) without God. I sought Him through prayer over our entire situation and He answered (in His time and His way) and I am so grateful. God was already preparing us for this journey before it ever happened (looking back we can see His hand and provisions) and He had things in place as we took each step, and trusted in Him.

Some might ask if we think this was God’s plan for our life. And I believe the answer is no. There are consequences for every decision and action we make. And I also believe that the Lord can (and has, and will in any situation) use it to bring us (our relationship) closer to Him (if we choose to walk with Him instead of away from Him) and that He will bring good from it.

All I know right now, is we are here. And I can’t tell you for how long. God opened up doors and gave us peace as we followed this road. I have no idea what the future holds for us, but we are praying about it. We are praying about God’s call on Nik’s life to be a pastor, and serve in ministry again, in the future.

And I have to tell you…God used His people in big ways to minister to us through this time. We have experienced God’s love in a new way and seen people being His hands and feet to us. And I am so thankful and grateful to those who allowed the Lord to use them.

So - this is our next chapter, and things are going well! Keep reading the blog…and I’ll try to keep it somewhat updated :)