Fall Fun

We've continued to keep ourselves busy over the past few weeks. Tatiana and I went to the zoo last week with her preschool class for her first ever field trip. Our baby girl is growing up! It was a rainy day but most of the rain moved through shortly after we arrived when we were in the educational building spending time at a special up-close animal encounter.

The previous weekend we headed to a local fruit farm to pick some pumpkins and taste some of the yummy treats that they make at the farm. We all got to ride a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where the kids each picked a pumpkin or gourd...and I got to pick one of my own. They also had a small little fair of sorts with a juggler teaching God's Word, a face painter and a bounce house.

"Da plane! Da plane" Asher and Tatiana spotted a plane while in the pumpkin patch.

Tatiana wears her heart on her, uh, cheek.

It's been awhile...

So once again it's been awhile since I've posted on here. We've had a busy summer so far. We took a trip in June to Florida with Jon's siblings, Teresa and Steven, and their families. We had a good time just hanging out at the resort swimming in the pools and even got to see an alligator show. On the way back from our trip we headed to Jekyl Island off the Atlantic coast of Georgia to meet up with my sister, Marisa, and her family. We hadn't seen them in a year so it was good to catch up and spend some time at the beach and the Sea Turtle Center together.
We celebrated Tatiana's birthday in Florida, Georgia and Ohio so she should be set until next June. Jon just celebrated his 33rd on the first of August. Tatiana keeps asking when it'll be her birthday again. I guess three celebrations wasn't enough.
Our biggest excitement lately has been potty training (again) Tatiana. She is now in big girl underwear and goes most of the time on the potty chair. We're still working out some selective issues but this has been a huge step for her, especially with preschool coming up next month. I have started up a food blog, mommymadefromscratch.blogspot.com, that has kept me busy in addition to the busyness of life. Jon has kept busy with a big project at work, which he has taken lead on and will be done with after this weekend. So there's the short version of our summer. I sincerely hope to get better at updating this. Write at ya in a few months...just kidding!

Crazy Kid and Fun Surprises

Lately things have been fun but a little crazy. Asher is now 16 months old and EXTREMELY active...i.e. climbing everything and destroying all that he can find. He has mastered the art of getting into trouble then using his cuteness to get out of trouble. He's hard to say no to.

Jon and I also recently celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, almost a year late. Last year with a new baby and a new house we never celebrated our anniversary. Jon surprised me a couple of weeks ago by showing up at the door with flowers, halfway through the workday to tell me that we were going on an overnight date for our anniversary. I, of course, thought he meant our 6th anniversary which at the time was coming up in a few weeks but he said this was for our 5th. We dropped the kids off at a friends house then went to our surprise location in Columbus and checked in at a hotel. We got changed then headed out to Max and Erma's for dinner, the spot of our first "unofficial" date. At the end of dinner Jon gave me a card which stated at the end that there was one more surprise...we were going to a Red Wings game!!! I have always wanted to go to an NHL game, especially a Red Wings game, but haven't been able to. Jon even fixed it so that the Red Wings won....at least that's what he told me. The kids spent the night at home with Uncle Bill and Aunt Teresa then we came and picked them up in the morning at our friends John and Tara's house. I'm so thankful for all of those in on the secret that helped to make this possible. And I am forever grateful to my wonderful husband for putting together a wonderful, belated 5th anniversary!

Lots of big changes

Since first moving into our new house a little over a year ago we have always planned to replace the existing appliances at some point. We didn't realize when we bought the house that each appliance had at least one problem but mostly worked. We were able to replace the completely non-working dishwasher a few months after we moved in but have had to wait on the fridge and oven. We were super excited to receive our tax return this year and apply that towards a new fridge and stove over the past few weeks.

Another challenge that we have always had is the use of only one car. It's manageable but especially since we moved farther away from where Jon works, it has become a big problem. This past weekend we were able to get a second car from Jon's brother, Steven and his wife, Tamika. We're still waiting on some paperwork before it's officially ours but it's in the works and we now have a second car to help us out!

God has always been faithful to us in both spiritual and physical needs and in the last month we have seen his hand at work in providing some much needed items to help with our daily lives!

Birthday and Christmas and Snow! Oh My!

To start off, I'm bad at this blogging thing. I rarely remember to do it until someone mentions this blog and I realize that I haven't updated it in several months. I'm not calling it a new year's resolution but I hope to be better at keeping this up to date this year.

That being said, a lot has happened since August when I last updated. Our little boy is becoming a big man now! On November 29th, Asher turned 1 year old. We celebrated with a small birthday party at home with family and a few friends. Asher was teething pretty badly so he wasn't his usual happy self but had a pretty good time nonetheless.

The holidays this year were pretty messed up as we tried to get together with family around illness and weather. We still have to get together with my family but managed to piece together some time with most of Jon's family to celebrate Christmas.

We also took the kids to church before Christmas to a birthday party for Jesus. They had a great time! We hope to make this a yearly thing for our family.