Visitors

These past two months we've had plenty of lovely visitors.

JORDAN AND CARLYE

Joel really took to Jordan and insisted that he read books with him.

Sorry Carlye, this is the best (and only photo) of you. But Micah did like you! Yah for you!
It was great to hear Jordan's sermon and host them for lunch. We've missed seeing you guys even though you live so close.

GREG AND KARMEN

These boys loved having books read to them.

Can you sense a theme here?

It was wonderful to catch up with Greg and Karmen. You should have seen Karmen's face light up when Dan handed her a Chai tea. She was so happy!

DARNELL, CHRISTINA, CODY AND MAKAI

My, those little boys have grown up. Micah and Makai (the young dynamic duo) got to meet in person for the first time. Those two are going to be (silent) trouble makers!

Makai shared his watermelon with me! It was nice to have bonding time with Makai.

This picture totally reminds me of when Cody was younger. Anybody remember his "funny" face?

It was nice to get to know Makai's personality. There is only so much you can catch while Skyping.

Cody and Joel together at last. Cody was giving Joel a hand down the stairs.

It was amazing to hang out with Darnell and Christina in the McBarkman house. They definitely notice things that no one else did!

We had a great time sipping chugging Chai, cooking all of you a "requested" meal and chatting about the past year. We look forward to your next visit. You guys are great friends and we miss having you around on a regular basis.

We're BACK!

Finally! The day you all have been waiting for! We are hoping to resuscitate this poor old blog. We make no promises, but our goal is to blog more. Probably because we will need something to fill our time now that canning is over....at least for now. (I'm still trying to convince Dan to can pears and apple sauce).

We make no promises since those two little rascals have quite often thrown a wrench in our plans. (cough cough, mostly Micah, cough cough). But I'll give him a break. That poor little guy has FINALLY had his teeth break through his gums. (They've been going up and down, swelling and returning to normal for 8 LONG months). But in the last four days, he has gotten four new molars and four incisors (eye teeth). Yep, eight teeth in four days. No wonder he only sleeps in one hour increments.

Joel has finally lived up to his age and the "terrible twos" are hitting in full force. He's been whining and easily frustrated at himself (and us) about, you know, two year old problems. Like the wrong colour of cup or being unable to find a wooden spoon. Its fantastic (and hilarious) but only when we've had enough sleep to be patient with him. Needless to say, the last four days have been trying!

Dan is enjoying his new job but is still adjusting to waking up early. We've both been fairly tired. Between Micah's hour long sleep/cry/wake/scream schedule and his uncanny ability to plan a wake up call within the hour before the alarm is to go off (so you can't fall back to sleep), we have been exhausted. Add to that, endless evenings of canning, visitors, sourdough prep and dishes. We barely fall into bed before ten. Then we lie there talking and realize that we haven't said a word to one another since Dan got home at 3:30. So we catch up on the day and each others lives and lo and behold, eleven rolls around before you know it. (and a lovely wake up call from Micah just when you turn out the lights). We've been trying to take a few nights to enjoy each others company. You know, before Coitus Interuptus (aka Micah) strikes with a 95% accuracy rate. Really, we don't know how he does it, but man that kid can read our minds or smell the pheromones.

Needless to say, this little blog got neglected. BUT, we hope to be back more often. Here's to a new year!

We're still alive...

We promise! We're busy adjusting to our new life and home.
We're busy loving our family time together in the afternoons and evenings.
We're busy preserving food for the winter.
We're busy raising two little boys who LOVE the sunshine and after dinner walks.
We're busy adjust to one little boy whose sleep schedule and habits are changing (perhaps from the 3 molars and 3 eye teeth that have FINALLY just popped through...yes, all at once.)
We're busy trying to find an evening for updating and busy having a little one cry for two hours straight on both nights that we had "free."
We're busy visiting with various friends from around the globe and loving every second of it.
We're busy doing yard work and landscaping our new home.
We're busy trying to catch up on long lost sleep.

Needless to say, once fall hits, we will be back in full force. Your computers are not broken. We are still here. We hear your pleas for updates.

But we are enjoying our new home, some much needed family time, and the pop of canning jars sealing.
We are dealing with the frustrations of raising children, to do lists that never end, and evenings that are never long enough.

Hopefully there will be a few more posts in the coming weeks (I uploaded pictures today for a few new posts). We are trying hard to blog but we are enjoying life a little too much to slow down enough to write about it.