Update

We have been so busy as I am sure everyone is this time of year.  I finally almost have all of the Christmas presents bought this year.  I cannot believe that Christmas is next week already!  I went to the post office yesterday to mail my packages and waited in line for 45 minutes even though I got there 15 minutes before it opened.   It feels good to have those sent out anyway.  

Levi is still growing and getting bigger!  He seems like he is getting taller everyday.  I have now started measuring him on the wall and I am going to try to keep doing it every month until he is two and then every so often after that.  Levi climbed into the drawer underneath the oven the other day and he looked so cute I just had to take a picture.  He is finding little hiding spots or "forts" all over the house.  He is also learning all sorts of new words (it seems like a new one everyday) and I have counted about 22 words but there could be a few he isn't letting me know about :).  This morning we saw a moose calf in our front yard and he first pointed and said, "dog", but I told him it was a "moose".  He said, "moo"; however, we have been teaching him that is what a cow says so I just hope he is not mixing the two up, but if he is, oh well!  He will figure it out sometime. :)  

I am still working at Michael's craft store about 2-3 days a week and usually 6 hours per day.  I was told last night that my job is only temporary and after Christmas there will no longer be any stocking at night.  So, I will be finding a new job.  

John is still loving his job but nothing has really changed with it which is probably a good thing!  With this economy we are so thankful he has a good job with a stable company that will not be going out of business!

Temps are in the single digits here and it feels very cold!!!  However, it is a beautiful day today and Levi and I were able to get outside and take a walk.  

It has been awhile since I have updated this. What can I say but it is a busy season for us. John is still working at National Oilwell Varco and I started a job at Michael's craft store as a stocker at nights (6pm-midnight) on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I have also been doing a little babysitting here and there.

I also didn't write about our mouse problem on here but we had a mouse problem for about 5 weeks wich absolutely disgusted me! John had to be the brave one and put them in the trash when we caught them. So far the tally reads 20! We have been praying that the problem is all taken care of. My mother-in-law bought that mouse (don't worry, it's fake) that Levi is holding to play a prank on John with. He didn't fall for it.

Levi is now all out walking (and sometimes running) and he absolutely loves it! He is also learning how to hold a crayon and color. He has been learning some of his body parts including his belly button, eyes, nose, ears, and hair (he likes to brush his own). We just bought him a snowsuit and mittens and today I thought would be a good day to try out the snow. Levi has a hard time moving when he is all bundled up. :) He does a pretty good job walking in the snow but as soon as he falls over he is just down and there is no getting up. :) We didn't spend too long outside-maybe tomorrow.

Halloween

For Halloween we went over to Renee's aunt and uncle's house for a little while. Renee's uncle had a remote controlled spider which Levi was very scared of at first. Then he realized he was bigger than it so he picked it up and threw it. The next time the spider came at him, he stomped on it. Oops! We felt a little bad but the spider still worked and we now know that our son is brave. :) Then we went and hung out with our friends for the night. Levi was a lion for Halloween as you can tell from the picture. He stayed up until 11:15 pm last night and our excuse is that we had to get him ready for daylight savings!

Neighbors

Levi and I got home from running errands and there were two moose, a cow and calf, across the street in the neighbors' yard. Moose are such big creatures and personally, I think they are quite ugly, but interesting to look at nonetheless! They are still roaming the neighborhood because while I was running yesterday a lady pulled over beside me in her car and told me to be careful because she had seen the mother and calf roaming around.

Pumpkin Carving

We enjoyed carving pumpkins last night with some friends! Levi and Jacob, one of Levi's friends, helped in the carving process by taking out all of the pumpkin goop after the adults had cut the tops off. At first the boys were hesitant to stick their hands (or arms) in the pumpkin but they soon realized that the slimy goop was actually fun to play with. After the boys had their fun and then got a bath, bottle, and bed, the adults buckled down and showed off our pumpkin carving talents!

New Job

I forgot to add on the last update that John has started a new job and is loving it! He works for a company called National Oil Well and he is a sales representative; he sells pipeline materials to big oil companies like BP (in fact that is the account he is on). His hours are so much better as well. Instead of working 96 hours per week, he only works 40, which is just easier on all of us. He took a pay raise as well, but because he is not getting the overtime we are coming up a little bit short in our budget. We have already prayed about what God would like us to do (either John getting a second job or Renee getting a (second) job), but if you think to pray for us we would appreciate your prayers. We know that God will provide for our needs!

Updated Pictures

Update

We have been so busy this past month and a half so I have not been that good at updating this blog spot. In September our family took a trip to Minnesota for a friends' wedding. Our good friends from college got married on September 27th. We were there for about a week so we got to visit some friends and family, and we fulfilled our responsibilities as part of the wedding party. It was a very fast trip it seemed. Then John went back to Alaska and Levi and I got to go up to Bemidji with my parents for a week. Up in Bemidji we saw a lot of friends and family and had fun just hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma! Levi took his first two steps walking toward Grandma! Everyone was so proud of him, especially John and I (John was a little bummed he didn't get to see the action). We then took a trip back to the cities and Levi and I flew out on October 6th back up to Anchorage, Alaska only to find it snowing!!! Most of it melted on Tuesday, but there is still some in our front yard. We are digging out our winter coats and gloves. I'm not sure if I am liking this winter in October stuff, but John assures me this is normal and it is hard to remember from my childhood if this is normal. We'll see in the coming years. John is happy to have us home and we are happy to be home. We have unpacked and are now starting to finish up putting our house together!

Swinging

Levi tried out the swing set in the back yard yesterday! We had a lot of fun!

Moved In!

We are moved in to our new place and we are loving it! We have unpacked most things but there are some boxes that are still waiting. It has been mostly rainy and wet this week so we haven't had much of a chance to get outside to do any yard work. John mowed the lawn the other day, when the sky cleared up for a few hours, and it needed it considering it hadn't been mowed in a few weeks. We are doing well and anticipating our trip to MN next week!

Wedding

John's little sister, Jenna, got married on Saturday, September 6th! It was a beautiful wedding and so much fun. John was a groomsman, Renee was a bridesmaid and Levi was a ring bearer.

Closed!!

We closed on our house on Friday, September 5th! We are so excited to finally be moving into our own place. We will get the keys tomorrow and move a few things tomorrow but will do most of the moving on Tuesday since MNF takes priority. :) We have a lot of work ahead of us with packing some more and then unpacking everything we have and then shopping for things that we need. We are so happy though!

Levi's Turns 1!!!

Levi turned 1 year old on August 24th! He had a big party so lots of friends and family came to see him. He had a great time hanging out with friends, opening presents and eating birthday cake.

House Update

We don't know the closing date yet of our house, but it should be soon (we are hoping next week sometime). We were supposed to do the inspection last night, but that got canceled because of some work that still needed to be done. I was really hoping and praying that there wouldn't be too many setbacks. Oh well! We are doing the last inspection on Monday and the appraisal is already done. We should be able to know right away next week when the closing date will be! We are very thankful for this house that God has provided for us!

Dipnetting

A group of friends and John and I went dipnetting a couple of weeks ago. We spent the night on the beach Friday night and then woke up early Saturday morning to start fishing. We, as a group, caught a total of 50 fish. We split this between 5 couples so each couple got 10 fish. The guys and girls took turns fishing and gutting. We had fun for about the first 3 hours and then we realized we were not going to warm up and the sun was not going to come out. We fished about 9 hours and that was plenty!

Levi has started enjoying another food-watermelon! He absolutely loves it, but we have to watch him when he eats it because he likes to take bite after bite without swallowing any of them. :) Levi is also saying "cat" and "mmm"(after he takes a bite). It is so fun to watch him grow into such a little boy! He loves to laugh, play with other kids, and be very active! He is now starting to walk along raised, hard (tables, chairs, etc.) surfaces to get to the places he wants.

our soon-to-be house

Well, it has happened, we have agreed to purchase a home. We haven't signed the official documents yet but we are in contract to buy a cute little ranch style house. It has 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, fireplace, 9000 sf yard, 1 level. It doesn't need too much work so we can move in right away-God knew what we needed! It is perfect for us and we are very excited to move in and finally get settled. We are hoping to close by the middle to end of August!

"Dog"

Levi has learned another new word-"dog". He actually says "da" but hey, close enough. He just started saying it today. After each time I say "dog", he says, "da". There are two dogs around here so he gets plenty of practice! Levi is getting so big and is getting heavier and heavier to carry around. We haven't had an appt in awhile but when I weigh him on the scale with me he ranges from 20-22 lbs. He hasn't walked yet, but has learned how to climb up stairs, which I learned just as he had climbed two and was falling backwards. I guess gates are a necessity now! He will be 11 months in another week; time flies!

Girlfriend's Birthday Party!

Levi and Sierra really are good friends! She has kissed him a couple of times! It is fun to watch them interact and play together.

Taking time to inspect each thing in the basket and then set it aside and reach for the next thing! It kept him busy for about 45 minutes while mom did laundry! Who would have thought?

Still House Hunting

The whole house hunting project takes A LONG TIME. For some reason it seems to be taking longer for us, but maybe that is because we were ready to buy a house the day we started looking. We have found a couple that we like so far and have made a few offers. One of the houses that we had made an offer on got a second offer and the seller took that offer so no go for us. The house we have made an offer on isn't going anywhere so we are looking around first before we counter-offer on that one. Someday we will have a house, the Lord willing! Just wanted to update everyone on the whole housing situation.

Homer

We took a trip down to Homer, Alaska with some friends! John went on a halibut charter. It was such a beautiful day, we all got a little color!

Swimming

Levi had his first experience in the swimming pool last Thursday! He actually had a really good time and really liked being in the water. Eventually I would like him to take swimming lessons, but for now just taking him to the pool works.

House Hunting

Well, we have been house hunting for quite some time now and hadn't really found anything until today. John was still at work, but I wanted to go check out a house that we kind of were interested in but not really. Well, it turned out to be perfect for what we need. It is a zero-lot-line, 3 beds, 2 baths, garage, lots of living space, and a really nice fenced backyard for Levi to play in! It needs a little bit of cosmetic work, but otherwise livable. We are trying not to get our hopes up too high, and we are making an offer on it tomorrow after John gets off of work! It has been a rough road just to get this far and I am not sure that I really want to even look at any more houses, so hopefully it will work out. We'll see...

Expressions!

Levi is learning so much these days! It seems as though he is learning a new expression every day. It is so fun to watch the happiness spread across his face as he makes a connection between two things. We are also teaching him the word "no" which he understands and doesn't like very much. These are just a fraction of the expressions that I get to see every day!