How big is Christian??

 SO BIG!!

He LOVES to do this....along with any other reason that gets people to clap for him, this is definitely the favorite though.

He's learning how to walk....

He knows how to tickle ( 'icka, icka, icka')

He climbs up and down the stairs.

He waves bye-bye appropriately now...and also just waves at a person if he's wanting to say hi I guess...but then he waves by putting his hand by his forehead (he's just silly I guess).

He loves to crawl around outside, especially on the deck.

He "reads" books to himself...and loves to be read to, right now his favorite is "Dimity Duck". We usually read that about 3 times through before he's ready to move on to the next one. 

He's much more creative with playing "peek a boo", and loves to talk through the stair banisters or his crib rails...it's pretty entertaining!

He is much more involved with bath time...SPLASHING!

When referring to the dog (at Mom and Dad's), he says "ggah" for go...I'm thinking he hears us tell the dog to "go" quite often.

He loves playing with the push/walk toys...he'll walk them until they run into a wall or obstacle, then walk to the back/front end of it while hanging on to it, and push it the opposite direction...back and forth :)

"bbbmmmbbbmmmm" goes any tractor...crazy how they learn this so fast, its not like we practice that kind of thing. He does like playing with tractors.

He's quite the mess....for real..very messy eater sometimes :)

We LOVE our growing boy!

short and "sweet"...maybe?

Well, I have no pictures of the "new" house...because to put it simply, we don't live there yet. It's a bit of a bummer (I try to downsize my feelings about it..so it makes me feel better). We were supposed to close on the 16th of this month...and again to put it simply and not get into the wonderful "reasons, rules, and explanations" we will be closing hopefully by the 8th of October!
In the meantime we are living with Mom and Dad (which is a pretty big blessing)..otherwise we are "homeless" :)

On a brighter note, our house in Wichita did close on time..thankfully. We've had enough of a headache with the whole process of getting the little things figured out to do that...AKA the irrigation well! That is a whole different novel in itself...but bottom line, they let us close and someone will be filling in the well that WE had to find by digging into the front yard with an excavator. Whew.

Really, when putting it "simply" its not SO bad..and in all reality it really isn't terrible...just inconvenient. We're all healthy and thankful to have a place to stay in the meantime. Oh! And to make it even more on the bright side..Christian is learning to WALK! He took his first couple steps last week, he's not crazy about it yet, but I know he'll get there real soon!!!

I'll be more excited to put up pictures and talk more about the "happier" side of things hopefully soon :)

Moved out...

Thanks to Dad, Ivan, Sam, Brent, and Mom (for watching Christian, so we could actually get it done) we got moved out of our house on Maus Ln.

Angee and Phil wedding

Labor day weekend we went to Perry, KS at Spirit Lake for Phil and Angee Kilmer's wedding. Ben grew up with Phil's family, one of those families you actually consider "family". So Ben was in the wedding. It was a PERFECT weekend for an outside wedding. They had a beautiful setting and perfect weather. Many blessing to the Kilmer's!!

Angee, Phil and Nate

ceremony and reception area

I think the owner's of the lake/land live here...it looked pretty amazing from the outside.

The "unofficial" brothers of the groom....Sam and Ben

door..wide open

YAY!!!

Yep, this is officially what the front of our yard looks like now :)

Just a brief rundown of how this happened...

A week ago today, Ben went to student teach and Christian and I went to Hesston for the inspection at the "hesston house" in the morning. In the afternoon, I went with Mom to pick up the beef that we got (3 coolers full) in Whitewater. I had parked at a building near the interstate and just rode with Mom to the locker and back...then we were going to go our separate ways. Well, after I had loaded all the meat into the trunk I took the diaper bag out and shut it. Little did I know that my keys were going to fall out as I picked up the diaper bag...leaving them locked in the trunk with ALL the meat in 100 degree weather. Mind you..its about 3:45 or so and we had a scheduled showing at 6:00, which was going to work out perfect since we were going to our neighbors (4 houses down) for supper. I was planning on still making pasta salad and picking up the house a little bit more prior to supper. Well...after the men at the building that I was parked in front of tried several times to figure out a way to "break" into my car without scratching it, they finally called a lock smith to help me out. At least Mom was waiting with Christian and me AND we had an air conditioned building to wait in. So the man came, and all was well I suppose. It was 4:30 by then, so I had told Ben to start boiling the water for the pasta salad and informed him of a short list of things that were probably going to need to take place in a short amount of time when I got home.We got home about 4:50..changed Christian, was going to lay him down for a nap since he was getting quite unhappy...4:55 the phone rings..someone wants to show the house at 5. Like as in 5:00, in 5 min...5:00. Umm..well, I told them 5:30 would work. So the next 20 min was well...just nuts. We unloaded an entire freezer full of beef, made the pasta salad, received ANOTHER call to show the house the next day, cleaned up the house a little bit more, and got out the door at 5:25 so the person could come look at the place. Ahhh..so we had an enjoyable supper and came home around 8:30. Shortly after, Ben got a phone call from our realtor telling us that indeed the house was shown twice this evening, and the first guy put an offer on it already!!! 

I just can't even tell you how happy I was when he told me this. I had just been praying that very day that God just takes away any worry or feelings of anxiousness about the whole situation because really I knew it would be alright either way and whatever was really supposed to happen would find a way out. That was just an incredible feeling to have that sensation of seeing how God can work the way that He sees fit. I mean the whole thing is just that very thing....

even finding the house in Hesston...then the offer being accepted by the seller...then the whole discovering the job opening at Newton Med for me...and ALL the things that lined up so that I would take the position there...and now SELLING OUR HOUSE!

So, we signed the contract the next day. The inspection on it was yesterday, and we're meeting with the realtor tonight to go over a few minor things we'll take care of tonight before we close in a couple weeks!!!! 

YAY! 

So now, its a bit crazy around here. I started the Newton job this week and began packing like a mad woman this week...and I'm pretty sure Christian's teething :) BUT...we're all good, and bottom line is God is good and so faithful!

1st Birthday Party!

We had a "barnyard bash" for Christian's 1st birthday! He enjoyed his cupcake, presents, balloons, and guests too!

I'm guessing he'll be a little more excited about actually opening his presents when Christmas comes. Luckily, he has some helpful older cousins that don't mind for now :)

YAY for turning one!!!

a time for change

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and fin me when you seek me with all your heart.    Jeremiah 29:11-13


We had these verses as the theme to our wedding and I was reminded of it as we are going through a time of change in our lives now.

A little over a month ago, Ben was looking online for houses to buy. He wasn't really looking for us at this very moment, however, we were kinda having our eye out for something because after he graduates in December we were going to look into moving at that time. He came across a place in Hesston, and called Mitch to see if he would be interested. After he had said no..he showed me where it was at, and we decided why don't we just "look" at it. So we did. It is quite outdated, and needs some serious TLC...it has an acre and a half yard, the right amount of space inside, just outside of town on a street with maybe 10 other houses...we liked it. So... we put an offer on it. As we were putting an offer on it, we were informed that the owner had turned down offers higher than ours fairly recently. After leaving the office, neither of us were to hopeful, but figured it was worth a shot. We got a call a couple days later, the owner wanted to counter offer. Ben and I had discussed how much this house was really "worth" as far as how much we knew we were going to want to do to it and everything else. The amount they wanted to counter offer was the EXACT amount that we said would be the maximum we would say we could offer. We took that as a pretty clear sign...so we signed the contract, and put in there that it was contingent on our house selling with a tentative closing date mid Sept. So, we put our house on the market...and now we wait.

Meanwhile, I have been asking for awhile at my job to work more 12 hr shifts so I don't have to be gone so many days. And, I had told the management that my biggest complaint and reason I would ever leave is because of working every other weekend. My mom got a phone call from the manager at Newton Medical a couples weeks ago, saying she had some positions open and if I was interested I could call her. (Mom had mentioned prior to this phone call that she could just let the manager, whom she knows, know that I was interested in working there sometime...so she had told her awhile back) So I went for an interview. It went well, the unit was very pleasant and no major flaws that I could see. I just didn't know if I was ready for the big of a switch in pace. They do the amount of deliveries in one year that the hospital I work at now does in one MONTH. About a week later, they offered me the job..but couldn't specify what shift, so I said I couldn't take it. Several phone calls later over the course of the week...they offered me the job, the shift I wanted, and only having to work every 3rd weekend. I weighed out the pros and cons with Ben...the fact that I will be home more pretty much out-weighed everything else. SO...I accepted the position and will start Aug 23rd. YIKES :)

Back to the house situation. Our house has been shown several times with one open house that went decent. No offers on our house as of yet, but we are still hopeful..as it has only been on the market a month. I really do think that God has opened these doors for a reason and that He is not directing us down an empty path. In all of this, we did not expect any of it...but we're going with it, because it seems pretty evident that this is what we are supposed to be doing. Through all these changes I just pray that the doors keep opening if they are supposed to and shutting pretty hard if they aren't.

Lots of changes. Not necessarily stressful..but just a little anxious because we aren't sure of what the changes will bring. Whatever it is, we await it with faith and hope that it brings good things!

That's all I got. No more, no less. Oh...well one more thing...you could pray for the things I have mentioned if you'd like :)