365 Day Journey

A year ago today, I awoke to face the start of my 29^th year.  A year ago today, we were just a few weeks into our lives as Kansans.  We were still getting settled in to our place.  Jon and I had just zipped out to CO to see Jada, take in the beautiful Rockies, and enjoy some delicious brews at Avery.  A year ago today, Jon was 2 weeks into his new job and his first year as a Speech Path, while I was diligently working to wrap up my job in MI and starting to think about a new job in KS.   A year ago today, Jon worked his one and only late night on my 28^th birthday getting home at 8 pm (thanks Parent-Teacher Conference!! Hehe)  A year ago today, I got brave enough to pee on a stick, and a year ago today, I saw a + as I nervously peered once, twice and then a third time at that stick

A year ago today, I got to welcome my hubby home and tell him the most exciting (and nerve-racking) news about our baby.  Even as I sit here, my eyes well up recalling the emotions of that day!  What a day!  What a way to start a new year!  How blessed! 

A year ago today, as we celebrated the new life God was molding, I had no idea what the next year would hold.  Duh! Right?! :) None of us do!  But seriously, at that moment in time, in the midst of several new transitions already, we were about to embark on an even greater journey into parenthood!  So amazing and scary for me in that moment! 

Recently, while Jon and I were riding in the car, we started to reflect on the last year.  We’ve experienced so much in the last year, and for me, it’s been the most significant amount of change I can ever recall experiencing in a 12 month period.  IN 12 months, we:

·         Decided to move

·         Packed up a house and moved 1 month later

·         Became landlords

·         Jon graduated

·         I ended a job

·         We both started new jobs

·         Got pregnant

·         Took 5 out of state trips ranging from 3 days to two weeks to Colorado, Michigan and Iowa

·         Had a baby

·         Lost three grandparents

·         Funded 3 financially significant repairs at our place in GR

What a whirlwind of a year full of so many joys, some deep sadness and many emotions in between!  We’ve also had the opportunity to watch dear friends and family as their own families expanded; we’ve prayed for family and friends suffering from illness; celebrated as families were united; we’ve struggled with the joys and challenges of parenthood, and the list goes on! 

The sermon this last week focused on Esther and her steadfast faith in the Lord.  She had great faith that He would deliver her and her people, and she trusted him enough that even He chose not to deliver them in the way she was praying for, that she continued to have faith in Him.  This keeps running through my mind as I face small struggles on a daily basis, as I reflect on our journey over the last year, and I’m praying that when the time comes, as it always does, that I face a situtation that seems too great to bear, that I too will take that situation prayerfully to the Lord for deliverance and make it known that I will trust Him regardless of the outcome.  What an incredible journey we've had these last 365+ days!! Love all the lessons that came with joy and sadness, smiles and tears!

My journey this morning started off with a happy birthday kiss from my hubby in a warm safe home, followed by a snuggle with our handsome, healthy and happy 3 month old.  I was then delivered my favorite breakfast of 2 eggs over medium with ww toast and a piping hot cup of joe!  How blessed am I to start off my birthday and 30th year with these amazing guys!!! 

love to you all!

Treasure Hunt

You know the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure!"  That is the theme of US Highway 36 Annual Treasure Hunt.  You can learn all the details about this annual event here, http://www.ushwy36.com/.  This highway has it's own web page to help people to "Discover Kansas' Best from East to West!

This highway runs the full length of KS from Colorado to Missouri, and every year for the past 7 years towns along this highway have an annual garage sale.  Saturday was my first experience with this unique event, and while we only hit up the town of Phillipsburg, many others were  hauling trailer loads of treasures they'd uncovered during this 3 day event!

I spent a whopping $2.00 and walked away with these treasures :)

I'm pretty sure that next year, we'll have to make a weekend of it to fully embrace this fun event and find all sorts of sweet treasures :)

Mitten Pride

Pride, that is something that, without a doubt, so many of the people I came across in GR possessed.  Pride in their city and usually pride in their state!

I love LOVE Grand Rapids!  And I LOVE Michigan!  When I took a week long summer trip to the great state with my grandparents to check out some schools, I instantly fell in love with its beauty!  And, in the 7 years I lived there, I hardly scratched the surface of what the mitten has to offer!  Here are two fun and awesome tributes to GR and the Mitten produced by Rob Bliss.

The Grand Rapids LipDub

The Pure Michigan Statewide Singalong

There is so much Jon and I love about GR and the Mitten:

-gorgeous trees, water, wildlife

-great breweries and beers

-farmers markets

-amazing, locally owned restaurants that use local produce/products

-access to parks

-nature centers

-hockey, football, baseball

just to name a handful!  We hope to have more time to explore the amazing creation in the Mitten over the years, and hope that Kincaid loves it as much as we do!  

While there is so much to explore and love about Michigan, we also have an opportunity to explore and love KS.  It is such a different state in so many ways, but I grew up LOVING so many things about the  Sunflower State !  Things and experiences that I want to recapture and pass on to Jon and Kincaid!  So, I hope to begin to highlight some of our adventures here in KS and that you'll grow to at least appreciate, if not love, our state, too!  

If you live in or have visited KS, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to know what some of your favorites are so that we can get fresh ideas and capture more of what others love about Kansas, too!  So, have at it!  What are your top 3 things/places/activities in Kansas that you love?? We'll give you a shout out when we do those things, too :) 

90 days of life

Wow! These 3 months have flown by!! Our little guy is growing too quickly and we're loving every second of it!  I love how my friend Lena described having a baby - every stage is the best stage!  They are growing so much and developing so quickly and each new stage is the best!

Our sweet boy is now 3 months old!  Weighing in at 15 lbs 4 oz, here's our happy fella!

Excited to be sitting on papa's shoulders and quite proud of the fact that he just spit up in dad's hair!

In his 3rd month, Kincaid has grown so much!! It's been a blast to watch him discover more and more of life each day!  We went on Caid's second camping trip, and stayed two nights in the tent! He did awesome once again and he loved being outdoors so much!  

He's also been learning new tricks like....

how to grab his toes...

you can also see that he's moved away from thumb sucking and is now more of a fist chewer!

how to laugh (or shriek!)....

his smiles and laughter are the best parts of our days!!!

and is getting great at grabbing and holding onto objects (today he learned how to pull the banana though I wasn't able to motivate him to recreate the moment!)

A few days ago, I caught him rolled over onto this side while grabbing his feet!  Another first that I got super excited about!! Rolling over is in our near future I think!

Basically, Kincaid is our little rockstar and we are crazy about him!!!!  It is so fun to experience these precious moments with him, but he is growing too quickly!!  Every day, when I see Kincaid smile, I see him sitting in his papa's lap, watch him taking in the world through those beautiful deep blue eyes, I am overwhelmed with love for him!  It reminds me that the love I feel for him and Jon is nothing in comparison to the Lord's love for us!  So blessed!!

Rain, rain go away!

"But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.'" - Psalm 31:14 

These last months, this has been at the forefront of my mind...trust.  Trust  specifically in God.  Trusting Him to safely deliver our baby; trusting Him to help Jon and I transition into parenthood; trusting Him to help us to balance work, family, life.  Trust.  

While we had our moments, trusting Him with those areas was relatively easy.  What has been much, MUCH harder for me is to TRUST our GOD with areas that I have less control over.  To trust that the thousands of dollars we are pouring into our house in GR for repairs is for a purpose.  To trust that He will lead us in the right direction for His purpose for our lives when deciding whether we should sell or keep our house.  To trust that, as our savings dwindles, He will continue to provide for our financial needs (but I have wants too, Lord!!) in the midst of this trial. 

The thing to know about me is that I get stressed easily over finances!  I'm a planner and enjoy doing our family finances. I'm also not a big spender!  You know how some people get stressed and spend, spend, spend to comfort themselves??? That's NOT me!  When I get stressed, I want to save, save, SAVE :) So, knowing that, I have an awesome praise!! Our God is so GOOD!! He's SO GOOD because even in the midst of all we have going on right now, I'm calm!  I'm NOT freaking out about where we're at, and I'm just doing my best to continue to hand each new incident to Him (like when we got yet another text from our tenant saying there was a leak in the kitchen two days ago!!)!  

Lately, with our house in GR, an appropriate saying would be "when it rains it pours."  Seriously!  BUT having been fortunate enough to be running from a rainstorm a couple of weekends ago, we saw several beautiful, FULL Rainbows (literally the entire rainbows, beginning to end), and I'm reminded that beautiful things come from rainy days!  So, we're along for the ride and looking for the beautiful things each day has to hold!  

Our little linguist

Caid has been jabbering up a storm as of late!  It's amazing to watch him because it really does look like he's trying to talk when he's doing it.  He's also been sleeping through the night quite often as of late.  Tiff and I are obviously thrilled with that although I still feel really really tired.  I'm thinking Tiff does as well seeing that we didn't wake up until 6:55 this morning.  He's also been laughing a bit.  It hasn't happened often, but when it does, I'm pretty sure that it's the cutest thing I have ever seen.
In other news, Tiff may have inadvertently started a family war by dressing Caid in this outfit:

I have to say that she's a better sport than I.  If someone gave him an MSU outfit, I don't think I could allow him to wear it.