New Chapters...

First, pictures of the girls, because, let's face it, that's what you really want...  : )  Since it's been half a year since my last update, there's more pictures and text than typical...

Kaitlyn loves Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton

Hannah enjoying quoting Barnyard Dance

Kaitlyn and Great-Grandpa Dick

Buddies...  Hannah, Brodie (neighbor), Ayla (2nd cousin), Chase (Neighbor)

The birthday girl is excited to get a card... It was her first real birthday, since she's a Leap Day baby

Trying on her sister's Easter hat

Easter fun with Hippo

Fun at the playground

Fun with Seth (neighbor)

These dresses (above and below) were made by Aunt Peggy

 

Spring fun with Ayla

Fun at the Chesnuts

Fun with cousins, Ayla and Sophie

Deep conversations with Seth (neighbor)

Friends and cousins!

Fun with Great-Grandma June and Anneliese (neighbor)

The Girls

Hannah is now 4 and Kaitlyn is almost 22 months.  At their last checkup, Hannah was 1 pound heavier than Kaitlyn!  I think there's 5 or 6 inches in height difference between them, but at some point I think Kaitlyn will pass Hannah in height.  

Hannah is excited about learning and often asks to do learning activities. She really wants to learn to read, and so we've been working on the sounds of the letters.  We have used the BOB Books, but the library didn't have them available during our most recent visit.  Her vocabulary has expanded into long sentences, and she enjoys making up songs and stories.  She especially loves singing and we'll catch her singing at bedtime, in the bathtub, as she walking...  She has really enjoyed getting to know her cousin, Ayla, better and the two have become "peas in a pod" this spring.

Kaitlyn's vocabulary, both spoken and signed, are growing daily.  This is such a fun age to watch as she learns to communicate and to physically be able to do more.  She has definitely hit the stage where she wants to be independent.  Diaper changes and getting dressed are often a struggle as she's wanting to do it herself  or be somewhere else.  I think potty training will soon be on our list, but first the move (more on that later).  She's our dancer, any time there's music, you'll usually find her dancing.  She even makes up her own songs to dance to, or sometimes twirls to music in her head.

Both girls enjoy spending time with our neighbors.  We're still in the temporary quarters on the edge of campus, so our only close neighbors are in the building.  Most of them are in the pictures above, there's two more that are a bit older and home-schooled so they missed out on the photo ops, but I'm sure they'll be in some this summer.  Across the hall is Anneliese (2), Ashlynn (6), and Aidan (8), and downstairs is Brodie (6), Chase (3), and Seth (20 months).  All the kids love playing together every chance that we'll let them.  Of course, we moms enjoy spending time together too, especially when the kids are running around outside and we can hear each other!

A New Chapter for Me

After almost a decade of working with or for Focus on the Family, I'm moving on to being a full-time homemaker.  My work with FOF has slowed down since Kaitlyn was born, in part because it took at least 6 months for me to adjust to life as a mom of two and in part because they no longer need my services.  Also, as a family we have transitioned from me being the primary bread-winner to Josh, thanks to his work at MVNU.

So what am I doing with "all that free time"?  Well, once I got adjusted to life with two children, I did do more work for a little while but then became consumed with packing and sorting for our move to Ohio.  Once here, I did some more work for a few months, then it was the holidays (and a 3-week road trip for the girls and I), then we started house-hunting (more on that in a minute).  Soon we'll be moving into permanent housing and I once again will be consumed with sorting and packing, then unpacking and organizing.  Once everything settles down, I have plans for how to use the time...

First, I want to make a more formal attempt at homeschooling.  Next year is pre-K for Hannah, so I figured I could give it at least next year and Kindergarten to see how it works for our family as Kindergarten is not mandatory.  I've tried to have somewhat of a routine for the girls that includes learning, but have found it hard to maintain due to stress and just the feeling of not being settled.

I'm also very excited to put my green-thumb to more use. I've had houseplants for years, one since 3rd grade!, but I'm ready to have a real garden and a vegetable garden.  This is something I think the whole family will enjoy together as Josh enjoyed gardening at his parents.

Other projects include compiling a family history.  I started a bit of the family trees on the "My Heritage" website, but I want to expand it to include more than names and dates.  This will be a big project and will require lots of research, but, as many of you know, I love research and this will keep my mental gears going.  My end goal is to be able to produce a booklet of family history for each branch and be able to share it with all the family.  I have always longed to know more, and was inspired by my former boss, Moni Guyer, who took on such a project several years ago.

I also want to delve back into things that inspire my creative side, like cooking, baking, music, sewing, crocheting, and art.  My creative side has been put on the back-burner for several years and it's itching to come out and I'm excited to expand my knowledge.

A New Chapter for Josh

A lot has happened since the last blog with Josh's work.  In late fall, he was given a raise as his boss and the "higher-ups" were impressed with all that he had accomplished since joining the team.  Then the entire campus was given a raise for this calendar year. In February, his boss accepted a position in Cincinnati, and management opted not to fill his position.  Instead they promoted Josh to a new position, beginning a new chapter is his life as for the first time he is now officially a member of the management team.  Earlier this month, he hired two new employees to help spread out the work.  Summer is the busiest time for IT, because they pour themselves into projects that can be more easily done while students are off-campus.  So, his stress levels and number of work hours spiked in February and have come down a bit, but are still high.  I am hopeful that as the two new employees come up to speed, the stress and number of extra hours will ease.  Besides his work here at MVNU, he is still teaching online courses for the community college system in KY, usually one or two per term.

Besides work, Josh has started a new small group through our church called "How to Study the Bible".  Between holidays and sickness, there's only been half a dozen sessions, but everyone that has come raves about the sessions and what they are learning.  

House-Hunting

House-hunting consumed us from mid-January through last month.  We made offers on three houses between January and March.  Then on April 11th, we walked through a house and put in our first offer.  Several amendments and another version later, we had a finalized contract signed by all parties on May 8th.  We are now waiting on the final approval from Rural Development who is sponsoring our loan, the underwriter has already approved, so it's most-likely just a formality.   Rural Development is in a back-log of 3-4 weeks, and our paperwork could only go to them once the underwriter approved, so our paperwork was not submitted until June 11th.  As of Thursday, they were working on paperwork submitted May 25.  So it looks like we may have a closing date of mid-July.  Hopefully the next update will be all about our new house.