Loafman adventure

It sure has been awhile since I have posted! I keep thinking I need to back track and write about things since we have moved, but that might take awhile. So I will post about that when I can, and just start about recent events!

We just had a wonderful trip with Mama Luci and Papa D! They were able to visit for 4 days during their Fall Break time. We packed in as much as we could, and had such a good time creating more memories! The first day we took a long walk around the pasture and into the tree line behind our house. It was the perimeter of 80 acres! It was so beautiful, admiring huge tree trucks, watching Caleb climb them, Finney chased a turkey out of the brush that flew over us (good hunting dog), saw never ending fields of harvested corn, the crisp ponds, Enoch climbing trees, frogs, finding old hidden farm equipment, and almost being on "I can't believe I'm still alive" show by dodging the bull that we kept thinking was following us. (I think Mama Luci and I over reacted a little haha) It was so pleasant to be outside and Enoch was so excited to show them our chickens. And then Papa D made him a tire swing him a fun tire swing on the side of our house!

That evening we had a Weenie roast down by the farm ponds. We bundled up, built a huge fire, and brought all the junk food we could find. We were surround by trees, but had a perfect gap in them letting us see the stars and the moon. It was so bright we could see our shadows on the ground. It was also so peaceful and gorgeous. The boys loved it and so did we! And then I heard some noises that made me sit in the van for awhile until they went away..... I got cold and came back out, and made some S'mores!

The next day Mama Luci and I went exploring while the men stayed here and the boys napped. We have a cemetery right down the road from us that was fun to see. The majority of the graves dated back to the 1800's, with the most recent one being in 1940's. It was sad to see all of the children that were lost back then, but so interesting to be in such an old place that not many people new about. We drove around for hours on all of the back roads, seeing animals, old houses and school buildings, the fall country side and of course with laughs and jokes. So fun! That night we had GG and Papa over for a big deer roast, so they could see the Loafmans as well.

Saturday we went to a cute little pumpkin patch and children's barnyard about 30 minutes away. It was so well put together, with a petting zoo, a train ride, a corn maze, hay slide, tunnels, a tractor and firetruck to climb on, a corn shell sandbox, water pump races, and a little kid size digger. We were there for awhile and had to pry Enoch away in tears. The funniest part of it was looking back to find Enoch right in the middle of all the activities and people with his pants to his ankles, aiming, and saying "Tee tee!" Yes we got a pic. After that, we drove just a few miles North to Iowa and enjoyed seeing some massive white windmills that lined the road for miles. Also, we drove through a town called Tarkio on our way back and enjoyed the well kept, historic town with big Victorian houses. They said they never get tornadoes due to the river that surrounds them...Im pretty sure I going to move there. We came home to crissen our yard with a game of Bocce.

yes that's Enoch with his pants down on the right.....

And yes, our adventure goes on! We woke up Sunday to pack for a hike up the Squaw Creek Mountain side overlooking the refuge. Noah was strapped to my back on a carrier and Enoch walked and rode on Papa D's shoulders. Once again, it was just perfect weather and scenery. All of the orange, yellow and red leaves lined the path the lead us higher and higher to our view. We saw some Eagles, a deer, some really interesting twisted trees, a birds nest and a lot more of God's creations. After getting peed on by Noah, playing in the leaves with Enoch and losing my glasses (we did find them, thank you hubby) we worked up an appetite for Red Lobster! Yum yum! And of course, our fun times came to and end and tears. We had to say Goodbye =(

(pictures of hike to come.....)

Family Updates

UPDATES:

Noah is now crawling! I think it went, he was sitting up at 6 months, on hands and knees at 7 months, and crawling at 8. He is also pulling up on things to the standing position, dancing at music, instead of bobbing his head yes with his mouth open and closing, he shakes it sideways now and smiles, eating regular food in small portions.

Enoch's new words: Da da DEE (Papa D), De de deese (Mac and cheese), Bapa for mommy, Papa for Grandpa, First sentance "Dig Dig bye bye", He'll point to his belly and say "too" (he wants to be included) Loves to tell Noah "Doh!" for No. If he wants to watch Looney Tunes he brings you the remote and says "ooooooo" (We think because there is a coyote and road runner episode and the howling is the only way to relate it) we catch him singing to himself, He has been sick 3 times this month (?), and officially Potty trained before his second birthday! We just got his big boy underwear tonight-So exciting! Caleb I were standing outside when Enoch came out of the garage and yelled "DADDY! PAPA!" with his hands up motioning for us to come. I looked at Caleb and said "Aw man..does that mean I'm Papa?" haha. I think I am Bapa now though.

Weather wise, we have had severe weather here 3 times this month. The first one a tornado took out a tree and damaged our cars (Technically it totaled them-damage is more than car worth), Second one the hail was the size of softballs (we were driving only minutes from the bad part on our way home from Tulsa) AZDSFsz (Noah just typed that), and today we are again having bad storms and tornado's all around us. I think we dodged it for now.

I have been finally cooking! Going by a lady's blog called The Sweet Life. She has pictures and great details, just what I need for a beginner! Mexican pork bowls, Chicken tortilla pie, Harvest stuffed pork with orange marmolade glaze, Southwest chicken with corn and black bean succotash, and black bean and fresh veggie salad dip have been a success! But Caleb still wins for best cook in our family. He's so good! Especially at steaks.

The countdown starts for our BIG MOVE, coming up on the first of June. And Enoch turns two June 5th!

Here is our daily routine of going down the neighborhood to watch the diggers at work. Sometimes we take the bike and cart, and other times we take the stroller for exercise! The boys love this thing, and so do I! (Thanks Mama Luci!) Wish they had a mommy cart =)

Tornadoes

So we have officially been greeted with spring on Monday evening, when over 20 tornadoes hit Oklahoma. Right after mentioning that the sky looked funny and the air felt heavy, the tornado sirens went off. Caleb was working out, so it was just Mama Luci, me and the little boys. We watched the end of the storm come our way from the front door, with the orange sky underneath the cloudline. Then it decided to start lowering and twisting all around, and of course it was coming right down our street toward our house. So I grabbed the boys and ran to the laundry room. But hearing the garage door shake and rattle right on the other side of the door, I was afraid it was going to rip off, so we headed for the master closet. I heard Mama Luci yell from the other side of the house, "There's goes some swimming pools!" as she watched them fly by the door. She went to go close the doors, and saw the big tree on the side of the house fall. We could hear the howling of the wind from the closet, I was just hoping I didn't hear a train sound, like they say when the tornado is about to hit. We saw a crowd of neighbors in our yard after it passed, so we were able to talk with them and hear their stories. Roofs, shingles, chimney's, tree's, basketball goals, fences and powerlines were all damanged. Hail got the best of our cars. Baseball size balls broke through my passenger side window leaving glass all in the seat. Both of the windshields in our cars got hit a couple times which shattered, but didn't break them. So aggravating! Our neighbor told us he looked out and saw a big cloud of gray in our backyard when it was all happening. So crazy! We were just fortunate we just had funnel damage and not from it touching the ground, or it would of been alot worse.

crawl,sick,digger

Noah is getting SO close to crawling! He can get up on all fours and rock back and forth, going backwards. And sometimes he'll even get up in push-up position with just his toes and hands touching the floor! Its so fun to watch. So hopefully when he acually starts moving he'll gain his independance and not be so clingy to me to take him around places.

Well we have had construction going on right outside our neighbor, and you know what that brings.....Diggers, dump trucks, and bulldozers, Oh my! So for a whole week we would take a walk behind the house on the trails, and then head up the sidewalk to go look at the big machines. It was great entertainment, and a good way to get my exercise! I just need to get some of those Shape Up Shoes and I would be good to go. Enoch also enjoys taking Noah for rides with him on HIS Tractor/Digger toy. He would look around Noahs head, say something to him in their "brother baby language" (like maybe'"isn't this fun?") and then kiss him on the check. So precious.

The whole family has been battling some kind of sickness the month. Its just going around and around. Micah, Enoch, Noah and I had a stomach virus of some kind a few weeks ago. Then Papa D, Mama Luci, Noah and then Enoch had sinus congestion/cold/coughing. The boys had trouble coughing, because they would always gag and then throw up. I went through 3 outfits, Noah went through 6, had to change my sheets, clean the carpet, a rug, and some toys. BUT everyone is slowely getting better. YAY!

Wknd at Kilpatricks

What a fun weekend! We went to Matthew and Randi's house Thursday night and got to play with the boys cousins, Lexi (Enochs age) and baby Luci on Friday. Drove to Georgetown, TX and met Mama Luci and Papa D to watch the finals for a soccer game. The men knew the coach of one of the teams, from their hometown. Then we headed up to the Kilpatricks in Austin, TX. What a scenic city! It was great drive, so many rolling hills, big houses, a lake covered with sail boats. It looked like we were in another country! And they have an absolutely GORGEOUS house on one of the many of the rolling hills, looking out to other beautiful houses and the lake in the distance. Just a breath taking view. We had so much fun! They had a huge house where there was plenty of room for all 10 of us. The kids could run around and play with the toys (they have 6 grandchildren themselves) and a big back porch and yard where Enoch played with Roo, the dog, for awhile. Caleb and I went on their 4-wheeler, up one of the big hills to look at the view. So romantic! Then drove it around the woods on the paths. It was little scary when Caleb was driving, I kept yelling "BE CAREFUL! We are both parents!" haha. But still we had a blast! We played basketball and ran after the kids. Jeff and Jodi cooked us some wonderful meals and were so hospitable!

After we left, we went dropped the men off at the championship game in Georgetown, and we decided to take the kids to the park, instead of sitting in the bleachers again for the game. Enoch and Lexi had fun running around and playing on the slides, mazes and swings. Afterwards we headed to Catfish Parlor to meet the men once it got dark, but the game started late so they still had another half to play. So we tried to entertain the kids a little longer by taking their pictures in the Blue Bonnets (a must have if you are from TX.) Decided to go ahead and eat, when we got a call that they were going into overtime. We had the children for almost 4 hours from the time we dropped them off. We were WORN out, and so were the kids! They did good overall, but Randi, Mama Luci and I passed out on the ride back.

The boys were so good in the car, especially with getting in and out of the van taking short trips each day. Noah is now able to reach into the basket right in between the carseats to get his toys. Enoch just plays, and sings, and talks to himself the whole way. Every once in awhile we will hear "duce?" for his juice. I looked back and saw them holding hands-Sweet boys!

Frustrated

Lets see where to start. First our house flooded, twice, from the City of Edmond's sewage line. So we moved in with Caleb's parents for a year (which has been wonderful!) But we had to leave our dogs in the back yard at the Edmond house. We tried to salvage things in the house by moving them to the garage, but only to be torn up by the dogs when we let them in there for the winter storms. We went to pack up the house and found mold, which tested out to be a form that could, or could not be, toxic. So we might have to leave the things we can't wash with bleach. We get a call during the winter from animal welfare saying there was a complaint that we had abandoned our dogs, so we had to explain the situation to him and that they were being taken care of. Then we get a citation in the mail in March saying we are being taking to court for barking dogs, from a guy that lives a whole block away. No warning or note, just court...? We asked 2 neighbors directly by us, who laughed and said they have never had a problem with our dogs or barking. Also, us living there for 2 years with them, we didn't have an issue either. So when Caleb goes to take care of the problem and take them up to the Farm in Missouri early, he see's that someone had opened the gate and let them go....like they tried to fix the problem themselves. Luckily the pound didn't charge us the $90 since the machine wasn't working, and our little dog Trajan has not been found yet. :::sigh::: We got a warrant for my arrest and a bail set already if I don't show up to court, haha, doesn't the city of Edmond have most important matters to take care of? Every time a hear a dog bark I yell "911 that dog is offending me!"

But good news! I think we found a house we are going to buy in Missouri! 4 bedrooms, 2 bath and a office, 2 car garage and on 2 acres of land with farms and pasture all around us. Its so pretty! But we probably wont have enough money to get the new vehicle yet. Hopefully things will start looking up soon! God is good and will always take care of his children. Good thing we know this life isn't about our material possessions.

Matthew 6:19-21
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Hair cut, first tooth

Updates on our boys....

E got a HAIR CUT! Before and after pictures

And Noah got his FIRST (March 10) and SECOND (March 20) tooth!

Dig Dig

"DIG DIG!" Some neighbors let us borrow their digger slash tractor, which are some of Enochs favorite toys to play with. The first night we got it, he pulled each one of us by the finger to the garage several times so he could say "night night" to it. It took him awhile to learn how to steer while moving. He would push the pedal, stop, turn way right, go, stop, turn it way left and so on. It gave me small glimpse of what it might be when he turns 16....=) He's getting the hang of it now though!

Showing me with his head how the front tips over

Doesn't like to stay on the sidewalk

There he goes!