Birthday Happenings

First here are a few photos from the week before Malachi’s birthday. We went to the Indianapolis Zoo for the first time. Even after spending the majority of my life going the Milwaukee Zoo, Indy wasn’t too bad.

Then yesterday on  Malachi’s actual birthday, we just spent some family time together at home and running errands (not going to Aunt Erin’s, which is what Ty thinks I’m saying *every* time I tell him we are going to run errands). Low key with cake and presents.

Birthday Questions

Pinterest helped me discover the idea of asking your child the same questions every year on their birthday and recording the answers. I forgot to post this with the photos from Ty’s birthday. Here are the questions and his responses.

  1. What is your favorite color? Blue
  2. What is your favorite toy? Chupacabra (a toy from the movie Planes)
  3. What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Throwing stuff
  4. What is your favorite thing about your brother? Giving him stuff
  5. What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy? Play and hide
  6. What is your favorite movie/TV show? Daniel Tiger & Dinosaur Train
  7. What is your favorite animal? Monkeys
  8. What is your favorite song? Lion King (I disagree and think “Let It Go”…)
  9. What is your favorite book? Duck & Goose
  10. Who is your best friend? Elli
  11. What is your favorite snack? Strawberries & blueberries
  12. What is your favorite drink? Milk & water (I do believe he means he likes both separately)
  13. What do you pray about? God
  14. What is your favorite story from the Bible? Jesus & the Little Children
  15. What is your favorite dinner? Mac & cheese
  16. What is your favorite game? Memory
  17. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Hide & Seek (We honestly never play this…)
  18. What is your favorite place to go? McDonald’s 
  19. What do you sleep with at night? My am-ee-uhls (written phonetically – He means animals.)
  20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Help people put stuff in oven

This was so much fun to do with him. I look forward to doing it in future years and seeing how he changes!

Happy Birthday, Matthias!

On July 28th, my firstborn baby turned three years old. How the time has flown! Here’s a peek at how we spent the day.

Happy birthday, my wonderful boy! So blessed to be your mommy – you teach me so much about having fun and how much we sinners need grace. Can’t wait to see what your fourth year of life has in store for us (maybe a few less meltdowns than the third year?? :D) Daddy and I love you very much!

A few weeks ago, we went on a nice little vacation up to Hill City, SD. Hill City is a small town about 30 minutes southwest of Rapid City, SD and about 7-30 minutes from Mt. Rushmore (depending on whose GPS you follow…*cough* *cough* husband). 

We took a few days driving there so that we could have a little vacation time with our little family of 4, as we would be spending the majority of the trip with many of the Bishop clan from all across the country. We four made sure to stop in Mitchell, SD, home of the world-renowned Corn Palace. Matthias still asks about it. Unfortunately, the interior was under some construction so we weren’t able to roam the halls, but we did get to peruse the gift shop, see a big ol’ tractor, and, of course, gaze at the amazing corn bedecked exterior (which was also under construction, but it is still possible to enjoy part of it while watching the workers construct).

 

We also stopped in Wall, SD and spent a night in our tent in Rapid City (this was the evening before the rest of the family was to arrive). Much to our chagrin, there was a severe thunderstorm that late afternoon/early evening. Here is my dear hubby, using his feet to hold up our tent against the wind that threatened to pummel it down, which would have gotten the interior of the tent all wet. Not fun to sleep in! So I’m thankful we had him along (although if I had been by myself, I probably would have been a wuss and gone to a hotel…)

Holding up the tent

Holding up the tent

Cowering inside the tent

Cowering inside the tent

More to come on a different day. Blessings to anyone reading! 🙂

End of August

Yikes! August is almost over! This month has really gone very quickly for me. Matthias has been 2 for almost a whole month. Thankfully we haven’t had a lot of terrible two’s issues…yet. He has his moments, for sure, but he’s still a pretty mellow kid. He has a lot of his daddy’s personality. 🙂

Matthias has somehow picked up the ability to gallop. It’s pretty fun to watch. He can’t do it for very long, but I’ve found that I can’t for very long without my legs getting tired. I blame it on the extra weight, but I’m probably just not as coordinated as my two-year-old. Anyways, earlier today, Ty was galloping around the back yard and started giggling to himself. As I got closer, I realized why. He was galloping and saying “poopy”. Oh boy. The potty humor begins, which I must admit, I also think is pretty funny. He has also really gotten into cooking. He likes for JB and I to pretend to cook him. He enjoys pretending rocks are various ingredients and is most often found cooking pizza. Sometimes it’s cookies and cake, but usually pizza. I promise that we feed him more of a variety than those three items!

We are still waiting on the house. Our realtor called our banker last week after I told her we were still pleased with the house after the inspection. We’ve been waiting to hear anything and finally called today. JB talked to Jeff (our mortgage guy) and he said the appraisal was ordered (we’re guessing today, since he doesn’t seem amazingly motivated to do things without being nagged, unfortunately) and he said he’d have paperwork for us to sign this afternoon. We were supposed to get a call when everything was ready, but he  never called and when JB called to find out what was going on, Jeff didn’t answer. 😦 More lessons in patience. The Lord knows what we need better than we do.

Church things are still going well for JB. He will be starting up some more Bible classes after Labor Day, so he’s working on getting those prepped. We will be attending (well, JB is standing up; I’m merely attending) a wedding in Lake Geneva this weekend, so he gets Sunday off and has an elder doing the liturgy and reading a prepared sermon. We’re looking forward to a mini-vacation and for the chance to get together with lots of friends.

Well, that wraps it up for me today. Hope you are all enjoy the blessings of this Monday.

What’s New Today

Greetings from outside Starbucks on a beautiful Monday morning. I know not everyone loves Mondays, but because they are my husband’s day off, I enjoy them. It means that Mondays are my chance to try to get ahead on the week. 🙂 

Housing update: Last week Tuesday we were supposed to have the house we are trying to buy inspected. Unfortunately, JB’s signature didn’t have his middle initial, so the sellers weren’t ready to accept our paperwork until that was taken care of. Additionally, the pipes of the house had not been de-winterized yet, so the inspector can’t do his job until the sellers have that taken care of. Sooo, today is the day (we hope)! 2:30 pm will bring us one step closer to having a house.

In other life news, baby is still doing well. Kicking and squirming a lot. I seem to be feeling more squirms than jabs lately, which has been a pleasant change. Ty has a few friends from church that he really enjoys playing with. Sydney and Reagan are girls, 3.5 and 1.5 respectively. Their mom stays home, so she and I have been getting together at least once a week. Ty calls Sydney “Teen-tah” and Reagan is a lot closer being something like “Rag-uh”. His vocabulary continues to boom. We were told yesterday by a woman from church who is a family practice doctor and is fairly well-versed in the language of child development that he is speaking really well for his age. While we always think he is awesome at everything, it’s nice to know it’s not all just our parental bias. 🙂 He also adores playing with bugs. He and JB will go in the backyard to try and catch crickets to feed our lizard. I really get a kick out of watching it, especially when Ty imitates JB saying “Rats!” whenever he misses one. Although Ty likes crickets and ants and flies, etc., etc., he does not appreciate the cicada shells around the yard. He’ll tell me that I should pick them up. No, thank you! Ty also really likes picking vegetables from our little backyard garden. We have green beans and two different kinds of tomatoes, one small and the other large. We also have a pepper plant, but no peppers have come from that yet, which makes JB pretty sad. Hopefully next year.

Hmmm, what else? As far as I can tell, JB is really enjoying his call. He works a lot, but he also makes sure to spend time home with Ty and I. He has a few additional Bible classes starting up after Labor Day and is also working with congregation members to get plans finalized for our church picnic on September 8th. 

That about wraps up my thoughts for now. I have some time to figure out how to get more pictures posted, so hope you enjoy! God’s blessings to you!ImageTy doing sparklers for the first time on the 4th of July