Summer Wrap Up

Ahhh, another summer gone in a blink!  We've stayed busy rounding out the season.

Forrest and I spent some time at the farm with the family at the annual Labor Day party.  This year marked the return of beautiful weather.  It was so nice to see everyone, including Kati and Ryan.  

While we were relaxing at the party, Joshua was hard at work in Champaign.  He and Mark opened a gaming store, franchised with The Gaming Goat.  Opening day was September 6, and they haven't rested since.  They've been busy!  Mark is running daily operations, and Joshua works a couple of nights each week to help with some of their bigger events.

Besides getting the store going, Joshua spent a week in San Diego at the end September attending a conference.  He was able to meet a couple of friends out there and had a great time (as well as learned a lot!).  While he was gone, Forrest and I "vacationed" with my parents.  Mom was here for three days, so I was able to get lots accomplished.  My flowers are going to be beautiful in the spring.  Forrest and I then spent another four days at Mom and Dad's.  Always fun to go visiting.  

I had to include the picture above.  Rachel and I spent a Saturday morning shopping for treasures at Decatur's junk and antique stores.  We both found a couple things and had a lot of fun.  Olga's house of stuff was a place we both had been curious about for a long time.  And my goodness, there was a lot of stuff!  

Of course I can't resist adding a few pictures of Forrest.  He's 13 months old now and learning and doing so much!  Exciting news for the month was finding shoes to fit his wide feet.  He doesn't wear them a lot but does a good job with them.  They make him look like such a big boy!  He's still loving all things with cords and enjoys being outside.  Wrestling with Daddy is also a favorite pastime.  We're slowly finding new foods that pass the "poke test" as we like to call it.  This little boy is quite picky and often pokes questionable food items.  Very funny for those watching.  

He is understanding so much of what we say to him and follows many directions.  We're still waiting for some new words, trying to be patient.  We seem to be stuck at "done" and "help."  We've started working on some signs, and he picks them up easily.  He signs "more," "up" and "open."  So, while we wait for speech, we'll keep working on signs.  

Plans for October include enjoying as much good weather as we can and spending a couple days in Peoria while Joshua works at the prompt care.  Happy October!

Maybe caught up?

Okay, so another long-overdue post.  In April we celebrated Shaun and Bill's marriage.  After waiting many weeks for her professional photos to arrive, we were thrilled to see them!  Now it's been several more weeks, and I'm getting around to posting my favorites.  Sorry for the delay!

One Year!

We're celebrating one year this week!

 

Things we have learned this month:

What a happy boy we have at the end of a year.  Such a blessing!

This kid looks adorable, especially when in costume at an Evil Knievel-themed birthday party.  Thanks, Poppy and Gigi for hosting!

First haircuts are bittersweet.  (Yes, there was hair in the back that was getting too long.)  Thanks Great Grandpa!

Still loving anything with a cord.  He is especially fond of the rice cooker these last few days.  Too funny.

Have I talked about Mr. Fox on this blog?  I'm not sure I have.  Another obsession, and has been for awhile. Mr. Fox is always ready to entertain and snuggle.  I give him credit for helping us through nights, car rides, and crabby times.  Thanks to Polly for gifting Forrest this fox months ago!  (We've purchased another, *just in case*)

We love you Forrest Edward and can't believe how quickly you've grown!

Rewind

It seems that a certain almost-one-year-old doesn't care for time spent on the computer, specifically, my time.  So, I'm blaming him for not getting this post up sooner.

At the end of July, I went on an adventure to Texas to visit my forever friend at her homestead.  I've never done anything like this on my own, but I'm so glad I did!  We packed a lot of fun into a weekend.

We visited a couple of fancy yarn shops in Dallas.  At this one, The Shabby Sheep, (love how yarn shops always have cute names), I bought some yarn that was hand dyed and spun right there in the shop.  It's currently an in-progress hat for Forrest.

 We also found a couple of fabric stores in Dallas.  This one, The Fabric Factory, advertised 4000 home decorator fabrics.  I don't think they were exaggerating!  It was amazing, and I've never seen anything like it.  I bought a couple of things for two projects that will be fun reminders of my trip once I get them done.

The last day of the trip, we visited a boat show.  Jenna and Randy live near a large lake, and they're thinking of becoming boaters.  While there, they found some nice pontoon boats that looked great, and I decided on this yacht.

Other activities of the weekend, included some sewing for Jenna and Randy's little one scheduled to arrive in February, hanging out and catching up (it had been too long!), and eating some delicious food.  I know that Firehouse Subs is chain, and probably not all that exciting to the locals, but I'm still thinking of the pork and coleslaw sandwich I had :0)  I just looked, and my closest location seems to be in Springfield.  I used to live there...

Thanks, Jenna and Randy, for a great three days!

Going on a Visit

Last week we went for a drive to visit Joshua's grandparents in Wisconsin.  We had a beautiful week with lots of fun, discovery, and sunshine.

Thanks, as always, to Grandpa and Grandma for being such fantastic hosts!

11 Months!

Getting to be such a big boy!

Enjoying time with Aunt Mary.

Have we been robbed?  No, just some organizational help from Forrest.

Things we have learned this month:

Walking!  At ten months and two weeks, Forrest took off, and he hasn't looked back since.  I'm amazed at how quickly he moved from tentative steps to confident walking most places.  

We love parks!  So much to see and do.  With his new love of parks and more time spent on his feet outside, we've had to get creative with footwear.  I can't seem to find reasonably-priced shoes to fit his wide feet, so "sock-shoes" it is :0)

Bachelor time spent with Daddy is great!  Forrest and Joshua spent all last weekend together so I could visit my forever friend in Texas.  It was an adventure for all of us (blog post coming soon!).  Thanks, too, to Polly for watching Forrest on Friday.  

Playing in the sprinkler is wet fun.  We've had the sprinkler going a lot lately to keep our new sod healthy, and Forrest is always happy to help with this chore.  He never seems to mind being a little, or a lot, wet.

Next stop, one year!

10 Months!

Getting closer to the one-year birthday, where has the time gone?

(The three Forrests)

 

Things we have learned this month:

Forrest's speech is finally starting to get on track.  He says "all done" and "dada" and is finally babbling with frequent consonants.  I won't says he's a chatty kid, but definitely some huge steps the past month.

Baby food, no more!  This stubborn little boy refuses to be fed.  He wants to feed himself with fingers or his little utensils and will not open his mouth for a spoon.  (He does make exceptions for ice cream...)  So, meal times have been a bit challenging the past couple of weeks.  He's still not great at chewing, and it seems that he is quite picky about what he wants.  For now, he's eating cubed and steamed sweet potatoes, rice crackers with cream cheese, grilled cheese, puffs, and Cheerios.  Sometimes he'll let me help him with a spoon to eat some yogurt.  Goodness, this little boy has ideas of his own!

Loves the pool!  I never dreamed he would like it, given the noise and crowd, but he loves it!  We've been three times now.

Forrest walked a few steps a couple of weeks ago, but now that he knows we're trying to get him to do it, he's not interested.  Did I mention stubborn?  There is no convincing this boy of anything he doesn't decide on his own :0)

Loves to "help" with all chores.  Hopefully this lasts about 17 more years.  He wants to get in the dishwasher, open and close the dryer, fold the clothes, and run the Swiffer.  Too funny.

Love this little boy!