Busy days

So it has been a while. To say the least I have been busy. Jenna is just about walking and starting to get into everything she can reach, I think that is making her want to walk more (to see what else she can get her little fingers on). This evening I was in Emma's closet, orgainizing/getting rid of things, and when I leave I find that Jenna and Garrett were busily covering Jenna's bedroom floor with toys. Then what I dreaded was coming soon, the other 2 did it, so I knew it was only a matter of time.... Emma comes running to me, "Mom, you have to see what Jenna did!" (I am thinking this could be bad) ....She pulled about 1/2 the books off of one shelf ...here we go now we get to play the game how many times can Mom organize the books again. Jenna is really enjoying reading books, I always love it when they get to that stage. She is just starting to talk a little, "num, num (I like that)". "Dada, (when she sees Rob on Skype)". "UH - oh"! So very soon I will have a third chatter box on my hands.

We had a great visit with Rob, he had his 15 day R&R Jan. 24-Feb. 7. They will be home in less then 2 months...we can do it. Praise God He has brought us through and will continue to for the next 5 weeks.

some pictures from our summer

We were able to see Rob in the end of June for 4 days. When he would
talk Jenna would look at him and just take it in it was really sweet. Emma and Garrett had a great time with grandparents and cousins.

Also back in June Emma turned 4, that is her best friend Colbin, he stood right by her side as she opened her gifts and taunted her. She was happy to get home and see all her friends again.

Our yard

This pictures are to show Rob how our yard looks, I just got back from 7 weeks in Minnesota, and friends and neighbors, took care of it for us.

Trees

We now have “4” trees on our property.  Two apple, a royal red maple, a Colorado Blue Spruce.  It is not easy to grow trees around here, so we shall see how I do on my own.  We got them planted before Rob left.  I took these pictures a couple weeks ago to show Rob how they are budding out.

sick kids

I had to stay home today from church with Jenna and Garrett.  A friend from church was nice enough to come over and get Emma and take her to church, she really appreciated being able to go. 

Jenna's dedication

We had Jenna dedicated this past Sunday. It was the only Sunday left that something else was not going on before Rob leaves. That is Pastor George in the picture with us, he is the interim pastor that is here for the year while Rob is gone. He arrived in February, so they would have some overlap time. Rob has really enjoyed being able to have staff meetings with George, Patrick (our associate pastor), and himself. Just being able to work along with George has been a joy for him. George was the interim here before we came, so it has been great to bring him back.

It was the first time one of our kids was dedicated and we did not have family come in from out of town. This weekend Rob's sister Jennifer and brother Brad and their families along with his parents and uncle and aunt David and Sandy will be here for the commissioning service at our church for the deployment. So we are looking forward having them all here.

More Jenna

Here are some really cute pictures of Jenna that I wanted to share. She is smiling a lot more, she is very content in her swing and likes to look at the mobile that goes around on the swing. I like to get as many pictures of her with Rob as I can.

KCWY13 - NBC For Wyoming

Rob had a short TV news interview today, it was on the 5 and 10 pm news. He was trying to get the word out for a commissioning service that we will have at the church on Sunday, so he contacted the news station and they came and interviewed him. We hope that this is a way to reach the family members of the deployed soldiers. His uncle David, who is a retired Army Chaplain will be speaking at the service.

KCWY13 - NBC For Wyoming

Little Army man

This was from the last drill weekend Rob had about a month ago. When ever Rob has his stuff out the kids like to get into it. Garrett also has his own jacket and pants, although it is the old style camouflage.

Sick

We have been at home since Friday when Emma came down with a fever, she had to miss a good friend's rollerskating birthday party on Saturday. I planned to be able to go to church on Sunday and then Garrett woke up sick on Sunday. Today we are stranded home because of snow and ice. My brother said the talked about it on KARE-11 news, out of Minneapolis tonight "ice and snow in Casper, WY". It was white out for several hours this morning and then let up tonight. When I went out to get some wood, the snow was to my knees. Then temp seemed pretty warm though, probably about 30, but that could be relatively speaking. I had 3 people call to see if I needed anything today and others just to check on us. We really are blessed by all the care that God set up for us while Rob is gone!!

Smiling

I have been trying to capture Jenna smiling, especially to be able to show some pictures to Rob, but she does not smile all the time and when she does it seems I do not have time to get my camera. Here Garrett was enjoying helping me, as you can see the many positions he used trying to get her to smile.

Family visit

We had a great time with Grandma Anderson, and Caleb and Sharon visiting. Here are some pictures to update you on Jenna.

Jenna

Being the third child in our family Jenna is of course shown lots of love everyday by Emma and Garrett, they love to hold her and talk to her. Garrett still prays every prayer, "Baby sista, Amen."

Last weekend when my parents came to visit my Grandma "G.G." came along too. She enjoyed being able to hold and enjoy Jenna, and Emma and Garrett too.

Preparing for deployment

Rob has been gone now for 8 days for annual training with the National Guard at Camp Gurnsey (about 2 hours away from Casper), with 11 more days to go. My mom is here to help, but we have stayed really busy. Emma and Garrett were able to go swimming two times this week at the Rec. Center they have a special "Toddler Swim". Plus other things were were able to be out doing with the extra help of Grandma. Grandma plans to come help as often as she can while Rob is gone for a year.

Most of my spare time has been been busy and I try to get as much quality time with Rob as I can when he is home. He is scheduled to leave for Kuwait as early as April 16 or late as April 22. The Saturday before he left for Annual training we were able to have the whole day together with the help of our church members babysitting for us. I even left Jenna barely 4 weeks old for 4 hours (it was very worth it so Rob and I could have some time for just us) as we went out to eat and to "Pottery By You", where we were able to make some things for the deployment. See above I painted the mug and he wrote the message on it for me. and then he painted the jar and we will leave thoughts from him in it for the kids. The chicken on the side represents the chickens we plan on getting when Rob returns home. Not something I wanted to do by myself while he is gone.

We are so blessed to have a wonderful church family, they live up to what the Bible commands us to do in taking care of each other. There is no better place God could have placed us!

Jenna Grace

Jenna came home on Tuesday. Emma and Garrett have been great to their little sister. So far Jenna has been sleeping good. She sleeps from about 10:00 to 2:30 AM... then Betsy wakes her up and feeds her and she falls asleep again until 6:30. We had a wonderful photo session with her yesterday, our neighbor Brooke does photography and she spent a few hours doing some really neat poses with Jenna. We can't wait to see the pictures.

Candy Land

"Our favorite meal"

While Rob was gone for a week (he was in Denver working on his Doctorate of Ministry program) we were a little more flexible with our meal. Several times the kids were able to enjoy a meal of smoothies and edamame. Emma would be content with this at every meal. Garrett really enjoyed Emma peeling the edamame for him.

Burning wood

I think these pictures can speak for themselves. We have been enjoying a warm fire since Tuesday.

Addition to previous post

As we were in church yesterday, I look beside me to find Emma's backside up in the air with her dress hanging down. This is not the first time, we have seen that view in church, but I thought it was funny since I had just written about it. So we are still working on how to sit properly in church.

I have a headache.

Emma enjoys very much being on her head. Garrett on the other hand, as some have found out, becomes terrified when he is upside down. Emma will just randomly run to a chair or couch and do her head stands....after leaving the table, bathroom, or anytime she feels like it. But she did admit to Rob today that while doing that she had a headache, maybe she is onto something.