April

Here are some April photos. These first three are from Easter, Joe's first Easter egg hunt. I don't think he quite knew what was going on, it was just fun to pick up those brightly colored little things in the grass.

Joe LOVES this little piano. He'll stand there and just bang away at it.

This was when I was getting ready to go to Guatemala, and that's exactly how I felt about leaving him behind! I'm glad he didn't know what was going on though, he was just making faces for the camera.

Ethan Joshua Kessler

Over a year ago Tim and Stephanie, after several years of trying to get pregnant, began the adoption process to adopt a baby from Guatemala. Last spring they were "refered" Ethan, which basically meant that once all the paperwork cleared he would be theirs, kinda like he was put on hold for them. It was a very long drawn out year of adoption paperwork hassles and occasional photos and one video, before it was cleared to go to Guatemala to pick him up. During that year, as I mentioned in an earlier post and much to their surprise, Stephanie did get pregnant and they had Seth in February. Ethan was born in February too so they're almost exactly 1 year apart. It just so happened that they weren't going to be able to go pick up Ethan until after Tim left for Iraq. So, after a lot of prayer and consideration, it was decided that both mom and I would go with Stephanie and Seth to Guatemala, mom to help with Seth and me to help Stephanie with whatever official stuff she might need, translating and whatever. We decided it was best for me to leave Josiah here with Casey and Brenda (Casey's mom) and man was that hard to do! We were gone for a week and I've never even left Joe for a whole day, so it was very stretching for me! All in all, the trip went wonderfully, everything went as smooth as possible, and the most important thing, of course, we finally got Ethan! He's a very happy, healthy little guy, and a little on the wild side too.

He loved the pool!

Stephanie with her boys.

Seth is such a content baby, he handled the trip just fine!

Please keep Stephanie in your prayers as she really has her hands full with Tim being gone. Mom has been there helping out for several weeks now, and I'll go for a couple weeks when she leaves, I'm taking Joe with me this time of course! After that Stephanie is planning to go and stay with her parents for a while. And please pray for Ethan, that he would adjust well, so far he's doing great!

Okay, well, that's long enough for this one. Bye!

Levi Timothy

Hi! Well, it seems that some of you haven't heard the good news (I wrote a little about it in December) so.... Yep, I'm pregnant! I'm due early September, I prefer to say late August but I doubt that's very realistic. We found out a few weeks ago we're having another boy, hence this posts title! I'm still with my same midwife that helped me with Josiah, and I will be delivering at the birth center again. The website is inannabirth.com, if any of you are interested. Well, I have a ton more photos and more to write from April but I just wanted to get this little update out for now. Bye!

March:JOSIAH TURNS 1! mama turns 30 :(

March

Let's see, what all happened in March.... I guess it was a pretty uneventful month for us because nothing exciting is coming to mind. We did go camping, kinda, just for one night out on the ranch. It doesn't quite seem like camping to me when it's pretty much in our back yard. We did have a good time though, Joe loved it! He's just happy being outside.

Joe didn't mind at all just hanging out in the pack and play while we sat by the fire.

my happy little man

Joe with "Mam", Brenda, he's quite content with her!

Well, the other event worth mentioning, though not happy, is that Tim, a Staff Seargeant in the Marines, left for Iraq on the 31st for a 7 month tour. Oh, but I forgot to mention, I have a new nephew, Tim and Stephanie had a son in February, Seth Nathaniel. Seth was just a few weeks old when Tim left, so that's hard. Please keep Tim in your prayers, he's in Falujah, and has a pretty dangerous job looking for IED explosives. So far he's doing allright....

Okay, well, I guess that's all for this one.

I'm back!

Hello Everyone! Well, after 4 months of not being able to figure out how to get back into my account I've finally got it and so now I have a lot of catching up to do. I guess I'll start with these photos I was going to post in early March.

one of our few snow days

Josiah loves to stand at the back door and bang on the window.

He also loves to not just play with the stuff in the cabinets, but climb in them as well.

He's always smiley!

going for a walk on a warm day

I got a double jogging stroller so I'll be able to take both of them out on the ranch roads. I love it!