Elana is 1!

January 21, 2014 Elana turned 1!

We were going to have a nice family dinner the day of her birthday however, she was fighting a bug and went to bed at 5:30 that night.
 
Originally we planned to celebrate her birthday on Saturday January 25, but as this winter shows no mercy, we rescheduled for February 1 instead. We still had a much smaller crowd than we had hoped for due to the road conditions. 

She has been such a blessing and her sweet personality shows a little bit more each day.

Jason has had to shovel the roof several times now and we lost some siding on the barn due to high winds.

This last week we were hit hard with sickness in our house. First both kids had a cold that wouldn't let them breath easy. We decided to install a whole house humidifier instead of buying more filters for the humidifier that only reached a few rooms to help with everyone's breathing issues. 

Then, this week daddy got hit hard with the stomach flu. We are praying that no one else gets that bug!
We also are praying for friends of ours, Willy and Dana who moved into their new home a couple of months ago, just lost most of their belongings due to an electrical fire. Ethan is starting to understand helping people and we've been talking with him about how we can help their family in different ways. 

One thing we are working on right now is a family tree. It has always been a curiosity of mine to know the previous generations but now after a few questions to some of our family members it seems that some of our family history has been traced back to the 1100's!! Once we have it pulled together I hope to post it here as well as once our children are older give it to them with their baby books.

Year and a half update

Umm, I must confess that I lack the commitment for updates. I see my last post was June 2012. So much has happened since that post.
Let's review!
We found out Ethan was going to be a big brother right before our trip to Texas. After our return we started working on a few updates on the house in order to get it on the market.We did a lot of exterior work as well as update the laundry room. The house was just too small for 4 people and a dog.

 

We enjoyed taking a break in the fall from all of the house projects and put it on the market. It was a slow start and not much traffic until the following spring.

Elana Joy Brown was born 1/21/13 @ 1:49am 7lbs 8oz 20"several days before her scheduled arrival and during a snow storm.

 Ethan turned 2 on March 5, 2013.

 Elana's first Easter. Ethan was able to enjoy his first Easter egg hunt :)

 

Shortly after I went back to work in April our home for 9 years was sale pending! It took all summer to get through the sale process and we closed the week before Labor day 2013.

 

Moving with 2 little people had it's challenges but the home we purchased is perfect for our family and much closer to Holland.

Aunt Vickie came to visit in September. It was great to have her meet Elana and have fun with Ethan!

 Jason went to Deer Camp in October and came home with 2 deer! Venison for our freezer is always a welcomed blessing!

We hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new home. It was busy with 30 people but we had a great time! We discovered that Jason's brother and his wife Sam are expecting baby #2! What joy to look forward to in 2014!
 
 Elana's first Christmas and our first Christmas in our new home was so much fun!

 Here's to a new year with reflection of all the blessings that the last year brought!