Halfway to 2 years old!

This guy gets cuter and cuter every day!! That white hair and those blue eyes are just heart melting!!

Yes, he's now halfway to 2 years old! Thinks he's going on 15 though! He definitely has a strong will and is very persistent, but I just remind myself (constantly haha) that one day that can be an amazing strong will for God! Joey says he's just like a car with no brakes and a stuck accelerator - we just have to keep him between the lines until he learns to do it himself haha!

He's still a skinny little boy (23 lbs, 10th percentile), but it's not for lack of eating! Holy cow, can this boy put it away! And pretty much eats anything except bananas and not a big sweets/cake eater. His favorites right now are macaroni and cheese, ravioli (he calls oli oli), peas, and manadrin oranges. But seriously, it's hard to pick out his favorites because he eats it all! Especially if it's on your plate! And he eats constantly between meals!

I guess he's so skinny because the child runs everywhere all the time! his favorite game is chasing his daddy around the house or "tackling" and I mean running and wrapping somebody around the waist or pushing until you fall over! As I said, very determined! He's so funny! Although, he will actually sit still for a bit like above to watch only Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....or in his own recliner.

He says tons and tons of things - mama, dada, and Ty all the time. Truck (tuh), milk (mi), uh oh, help please or please (puh puh), paci (pa pa), pop, Mike (myyy), leah (not sure how to type it but it's whe whe whe), Brad (bad), waffle (wa wa), bye bye, hi, rice (rye), garage door (ga da), moon, wow, tomato (tama tama), donald duck, probably more that aren't coming to mind.

He also loves doing animal sounds - cow, dog, cat, chicken, turkey, owl, frog, duck, sheep, bunny (he says boing and attempts to hop).

 

He has also totally shocked me the past couple of weeks and started letting us know he has a dirty diaper by grabbing the wipes and a diaper! Amazing.

 

He has a mouth full of teeth! All teeth including 1 year molars are fully in, and now the sleep saga (or lack there of) continues due to all 4 two year molars coming in! Maybe, praying!!!, we will be done with teeth very soon, and we will all sleep!!

 

 

 

He is also fascinated with putting on any and all shoes and seeing how far he can walk in them! We were pretty impressed with the several steps he took in Joey's steel toed boots!

 

Like father like son - turns his bike over to inspect under it.

 

This kid keeps us on our toes, cracks us up and keeps us entertained, and has brought us more emotions than ever thought possible. It is our prayer with him every night that God will equip us to be the parents He wants us to be to this amazing little boy!

 

 

 

Two Dreams Become One

I have always been crazy about horses, probably rode my first one when I was 5 at a friend's house. Yes, I'm an animal lover, but horses have an even greater impact on me. They're so majestic and powerful, yet gentle and loving.  Sounds a little familiar to my Heavenly Father, maybe? ;)

So of course a dream of mine has been to own or somehow incorporate horses into my life. I remember begging and begging my dad as a kid/teen to have a horse. Obviously, I don't resent him for not getting me one as I now understand the intense commitment (financially and time) that owning a horse requires.  The dream never died though. My passion did change or at least become distracted by my calling into the Christian counseling ministry. Then, as you can read about here, God allowed a dream to come true - starting a non profit counseling center.

And now, just another year later, and I stand in awe of God blessing me with something called Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. We have been trained (not fully certified yet) to be able to use these amazing creatures to help clients with their problems, and we are already seeing the potential for great things after just beginning to utilize it with clients.

I ADORE that these guys are my collegues now!

A Clydesdale at the Kentucky Horse Park where we were trained. My absolute favorite horse, and I finally got to meet one!

Not only are these guys my new coworkers (and we also have a great equine specialist, Anita Duncan, that we work with), I get to wear blue jeans and boots to work! How great is that?! ;)

Gorgeous Kentucky Horse Park.

I am soooo blessed!!