A Little Bit of Life

Life is busy and full for us! That is my main reason for not keeping up with our blog.  Below are some pictures to highlight what we've been up to these last few months!

Camping:

This Spring we went on a campout to Brazos Bend State Park. This was Ezra's first campout, and he did great! At the campout he was about 4 months old which is a perfect age for camping! Small enough to be held all the time if needed, but not mobile to get into dirt and trouble. So EASY! This was our first time camping with two children. It was fairly easy since Ezra was in that easy stage of baby-hood. This Fall may be another story, though.

We took our Johnny-Jump-Up with us. John scaled a tree to hang it. Here is Ezra suspended in the air!

We visited the nature center one morning. We got to pet a snake, and an alligator! 

Learning the difference between and alligator and a crocodile.

Hiking to the lake.

This is the only large alligator we saw up close. Maybe 8 feet from the sidewalk to the lake. The alligator was probably about 5 feet or so long.

Shooting at a range:

TWO!

It was a family affair.

Around the house:

Story Time!

James in disguise as Mr. Potato Head.

Exploring the outdoors.

Ezra has learned to pull himself up to a standing position!

Ezra started solid foods last week. He dislikes the pureed foods, so he went straight to soft whole foods. Yes, that is a french fry. :-)

Peek-a-boo!

Playing with Legos.

We replaced one of our large kitchen windows this month! The old one James broke by hitting it with a paint brush (the metal part). We also put up new blinds!

James showing off his tie.

My little helpers!

Russian Performance:

John was in a performance with the Russian group, Uzori. This was their 20th anniversary performance. Below is from the Ukrainian welcome dance, Hopak. 

Here is a link to watch the dances on YouTube! John is the guy with the long/peppy hair.

Three year anniversary:

We celebrated our third anniversary on June 4. We went to IHOP for breakfast,  then spent the rest of the morning at the butterfly exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.

Our fearless boy.

A butterfly landed on my pinky finger!

We got to see so many different types of butterflies up close!

John and I went to dinner (alone!!) to the Carriage House Cafe. It was a unique place! It is full of antiques. We enjoyed the delicious food, and walking around the restaurant seeing all the antiques! The owner of the restaurant was an antiques dealer before opening up the cafe which was a carriage house way back when.

Driving by you may never know this is a restaurant.

This is tatted!

From our table

It's Been a While...

It's been quite some time since I've had time to write up a blog post. As my sister-in-law, Anna, so aptly puts it: "The activity of a blog is never proportional to the activity in the lives of those who write it; if anything, it is inversely proportional. A quiet blog is quite as likely the symptom of a life too full for writing as of a life with nothing to say."
That sums it up perfectly for us! These last several months have been filled with joy and sorrow, but always with an ever present reminder of God's grace and goodness towards us. Below are some updates from May-June.

The end of May John's paternal grandmother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. In God's providence, us, the other Pedersens, and the Wades (John's sister and family) were all at the other Pedersen's house that Sunday when we got the phone call from John's aunt about his grandma. We made plans that evening and the next day about what to do for specific family members' travel.
John's parent's flew up to Ft. Collins, CO the next morning to begin funeral preparations with Karen (John's Aunt). The rest of us left Houston that Thursday to make it to Colorado by Friday late afternoon/early evening. We had John's four siblings along with us for the trip up.

We made it to Clayton, NM the first day. The next day we left about 8am to continue our journey. After about an hour, our van's transmission went out on us. We waited for about an hour for a tow truck to take us to the nearest town (Raton, NM), so we could get a rental car to finish our trek to Ft. Collins. Thankfully the tow truck driver let us keep our van in his shop yard while we were gone. This was our second vehicle in one week to have a transmission out. John's truck's transmission went out that Tuesday.

 

Waiting...

 

James playing with some rocks while we wait for the tow truck.

 

We acquired a rental car, but the largest one they had sat 5 people, and we had 7 - including a car seat for James. Needless to say it was a very cramped trip. We met the Wades north of Colorado Springs to give them two passengers so that the drive was less crowded. Now with both cars maxed out, we were on the road yet again to make it to Ft. Collins.

 

The people in the front

 

The sardines in the back

 

We arrived at John's Grandma's house about 7pm. We ate dinner, brought luggage in, and mingled with old and new faces for the evening.

The graveside and memorial services were the next day (Saturday).  The graveside service was not without tears as we mourned our loss of Grandma Pedersen.  For myself, that's when it hit me that she was really gone.   After the graveside service, we made our way to the church for the memorial service.

 

Grandma Pedersen's grave site

With return travel arrangements made, we three left Sunday morning. We rented a moving truck with a trailer to tow our van back home. In Pueblo, we dropped off the rental car, and made it to Raton, NM to pick up our van. We pushed to make it to Dumas, TX for the night. We made it home late the next night. Praise the Lord we didn't have anything go wrong on the way home! It was so nice to be home, but we wouldn't have missed going to Colorado.

Shortly after we arrived home, we had both our vehichles towed to have both transmissions fixed. It was a very sad event to see BOTH our cars on a tow truck and being driven away! We were so grateful when we had them back a week later!

 

A sad sight to see...

 

On June 4, John and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary! To celebrate, on our actual date, I made a nice dinner - Lasagna Rolls, salad, and rosemary bread. Lasagna rolls is the meal I first made for John after we were married, and each year I make it. :)  That weekend, we stayed in a nice hotel down town, went to a nice restaurant for dinner, and walked around the city. It was an enjoyable and relaxing weekend! Below are some pictures.

 

The front of The Lancaster Hotel

 

Our room

Sitting area

 

James looking down at Buffalo Bayou from a bridge.

In mid-June, we had our 18 week ultrasound to check on baby #2, and to find out if it's a boy or a girl - It's a BOY! We eagerly look forward to meeting Ezra Michael Pedersen come November!
One interesting tidbit: When Ezra is born, John's parents will have 5 grandsons 4 and under! Still no girls yet. :-)

The end of June, we traveled to San Antonio to go to a builders show. This one was much smaller than the one we went to in January, but the learning sessions John went to were really good, and James and I walked around the show floor and played while John was attending the classes. The one night we spent in town, we spent at family's house who is a part of the A Candle in The Window Hospitality Network. They were such a sweet family, served us dinner, and we had a great time just visiting with them. Sadly, we forgot to take a picture of them before we left.
While we were in San Antonio, we stopped at the Tower of the Americas. The view at the top was amazing! And VERY windy!

James was quite amused by the windiness. :)

We have been making progress on our bathroom! I hope to get a separate post up about the updates some time after this one.

 

Happy Birthday, James!

One year ago today, James Anthony Pedersen, was welcomed into this world. We are so blessed to be his parents, and to watch him grow each day!
Happy Birthday, James!! We love you!

 

Great Day for Up!

Last week James (8 months old) pulled himself up to a standing position from laying on his belly on the floor! John and I were sitting at the table eating dinner and James was in the living roon playing with his walker, and we watched him pull up and then walk a few steps around the walker itself!
He was very proud of himself! :-D 

He's been pulling up on anything he can hang onto now.  Here are some pictures and a video of him doing it the second time.

All by himself! John and I were still at the table when I took this.

 

 

Thanks and Giving

We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday!   This year for us was full and busy with family, but it was nice to be able to spend time with both our families and spend a day (or two in our case) reflecting on what we are thankful for. All the blessings God has so graciously bestowed on us!
Since John and I decided not to go to Texas Camp this year (a folk dance camp held annually over Thanksgiving weekend) we were able to spend both Thanksgiving day and the day after with family.

My mom cleaning up after the meal (which was very yummy!).

 

Lydia helping while Caley plays paparazzi.

 

James playing with Great Grandma Pedersen.

James, Grandma Pedersen, and Andrew. James was quite interested in Andrew's head and ear.

 

 

James opening his Thanksgiving gift from Great Grandma.

 

 

John's family exchanges Thanksgiving gifts with his Grandma every year. This year we gave her cookies!

James and our house.

John and me.

 

Earlier this month I created a Thanksgiving Tree. Each night after family devotions we would each write on one leaf what we are thankful for, color it, then put it up on the tree. The point of this is to help get us thinking more of what we are thankful for leading up to Thanksgiving day.
The trunk and limbs I just roughly cut from some scratch paper, and then printed and cut out a template of a maple leaf.

Our Thanksgiving tree

 

 

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we went to a Civil War Reenactment at Liendo Plantation in Hempstead with John's Grandma (who was in town for Thanksgiving) and the Wades. It was a very enjoyable day! Long, but enjoyable.

When we arrived there was a fashion show going on. One lady who owns all of these amazing historically accurate ladies costumes was having some of her girls model them. The speaker (the one who owns the costumes) would go into detail about how it was historically accurate, along with some other information about what women would wear in the 1800's. It was very informative and I (Megan) really enjoyed being able to see so many historically accurate Victorian era costumes!

A walking outfit

A skating outfit

Some of the many beautiful costumes!

The Liendo plantation house was beautiful! We took a tour of the home (no pictures were allowed to be taken inside).

There was a real wedding we watched, and also a battle reenactment. One disappointment of the battle is that there was a lot of gun and cannon fire, but no people (that we could see at least) fall down dead or wounded... So it didn't seem that realistic.. Oh well. :-)

We had such beautiful weather! It was cool, but not too cold. We three dressed up in costume for the fun of it! I borrowed my sister Emily's dress and apron, and wore my straw bonnet and knit shawl, John wore jeans, a peasant shirt, and a vest I made for him a while ago, and James wore a shirt (with cute elbow patches!) and overalls! (I ended up being the one who took all the pictures, so this is the only picture we have of all three of us together. It was taken just before we left the plantation.)

 

James is now eight months old! He has four teeth, and does an army crawl to get around. He is pretty funny to watch scoot around the house and just listen to him playing. It's amazing how much he is learning! We have been working on not screaming among other things and it is encouraging to see him choose to obey. Though progress is small, it's seen every day!