April

Finally, the April update. To finish off that cliffhanger I left you guys on, our friends from Florida, the Judkins, came by and stayed for four days! We had a blast catching up and letting the kids play (they have two boys close to the same ages as Tannin and Alana). We went to an art festival in a neighboring town and also got to take the kids swimming. We had one day while they were here where it rained so hard a tree in the backyard fell! Our little pond in the back turned into a huge pond with a small river trying to wash out the bridge on the driveway below. We played games and talked late into the night every night. They even got to attend Richard’s first Flood Geology class at church. It was hard saying goodbye (in fact, we tried to convince them to move up here) and we really hope that we can get together again soon.

Richard got a wonderful opportunity this month. He was able to teach at church for five Sundays. His class was based on the Flood Geology class that he taught at NTBI last year. He had a great time and had a pretty good turn out too.

The week of April 9^th was crazy busy getting ready for my (Olivia) sister Shelby’s wedding. I was a bridesmaid, Tannin was the ring bearer, and Alana was the flower girl. I had so much fun hanging out with the other bridesmaids and making our own bouquets. The wedding was beautiful and my sister was gorgeous. Welcome Lewis to our crazy family!

Everything started to settle down from that when it revved back up again. We got a call that my great-grandmother had passed away. So, Richard took off work at lunch, I got everything packed, and we headed up to Birmingham to visit with family and attend the funeral. Though Granny Knight was a very integral part of our family and will be sorely missed, it was a bittersweet time. She was a strong believer and, being in her mid-late 90s, was ready to be with her Savior. Not only that, but it gave us the chance to see family that we don’t often get to visit with. We stayed with my dad while we were there and got to hang out with his family and my brothers in the mornings and evenings.

We got back from that trip and had a couple of weeks of some cool down time. Tannin this month started using short sentences which has been amazing! He also learned to swim (with a life-vest assist) but now he is capable of making his way around the pool and jumping in and out by himself. He was also moved up to the big kid class in gymnastics which means that he gets to go in a class with a teacher and mommy watched through the window. He has really been enjoying it and has learned a lot!

Alana started clapping her hands and took her first steps! We’re so proud of her and she is getting so big!

Well, that’s all for this month. Sorry it was late J I’ll go ahead and get May started now lol    

 

March

 

This picture was done in charcoal by Richard. The art class that he teaches was learning how to use charcoal on a large scale and he felt, as the teacher, that he would be remiss if he did not do a project as well. lol So, in honor of the new Batman movie, he drew this.

We opened the month with mom and Shelby heading off to New York for a week. This meant that Richard and I had all the kids, our two and then my four siblings that were left. It was a crazy week but we had a blast hanging out together. A lot of this last month was getting ready for our trip to India in June. We had a lot of phone calls to make and visas to apply for.

On the second weekend, some friends invited us over for a bonfire, sharing a passion of ours with them. We never ended up making to the actual bonfire outside, but had a blast meeting new people and eating good food!

We celebrated Easter by going to the Easter Sunday service, after which we hid eggs inside because it was raining. Dying the eggs was fun as well. Tannin got to do 3 eggs, writing all over them. For lunch, we went to a friend’s place where we had a potluck. Some Canadians showed up and found out we may be distantly related, lol! What a small world. They even brought some paska, which is Richard’s favorite Easter dessert! While all this was going on it was still pouring down raining. Us adults stayed under the cover of the carport while the kids swam in the massive puddles the driveway. Lol Tannin had a blast running through the thigh deep puddles and standing under the water that streamed from the roof.

Once the festivities were over, Richard headed off with Garrett to see Superman v. Batman. While he enjoyed the experience at the theater, the movie definitely did not meet his expectations. Oh well, at least Batman won J

Alana did hit some milestones the month. She started crawling and, almost at the same time, pulling up. She walks around the room assisted by the furniture or toys. We love watching her play and explore! On the last day of March, she started climbing…. Needless to say, the stairs are now gated, lol.

Right as the month was ending some old friends from New Tribes Bible Institute came to visit. My parents had gone out of town for a few days, we had an open room so they asked if they could come by and stay a bit. They arrived late on the 31^st and the rest is yet to come… J

­­­February

For those who have studied hurricanes, you’re probably familiar with the eye of the storm. It’s the one place where the air is still. Well, our month was a little bit like that…it moved so fast that the only place we could find peace and quiet was in the center of it, removing the focus from ourselves and focusing on what God was doing through the situations. While most of the month was great, it also served as a time of testing: testing our resolve for our life direction; testing our relationships; and, testing our limits.

On the first of the month, Olivia began a playdate with some friends of hers, giving her a chance to develop and deepen relationships with those around her, despite her limitations as a stay-at-home mom. It has been an enormous blessing to her and given Tannin a chance to play with some other kids each week.

Tannin is continuing his gymnastics and enjoying it immensely! He’s made new friends, which he calls his “boys” (doesn’t matter if they’re a boy or girl, lol), and continues to influence them with his fun, playful self. The first time he went to gymnastics, he flopped down on the ground and started pushing himself across the floor with his feet. Before Olivia knew it, the other kids had joined in, following his lead! We’ve already got a leader in the making, lol.

That first weekend, I got to travel to Canada. I had received news the previous week that my grandpa had died, so we bought me tickets for the weekend of his funeral. The trip up went without any trouble and my sister and brother-in-law picked me up in Calgary. After they fed me a great supper (you guys are great cooks by the way, especially on such short notice J), we got everything packed and headed to my parents’ place 2 ½ hrs away! That next day went by so quickly, I was lucky to be able to sleep in until 8, lol. I got a few hours to catch up with siblings before we all went over to the church, followed the hearse to the graveyard, and had the burial ceremony. While there, I was able to stop by my friend’s grave, Cam Enns, for the first time.

When I had come up a year earlier for his memorial service, the time had been so short I hadn’t had time to stop by the graveyard. It was hard to finally see it and let it sink in…again, that he was gone. I’m just glad we have the hope of the resurrection some day!

Well, after that, we headed back to the church and held grandpa Reimer’s memorial service and then enjoyed a time afterward to talk about our memories we had of him, catch up a bit more with family, and enjoy chocolate together! I left a little early to meet a friend I hadn’t seen in 4 years and had the privilege of meeting his wife as well! How times change! We had a blast catching up and hearing how our lives have changed over the last 4 years. That evening, all the extended family had a dinner together and played patty-pegs, a game that grandpa had loved playing with us whenever we'd all get together!

A quick story: While I was travelling up to Canada, I thought, hey I should check my permanent residency card to make sure it’s still valid. What a novel idea! Well, it turns out the card had expired a few months prior…so now I as was preparing to leave Denver, CO, I was reaching the point of no return. I realized that I may have an issue getting back into the States, especially with an expired card. As I tried to figure out what to do, beginning to worry that I’d be stuck in Canada, I realized that we had applied to renew my permanent residency, but it just hadn’t been processed yet. The paperwork said I was still able to travel, but I had forgotten to bring the paperwork with me. I knew the government could be finicky when it came to original documents vs. copies, so I began to worry again that they wouldn’t accept it and I’d have to wait 2 weeks while the mail made its way up to Canada before I would be able to show them the original document. My wife talked to the customs in Colorado and assured me that all would work out, but I still had my doubts. I printed off a copy and brought it with me, expecting some resistance. I made it to the ticket station and it almost looked like I’d get through without any problems. Unfortunately, those machines were smart enough to realize that I was a permanent residency card and smart enough to read that my card had expired. A ticket agent walked over to me and I began sweating. I thought, here it is, this is where they tell me I can’t go back to the States!

To my surprise, she told me that this happened all the time and I just had to fill out a form and show it to the customs as I went through security. I quickly did so and made it to security. The security was nice and hardly asked me any questions before letting me through. I was home free! Kinda weird for a Canadian to say, but hey, I was dragged to the dark side, lol. Anyways, the rest of the trip went without a hitch and before I knew it, I was driving back from Birmingham to my family J I even met my foreman from work on the way home. What a Cowinkydink, lo!

That next weekend, we traveled to Florida to go camping for the weekend. We had a blast there, despite managing 2 kids the whole time. Between keeping Alana from eating dirt, and Tannin from running off, we had a great time, got to meet some new people and talk about our life direction with some family friends and their friends. By the time the weekend was done, we were more than ready to go home!

The week following, Olivia left with the kids to Birmingham to see family. Well…I still had to work, so I got to be a bachelor for 3 days, making my own meals and catching up on all my favorite TV shows. I even did a bit of woodworking J

The rest of the month had us busy with family events like Olivia’s sister’s bridal shower, playdates, and meetings related to our future direction.

For those of you who want to know more about what we’re doing, please message us on Facebook, email us, or feel free to call us! We’d be more than happy to arrange a time to get together and talk more about it J

That’s all for now folks! See you next month!

 

 

January

Wow. Here I am writing about another January, the 3^rd one on this blog. It’s crazy how much has changed between then and now. Tannin is now a rambunctious toddler who loves to line his cars up on the stairs and who is slowly being potty trained. He’s testing his limits every day, both physically and when it comes to the rules of the house. J He loves to help and will spend all day following me around helping with dishes, clothes, and taking care of his baby sister. Speaking of whom, now we have Alana! Our little girl is growing so fast! She’s 5 months old, sitting up one her own, and eating baby food. She loves to play on the floor with her brother and “talking” as loud as she can. Lol
This month Tannin started taking gymnastics at a local gym. He’s loving it! There’s no formal classes yet but he enjoys the “mommy and me” time when he can go jump on the trampolines, swing on the bars, and practice his forward rolls.

Tannin has completely given up his Paci. Up until this point he still used it at night but he was starting to get sores around his mouth from sucking on it all night so we decided it was time for it to go. One night before bed I cut the tip of it off before I handed it to him. By cutting the nipple it allowed air into the paci so that he couldn’t create the suction that you need in order to get the good feeling. He thought it was funny and kept asking us if he had the wrong paci. We assured him that it was his and after a couple of nights he stopped asking for it.  

Over the weekend of the 15^th we had a friend from Jackson Hole Bible College, Caleb, come down from where he is stationed in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. We had fun just hanging out and catching up with each other. He worked with the family horse and had a good time getting away from work and relaxing.

My (Olivia’s) birthday was on the 25^th. It was weird not having Richard home during the day. Since we’ve been married we were in college so he was with me all day on my birthday in classes and such. Now that we’ve graduated and he’s working his cabinetry job I’ve had to get to him being gone most of the day. The kids and I celebrated by taking a walk in the woods to climb trees and then we came together as a family that night for cake and ice cream. Richard made me a custom t-shirt with the kids’ handprints on it and all of our initials and he let me know that he was working on something for me in the shop but it wasn’t ready yet. He’s lathing me a wooden jar and it’s coming along very nicely. He said it was an M&M jar so I asked him if that meant he would continually keep it filled with candy. Lol No such luck. J These gifts also came with a beautiful letter that I think was probably my favorite gift…if not, it was definitely a close second, we’ll have to see what happens with this jar. ;)   

The month ended on a bitter sweet note with the passing of Richard’s Grandpa Reimer. While he will be missed we were all glad to see him finally leave his body of suffering and go to be with his Savior and the love of his life, his Annie. She had gone on before him some years ago and he missed her dearly. Richard will be heading up for the funeral soon but that is a story for another month… J

December

Christmas time is here! I love this time of year. We began with my mom’s birthday and pulling out the Christmas decorations. It was so much fun to get everything out and to put up the tree. Tannin got to help hang the ornaments and Alana laid under the tree staring up at the lights. The hard part was keeping the ornaments on the tree! We followed Tannin around for the next couple of weeks retrieving ornaments and placing them back on the tree.

We started the Walk Through Bethlehem and had a blast. After the five nights were done we were really tired and glad it was over but we did enjoy it. We were assigned a time to arrive and would relieve the Mary and Joseph that were there before us. Alana wasn’t too sure what to think about it all. She really just wanted to sleep and found it hard with all the people around her talking and singing but she would eventually pass out every night. They had so many groups coming through that we were reciting our lines every four minutes or so for an hour and a half! One time, the groups were 2 minutes apart! So many people came through and heard the gospel. They would easy get a thousand through in a night. The groups would start off talking to the Romans at the gates of the city and then slowly work their way through the streets talking to vendors as they went. Every night there was over 280 actors in the streets. We had extras that just walked and talked to people here and there. There were centurions who would harass any “Jews” that crossed their paths. There were vendors who would hawk their wares and children who ran and played. Everything was lit by fires and torches….it was really cool.

We traveled up for a family Christmas party in Northern Alabama and had a blast. Richard’s new job had a party as well. Tannin and Alana got to tag along for some steak and a really good Reese cup cake. Oh yeah, Richard got a new job. His boss at the construction company was moving the business to South Carolina and was shutting down the office here. Thankfully Richard was able to pick up a job on just the first day of searching. He visited Woodham’s Cabinetry shop, dropped off his resume, had an interview, and got a call back the next day. He started working with them that next Monday. Sometimes God moves quickly J

Christmas day finally came. Richard and I have been so excited to give Tannin his presents and to see his excitement. He got a Spiderman t-shirt and undies (we’re potty training) from mommy and daddy and DinoTrux figurines from Gramma and Papaw. He asks to wear the undies every day and won’t let his DinoTrux out of his sight. Success! Alana got some stacking cups and duckies from mommy and daddy and a walker from Gramma and Papaw. Our little man ate so much candy! The floor was littered with wrappers. Since then we’ve really cut back on the amount he’s allowed. Mommy and Daddy are sacrificing themselves and removing the temptation from him…by…eating…it.

Richard made me a beautiful wooden necklace and earrings. He turned the beads himself and painted them the colors of our birth stones. He also made a little jewelry box for them to go in. It was all beautifully done and the time and skill he spent on them was evident. I thought it was funny though because I also made him a necklace. Funny how our minds think alike. J His was on a leather thong with three brass pendants with mine, Tannin, and Alana’s initials on them and a small wood pendant that had an oak leaf on it. (We’ve been reading the Ranger’s Apprentice together. If you’ve read the books, then you’ll understand.) Richard also made a Dalek (from Dr. Who) out of a salt shaker for Garrett. He was very proud of it, as he should be; it turned out great!

We also got the chance to meet Shelby’s fiancé’s parents. If you didn’t get that update, my sister is getting married! We’re really excited for her and Lewis. J

The last thing we did this month was a date for me and Richard. We left BOTH of the kids with Gramma and Papaw and went out to dinner. It was so great to get away for two hours and just be together. It’s funny how the simple act of talking is so sweet when there is no baby in your arms to distract you. The kids had a great time and were very happy to see us when we got home. J

I think that wraps up our year.   

November

We started this month with our big boy’s 2^nd birthday! He’s growing so fast! We got back from Atlanta on the 3^rd and had his party on the 5^th. It was Dinosaur/Construction themed and we invited some friends over to come play in his new sand box. He had a blast.
We thought we would go ahead and share the really big thing that is going on. We are working on moving to India! We have some friends who have a job for Richard there and we’re really excited to join them. It will be a little while yet because we have to save up some money and get everything in order here first but that is where we are headed. We are so excited and can’t wait to experience a new culture and learn a new language. Richard has been attending a lot of meetings and going to a lot of classes in order to get ready. We can’t wait for the opportunity to actually visit our friends in the coming year and see what all we have to look forward to.
Alana got a cool role to play this last little bit. We signed up to be Mary and Joseph in our church’s Walk Through Bethlehem and she got to be baby Jesus. So far we have only been to one practice, we were out of town for the first one and the kids and I were sick for the second, but it should be a lot of fun. Basically it’s a huge Bethlehem town when groups tour through and talk to actors dressed as people from Jesus day. As you go from stall to stall the story of the Gospel is slowly unfolded until it climaxes with seeing the baby Jesus in the stable. It looks like it’s going to be great! I can’t wait to see it running.
For Thanksgiving we traveled up to see family. We had a great time but we all came home sick. *bleh*
Well, that’s all for November, see you next month.

October

This month focused around my parents coming down for the Canadian Thanksgiving. For all you Americans who don’t know when that is, it’s the same day as Columbus Day. They ended up arriving 2 days later and stayed a whole week!

While they were here, we spent a lot of quality time together. Unfortunately, I still had to work, but they spent the daytime with Olivia and the kids. So, that Friday they went with Olivia to the Dothan Art Museum. After I got off work, we headed to Corn Dodgers to spend the evening. For all ya’ll who don’t know what in the world Corn Dodgers is, it’s basically a farm that’s been converted into a theme park for farm kids. There’s a corn maze, which we unfortunately didn’t go through, along with several other smaller attractions spread over a few acres.

They had a corn cannon and were able to let Tannin shoot some corn at the target for a chance at $50. Needless to say, no one hit the target. The corn was too misshapen and the cannon barrel all out of spec…nah, they just wanted to make it a challenge, lol.

Anyway, we got supper after that and then followed him onto a “train” ride where a lawn tractor had barrels painted like cows pulled behind it, with cutouts to ride in. It was pretty fun and Tannin had a blast! Then we jumped on a gigantic blowup trampoline where he held my hands and jumped with me until he fell down and decided he was done. It was time to move on to the petting zoo. He loved feeding the animals, but wasn’t sure how he liked the goats and piglets attacking him for more. He ended up pushing through them and trying to get out of the pen. He also got to ride a pony. Then there was a water racing station, the “Tower of Tires”, a grain bin full of corn kernels, and a pumpkin patch.

After racing the duckies a few more times we headed home after a long, fun day.

The next day I woke up sick and ended up sleeping most of the day. So, instead of going to the reenactment, everyone took it easy and hung out at home.

Sunday, I was feeling better and after church we headed out to the Battle at Newton Reenactment. Olivia got me hooked up with the crew and before I knew it, I was put on the cannon. I was put in position 4, which is the position to fire the cannon. I was given the pull cord with which to fire the cannon, which had a fuse on the end which was placed in a hole at the back of the barrel. It only took me a try or two to get the technique right (essentially an uppercut punch) before I was blasting the Confederates to kingdom come! Afterwards I found out that every time a cannon went off, Tannin would go, “Boom, boom!” along with hand gestures to emphasize the explosion. He’s pretty cute.

Tuesday, they headed to the beach while I went to work. They had a great time at Panama beach and even got to see a dolphin! I came home to two hermit crabs and even got to name one. So now, we have added Colonel and Jr. to the family. That night, I had to say goodbye to my parents since I was heading to work early that next morning. Olivia and the kids said goodbye noon the next day.

Thank you so much for coming Mom and Dad! We loved having you guys down South here! I know Tannin loved spending time with you too.

At the end of the month, since we were leaving for Atlanta before Halloween, we got Tannin a Captain America outfit and Alana a Ninja Turtle outfit and went “Trunk-or-treating” at a local church. Tannin had a blast playing the games, rode on a little train that they had and ran around in the pumpkin patch. I think that was his favorite part! At the end of the night, we picked out some pumpkins and headed home. Then, right before leaving for Atlanta, we carved our pumpkins, one for each of us. Olivia carved an oak leaf. It was kinda cool because she didn’t go all the way through, making it thin enough to allow light from the candle to get through. Mine was a creepy dragon-tiger face. Tannin’s was a super-T symbol, and Alana’s was a cute little face.

We left for Atlanta that last Friday and made the 4-5 hr trip. We left Tannin with the grandparents and experienced being away from our son for the first time ever! I remember going to the McDonald’s for some food and saw an indoor playground. I saw it and thought, That’s perfect for Tannin! I can’t wait to bring him here….when I realized I wouldn’t be able to since he was back home in Alabama…needless to say we missed our little boy the whole time we were there.