May Recap

 In May, we finally "dug in" to a project we had been planning since we moved into our home in 2010: making a garden.

Josh borrowed a tiller and dug up a plot

Lorien and I planted seeds

May was pretty chilly, so we tried planting some inside first. We ended up having better luck with the seedlings we bought and planted later. 

Josh's big project in May was the shooting of the latest installment of TrueU. 

Here's his view form the rafters of the set. 

My project in May was to turn this $12 Goodwill coffee table into a bench for the end of our bed. It felt good to be creating again. (The newborn fog kind of takes that creative spirit out of me for a while.) Somehow "after" pics have eluded me, but I will remedy that soon. 

Josiah turned 8 months old on May 14th. I have to admit that these aren't the best set of photos I took during his first year, mostly because he was crawling really well at this point and would. not. stay. still.

Such a sweet face!

if you look closely, you can see my feet clamped around his legs and bottom . That's the only way I could get him to hold still for a photo. 

My sister-in-law Mandi nicknamed Josiah "little lion cub," so I thought this outfit very appropriate. 

Major purchase of the month. Okay, of the year...

Josh bought a Canon 5D Mark III to help outfit his business, 550 Productions.  And sometimes he lets me play with it. :) 

Friends from afar... Beccy and Andrew Thompson came to visit with their boys, Seth and Gavin. We only got to see them for a little bit, but it was fun!

Lorien and "Aunt Beccy"

Beccy's sister Abby and her family just moved to Colorado Springs from Denver, so here are all of the kids (well, minus the babies, Maggie and Josiah.) 

If you look closely, you can see Josiah's first major "bonk" of his crawling days. Lorien had gone out the back slider and left the screen open. Josiah went barreling out after her and face-planted on the concrete steps. 

During most of May, Josh and I completed The Whole 30, which is a very strict Paleo diet. (No grains, legumes, dairy or refined sugar whatsoever.) We were attempting to discover what has been bothering Josh's digestive system lately. While we didn't really succeed at that, we did learn a few things:

1) We CAN add lots more fruit and vegetables to our diet.

2) As a family, we want to move toward a whole-foods diet and eliminate as many processed foods as possible

3) While we are making changes to our diet at home, we don't find it's realistic for us to eat strictly Whole 30 (or even strictly paleo) in social situations. If someone else is preparing the food, we eat what we're served.

4) We both have pretty strong sugar-popping habits, but we CAN break those when we put our minds to it.

Yummy, Whole 30 approved kebabs for Memorial Day dinner. 

And rounding out the month...

Raspberry shortcake to celebrate Papa's birthday.

The one I forgot

I knew there was a cute Lorien saying I was leaving out of the last post, and she has since reminded me of it: 

She thinks cheese is the plural of chee. 

So if she just wants a little more, she will ask, "Can I have another chee please?" 

Makes me laugh every time. 

Bloths and other Lorienisms

Every few years, Colorado Springs receives a springtime invasion of miller moths. This has been one of those unfortunate years. Lorien is kinda freaked out about them. She definitely needs to make sure that there are none in her room before she goes to bed.

The moths have provided an occasion for some of her entertaining phraseology. At first, she called them bloths. Now she consistently remembers what they're called, but that thing we use to kill them? It's still a swatwater. She is awfully impressed with Daddy's skills with the swatwater.

A few other cute sayings of late:

"He bless-youed." - after a Josiah sneeze

"A hollypop" for a lollypop

And, she's still got some of her Yoda syntax: "I drank my juice all."

Josiah - Seven Months

Josiah turned seven months old on April 14. He is sitting up solidly and just after hitting the seven month mark, he started crawling. It's mostly an army crawl, with some hands and knees thrown in here and there. No doubt about it, though, he can get where he wants to go now!

We were very surprised when Josiah was born with hair. By the time he was a month old, it started falling out, and he eventually lost almost all of it. Except for a little patch right on the crown of his head. So now that part is significantly longer than the rest of his hair, and it is so cute! (And a little out of control.) 

Melts my heart!

So I took these shots on this background and in this pose, because I have this shot of Lorien at seven months and I wanted a mirror image one of Josiah to print and hang next to it. What do you think?

Maybe this one, which is more similar to the shot of big sister?

Or this one? (I think it's a cuter expression.)

Banished from the Bumbo

Josiah is no longer allowed to sit in his Bumbo seat. Because he can jump out of it. One evening (it's been a couple of weeks ago, even), I set him in the seat on the kitchen table, thinking, I'm right here, so I will watch him. But I was getting dinner and interacting with Lorien, so I wasn't really watching him.

Next thing I knew, I heard him fussing and turned around to find him lying on his belly near the edge of the kitchen table. I grabbed him before he could dive off, but the boy is officially done with his Bumbo days.

April 15th

It's a big day. 

First, it's Josh's sister Christy's birthday. We hope it has been a happy one!

Five years ago today, my dear coworker Sheryl DeWitt died. I can't believe it's been five years. I am a different person because I knew her.

One year ago today, Josh left his job at Focus on the Family to go full time with 550 Productions. What a year it has been! As startup years go, it has been a good one. We ended in the black. That's about all you can ask for in the first year of a new business, right? 

And we have definitely ridden the roller coaster of full-time contract work. January had 80-hour weeks and an all-nighter. In February, there was hardly any work at all. But in the end, everything shook out OK. 

Several things have been meaningful to me. First, it is SO good to see Josh working in the field he loves. Even though it hasn't all been easy, there is just something about doing what you love that makes it all worth it. Second, it's been amazing to watch God provide for our needs. Not far and away above what we needed, lest we become too confident in our own earning power. But exactly what we needed, often within a few dollars. 

And finally, the people. Two or three guys have become like big brothers in the business, providing mentoring and opportunities that are absolutely priceless. 550's first year wouldn't have been the same without them.

Oh, and regarding the obvious connotation of April 15: tax day. We took the advice of friends who are or have been small business owners and had our taxes prepared by an accountant. It's true. He saved us more than we paid him to do the work. And believe me, after 11 years of doing the returns myself, I was glad to wash my hands of it!

Family Easter Photo