Jackson-curious, very observant, funny and a little bit stubborn too!

It has been so much fun to watch this little guys personality coming out more and more each day. He is so observant, he watches everything and then tries to copy! He waves bye bye, blows kisses, signs “more”, “please” and “all done”. He plays and plays, makes funny vroom vroom sounds for cars, copies what Landon does and is walking faster and faster every day. He is in love with hats, mittens and shoes right now. He figured out where we keep all our warm gear, opened up the cupboard, pulled out the container, found my hat and gloves and tried to put them on! This crazy kid is just so cute, we are so thankful for him!

Saturday night church!

This Saturday while we had church at our house I hung out with the kiddos and had such a great time with them. I had leftover pasta and so we did creative art with bow tie pasta, glued, painted and glittered the stuff and had a great time doing it! While we did that Jackson sat in his chair and ate and then played!

A fun surprise!

This week we have a fun surprise. It’s a long story but a cool one, but I will spare you the details and the end result is that we were given this beautiful castle! Landon loves it and so does Jackson! They have been playing so good together all week long. Every time we go out Landon can not wait until we come home so he can play with the castle. A few nights ago I got Landon up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, he was mostly asleep but in his sleepy state he asked me “Mommy, when will we get a princess for the castle?”. Wow, I am so thankful for this fun toy for the boys. I keep thinking to myself “God really delights in His children and wants to give us good gifts”. Thank you God for this fun surprise for my sons!

Jackson is walking!!!

Well, our little guy waited a while to walk (15 months) but now he is walking everywhere! He started walking a bit around Christmas. He would take a few steps and then just sit down. We had to distract him almost so he wasn’t aware that he was walking but now he is walking all over the house and really is moving and quite confident! He is in such a fun stage, walking, playing, “talking” (babbling really) and is just so interactive! I love it! He does have a stubborn streak and we are just starting the teaching/correcting/training stage…sigh…a long road but definitely an important one! We sure do love our Jackson Luke!

A few more pictures…

We have been back in SLO for a week and one day! Wow, we hit the ground running and have been quite busy catching up with people, life, winter camp ect…Before life keeps flying by I wanted to post a few more pictures of our time in Virginia with the Jenkins family.

Back in Slovenia!

The Jenkins family is back in Slovenia! We sure had a great time in the states connecting with many of our dear friends and family but we sure are glad to be back home safe and sound! We are jet lagging like crazy, so I am going to keep this short and head to bed really soon. So, thank you to everyone who shared a meal with us, talked with us and truly cared for us. And, for our friends in Slovenia we have missed each of you and we are looking forward to seeing you all soon! Good night .

Christmas Dinner!

Due to the stomach flu invading our family this Christmas, we had to postpone Christmas dinner with the Jenkins family! A few days ago we were finally able to get everybody together and we celebrated Christmas. It was so good to be with our family, we ate, opened presents, talked and of course tried to take pictures! Here are a few.

Mr. and Mrs. Bricker!

We just had another visit from some old friends! We are so honored that 2 of our youth from our time in Germany came to visit us. Hayley and David started dating in our youth group, graduated HS, then left around the time we did, went to college, kept dating, got engaged and were married this last summer. They were married a day before our camp in Slovenia started so there was no way I could even think about flying to it! But, I really did think about it but I just couldn’t figure out how to make it happen! Since we missed their wedding, they so generously offered to drive from Ohio to come and visit us while we were in Virginia. They both have been to Slovenia and helped out at a summer camp, years ago when they were still in High School. It was so fun to catch up on life since we had seen them last (2 to 3 years ago) and so fun to talk to them about Slovenia since they know some of the same people. We love you guys and thanks so much for coming to visit!!!

Bright Sunny day!

The other day we took the boys out for a walk on a clear sunny winter day! The weather has been a lot more mild then I thought it would be for this time of year. We have had some very lovely sunny days. We took Grandma and Papa’s red wagon and pulled the boys around and took a nice walk down the lane. I love their quiet, peaceful, country neighborhood. We sure are having a great visit with them.

Cousins!

Since we were all sick we kept away from Brad’s brother and family on Christmas. The other day they all came over with Grandma Betty (Brad’s grandmother) to open presents. Even though being sick was not fun, it has been really nice to extend Christmas and open up presents a little here and a little there and to really take time to enjoy the gifts and each other. It was so fun to open presents with the cousins.I love watching Landon play with his 3 (now 4) girl cousins. He has such a great time with them and they play really well together. The youngest, Ashlyn, was just born 2 weeks ago! Welcome Ashlyn Grace to the family, we are so excited to get to know you!