Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! This year has brought some wonderful and great memories. I'm glad we have a blog to look back on so we can remember all the fun and exciting things. This year I have 4 New Years Resolutions.

1) Not get pregnant. I want to get used to 2 kids for at LEAST a year, maybe 2.
2) Get back into running. I'd love to be training for a half-marathon by the end of the year.
3) Start cooking new recipes. I'm kind of stuck in a rut. I'm sure my husband will appreciate the new meals.
4) Start sewing or knitting again. Sometimes I have an urge to be crafty :). I don't want to lose those talents.

This year is going to be full of exciting adventures. Moving 3,000 miles away from the most familiar place we know. Matt starting a new job in a different field. And of course, my staying home with the 2 kids. What fun times we have ahead of us!

I trust everyone has a great New Year's. I'll do my best to stay up, but this pregnant Mommy may not be able to stay up too late!

4 Years

Yesterday, Matt and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary. It's so neat to look back at those years and reflect on Christ's love for us. He has provided so much more than we could ever ask. In the past four years Christ has:

1) Helped us pay off all my student loans (23 months). During which time I didn't have a full-time job for the first 8 months, and Matt was still considered an intern at his company.

2) Given us most of our furniture for free.

3) Given us our first born child (safe delivery and healthy).

4) Helped us during the loss of Matt's Dad.

5) Provided multiple free lance jobs for my husband.

6) Given us several baby showers to provide for our child's needs.

7) Given us a wonderful church family we can minister with.

8) Strengthened our marriage in some of the hardest times of life.

9) Begun to move us out West in order to serve Him in a different ministry.

The above list is simple, and I know I'm forgetting so much more! But that's the neatest part of all about Christ's love for us. Matt and I have been so blessed these last 4 years. We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in the very near future, and the many years to come!

Remembering Dad

This time of year will always bring special memories of Dad Slocum. This year Mom went to visit Dad's Rockford family and was able to bring back Dad's childhood train. Last night, we decided to test it out. We didn't have room to set the entire thing up. And we wanted to do more of a test run since it's over 40 years old! The train worked just fine. Our family enjoyed putting it together, watching it smoke, and laughing together while playing with it.

Slocum Family Christmas

This year we celebrated with the Slocum Family a couple of days after Christmas. Bethany couldn't be there so we skyped while opening gifts. Because we skyped, I didn't think to take that many pictures! I did get a fun one of Matt though. He loves Bill Cosby, and his mom bought him a fun book by him.

Walking Practice

Since I've been home for Christmas I've seen Jewell greatly improve as far as walking and balancing. She's still working on pulling up, but has drastically improved. She's finally starting to walk around with her walking toy all by herself. I'm so proud of her!

Christmas for a Family of Three

This year we weren't able to go home for Christmas. So Matt and I tried to make it as special as possible with our little Jewell. We bought her several fun toys this year including: Mega Blocks, a doll house, and her first baby doll. Her Great Grandma Kistner bought her some cute clothes and Weebles. And Grandma Kistner bought her Christmas pajamas and a crawling baby doll.

We thought for sure our little Jewell would tear open the gifts. But, Jewell was consistent with her laid back personality and was more interested in having us open the gifts while she pounded on her new treasure :). It was adorable. Once all the gifts were open, we thought for sure she'd want to play with them. As you can see, she thought going to the kitchen and taking out mixing bowls, spoons, and canned goods was much more interesting!

Later, after Jewell's morning nap, we decided we better help her enjoy her toys. Here are a few fun pictures.

And of course, we couldn't forget about Daisy! She got a new chew toy for Christmas!

White Christmas

Who knew Greenville, SC would actually have a White Christmas? Jewell wasn't quite sure about the snow this year :). Maybe it's because she hasn't seen the fluffy white stuff enough! We truly enjoyed the snow as a family though. Being away from our families was sad, but the snow sure did help make our Christmas as a family of 3 super special.

Surgery

This Christmas Break has not gone as expected. I thought for sure I'd get some good quality time with Jewell. So far it's been more about comforting her than playing with her and visiting some friends. That's okay. I'm glad to be there for my little one.

This morning, we took Jewell to get new tubes. They put more durable tubes in both ears. The left one was for sure clogged, and the right one was already working its way out of the ear canal. He had a bit of fixing to do in the right ear because skin was growing underneath the tube. He said that needs to be watched carefully to prevent that from happening again. Dr. McLear also removed her adenoid today. He said it was quite enlarged. I didn't realize an enlarged adenoid would continue to give her infections and prevent the inner ear from draining properly. I'm so grateful for a good doctor.

Overall the surgery went well. The recovery was much longer in the recovery room this time since she also had her adenoid removed instead of just getting tubes. She had an IV and was pretty out of it for about an hour. Poor baby. She is still resting in her crib. I have a feeling it's going to be a low key kind of day.

I snapped a picture from my cell before surgery!

Feeding Daisy

Jewell has become quite the little mover recently. Tonight she was playing in the kitchen and I left the room to get something. All of a sudden I hear the most adorable laughing. I ran to the kitchen and found that Jewell was picking up Daisy's dog food piece by piece and trying to feed her. Daisy didn't know what to do! It was hilarious. Jewell would pick up the dog food, try to give it Daisy, and then start cracking up. She even followed Daisy around with it! I then ran to get the camera so I could remember it in detail. My only regret, not having a tape in the video camera!

New Tubes

Little Jewell went to the ENT today to see if her left tube had unplugged. Unfortunately, we didn't get good news. She has to get a new tube on Wednesday. Apparently she has had so many infections the tube got clogged from draining. Lovely. He is also going to look at her adenoids to see if they are enlarged. He said if they don't look good he'll remove them. He seemed to be very disappointed that she's still getting infections.

Jewell is starting to FINALLY feel better. She's been on the antibiotic since Thursday, and started eating normal meals again on Sunday. Today was the first day she didn't have a fever or need any pain medication since Wednesday. Praise the Lord!

In other news, Jewell accomplished a great milestone today! She's never crawled the normal crawl. She's always done a modified version of a scoot crawl :). But today, she actually got on all fours and crawled to me. She was so proud of herself too! It looks like the Physical Therapy is working. And I feel like I have a little glimpse of hope that she might actually start walking independently soon.

Here is an adorable picture of her in her Christmas pajamas. We think she looks like an adorable little elf.

15 Months

I was walking out of school the other day with a friend talking about Jewell turning 15 months this week. As soon as it came out of my mouth I froze. Literally. I froze because reality hit. In about 1 and half months, our second child will be born. I wasn't sure how to handle all the emotions that went through me. However, this post isn't about the future, it's supposed to be all about our baby girl Jewell :).

Jewell is growing like a weed. I had to take her to the doctor today for a sick visit, and I found out that her weight is 19 pounds 8 ounces. She's lost weight because of another ear infection! Her ear tube is clogged from doing its job (draining infection) so it looks like we will be getting a new tube before the end of the year. Poor Jewell.

Jewell is still working on pulling up and walking. However, she's made great progress these last few months! Her physical therapist and occupational therapist have been very impressed.

She still sleeps for 12 hours, and takes 2 good naps (when I'm not working). Overall, Jewell has been a pretty easy toddler to raise. We still have our days with eating, but I think ear infections are to blame.

I was going to try and take some new pictures, but she was sick all day. I will make it a goal to get some 15 month pics up sometime this week. For now, I'll just nurse her back to health.

Taking the Oregon Trail

Well, a few posts back I mentioned that I felt like our life was full of baby steps. At that time, we had spent the last month praying about a possible job for my husband. We had just come back from a trip visiting and I was anxious to make a decision. I'm a planner, and I needed to know what was going to happen. However, the Lord doesn't always want things to happen as quickly as we think they should.

I'm excited to announce that my husband has accepted a job with sharefaith.com in Southern Oregon. It's actually called Ashland, Oregon and it's the cutest little town. We will probably live in Medford, Oregon which is about half the size of Greenville, SC. We are very excited about the job. We have always wanted to move out west, but we wanted the Lord to bring the job to us. That's just what He did too.

We plan to move a few weeks after our son is born. I get to be a stay-at-home Mom, and I couldn't be happier.