So Thankful

I have so much to be thankful for in my life.  November is a time where we all reflect on those things as Thanksgiving rolls around.  This year my heart truly has overflowed with gratitude for the blessings which we have. No, we aren't rich with money, but we are rich with the blessings we do have. 

When we moved here, our business grew faster than it ever did in Battle Ground.  When I got my job it made it harder to run the business but we did our best.  I thought about quitting my job but it was and is something I really enjoy doing.  After many nights of praying for guidance, we felt inspired to go for a drive one day.  A shop had just opened up in a building we'd previously looked at.  We were able to get in almost immediately and for a low monthly rent that we couldn't beat.  With in a month, we saw our income grow and it has continued to do so ever since. 

Back in October, our neighbor was getting rid of the old camper trailer that had been sitting on the property.  It was definitely not in good shape but a few guys who were kind of grungy came by and got it.  Alex wasn't feeling good so he went back to bed and I took the kids to church.  While sitting in the mother's room feeding Kaylee, I get a message from Alex saying the guys are back and wanting to place an offer on the property.  Our biggest problem was that they all smoked, which would give us migraines constantly.   The second was if they are willing to live in that mold infested trailer, what other junk were they going to going to bring with them?  And third, there is no water or sewer on that property so unless they were going to pull the trailers off all the time to fill and dump, they would probably try and use our trailer hookup for septic and water.  Alex and I both had a bad feeling about this so with a quick little prayer and felt inspired to finally put an offer in. 

In November, we saw our dreams coming true.  We signed the papers mid November and have started talking about building our dream home hopefully here in the next couple years.  One of the things we are hoping to do is move the business onto the property to lower our over all costs and pay things off quicker. 

The same day we signed on our new property, we also participated in a local bazaar that I organized at our local museum.  Alex and Luke had left and I had two ladies come in and nearly wipe out my clearance section with in a matter of minutes.  I meant to get pictures but balancing a baby and two tables full of candles made things a bit tough.  I do believe it was our best event yet. 

One of the things we've been wanting to do is computer classes.  We have been talking about it for over a year but we finally ordered our tables, chairs, and projector ceiling mount.  Our first class will be in December and from there we will continue to grow and expand the classes based on what our clients want to learn about.

As for now, I'm off to bed as I have another busy day ahead of us. 

October Fun!!!

Though the weather really started to cool off, 

we love to go walks out on the board walk on sunny days.

Luke and daddy heading out to look at the waves. 

 

 Kaylee watching the waves...

 

Our beautiful coastline.

Lukas being quite the little ham!

 Both of our kids have goofy personalities and Kaylee loves to show it with her drool covered face.  She won't let me get a picture but she now has six teeth (two on the bottom and four on top). 

In October they have a Cranberry Festival to celebrate the harvest of all the cranberries.  This year we had a booth for my business.  We were sitting right on the edge of the old basketball court and Luke loved to go run in circles. He was also a huge fan of the kettle corn tent.  Watching them pop the corn in the big kettle was quite the entertainment for him.  (He's standing just to the left of the pole in the blue shirt watching them.)

I finally decided to get brave and paint these cute chubby little toes.  I got her one foot done and then she wouldn't stop wiggling so we painted mommy's and then she let me paint her other foot.  She was totally amused by the fact that they were colored.

Happy 4th Birthday Little Monster!!!

He was really excited to get his three new movies.  

He got Bolt, Ratatouille, and one of his favorites WALL-E!

 Grandma Sanford got to come for a visit.  These pictures are so cute/funny and I cried when she left.  I miss her so much and how blessed I am to still have her around. 

You know fall has arrived when you step outside and its not only cold but you see this coming through your trees...

 

 Because of our busy schedule, we ended up just getting on large pumpkin.  I cut the top out and let the kids clean it out.  I was hoping having them on the hall flour, on an old piece of fabric would help make it less messy...what was I thinking?  It ended up a total disaster but the kids loved it anyway. 

This is what happens when mommy lets Luke 'help' sissy with her fruit pouch.  I heard giggles at first, then it turned to Kaylee yelling...needless to say, her shirt, pants, hair, and face were covered in apple sauce.  She was not too happy.  I had to clean her up and find some clothes that were in the 'too big' drawer to fit her into temporally.  

Here are my two little munchkin's.  Luke was a lion and I made Kaylee a candy corn dress.  

Luke's birthday gifts from Grandma Johnson arrived in the mail.  He was excited to open them and even more excited to play with them.  I helped him put them together but once that was done, he wouldn't hold still long enough for me to catch a picture.  

Five Years and Counting.

I can't believe its been FIVE years since the day that this wonderful man asked me to share forever with him.  We've had a lot of ups and downs, we've had a lot of trials that could have easily torn us apart, but we've stuck through it.

Our current major goals are to pay off our property and build our home.


I know I'm a little behind on the blog but to say we've been busy might be an understatement.  Nonetheless, we've had fun and here is what we've been up to this summer.

Lets back up a little.  End of March I got an email from my boss saying that I was finally getting my job back.  I can not tell you how excited I was.  My old boss had said "maybe everything happened for a reason".  I truly believe it did.  Our faith in Heavenly Father grew so much as we went back to a single income, now with two kids.  I got to spend the first three and a half months of my daughters life building a bond with her. 

Back in April, not only did I go back to work for a short time, we also started back at it with my craft business.  Its been three years since we did much so we pretty much felt like we were starting from scratch.  Along with a new start came a new name...Driftwood Beach Crafts.  One thing we'd wanted to do for a long time was candles but at the first market we went to four years ago, the vendor next to us was selling candles and we didn't feel right being competition to her. Now that we were in a different area, we felt like it was something we needed to do.

We spent the months of April and May running test after test on candle after candle.  We wanted to have a high quality candle that burned well.  In the month of June we started producing products.

 

At first we attempted to set up our tent in our parking lot on the busy weekends but it didn't work.  People were more concerned with driving down to the main event down on the strip.  We decided we needed to build up our stock and start taking our business to markets again.  It was exciting, and yet I was a little nervous again.  

Our first event was the Ol' Fashioned 4th down at the museum.  Originally I was supposed to be headed down to Oregon for my cousin's wedding but things started falling through left and right up here and they needed people to step up and help so that's what I did. In turn, they gave me a booth space for free.  I coordinated the vendors and their spaces.  We went from having five vendors, to 12, to 15...FIFTEEN, the day of.  Overall, things went well even though we had a few hiccups. 

Here are some pictures from that day. 

Luke and our GIANT flag.

Our little booth.  Our sign is sideways because we were set up differently to start with. 

 Our awesome (and oh so patient booth neighbor) giving Luke a glitter tattoo.

 Ever since pirate days, Luke has been obsessed.

He was so curious because it was shiny in the sun.

It was a great day and our candle sales went well.  It was a great event and we will be doing it again next year.  Once the day was over, we backed up our booth and dropped everything at the office.  It was late enough and we were tired so we decided to drive down early the next morning.  

The next morning my alarm went off bright and early.  I got out of bed and rotated a load of laundry.  All of a sudden I heard this horrid noise out front.  I poked my head out the door to see a car sitting across the street with the hazards on.  I knew we had to get moving but I also felt like I needed to help whom ever it was.  After talking to Alex for a second, we determined it was a lady out there that hit something.  I threw on a sweat shirt and ran out to help.  When I got out to the road she was sitting in her car on her phone.  I waited till she was done and then I went over to talk to her.  She said she hit something and couldn't move in either direction.  I got down on hands, knees, and eventually my stomach to find an old rusted out muffler lodged under her car. I went and got an eight foot long 2x2 and tried to move it but it wouldn't budge.  She found her jack and we managed to wiggle it out a little at a time, just as her husband arrived.  She whispered to me as I was crawling around on the ground "please don't let him help, he's not well, but don't tell him that.  I just didn't know who else to call".  I quietly said "I won't" as I push it out.  At this point I could have easily said that I'm too busy or on too much of a time crunch to help but I just had the feeling that everything would be okay. 

We did push it making it to the wedding but we got there JUST in time.  It was beautiful and I'm so happy for my cousin and his new Bride.  They were both beautiful and the song he sang for her was wonderful.  Here are some of the shots that I got...

 Tuvya was so cute.  Mitchel was going to help carry the sign but he wasn't feeling well.  Tuv did such a great job.  "BRO-BRO, Here Comes Your GIRL".

Here comes the bride.  Michelle's dress was so beautiful and her smile was radiant.

 Father waiting to give away his daughter. 

 Alex had written a song a while back not knowing just how well it would fit.  Michelle requested that he sing it for their wedding. 

You may now kiss the bride...
Mr. & Mrs. Alex Jordan

After the ceremony we all went up to the lodge for refreshments. 

 

The gift I made for them as they start their life and home together!

 

The next day we went out to 'GGma's' after church for a yummy lunch.  After lunch we went outside to set off fire works.  His favorite this year...the sparkler.

Daddy covering Kaylee's ears.  Gotta love the chubby cheeks.

 

 I love my camera and I'm still learning.  The farm is one of my favorite places to take pictures.  It is where I spent a lot of my childhood and I love nature.  The sky was blue and the moon was out. 

Since we got home in early July, we started making a lot of candles and getting ready for a few different markets. First we started out with the flea/farmers market hosted by our local robotics club.  Its been great getting to know the parents and the kids.  

In the process of us loading one day, not only did Kaylee figure out how to crawl, she also figured out how to pull herself up on brother's wagon...ohhhh boy!

After two weeks there we went to the Saturday Market in Ilwaco.  We did okay down there too but we've come to the conclusion that doing smaller markets is a better option for us.  

We ended up going back to the market hosted by the robotics club's market again this last Saturday.

While summer is coming to an end, we still have a couple more markets/events we're planning on doing before I start teaching again in October.  

I'm Back...

Its been a couple months since I've written so this will be a bit long.

December & Kaylee's Birth

Lets start with December.  On Wednesday, December 11th we went in for my doctors appointment and were told by my doctor that he highly doubted I would make it through to the next week, in fact he figured I wouldn't even make it to the weekend .  We scheduled an appointment anyways because, well, we played this same game with Luke.  We came back to the office and went about our uneventful day.  When we got home that night I had a feeling I needed to finish packing our bags.

Thursday also came and went with out anything...even with me bouncing on the exercise ball.  Friday was a different story.  I woke up having contractions that were around 20 minutes apart.  We debated even going to the office but they weren't getting any closer so we decided to go and if we had to close up shop early we could.   Around 3pm they got a little closer and we packed up anything that we didn't need out.  In the end we still closed at 5pm.  We went home, had dinner and I started pacing because I was in so much pain from the nerves being pinched in my rib cage.  Around 7:30 my contractions dropped below 5 minute apart and yet, I had a feeling it wasn't time.  After 45 minutes the feeling hit, WE NEED TO GO.   We loaded everyone and everything into the truck and headed to Aberdeen.

When we got to the hospital the main entrance was close since it was after 8pm so we had to go through the ER.  We loaded some of our bags on the wheelchair with me and Alex went to get the rest and move the Jeep into a parking spot.  Luke was such a big boy as he walked beside the wheelchair holding my hand as the nurse pushed me upstairs.  It took a little convincing to get him on the elevator but he did it and I was so proud of him.

They got me all set up in the room and started monitoring me to make sure I was having consistent contractions.  We paced the halls as a family for a while before they checked on me again...NO PROGRESS.  They even talked about sending me home but after talking to my doctor on the phone, he told them to give me the choice to stay and I'm grateful they did.  We walked the halls again and then they were so wonderful to bring a bed in for Luke and Alex.  Luke climbed up on the bed and passed out and that is when I relaxed and everything progressed quickly.

I told Alex that I thought my water broke so he grabbed my nurse, she tested me and ran out to call my doctor again.  He got there as soon as possible and with in 15 minutes, Kaylee arrived into this world.

Kaylee Elizabeth Johnson

December 14th, 1:47am

7lbs, 6oz & 18.5"

 Because of the fast delivery she was pretty bruised in the face.  You can still sometimes see it around her mouth if she gets mad.  She was so beautiful and I couldn't get enough of her.  On the other hand, they ended up having to put her on the warming table because she wasn't holding her temperature very well.  I slept a little but not much.  We were so blessed because they let us stay in the L&D room for a few hours so Alex could get some sleep since the recovery rooms don't have enough room for the big bed.

At 5am they got us up and got me a shower.  It felt so good to get cleaned up and then they moved us into a recovery room.  There was a little bed that was as long as a regular bed, but only as wide as a toddler bed...and Luke and Alex cuddled up together and went back to sleep.

We stayed at the hospital till Sunday morning just to make sure everything was alright and then we checked out.  My doctor said that each night he had been waiting for the call to come in and was shocked when it didn't Wednesday or Thursday.  He said that I was recovering well for as fast as things went.

 

Kaylee two weeks, Luke three years

Late December both of our families came up to visit and meet Kaylee.  It was hard to believe that she was already two weeks old at that point.  Alex got to give Kaylee her baby blessing in her cute little dress I made.

January

January wasn't real eventful.  I was elected as the secretary for the Westport South Beach Historical Society.  At first it was a feeling of nervousness and excitement but as the time has gone on, things have happened and I'm less and less excited about it.  

February

On Valentines day, I helped out down at the Valentines dinner for the museum.  It turned out great and we had nearly a full house of people.  We used it to bring in new members and it did okay.  

Towards the end of February, our new top for the jeep came in.  We've had a soft top that was currently seven years old.  It had done its job but with the variable (sometimes extreme) weather, it was starting to show its age.  This time around we got a hard top.  We had to go down to Portland to pick it up.  

We drove down to my parent's house and dropped off our stuff before heading into Portland.  We went down to Wilsonville and dropped some stuff off before coming back up to the church bookstore to pick some things up.  We took the kids on a drive around the temple.  Originally we'd planned to get out and walk around but we were running behind and there was a wedding party out taking pictures and I didn't want Luke ending up in the middle of them.  

Once we were done in Lake Oswego, we drove up to Portland where we picked the top up.  We knew it was going to be tall, we just didn't realize how tall it would be in the back of our little trailer.  

 The box itself stood 7.5' tall on top of the 12 to 18" from the trailer.  This made it MUCH taller than the Jeep (the red strap is taller than the top of the jeep).  Driving around was kind of scary since it was like a sail any time there was a gust of wind.  We were really worried about it catching a gust of wind and flipping the trailer.

After we picked it up, we went over to Cascade station where we met up with a dear friend at Ihop for dinner.  It was wonderful to see her again and she got to meet Kaylee for the first time.  Of course, her and Luke are best buddies.

Saturday we went out to my Grandma Hoffman's for lunch.  My great grandma Sanford was supposed to be there too but she came down with a cold so she's going to come visit us when she gets better.  I did get to see my Aunt Christine and her family.  Luke loves having my cousin Wyatt around to play with. 

Kaylee loved cuddling with her GGma. 

After all the guys helped to live the new hard top onto the jeep, my dad and Alex worked to adjust the frame so that it would fit and seal.  It looks great.

Uncle Josh bought Luke a really special REAL cowboy hat.  

He was excited to have a hat like Uncle Josh. 

The most exciting part of the trip for me was getting my new DSLR camera.  It has a learning curve coming from a little snap shot camera but its totally worth it.  I took the pictures below as I was playing with exposure and shutter speed.  

Its taken me a little bit to get the hang of what I'm doing but I've figured it out more with the help of my hubby. 

The Tuesday after we got home, Luke came down with a fever while we were at the office. I have never seen that kid want to take a nap as much as he did, in fact, he took two long naps.  He went to bed that night with a fever and woke up Wednesday morning as if he'd never been sick.  We spent Wednesday at the office but by Thursday he had a horrible head cold so Luke, Kaylee, and I stayed home for the next six days.  Taking care of a sick kid has its benefits and its downfalls.  The benefit was that my kid who doesn't hold still and doesn't cuddle much wanted nothing more than to cuddle.  I miss those days.  With two kids laying on me for two days straight, I ended up catching Luke's cold and didn't start feeling better till Tuesday evening.  Luke has also cleared up but now Kaylee is taking her turn, hopefully it won't last long for her.  Alex has some how managed to avoid it this time, at least I hope.  

Beyond that we're all doing well.  The business is still growing and we are doing better than we ever did down in Battle Ground.  I'm grateful that my husband had a dream and I feel blessed to have been a part of it and to have been able to support him along the way. 

I got news that I should be getting my job back, we're just waiting for the funding to come in and hopefully we will start teaching again after spring break.