House We Love...

Today we saw a house.... several houses... but we saw... THE house. The house we LOVE and feel is perfect for our family. There are so many wonderful things about this house... but until I know more I'm not going to describe it and get into it- I don't want to get my hopes up! Ironically, not only is it perfect, today it was dropped DRAMATICALLY in price, and we couldn't believe it. We are hoping and praying that this is what God has planned and somehow, despite the obvious tough competition, (there were several others there looking at it at the exact same time as us!!) that we will somehow get the house anyway...

Please say a prayer that if this is the home God has planned for us and our family, we will be able to buy it. Michael's talking to the lender as soon as he can, and we are hoping to write up a contract with our real estate agent and put in an offer on Monday. We don't really know how it's going to go, but as I said, I feel this is the right house, it's perfect for us... and I'm hoping God makes it happen- somehow! Right now it seems highly unlikely (there is a LOT of competition on this house!) but ALL things are possible with God, this is nothing for Him. I trust in Him and I know that He will guide us and if we don't get this house, then there is another one he has in mind for us... (I'm trying not to get my hopes up- but we did LOVE it!)

Please Pray!!!! We'll keep you posted...

Lovin' Little Lydia...

Lydia sitting up in her bouncy seat (that reclines)... ha ha ha. Why sit back when you can sit up and grab the toys, right?? I think she may be ready to sit up on her own soon!

...Oh yes, and she can grab her feet/toes and play with them now... I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE when babies do this... I think it's just SO adorable!

It's Just Snow Fun Around Here...

We have been so excited to finally have snow! Of course the first day we got it the snow was barely covering the ground so I explained to Josiah that once the snow covers the grass we can go sledding... then it covered the ground (barely) and we romped around in the snow together when Daddy got home from PA on Tuesday night (He played with Lydia while Josiah and I had some much needed time outside to roam and play...) It was freezing and dark- but who cares!? We desperately needed some fun time out of the house- even if it was just in our yard. We made some snow angels, played "Snow monster" (Josiah chases me yelling, "ROAARR!" and I pretend he is a monster coming to get me) and I pulled him around in the sled a little. Daddy took a few pictures :)

For those of you who have been praying for Michael's Dad... THANK YOU- Dan is doing well and is now back home, slowly recovering. Please pray for his continued health and peace for their family during this time. Hopefully there will be no more speed bumps in his road to recovery... We love you Grampy and we've been praying!!! God bless you!!!

Lydia is getting big and trying to sneak up on us with all her new tricks. She's started rolling over from front to back- just when I get her head down on one side, she flips herself over...but basically out of necessity because she just doesn't want to be on her tummy. But she's also started enjoying her tummy time more and being able to play around a little longer before getting fussy which is nice. Today she was sitting up in her bouncy seat that reclines back- she was sitting herself up to grab and play with the toys! It was too cute. Much to my arguments that she should stay a baby forever... she's trying to show me just how much she's continuing to grow. She's a happy healthy little girl, and starting to become VERY attached to Mommy. Daddy is okay, and big brother is always great, and most of the time Grandma can hold her but, really only Mommy is the BEST. (It's kinda nice... after 9 months of carrying her around and all that nursing... it's a great reward when she is so crazy about me!)

Aunt Laura and Cousin Lucy have come to MD for the long haul until baby number 2 is born. We are SO EXCITED to have them close by, and plan to enjoy lots of play dates since we usually don't always get to have them so close! Tomorrow we are meeting them at the library and Josiah couldn't be more thrilled. As I was getting his PJs on tonight he was telling me all about it, "...and, we can show Lucy the children's section... and we can get the book about Little Quack's New Friend, and we can bring it home!" ha ha ha. He's a happy boy. Potty training is actually still going very well... but we are also "relaxing" on it a little bit (since Mommy and Josiah were stressing eachother out!) and just trying to keep up with life in general and make potty training fit our schedule. He's doing great though and we are really proud of him! We know he'll have it down all the time before ya know it. He's got a plethora of stickers from going "pee pee on the potty" all over the house and I'm starting to find them EVERYWHERE. It's a great reminder of his success though... even if they are on the bottom of my slippers and in Lydia's hair...

I'm falling asleep as I type so off I go to bed... just felt bad that I haven't updated in awhile. I'll post some pictures and then try to post some more soon. Love you all- God Bless!

Potty Training Week

HELLO EVERYONE!
Today marks our official first day of Potty Training 101 in the Walk family household. Of course, Mommy is learning just as much as Josiah is, but so far we have been greatly successful. He's been using the potty off and on for awhile now of course, but today began "NO MORE DIAPERS!" and we've been celebrating Josiah being a big boy and using the potty ALL the time. Josiah just runs around naked and LOVES it - haha- or uses his big boy underpants that he picked out at the store. I think he likes being naked though because when he has to go pee he just runs over to his potty and goes, he doesn't need Mommy's help. And he's still not quite able to pull his underpants/pants up and down by himself yet, so I think he just feels more confident about the potty when he doesn't have them on. I gotta admit it's pretty cute hearing him run around saying, "NAAAKKKED BOY!!!!" HA HA! Anyway, this morning he went in the potty 6 times and only had 1 accident and now he's down for a nap. I'm so proud of him, and he's gaining confidence too and doing wonderfully. However, having Lydia around makes this even more difficult (she decided to make it especially challenging for me this morning! Figures, right?) Ahhh life would be so boring without her though! I'm so exhausted already. I have to be on top of him all the time to get this done right and be consistent. However, by the end of this week, I think Josiah will have made TREMENDOUS progress... (but I will also be so ready for a break!) Wish us luck!

Michael's Dad is in surgery today, so please keep Dan in your prayers. We have all been praying and are waiting for an update. We know God's watching over Him and taking good care of him! Michael will be heading to visit him this weekend to help them out while he's recooperating.

House Hunting

So as many of you know, by word of mouth, we are officially house hunting again. I don't want to go into any details because as you also probably know, this is a very complicated situation and lots of things have to happen before you buy a house! But, so far we've been pre-approved for a very nice sized mortgage loan from Wells Fargo, although we don't intend to buy a house that is as expensive as they have approved, because we still need money left to live on! ;o) We're hoping and praying that we'll find our dream home and it'll be short sale or somewhat on the cheaper side... We are looking in a lot of different areas, and trying to find something with a reasonable commute to work (for Michael) and a decent size backyard (for my work!) Kids MUST have room to run!

Anyway PLEASE keep us in your prayers during this time. Despite the fact that yes, it is kinda exciting, it's also so stressful. I'm not looking forward to moving Josiah again... the poor kid is never going to be potty trained or sleep well with all these huge life disturbances! hahaha. (kidding...) I know he'll be okay... I'm just eager to finally have that home of our own that we can settle into for a long time without having to move again!

We will keep you posted as things develop. We are seeing more houses this Monday, and of course our lease is up here in August. However, our landlord said he'd let us out of our lease if we find something which is nice, so we will hopefully find something sooner rather than later and have some time to move in and get settled.

God Bless!

I threw all caution to the wind...

and did the dishes while the baby was napping. (It's loud) I know, exciting and adventurous, right? Did she wake up? of course! Did I get the dishes done? YES! So, if it's worth it I don't know... but there just seems to be no other free second in our day. I have my hands full with just two sometimes, how's anyone do more? I have a feeling though that Josiah will be an even BIGGER helper by the time a third shows up! He's already being amazingly helpful lately with Lydia, it's awesome! She'll start crying and he says, (because of course I can't hear it) "MOMMY! Wydia's cwying! go get her!" haha. And sometimes (if I know she's happy, fed, changed, burped and just wants attention!) I'll say, "Josiah can you go talk to her and make her happy? play peek a boo" and he is ON THE JOB. He LOVES that he helps and plus everytime she smiles at him he laughs and says, "she smiled!!" He can't get enough, and she can't either, it's so cute.

The other day at the hair salon Josiah kept Lydia happy by talking to her and rocking her in her car seat for a bit, it was too sweet. Unfortunately, I sat in the seat getting my hair cut terribly and not at all how I asked by a lady who just likes to cut things for a living and got a little scissor happy. ugh. Maybe she was distracted by my amazingly adorable children, I could understand that. Anyway, I actually had to GO BACK later in the day and ask her to fix it, but in all fairness I was really really nice about it, it was hard for me to go back, I felt so bad. Anyway, long horrible story short, as Michael says, "give it a few weeks, it'll grow back to the length you originally wanted it"... he's right, and who do I have to impress? Josiah walked out of the toy room when I was done and said, "Ohhh Mommy, you look so nice and handsome!" LOL (so cute) Then when I got home and saw myself, I realized she'd cut it so short I looked like a man,.. so his comment became clearer.

We've had a lot of firsts around here lately with Lydia, she's just growing up too fast! She's grown out of the baby tub so now she lays in the big bathtub while Josiah sits next to her, or sits up next to him in a baby seat. It's precious and I love having them in the tub together, saves time and energy. She also has been in the "johnny jump up" seat recently and really liked it! she was kicking her feet up and down so much I said, "honey, we should put her in the jumper!" Josiah was SO THRILLED to jump up and down all around her and "show her how it's done"! She would kick a few times here and there and surprise herself when she moved. I think Josiah enjoyed it more than her, he thought it was hilarious! mostly she just swayed around like he used to in that at 4 months. Too cute though!

Post again soon if I can... so many things... so little time... take care and God bless!

Happy 4 Months Lydia!

*She's definitely up to something fun!*

"This boy is ALWAYS around me..."

*She's got sweet big baby cheeks... and thighs to match!*

Lydia Marie turned 4 months old yesterday. Wow, it went by fast, but at this point I'm just assuming it always will. Before you know it she'll be 6 months, then celebrating her first birthday, then driving. It's just crazy!

We had her 4 month well-baby check this morning, and convienantly, (or so I think, and to which the pediatrician agreed) she was sick. HA HA. Okay, well really, just a runny nose, congested and sneezing. I think she would have gotten sicker perhaps from all the bugs running around but, I have the magic cure, breastmilk,... so she's fine :) I wasn't worried about that anyway, and the doc said she's perfect. She is SO BIG, she weighs 16 lbs 9 oz and is "just over 25 and half inches" as the nurse said. It's unbelievable. Where did my baby go!? I keep telling Michael I kinda wish we could have a little 5 pounder or something because they grow so FAST and don't stay small for long! But I can't complain that we have healthy happy babies, we are so blessed.

She got shots again today... so that wasn't cool... but we all survived. This time, she didn't seem to hate me quite as much. This is probably due to the lack of intense post-baby hormones in my system which may have made it seem dramatically worse last time, as well as the fact that she's bigger and can deal with it better and got over it very quickly as soon as I held her. She rarely ever cries this girl, it's amazing.

Let's see... newest Lydia thing would be her CHEEKS. For some reason, most likely due to overload of angelic qualities, Lydia's cheeks are ALWAYS pink. She's precious, the doctor said she looks like a little cherub... the man knows how to win a mother's heart.

Will update more whenever I possibly can... things are just KINDA crazy around here... (what else is new!?)

GOD BLESS YOU!