The Bowditch Family: 2011

One of the few family pictures we were able to get:)

Dane loving the Advent Calender

Love going to the library for story time and crafts!

Loving the water

Love a good snow day!

Helping Michael cut up his deer

They loved petting the horses at the Tree Farm

Always wants to help dad..

Lucy and Santa at the Library

Dane helping daddy clean the deer with a paper towel:)

Breakfast burrito..yum!

My little painter:)

I'm a little behind on my posts! Here are several pictures from the last month in no particular order. Lucy is now 14 months old and Dane will be three next month. So hard to believe!!! Lucy is saying more words lately such as pretty, book, eyes, bye, and of course mama and dad. She's the tiniest peanut still weighing in around 16 and 1/2 pounds. It made me feel better when my mom checked my records when I was her size and found out I only weighed 15 and 1/4 when I was one. Dane is turing into my little game player. When Lucy takes naps we like to play Trouble, Memory, Puzzles and now a new Fishing game I just picked up for him. He is also inseparable from his daddy. He loves to do whatever Michael is doing (no matter how cold it is outside) and also dress exactly like him. They are too cute:) We are having a great time staying in with the cold weather! Merry Christmas if you are reading this!!

Love our little peanut!

Hey!

She was clean at one point

Silly boy:)

Lucy and the pink tractor

Picking apples at the orchard

Nibbling on an apple

Ok, so I haven't been the greatest in keeping up with the family blog. I have no idea either if anyone out there is even reading it. I do like to go back and look at old posts and compare Lucy and Dane to see what they were doing at the same stage in life though so I'm going to try and get back to updating this every two weeks like I have been for the past year. Just an update since I don't tend to write very much anymore on this, Lucy turned 1 on October 7th and also started walking the day before her birthday! It happened so fast. One day is was 3 steps and the next was standing up after a fall and taking off from there. It has made things more challenging since she doesn't want to be held as much but would rather be put down to run with Dane. This is especially hard if we are in the grocery store or Walmart. She is saying mama and dad and Daaaa (Dane). She is also sleeping through the night which I am so thankful for.
My next challenge is Dane not napping as much anymore. I'll lay him down to nap and he'll lay there up to an hour and half and still not sleep. I'm hoping we can just continue the quiet time that we have already implemented so I can have a little down time as well. Most of the morning is spent inside playing games or doing things around the house. Dane is my little helper and loves doing whatever Michael and I are doing. This can range from cleaning toilets/loading the dishes/raking leaves and many other small jobs. He is such a nice boy. The afternoons are when we try and get out and run some energy off.
Michael continues to do well at work. His book of business is growing and he's happy with his job.He is still running everyday at least 2 miles just as he has been since January of 2008. I'm so proud of him and how hard he works for our family. He is completely dedicated and I am forever grateful for giving me the opportunity to stay home with Dane and Lucy. Trust me when I say I have my days though being a stay at home mom. It can be frazzling when Dane doesn't nap and around 4:30 you can see the tiredness in his eyes but I won't let him sleep because he'll be up till 12 that night. We just try and stay busy with activities he loves until it's bath time and reading stories in bed. Lucy can also be a bear when she can't explain what she wants or she's cutting new teeth and not feeling well. Many times over and over when I'm out with them, people will comment, "Enjoy every moment now because it will be gone quickly." At times I think how easy life would be after "this stage" or when they get a little older or are a little more independent. I read through a few devotional books a night and found something that I've been thinking about lately. Matthew 6:11 reads, "Give us today our daily bread." An example from the bible might have been when God rained down manna (bread) for the Israelites when they were in the the desert for forty years. They were instructed to only eat and gather the bread for that day as anything stashed away for the next day would spoil and be ruined. God was telling them to not obsess about tomorrow and worry about today. He would take care of them. This was their daily bread. Then I started thinking about my daily bread and it really opened my eyes because I do worry about what I've got planned for the week or how I'm going to make it through an hour trip of grocery shopping with both of them. Having one eye on tomorrow's worries meant I only had one eye on today. So I'm learning to enjoy these special moments at home with both of them even if it might be too cold to go outside or they're tired and cranky. I'm going to enjoy my manna today!