Where Have we Been?

So, I’ve obviously not been a good blogger. Life has been a little hectic with an extra-large 2 year old running around…and I literally mean running…everywhere!


I’ll start where we left off…

(Just to give some clarification)—Heath had a great job working for Razorback Farms for the last 7 years. He loved his role in the growing, maintenance and harvesting of the green beans. However, it forced him to be away from home for long periods of time. Seriously-we’ve never had a real summer because he’s gone most of it. In Luke’s first year, Heath was out of town for work at least 160 days—that does NOT include hunting trips, people. So you can imagine our concern for a new job opportunity. Heath never wanted to be away, it’s simply that with the economy he couldn’t find a similar or better opportunity.

With MUCH prayer and work, his (our) efforts paid off and Heath has a new job! He has been with ARMI Contractors for about a month and learning a lot of new skills. It was quite a change for him-no agriculture with ARMI! They construct, manufacture and create pieces for factories along with special projects. It’s not been an easy adjustment for Heath, but day by day, things are improving. He doesn’t deal with change well…

As for the whole family:

• Luke is steadily growing. Last time we measured, he was 39 inches tall and weighed 36 lbs. He doesn’t seem to know how to walk-he has to run everywhere to get there first.

• Luke is STILL obsessed with elephants but cows are now up in the ranks. We read his cow books just about everyday. In fact, last night after dinner, he read his book, Oh, Wow! It’s a Cow! All by himself. He even read with the same inflections as me and used sound effects when appropriate. I really wish I had it on video-it was so cute!!! He knew the story well and Heath and I could follow along without seeing the pages because of the timing and words we did understand.

• Luke is just like his Daddy-he wants to be outside all the time. He wakes up in the morning and there have a been many mornings where “outside” is the first word out of his mouth. We are looking to get a play-yard or swing set if anyone knows of any freebies or cheap ones. He’s happy just playing with sticks and rocks, but I’d like more than that for the boy.

• I was blessed to have my college roommates visit a month ago. Oh, how I love those girls! I don’t think I have ever had better friends nor will I find better friends. These girls are amazing Christians, great examples to me, even through all of the adversity. We were so thankful that Kandi was able to come visit from Germany while her husband was off serving our country. She and her boys are safe at home and her husband is safe too.

• I am going back to a classroom! After 5 years as a literacy coach in a middle school, I decided it was time to get back in a classroom with students. I’m so excited to put my knowledge about reading to work and try out what I’ve recently learned and “practice what I’ve been preachin’.”

• We think it’s time for another child so please hop on our bandwagon and pray that God will bless us with another child in the near future. My hormone levels are low so it could take a while and I’m not opposed to all the ‘help’ we can get through others’ prayers.

• Sammy, our beagle-minpin, has officially become a farm dog. He was/is my first pet and I am sad not to have him at home with us but he’s not getting in trouble at the farm. In fact, he’s very useful! After having to rescue Sammy from the animal shelter because he jumped our 6 ft. privacy fence, we felt out of options. Granny, Terry and Linda were kind enough to take him because he scares away the coyotes. You see, they have a lot of chickens, ducks and geese in the pond that are kept for eggs and as pets. Sammy sits high enough that he can see the pond and chicken coop to survey the place. When he sees or smells a coyote, or any other dog for that matter, he starts his howling and goes in for the chase. Since Sammy has been there (about 4 weeks), they haven’t lost a single foul. I miss him dearly but he’s very happy out there. He can run and jump and explore all day long.

Well, I think that’s it. I think I’ve covered everything for just us Huff’s over the last few months. I’ll try to do a better job keeping up with my postings.

Benefits of a Snow Day

1.  Cuddling with Luke-there is nothing better than being able to sit on the couch and my little man crawl up in my lap for some Momma-lovin'.  He is such a sweet little boy and loves to be hugged and kissed.  I hope he always lets Heath and I love on him.

2.  No school-sounds obvious, I know.  Even though I don't have a class full of kids, I have LOTS of paperwork to do and things that just seem so random with my job. 

3.  Snow-I love the snow.  I think it's one of God's most beautiful gifts to us.  I love the purity of it, the way it illuminates everything; I love playing in it, eating it, whatever.  I love the snow.  heath has mentioned several times that we could move to Wisconsin (WE AREN'T) because I like the snow so much.  I don't like the cold temps, just the snow.  The ultimate experience in the snow for me was the summer before Harding when our youth group went to Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Discipleship Camp.  We took a one-day trek to a mountain peak and walked around the snow in our shorts and t-shirts.  It was awesome!

4.  Laziness-I love those lazy days with no expectations.  I could sit around all day and watch TV if there was a Law and Order marathon or something.  Like today, I've borrowed Bethany's Twilight movies so I will have a Saga marathon all day today!

5.  Scrapbooking-this is my therapy and I love it...I just wish I had more time for it and more space to do it.  When we build our house one day, I'm getting me a room or a small shed as my craft room.  It's just that I'm a very S-L-O-W scrapper.  My goal today is two pages...three is pushing it!

6.  Cleaning-I will do a little cleaning with my days off.  In fact, I cleaned the bathrooms, tub, AND bleached all of Luke's bath toys. 

7.  Luke-sometimes I keep him home with me and sometimes I send him to Renee's house.  As much as I want to spend time with him because of my full-time job, it gets him all out of routine and makes him a little whiny.  At Renee's House, he plays with other kids, takes 2 good naps and eats a good lunch.  When I keep him home, he just wants to watch his movies (Aladdin and Baby MacDonald are his faves right now) and it's a fight to get him to eat and I have to lay down with him to get him to sleep.  I decided I'm not fighting that today and I sent him to "Ne-Ne's".  He didn't fight and seemed happy to see all his buddies.

These pictures are actually from last week's snow day (I think we are up to 7 as of today).  Luke loved the snow and had so much fun running through the snow and leaving tracks behind.  But after being outside for such a short time, he started hacking so we took him inside.  His asthma struggles in this frigid air so we had to use his inhaler as soon as we got indoors.  Makes me so sad.  Please pray that he outgrows it and doesn't struggle with the asthma in the future. 

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke is officially 2!  I'm really struggling with that for some reason. We have been so blessed with this little guy and we love him to pieces, but seriously?  2 years has gone by?  It's just really hard to believe. 

Because he is so active and ALWAYS full of energy, we decided to buy him a trampoline.  This video is from his second time in the trampoline.  It's wonderful!  So far, it's very safe!

We had his party last weekend and it was so nice.  Our family is so generous and thoughtful.  Luke was blessed with all things that he is interested in-books, coloring books and markers, reading, etc.  I think Gigi might have won the title for "Most Treasured Gift" though.  We went to Hobby Lobby Saturday morning and as I walked past a vignette near the register, he pulled a plush elephant off the shelf, immediately hugged it and would NOT let it go.  If Gigi didn't purchase it, I would have.  And since that day, Luke has taken it everywhere.  I don't have any pictures of it yet but I can promise to get one...it won't be difficult!
Aunt Lauren made Luke's cupcakes and they were ADORABLE!  Since Luke is obsessed with elephants, I requested something like that for the cupcakes and Lauren did not disappoint.

Energy Buster

Energy Buster.  That's the category in the One Step Ahead catalog where I found this trampoline.  I'm strongly considering it for a Christmas gift.

He loves his tunnel...that could be considered an Energy Buster in my book!

Our Halloween

I know this is a little late, but you need to see our cute little giraffe!  We chose this costume because he is so tall for his age.  He wasn't fond of the costume at first, but when he started getting a lot of attention, he thought he was pretty cute.  My favorite part was the rear end...it added a little junk in the trunk and really reminded me of...me!

Aunt Bethany really saved the day because my camera malfunctioned and if she hadn't been there, we wouldn't have all these great photos.  Thank you, Aunt Bebe!

Count on him!

You can count on Luke!   That's right folks-Luke can COUNT!  I didn't pressure him or make him mimic me (ever!), I just always counted things.  So...last Sunday for lunch, we stopped at Braums's for a quick meal.  Heath immediately started sharing French Fries (always a bad idea to give first) and then he tore the chicken tender into small pieces.  Luke ate all the fries and asked for me, WITH the chicken on his plate.  I told him no, that he needed to eat three bites of his chicken first.  Luke proceeded to say, "One, too, ree."

Heath and I were so surprised and proud that we started cheering and clapping.  He smiled, knew the attention was ALL on him, so he counted again, as an encore presentation.

That evening at church, he counted again for everyone in the pews around us (he was a little loud).  He was playing with his tractor and trying to balance crayons that were too long in/on the bucket.  Daddy was trying to help and then out of nowhere, he started counting.  "One, too, ree, fo, fi, si."  YEA!   We couldn't quite celebrate like we wanted to since Preacher Larry was doing his job at the front, but we were so proud!  He counted a few more times and even got to 9.  "One, to, re, fo, fi, si, nine, nine."   HAHA! 

We've got work to do but he's making some serious progress!

The video below is just a fun one-Luke thought it was fun to play with my shoes so I tied them on his feet.  He walks very well in them considering how big my shoes are compared to his big feet.  Pay attention to his scrunched face-it's his excited/show-off smile!

*SIGH*  I love this little boy!  It's great to be a Momma!

Word a Day and MORE!

Luke has finally decided to talk...using words!  Seriously, he is trying at least a new word every day.  It's so exciting to hear him experiment with all phonemes.  He's really trying to put the onsets and rimes together (beginning and end sounds for those non-literacy people).  So here is a list of words that are officially common to Luke's vocabulary:

Momma, Daddee (or Da), bozi (paci), milk, uws (juice), Nana, Papaw, Gigi, odger (Dodger), ammee (Sammy), og (dog), wad-er (water), yo for Yo Gabba Gabba, Blue's Clues (but you have to hold your mouth at a tight angle to get the sound out with a slight whistle to pronounce it like Luke), duck, trac-tew (tractor), ball, ible (Bible), puzzzzzel (puzzle with a long drawn out /z/), All (all done), pop ta (pop tart), yea (yes), no, peas (please), ank ew (thank you), By-ee (bye), Hhhhiiii that's sort of high pitched like his mommy greets him with every morning...

I guess I could even say that he said his first official sentence tonight because all of his other attempts to talk I could only get one word amongst his jabbering.  Tonight, we were putting together a floor puzzle and I said, "Yea!  The puzzle is all done!  Puzzle all done."  And he repeated me by saying "Puzzzzel all do."  Of course I celebrated and clapped, cheered, tickled his belly and kissed his cheek.  I know, a little much for something so small but all of his other attempts had only one clear word--SERIOUSLY!

There has been one other incident where Luke was talking and I could identify two words in the same sentence but not enough to determine what he was talking about-because you know MY child isn't going to talk in sentences but stories.  I picked him up from the sitter's last week and asked if he had a good day.  He said yes and then babbled.  I asked what he did that day and he replied with "Ne-Ne (Renee) mmmmmmmmblllloooooofffffff water rrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeffffnnnnncllwhea."  Renee came from the kitchen and said that she was outside with her water hose earlier in the afternoon rinsing off a rug and all the kids were standing at the sliding glass door watching her.  So you can guess that Luke was trying to tell me that Ne-ne was outside spraying water on her rug.  But of course, that is still only a guess.

And he knows the sounds of so many animals-duck, chicken, chicks, goose, pig, horse, cow, dog, Sammy (he howls because he's a beagle mutt), sheep, monkey, elephant, we are working on getting the rooster and donkey consistently.  He thinks the hooting of an owl is really funny and likes to make that sound once I remind him. 

Beyond talking, Luke is picking up a lot of big-boy behaviors.  Sometimes I forget how observant Luke is and realize too late that he is mimicking my behavior.  For example, I love to listen to audiobooks in the car and my school librarian (AWESOME Melissa) lends me books on CD.  Luke has learned how to open the case, pull out a CD and he tries to insert it into the CD player when the car is turned off.  He also quickly discovered where the garage door button was kept in the car and potentially could have locked me out of the house had I not been unloading groceries from the trunk when he pushed the button to lower the garage door!  He also wants to clean floors when I have the Swifer out so I took our old swifer broom and took out two pieces so his broom is HIS size.  He loves to help Momma clean the floors.  And don't forget the classic behavior that he learned from Daddy-spitting in the trash can (in case you don't know, Heath uses tobacco and spits his nastiness in the trash can or sink).  He's done this twice now so Momma is pretty hot about it-at least my habit isn't so disgusting (I get an Icee/Slurpee a day). 

It's absolutely amazing what this child has learned and picked up on from observing so many people.