Happy New Year's Eve!!!
As our final post here for 2014 we've showing some snapshots of recent life here in our Kortman household. We think these random shots of 'real life' are really fun to look at in order to review our last few months and we thought you might enjoy them too! Here's a peek of what we've been doing!
Corn maze with the kids in October! It was their 1st time and they LOVED it...even Zander kept saying "dead end" the rest of the day!
This was the beginning of our first walk in the woods on the 100 acre property we are renting. It was requested that we stay out of the woods until after hunting season was over but we got special permission one Sunday afternoon when the weather was so beautiful we just HAD to go! My biggest guy and my littlest guy!
We found a beautiful, green, abandoned pasture out in the middle of the property. It was a foggy day and Paul said it felt reminiscent of being in Ireland.
What a perfect secluded place to live!
We made our way through the woods to the nearby river and discovered our dock for the first time. Okay, the dock wasn't the interesting part. Of course, it was the water and the mud!
We ended our walk with some Daddy-sized pushes in our giant tire swing! This guy is obviously a fan!
Here you can see Josiah directly in the middle of the photo up in the front near the stage. He has a white shirt with brown plaid stripes. I 'snuck' this photo during kid's church to have photographic proof of his progress. You see, Josiah has Separation Anxiety Disorder. This means that, even at age 7, he has an unexplainable foreboding feeling of danger when separated from me. Obviously, this makes his anxiety very high. This photo is very significant since it has taken me 3 months of Sundays working with him to be able to be sit with his group even when I am still in the room with him! This was the first time a couple weeks ago when he unexpectedly went and sat with his group. Yay, Jesus! It's been quite the process but we are thankful for little steps!
This is a shot Paul took when we are at our friend's house for what we call our 'Thanksgiving meal' which happens anytime between November and March. We are blessed by this family in so many ways. First, we can have Thanksgiving in March without guilt or stress because we both understand busy lives, lots of kids and crazy work schedules. But if stress is distracting you and your family, perhaps products like uk cbd oil can be incredibly beneficial. We are just happy to be together. Second, as you can see, our families just mesh well. In this pic, "R" and his teenage son, "A" were chilling on the couch after dinner. It makes my heart happy that Zander was 100% comfortable to clamber up in between them and that neither of them even blinked an eyelid at his pushing up into their midst! It just feels like family when we hang out together! We love you guys!!!
The farmer who rents a portion of the property our landlords own FINALLY came with his combine to harvest the corn. The kids enjoyed collecting some of the corn that was left behind. It was promptly used for a few play-food casseroles and put out in little piles to feed their "pet" mice!
Christmas time!!!! Our favorite time of year! This was probably the first Christmas that Zander will remember. He loved putting ornaments on the tree.
Look at that concentration! This tree decorating is serious business, people! Oh, man, this kid is so sugar sweet I just want to eat him up!!!
The finished product!
The kiddos were 'tree-light' bathing...sunglasses and all! You know they miss the beach and warm weather when......
We made a birthday cake for Jesus just for fun! This was especially entertaining since Zander recently learned how to sing "Hatty Dersay to you"!
I hope you enjoyed the peeks into life at the Kortmans. Aside from Solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year celebrations, what else what you been up to? Did you have room on your schedule for anything else??