4 Weeks

Four weeks since my last post. A little amazing. In the middle of May we went to my niece's graduation in Hazard, KY. She is now officially in high school. We're very proud of all of her work these last several years. The next weekend we went to visit Sarah's family in Bowling Green. The following weekend our friends Mark & Anna came for a visit. It's always great to catch up with them and they were a huge help with both the kids over the weekend. They even brought along their new dog so our golden retriever would have some company as well. Then right after they left we had a baby shower at our church and Sarah's sister and our 2 nieces came in town. They visited a couple of days. Our nieces have really grown up and did a great job playing with Benjamin and assisting with little Jonathan. Then we left a few days later to head to Madisonville, KY in western KY so we could go to a wedding and also catchup with a few of our friends who we haven't seen in almost 4 years.

Oh and by the way we celebrated my father's birthday on Sunday. I've attached a picture of him and my Grandmother who is now over 90 years old. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! I even got Benjamin to sort'a say Happy Birthday to him.

A Whirlwind of a week or so

Thank you for being patient while life resumed to a semi-normal status. The last week and a half have been a whirlwind. You might think that most of this is due to the arrival of Jonathan but that is really just a portion of it. Seems like the ole stomach virus setup residence in our house a few days before Jonathan decided to show up. First is was Benjamin. Then a day or so later was Sarah. Then Sarah finally figured realized that she was having full blown contractions instead of just a rumbling GI issue. Then in a flash (almost literally) little Jonathan was here. We checked into the hospital on Wednesday at 8 cm at 10:30 and Jonathan was in Sarah's arms before 12:30. Then Wednesday evening I came down with the GI bug and didn't really get over it until after lunch on Sunday. We were back at home from the hospital with Sarah and Jonthan by 3 pm on Thursday. We had various family members at our house from Wednesday night through this afternoon. We also friends stop by for short visits and to give us food :-) Then we've been to the Drs office for Jonathan 4 times to check his weight. Seemed it dropped down and so we had to make an adjustment to his eating to help him out a little. Sarah is really working hard to not bottle feed this round. It's been challenging but I've very proud of her effort. It's great to see her bond with Jonathan and trying to figure out just what his little needs are. Benjamin is adjusting to being a little brother. In the next week or so we'll resume working on potty training.

If you'd like to see more photos check out the link to "Skip's Photos" on the right. It's a flickr sight. Hope you enjoy ... more to come.

Jonathan Haddock Little

Born: Wednesday May 2 at 12:24 PM

Lenght: 20 1/2 inches

Weight: 7 lbs. 15 oz

Mom and baby are doing great.

More to come later.

Highlights

We've been working on "final" preparations for the new little one. It could be any day but despite all the planning and preperation I'm sure there will be something that we forget and then remember in retrospect. Regardless ... the delivery, the excitement of caring for a new baby and sharing the new moments with our friends and family should help ease any major worries we have.

We spent last weekend visiting the area where Sarah went to High School. It was my second trip to the area in 7 years. We have a couple who we went to college with who now work at that school... so I had a great time catching up with them and getting to know their kids. We also had a chance to meet other staff and it seems they have a really wonderful community to work at and to raise their children.

I'm now working on potty training Benjamin. It's great to watch him when everything goes well and a bit challenging for me when it doesn't. He's also enjoyed playing in the little plastic outdoor pool the last day or two. We let him play for about a week with no water so he really thinks the water is pretty fun. His vocabulary is really picking up. His newest phrases or words are "I'm sorry" "Giraffe" and "Jellyfish". He is really interested in one Spanish-English bilingual DVD we checked out from the library here. The title is Professor Parrot ... and I guess we'll have to buy it soon so other people at the library will have a chance to watch it.

Last week we had a family from church over for dinner. It was great to see Benjamin interact with their children - one who is older by a couple of years and one who is younger. Sarah and I enjoyed visiting and sharing with another couple who are close to us in age and in life.

preparation

Sarah and I spent most of today working on the "nursery". I say it like that only because our intention is to actually use the room as a guest bedroom in a year or so. In the mean time Sarah has done a really nice job decorating. I'll post a before (ie. pink) and after (ie. cafe mocha) picture in the next couple of days. (I've also posted a few pictures of our family under "Skip's Photos".

Sarah is feeling the aches of the last month of pregnancy. She is holding up well and has actually progressed more than she did with Benjamin in the same period of time.

Benjamin has slept on his toddler bed several times over the last few days. He's done well at nap time in early afternoon but has struggled a bit during bedtime. He really likes his new bed and has enjoyed showing it off to a few of our friends who have stopped by. We still have the crib up in his room as a backup ... but hopefully by the time the new baby arrives we can totally switch him over.

Our friends Camille & Roger who have worked with unreached in China are now back in the US preparing for their new arrival. Their due date is about 2 weeks ahead of ours.

Related but not along the same lines... I was in church this morning and began to think about how interesting the relationship between Jesus as a child and his parent's must have been. (Max Lucado wrote a piece similiar in one of his books several years ago) Below are some thoughts I had:

• When Joseph and Jesus (as a child) talked about the Old Testament scriptures... did Jesus have to teach his Dad... did he talked about it like he had experienced it first-hand?
• When they played games together did Jesus have a twinkle in his eyes when he let his parent's win?
• Was Mary the envy of the other Hebrew mothers because she had the "perfect" child?
• Did Jesus always do what Mary and Joseph asked?
• When Jesus worked with Joseph as a Carpenter was his craftsmanship better than Joseph's?
• Did raising Jesus make it more challenging to raise is siblings?
• What was his sense of humor like as a child?
• Did Joseph and Jesus ever go fishing together?
• What was it like for Jesus to pray?
• Did Jesus ever talk about what he wanted to be when he "grew up"?

My Mother's Birthday

Before you start to wonder... this is a picture of my mother holding Benjamin just after he was born a little over 21 months ago. Tomorrow is her birthday and I was having a difficult time deciding just which picture to post. Since we have a new baby coming in a few weeks I thought this one of Benjamin would be appropriate. I won't tell you her age for fear of being dis-owned. She's young at heart and does a wonderful job with her grandson.

Happy Birthday Mom from all of us here at this Little House. Hope you have many more ahead of you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being my mother. Thank you for being there for me... and thank you for being forgiving when I've be late remembering your birthday in the past and when you haven't recieved a birthday present for a month or longer. Hope someone special in you life does something special for you on your birthday.

Four to Six Weeks and Counting

We're getting closer each day to the "official" due date for our little one's arrival. I finally finished up the painting and will be moving the furniture in the room this week sometime. I'm hoping to have most everything done and in place at least 2 weeks before due date in case he decides to show up a little early. We went to a child birth class on Saturday morning. It was good and we were able to really focus on the things we hope to do a little different from the last round when Benjamin was born.

We planted a couple of apple trees in the yard. Seems that our yard is already planted with a variety of trees and shrubs that we had mostly forgotten about since we moved in back in August. It's been great to see all the different flowers pop up this spring. The apple trees will add a little new dimension because to our knowledge they will be the first real fruit bearing trees we have.

We also picked up a couple of nice solid wood unfinished furniture pieces. I think this past month was the first time we have acutually bought more than one piece of furniture since we have been married. We went with solid wood unfinished pieces to give up better quality that should last much longer. I should be able to get them finished in the next month or two. I'm looking foward to getting to work on them.

Sarah's doing well but having those third trimester aches and pains and lack of sleep. We're really considering switching from using an Ob-gyn to a midwife. We'll plan on deciding prior to our next Dr appointment in a little over a week.

What's New...

Benjamin and I spent last weekend in Mississippi to help celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday party. There ended up being about 65 people who came to a reception to honor her. She was absolutely thrilled. I give big kudos to my mother and all of her recruits for doing a great job organizing everything. We got to visit with a good amount of family going, returning and in-between. It took me a couple of days to regroup after spending that much time in the car.

I spoke to a community group in town last night sharing ways to come up with funds to save for whatever their goal might be. It went well and it was my first endeavor using powerpoint... somehow I've gotten away with not using it up to this point. Hopefully I'll get it down well before my next couple of seminars. I really enjoy passing along financial resources and knowledge to the general public. It's doesn't really pay well but that's not exactly my goal.

I've also added a link to a friend of ours who recently joined the blog world. ... bynaomi...

Good News

We had another pregnancy Dr appointment yesterday. Sarah's sugar test came in very good and we had a followup ultrasound and everything looked to be on track. We'd been a little concerned based on the previous one but no worries at this point. Sarah's been doing really well with work-out routine in the mornings and I'm proud that she musters up the energy to get up early and knock it out before the rest of us drag ourselves out of bed.

We made good progress on the baby's room. I completed most of priming and hope to have the walls completely done by the end of February.... maybe the trim as well. I hope to complete at least the early stages of painting our downstairs bathroom before Benjamin and I leave town this weekend.

Benjamin has really been enjoying a big box that we gave him. He'll play hide in it and then he wants us to pass him small toys through the wholes where your hands go to pick up the box. It's been an absolute riot.

The temperature really dropped last night and we had a mild icy/snow mix. This morning it's basically been snowing all morning. Benjamin and I went out for a few minutes to put out some bird seed so we can watch them eat in the snow from the warmth of our living room.

Benjamin and I head to Mississippi late Thursday to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's a pretty amazing woman and I'm glad that Benjamin can have a relationship with her. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a good turnout for the celebration on Sunday afternoon.

I'm about half-way done with The Winter of our Discontent by John Steinbeck. I think it's been over 10 years since I've read any of his works. I've enjoyed most of what I've read by him in the past and picked this work up at a local used bookstore here in Berea. I find the title a bit ironic since I seem to enjoy cold weather so much.

Christmas, New Years & Other Delights

My apologies for not posting sooner. There's been plenty to write about but I haven't had the muse. This afternoon is a good time. We've some remodeling at our house - you know the rip the border and wallpaper down and start thinking about what colors you want to paint. I've also decided to add a little extra insulation to our attic. Seems out upstairs stays 3-4 degrees cooler than downstairs - much to my surprise. So hopefully the insulation will help a little. I think a painter must have invented wallpaper and border so they would have job security during the rainer and colder months. It gives them lots of hours to work on a project inside... both putting it up and then removing it. Then patching all the challenging spots... and then they get to paint. A friend here in Berea recommended using liquid Downy Fabric softener and a warm water mix half & half to remove the wallpaper. It's worked well, leaves the house smelling nice and doesn't seem as abrasive to the skin like some of the other mixes available.

We spent most of Christmas week in Mississippi visiting with my family. We saw just about everyone in the family. Grandma Little took us and Benjamin to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science. He had an absolute great time - especially at the aquarium section. I've posted a few pictures under the "Skip's Photo" link. We then spent most of New Years weekend in Bowling Green, KY visiting with Sarah's family.

By the way ... if you haven't heard ... we're expecting another Boy!

More later...

Family & Friends

Benjamin and I spent most of last weekend in Mississippi. Our purpose was to attend one of those family reunion's where your meet extended family who you really don't know and catch up with a few people you haven't seen in years. This is the King Family reunion or my mother's mother side of the family. I hadn't been in several years and though it'd be good to see everyone and also introduce Benjamin to them. Benjamin and I were able to see almost all of my mother's family in the short time we were there. Mom and I also had a nice time driving around and talking about the small town and communities she where grew up. It was nice for me to take a few photos of locations around them that have special significance to me.

Benjamin also got to visit with his Great-Grandmother - ie. my father's mother. She's still doing great at 89 and made some wonderful cake and sauce. My father also enjoyed driving him around on the tractor for a while. His uncle - my brother - enjoyed teaching him how to wipe his hands on his jeans after he plays in the mud.

Tonite we had the Phelps family over for dinner. Just after college '99 I went on a mission trip with Go International and Marissa Phelps was on the team. Marissa and I have kept in touch off and on ever since. Now that we live in Berea we were able to have her, her husband and daughter over for dinner, dessert and coffee. We really enjoyed talking with them and hearing about some of the work she is involved in through Go International. Benjamin had a nice time sharing his toys and entertaining their 3 year old daughter. Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk with them more in the near future.

I also wanted to share about a tragic lost that our friends family here in Berea has experienced. Their nephews age 19 and 17 were killed in a car accident on Wednesday night. Most of their family will be traveling to the Berea area tonight and tomorrow in time for the funeral on Monday. Please remember to pray for this family as the cope with this sudden loss.

Firsts

1. Benjamin’s first haircut was on Friday. His curls are gone and I couldn’t get Sarah to agree to a rat-tail or a mullet. He looks pretty sharp.
2. My parent’s first trip to Berea. Great time – they brought up a piano and another mattress set so we actually have a true bed for company. We had a great time with them and Benjamin really enjoyed hanging out with his grandparents.
3. Our first trip to Henderson Settlement. This is an outreach that the church I grew up at in Mississippi helps support. It was a good experience and you can check out the website at www.hendersonsettlement.org
4. Our first hiking trip since we’ve been in Kentucky. We didn’t hike all that far but really got a chance to check out all the fall colors. The colors are at their peak for the next week or two. We hiked at Pine Mountain State Park down "Chained Rock" trial. Benjamin did great during our road trip and hike.
5. A mostly retired couple from Anderson, SC came up and visited us on Monday. They stayed the night on Sunday and then spent most of Monday sight-seeing and shopping. It was great to visit with them.
   
   You can check out a few pictures by clicking on the links to the right.

Baby & The Pumpkin Patch at Hillcrest Farm

Well just in case you haven't picked up from the “What’s the diagnosis” post… we’re expecting another addition to the Little family. Based on the Dr appointment yesterday the due date is somewhere around May 10th. We keep asking Benjamin if he wants a baby brother or baby sister but I don’t think he really cares. Sarah and several others in our family are definitely voting for a little girl but we’ll just have to see. The Dr let us see some really amazing 4-D ultrasound photos. That’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time. If we can find a scanner I’ll load one of the up sometime soon. Oh… and is case you are wondering I okayed the strange-eating list with Sarah prior to posting it.

Weekend before last Sarah’s sister Rachel and our niece Cora visited us. On Saturday all of us loaded up and drove up to Hillcrest Farm. It was great weather and wasn’t crowed before lunch. They have a great variety of pumpkins and squash. Cora was most excited about all the different animals she got to pet and feed (cows, goats, etc). We all went through a hay maze – large round bales of hay positioned in a small maze – then we all ventured to the corn maze where we didn’t think we had a bit of time trying to find out way out. The finale of the day was the hay ride. The Farm provides shrubs and trees for a nursery up the road. We all piled on the back of a wagon and got to check out all the varieties of plants and trees. At the top of the hill there was a huge pumpkin patch. Benjamin picked out two little pumpkins about the size of a coffee cup. One was white and the other was orange. He was super excited about his “pum-pums.” Cora picked out a pumpkin that was more than she could carry. We had a great time.

Out Near Big Hill

Thursday evening we had dinner with the Escobar family. They live near the Big Hill community. No this isn’t exactly a name of a street – more the name of a place. The Big Hill food mart is on the corner and the BIG HILL is just down the road. That’s my kind of directions – go towards BIG HILL and turn this way or that. That’s much easier than looking for road signs or highways numbers. They are one of the first younger families we have interacted with and gotten to know a little better since we’ve been in Berea. We’ve really enjoyed the time we have spent with them and have already shared many laughs. Their young girls have already wanted to adopt little Benjamin. Both Jennifer and Alfredo are very talented artist – I added a link to their websites so you can check them out when you have time.

Sarah, Benjamin and I also spent Friday night in Hazard, KY. Benjamin really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Katie and Crystal. Benjamin had the best spot as he rode on my back in the shoulder backpack as we ran around and played soccer and frisbee. I’m glad to see that he already has an interest in Soccer and the outdoors. The park near their house is really interesting and I hope to take a few pictures the next time we are there.

I think Benjamin is in a little shock. We've had our first fairly cold weather (ie. around freezing) - and he's having to wear socks and shoes a little more often. He was so used to the warmer weather but he'll do just fine. He really enjoys wearing his little hat and blue-jean jacket that a friend gave us. I'll have to see if I can get a picture of him with them on.

Labor Day Weekend

Benjamin and I spent almost a week in Mississippi around Labor Day weekend. It was one of the longest visits that we have had with my family and friends in several years. We really enjoyed ourselves. I went Dove Hunting on Saturday and Trot-Line fishing several times while home. On Saturday most of my extended family came down to the Farm where we go hunting for a big family lunch. We also celebrated my 30th and my brothers 25th birthdays. I had a great time taking pictures. My little 11 year old cousin Blayne shot his first bird on Saturday morning – ie. also bird hunted with his first shotgun – he went trot-line fishing for the first time – and he cleaned his first catfish. Benjamin had a great time with his Grandma & Grandpa Little, Uncle Cr, Cousin Blayne, and all the others on my mom’s side of the family. I also had dinner with a couple of friends from highschool that I hadn’t seen in more than 5 years. Although our time was short it was great to visit with them and hopefully we’ll get more time during the week of Christmas. The last night we were in town my brother cooked some great BBQ chicken.

Some of my favorite times were: watching Benjamin dance with Grandpa & Grandma Little, watching Uncle CR and Benjamin play together, going hunting with Cousin Blayne, seeing all the family together at the farm on Saturday, having a big fish fry on Labor Day, catching up with friends

You can also read more by clicking on the link for Sandy the under People in the column to the right.

Top 10 Things I learned from my recent trip to MS

1. If you load 20 gauge shells in a 12 gauge gun you better hope that all that happens is that your gun doesn't fire
2. Fishing with dead previously frozen minnows is not as efficient as live ones
3. You have a better chance of catching a variety of things by alternating bait on trot-line hooks
4. When totaling your catch from fishing - do you count snakes and gars?
5. Big fish are more fun to catch and clean than smaller ones
6. Fishing Worms will begin to dry-out if left in the inside a car all day
7. Both Old and Young tire easily after to going to bed late and getting up early several days in a row
8. Some people really can sleep anywhere
9. It's always nice to have a couple of paddles handy just in case the boat decides to "run out of gas"
10. You know the color of you neck - when your whole family sits around having a good time while cleaning a Budweiserer cooler full of fish

Check out the latest pictures under the link Skip's Photos at the right and http://www.flickr.com/photos/hrlittlephotos

Battle of Richmond

On Saturday afternoon I took my 2 nieces Katie & Crystal to the Battle of Richmond Civil War Reenactment. It really turned out to be a really great experience - it was fun to watch them look at the merchandise and period clothing that various vendors had. They must have tried on a dozen bonnets and hats. The loved seeing the various outfits that the ladies wore and some of the different soldier’s outfits. Watching their expression when the cannons first fired was priceless. I took a few photos and somehow the girls ended up getting their picture on the front page of the Sunday edition of the Richmond, KY newspaper. I also managed to snap a few pictures. You can check them out by clicking here

Ginger, Daniel Boulud, Community

Ginger is our newest addition to our family. She's a 61 lb 2 year old female Golden Retiever. Sarah's sister & family were relocating to Macon, GA - moving from a 3 bedroom 2 bath house down to a 2 bedroom apartment - the apartment complex wanted $750 deposit per pet. And just like the CRV - we'd been looking to get a pet - things just happened a little faster than anticipated. She's really great with Benjamin - but he's not sure just what to do with her just yet. He likes to stick his hand in her bowl of water and have her lick his face, hands, and feet.

I allowed myself a splurge while we were in the midst of our move. I was in Bowling Green for about 24 hrs between leaving our house in Anderson and meeting the movers in Berea. Sarah and I stopped by TJ Max and I found a DBK or Daniel Boulud knife lying out of the package with no price. I asked one of the employees and he marked it down to the lowest "similiar" knife but it was still $10. I felt bad about buying in for about 3 days. Then once we got settled in at the house in Berea - I finally got a chance to check it out. I must say I've been very pleased - and so has Sarah. It's weighted nicely and cuts great.

Community - our neighborhood seems very commuity oriented. Two neighbors have already stopped by to introduce themselves. One definately got on my good side by bringing a large plate of choclate chip cookies and the other a bowl of various organic cherry tomotoes grown in the garden in the lot behind us. It's a community garden - three different families sharing the green space.