Hanging out with Baby J

 

The baby responsible for stealing our families hearts . . .There he is all in his glory. :)  He loves to crawl around and crawl all over us.  He laughs a lot and smiles all the time.  He loves to be snuggled and we LOVE to snuggle him. He loves his family and he loves our family.  These pictures were all taken when he was about 11 months old and some of the things he is really into are as follows:
crawling, cupboards so he can play with the pots and pans, cruising along furniture, dancing while standing (mini squats), being tossed into the air, peek-a-boo, eating anything and everything he can get his mouth on, bath time and splashing in any kind of water,  REMOTES of any sort, and he loves being sang to.  HE is a sunshine in our lives in a time of hurts and pain.  When he comes to visit, all is right our Bumbaugh World. :)  WE love you Baby J!!!!

Shippensburg Fair - Tractor Pull

The Lewis family came with us to the Shippensburg Fair for dinner and the tractor pull.  None of us had ever been to a tractor pull, so we weren't sure how it would go, but it actually went well.  Jeremy and the kids met us at our house and we all rode to the fair together.  Once we got there we went and got dinner as we waited for the rest of our group to arrive.  The kids all ate french fries and pizza.  Then we headed to the petting zoo.  Jaina, Jansen and Ava stayed with me as Christian went on ahead with Uncle (Pap-Pap) Scott.  After we checked out the rest of the fair, we started toward our chairs at the tractor pull.  The kids all really enjoyed the evening and their free balloons. :)

The Tractor Pull was awesome.  Scott and Lori, Pappy and Grandma, Kim and Jason and Westin, Micah Mummert, The Lewis Family and our family.  The kids all shared a blanket with me and we had snacks, drinks and fun games to play.  The tractor pull part was actually really fun and the kids all seemed to really enjoy it.  Christian and Westin had fun screaming at the top of their lungs at the tractors and Jaina complained it was too loud and too much pollution in the air. :)  Baby J and Jeremy really enjoyed the festivities. Baby J would just watch in amazement as the tractors would do their thing.  The noise didn't really seem to bother him either.

 

Random Day with Baby J

We got the opportunity to keep little J for an overnight stay and he is getting around quite well with his crawling.  He is about 9 months old and still knows us when he sees us.  The kids get so excited to see him and the feeling is obviously mutual because he is all smiles.  He is not walking but he crawls like crazy fast and he gets into everything.  He loves to babble and laugh and he is quite the eater.  He loves to eat Cheerios and any other kind of food you give him to munch on.  His sleeping schedule is to nap in the late afternoon and then he is up until anywhere from late evening like 11:00 to early morning around 2:00 a.m. before he crashes for his good 8 hour big sleep.  He loves to party at night time, dancing, bouncing, and playing with toys. 

Bumbaugh Donut Day - 2012

The tradition continues.  We met at my in laws house to make fresh yummy donuts.  This was a fun year as it was the first time our nieces and nephews started bringing their dating friends. :)  We of course usually start out the day with the rising donuts and then frying them.  Then we glaze them or powder them or cover them with peanut butter icing or chocolate coatings.  I think we all eat so much that our guts hang out an inch further than usual.  The older cousins help keep the younger cousins occupied, because their attention span is not very long and they eat enough to fill their bellies and then run away to play. Uncle Troy brought Ty too and he and the kiddos played on the trampoline for most of the day.  

I always really enjoy the tradition and look forward to it each year.  They plan it when the kids are off school so they can all experience it too. . . and then we all take donuts home to our family and friends.  Ava was excited to take some to her teacher this year, but what she brought home was gone before the next day for school.  Wonder where they all went?  It happens to be a pretty nifty set up we have going and it works each year.  This year, we covered the floors with paper, so the glaze wouldn't get all over the wood flooring and the linoleum.  This was an awesome idea and made clean up so much easier. 

Guys Night Out = Girls Night In

Micah, Jason, and Matt decided to get a few guys together to go out and have some fun at Texas Road House.  I really wanted Micah to take our camera and take some pictures of the fun group of loud and crazy guys, but he looked at me and said, "NO WAY."  Guess he didn't want to be THAT guy who's wife makes him take pictures of every event he is involved in. :)  So, I let him slide, knowing I would then use the camera for us as we had the Girls Night In. 

Callista and Courtney came over to hang out with us and Westin stayed with us so we could hang out and have a crazy night ourselves.  We did all sorts of fun things.  We watched Thomas movies, Drew a big track for our trains on a huge piece of paper and then played trains.  We also drew lots of people, houses and sort of made our own little town for the train to drive through.  We had mac'n'cheese for dinner along with applesauce and peaches.  The kids ran around playing and dancing and just having fun. 

  Westin had fallen asleep by the time the guys got home and then we got him up and sent him home with his daddy.  Callista and Christian were cuddled up on the couch but not sleeping. :)  Fun times and fun memories. :)

Christmas Letter - 2011

Highlighting the Blessings and Big Events of 2011

Micah lost his job in Jan. of 2011 and yet, God provided time and time again and we just got to have daddy home with us more often. Micah and I started looking at it as a huge GOD GIVEN staycation and we made the best of it. Micah has had contract work different times of the year and that has provided income also. He got a nice buck with his bow this year and was happier than one could imagine.

I joined a praise band at our church and have really enjoyed that venture in my life again. It has been about 10 years since I have sung and I forgot how much I missed the praise and worship. I still get really nervous, but God helps me through each Sunday. I am loving my life with my children and love watching them grow. One of my biggest events of the year was being able to be a part of my nephew Roman, being born in June of this year. It was amazing and He is perfect. Another huge event of the year, My parents sold their house and moved to Missouri to be with my mother’s family. The adjustment, for all of us, has been tremendous, but over all it is a good thing.

Ava started school this year and still doesn’t like it. She doesn’t cry every day but she does ask just about every night, “do I Have to go to school tomorrow? I don’t like school you know.” WE KNOW AVA!!  She also lost her two front teeth this past month, so she is having fun singing the infamous song of old . . .”all she wants for Christmas is her two front teeph.” She really loves the fact that she is learning to read though and she wants to read to me now, instead of me reading to her. It is very sweet and I remember when reading to her while she was a baby, dreaming of the day to come when she would read to me. IT’s Here!!

Christian is a boy. . . need I say more. He is my little sidekick this year. At first, When Ava went to school, he missed her so much and he was so sad. I kept trying to tell him how much fun we were going to have but he was not to be convinced. I think he is finally realizing that now that it is down to just the two of us, we do a lot more “going places” than we used to. He has really started to talk, a ton, like incessantly, since his sister is no longer talking all the time for him. I think he feels the need to express EVERY thought that enters his mind. I find this rather funny and I just say he takes after me. I love talking too. My goal is to start working on his preschool curriculum this coming year. . . .to get him ready for kindergarten. He is really into Transformers and Legos and his favorite thing to do is to snuggle up on the couch with mommy and watch a movie while eating popcorn.

We have a new addition to our home for a few months. . . hopefully longer. Who knows what God has up his sleeve. We will call him Little J and he came to us at one month old with a broken arm. He is now almost four months old and we are all in love. He brings such a pure joy to our household that is so amazing. I am concerned about when we have to send him home, but God is good enough to handle all of our emotions. We feel blessed to at least get to keep him over HIS first Christmas. It gives us more opportunity to pray blessings on him.

And finally, with a heavy heart, I must mention, we lost a very dear friend this year. She is in Heaven and healed but the rest of us miss her more than words can say. It has been a long rocky last two months but God is good and will carry us through this. Please keep her family in your prayers this year to come also.

Well, I must end this letter and attend to the beckoning baby in the other room. He is making his presence very known right now. May all of you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe and God Bless you all.

With Love,

Micah, Michelle, Ava,

Christian & Little J

 

Bumbaugh Christmas

This entry is gonna be more pictures than anything else, but it sums up Bumbaugh Christmas in a few words.  Below is the table of kiddos, and they were having fun.  Ava and Christian finally graduated up from the LITTLE table to the Big kid table and as you can see in the background, they were pretty excited.  Then it was time to pile into the living room for the gift exchange.  This gets pretty hectic at times, but it always lots of fun and lots of laughing.   

I jumped in to get a picture of Garrett and myself.  He is growing up so fast and I can't believe he is graduating this year from high school.  I remember when he was a little boy and ripping into presents the way our kids were doing.  I also remember when Isaac and Sharon too were so small and loving this part of Christmas.  I do miss them as small kids but they are all so much fun grown up too.  Micah won a Sponge Bob Umbrella at a Christmas party and he put it in Scott's stocking.  I am pretty sure this was Scott's favorite gift from Christmas too.

Lori scored when she pulled out the Shrinky Dinks and everyone, not the kids, but the adults, jumped in and spent probably an hour coloring and playing with the shrinky dinks.  It was fun and we even made magnets out of most of them. 

Pappy and Grandma informed Ava that she had the biggest present wrapped under the tree and so she was super excited by the time it came to open her big present.  It was a Disney Castle with all the princesses, from Disney World itself.  She was so ready to get the castle out and play with it, and so were all the other girls in the room.  The boys all got a huge bag of Dunkin Donuts Coffee and you can see how excited they were.  Our family is a Dunkin Family all the way!!!   Christian got his Lego set from Grandma and Pappy and he was really excited about putting that together too.

Kelsey read the Nativity Story and the kids acted it out.  This was my favorite part of the Christmas day!!

Christmas and all the Trimmings

I have always loved decorating for Christmas. I can still remember the excitement in the air while getting the decorations out with my mom as a little girl.  We couldn't wait to hang the big twinkling start and the small ceramic tree with colored lights always went on the piano top.  I also remember trimming the tree singing Christmas songs.  I remember, my favorite part was the manger scene. I use to love playing with the manger scene nativity set on top of the piano, and I was always sad when we had to put it away.  So naturally, when you have fun childhood memories that bring warm feelings to your heart, you want to pass those on to your own children. . . .so I love to decorate for Christmas with them.  They share this love too.

The kids were so excited this year to help decorate for Christmas.  They finally felt they could do it themselves and they liked placing the ornaments while the music was playing and drinking Hot Chocolate.  Grandma and Pappy Bumbaugh give each of us ornaments each year from Hallmark, so the kids love hanging their own ornaments. This year, while we were hanging them, I would read the note from each individual ornament that Grandma and Pappy wrote, while they were hanging that ornament on the tree.  This was the first year they remembered ornaments from last year and they actually listened as I read the notes. 

Ava, my little organized one with the leadership skills, was telling our sweet passive Christian where to hang his, and he was listening. I had to break in and tell them that they each could choose where to hang their own.  Then I had to make a very conscious effort NOT to change or correct or rehang ANY of them, even if they all seemed not symmetrical. :) I will say the tree did look better this year than last and I anticipate it getting better each year. ;)

We had the Christmas music on and Jamie Blue Eyes was in his swing just watching the pretty lights and enjoying all the crazy commotion of us singing and dancing and trimming the tree.  The kids enjoyed this so much, that they even worked it out that they spent the night with Grandma and Pappy and helped them trim their tree. :)