Birthday Pictures!

We did not do a very good job at taking pictures this year, but this is what we have!

Happy Birthday Connor!

This is your birthday party at our apartment on Saturday the 23rd.  I made cupcakes for your birthday!

On Sunday, we went to Uncle Dick’s and Aunt Betty’s house for the afternoon!  We went for a hike in the woods behind their house and then sang happy birthday to you after dinner!

Connor was great on his birthday!  He had the biggest fall yet on his birthday!  He lost his balance and fell off a 2nd step onto the driveway!  It caught him so off guard that he didn’t get his hands out, so his face took the ENTIRE fall!  You can’t tell too much in the pictures but he had a huge scab on his nose and a purple/blue goose egg on his forehead!  Thankfully, Aunt Martha had some homeopathic medicine that kept it from swelling too much and took the pain right away! 

Thank you for reading along and bearing with us as we get caught up on what is going on here!  We miss our friends and family back at home! 

Till next time!

Marya, Brian & Connor

To my 2 year old!

I have seen some blog posts where the parents have written a letter to their child/children about life and what is going on.  Here is a belated birthday letter to Connor from his Mama.

Dear Crazy Connor Man,

I cannot believe time has flown by so quickly and now you are 2!  Where did those 2 years go?  You are growing into a little man and quickly loosing that babiness about you.  As I write this, all I can think about is how grateful I am to be blessed with such a beautiful little boy.  Your life is one of the many ways God reminds me of how much He love me. 

You are 3 feet tall, and from what I can tell from height predictors you are going to be the same height as your Daddy, 6’1”.  You are extremely energetic, you never stop moving, except to eat (and you barely stop moving to eat), sleep, and watch TV/movie.  You have the sweetest little heart.  You love to give away kisses & hugs.  When you knock your head, elbow, knee, toe, or really any other body part, you come running to me or Daddy saying, “kisses!” We are always happy to give you kisses and you always give us one for the lips too!  You are quick to say “Sorry”, “Bless you” & “Welcome!”  “Thank you” & “Please” come when prompted but you say them with a smile!  Your favorite TV shows are “Super Why” and “Dinosaur Train.”  You can name all the characters on the show.  Daddy has been teaching you how to pray by having you repeat after him.  You have shown that you love to pray and sometimes even ask us to pray while in the car or even at nap time!  You are learning to be more and more adventurous, but you are not fearless!  You are willing to take risks but you are also careful to to know what you are risking. 

You hate the wind!   On your birthday, we were going to have a party outside behind the apartment building and while we were setting up the wind blew the tablecloths off the tables.  You burst into tears and just starting crying over the wind and how it was ruining your party.  We tried to talk you to into staying outside and celebrating, but all you could say is “Go inside! Go Home!” So we brought all our stuff back up the 3 flights of stairs and into the messy apartment to celebrate your birthday!

You are so so smart.  You can sing all of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, most of the alphabet, Row Row Row your Boat, and there are probably others you just have told us you know how to sing yet!  You love to sing and are always asking for us to sing or to play your favorite CD by saying “Old McFarm please!”  You often repeat things we say, and you know when and how to say, “Oh my goodness, or Oh my Stars!”

You got a train table with a wooden train tracks and trains for your birthday from Mama and Daddy!  We set it up while Monnie gave you a bath and showed you a movie.  You opened your other presents from Gigi & Papa & Aunt Valerie & Monnie & Pops & Great Grandma & Great Grandpa first!  You were so excited about your books and toys!  Then we led you to your bedroom where your table was set up and you would have thought Santa had come to visit!   You were so excited that words could not come!  You would look at me and Daddy and just smile and then pull your cheeks together like, oh my I don’t think I am supposed to be smiling this much but I just can’t hold my excitement in!  You did this face for days!  Sometimes, I think I still see it even a week later!  Needless to say, you love your trains and table!  You love playing with the tracks and bridges.  In fact, the first few nights, the only way we could get you to go to bed was to let you sleep with Thomas or one of the other trains!  You loved them!

Connor I could go on and on about you and your accomplishments over the past 2 years!  But the most important thing I want you to know that your Mama and Daddy love you more than words can explain!  You have shown us you are ready to make your own decisions and we are trying to learn how to allow to make decisions and also how to set up boundaries for you live within.  Please forgive us for loosing our patience and getting frustrated.  We truly do want the best for you.  We pray constantly for wisdom on how to raise you but most of all that one day you will come to love our Lord and Savior as much as we do!  God is the only one who can provide us with the wisdom and love we need to be good parents.  I know it is hard to believe but God loves you even more than we do.  He loves you perfectly and our love is so imperfect! 

Happy 2nd Birthday Connor!

We love you!

Mama & Daddy!

Happy Halloween

Pictures of Connor’s birthday and other updates to come soon but for now, meet our little pirate!

We went trick-or-treating in our apartment building.  Those who wanted to participate put a pumpkin picture on their door.  It was a great way to go trick-or-treating!  Just enough for Connor!

Thank you for reading!  Hope everyone had a great weekend more to come soon I PROMISE!!!

Love ya’ll!

Marya, Brian & Connor

Would you like a hug?

To begin with, I AM SO SORRY!!!!

It has been way too long since I have last posted.  Though it is proof that life here is busy and we are just trying to stay on top of things! 

Beware this is along one, but full of pictures!

This is the beginning of a few posts to get caught up on what is going on! 

At the beginning of October, Keely and Valerie came up to visit and we had a blast!  It was a busy weekend full of sight seeing but totally worth it! 

They arrived on Thursday morning, Brian picked them up from the airport while I worked.  Thursday was a pretty low key day, we did some grocery shopping, made dinner, and just caught up and planned the rest of the weekend.

Friday, I went to work for a bit, Keely & Valerie went to Boston to ride the Duck Boats.  You must ask them about it!   It sounded like so much fun and something I hope to do before we leave here! 

This is just a couple of the pictures (from Valerie) from their tour!

Below is the amphibious boat, which gives tours on both land and sea!

On Saturday, we, the girls & Connor, drove to Maine, to sight see and to allow Keely to get her big toe in!  Well, we got more than just Keely’s big toe in Maine.  We spend the whole day there and it was beautiful!  Here are some pics from that day!

(Below) The aftermath of Connor eating a chocolate candy!  Needless to say, I think he enjoyed it!

We had to stop at the other states, just to prove that we(they) were really there!

Sunday, we went to church and then headed to Salem to walk around and see the sights!  Even though it was only the 1st weekend in October, Salem was in full swing for Halloween!  The businesses were having a sidewalk sale and it was crawling with people.

 

Sunday began the interesting things we were asked!

Keely & a driver from a limo had this interchange:

(please forgive me if it is not a perfect quotation, but you will get the point either way)

Keely: “Will you give me a ride?”

Driver: “For you baby, I will take you anywhere you want to go!”

Well, Monday, Keely, Valerie and I got to spend the afternoon and evening playing in Boston!  I personally had a blast playing with my girlfriends (and not having Connor)!  We got a 1 day subway pass and went wherever we wanted to go. 

As we were walking to Faneuil Hall, a stranger on the street walked right up to Valerie, and asked, “Would you like to go on a date with me?” Valerie quickly said NO! and we continued to walk on. 

After leaving Faneuil Hall we started following the freedom trail, as we passed a booth for a tour, one of the people working booth turned to us and asked, “Would you like a hug?”  We said No! and again kept walking! 

We laughed and laughed at all these strange people but that was not even the best part of the day!  We say Boston Commons, the Make Way for Ducklings statue, Liberty Hotel, and last but not least, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE tour!  It was so much fun.  I will end with some of our pictures from Monday!

Cheers!

Random woman/statue, hoping to make money standing there!

Liberty Hotel, used to be a prison/jail and now there are 2 bars and hotel rooms.  They have preserved parts of the original structure and it is a beautiful hotel!

(Below) This picture is for Patrick Rodgers!

We made it to SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE! We were way too excited!  I miss ya’ll!!!

Hopefully, by the end of this weekend I will be all caught up and try to do a better job of keeping up with everyone!  Thank you again for your prayers, encouragement and love!

Till next time!

Marya, Brian & Connor!

Blessings…

It has been way too long since I have last updated and much has gone on! 

My mom came to visit for 6 days!!!  It was such a blessing to spend time with her!  She was a huge source of encouragement and generosity!  We spent some time in downtown Boston on Saturday.  We visited the infamous Faneuil Hall!  Boy, did we know what we were getting ourselves in to!  For those of you who don’t know…there is a huge marketplace in downtown Boston with lots of retail shops, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, and lots of other popular shops.  In the middle of this marketplace is this train station looking place.  So we walk in to find this:

Basically for as far as you can see is a sea of people all looking for something yummy to eat!  There was every choice you could dream of including Lobster (of course)!  We navigated through Faneuil Hall successfully with a stroller and picked out something to eat for lunch! 

A few other sites we saw that day:

 

 

(live statue)

After we left downtown Boston we headed toward the coast!  We visited Marblehead, near Salem, MA and checked out this neat place, Castle Rock, the pictures explain themselves, there is a private residence that looks like a castle and then a public walkway to a huge rock that looks out over the ocean!  Check it out for yourself!

We feel so blessed to living in such a beautiful place!  This is just 15 or so minutes from where we live!  We are trying to take advantage of living in such a beautiful place! 

We have made Sunday’s a special day for our family!  Brian is studying everyday of the week, but we have set aside Sunday’s as a day of rest and time spent with God and family(no studying!).  This was something that someone recommended to us while we visited here back in March.   We have visited a few different churches and have greatly enjoyed the different worship styles.   We have been able to go hiking a few times and enjoy the beautiful leaves!  The leaves are just starting to change around here!  There are some beautiful red trees and of course yellow and orange!  This has been a fun time as a family to enjoy the beautiful creation the Lord has blessed us with.  We have also made an effort to spend time as couple that evening when Connor goes to bed!  Setting aside Sunday’s like this has been rejuvenating to Brian and I both.  It allows us both to reset and get ready for another busy week of work and school!  It also helps us to keep perspective for why we are here and what God is doing in our lives!

BLESSING #2

Our house has a resident!!  We have officially rented our house!  Thank you so much for your prayers in this area.  The Lord has been teaching Brian and I both a hard lesson in trusting him in EVERYTHING!  We wanted so bad to sell our house, but the Lord had other plans!    Thank you everyone for helping us try to find someone and for praying for provision!  The Lord does provide and it is always in his timing and his timing is the BEST!

BLESSING #3

Valerie & Keely are coming to visit in 2 days!  I am looking forward to spending time with both of them!!  We are excited to go sight seeing with them and to play in the Boston area some more!  I am sure I will have another post to come soon about all the fun we will have!

As always thank you for reading!

Till next time,

Marya, Brian & Connor

Prayer Requests:

• Anxiety about finances, learning to be thrifty and to budget
• Brian to continue to stay on top of his studies, perseverance & endurance
• Wisdom in all these situations as well as parenting