Joshua's portraits

We recently took Joshua to the Sears portrait studio to get his one year portraits done. Here are just a few of the cutest poses.

 

 

 

 

 

Joshua is one year old!

This last month has been busy and blessed!  There are so many things to share.  We are all doing well and hope you are too.  Joshua continues to learn and grow right before our eyes.  Here are just some of the many recent “happenings” in our household.

Just days after Joshua’s 11 month birthday, we got him into a children’s hair salon for his first haircut.  He did so well.  I couldn’t believe how much he looked like a little boy and no longer like a baby.  Of course we took many pictures and kept a lock of his hair so I could make a scrapbook page of the event.  

One recent Saturday afternoon, Tim and I took Joshua to a local community pool.  We were pleasantly surprised to see only a few people there so we practically had the kiddie pool to ourselves.  Joshua loved the water and would just relax into our arms as we would glide him through the water.  We will definitely pray about signing him up for swim lessons next summer. 

Joshua’s mouthful of teeth is increasing.  He now has 4 teeth on the top in front and 4 on the bottom in front as well as one huge bottom right incisor tooth.  Not only is Joshua growing physically but his mind is so sharp.  Even though he only babbles, you can tell by the expressions on his face that he truly is trying to tell you something important.  And he understands so much more than he can express.  He has an animal picture book that we read together and if you ask him to point out specific animals he will.  Joshua is also getting very good at problem solving.  An example is that if he wants something he can’t reach he will use another toy to extend his reach and knock the toy closer to himself.  Next, I guess, comes climbing to reach the toy by himself.

Joshua is also at the age where he has discovered that he has his own free will and that he has a choice to obey or disobey, to have his way or to yield to others.  And boy if you have him do something he doesn’t want to do, he will certainly let you know by stomping his feet and screaming.  It truly is funny but we don’t want him to see us laugh so we turn away to “ignore” his behavior.  Oh goodness.

The last weekend in August we celebrated Joshua’s first birthday with a monkey themed birthday party.  We were so blessed by our many friends and family that joined us to celebrate the special life God gave to us - Joshua.  Joshua shoveled sugar-free chocolate birthday cake in his mouth, being sure not to miss any places such as behind his ears or in his hair.  The whole afternoon was just way too much fun.  And the weather outside was beautiful that day, praise the Lord!  It was a great start to a very long weekend.

The following day, our church was a host location to a simulcast evangelical crusade called Harvest America.  After months of prayer and preparation, everything came together and we saw over 400 people in attendance and 12 people respond to the invitation to receive Jesus.  It was awesome and we look forward to next years’ event.  Tim spear-headed a majority of the technical aspects of the event for our location, so it was quite a relief to him to see that everything worked semi-smoothly.  Glory to God.  

And if that wasn’t enough to keep us on our toes (pardon the pun) just a few short days later, Joshua started walking!  For several weeks he was getting up and taking maybe 3-5 steps before sitting down but now Josh is off and practically running all throughout the house.  Many people have said we’ll wish he had never started because it will be so hard to keep up with him now. But I for one, am glad he is walking simply because he is getting so heavy and hard to carry!

With Joshua’s first birthday came the time to turn his car seat around to forward facing in the back seat.  I am finally able to move the passenger seat back a little and not be up so close to the dashboard.  And Joshua enjoys the new perspective of seeing where we are going not where we have been.

The week prior to Joshua’s birthday, Tim took some time off from work and we were able to work on some much needed “honey-do” projects around our house.  Tim was able to complete some painting and get on the roof to clean our solar panels.  I was able to steam clean some stains out of our carpets.  It was so nice to have some of the bigger chores taken care of that have been looming in my mind for so long.

Tim continues to work on his training with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  It is very thorough and Tim feels he is learning a lot.  It’s nice to know that they won’t send just anyone out but want individuals to be well prepared and equipped to represent our Lord rightly. 

After a long period in our church body without a Women’s ministry, we are hosting our first dinner soon.  I am looking forward to a time of fellowship with the ladies and having a sweet time of worship and study.  It will be exciting to see a fresh new vision for the ministry from the Lord.  

While the wildfires in our area continue to burn, we have been blessed with unseasonably cool weather.  The end of August and long into September is only supposed to be in the 80s and 90s.  The weather around here is usually a scorching 100-110s, so this is quite pleasant!  Maybe we will have an early fall and rainy winter this year.

Thank you for your patience in waiting for this update.  The week before Joshua’s birthday party, our computer suffered a major “meltdown” in the area where we store all of our photos and videos.  We were afraid we had lost everything but Tim was able to recover all of our critical stuff.  Over the last few weeks, in between the honey-do’s, birthday party, Harvest America and just daily life, we have been restoring and backing up data.  It has been a long and tedious process and we are considering spending the money to purchase online storage incase this happens again.  

Now that Joshua has met all of his first year milestones we will not be doing monthly updates on our blog any longer but will make posting occasionally when something significant happens.  

Before his first haircut

Handsome boy after his first haircut

Joshua loves the water

"Today is my birthday. Yay!"

Molter family photo

Yummy cake!

Some of Joshua's first steps

Joshua B-Day Prayer

Joshua is 11 months old!

Joshua turned 11 months old today and I am actually writing this on his birth date instead of a week later as usual!  Though every day is a busy day with a baby in the house, this month seems to have had a little bit of a slower pace.  We enjoyed a nice 4^th of July here in town with a BBQ and games.  That evening we went to our regular Wednesday night church service and watched fireworks from the parking lot after.  Joshua enjoyed the fireworks, complete with “oohs” and “ahhs”.  It was nice that they were at a distance so he wasn’t afraid of the loud boom when they went off.

While Joshua didn’t have a doctors’ appointment this month, I did weigh him on the digital scale recently and he had gained about half of one pound.  So he is now about 20 pounds!  He is wearing his 12 month clothes now and they seem to fit him well, so I guess he did have a little bit of a growth spurt.  Joshua has also gone back to taking longer naps again.  Yay!  He has been sleeping for about 2 hours in the later morning and then an hour or so in the afternoon.  I think he is storing it up for more growing.  Not to mention that he keeps popping out new teeth as well.  He now has seven and I just saw another hole in his bottom gums opening up today.  There are now four top teeth and three bottom ones with the new one on the way.  All the better to eat birthday cake with!

Joshua keeps teasing us with his walking.  He is getting so good and pushing his little push toy around, you might think that he’d be walking any day now.  He can steer the push toy very well by himself; even turning it around when he gets himself into a corner.  Josh has been standing without holding anything for support but as soon as he realizes what he is doing he sits down.  He did take three little steps on him own but again he realized what he was doing and I think it scared him because he actually fell down and began to cry.  He hasn’t tried walking again since then.  So it will still be a little longer until he can get some more confidence and try again on his own.

Joshua continues to improve with his baby sign language.  He now uses the sign for “more”, “all done”, “no” and waves bye-bye.  We are still working on getting him to use the signs for “please” and “water”.  The sign for “more” is still his most prominent sign as he is still eating up a storm! Joshua has increased his “chattiness” and jabbers all the time.  Sometimes he says things that sound like certain words or phrases but we’re not sure if it is really intentional. 

Joshua is also becoming very good a “helping” around the house.  He just loves to play in the drawer of Tupperware and often will “help” me with dinner by pulling all of the Tupperware out of the drawer and pulling all my dish towels off the oven handle, putting them all over the kitchen floor.  When I am folding laundry Joshua “helps” by pulling all of the laundry out of the basket and onto the floor, as well as pulling all the clothes I just folded out of the drawers they were just put in and onto the floor.  Joshua also enjoys “helping” us rearrange our bookshelf by once again pulling all of the books off the shelf and putting them on the floor.  Do you see the pattern here?  Silly boy!

Our home fellowship family Bible study has just finished its first month and is going well.  There are a few other couples and their children coming but it has been so good to foster more close relationships with those families.  It gets a little hectic sometimes during our study time with the three babies and older kids that we just don’t know how having any additional families would work!  God knows exactly what He’s doing. 

Several weeks back, Tim signed up to participate in a walking for fitness campaign through his company so we have been trying to get out for a morning walk most days of the week before Tim begins work.  Tim has commented that he already feels a decrease in his stress level and an increase in his energy level.  I’m very thankful that he is getting out and getting some exercise and that we are able to do it together as a family.

I have made three attempts to get in contact with the pro-life clinic that I turned in paperwork to volunteer for and I have not heard anything back.   I am considering it a closed door from the Lord and while it is a great cause it is just not what God has for me right now.  Tim has received an open door from the Lord and is currently going through some online training with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. He will be helping with their new online outreach called "Search for Jesus" and will be able to share the Gospel and disciple new believers in an online environment.

We hope you are well and have a blessed month.  Let us know how we can be praying for you!  As always, pictures and videos of Joshua are below.

Joshua is 11 Months old!  Our big boy.

Since eating is Joshua's favorite thing to do, you know he had to be tired to fall asleep in his highchair!

Joshua "helping" in the kitchen.  Notice all the towels and tupperware on the floor.

Coco waits for food to drop.  She's no dummy!

Joshua looking so handsome in his little collared shirt.

Joshua sleeps in funny positions

See all my teeth!

We were the 100th customers at a new scrapbook store in town.  Our prize was a free Christian themed scrapbook kit!