Birthday Boy

Josiah turned 4 last month. I add my voice to the the pan-parental refrain and wonder where the years have already flown. He wanted to have his party (still just a small family affair this year) outdoors, and I have to give it to him...it was really nice to have it out back! He selected the meal and the details of the cake, and he definitely enjoyed his presents. I sure do love that boy!

(We relit the candles and blew them out again once we came inside, since William had to go to bed and it was getting dark.)

Time Goes By - August ed.

Plenty of things happened in August, but really, only one of them matters:

Mama and Pop Pop Casler moved to Lancaster.

Not just to Lancaster, in fact, but to our little neighborhood, a 3-minute walk away. 

(It's a couple of months later, and I still need to pause momentarily to convince myself that it's true and to calm my inner celebratory frenzy!)

Seriously, we couldn't be more delighted to have Jesse's parents so close or be more thankful for their incredible generosity. They are caring for the boys during the workdays. What a blessing. It's a joy to think that the boys will never remember a time when Jim and Tillie weren't an intimate part of their lives, and it's wonderful to see how Josiah and William's relationship with them has grown already. 

These photos are from just a few days after they arrived, when we enjoyed a morning together picking peaches and apples. We love you so much, Mama and Pop Pop!!

Time Goes By - July ed.

Shocking! Coverage of three months in three days!

July was notable mostly because it involved our one proper vacation for the year, a 10-day visit to Alton, NH. But before those photos, here are two from earlier in the month:

Riddles joined our household for a little over a week while her people were in the midst of major home improvement projects. Josiah took care of Riddles almost exclusively, doing everything aside from dealing with her litter box. He kept her water dish filled, fed her each day, and played with her as much as she allowed!

William began showing a keen interest in being a part of family activities. This particular picture always makes me grin as William "Goes Fish" in the pile while Jesse and Josiah are distracted with an exchange!

And now for a selection of vacation pics:

 Playing in Lake Winnipesaukee.

 A train ride on the Hobo Railroad. 

 Yummy!

 Every mini-golf course has its challenges. Sand traps...water traps...windmills...hills...

But THIS mini-golf course had the ultimate: the baby ball snatcher!

 Josiah got heavily into playing ball this summer, both pitched and off the tee.

 Handsome boy!

At the end of our time in NH, my parents agreed to care for the boys for a day so Jesse and I could celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. We went to the Castle in the Clouds. The views were breathtaking, the history was fascinating, the weather was picture perfect, and we enjoyed a delicious meal on premises too. It was a lovely day – so long as we avoided thinking about how OLD we must be getting to be celebrating eleven years! 

Thursday good night

Hi Jesse, my love. Another midnight missive. The good news is, I think I'm just about prepared to face tomorrow! I have a snack prepared for Josiah's class, since he's the provider tomorrow. I have many gorgeous loaves of locally baked 14-grain bread sliced and ready to deliver to his school too, as specifically requested, to feed the ~55 employees for the monthly "locavore" luncheon. Fresh groceries are in the house (we were seriously low, with no fruit or veggies left). I've filled the car with gas (I was crossing my fingers earlier this evening that it would even start so I could limp the quarter mile to Turkey Hill, it was was that bad! Crisis!). Wet clothes, shoes, and umbrellas are drying from the pouring rain we had all day. A "June update" blog post is up. I had a good catch-up call with my mom. And a good catch-up talk with Holly. The living room has been vacuumed, finally (when the carpet actually crunches, that's a sign that it's time to vacuum, right?). Dishes are all washed. Laundry is in progress (although, oops, that reminds me that I never started the nasty-nasty diapers. It's going to stink upstairs I bet). I have a vague clue about what I'm doing in both of my classes tomorrow. I've put out garbage. I've finally just finished (like, 20 minutes ago) getting my head around a new study to start next week, with meetings scheduled to get students rolling on them in the morning. I attended a fascinating lecture today on the evolution of religion. I created a cool train track with Josiah, filled out forms for a variety of students for a variety of reasons, made dinner, made silly faces, made the boys laugh, made phone calls, made up (several) songs. I've nursed William. I've washed a couple of fridge shelves because I just couldn't look at them one.more.time. And while I'm listing really surprising stuff: I even took a shower.

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. You got yourself a keeper. And you know what would clinch that thought? If you could just see my fantastical hair after how much time I spent in the rain today. Jaw-dropping volume I'm sporting, I tell you. Jaw-dropping.

Oh, and the other thing I've done today? Miss you. Lots and lots. Come back soon, will you?

And now to bed.

Love, Krista

Time Goes By - June ed.

As promised, I'm back with a new, very brief update. I give you: the month of June. 

 Our summer was enriched by the fact that we hosted two college students from the end of May through early August. Emma (who attends Missouri State) and Amy (a Messiah College student) were interns at HOPE International, and it was great having them live with us! The boys really loved them. 

We try to provide Josiah with lots of opportunity to genuinely contribute to the family by giving him responsibilities of many sorts. He's usually very proud of his role in our home, and it's remarkable how much more mature he is on days when we've been intentional about treating him maturely. (We've even already started on, for instance, proper knife skills – although you probably won't get a photo of that, since I stay within inches of the cutting board when he's wielding a chef's knife!) In any case, here he is working away on pitting cherries we'd picked together at our favorite orchard. He stayed at it for ages and did an excellent job.

Here's the first time I let Josiah feed William. They both LOVED it! 

 Of course, lest you think he's too mature, be not led astray! He's definitely a monkey who, like any 3-year-old, can't find a smile when the camera's out! :) This photo is from a lovely day spent in Philadelphia one Saturday in June. We so rarely take the time to just go and "do" a destination. It was great. 

Balance Bike

For his fourth birthday a month back, Josiah received a little two-wheeler bike. It's a hand-me-down we've been saving from his cousins Jaron and Bryn (thanks guys!). I convinced Jesse to pull the pedals off of it for now so that Josiah can use it as a balance bike – learning balance from the get-go rather than going the standard training wheels route. He's already doing a great job, which is impressive given that the poor munchkin inherited a hefty portion of his mother's uncoordinated genes! Jesse, here's a video from today showing what progress he's made in just the few super-quick times we've gone out in the past week. He's so excited to show you when you return!!


Balance Bike from Krista Casler on Vimeo.

(For any bike safety police looking askance at my dear child's bare head, FYI, he always wears a helmet...plus elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves, too! But for this one video op, just on our driveway, he opted to be unencumbered by the usual gear. And (gasp!) his safety lovin' mother was cool with that.)

Time goes by - May ed.

A few months ago, Josiah was trying to reach something, and Jesse pointed out to Josiah how he was growing – how he could now stretch for things that were beyond his fingertips not too long ago. With a pensive sigh, Josiah replied, "Yeah. Time goes by."

Indeed it does! We laughed at his comment and delivery, but I too find myself wondering where the last six months have flown. Many of you (among my small cadre of readers) I realize have given up even asking when I'll put up new info. I've become increasingly avoidant of blogging the further I have let things go...where to start?? And of course life is beyond full. But Jesse is now in Kiev, and my desire to keep him connected to the little fam' back home is providing the necessary kick to put up some oh-so-overdue posts.

The plan: Pull together one or two posts each day, each providing a super quick snapshot of a missing month...pretty much just photos with captions. So, to start us off, I give you the May Edition:

We started off the month by finally feeding William his first milky rice cereal. He was nursed exclusively for 7 months. Here he is moments before the first spoonful! As you can see by his roly poly arms, he wasn't suffering without table food. That said, he LOVES food and was a happy eater from the start.

Lots of family arrived in early May for William's baptism. A special day! It was wonderful to celebrate with everyone. 

While family was in town, Josiah had his first experience fishing, out back in the creek behind our house. Unfortunately, the fish weren't biting. 

 A beautiful day at Landis Valley Museum for their annual Herb and Flower Fair.

Josiah loves it when his big cousins are around!! He can't wait for the Christmas holidays!