First Swim of 2010!

Well...we broke out our the pool one evening. Michayla and Elijah LOVE it! (I might need to buy elijah some new trunks though! Sorry about the crack!) :)

Popsicles! Oh what a summer treat!

Hey sissy...you going to eat all that?!

Tender Loving Sister Help!

Thank you Jesus for Big Sisters!

Strawberry Jam...and my Mother-in-Law

Today was quite the eventful day. Last night I called my mother-in-law to see if the kids and I could come hang out for a few hours...just to get some R and R and let the kids play outside. Well, what went from a few hours turned into a whole day. Arlene called me this morning and asked if she could pick me some strawberries so I could make my jam for this year. What a HUGE blessing. I was just going to forget about picking berries and making jam...but then my wonderful mother-in-law comes through for me! Then on top of it all, she willingly gave of her time today to help the kids and I. I was able to get some rest in the midst of making jam and the kids playing because she was such a huge help.
From today I learned how to sacrificially give...even when it is hot, sticky and just not much fun. She really is always willing to give of herself no matter what. I admire this in her and hope that as I grow older (and wiser!) I can learn this character trait!

I am going to have THREE kids!

THREE kids? Really? Sometime I can't believe that I am about to have three kids. This seems so overwhelming, yet so exciting all at the same time. Why is this? Mixed emotions...oh man...oh man they get the best of me!

So, I have been reading a book that I read when I first had Michayla. Revolutionary Parenting by George Barna. This book can tend to blow my mind and challenge me. I actually really enjoy being challenged when it comes to parenting because I feel that I need it. Sometimes I feel that I can get "lazy" in my parenting and this book, as well as other books (and my husband!), can give me quite the loving kick that I need.

So, I have really been contemplating the amount of time that I spend with the Lord...thus setting the example for my children. Do they actually see me spending time with the Lord and investing in my relationship with him? Not so! Ugh! I mean...I want them to when they grow up right? I want them to be Spiritual Chamipions, right? This has always been a struggle for me and I am more determined than ever to conquer this "lazy" area of my life.

So, I am setting new goals. Keep me accountable. I apparently need it! :)

I know it has been a long time, but I actually miss updating my blog. I am sitting at work right now listening to the bells and whistles of the hospital all while figuring out what to do. It has been pretty slow around here after 9pm lately, so I do random things to keep organized and updated. Tonight I was browsing blogs (or stalking people...whatever you like to say!) and decided to write a post of my own (So, when people stalk me they actually have something to read). :)
Just so everyone knows...I will not longer be posting pictures onto my blog. Facebook makes it WAY too easy, so I will be updating that periodically.
Here is an update into the Hurst household:
Kevin's business, Revolution Builders Inc., has prospered over the past year! It is so exciting to look back to 3 years ago when we started the business and realize the growth that has happened. We have by far had our most profitable year...which is a testimony of the Lord with where the economy is at. He received his real estate license in September! This has been something on his heart for a long time and we are believing for our first client soon! Kevin is really enjoying the time that he gets with the kids in the evenings while I am at work. Yes, sometimes it makes for a long day and can get tiring, but knows that this season in their lives is so special.
He just got back from three days with his dad in the woods! Yes, it is hunting season. :) Unfortunately no deer this year, but he enjoyed himself in the peaceful woods!
I am still enjoying my full time job of being a mommy and wife, as well as working part time at the hospital. I can't believe it is going to be a year since I started for LGH. This job has been such a blessing to our family with the many benefits it provides.
The Lord is continuing to teach me how to be patient with my children as they are getting older. They both know how to push mommy's buttons and do it quite well! :) Overall though I would never trade this job for the world. It is so rewarding when, just today, Michayla counted to 20 for me. I had NO idea she could count past 10. I guess watching Elmo is not pointless after all! It is even more rewarding when she prays all by herself for her daddy! I love watching the little growth that comes day by day.
Michayla will be 3 in January! I really can't believe that it was 3 years ago that I delivered her into this world. We take her to kids club a few days a week while we work out at the gym and she LOVES it (Although she always says "No boys!" She doesn't want any boys to be at her kids club.) :) Every night she asks if we are going the next morning. This makes me more excited to talk about pre-school for next fall. I can't imagine sending my baby girl to school, but I know the day will come sooner then what I would like!
Elijah is growing SO fast. He is walking all around and getting into more things than he is suppose to! He has learned how to climb up onto the bench behind our couch and flip over onto the loveseat. He is SUCH a boy! He has learned how to say mama, dada, night night and cookie! You know what his mind is on all the time. All he does is eat, sleep and poop! He is still taking two-two hour naps for me a day and sleeping 12 hours at night. It is wonderful! :) He just turned 15 months the end of November!
Overall our family is doing really well right now. The usual bumps in the road come along, but we are still enjoying this season. We are attending a house church in the city, which has brought a lot of life to our family. We are going away this weekend with the house church without our kids. It will be a much needed break! For all our Indianapolis readers...we are visiting Dec 17-21. Hopefully we will be able to see many of you while we are there!
Have a great holiday season! Enjoy your families!

Summertime fun!

This summer is so quickly passing us by. Kevin has been busy with the business, I have been busy with my job at LGH and the kids have been busy pesting eachother...at least Michayla pesting Elijah. Michayla is learning how to talk more and more and we have been so blessed by how she tries to say new words all the time. She officially knows her ABC's and she can count to 10. We are so proud of her! Elijah is crawling EVERWHERE and standing up on everything he can reach his hands on. He is beginning to pull things off the kitchen table...always right after I just set it for dinner! Kevin is still in the middle of remodeling our kitchen, second floor laundry and small bathroom. It is going well, but takes a lot of time since he is doing everything himself. The laundry room is pretty much complete...except for some painting (which is my job!). Next he is going to tackle the kitchen. We are both excited and ready for it to be complete! Kevin is now halfway through real estate classes. Him and I are both excited for the oppourtunities that are coming with him getting his license. We will see what the Lord has in store with this! My plan was to begin school this fall to get my RN. However, after much prayer and wrestling with the Lord...we both have decided to put this on hold for now and just focus on our children and eachother for the next season. We are both so EXCITED for life to slow down a bit this fall. Enjoy the pics from the last few months!

For July 4th my family came in town for a few days. They had a shin dig up a park near us, so we took the kids. They loved it! M and I got to ride a "train" around the park together!

Michayla loves brushing peoples hair! This is her Uncle Aaron being so patient with her!

Michayla's favorite pastime! She always says..."I push Ijah!"

Kelley and I surprised our husbands and took them camping for fathers day! What an experience! We'll just leave it at that!:)

Our daughter and her makeup! She is so proud when we paint her nails...or put makeup on her!

Michayla loves the park with the water. We can be within two blocks of it and she says...Mommy water park!

We asked her to get her shoes on for church and this is what she came to us with!

The changes in life..

There are many changes right now between the four of us. Sometimes I love change and sometimes I don't. I am not really minding it this time because it seems like most of what is going on is good. At least what I perceive as good.

Let's start with Elijah. He is almost 8 months old. Many how time flies! He is such a cute little fella, changing his looks all the time. He just keeps growing and growing. I was going through some of his "bigger" clothes today that have been stored away and realized that I have a lot of 9-12 month clothes that I forgot to pull out...because when I stored them I thought he wouldn't need them for awhile. Well...we have moved past that stage and are onto 12-18 month clothes. Bummer...I could have used those clothes earlier this winter. :) He is quickly figuring out how to get around. Today I found him about 3 feet from where I sat him down...but he was still on his bottom. I guess he scooted somehow. He is also up on all fours starting the rocking back and forth motion...just warning mommy "get ready...here I come!" Our little joke with him is that he is always having a party if you ever want to join him. Seriously he smiles ALL the time unless he is hungry or tired. What can I say...he is a little man. :) He is also teething a lot. He decided he wanted to teeth on Mommy, so I decided I was done nursing. So...we have been weaning, which I am excited about. It will be the first time since Kevin and I got married that I will not be prego or nursing. Yeah! I think that is all on him. I am excited to continue to see how he grows and changes in the upcoming months. He is our little blessing!

Michayla is POTTY TRAINING! I can't believe that soon enough we will have a child that knows how to go to the bathroom by herself. I seroiusly thought this day would never come. We just started today and she is doing really well. I am so proud of her. She wants to sit on the potty about every 5-10 minutes...probably obsessed more with the treats than the actual potty. However, I would rather have that than one who doesn't want to go at all. She also is in a big girl bed as of last week. She is doing amazing with that as well. She is allowed to get out of bed during one nap time and that is all. She actually does really well with it. No falling out of bed...or getting out of bed to play with toys...what a great little girl! I still can't believe my little baby is growing up!

Kevin is getting busy busy busy. He thinks he is probably going to be able to start to sub some work out to his friend Daryl this summer which I think he is excited about. They enjoy working together. He is such a great daddy and husband! I had to work this past weekend and he had the kids all to himself. He was able to take them on a walk to visit me at work...which I love. He really does such a great job with them. He just ran his marathon a few weeks ago. He did great! It was such a rough day to run because it was SUPER windy. He ran over half of it straight into the wind. His goal time was 4 hours and he did it in 4:03:40...not bad considering the conditions. If it wasn't for the wind he would have crushed 4 hours. :)

After the marathon Kevin and I went to Ocean City, NJ for our three year anniversary. It was amazingly relaxing. We left Michayla with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Kent and took Elijah with us. We basically slept the whole time and took lots of walk on the boardwalk. It was a much needed break after all my training at work. The weather was really beautiful on Sunday, but then rained on Monday. Not too bad!

The next weekend I went to IL to visit my sister and her husband for her 30th birthday. She was running a half marathon on her birthday and I wanted to be there to support her on such a special day. We had SUCH a great time together. It was a qucik trip (too quick!), but so good. I was able to see my parents as well since they came to see her run as well. That was a special treat since they don't get to see my kids or me very often. (I took Elijah with me)

Well, I need to get going, but I wanted to give a much needed update. I am doing really well. Not a ton of changes going on with me at the moment. Just enjoying life. My job is wonderful! I couldn't ask for a better place to work. I really feel blessed to be here. I am looking forward to this summer and warmer weather when I can get out with my kids more. I am excited to go to the park and play with both of them. (Soon there will be two mobile chldren!) :)

Much love!

More Pictures!

Hey ya'll! Here are some more pictures. These are a little bit more up to date! Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAYLA! WE LOVE YOU!

Michayla's faveorite desert right now is cookies and ice cream! So, what I asked what she wanted for desert for her b-day...this is what she wanted! So...cookie with two candles! She did great blowing them out...except she burnt herself a little! :( She recovered quick!

One of the joys of winter! Static Electricity! :)

These next couple pictures are from the PA Farm Show! We had a great time as a family and Michayla just LOVED all the animals! I think she will want to work with animals when she gets older...like her Aunt Erica always wanted to when she was little!

Uncle Darryl and Elijah! This is when Darryl and Kelley had baby Jonathan. Congratulations again guys! We love you!

It's always a joy to be Mommy's Big Helper! :)

The joys of having a big sister. She wanted to play "dress up" with him. It was totally Michayla's idea to put the scarf on his head! Oh what fun days we have ahead. :)

Some of Elijah's favorites! He is getting SO big. He had his six month check up and he is now 21 pounds! Big boy for sure!

More pictures will come later...

Here I sit watching another season of American Idol! Today was a day off from work and much needed after working my first 12 hour shift yesterday. I am well into my full time training at work. This is my fourth week to be exact...and only one more to go and then I will be on my regular schedule of only 24 hours per week.

Kevin just got back from running...only five miles tonight. He only has five weeks to go until the big day of the marathon. April 4th he is running the first marathon ever in Lancaster County, PA. He is excited, but nervous for sure. I am very proud of how committed he has been to training for this. There have been MANY times he could have given up, but never the less...he is still running!

Michayla and Elijah are continuing to grow, grow grow! In more ways than just physically. Michayla is learning how to be a great big sister! She LOVES her brother SO much! Elijah is learning how to roll over, sit up and push up onto his hands and knees...to get ready to crawl. Two mobile children...what will our lives be like? :)

Overall life is going well for us. We are loving being back in the city and looking forward to the spring when we can get out and walk, play at the park and have fun with friends outside.

I will be posting pictures very soon! I promise! Time does seem to be slipping by very quickly and I want to get better at taking pictures of the kids and us. Hopefully soon you will see an update!

Happy New Year!

A new year is upon us! Kevin and I are both excited about the new year and what it has in store. We have much anticipation as we continue to walk with the Lord and listen to what he has for us. We would like to give you a general update on our lives and the changes that are taking place already within the new year.
I am sure most of you know by now that I applied for a couple of positions (Unit Clerk and Patient Care Assistant) at Lancaster General Hospital back in November right before Thanksgiving. After a few weeks I basically gave up because I had not heard back from them. Well, sure enough a couple of days before Christmas they called me in for an interview. Yeah! What a great Christmas present. Then December 31st they called and said they had a Unit Clerk position available for me and would like to know if I wanted to take it. Of the two jobs I applied for the Unit Clerk is the one I most wanted. Of course I said yes right away! A great New Year's present! My shifts will be 3pm-11pm three times per week and every third weekend 11am-11pm. With these shifts Kevin will be able to take care of the kids in the evening, so we won't have much childcare. I am excited about all of it, but nervous of course. I have wanted to go into the medical field since I was little, so I am excited to get my feet wet a little to see if Nursing is something I would like to pursue in the future. A benefit of working at LGH is that they will pay for your schooling if you meet certain criteria, which is an option for me in the future. Right now, I just want to focus on the new job and fulfill the role to the best of my ability.
The next change is that it looks like Kevin has full-time work lined up for awhile now. Many of you know the journey we have been on with the business, whether or not to continue with it or not. On Saturday Kevin received a phone call from a guy who owns his own remodeling business. This guy wants him to sub for him full-time starting next week January 12th. This is a two-fold blessing in that Kevin has full-time work and he is planning on hanging onto the business (Revolution Builders).
We are excited for the changes to come, but know it will look very different than the last few years have looked for us. Since we have been together Kevin basically has not really worked full-time (because of owning his own business) and I have not worked nearly as much as I am going to be. It seems like a lot of change all at one time, but we are excited to have some consitency in our lives and get on top of a few things financially. Pray for us as we go through this transistion. Pray for the kids, that there will be much grace upon them with Mama being gone this much! :)

We had a great Christmas! The weekend before Christmas we went out to Indiana to visit my family. What a great time! My sister Erica and brother-in-law were also in town from IL. Then on Saturday my brother Dan and sister-in-law made it to the extended family Christmas from KY! I had not seen them since before I was married, so it was quite the time of them meeting Kevin and the kids as well as us meeting their kids. It was so fun to be together again. I really miss my family being so far away. I feel the older I get the more family means to me. Maybe some day we will all be together again! :)

I think this is all for now. Hopefully soon I will have some pictures to post. I think we misplaced our camera during the move (which I think is upstairs in an office box), but my family is going to be sending me a cd of theirs, so soon enough you will see pictures!

Have a great week everyone! :)

Life...

Oh the up and downs of life. Life has been very up and down over the course of the last two months. Where is Kevin going to work? Where am I going to work? Where are we going to live? Should we move to the city? Lots and lots of questions. Many questions for the Lord.

We did get one answer to one question. Where are we going to live? I know...many of you may be thinking..."didn't they just move to the dairy farm?" Yeah we did. However, the Lord has a much higher plan than ours. Here is the story...

When we were in the hospital deliving Elijah we got a call from our tenants saying they were wanting to move out of the house that we own on East Chestnut Street in Lancaster City and that they were putting in their 60 day notice. We were cool with it..a little overwhelmed with everything else going on at the time, but glad to know that we had at least 60 days to find someone else to move in. Then the journey began of do we sell it? Do we rent it out again? Or...at the WORST do we move back into it? A couple weeks home from the hospital we had officially decided that we wanted to keep it and to try to find new tenants for it. We advertised it in the paper and sure enough we found tenants that we were excited about. They had the lease signed, security deposit paid and a move in date of November 15th. Overtime I had not heard from the new tenants, so I called them on Nov 12...no answer...so I left a message. Called them on Nov 13...no answer, so I left another message. Called them the day before they were suppose to move in...left a message and eventually called me back. Only to say "I am sorry we can't move in." WHAT???? I was SO overwhelmed. We had just moved to Pine View Dairy, had a baby and now we have no one to live in our house in the city. Oh the ups and downs of life! November 16th we had house church at our friends Jonathan and Janelles house. Jonathan was speaking and was reading an article from awhile back about two guys that moved into lancaster city, which then started a wave of young people moving into the city. Simply for the purpose of community living, relationship and for the purpose of seeing Lancaster City taken over for the Lord. As he was reading I was being reminded of why I (and Kevin!) had first moved into Lancaster and why we bought the house on Chestnut Street. I was looking around the room and realized that we were the only ones that did not live in the city, but were a part of this church. Not only a part of this church, but also beginning to step up into a leadership role. Now, I am not saying that you have to live in a city to be a part of that church. However, I do feel like the Lord clearly spoke to me that night that we were to once again move. I freaked out at first, but could not wait to come home to talk to Kevin to see how he felt about it. We came home and I start out the conversation saying, "Hey babe, I think we should pray about moving to our chesnut house again." His literal response was, "I think you should pray about never saying that again." :) Needless to say we both had things to work through. So after MUCH prayer and consideration we both felt like it was the right thing to do. We are TOTALLY excited about living here. The Lord really did a work in us to get our hearts to the place of excitement, but it is awesome being back in the city. So, without further ado...here is our new house. This is where Kevin and I are currently living and plan on living for awhile! (Unless the Lord has other plans!)

We still have many questions on our hearts for the Lord, but we know that he will answer those in his timing. We are trying to be patient and wait upon the Lord for his plan for this next season of our lives. Pray that we would continue to rest in the Lord and find our life and joy in Him!

NC Part #3...Fort Macon

Ryan and Denise were so gracious to take us to Fort Macom State Park. What a piece of history! It was cool to walk around a place where actual battles took place. You walk around the fort and can just picture men running around loaded with armor and decked out in camo to defend our country. It was a neat experience for sure! Michayla of course had fun pushing a real baby in a stroller! Thanks so much Ryan and Denise for everything! We had such a good time with you both. We love you and miss you!