Pokeberry Boys and More of Life's Joys: January 2017

My goodness. It's been almost a year since I've written anything here. I had JUST told you that I would start writing once a week, and then *bam*. Nothing. For a year.

Was I just not talkative? Bwahahahahahaaaaa yeah, um, NO.

Was I lazy? Perhaps.

Was it a very busy, busy year? Most definitely.

Here's a look at our 2016, in words and pictures!

January and February were pretty much just normal. My youngest was still in preschool, so we carted him back and forth every day, doing my other boys' school during that time as well. Nothing much happened.

In March, things picked up! We welcomed a new dog, Roscoe, to our home! He is a 5 year old, blue merle Australian Shepherd. He was meant for my dad, the farmer, but Dad decided that Roscoe is too old to train. So, the sweet dog spends his time during the day with us here at our house, and at night, Dad takes him home and feeds him. He loves us all, and we love him dearly! (Truth be told, I'm his person, really. Everyone else may think they are, but it's me. We all know it!)

Then, my middle son turned 8 years old. We surprised him with flight tickets to a really neat place here called iFly. It's indoor skydiving, and he had a blast!

All ready to go

FLYING!

Of course March wasn't without it's challenges, as Noah sprained his ankle pretty bad, and Aaron wiped out riding his bike.

May was an emotional month for me. My youngest, Elijah, graduated from pre-school. My third child. I'm not gonna lie, I cried. But so did all the teachers!

June saw my sweet husband grow a year older, and we were very busy preparing for our family vacation in July.

Our family vacation. July 2016. A trip of a lifetime! We flew in to Las Vegas, rented a minivan and drove that thing all over God's beautiful creation. We actually put 2600 miles on the van in 2 weeks. We visited 6 National parks in the Southwest, 4 in the first week alone. We visited Utah, Colorado and New Mexico while we were there, and flew out of Albuquerque two weeks later. I wish I could show you ALL the pictures!

Having a tall, cold root beer after a trip to the Aztec Ruins in NM

Cheesing at the Bar-D Chuck wagon in Colorado

Four Corners monument. The family standing in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona all at once!

The boys at the top of a mountain in Colorado. Getting ready to go down an alpine slide.

Most of August was uneventful, until the very last day. That was the day that Aaron, my little daredevil ended up in the hospital. He had a bicycle accident. Stayed in the hospital for 4 long days under observation for bleeding in his belly. Thankfully he was just fine and has had no recurring problems!

The first hospital sent him by ambulance to the big Children's hospital in the city.

He got to be a pro at pushing his IV pump around!

Because of Aaron's accident and some medical problems I was also having, we didn't get school started as early as I'd have liked, but we got started finally in September.

Our yearly "We started school!" picture


We were supposed to be doing school, but it's always fun to cheese for a "groupie"

I love this picture. Noah is growing into such a fine young man. He spent most of his summer working with his Grandpa, doing whatever Grandpa needed him to do. He turned 12 in October. We also had a great time setting up a Doctor Who themed car at our church's Trunk or Treat!