Has it truly been a whole year since I've written an update!!??!? How can that be possible!? That puts a whole new life to the term 'time flies'! I'm really quite amazed...and slightly ashamed. :(  How could I neglect this for that long!?? Well, anyway, lets let that go and move on.

As you may be guessing, there have been many changes in the last year. I will do my utmost to go through them somewhat quickly as not to bore you all with a novel's worth of writing. :)

I really can't remember all the way back to when I last wrote, but I will begin at where my memory works best.  -- A few things about Ruth's development would be that she probably won an award for slowest baby at rolling over! She didn't roll over till she was nearly 7 months! haha Oh well. Everyone tried to blame her cloth diapers, but I don't think so cause Simeon was rolling at 4 months. :)   She started eating solids at 10 months - which took her a while to get accustomed to them - and from there, she packed on the pounds! She went from looking so petite and feminine to looking like someone put a bowling ball in her tummy...thus, not very feminine! ;)

We really enjoyed last summer and I felt like I tried to take full advantage of outdoor opportunities. We went to the parks countless times, where the children could swing for hours if I'd let them! We went on lots of walks and bike rides with our trailer in tow for Simeon to ride in. He loves that trailer and we look forward to lots more use this coming summer!! I had a modest garden - due to the thought that I'd have a garden in the country too and not thinking that we were going to be staying in town all summer. As it turned out, I didn't get to have a garden in the country and we DID stay in town all summer! Haha...Well, at least I planted the bare necessities like beans, peas, lettuce, beets, zucchini, peppers and best of all...tomatoes!! Tomatoes are a real staple around here for canned salsa, canned tomatoes, pasta/pizza sauce and eating raw. Mmmmm. I found out that I didn't plant enough and will have to plant twice as much or more this year cause I'm already almost out of sauce AND I'm down to my last jar of canned tomatoes! YIPES! I'm really looking forward to this year of gardening but I also know it will be challenging because I'll be breaking new ground and it always takes a year or two to get the soil nice and conditioned. However, we have been taking every opportunity to fertilize the ground with scraps, manure, milk, and whatever else we can think of. I hope we don't over do it! :)

Now, perhaps some of you don't know that we've moved and are confused by my talk in previous paragraph. Well, let me fill you in. :)  We put our house up for sale in late summer/ early fall. The day the realtor listed it, a person inquired about it, came to look at it a day or so later, came again and made an offer. Within the first week, I think, the house was sold! Talk about good timing and answered prayers! THANK YOU, LORD! By the time everything was sorted out and settled on, we had about 2 weeks to move! Crunch time begins....our house in the country that was being built, was not ready and not able to be lived in. But, with a little pressure my brothers rose to the challenge and we had our hands quite full with getting 10 years worth of accumulation (the length that Chad had lived in that house...4 of which included me) to go through and pack up! I would try to comfort my hubby by reminding him that I am from a family of great procrastinators and we'd be able to get it all done. In the end, he was very surprised we did! ---Who cares if we were finishing up at the house in town till 2am the night before closing?? ;)   -Just making the best use of our time. :)

Beginning the second week of September, we were officially country folk! Complete with beautiful, big barn and silo...not to mention tractor and hay equipment with hay being made in the fields! Phew! We don't waste time around here! :D  --However, we must give credit where credit is due. If it weren't for the help of my selfless family members, we would not have been out of our house in time, nor would we have the haying equipment or making hay, NOR would we even have this lovely house we are in now! God has really blessed us in many ways! --My brother Jer was the one to push for the haying equipment. Through discussions and prayer and debate, we've worked out a nice family situation to do a type of share-farming with the equipment and hay yields. The experience has been challenging, fun and rewarding in ways...definitely has helped to create memories too! :)
Now, with all this hay, we NEED animals to eat it, right? ;)  Chad agreed that I could, as a birthday present from him to me, buy myself a horse within a certain budget! I began to do my bargain shopping and soon found TWO horses within that budget! They've turned out to be great! I especially have been impressed with the horse I found for Chad! He is such a laid back, 'gentle giant' kind of guy whom anyone could ride...if they aren't afraid of heights! :)  So, with those two and boarding my sister's 3 horses and (of course) a pony for Simeon...we soon had 6 horses on our farm!
In early November we bought 27 chickens and a dairy cow...a week later we got a young heifer beef cow and about a month later, we got a second beef cow who was also bred! ---Like I said, we don't waste much time. -- Oh yes, and lets not forget our 2 loveable barn kitties! (Ruthie's favorite) <3
This new life for us, we've all been enjoying! We've been milking everyday since we first got our Jersey cow, Minnie and had been enjoying that. We just decided to dry her up though and have been also enjoying NOT having to milk every day! :)  We decided to dry her up a month earlier than planned due to Chad's work. We are hoping to travel with him for a couple months before Minnie has her calf in the summer; for when that happens, nobody is going ANYWHERE!

Now, unto our little children. First of all, they aren't so very little anymore! :(  Simeon is going to be 3 next month and Ruth is about 15 months! Simeon is, as my Dad continually says, 2 going on 8. :)  Yep, it sure is easy to forget that he's still only 2 when you are having a full, intelligent, perfectly comprehendable conversation with him! He's "smart as a whip", as the phrase goes. He really surprises me with things he says, understands, and accomplishes. He's a kind boy that seems to have a soft heart. He does struggle with controlling his aggression at times but he has really come a long way in the last few months...especially when it comes to Ruth. He used to have such a hard time with her. He couldn't stand to let her have any toys and had a problem with hitting her...but now a lot of that has been replaced with sharing voluntarily, reading books to her, holding her hand and taking her somewhere to see something and giving her random hugs and kisses as he says "watch Mommy" or "Take a picture of this". HAHAHA! That one REALLY makes me laugh! I must get the camera out more when they are 'getting along'. :)  He also has been delighting me with his manners. He's usually quite diligent about saying please and thank you but he goes beyond the usual 'good manners' and says things like. "Thank you, thank you Mommy for giving me some, that was nice of you." Or various other sentences like that. His sincerity absolutely warms my heart some times and I feel a smile of gratitude grow across my face. Gratitude to God for this precious gift He gave to us. Gratitude to my husband and myself for deciding together on how to raise our children and demand -and now can expect- that 'little extra' from our children. Gratitude to Simeon for being willing to learn, and genuinely loving and respectful. Of course none of us are perfect and yes, we may not ALWAYS be sweet and respectful...but the point is we try and in the end, we expect that from each other.

Ruth. Ruth is a character! She is "Goofy Roofy". She is so diverse and delightful...that's how I'd describe her. One moment she is sweet with hugs and kisses galore and the next she is sassy with a major attitude and stubborn streak running up and down her! Never a dull moment with that lil one! She probably makes me laugh more than most people I know! Especially at night! When she gets tired...much like her mama...she gets SO GOOFY! Almost like a little ritual, each night when I am singing them songs before bed, she will be going all over in her crib! Popping up and down in an ultra fast Peek-A-Boo fashion, flopping on her belly, putting her face up and down in her pillow about 50 times a minute, rocking back and forth on her knees and abruptly flopping over with arms and legs flailing - all the while making some kind of humorous noise! I try, for Simeon's sake who is being told its bed time and time to be quite, I TRY to keep from bursting out in laughter...but I just can't help it...really, I try! When that happens, its like she got her big pay-off and kicks it into high gear! Which, in turn, has me and Simeon laughing so hard! UGH! That silly lil girl! she really is SO FUNNY sometimes! --Now, to her 'darker side'. :)  She also has her mama's stubborn streak. Must be that German in me ;)  That streak has its challenges but she is also proving to have a soft heart...for which I am grateful!  --She began walking in early December at 13 months old and picked up on it like a real pro! She didn't really have those traditional practice falls all the time. When she decided to walk, she, like her brother, took off like it had been an every day occurrence! Now she's about 15 months and about a week ago I decided to put her on the potty chair when I spotted her 'pushing'. I didn't feel mentally ready to potty train her, but I wanted to just see what she'd do. Simeon was 15 months when I trained him for the final time so I was curious about her. She went, we celebrated, and after that she started asking to sit on it at least a couple times every day since. Almost every time she sits on it, she goes. Yesterday her diaper was dry most of the day with only 2 little 'wets'. She has really surprised me with this! I wish I felt more mentally ready for this; I'd run with it and be getting her up 2 or 3 times every night and controlling her water, etc. like I did with Simeon. But unfortunately I just haven't done so. I hope it doesn't backfire on me! :/

Lastly and quickly... since the post has gone MUCH longer than I originally wanted! Chad and I are doing well, enjoying eachother, enjoying being parents and...yep, you guessed it, keeping busy. :)  Chad's been quite busy with his work and I with farm duties and wife and mama duties. The morning animal chores typically take over an hour and another 30-45 mins at night. Some mornings, when Chad is gone, I come in from ''chores'' and I feel like I'm ready for a nap, but instead am just starting the morning with hungry kids that are still in their PJ's. So, God grants strength and carries me through the day on His wings of grace!
Chad has been traveling a very consistent and predictable schedule lately (which is very unusual since we've been married). Its been good and not so good. Good because at least there's expectations and a set schedule that we can work around. Not so good because he seems to be gone a lot because of its consistency. It's half of one month and a week out of the next...half of the next month and a week out of the next and so on. When he's home he still has work to do for them...but thankfully, not a lot. We are hoping to go with this coming week and the 2 weeks in March...from there, we'll see.

Well, I do hope I didn't type you all to sleep! That was a lot....but as you can see....there has been a lot going on in the last year!
Thank you for reading and caring...it really means a lot to me!
I pray you have a blessed year this year full of love, laughter, trials and triumphs!
May the grace of God be upon each one of you; and may you know His victorious life and unfailing love each day!

~Jennifer

Lil' Update! :)

Hello to all!
I just wanted to give a quick little shout out to whomever may want to hear. :)


Things are going well here. Our children are growing like little weeds...except they are good lil' weeds that I love. :)  -Ruth seems to have had a growth spurt suddenly because yesterday (literally) she was wearing 3-6 months clothes just fine; now today I've discovered that 6 months clothes barely fit her!!! YIKES! Also, she is beginning to discover that she has hands that she can (somewhat) control AND she's also found a new best friend today...herself in the mirror!! :D  YAY! I sat and watched her for about 15 minutes while she talked to herself and spit bubbles and gurgled at herself. It was all quite adorable; then suddenly it all came to an abrupt halt when she seemed to disagree with something she said to herself and suddenly became a bit aggitated. --Sometimes she reminds me of me...like mother like daughter. ;)


Simeon is taking on the big brother role just fine! He enjoys trying to play with Ruth on her jungle gym and giving her toys. -Sometimes they accidently hit her in the head, but it's really the thought that counts, right? He can get a little carried away at times with rocking her in her carseat or bouncing her in her bouncer (it's a good thing she has good neck muscles!) but a gentle reminder, that he needs to be gentle, is usually all he needs to regain control. Again, it's the thought that counts!
Simeon has really become quite the little helper around the house! He enjoys helping me with all sorts of household chores such as loading and unloading the washer and dryer, cleaning out the lint trap (a newly discovered delight), vacuuming, dusting and one of his very favorites is putting away the dishes. He knows where every dish and kitchen utensil goes! Amazing! I don't think Chad even knows that!! :D --He's quite the little guy, that Simeon! Oh yes, and of course he always has to clean up his own messes such as toys that he likes to strewn all about the house and his multitude of books that he seems to "read" daily!
Of course he has his little bouts of "naughtiness" that needs daily correction, but all in all, WE think he's a pretty good boy...but then again, we could be bias. ;)


When I write on here, I feel somewhat like a broken record player when the subject turns to Chad. I'm always saying that he is very busy, aren't I? Well, here it comes again.....Chad's been quite busy lately! :)  Haha! What can I say? He's just a hard working man. :)  Truly though, he has been quite busy this month. He has been working for his job, Metso (for whom he is out of the country right now) and also working on our heating system for our new house...which has been taking a lot of his time! Although, the system is really starting to all come together now and it all, I might add, looks very professional! Good job Dear! It will be a great relief for him when that is finally done! It's definitely been a learning process!


I have been fairly busy as well. I'm a wife and mother. :)  I keep somewhat occupied with the wifely/motherly duties but I do look forward to getting in the country and having animals and landscape to tend to as well! I have so missed that in my life! I'm hoping to have chickens and horses and cattle in the future...and perhaps a small flock of sheep! :D  Then I will be REALLY busy!! I suppose I should be cherishing these more laid-back days while I can! Hmm....never thought of it like that before... :) Once we are "farmers", we wont have too many laid-back days any more!


That then, brings us to the subject of our house...
It's a work in progress! Things had been put on hold for a while due to a wait on the heating system, but now that's almost done and we have a couple of propane heaters in there keeping it nice and cozy for my brothers; things are picking up once again! We are really shooting for a move in date of late April to early May, but we shall see how things go! All in the Lord's timing I suppose.
Please keep in prayer the selling of this house that we are in now. It isn't on the market yet but we are hoping to get the final touches on the remodeling done next month and get it for sale in March sometime. Hoping, hoping.....


Thank you for taking the time to read this little update! We greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us and our endeavors! Please feel free to drop us a note sometime! :)


Blessings in our Christ,
Jenny, for the Stewart family   **Please note that I have a new email address: jen.stewart@zoho.com


Ps. I tried posting pictures but it wouldn't work for some reason. I will try again later!

Ruth Anne

Hello to all!
Our much awaited treasure is finally here!! Now there is finally something good about the day they call "Halloween" too....our little daughter's birthday! :) YAY! Yes, as most of you have probably heard through the grapevine, the Lord  has given us a little girl. <3
The birth was a very pleasant experience and everything went very well! We were able to have her at home like we wanted to. The Lord was gracious in all of it. He directed just as we asked! (Just like with Simeon's birth) :) 
Ruth Anne Stewart was born at 1:34am on October 31st. She weighed 8lbs 6oz and was about 20.5 inches long. The entire labor (hard, active labor) lasted only 1 hour! What a difference it was compared to Simeon's birth!! :)
Here is Ruth's birth story for any of you that might be interested.
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Earlier in the day (Oct. 30th) I had a doctor appointment. We found out that I was 6 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. My doctor said that she's only ever had one other person that was that far dilated and not in labor. :)  Yay for me! -- She predicted that this would be a fast labor...perhaps not even enough time to get to the hospital. I was kind of glad to hear that. :) Yet, I was prepared for a much longer labor. - I'm one to not want to get my hopes up.
Throughout the rest of the day I had some stronger contractions but nothing that hurt at all. Later that evening Chad and I watched an old movie and I continued to have contractions throughout. I was thinking in the back of my mind that "tonight is going to be the night."
Our movie ended at about midnight and we went to bed. That's when the hard contractions started and I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep so I got up to help things along and wait. - I didn't have to wait long. I told Chad that this was it and that we better get the bed ready. We put the plastic under the sheets, got all our things ready to go, lit our "birthing lamp" (an old oil lamp which Simeon was born to....lamp light is much more soothing than 60 watt bulbs) :) and let the contractions do their work.
I decided that I wanted to try a slightly different technique for dealing with the labor pains, so I decided to sing songs through all of them. This worked very well for me and created a rather calm ambiance. I sang and Chad made some final preperations. We really had no idea how quickly things were progressing.
We had decided that we would like for my mom to be there for the birth but didn't want to wake her too soon in case it was going to be a while, so, we waited. (my Mom was already here at our house staying with us for a while as my Dad was in California)  The contractions got more intense so I asked Chad to get the birthing ball from the basement for me. By this time it was about 1:15 or 1:20am. By the time Chad returned, I was in more pain than I can remember ever having before in my life and knew that the time of birth for my child was at hand. I told him to go get Mom. He quickly went to alert my mom that "things are starting to happen" (apparently he wasn't quite aware of how far along things were :) ). As he was gone waking my Mother, my body built up a massive contraction that decided it was going to push my baby out, Chad or no Chad. I tried my very best to hold the baby in there until Chad returned. He walked through the door just in time as the baby was making her appearance. I informed him that the baby was coming out as he came in the bedroom. He seemed surprised, looked and exclaimed "Oh goodness!" With a gentle, careful push, out came the head. Chad checked for a cord and saw none so I continued to let the body emerge when Chad suddenly informed me to wait because now he saw a cord. It was a little tricky trying to stop the body from continuing long enough for him to slip the cord over the head, but we all managed just fine and out came our beautiful daughter. When Chad told me it was a girl I said "Really?" I was delighted.
Within a few minutes of Ruth's birth, my Mom appeared on the scene.  She was quite surprised to say the least. She had no idea how quickly the baby was coming since Chad didn't either and only said "things are starting to happen" rather than "the baby will be born within 5 minutes" :)  Haha...oh well. The look on Mom's face was priceless.
Ruth was so calm when she came. She hardly cried. After a little while I turned her over and rubbed her back till she started crying cause I didn't know for sure if she was breathing ok or not. Of course she was fine, just content. (One of the meanings of the name Ruth is "satisfied".)
All was very well and we were so happy to have this precious child finally here! I had gone 3 days past my "due date" and was pretty eager to meet this little one. I am so amazed by the miracle of life that God has designed! This little child is growing so precisely in the womb and is so perfect when she comes out. She knows how to cry, breath and eat without having to ever do it before or be taught it! The whole process is a miracle....praise God and thanks be to Him!
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It's been about a week and a half now since her birth and I have been feeling great since day 1! (Very different from after Simeon's birth) I haven't been getting a whole lot of sleep yet, but still all is well. :)
Thanks to you all for the prayers and gifts, etc. We are so thankful for each of you!
Chad, Simeon, Ruth and I are all going to be leaving for Michigan in a week for about a week and a half. Chad will have to be traveling a bit for work again and I've decided that I would rather the children and I go this time while we can, rather than being here without him for that long. I just get too lonely when he is away for that amount of time. :(       ---That's a good sign, right? :) haha
Anyway, here is our new little one.
Blessings to you and your families. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!