2009 Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas! In our small effort to be "earth-friendly," we skipped the printing of a Christmas letter again this year in hopes you could enjoy a snapshot of our year online (and not have to wonder what to do with it once you are done reading!).

We were blessed with a full year of learning and growing together. As we sat down to reflect on the year, we remember how thankful we are for our friends and family, and even more so, how thankful we are that our God sent Jesus to give us hope and fill our lives with faith and passion!

That being said, some snapshots of our blessings in 2009 follow...We tried very hard to just choose one picture per month (and not too many bullet points!). If you'd like to see more, you have full access to our online photo albums by clicking here! And if you'd like to read more about our year, there are several entries posted below this one.


January

• January brought the return of "normal life" following Christmas and a visit from Erin's family. Chris hit his 4 year anniversary working for St. John. He works primarily with young adults and leads the contemporary worship service. But on any given day you might find him updating the church website, maintaining technical aspects at church, or helping out with men's ministry. When he's not at church or giving music lessons, he's spending lots of quality time with Shiloh!
• Erin, when not working, loves being with Shiloh, leads a women's Bible study at church, participates in a book club, and enjoys going wine tasting. She also is in her 6th year on the Camp Ewalu board
  
• And "normal life" for Shiloh means growing and discovering lots of new things!!
  

February

• Erin's sister Laura came for a short visit while back in Iowa for a friend's wedding
• Chris and Jesse celebrated birthdays at a bash at our friend Jacque's house
  
• Shiloh began preparations for crawling!
  

March

• A trip to Colorado to visit Erin's parents, now in Loveland, was also blessed with seeing Shiloh's great-grandma in Omaha, her great-grandma and great aunt and uncle in Longmont, and great-aunt from Colorado Springs as well as other friends in Colorado and Nebraska. Shiloh also got to touch her first fish, compliments of Chris' successful morning at the lake!
• Shiloh really took off with her crawling in March, as well as her consumption of solid foods!
  

April

• April is a busy season for Chris at church as he helps prepare and lead worship at St. John for Easter. See our family picture on Easter below.
  
• April also brought our first trip to the park with Shiloh on a nice warm day and a chance to visit a group of Erin's friends from her high school youth group.
• Chris' church league softball season starts in April and lasts through August.
• In April we celebrated the life of our friend Jay from college, who passed away after a long battle with cancer. Chris and Jay loved playing saxophone together, and we miss him greatly.
  

May

• May brought more trips to the park, as Shiloh discovered her love for swings and playing outside!
  

June

• June and July were busy months with many of our friends getting married, including a trip to the Twin Cities for wedding festivities and a chance to see friends!
• Shiloh enjoyed her first parade during the town's annual celebration in June.
  

July

• July brought more outdoor fun at Nordic Fest in Decorah, Iowa where Chris ended up winning the rock throwing contest and Shiloh had her first taste of Norwegian cuisine. Erin and Chris had their first (and Erin's last) taste of lutefisk as well...
• Chris spent a week in Kansas City at a worship leaders conference. He was so amazed at how well Shiloh was walking when he returned!
  

August

• Shiloh turned one! We had a wonderful celebration with both sets of grandparents, three great-grandparents and aunts and "uncles" in attendance.
  
• Shiloh really enjoys seeing Chris' parents and sister Noelle on a weekly basis here in town, and enjoyed all the time she had with Erin's parents and sister Steph when they visited for the week.
• Our new senior pastor started at St. John, bringing new changes and eventually a new schedule for Chris, allowing us a little more family time than we were used to!
  

September

• Chris went away for another week, but this time on a trip driving with our friend Jesse to Glacier National Park in Montana and back. They had a great time, and Chris is pictured below on their long hike to Ptarmigan tunnel and back, which boasted amazing views!
• Upon Chris's return, we took an overnight trip to Wisconsin to enjoy wine, cheese, scenery, and Erin's first night away since Shiloh had been born!

October

• October brought all the fun things of fall, like leaves, pumpkins, and Wartburg's homecoming. We had fun connecting with friends, even in the frigid cold. Luckily by the end of the day it warmed up enough to take off the stocking hats!
• October marked Erin's 4 year anniversary of working for Head Start. She still enjoys and finds lots of challenges working with teen families in poverty, and she really enjoys the time spent with a great group of co-workers!
  
• Chris and Erin enjoyed a 7-week study together called "The Marriage Course", starting in October. We would highly recommend it for anyone who is married!
  

November

• Since it was warmer in November than October, Shiloh enjoyed lots of time outside, all the way through Thanksgiving weekend! We traveled to Omaha to celebrate the holiday with Erin's family and then made a quick stop to see Shiloh's beloved friends Ella and Amelia before coming home to host the Tripolino family for a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.
• And while it sure hurt the checkbook, our house now has a beautiful new roof! Bye-bye to 4 layers of bad shingles, all the questionable wood underneath, two chimneys (just the part above the roof), and hopefully some of our water problems!
  

December

• And the warm weather is officially over!
  

Thanks for sharing in our lives and enriching them with your love and friendship! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

We have a talker!

Shiloh is 100% toddler! There is no "baby" left in her. She is busy and fun and throws tantrums and most of all, is a talker. We decided to list out her words over Thanksgiving, and came up with 150 by the time we got home. The last two weeks have probably added another 30-40 words. It is CRAZY! Shiloh's two-word phrases are endless, and the strangest thing to me is how she knows her colors. Right...16 months and knows colors? I was skeptical too, but she keeps doing it right. She can almost always point to a color when you ask her to find it, but she also can name a few colors like yellow, green, blue, red, pink, and sometimes purple. I'm not quite sure how she picked all of this up, but she's interested in it, so we let her keep talking about it. She also pretends to count, often saying "2" or "3" after hearing one of us start counting.

Shiloh is just loving this season of Christmas! The lights, trees, candles to smell, balls (Christmas ornaments), Santas ("Hoho Santa"), and Mary's just thrill her. Shiloh LOVES the Virgin Mary. She finds her in books and in nativity scenes everywhere. We're working on teaching Joseph and Baby Jesus, but usually just get "Daddy" and "Baby" and an occasional "Jojo" out of her. They're just extra characters anyway, right?

Shiloh loves being a helper now too, especially in the kitchen. She gets to help feed Lucy, pour ingredients in bowls, and mix up the food. She's noticing when I don't ask her to help and insists on pulling the stool over so she can help. I love how Shiloh is insistent upon our routines. If I forget, she reminds us to pray before each snack and meal, nap and bedtime. She also insists on getting out her ducks, cup, and washcloth, in that exact order, while the bathtub is filling. Diaper changes have adopted the routine of turning on music and now the Christmas lights we put in her room before changing the diaper. The conversation tends to go like this:
S: Me? Ligh?
E: Sure, I will turn on the music and the lights for you
S: Daydee Mommy
E: You're welcome, Shiloh
S: Preddy ligh!
E: Yes, they're pretty lights
S: Lellow?
E: Yes, that's a yellow light
S: More lellow!!
E: You're right! Another yellow light. Do you see any other colors?
S: Bue!!
E: Yep, that one's blue. Good job Shiloh
S: Poopy? Poopy!!
E: Nope, just wet this time!
S: We (wet without a t) Poopy?


What's not to love. Now if only we can working on basic functions like being able to look where she's going and not trip over the large object right in front of her....All in good time!

My night as a pony

All dressed up and ready to go!

First stop: Uncle Darren got me a present!!

And a sucker.....Mom promised to give it back later but then she "lost" it. She also says I'll have to wait until next year to try some more....

Second stop: Robyn took a picture of me, and I love looking at the baby in the camera!



Third stop: Gigi and Papa were so happy to see me!


A treat from Gigi came in "Boo"



Last stop: The Izers house! Here's me with Kaitlin!

Carving my first pumpkin

I loved playing with the seeds and guts this year....we'll see if that holds true next year!


The Lucy pumpkin. Not too bad, Mom for a pencil, a knife and a paperclip! I knew right away that it was Lucy!!

And as promised....finally...a sampling of animal noises (and a bonus kiss for you!!)

The advantages of overalls

As Shiloh gets closer to the 15 month mark, we continue to overflow with joy when we're around her! Shiloh loves babies and puppies, drinking the milk from her cereal bowl, saying "hi" to everyone she can, reading books, playing with animals and babies and "daddies" by taking them in and out and transporting them all around. Shiloh calls all male figurines "Daddy"(GI Joe, Ken doll, Sesame Street's "The Count" and Joseph from my African nativity scene). And no, Ken doll does not live at our house, as we will attempt to stay far away from all things Barbie for as long as possible :o). Shiloh's vocabulary is just exploding, and in the right mood she will try to imitate just about anything. She's become a pro at using "no" which actually has reduced the amount of food thrown on the floor, and she's added a favorite vegetable to her diet: corn. Speaking of corn, check out this video of Shiloh's experimentation with candy corn!

Vegetable victory

After offering numerous vegetables numerous times in numerous ways, we finally tricked Shiloh into eating some this weekend. Crispy kale was a huge hit. We just tear up the kale into small pieces, put it on a baking sheet, sprinkle some salt on top, and bake it in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. Shiloh was grabbing handfuls and stuffing it into her mouth as fast as she could. Then Sunday afternoon she must have believed me that the spaghetti squash really was noodles, because she gobbled that up as well. I promised myself I would never tell my kids that spaghetti squash was spaghetti, because when my mom did that the disappointment was huge when you saw what it really was! But, for now, that's okay.

Way to go Shiloh!

(We won't mention that she absolutely refused to even try the potatoe/spinach/tomato gnocchi later on Sunday. I told her I was making noodles, which was actually true this time, but apparently these were not the type of noodles she was expecting!)

We hear you spend the first year trying to get them to walk and talk, and the rest of their lives getting them to sit down and be quiet....

Besides cutting 3 more teeth (totaling 8 now), being obsessed with puppies and babies, throwing most of what she is offered as far as food on the ground (unless it is fruit, noodles, crackers, cheese, and occasionally a peanut butter sandwich) and loving books, our very active little girl's vocabulary is expanding so rapidly! I tried to make a comprehensive list of her almost-14-month-old vocab (I know I'll remember more as soon as I post), to give you an idea of how much fun she is right now with her words! Shiloh is still signing quite a bit, and often is combining signs with words, which is really helpful! Other signs have come and gone, at least for the time being.

Signs
more (which can also be just asking for food at any time, or asking for more of a game to be played)
drink (for water or milk)
help (usually to get help opening something or to be picked up so she can see something better)
music (when she hears music or wants us to turn music on)
ball
dog (short lived as she LOVES saying puppy)
change (we use this when she needs s diaper change. Sometimes she'll tell us this on her own, but usually we have to ask and then she tell us yes by doing the sign)
all done (after meals or certain activities are done; she's really good at telling us when she's done eating)
cracker (also short-lived)
eat
sleep
please (usually in combination with more)

People/dogs

Daddy

Mommy

Puppy

Otie

Lucy (Ucy)
Benny (Denny)
Gigi

Papa
Noelle (Nuh)
Nana (nane)
Grandma and Grandpa (can't really describe how she says those, but its consistent!)

Jacque

Jesse
Dean (D)
Bryan (daddy)
Robyn (just tonight she labored hard and got it out!)

(Sorry Laura and Steph, I keep trying, but she usually pauses, starts to say something, and then just nods in agreement, that I said your names correctly!)

Things

Baby

Ball

Noodle (noonoo)

necklace (nahnah)

Book (Buh)
Eye
Teeth (tee)
Drink (Di)
Bear (B)
Hat (Ha)
Monkey (mommy)
Donkey (daddy)
Cracker (daddy)

Milk (mi)
Bath (ba)

Duck (duh)
Sheep (seep)

Other

Hot (HAH)
More (MO)

Up (Uh) I think "help" is often used interchangeably with up

All done (aldi)

No
Hi
Bye-bye (buh buh)
Amen (Ahhhh)

Animal noises

Cow

Sheep
Cat

Dog
Horse

I'll post a video eventually of the animal noises (new wireless not working so well + computer being on top of a dresser + camera being in Shiloh's bedroom where she's sleeping + the cord to upload the pictures is downstairs + me being very overdue on posting a blog=you'll have to wait to hear the animal noises.) Until then, enjoy a video of Shiloh showing off her "winking" abilities, the night she learned them, and saying "Lucy" as well as fun playing in a summer shower.

The Birthday Pictures

Shiloh's birthday party on August 2, 2009.

The yummy homemade yogurt pie with a fruity version of the Very Hungry Caterpillar

What is going on? Why are 20 people standing around staring at me and singing?

You're supposed to do what with this candle?

Finally! Someone took that hat off and is going to give me some food!

What??! You put the hat back on?! I don't think so.Well, I guess I'll try this, but man, look at that massive watermelon bowl full of fruit. That's what I really want!

Mmm...this cake is supposedly good for me, but I'm detecting some sugar in the whipped cream...Really, Mom? You're letting me have sugar?

Time to open some presents! I'd rather take a nap since I skipped my afternoon nap despite Mom's careful planning. But all these boxes with paper and excited people have managed to energize me. I am definitely an extrovert if you haven't guessed by now.


I'm getting tall, but this present is definitely still taller!

Wow! I even get illegal fireworks from Missouri for my birthday. Thanks, Dad!

What a fun couple hours surrounded by family, godparents, and self-appointed uncles to help me celebrate. Thank you everyone for a great day and some great gifts!!

Shiloh's birthday, August 4, 2009

Mom made homemade pancakes with strawberries in them for breakfast before she went to work. I still don't know why there is a stick with fire on it in my food. And seriously....forget the fancy food and just give me the fruit. I can see those blueberries on the table...

Don't let this picture deceive you. All I ate for breakfast was blueberries. And of course the whipped cream on top of the pancake that was touching the blueberries.

Here I am exactly one year old, to the minute. Naturally, I'm eating fruit.

Jacque came over for my mac and cheese dinner (which, did I mention? I chose to eat only the fruit) and get some "one on one" time with me!


And Mom and Dad gave me their presents too!

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty good birthday!

Happy Birthday Shiloh!

August 4, 2008, 12:42 p.m.

August 4, 2009, 12:42 p.m.We love you, Shiloh!

I'm working on putting together a little movie with pictures from Shiloh's party, or at the very least a picture blog, but until then, you can see more pictures on our Picasa site

A Joyful Chapter in Shiloh's Life (and a LONG blog!)

While every day with Shiloh up until this point has been filled with joy, the last few weeks I have especially noticed the joy in her life. It makes me think about how in the Bible, Shiloh was referred to as the town where God was dwelling, since the Ark of the Covenant was kept there. God definitely dwells in this amazing girl and we are so privileged to be her parents! We searched long and hard for a name that meant joy, because we wanted our daughter to have true joy. Instead we ended up choosing the name Shiloh, and it appears she has been blessed with abundant joy anyway! Wow!

Laughing with Shiloh has to be one of my favorite things in life. Chris describes her as having more of a chuckle, but occasionally, she will burst out laughing, and we have so much fun together. I'll insert a video here of her laughing at me, although this is the second time around, so imagine her laughing much more robustly the first time we played the game:

Shiloh is doing so much now! She is really enjoying music (big surprise there...). She has always been calmed by one of us singing to her, but since the band Go Fish performed a concert at our Vacation Bible Camp at church, something has changed. She gets the biggest smile on her face when I start up a Go Fish CD and starts bouncing and clapping. Her piano skills have improved considerably as well.

Shiloh is taking more and more steps every day (her first steps being June 20). I'm truly surprised that she's not running yet. She is so eager to just go, go, go and do, do, do. What a busy little girl she is! I really think that if she would slow down and not try to carry her largest stuffed animal and a book at the same time while trying to walk, that she could focus on her feet and would be off!! But she's developing this skill plenty fast as it is. I've explained to her that if she would just set some stuff down she could walk more easily, but apparently she's already ignoring my advice :o).

Some other things have just recently seemed to "click" for Shiloh. After signing to her for over four months she is finally signing back!! It is so exciting to have her tell us that she wants milk or more. She understands the signs for drink and eat as well, although she hasn't started using those yet. It seems that she's made up her own sign for dirty diaper as well, so we're ready to start introducing more signs. I think we'll find the actual sign for diaper to teach her along with help, hurt, please, and thank you next. Shiloh has also used her hands to communicate lately by pointing and (finally) clapping. She was slow to clap, but she's making up for lost time now! She is also waving bye-bye like it's her job. It's often delayed (like after Daddy leaves), but is almost always there. She is particularly fond of waving hello to Lucy, or any animal!



Waving also seems to be helping with bedtime. She's been going down without a fight most nights now and sometimes even sleeping from 8:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Wow! Talk about a blessing! It all seemed to change the night I waved bye-bye. It was as if she understand that it was okay for me to leave. Of course things are always changing, but at least for this season, short as it may be, she's going to bed well and I'm sometimes getting some nice solid hours of sleep.

When it comes to eating, it's hard to tell what Shiloh is going to want from day to day. Some days she wants to feed herself, other days she doesn't want anything to touch her mouth. Anything that is, except cantaloupe. Or watermelon. Or honeydew. But mostly cantaloupe. I think it is her favorite food at this point. Melon is followed closely by cheese and yogurt. And we finally had success with applesauce:

We've started whole milk and I have officially stopped pumping at work as of this Monday. I am very grateful for a good pump and the opportunity to give Shiloh the best nutritional start I could, but I cannot even express what a relief it is to be done pumping at work. It is another job in and of itself! I love nursing, though, and am not in much of a hurry to wean Shiloh. I'll let her take the lead on that for now. And she mostly still enjoys it, when she takes a moment to actually slow down and eat, that is!

There's so much more to say, so even though this is long already, I'm going to keep going! Shiloh's top front tooth made a final appearance after taking a good week to decide it was actually going to stay put. It looks like she is super close to cutting her other top, front tooth as well. Shiloh is excellent at expressing her likes and dislikes. This is a good thing. Really, it is. (Yes, I am reminding myself this important point.) Her tendency to shriek very loudly lately when she doesn't get what she wants is, well, it's loud. Luckily, even with her new-found power to make really loud noise, Shiloh is very persistent, not getting frustrated easily when she has a task in mind. It is fascinating to watch her persist with a task she has determined for herself.

Shiloh likes to play catch, often initiating the game, even with dogs! She loves looking at books and loves taking them all off of her shelf. She has been showing affection to her baby doll by hugging her. We get occasional kisses from Shiloh too! Her language is developing like crazy, especially her receptive language. When I picked her up from Robyn's house one time last week, I saw the baby doll around the corner from where Shiloh was playing. After greeting her I asked, "Where's your baby?" knowing it was out of sight. She promptly stopped what she was doing and crawled right over to get her baby. She'll do the same thing with her monkey, and now her binky as well.



We've been so super busy over the last month...but some of the fun things we've done together include:

• Celebrating Chris' first Father's Day! Shiloh ate French Toast (Daddy's favorite) while sporting her new bib. She also suggested we get him a hammock stand for the hammock we've had for almost 4 years as a way to encourage him to rest and take a Sabbath. What a great idea, Shiloh!
  

• Enjoying Sturgis Falls parade and celebration. Wow...that jumbo corn dog just looks delicious...

• Attempt at swimming in our little pool at home (which resulted in unhappy shrieking but eventually happy play by the side of the pool). This was followed up by a spur of the moment trip last Thursday to successfully enjoy an hour at the Falls pool which has a zero entry area that was perfect for Shiloh. She also really enjoyed riding in an inner tube down the lazy river with Mom or Dad pushing her.

• 4th of July-no fireworks this year, but Shiloh was super good as Mom and Dad split up to help with different weddings that day. She was a great girl while I did makeup for Kristen and Charlie's wedding, hardly even getting fussy for an entire day away from home!

On the challenges front:

• We're still dealing with diaper rash and Shiloh scratching herself despite all the things we're trying (treated cloth diapers, disposable diapers, changing very frequently, only using water and cloth instead of diaper wipes, cornstarch on every diaper, letting her go diaperless-although you've read about my success with that!, a food diary, less baths, aveeno oatmeal in the baths, creams, creams, creams, etc).

• A possible egg allergy? Shiloh gave Robyn a scare one day after barely eating a little bit of a hard boiled egg and immediately getting very fussy and breaking out in a rash. We'll definitely be staying away from eggs for awhile...

• We also said goodbye to Edmund the cat and half of one of our trees due to a much too expensive bladder treatment (we were looking at a minimum $200 treatment for the cat vs. $35 to end his pain peacefully from a baseball-sized obstructed bladder) and a storm with high winds. We lost both on the same night. We do miss Edmund, but not enough to get another cat for a long time :o)

If you've made it this far actually reading everything, I'm impressed! Thanks for caring about our lives that much! Less than a month until the big 0-1. We're pumped to celebrate 1 year of Shiloh's life. Thanks for being a part of it!