Merry Christmas 2011

Just last night we started making a list of the many, many ways God has blessed us and provided for us this past year. It moved us to tears to look at the ways we are taken care of and the many friends and family we have to be thankful for. This Christmas, we give thanks to a God who humbles himself and loves us enough to be born as a baby and a God who continues to care for and love us more than we can understand. May you be blessed this Christmas, and may Christ dwell in you richly!

Now for the family updates...

Shiloh turned three in August and continues to amaze us with her liveliness and strong will! She started preschool at St. John and her teacher reports that she is always excited about whatever activity the class is doing. She has enjoyed playing with the baby dolls and the playdough, making new friends, a field trip to the dairy farm, and just learning and playing. At home she spends lots of time playing with her dollhouse and can pretend that just about any object can be anything or anyone. She loves Clifford the Big Red Dog and often assumes the character of Clifford's owner, Emily Elizabeth. She is very creative! Shiloh loves to go to parks and be outside and she wants to know every day where we will go or who will come to our house. It is such a blessing when she chooses to be so kind, sweet, and caring towards others (and luckily this usually includes her brother!). What a wonderful little girl we have and what joy we get in watching her grow and learn! 

Avdon turned one in August. It's so amazing to think that a year ago he was hardly rolling over and now he runs all over! We have had to re-baby proof the house as Avdon finds ways and things to get into that Shiloh still doesn't get in to (such as being on top of the dining room table). He loves climbing, exploring, eating, watching his sister, Kindermusik class, and collecting things and carrying them around. He is always happy if he has a spoon to carry around and usually a cup or bowl to go along with it. Avdon's biggest source of happiness, though, has been Mommy this past year (which means lots of wonderful snuggle time for Mommy!). He just adores being with her and being held by her. We have recently enjoyed watching him come out of his shell, cry less when Mom has to leave him, and wave to anyone he possibly can at church. He doesn't talk as much as Shiloh did at 15 months, but he communicates very well with the few words he does use along with his sign language. Avdon's great laugh and huge smile bring us much joy.

Erin continues part-time work as a home visitor with Head Start and still enjoys the challenge most days. The rest of this year she has spent holding Avdon. That includes through potting training Shiloh, book club, cooking for another session of the Marriage Course at church, making bread, and participating and leading other Bible studies. It's a good thing he is a tiny guy (1st percentile for weight!), and it is a very good thing that she loves to snuggle her baby and to now celebrate his moments of independence! It is also a lot easier to make bread with two available hands, an art she has been working at perfecting with the addition of her wheat mill and Bosch kitchen mixer (7 loaves in 2-3 hours!).

Chris has had a very busy year working for St. John and really expanding his duties at the Lutheran Student Center at UNI. In January he will complete seven years of employment at St. John, and we are so thankful for the opportunity to serve in that place! To switch things up a bit, though, in January he will start a new job working for OneCall, an auto parts store owned by a wonderful man from our church, where he will be providing customer service, and possibly helping to expand some non-profit aspects of the company. While he will deeply miss many aspects of working in full-time ministry, Chris is looking forward to a change in pace, spending evenings and weekends with his family on a more regular basis, and spending more time pursuing his singer/songwriter passion. He experienced an incredible trip to Nashville this September where he got to spend time with most of his musical/spiritual influences and has felt a strong call to keep nurturing his skills and desires to write and play music.


That pretty much sums our year up. We managed to see the completion of the siding on our house, work on some landscaping, live without a shower for a month, enjoy a new shower, and demolish the kitchen walls (they do have insulation for the first time and at least have some drywall up!). We enjoyed a wonderful trip to Colorado visiting family, and somehow had activities going on every weekend of the summer. Thanks for reading and be sure to enjoy the photo slide show below!

Love,
Chris, Erin, Shiloh and Avdon
 

Some snapshots from 2011-Merry Christmas!

Click here to view these pictures larger

On June 29...

First this:

 

Then this:

All 10 months, 9 days and 16 pounds of him are walking! Way to go Avdon!

(And much less exciting news includes his first two teeth. It's been a big month for our little guy!)

At long last.....I return to the blogging world. There are no good excuses, other than the fact that my almost 9-month-old prefers for me, and only me, to hold him if we are at home between the hours of 4:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Once in awhile we all nap at the same time (as long as I have physical contact with Avdon). But I was telling Chris today, I can hardly remember the last time that both of my kids were sleeping at the same time before 8:30 p.m. and I was able to, you know, do laundry without hauling kids down to the basement or leave them screaming upstairs wondering if I will ever return from the dark abyss. Let alone clean, organize, keep up responsibly with email, take care of myself (what? exercise?), or take the time to blog. It's weird to think that most of our grandparents and certainly great-grandparents wouldn't even know what the word blog means. (By the way, here's a shout out to our very wonderful grandparents who navigate the web, check email and blogs, and enjoy digital photographs!!). But keeping you all up-to-date has been on my mind, even though I don't get around to it often!

So here I am, finally blogging, and not in the least bit complaining; just giving you a picture of what life has been like since our newest family member arrived. Avdon has been an absolute joy. I love getting to hold him and snuggle with him, even if it means nothing else gets done. And now that he's crawling, he is more willing to be on the floor by himself and I'm getting short bursts of time with two hands open to fold laundry or start meal prep. I know this time will go all too quickly, so I try my hardest to enjoy it. Sleepless nights and busy days, though they be.

Avdon turns 9 months this week, which is just so hard to believe! Our little guy has definitely been little, weighing in at the 5th percentile at every check-up. I think we've been making progress in the past 2 months or so as he's finally getting some chub on him! If you didn't catch on earlier, sleeping is not one of Avdon's strong talents. He basically naps only if he's being held and certainly doesn't make it through the night yet. He is sleeping from about 8:00 pm to 3:00 am. On good nights. Once in awhile. Sometimes....
He's off and crawling and is becoming quite the climber as well. He pulls himself to standing and cruises along furniture. Despite battling ear infection and multiple allergic reactions to antibiotics this month, he has stayed pretty healthy and is almost always happy. Especially in Mom's arms. It's so fun to see him start using his body purposefully, both in getting to where he wants to go and clapping and waving. Eating food has been a slow process, but he does enjoy feeding himself and apparently likes his food flavored as opposed to bland. Favorites so far include , peach/squash yogurt, tofu, broccoli, and homemade smoothies, guacamole & hummus. He of course adores his sister and this month especially, has become excited and noticeably attached to Robyn. I am so thankful that my children just love their babysitter!

And speaking of the babysitter, this is a quick photo of Shiloh on her way out the door to Robyn's house. Can you guess what she is? Life with Shiloh is certainly never dull, and for the last several months, an animal often has replaced our daughter. Shiloh embraces her kitty (or bunny or dog or donkey, etc.) persona with gusto. She daily informs us what kind of family we are: "We are the kitty family," "we are the seal family," "we are the puppy family." Take no offense if you greet Shiloh and she replies only with "meow." The "meow" comes out in her excitement to greet someone at the door and in her temper tantrums as the only recognizable word.This girl lives and breathes kitty.

When Shiloh is not a kitty or some other animal, she continues to play well on her own, mostly with dolls and Daddy's action figures. Every toy is named and her play is very focused on people and what they are doing. Our extroverted little girl greets us in the morning by saying "where are we going today?" or "who are we going to see?" or "who is coming?" She also sings all the time. We pretty much live in a musical. She loves making up songs and adapting songs and tunes to fit what she is doing. And she gets lots of examples from Mom and Dad doing the same thing. Kindermusik classes add greatly to Shiloh's love of singing and the songs we learn there have definitely worked their way into our everyday lives!

And that's all I have for now. It took three days to get this post to this point, so I'm going to stop where I am and have high hopes of blogging more regularly again. I have started putting all of our photos on a different, password protected sight, that is actually current up through April. If you would like to have access to that sight and don't already, send me an email or leave a comment here with your email address.

As always, thanks for reading and loving and supporting us!!!

Merry Christmas 2010

We have seen his star in the East and have come to worship him.

Matthew 2:2

As I've been reflecting on Christmas this year, the story of the Magi recorded in Matthew has come to mind most often. We have been focusing a lot on the important aspects of Christmas, including loving, serving, and worshiping. And while it seems increasingly difficult to keep the focus on this, it is what we strive for. We pray that your Christmas was blessed and that in this Christmas season, you may continue to worship Immanuel.

Contrary to what nativity scenes and children's Christmas stories would tell us, the Magi did not come to visit Jesus the night of his birth. Instead it was at a later time, when Jesus was perhaps a toddler or young child. This is a good excuse for our Christmas greetings to come post-Christmas day, during the season of Christmas. And hopefully, we'll get our cards out by Epiphany, when the Church celebrates the coming of the Magi!!

2010 has brought yet more changes and blessings our way. We welcomed Avdon Christopher into our lives on August 20, two weeks sooner than we expected, and we could not love this little guy more! He is a wonderful 4-month-old who is awakening to the world around him. Avdon blesses us with his incredible smile, mellow temperament, and ability to snuggle. His personality is already very different from that of his older sister! We are slowly getting adjusted to life with two, and love to see how the siblings interact. We are so excited to continue to get to know Avdon!

Shiloh is nearing the 2 1/2 mark and we are amazed daily at her spunk, processing abilities, and strong-willed character. These traits will serve her well, but definitely challenge us to be creative, patient, and wise in our parenting. It is easy to say that our children have encouraged us to increase our personal prayer lives! Shiloh truly blesses and amazes us, though, with her language skills and imagination. She has recently found Daddy's collection of superheros and has adopted them, giving them each names of people in her own life, and playing with them for hours on end. I'm assuming the superheros are experiencing much different play than they were used to twenty years ago, as they now have to sing songs from Kindermusik class, play the piano, eat food, go to sleep, go potty and sometimes even spend time in the play oven as well.

I (Erin) continue working at Head Start, serving families with children ages prenatal-three in their homes. I am now working only 20 hours a week, which allows much more quality time at home even though the work schedule is absolutely crazy! Besides being mommy and home visitor, I continue to enjoy learning how to cook and bake well, incorporating fresh and organic ingredients in as much as possible. I also began learning the art of cooking nice meals for larger groups of people this fall as Chris and I led The Marriage Course at St. John. This seven-week course consisted of preparing and serving (and cleaning up!) a candlelit meal for 10 couples before they began their time of learning and private discussion. Chris and I made a great team as he was able to handle the facilitation and technology aspects of the course while I learned some good lessons (and made some pretty good meals) in the kitchen! The biggest lesson I learned is that I needed some help on those nights, both in the kitchen and with watching our children, and I am very thankful for all those who helped us out!!

Chris continues work at St. John, each year, finding a better and better fit to the needs of the church and community as well as the use of his gifts. He continues to lead the contemporary worship and works primarily with young adults. He has discovered his passion in the Scripture's call to make disciples, and is learning what it means to really invest in discipling others. As St. John has joined with another congregation to help guide the Lutheran Student Center at the Univerisity, Chris has found himself spending lots of time at the LSC and even made it through the entire Old Testament in the fall semester with a group there. He has found a renewed interest in performing, after taking a break due to crazy schedules, children being born, etc. He has a new band with some good friends and is greatly enjoying that time as well. Chris continues giving music lessons and will begin giving lessons at St. John, instead of in our home, starting in January. There should be notably less distractions there (think 2-year-old during dinner time) for his students!

Knowing we were expecting a baby late summer encouraged us to really kick it in gear when it came to projects around the house. This past year marked the biggest (and most expensive!) changes so far including a brand new roof (which was technically the end of 2009 on a very warm November weekend); new water treatment system; new sump pump in the basement (way to go Chris!); electrical upgrade including our electricity line being run underground instead of through a tree; demolition of a problem chimney which opened up two square feet in my closet (and will maybe someday be a laundry shoot?); new vegetable garden; new furnace and air conditioner; two new windows in the kitchen; and soon, new siding and gutters. This last piece is mostly courtesy of our insurance due to our crazy April hail storm. And someday, once we have some savings built back up, we will be excited to work on an improved kitchen! Wow! We are so thankful for our home.

If you're not a "regular" to our blog, feel free to browse below and see what else we have been up to. It hasn't exactly been updated frequently in the past 4 months (but do you see why!?!). Once again, we pray for blessings upon you this season.

Much love,

The Family Trip

Preserving memories

I have started a blog post in my head several times. Several times. There are so many amazing and beautiful moments to share when you have a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old. I imagine the blog title, the opening sentences, the pictures I will include. I do the same thing with my facebook status. Throughout my days, I will often think "that would make a really good facebook status" or "that's the perfect way to start my next blog post." And well, you can see how far that gets!




While I regret that I haven't done a good job keeping up with you all, we have been attempting to keep good notes and document some of our special moments in photographs. And most importantly, I would hope that we are really, truly doing a good job just BEING. Not doing anything spectacular necessarily, but changing lots of diapers, spending lots of time encouraging Shiloh to use the potty, playing, playing, playing, cooking and eating, smiling, laughing, and attempting to be patient!

And I promise I'll do a good update soon, along with what is becoming the annual tradition of our Christmas letter: blog version.  We're busy preserving and making memories and preparing to share a few special ones with you. I recently finished our first large photo book through Shutterfly titled The Family Trip 2008. Making photo books is my new favorite hobby! It is much less time consuming for me than scrapbooking (especially since I am a perfectionist) and much more involved than regular photo albums (since I can journal along with the pictures). I have found myself becoming friends with the Shutterfly website, if that is possible! And I think Shutterfly is friends with me too! Not only do they help me preserve our family memories in fun and meaningful ways, Shutterfly is great at giving discounts and things such as 50 free holiday cards just for good referrals!

Shutterfly has so many great photo cards to choose from, it can be a hard choice. Our favorite cards to use are the Christmas photo cards which you can find at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards . We have used those cards for the past 3 years from Shutterfly and have been extremely happy with the options, quality, and timeliness. It is funny to think that the first year we made our Shutterfly cards they featured pictures of our dog and cat! My dad predicted correctly that as soon as we had our first baby, we would no longer be featuring the pets on our cards! He was correct, as the next year we featured brand new Baby Shiloh in her enormous stocking! Last year we were able to find the perfect card that allowed us to share several pictures of Shiloh as well as a family shot. We will be excited to send out this year's card with photos taken by our friend Erin featuring Big Girl Shiloh and Baby Avdon! We discovered that Shutterfly has charity Christmas cards this year too that donate 10% of the sales to the charity you choose. Check those out here http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/support-a-cause  . We love to see that Shutterfly is supporting Heifer International. What a great program to help people become self-sufficient by providing them with the farm animals they need! And while we've never financially taken the plunge, I absolutely adore the the Christmas cards from Shutterfly http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards


You'll have to wait and see what card ends up in your mailbox. Some things must be saved for the mail, even though technology is great. And if you haven't yet decided how to share some holiday cheer, I'd highly recommend checking out Shutterfly. But be careful, you might fall in love with their many options and the knack they have at helping you preserve memories!!

Can you tell they're related?