Meet the two new members of our family:


Maweli just turned 7 and she lives in Kenya. She was orphaned by AIDS and was taken in by her aunt and uncle. Her profile says that she helps clean the house and care for the 5 other children living there. Her age made us think of our little niece, and her face just looks so sweet and kind.



Joselito just turned 6 and he lives with his parents and 3 siblings in Ecuador. He washes clothes for his family and enjoys art and playing soccer. Nathan liked that he played soccer and when we saw that he was wearing a sweater vest....well, it was just meant to be! I had a very soft spot in my heart for him because of that round, bald-ish head and his sticky-outty ears. Very familiar to this mama :)

Nathan and I have talked about sponsoring children through Compassion International for years now, so we're happy to finally have the names and faces of the little ones we can only hope to help in some way. It's exciting to think that they will now have access to an education, as well as better health care and nutrition. They will also have the chance to be involved in a local church and learn all about Jesus and how He cares for them. We're looking forward to writing to them, learning more about their lives, and letting them know that we are praying for them and their families. We plan to sponsor them until they are adults and we're excited for Anna and Noah to be able to learn about and communicate with them as well. We will be sure to share updates about Maweli and Joselito as we get them and we hope that you would all add them to your prayers!

A few weeks ago we got all new windows in our house. Yay! No more arctic winds blowing from one end of the house to the other! We got lucky and had unseasonably warm weather on installation day. Anna was mesmerized by the whole process, especially when the old windows were out and the new ones weren't in yet. Giant holes in the side of the house! Wow!

This year we had 3 days of Christmas activities. We started with my aunts and uncles. The next day was my mom, stepdad and stepbrothers, and on Christmas day we had our own Christmas morning at home, then my sister's house with my dad and grandma, and then Nathan's side of the family. We figured out that in 3 days we put over 120 miles on my car just driving between family members houses! The kids did really well, but many naps and meals were skipped (by choice) and by Christmas night Anna was working her way onto the naughty list for 2008. Luckily we've had two days of rest now and she is back to being her sweet and happy self. Of course 4,268 new toys to play with would put any girl in a good mood :p

Here's Anna wearing her favorite gift of all, a Hello Kitty handbag with the straps over her shoulders like a backpack. Nathan bought it for her in Times Square while on a business trip, and we all had a laugh picturing him walking down the street with a Hello Kitty bag under his arm. But nice daddies do things like that for their little girls :) Never mind the fact that we bought Anna a real backpack with books inside. Hello Kitty is the only "pack pack" she's interested in now. We even found her wearing it in her sleep last night!

It was such a busy few days that we didn't get the typical kids by the tree shots, but we plan to set it up later and just pretend that they were taken Christmas morning ;)

One of Anna's favorite foods right now is muffins, or as she sometimes calls them, cupcakes. So she was really (I mean, really) excited when I asked her if she wanted to help me make some this week. Her first reaction was, "I go get my stool", which we hear many times each day whenever she wants to get into something out of reach. Off she ran to the bathroom to get her little stool from the sink, so she could see over the kitchen counters where all the action was going down.

And finally scooping them out - can it get any better!?

A few days later we made corn muffins. I took them out of the pan and sat them on a plate to cool. I was sitting in the back room nursing Noah and I hear Anna sort of talking to herself and moving her little stool around the kitchen. I walked in and found this on her high chair tray:

She had transferred them from the counter onto her tray, in hopes of eating them all. It's crazy how fast she can go through them and we have to put a muffin limit on every day. But the first words she speaks almost every morning are still, "Can we make some muffins? I better get my stool", and off she runs. :p

p.s. Yes, that time stamp is correct. I really did blog this at 1 a.m. My lovely husband is assembling a miniature wooden play kitchen for our daughter and I am keeping him company :)

Can you believe this blog is two years old already?! We can't believe how Anna has grown since then, and that there's a new little sprout getting in on the fun now. It has been so great sharing all of our daily adventures and hearing everyone's feedback and encouragement. Who knows, one day you might be seeing Anna going to college, Noah picking up his prom date......Yikes! I'll stick to play doh and first words for now!

For the last few days Nathan has been out of town on business, and God has definitely been helping me out with the little ones. They have been so well behaved! Noah has woken up a few times each night, which is rare for him, so I think he must have new teeth coming in. But during the normal daytime hours both kiddies have been sweet, cooperative and happy.


Nathan was not too thrilled about taking a trip so close to Christmas, but before he left we did get out to find our Christmas tree. So I've been slowly decorating it during naps. Yesterday I told Anna that when she woke up she could help me decorate the tree, just Anna and mommy. Her response was, "And da da too?". Ugh, I really didn't want her to be disappointed. While she was sleeping I made a pile of all the kid-friendly ornaments that she could hang on the lower branches.

I wish I had anticipated her reaction to seeing the tree all lit up and had set up the video camera. She ran down the hall and into the front room and yelled, "Oh oh oh! It's perfect! I love it so very much!". I couldn't script it better than that!

Before Anna woke up I was feeling pretty sad that Nathan wasn't going to be there to help us. And we did miss him, but I was feeling really thankful for the good time that we were still having and the little memories we were making. Plus, I am Nathan's wife, so I took a ton of pictures and video :)

He comes home this morning (yay!) and I know Anna can't wait to show him her tree decorating skills!

Noah tried his first fruit puffs a few weeks ago. They're tasty, but those things are hard to keep in your mouth!

I don't know why I think this is so hysterical, but it cracks me up every time I think about it!


My mom works in a doctor's office where most of the patients are senior citizens. She likes her job and the doctor she works for seems to be very kind to his employees. So this week my mom walked to her desk and found a cute little holiday card from him with a gift inside. What was it?










Concert tickets to the R. Kelly Double Up tour!




He thought that he had purchased tickets to the Reba McIntyre and Kelly Clarkson 2 Worlds 2 Voices tour!



Apparently he saw the R and the Kelly and thought he was buying the right thing. After he found out he was all embarrassed and said he would exchange the tickets for her ASAP. But I mean, can't you see how he would confuse the two?

And better yet, can't you see my mom at the R. Kelly concert? Word! HAAAAAAAAAAA! I seriously can't stop laughing about this.

It's not that we have nothing interesting to share. We've been doing all sorts of fun things and all sorts of Christmassy things. Of course all of that fun doesn't leave a lot of down time. But the real reason I haven't been blogging as much is...I'm afraid. I'm afraid that this blog is turning into the Noah blog and is leaving Anna out way too much lately. I really try to keep it somewhat even and if I have too many posts about one of them I go out of my way to find something to say about the other.

This weekend we took a small overnight trip with Nathan's family. Anna was super excited to go to the hotel and swim in the big pool with her daddy. We had a lot of fun and both kids did great even without naps.

And this one is slowly starting to forgive us for putting her in the kennel:

Last week we went to a Christmas brunch with my Bible Study group. It was a lot of fun and Anna had a great time playing with Kendall, deconstructing the nativity scenes, and running from the 100 pound dog that belonged to my group leader.

Since Noah has eaten tons of applesauce in the last 2 months, I figured he could gnaw on a real apple slice too, and give those new teeth a workout. He was definitely interested:

But apple slices are a little pointy, so you have to restrain yourself a bit:

A few more nibbles and he was happy again. How I love that dimpled little smile!