The Beginning

Here's Brad and December reading in the backyard...I love these kinds of pictures. I think these two are just soo adorable!

Here is my awesome pen pal, Rebekah, and I. She's the greatest!

Tonight Brad and I visited Faith Church one last time -- that's my Dad's church and the church we went to until we became youth leaders at Covenant. I played the piano with Mom on the organ -- we both wanted to do some duets together before Brad and I leave. We LOVE this church and all the people there. It was nice to see them again before we leave to say goodbye, but I found it sad, too...the beginning of the inevitable good-byes. Out of everyone at Faith, I'm the most sad to say goodbye to my pen pal and friend Rebekah. She's such a great girl, a sweet and kind girl, and I'm sad we won't be able to get together anymore! But of course we'll still have our letters to send to each other.

Tomorrow Brad and I are going to go to the cottage of one of Brad's college professors. He was Brad's favorite professor (and one of my favorites, too), and he and Brad get along really well. So we get to see him tomorrow. That will be fun! Our week is pretty busy with get-togethers, since after we get back from visiting Brad's family we only have a few days here. On Tuesday, Brad's work is throwing a lunch party for us, and then on Wednesday we are going out with some of our youth group kids. Add that with December's appointments and finishing up packing, and our next few days are pretty full!

Packing Boxes and Moving Bricks

Here is Brad last night. My parents are redoing the beach part of their lawn, so they had a nice little work crew there last night.

Here is Klynt on the left, then Klynt's friend Mitch, then my Dad, then Brad. They're working on laying the bricks.

While the boys did that, December swam in my parents' kiddie pool, and I cleaned out the car. For the past few days, Mom has come over, and we've gotten ALOT of stuff packed! It's a weird feeling. After we packed up the kitchen, I told Mom that it feels like I've been amputated -- the kitchen is something I rely on and use constantly, so to have it be turned into a skeleton, with completely empty cupboards, is super strange feeling. The rest of the house is becoming slowly like that, too. Oh, boy -- that makes me sad, so I think I'll stop talking about it now...December is getting her 18-month checkup on Tuesday and her 18-month picture taken on Wednesday. She severely dislikes both of these things, so I'm really hoping it'll go okay! We'll have to see.

On a Sunday Afternoon

It was a beautiful day on Sunday! Mom likes to take December out exploring in their yard, playing in the garden, jumping on the trampoline, digging in the sand by the pond, etc. December loves it!

Here I'm throwing December up in the air and catching her. Just like all babies, she thinks it's great fun!

Brad and my brother Klynt started talking about standing an egg on its end and whether it's only possible at the equator or on an equinox...so they started trying, and here, they both did it!

Here Brad has stacked two eggs on top of each other, end to end. You can see little grains of salt on the countertop -- that makes it easier to stack the eggs. Isn't that cool?!

Unfortunately, some (...many) eggs were harmed in the making of this trick. Klynt made himself a feast out of the broken ones!

This week and next week I am working on major packing. Hopefully it will all be finished by next Friday, when we go to see Brad's family. Today Mom is coming over to help pack. I hope we get alot done!

December's Big Red Ball

December loves this red ball she got from our neighbors. Brad came up with a game with it, and she thinks it's the greatest! Here's how it works...

Brad stands at one end of our yard and kicks the ball to the far other end. December chases after it as fast as she can (which isn't that fast) and tries to find it.

Here December has found the ball, and then she waits until Brad reaches it, too.

When Brad gets to the ball, she quickly turns around and starts running toward the opposite end of our yard, where she knows the ball will be waiting for her after it's kicked.

Sometimes the ball gets stuck in the ivy -- then December comes up to it and says, "Uh-oh!" (which is what she's doing in this picture)

December's Guessing Game

December still likes to sit in baskets and keep herself busy!

I just finished reading that alot of babies despise being in their carseats. Thankfully, December is not one of those babies. In fact, she has created a little guessing game for herself out of our car trips. When we arrive at our destination and I go to the backseat to unbuckle her, December guesses where we've gone (in her own baby way). She looks up at me and says, "Oof? Oof? Oof?" (her doggie sound) That means she's guessing we're at Grandpa and Grandma's house (they have a dog). If I say, "Nope, December. We're not at Grandma's house," then she guesses again. "Baby? Baby?" That means she's thinks we're at church (she plays with the baby doll in the nursery). If I say, "Nope, December. We're not at church," she stops for a bit and looks around (I think she's confused at this point -- after all, where do we go except to Grandma's house or church??). Usually it means we're at the grocery store...then as soon as she gets out of her carseat, she waves to all the cars in the parking lot like she's the Queen of England.

Right now we're playing a different game, a strange one we've never played before. She just woke up from her afternoon nap, and she started to cry (this is normal). As soon as I walked in to take her out of her crib, she cried harder. When I stretched out my hands to pick her up, she started shaking her head "no" quite vigorously. She didn't want me to pick her up! So I waited for a while and then left the room. She stopped crying. I've now gone back in a few times, and she still shakes her head when I try to pick her up. So she's just hanging out in her crib. Must be kind of boring, but I guess she'll stay there until she wants me to lift her out. December likes to play games.

Of Houses and Cottages

Here's my cousin Tyler playing with December at the cottage on Saturday. He's putting a stuffed animal on his head, then winging his head so that the stuffed animal goes flying. December thinks it's the most hilarious game ever created. She was giggling like a banshee!

This is my cousin Justine playing with December -- she's great with December, and she was such a big help on Saturday when Brad and I were doing some painting at the cottage.

The end of last week was pretty crazy! We got two offers on our house! Thank you for praying for that lady to make an offer -- she made one! On Thursday, our realtor came over, and we discussed both offers. The one offer was really low and pretty much out of considering range, so we flat-out denied the offer. The other one was from this lady I told you about, and it was pretty desirable. We drafted a counter-offer to give to her, but we held off from faxing it to her immediately. A few hours after we met with our realtor, we discovered that the low-offer people were upset that we just denied their offer and didn't even try to counter-offer them, because they are really interested in the house. The next day, we discovered that the offer that we actually wanted was taken back. The lady pulled out. She found somewhere else she's going to go. Soo, then we were left with the offended low-ball offer people. We decided to counter-offer them. They have accepted our counter-offer. (This was all alot of excitement within a few days, and I went from excited to sad to nervous to stressed to...everything.)

However, all is not free and clear yet. Our house has to meet certain qualifications in order for them to get the loan they want. If we lived in a house built any time in the past five, ten, twenty, or even thirty years, I probably wouldn't be worried. But, our house was built in 1910. People make historical museums out of houses like ours. It's practically a national monument. So I have huge doubts as to whether our house can pass any qualifications. If our house doesn't pass, that means these people don't have the $$$ to buy our house, which means we're back where we started. Boy, oh boy -- I think I'll be surprised if I live through all of this drama...

December's Baptism Song

Here is the song Brad wrote for December's baptism on March 12, 2006. I love this song...it brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Lyrics:

Welcome to this world
Such a cold and cruel place
For a baby girl
But you are still so small
There are things you need to know
You’ll learn them as you grow

In pain you were born
In blood you arrived
There were tears in your father’s eyes
But in love you’re conceived
In faith you will grow
There’s hope in your beautiful eyes
What a beautiful way to begin your life

But, oh, this realm of dust
It’s not meant to be our home
You can see it slowly fade away
You need to be reborn
Repent and be baptized
For Jesus is the Life, the Truth, the Way

(‘Cause) In His pain you were bought
His blood gives you life
There were tears in His Father’s eyes
In love you’re ordained
If in faith you remain
There’s hope unto eternal life
What a beautiful way to begin your life

So when darkness tries to take you away
Into a life to which you’ve already died
You just tell them, “I have been baptized
And I am holy to the Lord.”

(‘Cause) In this water you died
In this water you rise
This sacred mark placed on your head
So in love you abound
In faith you must stand
There’s hope for you all through your life

Singing in the Rain

This is what the sky looked like last night over our house...so beautiful!

This is what the sky looked like with camera zoomed in. I don't know why the colors changed that much in the camera's brain, but I thought these colors were pretty, too.

Last night, not long after these pictures were taken, it finally rained here! It hadn't rained in forever, and everything was fading into a dull brown color. We were so thrilled that it was raining that Brad and I ran out into the rain (it was POURING), and we got a good soaking! It was great fun! I danced around and sang, "I'm singing in the rain!" (under the cover of darkness, of course). Brad had the good forethought to tell me to have towels ready for us when we came back in, and boy, we needed them! It felt like standing in a shower. How fun!

Brad has been asked to preach at a church while we're in Alberta next month. He's thinking of doing a sermon on Hosea 11. It's one of his favorite chapters in the Bible! A couple of nights ago, he was looking at a devotional he did on Hosea 11 for one of his classes. With the devotional, there was a song he had written a while ago (like before we got married) included with it. It's a great song, so Brad got out his guitar and started playing it. Since it's also a song that I help him out with, we sang together and recorded ourselves. We put the video on Brad's blog: www.epyrus.blogspot.com. Note: if you decide to check it out, be warned that the video isn't much to look at -- we were mainly going for having the song itself recorded on something! Brad's a great songwriter, though.

There's some potential good news on the house front! We got an offer today (though it is, again, very low), and also someone came through today to look at it. She is VERY interested and talked over an offer with our realtor. Her potential offer sounds WONDERFUL, and if she indeed put in this offer, I can't begin to say how great that would be. However, she has to actually put it in writing, rather than just talk about it. Please pray, as we are pryaing, that she will put in this offer!

Sleeping Through Wheel of Fortune

This picture is from last night. December never sleeps on us, so I was thrilled to have her fall asleep on me while Brad and I watched Wheel of Fortune (I like that show)! She hadn't taken her second nap yesterday, so that was why she was so tired -- she probably would have gone to bed at 5:30pm yesterday.

It is so wonderful to hold your baby while she sleeps.

Here is December this morning, after we waved bye to Daddy as he headed off for work. Right now it's best to play outside mostly in the morning, because it's been so very hot during the day, like 30 degrees Celsius, and humid.

I Guess It Needed to be Cleaned Anyway...

Here's a beautiful park that's right across from our church. I've always wanted to go here and take pictures since I first laid eyes on it, and yesterday, we did!

Brad and December on the bridge

December standing by some of the pretty flowers. In the background, you can see our church.

Ignore December and I -- she was trying to wrench herself out of my arms, and I was trying desparately to hold onto her. I just wanted to show you the pretty gazebo.

December is tuckered out after a full morning of church and pictures in the park.

Brad and I went out on a date on Friday. It was fun! I like going on dates with Brad...he's very gentlemanly. We went to the Spinnaker, a nice restaurant in the Hilton hotel. We had gotten a $50 gift certificate there for ourselves for $25 (a birthday present for Brad) -- AND it came with a free room overnight at the Hilton! Woohoo! There is some well-known chef at the Spinnaker right now, and his specialty is seafood, so we got seafood. I thought it was great! It was a fancy restaurant, and I enjoyed wearing a dress and pretending we were all high society, hehee. The Hilton room was beautiful, with a king size bed, overstuffed chair, shiny wooden desk, and even a small, padded bench that we had no idea what to do with (Brad's best guess was that it's what you sit on when you want to put on your shoes). Then we really showed our high-society status by flopping on the bed, turning on the cable tv (yay for cable!), and watching America's Funniest Home Videos. However, we didn't spend the night there, because Mom and Dad were watching a sick December. She had a fever, so we took her back home so she could sleep in her own bed. I don't know why she had a fever, though...my best guess is that she's teething her eye teeth, which I guess are the WORST ones to teethe.

Motherhood is not the cleanest job. I discovered this in a whole new way last night, driving home from church. I was sitting in the back seat with December, and I had given her two bites of a brownie, which she surprisingly didn't really want to eat. That is strange because she ALWAYS loves chocolate! As I was licking some chocolate off her fingers so that she wouldn't get her car seat all dirty, she gave one little cough...and then she threw up. AHHHHHHH! (that was my first reaction) She threw up all over me, my clothes, herself, her clothes, her carseat, seatbelts -- you name it, it was grossified. Then she started to bawl. Those last 15-20 minutes home were the longest ones in my life so far. Baby wipes out of the diaper bag don't work the greatest in that situation, but they helped until we got home. There wasn't a whole lot any of us could do until we got home! Then December got taken out and swiftly dumped into the bathtub. After that, there was a major, full-scale cleaning operation in the car. Everything is all better now! Brad and I aren't sure why December threw up, either. Maybe it's also teething-related??

Anyway, some days in motherhood are cleaner than others.

Independence Day

Yesterday was Independence Day. We went over to my parents' house for breakfast, then we joined Kelli and Craig for a parade. I think December likes parades, but in this one she was constantly trying to walk into the street. After that we went back to Mom and Dad's house and hung out there for the rest of the day. Brad and I took the canoe out on the pond while December napped. I forgot the camera, though, so I have no pictures to show you. Instead, I took a quick video of December just now.

Brad and I are sad right now. Brad had asked the city for something called a use verification -- basically for the city to say whether our house is a one-family or a two-family house. We were praying that it would come back two-family (because that's what it really is), and there are interested buyers waiting to hear if the city will give it two-family status. We just heard that the city has decided it's single family. The implications of this mean that we now have to appear before a zoning board (which is ALOT of work because they require soo much legwork/documents/etc), and it costs $400. So, we are bummed. In life, some days are easier than other days. Today is not one of those easy days. I hope you like the video, though!

The Creation Museum

This past weekend my family went to the Creation Museum, just inside the Kentucky border. It is a museum that testifies to God's work in creation and throughout the history of mankind. It combines theology with science, paleontology, cosmology, biology, etc. It is an awesome place! You can learn more about it at creationmuseum.org. I enjoyed how it was so God-centered and so well done. Here are some pictures of our vacation:



This is how we got down to Kentucky -- my parents took their truck and camper, and they also rented a van, which Brad, December, and I were in. Here was our view for the 8 hour drive. Us three are in the back seat, and that's Emilia's foot and hand poking out of the left side of the picture.

Here we are entering the Creation Museum

Markus, Makenzi, December, and Emilia are inspecting the different cool fish and turtles in the aquarium (this was December's favorite place to be)




December loves pushing the stroller and let us know very clearly that she didn't want to be riding in it. She's not a very good driver, though, and she bumped into more than one stranger's feet. Here, Brad, December, and I are starting to walk through the exhibits. December did NOT appreciate the exhibits as much as Brad and I did, so we soon gave December to Grandma (who had just finished going through everything).

They had many mannequins like these, so well done that they looked real (Brad says they looked freakishly real). Some of the mannequins moved, too and even blinked their eyes. On the left is Isaiah with the scrolls, and next to him is Moses with the 10 Commandments.

Here are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden

Here is Brad in the Garden of Eden

Here we are, all gathered in one of the hotel rooms.

It was such a fun time! We drove down on Thursday, swam in the beautiful hotel pool on Thursday night, went to the Creation Museum on Friday, and on Saturday we drove back. On Saturday morning, Brad and I both said that we could go to the museum all over again. There's so much we got out of it, but there's alot we missed, too! What a great place. I'd like to show you more of the exhibits, but we have a puny memory stick on our camera. Hopefully I'll get some more pictures from Mom, so you can see more.