Family Fun :-)

Recently we have been trying to find unique ways to spend our family time. It is so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life and allow family time to become an extra day to get things done around the house. Therefore, one of our recent activities was a family hike near some mountains in our area.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Cool enough to wear a jacket, but warm enough that once we got moving we wanted to shed those jackets! Zeke got the easy ride on Dad's back while Scott and I maneuverd the tricky terrain. We've been getting alot of rain lately so it was nice to get out between showers enough that the ground was hard enough to walk on with out sinking down. We saw lots of animals (including a cow that didn't seem to have a home) and many beautiful views. We even found what appeared to be a very old cemetary. The place we went is translated a thousand husbands...we have wondered for sometime how it got that name and we have begun to wonder if maybe there was a battle here where many men lost their lives. One gravestone in a newer section of the cemetary was marked that i'ts occupant's death was as a martyr. Bopefully someday we will discover some real information about this place, but for now it was a very intriguing find!

We also decided that Zeke is old enough to help with some things around the house. So we had a family cookie bake last week. Zeke loved it! He got to dump in all the ingredients and stir everything up to make some delicious chocolate chip cookies. His favorite part was definitely eating them at the end. The main challenge in including a 2 year old in this kind of activity is that they don't contextualize. This wasn't to be a one time event for Zeke, therefore, he thinks that everytime mom is in the kitchen that it is his duty to pull a chair in from the dining room and help with whatever I am making! I appreciate his

efforts, but at this time his "help" is really more of a hinderance, as you can imagine! It is wonderful, though, to see how much he is growing and changing all the time and how many new things he can do in participating in family activities! I guess he really isn't a baby anymore!

As it happens often this time of year our entire household came down with a pretty nasty illness. We don't know if it was possibly h1n1 or not, but what we do know is that it was miserable! Zeke had a fever for a week straight! It was very strange to see my active little boy wanting to do nothing but sit in my lap and moan! It was especially difficult because I was sick as well! However, we all got through it and it was so rewarding at the end to see Zeke's smile and energy return, along with his precotious nature for getting into trouble!

Zeke recently had a couple of new milestones. One was his first birthday party that wasn't for him! It was hard for him to accept that this day with its presents and cake wasn't all about him! He had a good time, though, and really got into the birthday games. Another big milestone for him was moving from a crib into his big boy bed. We were really nervous about this transition, but Zeke did beautifully. The first morning he was so proud to come strutting into our bedroom to let us know that he was awake! Since that first morning, though, he has learned to stay in his bed and wait for us to come and get him. With these recent rainy days he has even fallen back to sleep until late since his room was still dark!

We feel so blessed by God to have a good, healthy family. When the hard times hit we still know how to count our blessings because God has given us so many good things. We are starting to get very excited to meet the newest member of our family, as we are just a week shy from entering the final trimester of this pregnancy. I'm sure the time will go very fast since we have several holidays to look forward to and then we are off to Jordan where we will meet our new little guy. Our prayer for this holdiay season is that God would use us in whatever way He sees fit and that our life and example would be one that is honoring to Him as we invite friends over to celebrate with us. Feel free to contact us...we love hearing from you and knowing what is happening in the lives of families stateside. Have a great week and happy Thanksgiving!