1st Swim Lessons

Eli had his first swim lesson today! It went great, was so much fun for me and he smiled every once in a while. It's not that he didn't like the water, he was just so busy watching the little boy on the other side of the pool really swimming. Here are some pictures we took.


We worked on blowing bubbles in the water....


holding on to the side of the pool, he was much strong than I thought he would be...


floating on our backs...


here he was just checking out the other kids...


worked on kicking with our legs to be like a motor boat...


learned how to climb out of the pool, he was pretty good at this! And then he had to wait to jump in until I said it was ok...


and paddling with our arms.


This is the group we are swimming, singing, and learning with.

Elijah's Balloon Birthday

Eli is ONE! I can’t believe it’s been one year, what an amazing year. I know more than anything you really just want to see pictures, so this will be short. We had Eli’s first birthday party at our church in the Children’s worship area- it was perfect. The only decorating I did was table cloths and balloons, our family had so much going on in the past three weeks that I ended up having to keep the party a lot more simple then I had planned, but I pretty happy with the outcome. My saddest moment was about an hour and a half through the party I realized the camera was on the wrong setting- so many of our pictures are blurry because of this- so sad but we still got a few good ones once I fixed it. We have had a week full of family and new adventures for Elijah- I will post pictures soon of our visit to the zoo and arboretum. Here are just a few of his birthday pictures. Sorry I am on the mac, and the pictures are on the PC. So I hope to have a little smile box slide show soon.

It was so much fun to make the balloon trees and banner, I wanted to find an inexpensive way to use all the balloons I found in our church garage sale and this worked perfect! I had so much fun decorating with the balloons I was sad to take them down. John's family helped blow them all up on Friday afternoon, it was so fun! My mom ordered the wonderful Batman cake you see below, it was so cute.

Fun & Soaking

Some fun news for our family, yesterday I received an email from Shutterfly.com asking to use the picture of Eli I entered in a contest for advertising. I receive a $50 credit and so does the friend that took the picture. I was pretty excited, she said Eli's picture will most likely be used in like birthday card examples on the website- but I'm still excited about it.



As for what’s been going on in our lives I think you could say John and I are in a soak phase. With Eli we are soaking in these wonderful days of laughter and discovery. One of our favorite times of day is around 9pm each night. We strip Eli down to his diaper, usually putting him on the couch between us and just play together for about 30 minutes before his bedtime. The sweet smiles and wonderful giggles we get in those 30 minutes seem like pure bliss and continually help us praise, God is so great.




With our family we are soaking in the opportunities to share afternoons and meals together. The past couple of weeks my sister and her family, and all my parents have come out on different Sundays to join us for church and spend some time with Eli. It is amazing how Eli and Anabelle (my niece) have made spending time together an even bigger priority in our families. We hope to visit John’s parents at the end of March.




With friends we are soaking in some wonderful traveling with the Howards, soaking in our small group dinners, and I am soaking in some amazing accountability/prayer group emails. A few weeks ago our family joined the Howards out at Lantz’s parents home in Graham to help do some work on the house. Jessica and I enjoyed some great time just playing with the babies together. This past Sunday John and I joined some of our small group friends for an Oscar evening party. It was so fun to get dressed up and having an evening out with John and friends.



I am absolutely soaking in Isaiah this year with my BSF group study. I have learned so much and continued to have a renewed awe for God’s work in studying Isaiah. We are soaking in (sometimes drowning in) a blessed youth ministry that consistently has challenges (so we know Satan is worried and working against us) and growth (so we know God is moving in our students lives). I don’t know what is ahead for our family but I do feel like God building us up right now with so many blessings!

Family Book 2010

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Valentines Day Card

Love Hugs Kisses Valentine's Day 5x7 folded card

Modern greeting cards and party invitations by Shutterfly.

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