Now that's something!: 2010

Monday, December 13, 2010

Party!

Apparently Eric works as a Santa stand-in...

Apparently Lily has not gotten enough training from us in cookie eating. We offered her a cookie for the first time - it's Christmas, afterall. We picked a wonderful homemade molasses ginger cookie, which Jess had to be talked into giving up. You see that tiny crumb sized piece missing in the photo above? Yep, that's Lily's first bite!

After that tiny bite and a few licks, she decided it was better for crumbling and fed some to the carpet until Jess "rescued" the poor cookie.

The Wonders of Christmas

1) Introducing Lily to Smores... Mom was thrilled, Lily was... well, a bit timid - she doesn't seem very interested in sweets. She licked the marshmallow and made a few faces but didn't even want to touch! Jess happily ate it for her.

2) Dancing lights we passed taking the long way home from a Christmas party... this place was DECKED OUT. We took some video too, it was pretty crazy. Lily is not sure what to make of all the Christmas lights, but she definitely notices them!

A Bike Ride

Lily loves riding her Caterpillar trike. She's getting pretty daring and we decided it was time for a helmet - besides, we're looking forward to taking her on our bikes after her first birthday! We had to do some searching, but with help from my Aunt Laura (http://aabikes.com) we finally found one to fit!

I love how her hair sticks out the top just like her Uncle Chris' used to - I'll have to find a picture of that!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

One is silver..

When I was young my mother used to sing me this old girlscout song - "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." Michelle is certainly a "golden" friend. She and I met in the summer of 1998 - over 12 years ago - in Merritt Island, Florida. She helped lead a team of teenagers on a short term missions trip to Madagascar. I have many many fond memories of our trip to Madagascar. While I was busy with my life, Michelle finished her training in nursing and went back to Africa, married a wonderful Kenyan man, and serves with Empowering Lives International in Kenya. This year family and training brought them back stateside, and we were honored to host them while they visited Tampa! It was great to catch up with Michelle, meet William in person, and introduce them both to Eric and Lily. We took a trip across the state to Merritt Island to revisit Teen Missions (picture above), and Eric and William went on a tour at an urban hydroponic farm in Tampa.

William and Michelle at Teen Missions (yes, it was a bit cool for us!).

Above, Teen Missions Property. Below, a local hydroponic farm. William teaches sustainable agriculture in rural Kenya, and Eric spent many years working at a greenhouse, so they were very interested in this new method of urban farming.

We loved visiting with Michelle and William (Lily especially loved William, who sat with her in the back of the car on every trip and kept her smiling despite long drives!) and wish you all could have the chance to meet them. If you would like more info on them or their ministry in Kenya, please let us know. We'd be glad to put you in touch with them!