Christmas 2009

Once all the hustle and bustle was finished our holiday season was full of fun, relaxation and a mad dash to get some projects done as a result my less demanding schedule. Since many of our normally scheduled commitments didn't take place for a couple weeks, I tried to get some long overdue organizing done at home. We got to take advantage of some of the many cool things Seattle has to offer during this festive Christmas season.

December was also very full of ministry opportunities for both Aaron and me. We got to see many people make decisions to receive Christ as their Savior. I'll never get used to the fact that God allows us to be active participants in what He is doing in the hearts of people. One of the biggest joys this season was telling Elijah about how God's Son, Jesus Christ, came to earth as a human baby because of God's unfailing love for each of us in this world. Few things topped hearing Elijah say, "Beebe zsheezsha!" For those with a less trained ear...this means Baby Jesus! I hope you enjoy some of our memories!

Anything Elijah can climb into
or on top of makes him happy!

Elijah's got quite a kick out of these little elves
when we were Christmas tree shopping. He
stopped to giggle and wave at them.

Elijah's pretty pleased when he gets to
roam free. He loves his independence,
but is still such a snuggle bug.

Elijah gets around pretty fast these days.
He loves to run and chase people.

These are our good friends, Paul and Dawn,
hanging out with us after lunch.

Everybody who sees Elijah's open mouth, which
you will later in this post, gets a kick out of the
fact that he has only his front four top teeth
and his bottom two front teeth, along with four
molars. We are hoping to see the rest fill in soon!

In the end we decided to stick with our little Charlie
Brown tree to save some money. Pretty comical.
This might just be a great tradition we've started. :)

Elijah got to see a camel, a donkey and a
couple reindeer at a local garden center,
Swanson's nursery. We went with Lisa
and Aidan and had a ton of fun.

Dasher and Blitzen were gearing up for their big night coming up!

Our buddies!

Cute!

Aaron preached at the Christmas Eve
service since our senior pastor was
out of town. He did a great job.

Elijah was pretty pleased with his new Elijah sized
chair! He seemed to be in a state of disbelief and
kept looking back at me with this look that said,
"Mommy, look at this chair!"

Elijah LOVES dogs and now has one of
his very own that barks, pants and wags
his tail! And, he doesn't even chew or have
accidents inside. Truly, man's best friend!

Elijah's investigating his new
tree full of finger puppet animals!

One of Elijah's Christmas gifts was a
tent and tunnel set. Fun times!

My mashed potatoes made it into Aaron's proposal speech
and I'd say Elijah may like them a bit too. Thanks Mom!

Elijah's trying to teach his daddy how to color.

Taking a cool evening drive.

Reading books with Daddy in the tent.

We took advantage of some of the
fun Christmas lights downtown on the
waterfront of the Puget Sound.

Elijah loves carousels! He signs please repeatedly
to ride again and does his little point and grunt
as we leave. I can't imagine what his reaction would
be to a real horse ride.

Happy New Year to you all! May it be blessed beyond your wildest hopes and expectations!

New Blog Posts

I made several new blog posts, but they are post-dated for August and September. I hope to get around to October, November and December before the new year! Thanks for being patient, Mom! :)

Halloween

It has been way too long since I've posted pictures. It is hard to believe that Elijah is almost 14 months old! Most of my friends have Elijah's birthday party on their blogs and I do not! Soon...

Elijah is walking beautifully and quickly these days! I am stunned by how rapidly he became proficient. He can stand up from a sitting position independently and doesn't need to pull up on anything. It is really strange for me to see him do that. He's not a baby any longer. He can change directions quite easily also and he has just started to do a bit of a "run" when he is excited. I have tons I'd like to share and at this point, I still hope to catch up on the blog, but it seems impossible so lets just take a quick look at Halloween!

A sweet woman from our church, Dorothy, found a clown costume at a garage sale that was just his size and thought of Elijah. He wore it when the youth had their Halloween party on Wednesday and he was adorable. A few of the girls who babysit Elijah helped me paint his face. Have I ever mentioned the incredible babysitters we have!? They love Elijah and he adores them! We feel very blessed. To finish off our costume theme, I was a lion and Aaron was a lion tamer. Cute, huh! That was Aaron's witty idea.

On Halloween night, Elijah was an octopus. My friend, Kim, who is really into making amazing costumes loaned us the octopus costume that her three boys have outgrown. On Halloween we went with our friends (Ian, Lisa and Aidan) to trick or treat in the downtown Ballard area on Market street and then to dinner. The local businesses had candy for the kids. I was pretty overwhelmed by the large crowd, but it was great fun. Elijah had a portion of his first sucker. He was NOT a happy camper when we decided he had had enough. I think it is safe to say he's definitely going to be like his mommy and have a sweet tooth.

After dinner, Aaron, Elijah and I went to a few houses to trick or treat and then went to a carnival at a church. There was a professional photographer taking pictures so we got a really nice shot of Elijah on a bale of hay. Enjoy the pictures of our sweet toddler!

Elijah Takes His First Steps!

Elijah took his first steps today! He has been cruising quite well along walls and has been letting go of the ottoman to take a successful, lunging step to the the next piece of furniture. We decided to just try this out so we stood him up by the ottoman and he walked right to me! You can imagine our surprise! Screaming and scrambling for the camera quickly ensued!

Dedicating Elijah to the Lord

We dedicated Elijah to the Lord on Sunday, September 13th. May God guide us as we raise Elijah; may he grow to love the Lord with his whole heart and walk intimately with Him.

Elijah's First Birthday Party

We went all out to celebrate Elijah's first birthday in the youth room of our church. It can be hard being away from our families at special times like this, but because God has blessed us with such an incredible church family and such caring friends it isn't as difficult as it has the potential of being. We were overwhelmed by and grateful for the love Elijah received on his birthday. Thank you for loving him and for making his birthday special!

The birthday boy! Happy Birthday!

I had a ton of fun decorating with some friends!

Elijah loves animals so we had
a safari animal theme.

Yummy!

Lisa and the birthday boy with a balloon in tow.

Daddy and Elijah enjoying a snack!

Levi cashing in on the pinata candy!

Guests were given the option to contribute money toward a
well being dug in a rural village of India in Elijah's honor.
Here's the link to the intro video we watched. It is the
second video marked intro.
http://thewaterproject.org/thewaterchallenge_video.asp?utm_source=Water+Challenge+Info+Requests&utm_campaign=a8a8f0ab8e-How_to_Start_the_Challenge8_24_2009&utm_medium=email




We are watching the Water Project video.
The effects of unclean drinking water are staggering.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Elijah! Happy Birthday to you!

Mmmmmmm!

What a bad day to forget a bib!

Elijah really enjoyed all his new toys!

Aidan was a great helper since he has more gift opening
experience than Elijah. It was a lot of fun for me to see how
much fun our young guests had playing with the new toys.

Maddie and Elijah

Elijah's 2nd Haircut

Elijah got his hair cut for his birthday party and his dedication which both took place the second weekend in September!

This one has nothing to do with
his haircut...it's just cute!

They had a fun little playground outside the hair salon
so we played while we waited for Elijah's appointment.

Elijah's sat in a fire engine and was adequately
distracted with the toys he was given.

I was watching carefully since I'll
hopefully be cutting Elijah's hair in the
future when he is a bit less wiggly.

Elijah had fun pushing this Elijah sized cart around.