Elves in the village

This week we headed even further south to St. Augustine's "Winter Wonderland" with the O'Sullivans. There was a snow machine, so now we can sympathize with those of you who shoveled your driveways this morning. Or not, as I need to go close the shades right now because it is too hot sitting in the sun!

Judah had a great time, as always, hanging out with best bud Will.

Both boys were fascinated with the Elf Village.

"You first."

"No, you first. I insist."

The elves' workshop was a big hit with the boys.

Judah was just wishing they had a cobbler's.

The other elves were intimidated by Judah's mad woodworking skills.

And when you tire of making toys, there is always the Nutcracker ballet to practice...

"Will-- Arabesque! Arabesque!... Focus!"

(Photos courtesy of Beth, since I am a slacker and conveniently forget the camera all the time. Thanks Beth!)

Facial "hair"

Since Judah will, in all probability, have absolutely no capacity to grow a decent beard, we're on the hunt for alternatives early. Maybe it will help him avoid the awkwardness of middle school years where being baby-faced is not yet an asset in getting the girls...

You can definitely see the Pendleton in him in this next picture. Specifically the Mike Pendleton, which does give him a little hope for a nice goatee someday =)

"I've done just fine so far with hardly any hair, thank you very much!"

We can't leave Forrest out.

Maybe the FSP guys should just wear hats instead...

"I will save you, my princess!"

It isn't Christmas without...

John Denver and the Muppets of course! I'm serious, I look forward to "piggy pudding" all year =) (If you have no idea what I am talking about, listen to "We wish you a Merry Christmas" closely.) This album is so fun, sweet, sincere, and heartwarming. It is everything I love about the holiday season in an hour of listening.

I'm always hunting for great new Christmas-time traditions, so now that you know mine, what is your favorite thing to do during the holidays???

WELCOME CALEB!!!

We are so excited to be able to welcome Caleb Everett into the world to make it a little sweeter! Congratulations to Shawn, Elaine, and all the grandparents who are visiting =) This is a little belated, since he will be a week old tomorrow, so maybe I should say "Happy 1 week birthday!" We love you little man and are so glad you are here! What a wonderful God we serve. You are a living answer to prayer, baby Caleb.

On the Pendleton front, we had our first adoption disappointment yesterday. Our profile (the picture book that introduces us to birthfamilies) was sent to Missouri and Indiana to be looked at by birthmoms. Both decided on different families, whom we are very happy for. Most of all we are glad that those babies are going to be adopted by families that really want them and will love them so much. We are still disappointed for ourselves though. In theory, we want God's timing in bringing us our baby, but in practice it is harder to be patient and stay encouraged. I'm not sure what the cosmic hold-up is =) Forrest keeps reminding me how narrow our perspective is, and with that in mind I am glad that I am not in charge all the time. I'm ready to hold our baby, but I will be ready still when God is ready too.

Just do it!

A couple weeks ago in our church fellowship group, the leader for the week brought up the verse from James 1 that says "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit the widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." Right before that James is talking about how we need to be doers of the God's word, not only hearers.

I feel like I so often go around in a haze. I hold the reality of the pain and suffering in the world at arm's length and fill the space between it and my heart with talk radio and internet tv and worry about getting to all of my errands. WAKE UP SHANNON! There are real people with real pain all around you! When I try to look openly at the problems in my community, much less around the world, I quickly get completely overwhelmed. But man, if you have to see real pain to see real joy, then isn't it worth it? And shouldn't I stop steeping in my feeling of powerlessness and actually do what I can?

What is it that God has been knocking on your door about but that you have put off because you are too busy/tired/distracted/behind on the laundry/(insert favorite excuse)? ...and what are you going to do about it?

Fall in Florida

We have finally entered glorious weather here in Florida! Today brought clear blue skies, a high of 73 and a low of 56. No complaints here! We did go to the beach a few days ago, when it was cooler, and it was maybe a little late in the year even at this lattitude. It was cold (read: below 60), windy, and sunny.

Welcome to my beach!

Judah with GrandMarv

Higher!

Hosting our annual pumpkin carving party has made it feel a little more like fall here. As usual everyone had fun getting good and covered with pumpkin guts, and the jack-o-lanterns turned out great all around.

My mom has been in town for a couple weeks and left today. It was great to have her here. She and Judah had a great time loving on each other! She also taught him cow (without the "ooo")and duck sounds (he already knew how to baaa)....

and made his adorable halloween costume. We couldn't get our act together quick enough to go trick-or-treating before bedtime, but we did get some pictures of the little chef =)

"I hate costumes!"

The runaway chef!

Mom also introduced Judah to his new favorite thing: slides!

Post-cake

I forgot I had taken this birthday bath pic =)

Eating Cake!

Opening presents on birthday morning:


Judah's cake pics: I hope you enjoy it as much as he did =)

Beautiful, wonderful year

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet baby Judah. I am sad today to have to say good-bye to this first year. Part of me feels like he is just growing faster than I can possibly keep up with and savor. The silver lining is looking forward to all of the growing and learning that Judah will do in the future. He is as sweet today as he has ever been. I am continually surprised that I love him more and more every day. Thanks to all of you who have shared in our joy over the last year!

One year ago today:

(I'll post cake-eating pics/video as soon as I can!)

We thank God for our beautiful, healthy, wonderful, wonderful boy!

It's October!?!

I can't believe we're almost half-way through October! It doesn't feel like fall at all here in Jax. Ok, I'll admit to being happy it is only in the 80s during the day instead of the high 90s, but come on! Where are all the turning leaves and the jacket/jeans/warm boots sort of days?

We did have some really nice weather while we were on our trip in the Northeast! DC was beautiful for most of our time there, which made our whirlwind tour of the sights even more enjoyable. I also have to say, although who expected any different, that Judah was a total trooper and did great even as we hauled him around for hours on end. We toured the Capitol and the Library of Congress. We visited the Supreme Court (but unfortunately they weren't in session), the Natural History museum, and the National Zoo. We saw almost all of the monuments and memorials. The relatively new WWII memorial is really beautiful. We also saw Barak Obama's motorcade and actually saw John McCain in his SUV as he pulled into the White House for the emergency meeting about the bail-out plan that President Bush called. Apparently not much progress was made at that particular meeting, but it was exciting for us nonetheless.

The US Capitol

Forrest and Judah with Reflecting Pool in the background

Of everything we saw in DC, what moved me the most was President Lincoln's second inagural address that is inscribed on the wall of the Lincoln memorial. His humility, reverence for God, and love for his countrymen is deeply inspirational. If you have a couple minutes, it's definitely worth the time.

After we toured DC (thanks to the Granges for a wonderful place to stay in DC!) we headed up to Bryn Athyn, PA. It is a tiny town outside of Philidelphia where Forrest's mom spent much of her childhood and where she and my father-in-law went to college. We went for our cousin Maren's wedding and saw a bunch of other family as well. It was wonderful to visit a place that means so much to people I love. I kept imagining Mike and Lynne walking along the streams and exploring the forest together falling in love =) We had perfectly cool, misty weather surrounded by hills that were each greener than the one before. It was really beautiful.

On our drive home we saw old friends! Amanda hosted us in DC for another night on our way through. Adam, Sarah, Kathryn, and soon-to-arrive Elizabeth welcomed us in Norfolk, VA, and we saw Elaine and sooner-to-arrive Caleb in New Bern, NC. It was great to see them, but it also made me sad that we live so far apart now. I think I've been having a little "good-friend" hangover this week: the reminder of how easy it is to be with old friends makes my new friendships here seem like more work than I realized before. Worth it, but work. On the other hand, I also was reminded of the fruit that can be harvested from keeping in touch with those old friends even when they are far away!

And now we've been home for a week already! How the time flies. I've been thinking a lot about Elaine this week as her pregnancy goes on beautifully and we all wait expectantly for beautiful Caleb. I've also been thinking about Casey and Los who are road-tripping on their move across country. They aren't moving quite far enough across the country for my taste, but they will be closer to us than they are now =) And Beth O'Sullivan, come home already! =)

A quick look at Judah's newest tricks:

Juggling!

Judah's monkey impression (don't believe the look on Forrest's face, Judah can hang all by himself really well)!

He did it!

Happy 11 month birthday to Judah! In celebration, he walked today! He has been taking a step or two and then falling for about a week now so we've been watching him closely. Today we were at Beth and Will's for a play-date and all of a sudden Judah picked up a ball and walked about four feet while trying to shove the whole ball in his mouth. I think the distraction helped =) I will try to get a video of this newest trick as soon as I can!

Today was also good because Judah and I were saved (from having to deal with car trouble) by our friend Phillip! I drove over a piece of a downed limb in our neighborhood thinking it was much smaller than it really was. Luckily it didn't do any damage! It did however get wedged in the undercarriage, unbeknownst to me until I was running errands and it started to sound like we were dragging something. I pulled into a grocery store parking lot near our house and, sure enough, there was a LOG under my car! I can do many things, but there are things in my life that I choose to delegate. Car problems are on the top of that list, usually to Forrest, but really any capable male will do. And just at the right time Phillip comes walking out of the grocery store, innocently thinking he was just making a quick run for chips when actually he had been sent by God to get the tree out from under my car =) He was super gracious about helping and was even polite enough to pretend like I wasn't crazy when I started talking about having to delegate certain things in life and being capable and not wanting to get my cute new pants dirty... He got the log out, and I got home in time to put Judah to bed before major meltdown, and the car is fine. Yay! and thanks Phillip!

We're off on vacay tomorrow to visit DC and go to our cousin Maren's wedding in Philidelphia so we'll catch up on the blog when we get back.

Makeup and pearls...

I realized again tonight that although I live in Florida, I am still definitely a Northwest girl. I went to a ladies' night at a neighbors house and showed up in my cutest jeans and flip-flops and my favorite sweater (yes, it is in the high 60s tonight) and I was seriously under-dressed. When I think about going somewhere, the idea of wearing a dress doesn't cross my mind unless it is an event held at a church: wedding, funeral, maybe a church service if it is a special occasion. Not that I don't like dresses, because I do. I just like my jeans more. I need to learn to err on the side of formality, but honestly that just rubs me the wrong way. Why would you put on a bunch of makeup and pearls to go to your neighbor's house? I don't get it. At least I wasn't wearing a Goodwill t-shirt I suppose, but maybe I will next time =)

Chickenpox! maybe...

Since I last posted we've had lots of fun:

We had Forrest's whole family in town and spent the week in a condo at the beach. And I mean IN the condo, since Tropical Storm Fay decided to visit too and brought bad weather with her. We (and by we I mean Olivia, my soon-to-be sister-in-law, which explains why Bethany is also featured) got some cute pictures though =)

B & Judah playing "Gopher Bash"

Have you been drinking?

I knew he was being too quiet!

The whole fam! (From the left: T, Av, Mama, me, Amber, Eli, For, Papa, B, & Olivia)

At the end of the week of visiting with the family, my in-laws left on their move to Africa! They are in Botswana where Mike is working with UPenn at the national hospital there as an attending and will start traveling to regional medical clinics starting in a few months to help the docs there. Lynne is being wonderful help to everyone, as usual, and currently trying to get their life in Gabarone all set up. We miss them but it has been wonderful to be able to e-mail and Skype!

After the fam left, we got a great but short visit from Casey and Carlos. They are moving to Corpus and stopped by on their way home from house hunting leave. We love them!

Judah got to try sour cream for the first time while C&C were here. We were trying to keep him entertained through dinner, and he loved it!

After all that excitement, our next visitor was the shingles. Yep, right on my side, itchy as hell, but going away already which is a relief. And, to top that off, Judah woke up yesterday with what looked suspiciously like a chickenpox on his little face! I was pretty sure of my home diagnosis (thank you google images) until today when he has yet to show any more pox. I know I should be happy that he isn't sick, but mostly I feel a little annoyed at myself for keeping both of us home yesterday from church and this morning from my first MOPS meeting. For those of you who know me very well, it was a big step for me to join MOPS. Now I'm sad that I missed the first meeting and mad that I'm sad about MOPS! Argh!

For a little perspective, I went and read my father-in-law's blog and while it didn't make me feel much better, it helped me to whine about it a little less =)

Calling all pictures!

As we said before, we are starting the process of adopting. One thing we have to do is put together a "profile" of our family, which is pretty much a scrapbook/photo album to show the birthmother who we are and why she might want to pick us to place her baby with. If any of you have a good picture (or two) of me, Forrest, or Judah (by ourselves or in a group) I would really appreciate it if you would forward it to me! Thanks in advance =)

Here is one recent family pic that I plan to include in the profile.

Oh, and Judah has a new trick: cruising the furniture! Here's him posing with his toy box.

Goodbye sweet girl

We had Annie (Ani) euthanized this morning. She has been very anxious for more than a month now and, even with strong medications, has been so upset and unhappy. The last few days were times of constant anxiety for her. It was a hard decision to make, especially because it is one we can't take back, but we think it was right. Please pray for our hearts and for God to have a really wonderful dog park in the sky.

Thank God for the weekend!

Forrest and I are off to a bed and breakfast on the beach for a couple nights and, while I feel bad about leaving my mother-in-law with Judah and Annie-oh-so-nuts, I am so looking forward to our first weekend off since parent duty started 9 months ago. It became very apparent yesterday that I need a break: I went to Target without Judah (thanks to G-mama) but with Judah's lunch smeared all over my shoulder where he had burried his face and blown a big raspberry-- I am that mom.

So, in the midst of dealing with crazy dog, cleaning the house for Grandmama to come stay with us, getting a drug screen for our adoption (I was clean. Whew!), and planning for our anniversary weekend, I still managed to get a few good pics this week.