Giving Thanks

As Thanksgiving is tomorrow, I was feeling contemplative and grateful for the many blessings God has given to our family. Here are a few things I am thankful for:

-Eleanor’s new affinity for saying “mommy”

-Eleanor’s silly smiles and belly laughs

-Eleanor’s caring spirit and the way she loves other babies

-The new baby beginning to kick

-A loving husband who brought me flowers last week

-A caring mother and father who still care for me even though I have a child of my own

-Thoughtful, intelligent, loving sisters

-A home of our own that is warm and dry

-A challenging and rewarding profession

-Friends I can see once a year and they still know and love me deeply

-Chocolate shakes

-Compassionate and intelligent colleagues

-4 days off work

November 27, 2008. Family and Friends. 1 comment.

What an update . . . read on!

Where to start? This is a catch up posting. Work and home have both swallowed all of my time these past few months, so I apologize to the faithful blog followers out there for such a long time between posts. Here is a little bit of how our life has been since September’s post.

Early September: Juli starts getting nausea in the mornings. . . hmmm. . . that’s weird. Pregnancy test says. . . positive, baby number 2 on the way in April. Ready or not!

Late September: Ellie starts walking, hooray. She loves to walk now. Ben finishes his final project for his masters, quite a task. Now he just has a few more classes before finishing in December. Juli is busy teaching, coaching tennis, throwing up, and chasing a now mobile Eleanor.

October: Ellie is walking much faster, signing up a storm (she signs at least 15-20 words, not that I’m bragging), loves to say “ga ga” = da da. Ben, can’t wait to finish that masters degree. Juli, still throwing up, “why am I hungry. . . didn’t I just eat?”

Halloween: (See pictures below). We have a party for our Young Families Bible study at our house. We dress up from the Wizard of Oz. Ellie, a great growler by day, refuses to answer anyone who wants to know “what does a Lion say?”

Early November: Ben begins his final masters class. Hooray. Ellie starts saying “ma-mee.” It still melts my heart every time she says it. We get a new pet chicken. Her name is Speckles and Ben and his dad built her a lovely coop with their own two hands (and a lot of tools). Ben awaits the day when she can “re-coop” our losses by laying eggs. (Sorry for the pun). Juli is done with tennis and vommitting. More Hooray!

This Tuesday: We had our 18 week sonogram and saw our little baby GIRL! That’s right, another girl. Eleanor is soon to have a little sister. We couldn’t be more excited. (Picture of new baby Friesen below).

So, that’s what we have been up to instead of blogging. Stay tuned until the next installment in the adventures of Ben, Juli, Eleanor, Speckles, and Baby X.