More RECENT: Our Card Castle

 One day our mailman brought us a HUGE bubble mailer stuffed full of fun Christmas cards- 

some from close friends, family, and our amazing home fellowship in WV!!!!

They had precious notes from the tiniest of hands to encouraging updates from families & friends.

So we decided to say THANK YOU in our own way...

By building a Card Castle

And their gift kept on giving... Levi examined it carefully from all angles:

 And then we had a countdown...

5 - 4- 3 - 2 -1

GO GET IT !!!!

Thanks Cross Lanes family and friends for loving on us so well :)

REWIND: New Buddies & Old Pals

 Like I said, while we were back in our language city visiting in December, our friends from our NC fellowship were ever so GRACIOUS to let us crash at their place for our 10 day stay :)

Yeah- they pretty much ROCK!

Levi & their little girl were quick buds right off the back- 

playing with toys, giggling together, mocking each other, hiding in the closet & busting out laughing...

Levi would wake up and immediately start calling for "Baby Clara"... Pretty PRECIOUS!

One other HUGE perk of getting to stay with them, in our old apartment, was that I got to see our old house helper EVERY DAY we were there.

We had a ball chatting, laughing, and cooking together- Just like ol' times!

AND Levi was not quick to forget his normal routine of going for a "walk" down the stairs with her when she left each day... I think she MAY have just LOVED that part as well :)

The kiddo train with a Papa caboose:

And moments like these always melt. my. heart:

Love these two, so grateful for the family who let us crash their place right before Christmas, and LOVED the good times we got to all share together while we were there.

More RECENT: JAX :)

 One other family from our city has two precious little boys:

Jack (9) and Max (5)... AKA- "JAX" by Levi 

Well before we left town, we got to have them over to hang out with them for the day & I think we all had a blast!

They had fun playing cars, Mr. Potato Head, building caves, working "together" on listening & giving direction skills... hehe.

Levi even checked in on Papa while he was working at his desk:

Apparently it didn't look to interesting :)

They played games and worked on learning new things like counting, reading, letters, etc...:

Levi was definitely mesmerized:

These little faces just make me happy!!!

We had a ball eating apples, grilled cheese, drinking hot chocolate with MARSHMALLOWS, and making some yummy brownies for their special Mama...

Thanks for spending the day with us boys- hope you come back SOON!!!

... L.O.V.E. ...

 This technically would fall under the "REWIND" category... but fits so perfectly for today:

** Valentine's Day ** 

A day when I can stop & just ADORE the two guys the Lord has BLESSED my life with SO MUCH!

 

A simple day in our old city, brings back sweet memories of precious time I got to spend with them BOTH!!!

Craig suggested we have a "coffee date" during Levi's "nap time".

So off we went to the Cafe Coffee Day where we ordered some yummy cappuccinos:

(I really do LOVE this man with ALL my heart!  

I couldn't ask for a better leader for our family or best friend.

He adores our little boy and is an incredible Papa, he can make me laugh harder than anyone I know, he knows how to work hard but also how to take a break and HAVE FUN, he is a gifted teacher and invests deeply in the guys he is around here.

I don't tell him this enough, but it's ALL true- 

You are a GIFT to my life, Craig, and I know you are to MANY others as well.  

Thanks for asking me to be your wife~ Happy Valentine's Day, Love

Back to our Coffee Date....

While we sipped on our yummy drinks, Levi sipped on his juice so he didn't feel left out:

 AAAAANNNDDD...

It turned out that "nap time' translated better to "play with cars/ watch a movie on the ipad " time instead :)

eh- sometimes you gotta have those kind of days too!

What a LOVELY time we all had:

chatting together, sipping on our drinks, playing/watching movies, crocheting, reading a book

It was a WONDERFUL date in my eyes.

And to my other Love... Levi Elliot,

you have brought nothing but JOY to this heart of mine since you were born.

I have LOVED deeper than I ever thought I could since you came around.

You teach me so many things with each day~ I know one of my jobs is to disciple you... 

but buddy, we are BOTH learning SO much along the way.

What a gift you are, my precious boy.

Thank you for the privilege of being your Mama.

I pray you know just how GREATLY you are LOVED today!

By me, your Papa, our God, and SOOO many others.

And our beautiful baby girl,

We can't wait to start this journey with you in just a few short weeks.

We love you already, but we KNOW that our love will only intensify the moment we lay eyes on you.

What incredible LOVE we will bring to our family.

See you soon!

 

Happy Valentine's Day Y'all!

May you know the GREATEST Love of all... the Love of the one who created both you and I.

This truly is the greatest gift I have ever received!

REWIND: Back in the ol' Town

Ok y'all- Since I have lots of fun pictures that I am a "tad" behind at sharing with you ;)

I'm going to do a series of REWIND and RECENT posts for you.

Sound good?

I thought you would agree! 

Well back in December, we traveled back to our language city... AKA our first "home" in South Asia.

The fun part about it was that we were actually able to stay in the very first flat that we lived in with some friends who are currently studying language there.

Fun, huh?

We LOVED seeing these snow capped mountains once again, just days before Christmas :)

So good for the soul!

Lots of familiar sights of our "every day" life just one year ago from when we visited :)

Neighborhood rooftops, Green trees, and lovely mountains!

The same corner we would often get an auto rickshaw to get around~ this time with a little more ease now that we have a years worth of Hindi practice under our belt :)

 

Some of my favorite ladies (all sisters):

Far left- one of my language teachers 

To the right of me- my first house helper who taught me so many yummy South Asian recipes, and also enjoyed laughing w. me in the kitchen!

Far right- their sister from a neighboring city who was in visiting for the weekend!

Wedding #1-

 Some other friends of ours also returned for the wedding of our second house helper, Meena!

(she was their previous house helper as well)

 As many things happen to go in South Asia... 

The wedding was scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM, but this show did not actually get started until 

(eh hem...) 2:30 ;)

Reason being- the GROOM was on the train coming for the wedding and got hung up by fog.

Silly boy, who comes on the DAY OF your wedding? haha.

Oh well- we had lots of fun in the meantime:

Playing with old friends:

 Snapping some fun Family pictures ;)

 (What? You sure cannot stop this boy from being a BOY and having a ball with a bunch of rocks)

Finally, we took our seats for the wedding- smiling and ready!

 You know we don't go anywhere without a SNACK:

It was a lovely wedding and my friend made a BEAUTIFUL Bride:

 

 

(Craig may have LOVED that her Father marched her down the aisle with a flannel on!!! )

 

Our little boy was quite tuckered out from all that pre-wedding running around & crashed before it was all said and done.

 The Bride & Groom:

 

In the middle is the bride for wedding #2:

 And the groom for wedding #2:

(Like I said about Levi... boys will be boys?!?!?)

Some folks were a little confused at who was the star of the day- YIKES!!!

I think Levi had more pictures taken that day than the bride & groom... 

Blond hair, blue eyed little white boys just don't go "unnoticed" in South Asia.

 

Another new friend- she was actually the little girl whose house we stayed in for our second 3 months in this city. 

 Then back to racing around the field with ALL the kiddos:

 

At the reception, you were guaranteed to find Levi with one of these two little fellows. 

They were great "big brothers" watching after him :)

 

 A very typical South Asian wedding photo-

meaning: it seems the bride and groom forgot to SMILE!!! 

haha- ok they probably didn't smile on purpose... traditions are hard to break, right?

 But don't you worry- they are quite a delightful and HAPPY couple.

Love this girl and am so excited for what the Lord has in store for her and her new husband!!!!

We're having a......

The polls have been running for several weeks now, and after 34 weeks of waiting...

We finally found out some exciting news.

Levi would love to share it with you:

So it looks like the polls were right ;)

I am currently 37+ weeks along - so we hope to have some exciting news in a couple of weeks as we announce the birth and name of our baby GIRL!!!!!

WAKE ... UP !!!!!

I know it may seem that we have once again fallen asleep on the job, but rest assured- we are still here :)

Just been a little busy packing and moving to a new city as we await the birth of Egg Baby #2!

Ironically, Levi also LOVES to find you sleeping (or make you pretend that you are) these days- just so he can come and yell "WAAAKE UP" and then get the biggest grin.

It's pretty stinkin' cute!

 

Now that we have some down time to rest & await this little ones arrival... 

More updates and photos will be coming your way.. some will include:

- Our trip back to our language city & weddings

- Fun NEW news we found out while in Thailand :)

- More pictures with little pals

- and MORE 

Stay Tuned....