In late January my friend, Dawn and I threw a baby "sprinkle" for Andrea (our upstairs neighbor and good friend) since she was expecting their second little boy. Andrea, Dawn and I have been friends for years.
See little Bradley in her belly? You'll get to see him later in the post, too!
One of the fun settings on the camera my parents got us for Christmas is one that automatically takes a picture when someone smiles. So we played around with it at the shower! :-)
Several of the ladies at the shower are either expecting or just had babies. Nicole (on the left) is due this fall with her first. The lady 3rd over from the left (who's husband is a pastor of another church in Bay Ridge) has a 3 month old and so does Dawn (2nd from the right)!
Andrea and Dawn
Dawn's mom had lost her battle with cancer the day before the shower. Although it was hard, she was glad to have something to keep her busy in the time before she could fly back to Wisconsin to be with her family.
Below: Andrea, Dawn, Me and Lily
On President's Day we took a field trip to Philadelphia. Both boys are studying Early American history this year and had just gotten through studying the Revolutionary war and the Constitution. So I thought this was a good time to go back to Philly.
George Washington's Chair at Independence Hall
Ben Franklin's grave
Betsy Ross House
We went to the National Constitution Center for the first time. This room has statues of all the signers of the Constitution.
Daniel signed the Constitution!
Me and Ben
Daniel sat on Ben's lap
Our boys are not shy about asking park's department people questions.
In front of the Liberty Bell
We ran into one of the kids from Daniel's and Paul's soccer team and his family at the Liberty bell! The mom said she'd just run into someone else from Brooklyn there that day. Small world.
A friend from church gave us an Amaryllis for Christmas. It bloomed in time for Valentine's day. It was beautiful but unfortunately we discovered that Daniel is allergic to the blooms. So our neighbor has it now. He will be much better at keeping it alive than me, anyway.
Here's Bradley James Stockton! His parents left the house to go to the birthing center at 10:30 pm on Sunday night and he was born at 11:04 pm!!!! This picture was taken less than 24 hours later when Andrea came down to introduce him to us.
While we are getting closer to officially getting this house "finished" the work never ends. Neither does the weirdness of the house. One day the boys' bathroom ceiling started "raining". There was obviously some leak but it just looked like lots of condensation on the ceiling.
Then it started running down the walls. After a few days of this Paul cut a hole in the ceiling to see where the leak was coming from and how to fix it. Well, after several weeks, trying out every sink, toilet, tub, washer, dishwasher upstairs and the heat being on we still don't know where the leak is coming from! And we still have a hole in the bathroom ceiling. Unfortunately, this happened right before our first community group meeting in our home. And yes, the ceiling leaked during group and everyone had to use the bathroom in our bedroom. :-(
We've had 3 weeks of community group meetings now and have heard mostly good reports about it. In our group we're taking turns doing kids' class, planning and leading worship and bringing food (we eat lunch together each Sunday). The first week Paul preached from our house and it was video conferenced to the rest of the groups. The second week he was "live" at a different group's meeting and we watched him live on the tv here. So far I've taught kids class and led worship and cooked for the meals. It's great to get everyone involved in serving in different ways. And closer relationships are being formed. There are people who haven't really been connected to people before, just coming on Sundays, who are now involved in community groups and serving. This past Sunday we had a "serving observation" day where we walked to different locations around the neighborhood looking for how God is working and wants to use us to serve our neighbors. Since there are 2 community groups meeting in our house (one in our apt. and one in the Stocktons') our immediate neighborhood was very "observed"! We came back, had a debriefing time and communion, and then had lunch together. One Sunday a month will be a serving Sunday. We will have our next all together service on Easter Sunday.
Caden (Bradley's big brother) showing me his smiles as he and Daniel "play cars", Caden's favorite thing to do right now.
I love this smile!
Here's the beginning of my 2012 garden. The big plants in the back I planted in January. I'm hoping to not have to buy any plants this year and to have lots of tomatoes to can.
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| Well, testing is over now. Back to normal school tomorrow. As well as grocery shopping and a doctor's appointment..... It's going to be busy again. I hope to take some field trips over Spring Break and have some more opportunities to use my new camera. Hopefully I'll get to update the blog again before the summer is over! |
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