Mission Trip Pics!

Ok, so I finally was able to go through all of our Mission Trip photos (about 500 of them!) and I still wasn't very good at narrowing them down to just a few to share. So here is about 25 of them! We had a great week of serving, sweating, and having fun in the Philippines. As always, there is a bent toward showing lots of Emma pics. Sorry for that. But then again... I doubt you'll mind. ;) She's just so CUTE!

Our team about to leave for the airport at Songtan Bus Terminal.
Daddy and Emma on the way to the airport. Philippines, here we come!
Church on Sunday. We were invited to lead the service at our friend, Myles', Ministry Center.
Eric got to preach the sermon. It was so HOT!
This is how we bathed our child in the Philippines. Improvisation is key.
We did a few feeding at this place, called "tent city." The government built these "nice" homes for typhoon refuge victims from 2 years ago (see our pics from our LAST mission trip). But the problem is that this place is WAY out in the middle of no where so these people have no way of getting jobs, making money, getting enough food and clothing, etc. And... now the government isn't supporting them anymore so they are just stuck there. Very sad.
New Faith Family Children's Home. This is part of Kid's International Ministries. We've been coming here for about 5 years now and have seen some of the kids grow up. We got lots of time to hold babies, play with the kids, and lead evening devotions with them while here.
The kids and Eric did some painting on new classrooms for the school.
At Myles' Ministry Center again. We did 2 feedings there as well. It was a great time to just sit down and talk with some of the kids (and play). This girl here, in the yellow, was named Princess and she really made an impact on Eric & I.
The kids lining up to get Birthday Brownies.
Eric handing out new "slippers" (flip-flops) to the kids at the ministry center. Our team bought these and tons of personal hygiene/toiletries products to the kids. Otherwise, they often go without.
This is us with Myles.
Our little bear being silly.
My two loves.
They team got to read to school kids each afternoon in the school's library.
For fun our team and all the kids from the Children's home, all the girls from the Girl's home, and all the workers associated with KIM got to go to a semi-professional basketball game to see Jeff Long's son, Kirk, play. This is us with Joan, the girl we sponsor. It was great getting so spend some personal time with her. And she just loved baby Emma.
The entire group who went to support Kirk. You can see him in the middle near the front with the bball jersey on.

Another feeding at tent city.
Changing into her swimsuit for a fun afternoon at a waterfall!
Daddy and Emma at the falls.
Eric taking a leap off the cliff at the waterfall. (not the same cliff as seen above). :)
Drinking soda out of a bag. Oh yeah!
We got to eat out at Chili's our last night. YUM! And it was also Emma's first time to order a kid's meal. She had fun "coloring," which mostly meant trying to eat the crayons.
Such a goofball!
And then we traveled home on Saturday with a ONE YEAR OLD! :)

Girl or Boy?

16 Weeks +4 Days

We went to the Doctor yesterday and had a great check-up! Our baby is doing so well! Head size is measuring 17 weeks. Heart rate is 140 bpm. There are no malformations of the nose or upper lip. The detail of the little hands, ribs, backbone, etc. was just amazing to see. AND... we found out the gender of our baby! If you'd like to know, please watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl0H-n-CDts&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I'm sorry that you have to go to youtube to watch it, but for some reason, blogger wouldn't let me upload to here. The sound on the video is bad BUT, like I said, the details of the sonogram are pretty darn good. (Hint: Watch the arrow!) Have fun!!!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Ok, so I know I've been silent on here for quite a while now and that's mostly been due to being out of the country on our Mission Trip to the Philippines last week. However, before I share about that, I need to spend an important moment focusing on this ONE YEAR OLD little girl! We had a birthday party for her a week ago Saturday - the same day we also flew out to the Philippines. It was a fun, Rainbow themed party with about 20 people crammed into our little apartment. But we had fun, and Emma seemed to enjoy the gifts and attention. Here are a few pictures from the event.

Mission Trip Fundraiser Dinner

On Thursday night we had our final mission trip fundraising event. A dinner. Our mission team served a great meal (cooked by Mylene and our wonderful kitchen ladies), and had some good entertainment including a Philippine trivia game and a traditional Philippines folk tale acted out. We also showed a few slideshows and videos of the ministry we will be joining with again while there. (Kids International Ministries) And Eric shared what we will be doing specifically (mostly construction work and feedings this time) and he also gave the gospel to those in attendance. Overall I think it was a great night... very informative and entertaining at the same time. Unfortunately I did not get pictures of everything that went on that night so these few will have to do.Kids and teachers serving the food.
The big group.
More serving. Lasagna was SO YUMMY in a country where you can't get the right cheeses or noodles. (or afford the expensive beef!) Mylene worked her magic - ie - base food. :)
Shannon about to narrate the folk tale with other teachers who "volunteered" to be actors.

Silly Bear

A few pics of what our life looks like daily...Mmm, mmm, mac 'n cheese!
She sits in this basket EVERY DAY!!!

We have a walker!

2 Videos for you

11 Months

Our baby girl is almost a year old! Just one more month! Every day it seems she is learning something new and blowing Eric and I away with how amazing she is. It will be hard to mention EVERYTHING that she is doing these days, but since I didn't write much last month I'll go ahead and write a few things down this time. I'll start with what she is doing in the picture above. You may think she fell down or something but in fact she is lounging. Emma loves to sit back/lean again something, cross her legs, and "rest." Usually it doesn't last for more than a few seconds, but it is cute to watch. This girl really needs her own special little chair but I'm not sure we'll find one here. I think in this picture what happened was she decided to lean back on the toy basket but then since it was empty she slid all the way down to the ground until she was laying. I looked over and thought it was funny. She also seems to like comfort in other areas too. If I ever put a blanket on her before she falls asleep, I will come in 15 minutes later to find her sleeping ON the blanket, almost using it like a pillow. So, then I'll have to add a blanket on top of her as well.

Speaking of sleep, she still almost exclusively sleeps on her belly (her choice). And, unless she is teething, she sleeps through the night from 7:45- 6:00. Ok, so sometimes she wakes up at 5am but I still won't let her out of bed until 6. Then she takes 2 naps a day.

Since I mentioned teeth, I will tell you that she now has 12 teeth! This girl is a teething machine! All 4 of her 1st molars (not the 2 year back molars) came in at the same time last month so we had quite the time dealing with that.

Size: She wears 12 month clothes and 18 month jammies. To me, I don't feel like she's grown a whole lot in the last few months, especially in her legs... they still seem short. But then again, I have short legs and a long torso, so she will probably follow suit. I'm not sure what her height and weight are. We'll have to wait until we go to the doctor next month for that.

Emma is slowly starting to feel more confident in her walking. I still would not call her a "walker" yet, but I think it will happen soon... in the next few weeks. She CAN take many steps at a time, stand well, and lower herself to the floor, but most of the time she still chooses to crawl and is pretty cautious with walking. Who knew that learning to walk was such a process!

Some of her favorite activities/games to do are: playing "knock it down!" with the blocks. She can even help build the block towers too. Listening to music and clapping/jumping/swaying. Playing chase with Daddy, Mommy, or Jack. Playing with Mommy's phone. Looking at books. Pulling things off of tables or out of drawers. Opening the cabinet and pulling out ALL of the ziplock baggies one by one and leaving them on the floor while Mommy is cooking. Walking with the stool or chair as a prop. Taking walks in the stroller or going outside in general. Playing with Mommy's nail polish bottles in the bathroom whenever she gets the chance (meaning whenever the bathroom is open.) (Hey, at least she isn't playing in the toilet!) Eating snacks! Climbing, climbing, climbing over anything she can get her leg up onto.

Speaking of snacks, some of her favorites are: cheerios, raisins (newly added), crackers (ritz or saltines), fruit (bananas or little oranges), apple juice!, puffed rice cakes, and anything Mommy is eating that doesn't have nuts in it. And for meals , I'd say 80% of what she eats is the same thing we eat. ie - big people food. Not much mushy food left around here! And she seems to love both veggies and fruit alike! And she like chicken, pasta, and bread too. I'm glad she's a good eater and like feeding herself.

Emma seems to understand so much of what we say these days. She understands and follows most commands we tell her. "Go get this, come here, don't touch that, etc." She knows the names of people and so many things. She knows what most of her toys are called. She gets a kick out of hearing me make animal sounds while pointing to the animal in books. However, she still won't repeat what you say on command. The words that she definitely knows how to say are: #1 word heard - "MAMA!" all day long. She also knows how to day "Dada," however, we hardly ever hear her say it anymore. She also knows "Baba" (bottle). Other words we have heard but aren't 100% sure she knew what she was saying: "Hi" (says this a lot), "Bye, bye" (said once but mostly she just waves byebye). She also says, "Oohyeah" a lot. It's cute. And I'm pretty sure she has her own special name for Jack. She talks to him or yells at him or chases him a lot. :) And for "no" she just shakes her head... mostly in regard to she question of, "do you want this?" (when we offer her more food or drink and she's finished).

Ok, I'm sure I'll think of more later, but for now that is a good stopping point. Stay tuned in a month for big birthday shenanigans and a one YEAR update!!!

Penny Wars

I should have blogged this last weekend. A few weeks ago our school participated in a Penny War to raise money for our school Mission Trip. Eric was the main person in charge of this fundraiser. Without explaining all of the details of how it works, I'll just say that each class had a jar and if they put pennies in their jar they got positive points. If they put any other denomination into any other class's jar, that class got negative points. In the past this has been a very big money maker, making an average of $1,000 each time we've done it. Well, with the zeal of my husband promoting this, as well as other teachers' zeal (plus a couple of awesome rule changes near the end), our tiny school ended up donating nearly $4,000 this year! They REALLY got into it! I am so proud of our school and so proud of my husband. This really helps in sending our kids to the Philippines, too! The pictures above are of the "counting party" we had at our house the week after to count and sort all the money before taking it to the bank. Yay, God!

11 Weeks + 2 Days

We went to the doctor again this Saturday and got to see our little jelly bean (who is now the size of a fig). We had a new doctor and while the appointment didn't seem particularly informative to me (although, really, what's new the 2nd time around), we did enjoy getting to see our little baby wiggle and squirm. Even Emma sat quietly and watched the whole time. I think this doctor got a more accurate reading on the size this time because the baby is now exactly right on for size. 11 wks + 1 day. 43.3 mm with a heartbeat of 162 bpm. In other news, I didn't gain any weigh! This is a big deal for me considering I gained SO much weight last time and even now with the nausea I have to snack constantly to keep from feeling sick. So no weight gain is good. :) (for now) We don't get to go back again until March 26th which is over a month away! This is actually right after we'll be getting back from our Philippines Mission Trip. Also, it's right after Emma's birthday. It seems like a long time from now but I'm sure it will go fast. And... HOPEFULLY at that appointment we'll get to know the gender of our baby!!! Yay!!! We love you baby #2!