Tunisian/Lybian Border

A friend of mine created a blog about the events going on at the Tunisian/Libyan border. Pretty interesting stuff:
http://ibernardiblog.blogspot.com/

Our family is safe and doing well and really excited to be going "home" to America soon. It has just given me a second wind of encouragement and excitement. There really is no place like home. Alex can walk and is starting to talk. He can say "Bye Bye, Uh oh, and Da Da." Ellie is a good big sister and is trying to teach him how to run (Oh Boy). It is really fun to see them play together.

Here is a picture of them playing together. Ellie is giving Alex her crown. She is still reigning on her throne of "big sister". Giving away her crown was only an act of charity :).

Day in the Life of Ellie

Ellie can be a handful. She can also be the funniest and sweetest kid in the world. Trying to raise her is like trying to herd cats (yes, several cats with all the energy she has), but I know that God is going to do something amazing through all that energy. Here are some of her recent one liners that just make me laugh:

While working with legos: "Well, I'll be jiggered."

Praying at night: "God go to Gabby's house and make her back to normal. You can do it." Gabby had the flu and wanted God to heal her. Sweet.

She recently watched the movie Despicable Me and loves it. While praying one night she talked to God about the characters in the movie: "God you know Despicable Me, don't you? God, you like Gru and made 3 girls."

While playing with the Little People Ark with Alex: "You can't fart on the ark because then it will get stinky on the boat." I think she was trying to give Alex advice. Great advice Ellie!

Lastly we were talking about our trip to America this summer. Somehow she remembered (or we said something about it) that my parents have a few cows at their house. While swinging today she said, "Grandpa has cows. Grandpa likes cows." She is pretty excited to get on a plane and see all the people she loves like Grandparents, Aunt Kerri, and their PETS. This kid loves animals. She might pet all their fur off in 3 months, ha!

I don't think she remembers America at all. The last time we were home was 2 years ago...April 2009. It was just for a month and she was only a year and 5 months old. Justin and I are learning what it takes to keep healthy (emotionally and spiritually) while living over here and we have GOT to go home more often. By the time we arrive to America in May, we will have been overseas 4 years consistently with a one month break back home half way through. This year will mark our 6th year living in North Africa. Talk about killer. That is too much time away from the country and family I love. Not to mention how encouraging it is to worship with a room full of people. This may sound really weird, but it is so cool to hear 1,000 people singing to God--like Holy Spirit overload. I took it for granted while living in America and can't wait to experience it once again. Nothing beats the intimacy and accountability of small groups, but worship on a large scale makes me think of heaven and how amazing it will be to see a sea of people worshiping Him-from all over the world. Ellie loves to sing and dance and I think she will LOVE the worship times this summer. We will be in the ones in the back of the church dancing and waving our hands, ha! Only 3 more months and I am counting down. Maybe I can find a pic or video to show off Ellie's amazing personality....um.....maybe this one of her washing her baby and using it like a drum too, but it's still pretty mild for her though.

Beginning steps with crazy hair

Alex is starting to get a little wild! Wild hair and crazy body movements as he is trying to walk. This video doesn't show the extent of his abilities, but it is a cute one of daddy and Alex. Hard to believe that we will be celebrating his ONE year Birthday next week. Maybe he will be walking by then.?. His little personality is just the cutest. Easy going and although he has a lot of energy like Ellie (ok, maybe 1/2) he likes to cuddle. He also likes to play with large legos, Ellie's hair, and balls. He is boy all the way: loves to figure things out, push buttons, and wrestle.

Videos

A few new videos of the kids: One is of Alex crawling and the other is of them playing in Alex's pack-in-play on the boat. It's really cute to see them interact together. Alex really loves Ellie and Ellie just likes to smash him or push his buttons. She does get concerned about him too, so that is sweet to see. I keep planting the seed that someday they will be best friends :).

7 Months--Ellie and Alex

Alex at 7 months. He is learning a lot of things right now and one of those is self-defense.



This picture says it all.



Alex is learning how to hold his own around big sister. He is pretty infatuated with her hair too.



Elianna and Alex are bonding. Elianna actually acknowledges his presence now and is slowly learning how to "love" on her brother in appropriate ways. Alex still isn't sure about all this new love he is receiving.

Grandma's Visit

Justin visited the states for 2 1/2 weeks to receive some training for his work. His mother, Momma Ruth, came to visit while Justin was away to help me manage the 3-ring circus of an energetic 2 1/2 year old and a 6 month old. There is no way I could have done it without her. After 8 days of doing it on my own I was frazzled. At this age, both kids can need you at the same time and it can get overwhelming fast. This little experience gives me so much more compassion for the wives of our troops overseas. My heart goes out to them and I deeply appreciate their sacrifice for the safety of our country and the benefit of another.

Here are some of my favorite pics from "Grandma Time."





Aren't they cute?? Grandma with her grand kids that is.

4th of July

Some of our friends who work for the oil company here let us use their amazing home for a 4th of July party while they were in Scotland. These are some of my new favorite Alex pics. He looked so great in his pool attire. He was too cool for the pool.

Pool Time

Having a blog really is fun. During this season of my life I don't have much time to write long entries, but instead of getting overwhelmed I 'm just going to try to write more often, but shorter entries. They say a picture can say 1,000 words, so who needs text? Here is a video of our new pool for summer. It's small, but perfect for the kids. Yes, Ellie said, "Dance with me" and "We are P." Not really sure what the "we are P" part is all about. She had just watched a Sesame Street video that talked about the letter "P" so I'm hoping she is talking about the letter and not the liquid. Number one pool rule: No pee in the pool, but we can let the letter P come for a visit.

Potty Training

This is one of those blogs that Elianna is going be to so embarrassed about when she is older. Potty Training is a major accomplishment in both the lives of the child and mother! I can't help but write about it and the pictures are too cute not to include. We now have a Potty Princess in our household and I'm so proud of her. It only took about 2 days until she was basically trained.

She showed signs of interest last week so I wanted to "go with the flow." A friend of mine gave me a book, so I read up on the topic over the weekend and then we began on our day off: last Monday. I knew that I would need Justin's help with Alex while I focused on Elianna. The Sunday night before we went to the store so she could pick out treats for the following day. Of course it was mostly chocolate! She is pretty smart because when we got home she asked for some chocolate and I told her it was for potty training. I told her "when you stay clean and dry by using the potty I will give you some chocolate." Well, she went right into the bathroom and used the potty and then came out and said "Can I have some chocolate now. " Chocolate really motivates this kido!! She had to take her diaper off and everything to get that little piece of chocolate. Of course I gave her some for the amazing jump start.

It's so nice to have only one kido in diapers now. Talk about savings! If Ellie had her way, the extra money would all go to chocolate.




Ellie drinking juice because she was clean and dry. Juice was
another treat she was able to choose from on potty training
day. Oh what a conundrum: Do I choose juice or chocolate!

Trying to Roll

Ladies and Gentlemen, Alex is trying to roll. Being endowed with a more than healthy body including several fat rolls, I was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to do much more than sleep and eat for several more months. He must have some muscle in there some where, because he is attempting to roll over.

Friends Forever: Sister and Brother

So Elianna has finally accepted that Alex is going to be a permanent addition to our household. It was a really rough transition for her: lots of anger and mood swings. She even tried avoiding him for months, probably thinking he would go away eventually. Thankfully she has calmed down a lot. She has even been developing an interest in the little guy...maybe a little too much as the video will show :).

Maisy and Alex

Here is our bouncing baby boy. He is a big boy at that and you can see that most clearly in this video. He is sitting beside Maisy who is 7 1/2 months. Alex is 2 1/2 and almost her size. I think there is only 3-5 pounds difference between them. As you can see, Alex has great ears...at least Maisy thinks so!

This blog is dedicated to my mother-in-law, Ruth, who has not yet held Alex in her arms. We will never fully know the extent of the sacrifices families make when the Lord calls His people to work overseas. Most of all those who are left behind and feel the pain and joy of seeing your children do what they desire to do most--follow Him. We love you Momma Ruth and miss you.

Elianna's 2nd Birthday Invitation

Make a Smilebox invite

Grandma's Here!

This is a video of Elianna in her PJ's right before bedtime. My mother-in-law, Ruth Stevens, just arrived today for a 2 week visit. We are so excited she is here and it's been like second Christmas. We have gotten lots of good food from home like hot chocolate mixes, Reece's Peanut Butter Cups, Candy Corn, and Dr. Pepper. Ellie got a lot of clothes and toys from family members. The pink vest she is wearing is from Ruth's sister, Aunt Janet. It's so soft. Aunt Janet also gave her this interactive book and she LOVES it. I thought this video was cute of her wearing and discovering her new toys from America. Hey family, thanks for all the gifts!! We love them.

Anniversary Pictures

Isn't she cute? Angie took this the night of our Anniversary date. She is in her PJs, ready for bed.










Here we are: The happy couple on their 5th wedding anniversary. Being 25 weeks pregnant, I feel like I look so bloated in this picture! The horror of it all is that my passport needs renewed so Angie was gracious enough to take my head shot that night too. The horror comes in knowing that for the next 10 years the photo on my passport will be me 25 weeks pregnant. Not fair, but praise God for the pregnancy!

Lavishly Loved

For about 3 years, I've had the joy of hosting a expatriate women's bible study in my house. It's a time for us to let down our hair (sometimes literally) and keep spiritually fresh in an environment that isn't always friendly to Christians. We get to support one another in the midst of facing challenges that overseas living can bring. It is just nice to know you aren't the only one walking down this road and the thoughts and feelings you have are normal.

This semester we are in the books of 1,2,3 John. Our passage last week was 1 John 3:1 "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are....". My friend Jen lead the discussion and she gave us paper crowns to wear to remind us that we are daughters of the KING. She also "lavished" us by bringing a pumpkin shaped and decorated cake made from an American cake mix. Nothing says "lavish" over here like American food products!! We had a really good time and laughed a lot while looking a bit silly in our crowns. For those of us with kids the crowns got put to good use. Elianna loved mine and wore it the next day. It was a little big on her, but that didn't stop my little princess from wearing her crown. Isn't it good to be the daughter/son of the KING!

Here we are wearing our crowns. Only 1/2 showed up that night due to traveling and other issues. Notice the beautiful pumpkin cake:
















Here are a few pictures of my little princess wearing her crown:

Poor thing, she looks so sad. That's what you get when you take pictures early in the morning! A princess needs time to wake-up before the photo shoot begins :). Side note: Look at all that hair and she is still only a one year old. Well she is only a month away from two.

It's been way to long!

About a month after we arrived back in North Africa, I got pregnant and have since fallen off the face of the blogging world. BUT here I am, back again, and ready for more blogging entries. I just have about 6 months to catch-up on!

So maybe I should start with one of our biggest joys this year; we are expecting a baby boy! I'm almost 25 weeks along and the baby is doing great. Some friends of ours have given us some boy clothes (2-4T) and we are slowly getting things ready for his delivery in early-mid Feb. Sometimes I can't believe we will have both a boy and a girl in a few short months, but Justin couldn't be more excited about having boy. It's really neat to see the smile on his face when he puts his hand on my belly to feel his baby boy move. As far as a name goes, we haven't chosen one yet, but hopefully soon. I like Alex or Joel, but Justin likes more modern names like Parker, Carson, or Hunter. You can see we have some work to do to agree on one name together. We both like Justin's middle name, Lance, for the baby's middle name so at least we have that picked out. If any of you have ideas, we are open for suggestions!

Another wonderful event that just happened is that Justin and I just had our 5th wedding anniversary on Oct. 23rd. We went out for a really nice dinner and I played sappy love songs all day in the house. I just love celebrating anniversaries!

Ellie will turn 2 on Nov. 21st and my mother-in-law will be here for that. She is coming to visit in 2 weeks, and I can't wait! It's like second Christmas when she comes and she acts more like a maid than a guest. She really blesses us. This trip we are going to a resort for a few days to give her a taste of relaxation North African style. It will be fun to relax together: without cooking, cleaning, or doing laundry.

A lot of other great things have happened this summer, and more good memories to come. I'm just glad to be back online, journaling (blogging) those memories as they come.

We hope you all are doing well. Let us know what you are up to when time allows. This is one tired mommy signing out for now.

Happy Halloween



Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our Trip to America

Us on Easter at Justin's mom's house. My mom made Ellie's dress.

Bridesmaids:
Left to Right: Friend of the Bride, Destini Hoyt (Justin's cousin), Suzanne Shaw (Justin's youngest sister)

Justin's sister, Heather: THE BRIDE

We just got back 2 weeks ago from America. We had such a wonderful time seeing family and friends. It was great to see Elianna play and bond with her grandparents. No one loves your children like their grandparents. She also got to play with some really cute kids. Amanda and Christina, your kids are sooo adorable! Thanks for sharing them. Ellie enjoyed getting some kido action.

A quick overview of the trip would be: Justin's sister got married (photos included), we ate way too much food (how can you say "no" to Panara Bread), and stocked-up on things for the next couple years. It's hard to believe we will have been in North Africa for 4 years in Sept. The time has really flown by. BUT, it has taken 4 years to feel comfortable here. For some reason coming home this time feels more like home to me. Maybe it's because we have a child and all her things are here. Maybe it's because we have some amazing friends here. Or maybe it is just because it takes that long to adjust to another world. It's probably all of the above.

Here are some random photos of our trip to America. God Bless America!

Flossie

My brother, Wayne, and his wife have the cutest dog named Flossie. Kaie, my sister-in-law, saw the dog as a puppy abandon beside the road and saved it. It is the tamest dog and Ellie fell in love with her. This is a video of them together. Flossie let Ellie "ride" her and Ellie went a little wild. How did Flossie respond? She turned around a gave Ellie a puppy kiss. Ellie tried to repay the favor (giving Flossie a kiss), but they both ended up rolling on the ground. It was so cute. There is just a special bond between a boy/girl and their dog...even if the dog is a cousin.