33 weeks and growing!

That's right, we're at 33 weeks and are counting down to when we get to head to Turkey to wait the last couple of weeks.  I'd love to say we were 36 weeks, but I'm trying to keep my heart and mind on the mid-March due-date.  Baby #4 sure has me tired and my body feeling it.  Would love your prayers for perseverance until the end!

My thrill seeker!

As he gets older, we are starting to see more and more who this little guy is.  His fear and hesitation factor is quite small.  Maybe it comes with having 2 older siblings; he's just seen a lot done and thinks he can do it too.  This, however, was his own creative discovery yesterday morning. 

Our seriously be-lated Christmas post!

 This year we had a very full Christmas!  A Christmas full of His goodness; full of remembering His sweet presence; full of family despite the distance; full of anticipation for the new life that is coming to join us soon; and full of friends.

Enjoying his talking car.

Ethan driving his Hotwheels, on his new track, up the wall!

Elli happily displaying her newly dressed baby dolls!

First Christmas to enjoy licking the spoon!  Elli willingly sharing what's left of the yummy fudge.

The anticipation of Christmas Eve!

Here's to imaginative play.  He's pretty excited. 

Daddy's demonstration of imaginative play.

As our kids have grown up, it's been fun to watch the excitement to buy gifts for one another grow.  To see the ideas they have and the excitement they have to give them to each other!

  

Ethan's gift to Elli; a framed picture of them sledding together!  They are good friends, most of the time!

And Elli's gift of Lego's for Ethan.  She knows her brother!

 

 

 

 

Elli's big gift this year was a wooden doll house!

While Ethan helped put the pieces where they went, Elli soaked up every character. 

Celebrating Christmas with traditions!

 This was our kitchen window the week before Christmas.  This window is directly behind our kitchen table and our advent calendar hung right above it.  Elli was quite excited for the frost on the window, as we've read several times how Laura used her mom's thimble to make patterns in the frost.  Daddy wasn't so excited that with the frost also came consecutive days of the kitchen door freezing shut.  

 This is our homemade advent calendar.  I found a version of it online 2 years ago and we love it.  25 reasons for why Jesus came at Christmas.  Everyday has a Scripture passage and a reminder that we hang on the calendar.  The kids really got into it this year, I think they were a little older which helped in the understanding.  

On a random after-Christmas run to Wal-Mart in 2008, I bought 6 matching stockings on sale.  Isn't that wild!  This year I took them to a local seamstress and she embrodiered our names on them.  How fun to have a little touch of Central Asia on our stockings.  Her response was quite comical as I explained what I wanted her to do: "Your family only wears one sock?  You all wear the same size?"  No, we put treats in the socks (which in and of itself is a gross thought). 

Baby E's stocking is ready.  Though we are pretty settled on the name, we decided to wait until he actually arrives. 

The ultimate baby gift!

I guess there's no better year to purchase a dryer than the year your fourth child is born!  That's right, it's a dryer in our country.  And my hubby was all about buying it.  Summer time laundry is easier to keep up with, as things dry pretty quickly.  But it can take 3 days for clothes to dry in the winter.  And we all wear at least 2, sometimes 4, layers in the winter.  Granted we'll need strong electricity, so there are never any "for sure" aspects to life here.  But I'm sure excited for the possibility!

And soft fluffy towels that smell like dryer sheets, as opposed to crunchy ones that smell like the smoke from our neighbour's coal heater . . . that's bonus! 

First Braids!

Do you remember this little girl?  She'd even tell you "I was bald when I was a baby."

 Aunt Sarah got to braid her hair for the first time!

 She had to hold those little wispies pretty tight!

Elli, feeling so big and grown up!  Thanks Aunt Sarah for our first braids.  

(side note: my little hot body is wearing only her long johns while everyone else is in multiple layers!)