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!)

Enjoying the special treats

Disclaimer: I wrote this several weeks ago, but for some reason it got lost in "time" and was posted back in April 2011.  I found it and thought I'd move it more current!

It's really a change in a deeply ingrained life strategy.  I'm not an extreme hoarder, but I definitely struggle to use up the things that are special, for fear that when they run out . . . then what will we have.  It's been a process of conviction really.  First, it was E and J's phrase and lifestyle "use the best first and you'll always have the best."  Which in the logistics of it is true; use the imported powdered sugar and when it's gone, you'll have the other option which is now the best available.  But it even reaches to a deeper level of contentment.  Enjoy it now, contented, and trust that what I have later I can also be content with.

"1000 Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are" gave fullness to the concept of contentment and deepened the conviction in my heart that I wasn't entering fully into the now and trusting Him with the tomorrow.  Seems silly that such matters of the heart surface over things like peanut butter, powdered sugar, sweet potatoes and black beans.  I know the issues of contentment don't end there, but that is a practical place I'm seeking to push back and believe Him; enjoy Him.  And with the bounty that all our visiting friends brought (more special treats than we could have asked for) it would truly be gluttony to not.

So we're using them, pulling them out of our black pantry trunks and enjoying His little gifts of grace now.  Rather than hoarding them for a really bad day; which when I examine my heart means I'm trusting that bag of Recee's Peanut Butter cups to carry me on bad days instead of Jesus.  That somehow on that day, His generosity will have run out; His grace been exhausted is not Truth.   

Peanut Butter Balls . . . a luscious Christmas confection.  And we made them together out of all imported ingredients.  One of the best parts was watching Stephanie's how to video on the Joy of Baking with Elli. I didn't know it would transform our cooking experience.  We can struggle to work together in the kitchen.  But Elli had seen the video and knew the directions.  And we had a blast making them together; many times her quick to remind me or educate Ethan (who didn't get to see the cooking movie) of the next step.  We may cook together, via the internet, more often!  

 

 Guilty of snitching as we cook

 All of us were guilty!

 The peanut butter balls didn't turn out as picture perfect as I remember Sandie Anderson's being, but you can tell we all enjoyed making them!

And then this recipe is too good not to share.  We had the special treat of sweet potatoes (sold once a year in the capitol) bought for us and delivered by a friend.  Combined with the bag of black beans that made it in our shipment, this is such a yummy soup.  It's very flavorful (Elli didn't love it) and honestly gets better the next day.  I hope you try it and enjoy it!

Black Bean Soup with Sweet Potatoes
2T. oil
2 medium yellow onions
3 medium cloves garlic, chipped
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1/4t aniseed
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
4 15 1/2 oz cans black beans, rinsed and drained
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into medium dice
plain yogurt and lime for garnish


It is pretty self-explanatory recipe.  Saute the onions until soft.  Then add all the spices and sautee briefly.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer until sweet potatoes are tender.  Blend all but 3 cups of the soup, combining the blended and non-blended to serve.  So tasty!