five years ago today...

where to look in the bible

 I've been going through my old scrapbooks recently and found this on an old bookmark glued to one of the pages.  I thought it was a pretty cool guide!

Where to Look in the Bible

For the Ten Commandments

Exodus 20: 2-17

For the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5: 1-12

For an example of doing good to others

Luke 10: 25-37

If you feel all alone and neglected

Psalm 139

Christ at Passover with His disciples

John 13-17

If you feel lost and afraid

Psalm 23

For an example of loyalty to family and God

The Book of Ruth

For a definition of human and divine love

1 Corinthians 13

If God doesn't seem important anymore

Psalm 90

For the Bible in a nutshell

John 3:16

If you feel a need to spread the gospel

Isaiah 40

Before starting a big undertaking

Joshua 1

six months and solid foods

Can you believe it?  Our little girl has turned six months old!

She just gets cuter and cuter, doesn't she?  On the morning of her sixth month birthday, Kristin dressed her up and took her into the living room for this "photo shoot".  She was an excellent sport about the whole thing, giving us cute smiles along with other, more "natural" poses.

For instance, here she is sucking on her "safety fingers".  This is what she does when she's tired, overwhelmed, frightened, or just plain bored.

And then there's this one - showing Mommy how big her mouth is!

After such a sleep-deprived first few months, we're glad we now have a happy baby with such a fun personality.

She's been attempting to crawl but hasn't quite managed it yet.  We describe what she does do as "the inchworm."

First, she sees what she wants...

...then she excitedly waves all limbs in the air (we think this might actually be an official pilates move...it's pretty impressive!)...

...then she does upward dog (a yoga term)...

...and then she plants her face into the floor and starts to move her knees underneath her.

She eventually ends up in downward dog (another yoga term)...

...and then she finally falls over.

In all of the pilates and yoga moves, she actually does manage to scoot herself forward to grab whatever it is that she wants.  Fortunately for us, she's still incredibly slow about it.  It's only a matter of time, though...

We also just started sitting her at the table with us for meal times!  We've given her a sippy cup with water, but she's still not quite sure what to do with it yet.

Today, we fed her solids for the first time!  Nathan decided that her first food should be sweet potato, so we bought a few sweet potatoes, cooked them, and blended them up.  She was excited. :)

Rather than letting Kristin put the spoon in her mouth, Rebekah had to help things along a bit.  She would grab the spoon, mash her fingers into the sweet potato, and then put the whole mess into her mouth by herself.

But, we think she liked what she tasted.

Food is fun!

By the time we were done, she had started reaching for the spoon (not sure if she wanted more sweet potatoes or just wanted to play with her silverware).  We also had a very messy table, and an even messier baby.

nathan gets older, too!

And here's another one from the archives (it was written back in January).  I can't believe it's taken us 6 months to post it!

Kristin here.  Nathan likes to remind me that I'm old, but he got a bit older, too.  Since his birthday falls around Christmas, part of his birthday celebration over the years has been decorating the Christmas tree.  We still don't have a tree of our own, but he was able to partake in the tradition at his parents' house.  Here he is with his brother, stringing up the lights.

Meanwhile, Nathan's mom and our niece worked on his cake.

And Nathan's dad lounged around on the floor. :)

Occasionally he would go help our niece and nephew "clean up" their cake mess.

We enjoyed a family meal together to celebrate Nathan's birthday.  The chocolate cake was amazing, as usual!

Our niece and nephew provided after-dinner entertainment...

...and then it was time for presents!  Nathan's such a nerd - he actually wanted engineering books! :)

Dessert was followed by an evening of board games.  Nathan was obviously deep in thought about his strategy during this one.

Nathan's actual birthday was on a weeknight, so I worked hard to plan a special dinner for him.  He loves paninis, but I had never made them, so I decided to surprise him with some!  I made a grilled chicken and bacon panini with smoked gouda on focaccia.  I also whipped up some homemade sweet potato fries - his favorite.  Come to find out, Nathan had eaten a panini when he went out for his birthday lunch at work!  (Mine was way better, though.)

Here's Nathan, wearing his special "birthday hat" from work.  Haha!

My gift to Nathan was to take him to buy tennis shoes.  The shoes he currently had were old, ratty, and only $30 when they were new - it was time for new ones!  I think we spent over an hour at that store.  Now that he works on orthopedic implants for foot deformities, he knows what kinds of damage a bad pair of shoes can do to feet.  No more cheap tennis shoes for him!

After an hour, he had narrowed it down to two different pairs...

...and we have a winner!

After our shoe-shopping excursion, we came home where I had made Nathan a pazookie (skillet cookie, for those not in the know).  Ironically, he also had a pazookie at his work lunch!  Once again, mine was better.  :)

kristin turns 30!

Life has been crazy for us lately.  We've had nonstop visitors for over a month, we've traveled to Oklahoma and Kansas numerous times, and Kristin's sister got married!  We finally hit a point where we could sit down and update the blog, and we noticed that there were a few posts from several (we mean several) months ago that just never got posted.  So...we're playing catch up.

Ready for December?  This post was written pre-baby, pre-new house, etc.  Those days seem like an eternity ago!

--------------------------------------------------------

In December, Kristin turned the big 3-0.  We had been planning on doing something really special that involved lots of food, lots of friends, and lots of celebrating.  Then we moved.

Poor Nathan tried to come up with ways to still make the day special, despite the fact that we wouldn't be celebrating with any of our friends.  He wanted to bake a cake, but the beaters are still packed (so there went that idea).  There was no point in making a big meal because we were just going to go out of town the next day.  So, instead, we went to one of Kristin's favorite restaurants, Logan's Roadhouse.

After a great dinner, we went home for the rest of the celebration.  Nathan piled up Kristin's gifts on the coffee table and brought out a large jar candle for her to blow out.

The birthday dessert?  Leftover crock-pot cake, ice cream, and grape juice from Castello di Amorosa in Napa Valley.

Despite having leftover dessert for her birthday, Kristin enjoyed reading her cards and opening her gifts.  She was especially excited to get a box from her friend Katie in California.

Her mom got her a robe to wear in the hospital when she goes to have the baby.  Ummm...little big, don't you think?

And Nathan did such a great job wrapping up his gifts, especially considering the wrapping paper was all packed away.

 

On Kristin's birthday weekend, we traveled to Oklahoma to visit family.  While we were there, some good friends of our hosted a baby shower for us.  Only a small group was able to come, but we were so thankful for their presence.  One of our favorite gifts was a quilt and pillow made by Nathan's mom that featured some alphabet wall decor that Kristin loved.  We were especially excited to see that the pillow featured the letter "R" (ironic considering that nobody knew what we would be naming our baby).

Following the shower, we went back to Nathan's parents' house to celebrate Kristin's and Nathan's mom's birthday (their birthdays are on the same day!).  Nathan's mom made an incredible brownie cheesecake.

Nathan's parents gave Kristin some wine glasses...it's our first matching set!  We're excited that we don't have to serve guests wine from our prom glasses anymore. :)

While there, Nathan enjoyed spending time with our niece and nephew.

Finally, a family gathering wouldn't be the same without a family photo!