A glimpse into his future

So what is it that could hold Case's attention even more than his toys around him? His daddy, practicing his Sunday sermon! Case was so enthralled while Matty was going through his sermon, it was so cute. Since this is how Sunday mornings will be for the rest of his childhood, I'm glad he enjoys it!

We had a great time in MN, visiting family and friends and attending Macey's 2nd birthday party! Case enjoyed showing off how well he can sit up and play, giggle and babble. He turned 6 months old on Wednesday and "Macey and Bevo" (my sister, Alisha's, dog) threw Case a half birthday party - it was great! He got some great toys including some "Girhalf's" (get it, giraffe's were "Gifhalfs" for his half birthday)! Oh Brandes, you are so creative! We went to Brookie's work to have lunch with her in the new Bethel Commons, spent the first weekend with my parents, this last weekend with Matt's parents and brother, Ryan, and saw lots of friends in between. It was wonderful to be at Sovereign Grace Fellowship to worship with them on Sunday morning, we love that church so much!

Traveling... I am happy to say that I kept all of my food down on the plane rides. Get this, I even had the exact same flight home. Minneapolis to Philly and Philly to Baltimore. When we took off from Minneapolis the pilot said, "you can expect it to be pretty bumpy when we descend into Philadelphia"... I could feel my stomach churning already. But, my definition of bumpy sure has changed - It wasn't bad at all!

So we are back in Maryland and it is so green here, it's beautiful! We had Case's 6 month appointment, and he's still a string bean! He's 15 lbs 15 oz (25th percentile) and 28 inches long (95th percentile). Getting his shots were so sad, but now he won't need any until he is 1 year old

The last shall be first...

Well.. today was the day, after waking up at 4am, 13.1 miles lay ahead of me and Hannah B. You'd think after running 26.2 miles twice before, this would be a piece of cake - not the case. I told many people that I was really, truly prepared to come in dead last. Everyone laughed, you know, assuming I was doing that thing people do... make yourself look really bad so when you come in with a good time it seems amazing. Well, didn't I prove you all wrong! Now, we didn't finish quite dead last, but pretty close! Out of 4500 people, we beat 14 people. Yep, that's right, 14 people! Ha! Can you believe it! I guess about 60 people didn't finish, so technically we "beat" them too. I'll admit, part of me almost wishes we were dead last, just to say it happened! In my own little defense and to mostly not throw Hannah under the bus... for having a baby 6 months ago, I'm not too ashamed of my time, and Hannah was a great friend and hung with me. I'm sure she'll deny it, but I know she could have run faster. Next year, we'll do another half marathon and it won't be too lofty of a goal to beat our time today. On a happy note, my friend Tiffany ran the half marathon too and was unbelievably fast! I'm so proud of you, Tiff! oh, and it was freezing this morning, even for this MN girl!
Here'a pic of my favorite little fan around mile 7...
Ahh, I'm just glad it's over! Hannah and I had matching shirts she made that on the front said, Hannah2 (Hannah squared, I don't know how to do it on the computer) and on the back it said, We run because, we love cookies! With a picture of Cookie Monster, they were so cute, we got a lot of fun comments along the course.
We've had such a great time over the last couple days with Hannah, Andrea & Coleman. Case and him are great buddies! On Wednesday and Thursday we spent time just hanging out, and on Friday we headed in and toured the monuments and the Holocaust Museum. Today, of coarse, was the race, then we headed off to Rita's and spent the rest of the day relaxing. It's been wonderful! Hannah bought the boys these matching monkey shirts - too cute!

Spoiled!

Our small group back home has continually blessed us throughout our year here at the PC. From a massage for me, yummy hot chocolate, encouraging notes, clothes for Case - including a puffy vest, oh how well they know me! They have just spoiled us throughout this year and it has been so fun getting their care packages. Well St. Patrick's day was no exception! Our SGF small group sent us the following care package.
It included a t-shirt for Matt that I made sure he wore that night to dinner at a friends house, flip flops for me that I basically have not yet taken off, notes, goodies, a sweatshirt for Case, and a special St. Patty's day gift for Matty that only you small groupies know, but be rest assured he enjoyed it GREATLY!
Love you all!! You are so wonderful and you bless our socks off!

Sitting Up!

Case has learned to sit up! Not for too long of an extended period, but he's loving it. I can't believe that next he'll be crawling. It's going so fast, just like everyone said it would. He also just moved into size two diapers! It's pretty crazy that he's been in size one diapers this long but he is just so skinny! But it's official, he's in size two now, they just look so big!
In just a couple of days some of our good friends from back home are coming! Hannah and Andrea are college roommates of mine and Andrea is bringing her little boy, Coleman, who is just a couple weeks younger than Case. I'm really looking forward to spending time with all of them. And then on Saturday, Hannah and I are running a half marathon. What was I thinking?? At the time it seemed like a good idea to get back into shape after having a baby... but it just came so quickly! I am hoping to just live through it! I'll let you know how it goes...

Making the Most of it...

We are trying to make the most of our time left here in MD. I can't believe it is already March and PC graduation is just three short months away! It's unbelievable how quickly time is going here. We've had a great last couple of days, on Sunday we had dinner and played cards with our host couple. Mike and Sarah T are our host couple who generously opened their home to us while we are here at the PC this year. On Sunday we played up and down the river, love that game! Case loved sitting with daddy and watching us play.
Then last night Matt and I had our weekly date night. He took me to Dave & Busters (sort of like a chucky cheese for adults!). We had a great meal and then had so much fun playing the games. Racing is always our favorite at a place like this, so we had fun racing cars, but our favorite was the motorcycles - especially for Matty who's dream would be to own a Harley. I thought I would serve my husband and play a "shoot 'em up" game. But to my surprise I had SO much fun playing this game and I am a pretty good sniper if I do say so myself!








Our friends, the Slack Family, babysat Case while we were off playing games! We brought back some ice cream and had a wonderful time visiting and laughing with them. So much so that we ended up staying until almost 1 in the morning!

Then tonight we headed out with Walt and Kim Alexander to a Vietnamese restaurant called, Taste of Saigon. Are you ready for this shocker... I loved it! It was really good. Well, I loved my dish, the appetizers, not so much. Then we walked down to Ben and Jerry's for some ice cream and more fellowship and laughs! We are so thankful for the friends we have been blessed with this year!

Maryland Memories

Since I started this blog in February, I thought I would look back over the year here and highlight some of my favorite memories. I thought this would be a good way to start, a picture of what I looked like when we arrived in Maryland and of course, the biggest highlight of the year was Case being born, and since we can never get enough pictures of Case here is one of him just a couple of hours old...

I can't believe how huge I was and how tiny he was just a couple of months ago! Then over the next couple of months we had lots of visitors, it was wonderful... my family came, matt's family came, Hannah B, and Nachelle, it was so much fun. When Alisha and Macey came we went to the National Zoo. The National Zoo is awesome and it was such a beautiful October day! Case was 18 days old and slept the entire time.











Here's Macey and Uncle Matt, or as she likes to call him "tickle, tickle, tickle"! And the monkeys at the zoo climb right over you. If you ever have a chance to go to the Zational Zoo, go! When Brooke came we went to the International Spy Museum and when Nachelle came we went to the Air and Space Museum. It was great exploring DC with everyone!

Another great memory we will have from MD is Case's buddy Korey! Matt and I have had a great time getting to know Devon and Kristine Kauflin, a couple here from Covenant Life. Their son, Korey, was born 6 hours after Case and was even delivered by the same doctor. It has been so fun to have a friend like Kristine, a mom going through exactly what you are at the same time. She's encouraged me, answered many questions for me, but the best part might just be taking pics of our boys together!

Throughout this year we have made tons of great memories with the Hansen family! Jason and Tiffany, and their adoreable and hilarious girls, Abby and Katie, are also here attending the PC. Tiffany and I have enjoyed many play dates, shopping trips and cooking adventures together, it has been so great having a friend like Tiff here! She's always willing to let me stop by unexpectantly and occasionally (like once a week!) invite ourselves for dinner! Recently, as couples we have started watching LOST... does it get any better than putting the kids to bed, making some amazing popcorn and watching the best show on tv and then doing our best to analyze what is going on?? It's been great!

We also had a great time watching the playoff games and Superbowl with the Kauflins and Hansens. Even though we were all hoping the Cardinals would win, it was a great way to spend our weekend evenings! Here are some pics from the superbowl:

Jason and Matt when we thought the Cardinals were going to win...












And Tiffany when it was clear the Cardinals weren't going to win.












But all in all it was a lot of fun that night... here's a pic of Tiffany, myself and Kristine!
Well those are just the "non-PC" memories! I'll have to post some of those at a later date, but hopefully this fills you in a little on what fun we've had since arriving here and the great friends we've made!

1st Haircut

Well... it was time, Case had his first hair cut while we were home in MN. I didn't get any pictures of the actual haircut itself - my battery died! He did great! Maria cut his hair, who else would I trust with his beautiful head of hair? He was mostly just interested in the shiny scissors. Here's a before and after...
Before:
After:
I think he looks like such a big boy!