Random stuff...

Our house is finally taking shape! The outside is painted, and they are currently painting the inside, and putting in the tile in the bathrooms/kitchen. It's starting to look more like a home, we can't wait!

Everyone told us when you build you have to visit the site almost every day to check for mistakes. They were totally right. (Our kitchen cupboards were skew with the wall, etc. etc. I won't bore you with the details!) but its been fun going down almost every day to see the progress. We've had to be quite "hard core" with our builder to make sure everything is done properly. This is the little island in the kitchen leading in to the livingroom (the skeleton of the cupboards are there, granite will go on top).
Noah is finally loving being on his tummy...the only time he'd really complain is if we put him on his tummy, he hated it! But now that he can move around a bit he's enjoying it! He was rocking back and forth the other night, so crawling is definitely coming soon.

He seems like such a "boy" to me now, and less of a baby. He loves being outside getting his fingers in the mud & grass and he cracks up laughing if we fake cough or burp (totally a boy thing to do!)


I just made an awesome discovery. Back in LA the one thing that was a staple in the Archer refrigerator was Coffeemate vanilla creamer for our coffee. Clint has this thing for anything vanilla, and nothing would necessitate a trip to the grocery store more than if we were out of it! Its made by Nestle, and they actually have Nestle products in SA, but no coffeemate (to our great dismay.) BUT they just came out with this product here called "Mmmilk." Its soooo good! Its just milk with added vanilla and its awesome straight, and adds a bit of vanilla to our coffee. So thats our new staple in our fridge. :)

A new pet peeve of mine is restaurants/stores without changing room facilities for babies. I don't think I've ever changed Noah on a real changing table, I always have to do it on the floor on a blanket in the restroom, and I think its sooo gross! So I just found a grocery store that has one, and I only shop there now, just to support them :)

Clint is going to start preaching through my favorite book of the Bible, 1st Peter. I can't wait! But because we have a cry room at our church, its hard to listen to the sermon while watching Noah and there being a bunch of other babies/moms in the room. It's so distracting! Plus his naptime starts when church starts, but napping never happens in the cry room. Nuts! So I've been trying to listen to them again or at least chat to Clint about the sermon to make sure I caught everything. I'm still getting used to not having my full attention in church! Oh! And my new Bible reading time is when Noah eats his finger foods (it takes him quite a while, and he loves it!) I just sit at the table with him, and read while he munches away. It's one of my favorite times of the day.

And we just finished season 2 of The Office, how killer is that final episode? :-) My favorite part are the deleted scenes, cause they are usually funnier than the actual show!

O's

Uh oh, wher'd the O go?

Load shedding

2010 World Cup:

So if Jay Leno did a show in South Africa, the butt of every joke right now would be load shedding (in American terms: rolling blackouts). Currently there is a lack of power to supply electricity to everyone in SA because the power plants just aren't big enough to keep up with the population/industry growth here. So the government has decided instead of investing in building bigger and better power plants, they'd rather have the 2010 World Cup Soccer in South Africa....which of course means the money must be spent on building airports, and widening roads, and building stadiums in preparation for the world to descend on us in 2010 instead of supplying electricity to its country. In each suburb, power is cut for 2 hours a day, and you just have to deal with it. This is effecting, well, everything. To make matters worse, they never stick to the schedule, so the power is cut for longer and can actually be at any time. AND they reckon that the problem won't be solved until AFTER 2010 when they can actually invest in building power plants. So...this means our power will be cut 2 hours a day until about 2013. Think of how this affects the country. Its crazy really. No business can complete a full days work, (imagine being at work and having to take a 2 hour break cause you can't even check your email) no restaurant knows if they can stay open all night or not, grocery stores can't keep their meats etc. cold, surgeries can't be scheduled in case generators conk out. etc. etc. We've been rather lucky living on a "hospital grid" which means ours isn't cut as much, but we are moving to a very small community, which means we will be hit pretty hard by this when we move in a few months time. Everytime someone here asks me what America is like in comparison to where I live, I usually answer "its just like here, only everything is bigger there (cars, grocerystores, its just BIG in America) but now I actually feel like I'm living in a foreign country where the governments crazy decisions actually effect us personally. BUT if you think about it from an eternal perspective, living without electricity doesn't really matter, when the power is cut my relationship with God isn't effected :) Its just a little inconvenient. So we are trying to "rejoice always"...even in the dark :)

Scooching

Noah started scooching tonight (well backwards anyways). He managed to scooch himself across our entire livingroom floor like he knew how to do it all along.

I love this face, its like "hey mom, look what I can do!" I think he's proud of his new skill. I can't believe my son is mobile! Yikes!

Wedding...

Liz and Lyle's wedding reception was this weekend, (they got married in Australia), it was so fun seeing them in their wedding garb & hanging out with people from our church!

Noah and his friendy Taine (they hang out in the cry room every Sunday service) Taine is a few months younger than Noah, but they are starting to become freinds :)

The guys at the table
Clint got to give a speech at the wedding, and share the gospel.

We were about an hour away in the Midlands. It was stunning! I would have taken more photos on the way there, but we were running late!

Jen & Vicky are coming with us to Resolved in LA this summer...woo hoo!

The first dance

It was so fun hanging out with the families in our church. Amanda designed Liz's wedding dress, so pretty!

Such a beautiful view. I felt like we were in Ireland again. The midlands get so green this time of year!

Future Bruin?

One of my favorite outfits that I got at my baby shower in LA was the "UCLA Bruins" one from my former roomie Sheryl. It was so cute and I couldn't wait to put Noah in it, and it finally fits! :) Who knows? Maybe he will be a future Bruin like his mommy! :)

Sporting it:

My absolute favorite "toothy" grin. Its hard to catch on camera, but i finally caught it today! He's usually camera shy with smiles.


UCLA fight fight fight!

Ohleng came over today and her and Noah became very fast friends. Her favorite thing to do was to feed him his sippy cup. She also got out every toy he owns and gave it to him. Noah was mesmerized by his little friend. He didn't make a peep and watched her play with all his toys.

The Great Outdoors

After what it seems like has been weeks of rain, (and hot rain at that) we headed outside a few days ago to enjoy the sun. It's so humid now, that outside is preferable cause of the breeze. In fact, I usually let Noah "swim" in a cold bath to cool him down before his afternoon nap. Noah loves being outside. He sits quietly and soaks it all in. This is him in his "I love Santa" shirt that my parents sent in mid November, and it arrived this week (mid Jan)! But its still super cute...

Enjoying Spurgeon and Tobi
Tobi is his favorite one.

He loves touching the leaves and the grass. Although I usually have to rescue him from putting it in his mouth (as you can see by the ones that escaped his clutches).

Tobi all of a sudden has become an "outdoor cat." She used to hate outdoors and be scared of any bird that flew by. But now she does great acrobatic tricks to get out of any window we leave open. We think it has something to do with a new kitty visitor that we call "Scabby Tabby" that she growls at from our window. But the weird thing is that she can climb the fence from the back yard to the front, but not back again. (Go figure). So we always find her meowing at the front door....not to come inside, but to get to the back yard.

Big blue eyes!

So this morning at 6am I get up and randomly look out the window to see if its raining, and as soon as I look out, KERBOOM! The brightest light I've ever seen along with the loudest thunder EVER! It was soo weird cause there was no lightning before and I think the lightning hit our property cause the sound and light happened simultaneously. So scary, especially when your still kinda half asleep! :) The weather is so weird now. Its SUPER hot, but raining.

And our house is starting to take shape now. They've ordered all our tiles for the bathroom/kitchen and our cupboards and kitchen is in! So its starting to feel more like a home. We can't wait!

We are now into "The Office." Warren and JJ lent us their copy, and we are hooked. So now we are on Season 2 of the office, and season 3 of 24. We get 4 channels for free in SA but they are terrible. (take for example a few nights ago our choices were like, Walker Texas Ranger, something in Afrikaans, something in Zulu, etc. etc.) so its so great actually being able to watch what everyone was talking about like 2 years ago. :) So we are a little behind the times, but loving it.

These are random videos of Noah for the grandparents! I love 8 months cause everyday he seems to learn something new. He's now learned "shaky face" so when we say it he shakes his head back and forth. We think its hilarious cause we do "shaky face" photos with Cornerstone, and its his first thing he can copycat us on. He can now do it on command :)

This one is kinda dark, but Noah LOVES Tobi our cat, and his face lights up and he grabs for her whenever he sees her. I'm FORCING Tobi to be near Noah so he can have some fun. Whenever I say "Where's Tobi?" he looks on the ground for her all over.

And one of the first times he said "momma." His bib says "power drool" i love it! He also says "dadda" now but I haven't caught it on video yet.

8 Months Old!

After bathtime in his Pooh towel that he got for Christmas from Grannie Anne. Too cute!

Laughing after his bath in daddy's office

At 8 months he's starting to understand how toys work (instead of putting the book straight in his mouth, he actually turns the pages) His favorite toy at the moment is a Pooh book that talks and lights up when you turn the pages or push the buttons (from my parents, thanks!)

And he LOVES his bath time...especially the toys. I usually let him play until the water turns cold cause he loves it so much. He likes taking the sail off his boat and splashing with all his might. :)

First finger foods!
Looking for the last two cereal stars....where'd they go?While changing him I usually give him a bottle of lotion or whatever is lying around to play with...and he usually wants to hold onto it for a while. It's very sweet. His ham smile that looks fake, but is totally genuine :)

At 8 months:

His favorite food is mashed pears, or munching on toast crusts. He loves Tobi our cat, especially her tail. He loves to jump when you hold him up. He loves being tossed in the air. His favorite games are peek-a-boo, and the finger poke game (where I come at him from afar and poke him in different spots, he laughs so hard!) His favorite song is "knick knack paddy wack" that I end up singing cause its written on one of his blankets, it always is received with big smiles. Currently I'm trying to teach him not to touch his bowl or spoon when I'm feeding him (he's almost got that one down! and it saves on the mess) and not to touch my coffee cup (he's fascinated with cups). I'm glad he's not crawling yet, our lives are about to change real soon. So I'm enjoying the non-mobile stage where I can just leave him to play and know that he'll be safe if I'm close by. :) I pray almost every day for wisdom on how to raise this little guy!

Holiday part 3

We had an amazing time away of just relaxing and hanging out with family by the riverside!

View of Knysna from the road:

Noah and the boats

Noah playing with his great Auntie Peggy

Grandma had fun with Noah tons so we could go out and explore and swim! :) Thank you!

Auntie Peggy and Uncle Michael were nice enough to host 11 of us in their river house. It was beautiful!

Noah's little wetsuit. He was a little scared at first, but then he LOVED swimming with us in the pool :) I think we went every day. Even with sunblock on he got a little farmers tan.

We found the garden of eden! Instead of a angel with a sword at the gate, there was a guy who wanted to charge us R20 to enter :)

The Knysna Heads. Totally Beautiful

The view was amazing
Sign posted right as you look out over the view.

Noah's first boat ride :)

Donovan, Helen and Etienne fishing
Etienne caught the only fish!

Smiles on the porch

And Noah totally spoke his first official word "mamma!" while we were away. He was just babbling before, but now he calls for me. Its very cute. He also says "ba-ba" if he sees babies on TV or in a book. Clint's goal is for him to say dada of course...but now he sounds like one of those dolls that when you shake them they say "mamma" cause that's practically all he says! :)

And this would probably only interest other moms, but I was struggling to get Noah to sleep without swaddling him tight. So I tried "weaning" him with only swaddling one arm, then one leg, etc. etc. (Clint called him the "one armed bandit" for a while) but now he's totally content and falls asleep without being wrapped. Thank goodness because its summertime now, so it was hard to swaddle him when its been hot! Now I just put him down, he gets cozy and in a few seconds he's asleep! Yipee!

Anyways, this year has just been amazing filled with God's grace and abundant blessings. I can't believe He has given us such a wonderful gift in Noah! He deserves all the praise!