Videos For Grandma & Grandpa

Some videos for my parents who get to meet Noah in a few months time!

This is Noah's "face plant army crawl." He is still rather lazy to do a real crawl. He gets up on all fours all the time, but never goes forward except for the face plant. I love his squeal of victory once he gets his pacifier. :)


This is Noah's first signing attempt. We tried to teach him "milk" which is squeezing your hands together, but instead of using it for milk, he uses it to say "I want it really really bad!" I think I'm going to try a different sign for milk. It's cute though, I love it!

Baby Dedication

This last Sunday we had a baby dedication service for Noah. Glen (one of the elders) did the dedication, and one of the most challenging things he said was taken from Duet 6, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." He said according to this verse, we have no "days off" from contantly teaching Noah about the Lord, and to be the utmost examples to him as parents. We were committing ourselves to this daunting challenge!

Praying for Noah

The dedication

Here are the notes from the service....it was really powerful. Because Noah was sick and teething, I was so grateful to read these afterwards because it was hard to concentrate on what Glen was saying because I was just trying to keep Noah from crying! Poor thing. Clint's parents came down for the special occasion too!
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First and foremost we have God who is the Sovereign and Supreme Creator of all things and He is worthy of all honour, glory, worship and praise and it is He who blesses us with children. PS127v3 confirms that “children are a heritage from the Lord”. The point of a dedication service is first and foremost to acknowledge God and the fact that he gives life and sustains life and it is he who has “knitted Noah together in his mother’s womb” as we are told in Ps 139v13. And it is to Him that we would come and ask that He grants Noah health and vitality and that, as He cares for the sparrow that falls to the ground, so will He care for Noah each and every day of his life and gently and quickly lead Noah to that point in his life when he comes into a saving knowledge of God through the prompting of His glorious Holy Spirit and on the basis of the finished and perfect work of His only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

Secondly we have the parents to whom God has given Noah as a gift but also with the charge of Eph6v4 that they “do not provoke Noah to anger but bring him up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” and the charge to Clint and Kim is that they love Noah with such intensity that he grows up to trust them long after his childish days are over and that they commit to applying the corrective discipline and training recommended in God’s word so that Noah will develop self control, discernment and great wisdom based on God’s infallible word. Finally that Clint’s fitness to be an Elder amongst us will be affirmed as we observe his godliness in leading his home and equipping Kim to be a mother who Noah will readily respect and honour because of her faithfulness and love in caring for him. Clint and Kim – do you promise to do these things to the best of your ability in the strength and grace that God gives you? “We do”

Thirdly we have Noah Knightley Archer who is blissfully unaware of the significance of this occasion but who today will receive an inheritance that no earthly treasure could ever compare to and that is the pledge of his parents to love him and nurture him and faithfully instruct him in the things of God and ultimately lead him to that point where God will remove his inherent spiritual blindness and replace it with life and light that qualifies him to dwell in God’s presence forever. He will receive another great blessing today….

That leads me to the fourth party involved today and that is the rest of us who are called today to witness the pledge that Clint and Kim have made and to add to that our pledge to pray regularly and faithfully for both the parents and the child that God will bless and keep Clint and Kim especially in the trying times that will come and also that God will not delay in granting Noah the ultimate blessing which in the words of 1Peter 1v3&4 is for Noah to declare “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy He has caused me to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for me…” To the congregation here present will you pledge yourselves to do these things? “We do”

Sicky shtee

Noah is cutting four teeth at once! All top teeth are coming in at the same time, poor thing. Last night he was making these funny noises, and I kept going in thinking something was wrong cause of his teething, until I realized he was snoring cause he was congested! So now he's sick and teething at the same time. He had 101.5 temperature today and the only thing that cheered him up were his two favorite things...touching the grass, and his bath. He's such a brave little guy.

Young Adults

One of my favorite parts of ministry at the moment is being involved with our young adults. We were so sad to leave SCV bible study in the states, and the Lord was more than gracious in providing a young adults ministry here to be involved in! It's so fun having them in our home every week, which is perfect for me being a mom because I can still be involved cause Noah goes to sleep just as people are arriving. Lately Clint has been teaching through the different cults. Every cult we've been going through salvation is up to keeping good works. Its been awesome to see how sure our salvation is....that salvation is by Christ's work, not ours! It makes me more and more thankful for His grace.

Here are some photos from a braai we had for Anita's birthday this last weekend. Anita joined the Cornerstone group just a few months ago.

Happy Birthday Anita!Some of the gals, and a "Noah kiss!" (he thinks kisses are a big open mouth!)

"walking" with daddy

Awesome sunset

Being silly with Kerry. Kerry babysat for me so I could play guitar this Sunday, thanks Kerry! You're a star! I forgot how much I missed playing!!

Noah loved playing with the soccer ball. I think he might be a little young for the 2010 world cup hosted here in SA!!

My two favorite men

The newlyweds Liz & Lyle :)

Some of the girls, and Dylan

And I just had to add this last photo cause it shows Noah's "affectionate" side. He shows affection by open mouth kisses and by grabbing my face (I've been teaching him the word "gently!") I love being a mommy!

Our kitchen/patio

YAY! There is finally some major progress on our house!! The kitchen cupboards are in, and its finally painted! We battled to find a red we liked (we painted swatches on the wall that all looked hot pink) but we finally found a beautiful red paint. I've always always wanted a red kitchen with cute white cupboards. My builder thought we were nuts to paint a room red, but I LOVE it! I love the cute handles too. :)

Looking at the kitchen from the livingroom. They still need to put the countertops in (black granite) and our stove and sink, but its coming together!

And they finally tiled our patio, I can't wait to sit out here with a good book and a cup of coffee!

A severe case of the giggles

Usually every day there is something "ordinary" that makes Noah crack up uncontrollably, and then he gets a case of the giggles, and he can't stop laughing. Today it was standing holding on to our headrest on our bed. He laughed and squealed and giggled for about a half an hour!

Yesterday it was giving him his pain medicine. The squirt sound in his mouth was too much for him, and he got the giggles dispite his toothy pain! He's gonna be a jack-o-lantern because instead of his front two teeth coming in, the one on the side is coming in first! Yesterday was a sad day for him cause his injections gave him a mild case of the mumps (his face was all swollen, poor thing!) His nickname everytime he cried yesterday was "toothy mumpy boy!"

And he said his second word for sure! He's been saying "dada" for quite a while, but we weren't sure if he knew what it meant....but yesterday he cried out "daddy" and reached for Clint...it was so sweet!

Cat Nap

It's on mornings like today that I wish I was a cat. She slept like this all morning on our bed, legs in the air, twitching with dreams until noon. Being a mom sometimes I dream of the days of sleeping in on a day off. But seeing Noah's sweet smile for me every morning makes it all worth it. :)

30's

Clint officially entered his "30 something" stage yesterday (31). It's so weird to us. We met when I was 22, and Clint was 24...and now I just turned the age everyone SAYS they are (29) and Clint is in his 30's. It just doesn't seem real! I was just thinking yesterday how "time flys when you're having fun" and that's how its been! Being married to Clint is so much fun, that it feels like we just met. So many people have been losing their loved ones in our congregation due to cancer, or old age, that I've just been counting my blessings and holding my family very tight. The Lord is so good and gracious for the years he's given us together! "We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds." Psalm 74:1

Noah and I have been hanging out outside everyday if the weather is good. He seems easier for him to learn to crawl on the soft grass (we have wooden floors in our house) and he loves to laugh at Tobi and look around. We have tons of fun!

Silly time

Lately right before Noah's naps instead of his normal tired cry, he's been getting silly where he seems over active.....which includes: dramatic coughs, silly faces and giggles and squeals. It's very cute, and very silly!

And lately when I nurse him right before bedtime, he's been falling asleep in my arms! He hasn't done this since he was a newborn. It's very sweet, I love it so much! I think he's tired out from trying to crawl, and can't keep his eyes open. It's so cute to watch him drift off, trying so hard to stay awake.

9 Months Old

Noah turned 9 months old today, and took a crawling class from daddy!

Crawling 101...you need.....

A willing instructor and student:

A goal (the grass that he loves to touch!)

Motivational speeches:

And, success! Noah scooched forward! (He scooches his knees so that his bum is in the air, and then a gynormous face plant, over and over, but he gets there!)
I think Noah gets an A+

And a quick rest after all that hard work.

Red Tape

Being an American married to a South African equals endless paperwork and red tape. Passports, visas, work permits, drivers licenses, birth certificates. etc. You name it, we've got to get it. And today's experience totally typifies African bureaucracy. Clint calls the DMV to find out if he needs to bring photos, or if they take them there. The first lady says, nope, no photos needed, the DMV takes them. The second lady says, nope you need to bring 4 black and white photos. And the third lady says you need only two. And when he got back today from the DMV, turns out that they require four, but they return two. What the heck? After Clint handed in his four photos, and received the other two back, he noticed a sign that read "no photos required, we can take them for free." The sign was held up...I kid you not, by red tape. BUT it turns out that this free photo is taken by the same machine that tests your eyes...so you have NO idea when you photo is being taken...most peoples photos on their driver's licenses are really funny....cause its taken during their eye exam. :)

Then he asked a guy at one counter when it will be ready and if they will mail it. The guy said they mail a reminder to pick it up in 8 weeks. As an experiment Clint asked another guy at another counter the same question. His reply: Call in in 4 weeks. Clint has diarized to call and remind them to send his reminder in 4 weeks.

Since it typicaly takes 2-4 hours of standing in line to get anything done, for the right price, you can employ the service of ladies whose sole job it is to stand in line for you all day. Once she gets to the front of the line, she sells you her spot, and then stands at the end of the line for the next customer. Can you imagine it being your job to stand in line at the DMV all day? You couldn't pay me enough!