Cape Town Day One

Cape Town is more beautiful than I remember. I was here 6 years ago, but it was winter, and I've forgotten its beauty. Its so funny to spend Christmas vacation on the beach it being Summer, but its so amazing!

Fun colorful changing huts.

9 days in Cape Town with Kerry and Cait, what could be better? They make Noah (and I) laugh alot! :)

Cait and I

These clouds kept rolling over the hills like a blanket. So cool.

Noah eating a pear and checking out the colors

Yes! Ocean time!

The beach is in the middle of a HUGE bay, so mountains surrounded the whole scene. So pretty.

The waves were perfectly Noah-sized

Family shot! I think we might come back here every day this week. It was so

beautiful!

Christmas traditions

So what are your Christmas traditions? I'm curious!

Since we moved to South Africa our church has a early morning Christmas service which I really like. Clint preaches a sermon around the theme of the Saviour's birth and we sing carols. It really sets the mood for the day. Because Clint preaches every Christmas (except last year) this means we are usually in the Hillcrest area on Christmas day, far from both of our sides of the family. So its fun this year to have a "bigger" family (i.e. Noah is getting big enough to understand a little tiny bit) and to celebrate it with him. Every day he brings me baby Jesus and says "baba!" and he brings me the three wise men together from our nativity. I love it.

My favorite Christmas music is from "A Charlie Brown Christmas." I love the movie itself, its just so cool how the message is so clear when Charlie is all depressed and when Linus tells the story and reads from Luke 2 what Christmas is actually all about. The soundtrack has been playing alot in our house the last few weeks.

This year we are going to Capetown and flying back Christmas eve. (I am so excited, Capetown is so beautiful this time of year!) So I get Christmas with just my hubby and Noah! So fun. Since its Summertime we are going to have a braai (bbq). Not like sipping hot chocolate on a cold day, but still very fun! So what do you guys do on Christmas day to celebrate? Tell me all about it!

Our little girl

We snuck a peek at our baby girl at our 28 week 4d scan! It was hard to get a still photo of her, but here she is sucking her thumb! She looks alot like Noah did in his 30 week scan.

The nurse said she could see very long eyelashes (which Noah has too!)

Lyle took this fun photo of Clint's excitement about our baby girl coming :) 28 week bump, and feeling "swell"
And when I was in the states I really liked this set at Target cause it was feminine/baby but classy, so my mom is sending me the set! :) I told my mom I liked it before I even knew I was pregnant! I can't wait to set up her room! I also ordered some other fun pieces to the set besides just the quilt/bumper/sheets.

And we still haven't come up with an official name for our girl yet. Any suggestions?

This morning with Noah

18 months is such a fun age I just love it. Noah is copying us on everything. Including this morning when I heard him drag the scale from under our sink, and pull it out (just like we do) and then he stood on it to try and find out how much he needs to loose for the holiday season. :)

Then he helped me with the laundry by pulling it all out of the dryer from the night before, and he started playing with Spurgeon our dog as I hung the new washing out on the line. It was getting to be his morning nap time, so I said like I always do "Noah where is your paci and your blankie, its sleepytime!" He went scurrying after these two items which he goes to sleep with, and came back outside to greet me. I still was hanging laundry and it got rather quiet so I peeped around the corner only to discover this:


He'd decided it was time to sleep in the doghouse with Spurgeon! It was the first time he'd discovered that Spurg's little house was also Noah sized.

Peeping around the corner all snuggled with his paci and blankie ready for naptime
It took some convincing to get him out of the doghouse! :) He cried when I took him away to his crib, he really wanted to have a little snooze with our doggie!

A Killer Reunion

This year our Cornerstone young adults end of year party we hosted a Murder Mystery night. I've played about 4 of these before, but this one was the best cause it was totally unscripted. So you're given your fictional character a week before with information regarding the night of the "murder" etc, and then at the night everyone just talks to everyone "in character" and tries to figure out the murder. The theme was a class reunion, so we were all friends/enemies in the past trying to figure out who did it. So fun.

Setting up a table in our home for over 20 people was quite the mission, but everyone fit just fine! We had a Italian evening with yummy pasta and garlic bread. mmm.

Josh handcuffed Raqel, and then remembered the key for the handcuffs was at his house! So she was arrested for the night

Trying to figure out the murderer

Kerry helping me in the kitchen :)

Some of the girls

Dishing up yummy dinner

Cait presenting the "evidence" as a detective with Trevor

Everyone thought Lyle was the murderer but it was actually Clint! For those who have played Mafia with Clint, he is always mafia, so I don't know why more people didn't figure it out!

Christmas is coming....

Since we had two end of year Christmas parties at our house this week, one for our young adults Bible study, and one for the Home Group Clint teaches we made our house look extra Christmas-y this week. When I got out the box with the tree in it Noah looked VERY confused, but that soon turned into much curiosity. He likes the baby Jesus on the nativity the best and often points to it, or brings it to me. Yesterday I found baby Jesus in my bedside cabinet :) Hmm, wonder how it got there?

Setting up the tree just before his bedtime!

Checking out all the ornaments

The kids at our church did a Christmas Carol night this week, and it totally reminded me of "A Charlie Brown Christmas." One kid read from Luke 2 and everything. It was awesome. Clint also got to preach the gospel to all the parents/friends that came.

18 Month Photo Shoot

My friend Stephanie always did a 18month photo shoot of her 5 kids, and she has a collage of them on her wall in her living room. I always loved looking at them cause 18 months is such a cute age, and they just looked like a "mini me" version of her older kids. So I thought I'd do it with Noah (and my other kiddos to come!) It was so great to have Clint with me cause Noah is VERY aware that there is a camera lately, so Clint distracted him from the fact that I was even there (and so did the ducks and all the fun things he could look at!)

Here are my favorites, let me know which one is your fav! I can't decide which one to frame :)

And to see the whole shoot or download photos click on the album:

Noah 18 Months

Spurgeon Rodeo

Our doggie has returned! He was never lost, but we lent him to Liz and Lyle for a few months so that our new grass could finally actually grow in. It was perfect timing cause now Noah can play with him without Spurgeon knocking him over every few seconds while he learned to walk. Noah was so excited that Spurgeon had returned, that the day he came back before we knew it he had toddled outside to play in the wet grass right after his bath with his PJ's on! So Clint decided to make it a Spurgeon Rodeo night since Noah was already filthy.
Noah thought riding Spurgeon was hilarious, and kept asking for "more!"
Noah has been playing fetch with Spurg pretty much all day the last week. Here he is practicing his new kicking skill....while holding on to his beloved blankie...quite the feat.
One member of the family was NOT too impressed with Spurgeon's reappearance. I love the look on her face, its like "REALLY?"
Liz won't miss our doggie to much cause she is due the exact same day as me! A comparing tummies photo :) They are moving to Australia in a few weeks.

Wisdom is vindicated by her children

Clint just preached on this verse at Cornerstone, and its one of our favorite verses that we use all the time in our house. Usually we use it totally out of context in jest, but we say it when something is proven with time. And this week, its doubly ironic because it regards my wisdom teeth. I needed them taken out quite a while ago, and I kept putting it off (dentists are scary ok?) until I finally made an appointment to get em out JUST before our trip to America, and the Dr. didn't show up. So I thought....well it won't hurt to wait a little longer right, how bad can it be?!? I'll get back from the States, and then have em out! Well, I found out I was pregnant in the states, and now my wisdom teeth are killing me. All the books in the world on pregnancy say to take care of your teeth problems before you get pregnant, cause there isn't much you can do about it once you are. Well, turns out those books are quite wise, cause I went to the dentist this week (shudder) and he says I can't really do anything about my wisdom teeth till the baby is born. I can't be put under, I can't have local, and most of all, I can't have any pain medication now, or even if I did get them out, I couldn't have any pain meds then either. Yikes. So for all of you who warned I should get them taken out a long time ago....wisdom has been vindicated by her children. Clint reckons if I need a C-section I should just have the baby, my tonsils, my wisdom teeth, and my appendix taken out all at the same time to avoid this in the future. :)

Pumpkin carving....

This year was the third annual Cornerstone reformation party where we had all the young adults in our church over to celebrate the reformation. Clint did an awesome job retelling the story of the Reformation and why we are a Reformed Baptist Church, and we had pumpkin pie and apple cider and carved pumpkins! Carving pumpkins is pretty much an American thing, so for most people it was their first time carving!

Yummy pumpkin pie & apple cake.

Jonathan found the only cool orange pumpkin!

Some serious competition carving

Having fun with all the goo

The contestants:

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10

As requested...more bump

ok ok, for those asking for more bump photos....clint took these today at almost 26 weeks! It's going way quicker than with Noah, I think it's cause I'm busy taking care of Noah so the weeks seem to fly by! I'm feeling great in my 2nd trimester, and she's starting to kick my ribs a bit.

I was reading this week and two verses really came out at me.
"Ecc 11:5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything." It's amazing that the Lord has already determined her little personality, and has put it "into her bones!" From one tiny cell, the Lord is making her perfect!

"Psalm 87:6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, "This one was born there." Selah." This one was cool for me cause Noah was born in South Africa, but is also American. I know the Lord obviously knows where we are all born, being omnicient and all, but it was awesome to dwell upon how he "registers" us as to where we are born. Pretty cool.

I can't wait to meet her! We had a baby girl born to Mike and Lori Voss this week in our church, and going to see her in the hospital made me anxious to meet my own little girl!