Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  It has been nearly three months since my last blog post, but I promise, with good reason.  These last three months have been full of lots of wonderful changes in our family!  In October, Chris was officially voted in as Cornerstone Baptist Church's first Pastoral Intern.  It is a full-time, two-year staff position that started January 1st.  The position includes a house, so we spent November and December packing up and were able to move into our new home mid-December in true Michigan style - right in the middle of a snow storm!  We are so excited to be able to serve our home church in this new capacity and are praying that these next two years will be a blessing to our church family.

In November, Emma turned 6!  She continues to get smarter and more beautiful every day and we cannot believe that she is 6 already.  Another huge milestone for Emma - she lost her first tooth!  She had been waiting and waiting to lose a tooth and finally, on the way home from dinner at Cracker Barrel, that bottom tooth fell out.  She was so excited!  Ethan, on the other hand, was terrified with the whole situation and spent the next hour crying because he doesn't want to lose any of his teeth (we told him he still had a while until his came out).

Ethan and Eli are also growing like weeds.  Ethan's vocabulary continues to expand every day and we love hearing what words he can come up with next.  The other day he told me that the Christmas Poinsettias were "just lovely."  Eli began crawling at the beginning of December and immediately decided he wanted to touch our Christmas tree every chance he got (it took Emma and Ethan longer to realize they could get to it).  Unfortunately, these last months have also seen 3 double ear infections for Eli.  He's not quite a candidate for tubes yet, and we are hoping that it stays that way.

There is so much more that has gone on, but I won't bore you with the details.  Suffice it to say, the Lord has continued to be gracious to our family and we are so grateful.  Now that we are settled and have internet access, we'll update you more often.  Here are some photos from the last few months to catch you up:

 Emma, Eli, and Ethan a.k.a. Glinda, The Cowboy, and Batman!

Emma lost her first tooth!  I still think she looks beautiful.

 Emma's 6th Birthday!  Her brother sure loves her.

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving at Nani and Papa's!

 Having Christmas brunch at Daddy's old job.

My Dad and I went on our annual date to Greenfield Village's Holiday Nights and enjoyed our traditional Roast Beef Breadbowl!

  Moving day!  Despite all the snow, we were able to move in about 4 hours.  Thank you to all who prayed for us and helped us move!

 Saying hello to Santa at Home Depot.  Ethan is our only child who isn't terrified of Santa!