Life in March

I haven't updated in a while because there hasn't been many new things going on. We are getting more involved in our church, working on contacting people and planning support trips. We hope to travel in April, May, and June, visiting NY, NJ, and MD. If you'd like us to come visit, let us know!

Doug has hired some more people to work in the office, and is training two of them to take over his job. YES, it takes TWO people to do what he is doing now. We are looking forward to him having more time to focus on support raising.

Samuel is growing quickly. His repertoire of foods is steadily increasing:

He loves peas!

 He also is the proud owner of 2 bottom teeth:

And his new favorite thing:

standing up!

A few favorite pictures...

Hanging out in the bath - He loves bath time =)

Sitting up well...and singing opera

So handsome!

Having fun with mommy

Last week was our church's mission conference and we enjoyed helping out as well as sharing about our upcoming ministry in Germany to a Sunday school class. We had a good time connecting with people and Doug really enjoyed working with kids by leading the opening and closing flag ceremony. It reminded him of how much he misses youth ministry.

Growing and Learning!

Samuel is growing by leaps and bounds. He is not quite crawling yet, but he definitely rolls or scoots around:

 

 

 

He is learning to eat 'real' food:

He is such a blessing from God and we enjoy him so much!

Our project the last couple of weeks has been printing, folding, addressing, and sending out prayer letters - we are working on doing our once or twice a year paper letter - so if you're on our list, you should get one soon! If you're not on our list and want to be, let me know!

Samuel's first time in the snow

We got about 5 inches of snow in South Carolina! 

The parking lot in front of our apartment building

The next day I bundled up Samuel so he could experience it.

He was pretty fascinated

We built a Samuel-sized snowman =)

Yay snow!!

Reunion in Arkansas

After our time with the Riddles in Greenville, we flew to Arkansas to visit friends and supporters.

The Fields have become a second family to Heike, and their daughter Hannah was on furlough from southeast Asia, where she and her husband are serving. We had a wonderful time, and got back home right before the winter storms hit. Heike was having way too much fun to remember to take pictures, but here are a few:

Gramma Gale made Samuel a cute hat

He loved it =)

Samuel had lots of people and toys to play with

Christmas with the Riddles

Christmas morning in Greenville with Doug's family:

Keith, Doug's brother, and his two boys reading the Christmas story

Samuel enjoying his presents

Heike and Timothy modeling hats

Story time with Uncle Doug

Watching the snow come down with Grammy

Joseph and Timothy loved their cousin Samuel

So wonderful to be with family!

We ended up having a white Christmas this year which was so fun and special! Doug's family was such a blessing and encouragement to us, we thank God for our family and being able to be with them.
Samuel's first Christmas was definitely memorable!

Christmas with the Skaggs

We had Christmas with Heike's family on the 24th:

Samuel helping Heike wrap presents

Opa wrapping Samuel in wrapping paper

Opa made Samuel a hat out of wrapping paper scraps

Samuel liked his new hat

Courtney, my wonderful new sister-in-law. It was her first Christmas with us as part of our family

We had a Christmas brunch and had a good time together. Heike's brother is in residency so we don't see him often, and thankfully he was off work. Heike's dad heads back to Africa soon so we enjoyed being able to be with each other, not knowing when that will happen again.

Then we headed to Greenville so we could be with Doug's family on Christmas morning.