Sisters

The other day Lydia was holding Noelle when we overheard her say, "I love you Noelle. I am your big sister Lydia. I will never leave you. Never ever. I will always be here for you. Because we share the same room."

Hmmm, I guess Lydia will not ever have her own room as she gets older; we wouldn't want to put Noelle in jeopardy.

Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas together as a family....with a few new things to experience this year. Alia was able to enjoy the holiday more than we thought, since her chicken poxs began healing Christmas Eve. We went to an international candle-light service and walked out into a rainy, just above freezing night. It was a fun change compared to the desert weather of the last several years. We had our traditional prime rib roast for dinner, and then the girls went with Dad for ice cream. While they were out, "Santa" decided to come early. The girls were surprised to be able to open presents on Christmas Eve. (A family tradition of Jill's) The next morning, bright and early, we went to a friends home for Christmas breakfast. (A family tradition of Calvin's) We then came home for a Christmas nap. (A soon to be a tradition of ours!) We hope your holiday was great, too!

(Run your cursor over the pics for comments)

Picture with Santa

Last night we all went to an incredible toy store together. It was so fun looking at all the cool toys (we haven't seen toys from the states in a while) :) And Santa was there so we got a picture with the big man. I had to hold Kinzy because she was a little overwhelmed with this big scary guy with a beard.

Christmas Wonderland party

There is an excellent children's museum here. It really is quite impressive. The girls love it and we as parents have just as much fun. Last week they had a Christmas wonderland party at the museum. It actually turned into Christmas wonderland at crazy town......a little crowded for Mom and Dad. :) But the girls liked it and food was provided and there was a parade with Santa inside the museum.

Train Rides!

Making Christmas ornaments

Poor Alia started her bout with Chicken pox....she was a little under the weather

Making Christmas Goodies!

We've been able to find some great ingredients here to make some delicious Christmas goodies. Yumm, Yummm! We made party mix, peanut butter balls, & peanut brickle!

We can get all the ingredients for PARTY MIX!!!!!!

The girls favorite thing to do is eat it!

More eating.........

And.....more.....eating.......can anybody say, sugar rush

mmmmmmm.......peanut butter balls

Training her up right

I try to take a couple of hours a day and read. Since Noelle has been born she usually joins me. As you can see in the picture we always pick one of her favorite authors. I prefer to read something lite, like Dr. Suess but Noelle insists upon either John Piper, Jonathan Edwards or J.I Packer.

More Pics of baby Noelle

Momma and baby are doing great! The girls love their new baby sister....sometimes we wonder if they think she's a play toy to them!

Welcome Noelle Hope!!

This morning at 11:30 am GMT+2 we welcomed our newest addition. Jill went into labor at about 9:00 am and was delivered two and half hours later. Everything went very well. Noelle Hope weighed in at 3.2 kilos and 51 centimeters in length. Mom and baby are doing great. We are so excited and thankful for this wonderful gift. Here are a few pics for all to see!

The Park

Just a five minute walk from our place is a nice park with a playground. Even though there are swings and slides to play on the girls prefer to just run in the open soccer field.

I got big lips

Being in our new place we have noticed how many things we can get from the states that we couldn't get in Egypt. We are amazed and somewhat overwhelmed when we go grocery shopping with all the choices. The candy aisle has, of course been a big hit for our girls....and we have sometimes given in to their requests of new and exotic candies. Anyway, I thought the big lips/bubble gum was pretty funny.