Indian Thanksgiving

Mike spends a lot of time working with International students at Tech. It is amazing how God has literally brought the ends of the earth to our own backyard. About two years ago, we met Trupti and Ruchi. They are roomies and absolutely precious girls. We always love hanging out with them. Trupti works at UMC and actually held Evyn within an hour of her being born. We had the opportunity to hang out with them a few weeks ago and decided that we would host an "Indian Thanksgiving" dinner this weekend.

Here is Trupti with Evyn on her birthday.

Trupti and Ruchi came over and hung out last night. They are going to Sea World next month, so Carter told them all about Shamu and the rides and the pirates. He even showed them his stuffed Shamu. Then they played Elefun, Memory, Candy Land, and Operation for hours. They were such good sports.

More friends came over to join us for dinner. Pictured left to right are Mike, Sharma, Carter, Trupti, Ruchi, Rupe, and Poonam. Sharma was hilarious. And the girls are all so beautiful. We ate and laughed and really enjoyed every minute of the evening. We also learned that Rupe is really scared of cats when Toonces jumped up next to her on the couch and she screamed and spilled her plate! So funny.

We had rice, chickpeas, chicken manaca, tortillas, cucumber salad, chicken pockets (I made these), Inidan sweets (fried wheat flour soaked in a sweet syrup), and chocolate cake (mine). It was DELICIOUS. This was honestly the first meal that we have eaten with International students that I have not choked down. It was fabulous.

We feel so blessed to have such sweet friendships with such amazing people. We are thankful that they would be willing to come hang out with us and be part of our lives. I love watching my kids soak them up. I love watching Carter eat Indian food. And I am reminded that life is a whole lot bigger than my little corner of the world. And on a serious note, these friendships make "praying for the lost" so much more meaningful to me. I pray that God will make Himself known to my sweet friends so that we might look forward to eternity together.

fat lips, lego towers, thanksgiving, traditions, and first haircuts.

I apologize in advance for the incredibly random nature of this post, but my life seems to not happen in a blog-friendly format.

Evyn got her first fat lip the other night. She face planted onto a wooden toy that she was playing with. And while I wish that she had not hurt herself, I actually think she looks pretty cute with her big swollen lip.


Carter and Mike recently discovered that they could build a lego tower all the way to the ceiling. Mommy discovered that when that tower falls over, you find legos under furniture for the better part of the week.

Thanksgiving was amazing this year. It is normally not my favorite holiday, but this year just seemed really special for whatever reason. We enjoyed relaxing with just the four of us in the morning. Carter was fascinated by the parade. And then the weather was so pretty that we went and fed the ducks.

Then my precious family came over to spend the day. We ate some really yummy food- turkey and gravy, dressing, sweet potato casserole, cranberries, jello, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, homemade mac and cheese, rolls, and pumpkin pie. I ate through the pain, and even had leftovers for dinner! It is so much fun to watch the kids play and just have time to visit and enjoy each other's company. I loved every minute of our time together. When we bought this house, I had visions of playing football at the park across the street on Thanksgiving. Yesterday while we were playing football and baseball and watching Evyn learn to walk holding onto Papa's finger, I almost had to pinch myself. It was a perfect day. Here is the whole crew, and most of us are looking at the camera.

Mark and Carter are the best of friends. Carter invited Mark to spend the night, and because he is just that cool, he did! Here they are taking in a little Curious George on Thanksgiving night. Then after a night spent in bunk beds, we had breakfast and decorated the Christmas tree.

We always set up the tree on the day after Thanksgiving. It is one of my favorite family traditions. Carter was actually really good help with the ornaments this year!

And my very favorite Christmas tradition is wrapping my babies up in lights for a picture. I wonder how long I can get away with this!

And in other big news, Evyn got her first haircut today. My huge insecurity when I found out that I was pregnant with a girl was fixing her hair. It just intimidates me. Everyone assured me that she would be at least two before I would have to worry about it. Then I gave birth to the hairiest white child on the planet. I love her hair and can't imagine her without it, but the whole thing makes me giggle. The sides of it are MUCH longer than the very back, so she had her first little trim today and looks like such a big girl now.

Our sweet friend, L'Anna, gave Carter his first haircut and was gracious enough to do the honors with Evyn.

Carter

Evyn

Carter and L'Anna

Evyn and L'Anna

Dr. Carter

Carter wanted to play with his doctor kit this afternoon. I was told that I could be the sick guy while he was the doctor. After looking for ladybugs in my ears and nose, and listening to my heart with his stethoscope, he decided to take my blood pressure. He said "Mommy, hold out your arm ankle for your blood pressure." I guess he does not know the word "wrist." I loved it.

He also apparently does not know the word "swallow" because he told me yesterday that he needed to "throat down" his dinner. Mike started to tell him to say swallow and I stopped him because I thought it was too cute. For as grown up as he seems sometimes I love it that he still is so little in other ways.

A Thankful Heart

With Thanksgiving approaching, we have had lots of questions in our house about pilgrims, Indians, "horns of plenty," turkeys, and Thanksgiving in general. It has been really sweet to hear Carter tell us the things that he is thankful for- Evyn and Mark are at the top of his list, followed by his Batman car, and footie pajamas. Pretty well rounded if you ask me. I can't help but reflect on the things that I am thankful for as well.

I am honestly thankful for the gift of my salvation. I am so undeserving, yet so very grateful that my Heavenly Father loves me enough to adopt me into His family. And I am thankful for my precious husband, who is the biggest joy in my life. He makes me laugh like nobody else. He is honestly the best person that I know. And he wakes up next to me every morning! I am blessed. And my heart is so very full of our children that I can hardly stand it. To have two healthy, beautiful, well behaved, and hilarious kids is such a gift. I love having my family in town. I have amazing friends to share life with. I love my job. I love my church home. And at the risk of sounding a little materialistic, I love my house and my car. This is just the start of my thankful list.

It's been a week or so since I shared pictures, and I have a few cute shots to share. Evyn has learned how to pose for the camera, as demonstrated below.

Carter had his Thanksgiving party at school on Friday. I was a room mother. This was completely out of my comfort zone and quite honestly not my favorite thing that I have ever done. But it was sweet to get to watch him interact with his friends and he was really glad that I was there. They did a little Thanksgiving program and he was adorable. They sang some fun songs and absolutely melted my heart. Here is my little Indian.

Carter with most of his class and his teacher, Mrs. Lewis. We love her. Look at how cute and spunky she looks.

This was taken while they were singing "Five fat turkeys are we."

Carter's teacher painted a turkey on his face. He was so proud of it!

I love this next series of pictures because it just about summarizes Evyn. This child is spunky. She is such an entertainer. She will do something cute, then look at you and wait for you to laugh and then giggle right along with you before doing it again. She loves being the center of attention and is rather opinionated. I am having so much fun watching her little personality emerge! She is a bundle of energy but will still snuggle with her mommy. I am crazy about this little girl. So, she recently discovered that she can sit in Carter's chair all by herself and loves showing off her new trick. You can almost imagine the noises that accompany the facial expressions in these pictures!

And last but not least, Carter has been growing his hair out. I love it longer. It is so soft and I find that I rub the top of his head all the time. However, he has been asking me for the last few weeks if he could please have his "spikey hair" again. And I figure if he actually has a preference for how he wears his hair, I might as well indulge him. He is precious either way, so why not?

Before. . .

After. . .

Happy almost Thanksgiving!

Updates from the Lewis family

Every now and then I have a post that is so random and disjointed that I have a difficult time finding a title for it. It seems like lots of interesting things might happen within the span of a week, but none of them are related at all. This is that post. You have been warned.

Lets start with the dead mouse in my wall. Mike put out poison a few weeks ago and it would seem that something ate some poison and promptly crawled into the wall in our guest bathroom where it died. So many things disturb me about this scenario. How did a mouse get in the wall? Is it really a mouse or something worse? Is this going to be an ongoing problem? How concerned should I be if Mike busted through the wall and we can't find a dead body but we still smell something terrible? What will I do when I have teenage girls at my house for disciple now and have a stinky and wall-less bathroom this weekend? A plumber is coming in the morning to rule out a sewer problem. Cross your fingers that we find the origin of the stench.

Carter made a set of jumbo ears last week in Sunday School. He loves them. They talked about listening to God, and this was their craft. That same day, we saw a mouse in the house (a recurring theme, unfortunately) while Mike was at work. We were both pretty freaked out, so he put his large ears on so the mouse would think that he was an elephant and leave him alone. Pretty smart if you ask me.

Evyn is just getting sweeter and sweeter. She is big time into giving kisses right now. She opens her mouth in a perfect little circle and gives you a big wet kiss right on the lips then laughs and laughs. It melts my heart every time. She can also say "cack cack" for duck, mama, dada, ni-ni (night night) and is starting to do some basic sign language. She is cutting her third tooth and still taking a few steps every now and then. She is all girl and we are all pretty smitten with her.

We had a battle of the sexes pep rally at school and all the girls wore pink and the boys wore blue. I thought it was appropriate to borrow some of Evyn's bows for the day. This just might be the only picture ever taken of the two of us in matching dog ears.

Apparently Carter helped Mike with his laundry while I was at work on Friday.

Mike snapped this picture this morning through the kitchen window. He looks so sweet in his Blues Clues slippers happily blowing bubbles on a Sunday morning.

And last but not least, Mike bought me a new car! At the risk of sounding completely materialistic, I LOVE IT! It is an 06 Yukon with leather interior, navigation, DVD player, sunroof, heated seats, you name it. A huge shout out goes to Cars and Trucks Out West (aka Quilty Chick's husband) in Snyder for getting us the hookup! Thank you, Doc. I am one happy girl.

I guess that is all of the big news for this week! Sorry for the random nature of this post, but it was all too good to leave out!

Brilliant.

Have you ever known someone that was given such an extraordinary talent that it was obvious that the Lord gave them a gift? Denae Hutson is that person for me- she is an AMAZING woman and photographer. I am so blessed to know her. She took Evyn's newborn pictures and we were blessed to get to take Evyn's one year pictures and updated family pictures with her on Friday!

It was freezing cold and my normally happy baby was in a bit of a funk. And it would seem that Carter had lost his ability to smile in a non-silly fashion, which lead to lots of telling of knock knock jokes and making ridiculous sounds in an attempt to get a normal smile. Plus I meant to lose 50 pounds before we did more pictures, but oh well! Other than that, we had an amazing time and I am so thrilled to get to see a sneek peak at some of the pictures! Enjoy!

My precious one year old!


Knock knock. Who's there? Dwayne. Dwayne who? Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning.

I LOVE this one. I wish Evyn was smiling, but you can't have it all.

And here you have Evyn smiling, but I think I look a little weird.

I really wanted a picture of Mike and I. I love this one too. I am so crazy in love with this man.

Thank you, Denae. You are simply the best. I will cherish these forever.

Halloween 2009

I feel the need to post a disclaimer for all of my friends that are either preacher's kids or missionary's kids (or maybe are currently missionaries with kids and also a preacher's daughter)- please know that it was not my intention to feed any stereotypes. This was all done in good fun! I promise.

I hate spending a ton of money on a costume that gets worn one time, so I always look for stuff that we have around the house. It just so happened that Carter had an authentic Moroccan shirt and hat (and pants, but they were too short). He loved the idea of being a missionary, so we slapped some sandals on him and gave him a Bible and he was ready to go. The sweet part was that he told anyone that would listen at the Fall Festival that it was his job to tell people about God. And he actually looked pretty cute!
Evyn happened to have a styling pair of heels in her closet, so we put that with a mini skirt and a mildly rebellious t-shirt and called her a preacher's kid. I considered coloring her hair or pinning a candy cigarette to her shirt but thought that might be going too far!

The PK and the MK pre-candy!

Brigitte, I hope you will still be my friend! I love you!

My Big Girl.

Just a few sweet pictures of my sweet little girl to share today. I love those brown eyes.

She had pajama day at school this week. Pretty cute, no?

Such the little lady!