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10 months

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
    Here are a few snapshots of what Adeline has been up to the past month. Enjoy!

    I got two more bottom teeth which brings the total to four!

    Every time music comes on, whether it be from the computer, the TV or the cell phone ringing, Adeline starts bopping her head to the beat. It's so cute. Today, she actually started dancing when she heard the call to prayer go out from the mosque. Here is a picture dancing with Daddy to the Christmas music as we are decorating.

    Adeline points at absolutely everything. I have been pointing at pictures in books and things around the house and outside, so she is just learning from Mommy. It's so much fun to see her point at something when I ask her where it is.

    Not sure how she got this rug on top of her, but she did it in a matter of about 10 seconds!

    A mouth full of juice!

    I LOVE my books! Most of the time I am reading them, not putting them on my head, but this makes for a much cuter picture.

    Don't worry, we don't make it a habit to let Adeline crawl under furniture to get to cords, but again, I had to get the picture!

    There is a small playground not too far from our house, so we took Adeline there one afternoon and let her try out the swing and slide. The weather here has been unbelievable for the past few weeks so we are taking advantage and getting outside as much as we can! The rain and cold are coming, but for now we are loving it!

    Weeeeeeeee!


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    Adeline is pulling up on anything and everything she can get near. Notice how she claps for herself once she is standing!

    Now that Adeline is pulling up on her own, this is how we often find her when she wakes up. Unfortunately, standing up in bed is much more fun than sleeping in it!

    I know we already posted a picture of Adeline with Lexi, but little did we know what an impact being around Lexi (and Jeff's parents' other two dogs) would have on her. While we were at Jeff's house, we said "dog" A LOT because Adeline just loved them and would get so excited when they were around. We have a few neighbors who walk their dogs in the parking lot below our window and when I hear them outside barking, I always take Adeline to the window and point :) and say "dog". Last week she said it back! She hasn't said it since then, but she still gets so excited when she sees one. Never thought that her first word would be dog, especially since we don't have one here, but that was probably just the beginning. Before long she's going to be talking in paragraphs!

    Thanksgiving

      We had a great thanksgiving, even though there were only a few of us in the country of Turkey celebrating. The meal was at our house and everyone pitched in and brought the side dishes. We had 15 people here and enjoyed all the fixins including a ham from the states and good ole' pumpkin pie!

      The girls' table.

      The guys' table.

      The kids' table.

      We attempted to watch a football game via the internet, but it didn't work out. We still had a great time!

      Back in Turkey

      Wednesday, November 15, 2006
        Adeline has changed so much over the past month. She became a little bit of an extrovert, she learned to clap and dance, she absolutely loves "reading" books, she got her first two teeth and she has mastered the art of the military crawl (and, over the past two days, she has started crawling on all fours), and she is learning to feed herself some solid foods like bananas and cheese! She is so much fun, she keeps us smiling and laughing all of the time.

        Our little pumpkin. We were flying back on Reformation Day/Halloween, but we had to get a cute picture in her costume anyway.

        My first bubble bath! Bath time has become pretty messy lately, Adeline has mastered the art of splashing!

        Back in my house, with my toys!


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        Sorry for the quality of this video, but just imagine that you can hear Adeline's toy (on loan from J & N - thanks, guys!) playing music. Adeline absolutely loves it, and this is her new dance.

        America Part 5

          My cousin Reagan! Jeff's cousin, Tiffany, her husband, Ryan and their baby girl, Reagan, flew in from Canada to visit with the family the same week we were there. The girls had a great time playing together and it was a huge blessing, who knows when we will all be in the same place at the same time again!

          We were blessed to have a little family reunion while we were in SC with some of Jeff's family. There were so many people there, but it was great to be able to introduce Adeline to them all at once! Pictured above is the Smith family - Jeff's parents, Wayne and Evelyn, his brother Joseph and us.

          Four generations.

          Adeline needed a little break from the crowd at the reunion, so we spent some time in a nearby playroom. She was so excited about all of the toys, as you can tell.

          Jeff and Ryan, being silly. Imagine that!

          Uncle Joe playing with Adeline and Marina. You can find out more about Marina, and the work that Jeff's Aunt Becky and Uncle Andy are doing in the Ukraine (and in the States) by going to their blog.

          We stayed one night with some great friends, Jason and Naomi and their two little girls, Lydia and Chloe. Here are the girls shortly after they woke up in the morning - such cuties! It was so much fun to get a taste of what Adeline will be like in a year or two!

          We met our friends Matt and Amy for dinner one night. They are expecting any day now, although you couldn't tell it from looking at her belly, she is so little!

          Adeline hanging out on her own rocking chair at Cracker Barrel. Mmmmm!

          Adeline met our little dog, Lexi for the first time. They got along very well, it was so sweet for us to watch Adeline pet Lexi's head, and Lexi just sat there loving it.

          A good picture of how we all felt at the end of our trip. Tired, willing to sleep anywhere and very blessed to have spent precious time with people we love so much!

          America Part 4

          Friday, November 10, 2006
            Here are some pix from our time in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a great time to catch up with good friends and introduce Adeline to all of them for the first time. We also got to meet a lot of new people, including babies who have all been born in the past few years. Such a blessing!

            We stayed with some great friends while we were in Louisville. Their sweet daughter, Amelia is just precious and was such a great sport and was happy to let Adeline invade her territory. It was hard to get a picture of these two sitting still, as you can probably tell :)

            Sweet girls learning to play together. Adeline really appreciated Amelia sharing ALL of her toys.

            Daddys and their girls. Thanks so much, J & A, for inviting us into your home!


            Adeline and our friends Amie and Danny's son, Davis, hanging out on the bench at Famous Dave's Barbecue!

            Our second temporary home in Louisville was Matt and Greta's brand new house. We loved hanging out with them and their 2 cats (Adeline couldn't get enough of them). Not so sure that Rustbucket and Sneezers enjoyed our stint in their house, but hopefully they've recovered.

            Adeline LOVED playing on the piano!

            Our SS class from Louisville had a cookout one night while we were in town. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for the VERY cold temperatures, so we couldn't stay very long. But, we loved getting to spend some time with our church family and we all thawed out eventually.

            What a huge blessing it was to be able to see our good friends from Louisville, the Abners. Last time we saw them they had one 6-month old little boy. Now there are 3 lil' Abners and one on the way! Things can change so much in 3 years!

            Some great friends, Larry, Donna and Jordan. (L & D, thanks for the Papa John's, yummy! Although, we look forward to that $100 meal when we see you again... we haven't forgotten.)

            America Part 3

            Tuesday, November 07, 2006
              While we were in Charleston, we were able to visit with some friends. Some were from childhood, some were college friends and one from Turkey!

              Andrea's friend, Kendra, along with her brand new niece (only one week old)!

              Our sweet Lindsey! She drove down from North Carolina just to see us! We felt so special and Adeline loved seeing her again!

              Andrea's friends, Pam and Virginia. Unfortunately we waited until after bedtime to try to take a picture, so Adeline isn't the happiest camper. However, sometimes crying looks like laughing, so we can pretend.

              Andrea's boss from college, Mr. Little. He LOVES little babies and spoiled her rotten while we visited with him at CSU (where Jeff and I went to college).

              Our dear friend, and sunday school teacher from college, Dr. Clerico. He has a few grandkids of his own, so he was in his element holding Adeline and she was cok rahat ("very comfortable").

              America Part 2

                We spent the first full week of our trip in Charleston at the beach with Andrea's family. We rented a little house near the water so everyone could stay in one place. We had a great time and after Adeline adjusted to EST, she was happy to be there as well!

                Uncle Scott (Andrea's brother) and Adeline's soon-to-be cousin, Jason.

                Our cousin Earlene who also came up from Florida to see us (and bring Gigi). Thanks, Earlene, for making the trip!

                Aunt Jill and Uncle Joe - all the way from Michigan. Adeline loved spending time with her Aunt and Uncle, but apparently there was an incident with a sneeze, a startled baby and a lot of crying. I think Adeline recovered though, no long-term effects! (For those of you who have been around Adeline a lot, you know this is completely normal. No sudden noises, please. She is definitely a girl, and very sensitive.)

                Adeline trying to get to sleep with Grandma. So many of our pictures of Adeline include her blanket and the thumb in her mouth. She is used to long naps during the day, and we probably didn't let her get the sleep she needed. So, sometimes she just had to make do and take little cat naps in people's arms.

                Great-Grandma Pence, a.k.a. Gigi. She came all the way from Florida to meet Adeline.

                Four generations.

                America Part 1

                Friday, November 03, 2006
                  Thank you so much for your prayers over the past month. We had a great time in the states and are so grateful for the time that we were able to spend with so many of you. We apologize for not blogging while we were there, we were so busy and wanted to spend as much time as possible with friends and family. But, we do want to share some of our pictures from the trip, so here is installment one. Again, thank you for being patient and especially for your prayers while we were traveling. The Lord really took care of us, as He always does. We are still jetlagging a little bit, especially Adeline. Hopefully tonight is the night that she realizes this "nap" that she is taking should last until tomorrow morning, not until midnight.

                  The plane ride! It was a pretty smooth ride, considering we were traveling for an entire day. We were so excited that we each had our own TV screens, so Adeline had a good time "watching" her movie. Actually, she wasn't too interested in watching, she really just wanted to stand on the seat and pat the screen. We let her do it... anything to keep her entertained and happy!

                  The morning after we arrived in the states, Jeff's grandmama came over for a short visit. Can you tell that Adeline is jetlagging?

                  This was before she realized how cold the water really was!

                  Lookin' cool at the beach. She loved the sand/mud. She even ate some! We were so thankful that we got a few days of warm weather so we could enjoy the Charleston coastline a little.

                  Playing with Grandpa's hat (Andrea's dad).

                  Andrea's grandma flew in from Phoenix for the weekend to spend some time with her new great-granddaughter.