Monday, November 15, 2010

First Fall!

Elisabeth turned 11 months last week and we are excited to plan her first birthday party! We're going to make it low-key and have it at our apartment here in Lawrence. During her 11 month photo shoot last week she had so much fun with all of her friends. (And by "photo shoot" I mean mom bustling around trying to contain a squirming baby for five seconds to get a posed shot!) She is too fun! We did manage to get one posed shot:

And a few unposed:



Her eleventh month began with a trip over KU's fall break to visit Grandma and Grandpa Ross in Arizona! We all had such a great time, and Elisabeth had a blast with her grandparents. We went hiking on South Mountain in Phoenix and this was her first hiking trip. Dad was brave to carry her in the Ergo carrier:


She also went swimming for the first time in Grandma and Grandpa's beautiful back yard:


We look forward to going back one day!

Lawrence has been bright with fall colors, and Elisabeth has enjoyed our daily walks. We watch the squirrels scurrying up and down the trees while the trees gracefully drop their beautiful fall leaves on our path. We have a favorite tree on our route that looks like it has been painted red. Set against a beautiful fall blue sky it makes a winning KU combination of crimson and blue! Kansas is always so beautiful and fun in the fall, and to celebrate this season we tried to take Elisabeth to a local pumpkin patch here in town. The farm also had animals you could pet, and Elisabeth is wild about her furry friends, so we thought it would be a fun field trip! We also recently purchased Elisabeth's "big girl" carseat and our pumpkin patch field trip was the first time she rode in it. She was so comfortable in it that she fell asleep on the way there! (This was monumental because she doesn't really sleep in the car at all). Rather than waking her up we just let her sleep and tried again the next day. When we arrived at the pumpkin patch the next day they had just closed their gates for the season! I was determined to get her picture with some pumpkins so we drove to a garden center and had a lot of fun! Elisabeth was even dressed like a pumpkin thanks to a cute outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Kester! Here is our cute little pumpkin in her own private pumpkin patch:





The first Friday in November the KU Navigators hosted our annual "Barn Bash", which is the main outreach event of the year. I've blogged about it before, and this year there was a new cowgirl on the scene:

What a fun evening of eating chili, dancing, and hearing about how Jesus has changed students' lives here at KU!

Another event with the KU Navs is a new monthly meeting called "Greekside", which is a gathering for Greek students desiring to grow in their faith and reach out their friends around them. It's at 9:30 on a Tuesday evening, and we are grateful for one of our former students (now a graduate student here at KU), who comes over to listen for Elisabeth on the monitor so Jason and I can partner together for this meeting. We've had a lot of fun meeting some new students and bringing everyone together. Our last meeting we watched a powerful video by Francis Chan, a California pastor who wrote the book, "Crazy Love". The book's website has some neat videos, and the one we watched and discussed with the students is called "Just Stop and Think". Check it out:
http://www.crazylovebook.com/videos_stop.html
Our final meeting for the fall is tomorrow evening and we are excited to continue into the spring semester.

With Thanksgiving approaching I am always reminded about how much I have to be thankful for, and may the season do the same for you! We are continually grateful for your love and support!