Trout Tree

        I just realized that I forgot to post these from when we went up to the Mt. Kenya area a couple weekends ago. There were some good ones so here you go!

        

Mmmm...fish anyone?

The actual restaurant is built around and in a big tree. This is the best picture we've taken of the actual restaurant.

        

If you look closely, you can see me sitting at our table while everyone else checks out the fish and playground.

Yep, I ordered pizza at a fish place. They never have fillet when we are there and I'm not big on digging around the bones. I did ask why they never have fillet and found out the fish are not big enough.

We finally remembered to take a picture before Nathan started eating this time.

       

The customary Trout Tree picture. :)

Ruth eating the biting that they bring before your food.

       She had grilled cheese and fries hence the ketchup on her face.

Not the best picture, but the only one we have that's not blurry. We were pretty tired by this point.

And of course you can't go to Trout Tree without there being monkeys in the trees. This one was just to the right of being right over our table. Thank goodness he was over a bit or he would have peed right on us!

Fireworks

Last Friday night we were watching a movie, and I heard a lot of booms. We paused the movie and Nathan ran upstairs to see if he could see anything. He called me, and we could see these fireworks from our bedroom window. He ran back downstairs to grab the camera. These are the best we got, but they were some pretty good fireworks! Guess they were celebrating the promulgation of the constitution. 

Tuesday Treats

I love how Nathan lets me sleep until the latest possible time before he leaves for work! It's so nice to sleep!

I reminded him last night that I was going to the Masai market today. All he said was, "I guess I need to get some more money then." :) I love how he trusts me with our money!

Every night he reads the kids a Bible story and leads them in prayer time. John and Ruth don't pay a whole lot of attention to the story yet, but Dinah sits there and takes it all in. As he's reading the story she will look up at him and watch him. I love that he's taking spiritual leadership in our home and teaching our children!

You are the best, Honey!

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Please pray for our friends Chris and Lindy. They have been in the adoption process for over a year and a half, have changed countries once, and have just found out the country they are trying to adopt from is going to close adoptions tomorrow. Our hearts are heavy for them.

Please for my parents, Nicholas and Janice Cheek. They have a lot of big decisions to make in the next few months.

Praise~

The kids are really adjusting well to Calvin! John and Ruth are no longer screaming when he walks near them. PTL!

The promulgation of the new constitution went well on Friday. There were several presidents of other East African countries here. We are thankful it was a peaceful event!

We had a great visit with Pastor, Sylvia, and Judihannah on Friday! It was great to see them again!

Sleeping Beauties

Aren't they just adorable?! 

Nathan was up several times in the early morning with John Saturday morning. He didn't get a nap and was outside trying to hang up some Christmas lights on our back porch after the kids went to bed. He got really quiet and this is what I found when I went to check on him. Aren't they just adorable?! Oh, how I love this man of mine!

Cuties

She carries him around like he's a baby! And he doesn't mind...most of the time. :)

Look at those beautiful blue eyes!

Angie gave us one of their kitty beds for Calvin. We didn't know if he would actually use it, but he does sleep in it.

Boy does she love this dog. She picks him up and carries him all over the place. And he is really patient with her. :)

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Nut Muffins

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Nut Muffins

• 
  
  
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups milk
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (We used pecans.)
  • 1/3 cup whole almonds (We didn't use these.)
  • 4 tablespoons white sugar
  • 
    
  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners. In medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In large bowl stir in milk, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients to large bowl; beat well. Add chocolate chips and walnuts, stir well. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Poke almonds into tops of unbaked muffins. Sprinkle muffins with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes (we did 20 minutes), or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  
  
  I found this recipe on Wednesday at allrecipes.com. Salome made them and we thought they were yummy. Hope you enjoy!

Crazy Calvin

Calvin took advantage of a small hole in our screen door. It has slowly gotten bigger all week until he can crawl through it. When he does risk jumping through the hole and coming into the house, he is promptly met with a swat on his bum. He does like to just sit on the doorstep and poke his little head through so he can watch us. He even falls asleep sitting there. It's quite hilarious! :) He has a cute little personality that we are enjoying getting to know.

Back in Business

Sorry we've been on a little blogging hiatus. We were trying to figure out the photo thing with blogger. Took us a bit to figure it out, but we are definitely back in business now. Just paid $5 and now have 20GB worth of storage for the next year. I think that will be plenty since we've only used 1MB in over 3 years! Anyway...be sure to go back a ways and check out all the posts I've gotten up today. I've tried to catch up on all that you've missed in the past week. Happy reading!

Life with John

Life with John these days includes...

~hitting the wiffle ball. If you pitch it low and slow, he can hit it pretty good.

~eating the inside of his sandwich first and finishing the crust last.

~helping Mommy and Daddy any way he can. He likes to hang clothes on the line, take them off the line, and help fold them. He loves using tools with Daddy. He likes prepping food and stirring things.

~petting Calvin if someone is holding him.

~zooming all around our compound on his bicycle or the tricycle. He's very good at maneuvering both of them.

~loving on Ruth.

~working on writing his name. 

~reading books.

~giving the best hugs ever. I really think he gives the best hugs in the world!

~taking forever to eat his food.

~sharing. We are trying to teach our children to share and they do it pretty well most of the time.

~being a boy. Sometimes I just have to realize that some of the things he does is because he's a boy.

~asking questions. Man, sometimes they drive me crazy with all the questions they ask! 

~running from Calvin. 

~cute comments. This morning I was holding him and he was just squeezing away, and he says to me, "You're so nice and comfy." What a sweet boy!

Wow. What a bundle of energy our John is. We are so thankful the Lord has given him to us!

Georgia's Best Cookies

Georgia's Best Cookies

1 c. butter

1 c. sugar

1 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. oil

2 eggs

4 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

Cream butter, oil, and sugars; add eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into creamed mixture. Drop by teaspoonfuls on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 or just until they brown.

This is one of my favorite butter cookie recipes. They are just so yummy! 

Tuesday Treats

On Sunday Nathan was playing baseball with John. John was having trouble hitting it so Nathan rigged up a t-ball stand with an upside down bucket and empty water bottle. John was able to hit it really good then. Then Nathan got the video camera and took some pictures. What a great Daddy!

He got us a dog! I am a dog person. I just love dogs. Most of them anyway. Rottweilers and Doberman's are very, very low on the list. But I really do like most dogs. I'm not sure who the dog was supposed to be for, but he scored big points in getting the dog! :)

I love how we tag team with our kids. Some days I'm just ready for a break and Nathan will jump in when he gets home and take over. It's just a nice relief to know that I have a spouse who is ready and willing to help when I get overwhelmed!

I couldn't do it without you, Honey! I love you!

Meet Calvin

Yes. We bit the bullet. Saturday morning we visited the KSPCA. You know what that means. Once you go look at the dogs, you usually end up with one. We picked one out, but told the guy we would have to come back for him. We needed to make sure we could get everything we needed for a dog here. And then, while I was picking out plants on the side of the road, Nathan proceeds to figure out his name while he was waiting in the van with the kids. Great. The dog is definitely ours now. :) So, yes. By Saturday afternoon we had decided we would go back for him. When Nathan called back at 3pm, they were already closed and closed on Sunday. So, Monday morning during the chai break at the hangar, Nathan went and picked him up. Thankfully he rode home in a big box that could catch all the vomit. He had a bath once he got here to get cleaned up. The kids are adjusting. Dinah loves him. She goes out to play with all the time. She pets him, kisses him, cuddles him, and runs around with him. John and Ruth like to pet him while someone is holding him but once he's on the ground they are apprehensive. So...meet Calvin, the newest member of our family.

Prayer and Praise

Prayer~

Please pray for John and Ruth as they adjust to Calvin. I know it seems kind of minor, but it also includes Mama's sanity when they don't want to play outside because of Calvin. 

Please pray for us to be content in the waiting phase of our adoption. It seems things are taking longer than we originally anticipated.

Early Thursday morning we are headed to downtown to be fingerprinted for our work permits that have been renewed. Please pray for it to go smoothly. The kids are staying home with Zipporah.

Praise~

This is a short work week. A holiday has been declared for Friday because of the new constitution. Yay for a surprise holiday!

Mimi and Papa are coming to Nairobi on November 4!! We can not wait to see them!!

We are going to see our good friends the Mutangelis on Friday since it's a holiday! We haven't seen them in a while and are missing them!

We are getting work done on our portion of the paperwork for the adoption!

Things have slowed down a bit in the hangar and Nathan is enjoying a little slower work pace.

Piggy Tails

This morning we were getting ready to go to the grocery store and Ruth asked for piggy tails again. She did cry when I put the first one in and proceeded to cry quite a bit. I went ahead and put the second one in while she was crying. I guess her hair has to get used to being tugged on a little. Once she got done crying and saw them in the mirror, she was happy with them. And man, was she adorable!

Saturday Trip, Part 2

        

       A huge cactus we saw on the way out to look at the blind rhino.

The blind rhino that you could walk out to see with a guard. They gave us hay to feed him and he came right up to us. Dinah even touched it; I was too worried about Ruth falling off to pay much attention to the rhino. 

We found a herd of zebra drinking in this pond.

Ruth looking for the hippos.

And John.

Dinah posing. We never did see any hippos. We did walk down a trail by the river with a guard but still never saw them. We did see a bunch of elephant pooh. I was very apprehensive the whole way.

We stopped back at Sweetwater, a nice place to stay, to drop John and Clarissa off. Ruth found this log and thought it was a good place to rest. She was worn out.

Giraffe at the watering hole just by the tents where you stay and the dining room.

Look at this cute little boy I found sitting on a bench. ;)

They are getting into climbing trees. 

Our attempt at a picture with giraffe in the background. Poor Ruth just didn't want to cooperate so we didn't get many chances.

We had a great trip out of town even though we didn't see a whole lot of animals. We had a blast with Rob, John, and Clarissa!

Adoption Update

What's new on the adoption front? Not much really. One day this will be an awesome post telling you we have a baby boy! But until then, it's just going to be a post about all the paperwork we are trying to update. Tuesday we have a visit planned from our social worker. He's coming to see our new house so he can update our home study. He has several things to fix on our home study so we will be discussing those a little more in detail and he will look around our new house so he can change some things. Once he gets all that done, we proof read it, and get it notarized, we will be off to the Embassy again to visit the nice lady at the USCIS office. Got to get our approval to bring an orphan to the US before we find out we have a baby boy!! We are anxious to get it done, but know none of this is a surprise to our great big God.

Pictureless Wednesday

Ok, so today is supposed to be Wordless Wednesday, but if I can't load pictures, it can't be wordless. Seems blogger limits you to the amount of pictures you can put on your blog and since this is our 800th post...we've apparently met the limit. We're working on figuring out how to get more pictures on here. We'll probably have to purchase space. Anyhow, just wanted to let you know why you're not seeing many pictures right now. Hopefully I can get it worked out while the kids are napping this afternoon. So...Happy Pictureless Wednesday!

Tuesday Treats

I love how my sweet Hubby scoots up close to me while we are watching a movie. When we moved in to our new house, we had to leave the tv downstairs because there isn't room in our bedroom for it. While I really don't care for it being in the living room, it is nice to be able to snuggle up on the couch with my Honey!

Last night we left the dinner dishes so we could watch a movie...hence there was some snuggling on the couch. This morning I woke up to the clatter of dishes. Nathan washed most of them before he left for work. What a Sweetie!

I love that he has such a giving spirit. He is always helping the Kenyan guys in the hangar get new tools from the US. Whenever we learn of someone coming over, he gets their wish lists, finds the lowest price on the internet, orders them, and sends them to whoever is coming. I love that he is taking the time to invest in them.

I love you, Nathan! So glad you are mine!

Saturday Trip, Part 1

Yesterday we took John, Clarissa, and Rob, a few of the AIM AIR short termers up to the Mt. Kenya area. They hadn't been to a game park yet and we were ready to get out of the city for a bit. We got up at 5:30am and left about 6:10am. We arrived in Nanyuki, Kenya around 8:20am for a potty break, have a picture taken at the equator, and look at the souvies that were for sale. 

These are the shops at the equator. Once you pull up, you are surrounded by people telling you which shop number to shop at. We later learned that each car that pulls in is told one shop number to shop at. It was quite hilarious. 

Here is the Dallas shop and the Texas shop. They also had the Florida shop and then a whole range of number shops.

This is just looking down the road into Nanyuki.

An equator sign.

This giraffe was funny. He was just standing there like this for several minutes like he was posing for us.

A group of zebra. We saw lots of zebra.

This giraffe walked right across the road in front of us. He was a really pretty one.

One of the few groups of rhinos we saw way off in the distance. 

We spotted this Grevy's zebra first. There are a handful of these in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. We saw a few last year when we were there with Nana, Poppy, and Auntie Beth so we were looking for them again.

      

Then we looked just down the road past some bushes and spotted 3 more! These zebra are bigger than the common zebra, have narrower stripes, and bigger ears and are only found in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Pic of the Day

Wow! What a day! More pictures to come later.