Rebekah at 6 months

Rebekah-6 months

Rebekah has really become such a content and happy baby. She loves watching her siblings no matter what they are playing. She also loves to be held and we love holding her! She's great riding in the car which is good because we have a bit of a drive to pick up Lucas after school every day. Rebekah can pull her socks off which means she's found her toes and loves to chew on them! She is now 25 inches long and weighs almost 12 pounds. Many people comment on how small she is but she's on the same track as all our other kids so we know she's growing just fine. She still sucks her left thumb but has started holding (a little too tightly) to my hair with her other hand. I now wear a lot of pony tails! Rebekah also loves the bathtub and used to get her sister in trouble until we realized she was the one kicking the water out of the tub! Click on the picture above to see a few more of the things she's been doing lately.

Rebekah-6-2

Rebekah-6-3

Buffelspoort

Buffelspoort

Yes! Vacation! We had a wonderful 5 days away at a resort in Buffelspoort, about 1.5 hours northwest of Joburg. Lucas had a 3 week break from school so we decided it was time to get out of town! We knew we wanted to do something different but since it's wintertime we had to consider our options. Thankfully, South Africa has many heated pools and we found a resort that had a HUGE indoor heated pool. We booked our rondavel (round house) as quickly as possible. The water is soooo warm-about 95 degrees. It's like swimming in a warm bath and we all just loved it! There were also trampolines, mini golf, tennis courts and we planned a family movie night every night. Such fun and so relaxing! Click on the picture of the kids to see more of our holiday fun!

Happy 7th Birthday Lucas!

Lucas' 7th Birthday

Lucas had quite the plan for his 7th birthday! He decided to invite his best friend, Scotland, over to spend the night. He chose to eat out at a restaurant called Spur for supper. They have a great play area for kids and he loves how the people sing to you. He planned his party for Monday and invited 6 friends. He chose a soccer theme so I had a challenge with the cake. I was able to rent a soccer cake pan, borrow a decorating kit and after making a ton of frosting I think the cake turned out just fine! My first experience with something so extensive but Lucas liked the look! He planned a soccer tournament with his friends and they played some serious soccer for a good 2 hours. He chose cheese pizza, cheese balls and Fanta orange pop for lunch. He didn't forget a detail-what a planner our son is! Happy Birthday Lucas! Click on the picture above of Lucas and his soccer cake to see many more pictures from his special day!

Soccer boys

Family pic-1

Family pic-2

Family pic-3

Family pic-4

Thumb, Books, Bike, Brothers

Click on each picture of our kids to see more of what they've been doing.

Rebekah-2

Rebekah is so cute to watch as she sucks her thumb. Thankfully, it is a soother and not something she needs constantly. We just love how her other little finger curls over her nose! Rebekah is now 5 months old and a little over 11 pounds. She is talking/squealing a bunch and likes to grab toys and chew on them. It's so fun to watch her grow! She is also quite the cuddler!

Joshua-2

Joshua is such a happy little boy! He loves to sing and visit the library. He is always entertaining us with his tricks and he is so gentle with Rebekah. When he's quiet, we always find him with lots of books.

Alexis-2

Alexis has been very busy. She learned how to read (read her first story) and how to ride a bike without training wheels all just last week! Lucas asked her if she wanted to learn how to ride and said that he could teach her. She was up for the challenge, practiced for several hours and is doing just fine! Now they keep asking us to go on walks so they can ride where there's more space. That's our Alexis. When she decides to do something, she does it all the way.

Lucas-2

Lucas has been quite busy with school and soccer but he still manages to find lots of time to play with his siblings. Joshua's favorite game to play with Lucas is "punching". They take off their shirts to "punch" and wrestle. There's always lots of laughter when that happens!

Lucas plays soccer at school!

Lucas was chosen to be on his school's Grade 1-3 soccer team. He is absolutely loving it! He has already played in 3 matches and they've won once. They have 2 more matches this week.

Lucas' soccer

Lucas' soccer-2

Children's Conference in Soweto

Wow! We had a great time last Saturday at the Children's Conference in Soweto, which is a suburb of Johannesburg. Children continued to come all day for the event and the final number was around 750 kids! We were so blessed to be part of the 40 or so adults that came to help. The event was for children in Kindergarten to Grade 7 but we had children as young as 18 months old come. The younger children came with older siblings which is very common here. We took Lucas & Alexis along with us to serve. We were so glad when they helped by participating and interacting with the kids. The children were entertained with many games and relay races as they arrived. At one point I looked over to see Dan trying to teach about forty 2nd & 3rd graders how to play "Duck, duck, goose". Because of the noise and loud music it was hard for the kids to understand us. They are also Zulu speakers and I'm sure our American accent didn't help! Promise and her daughter, Melissa,(from our church) led the program for the conference. There was singing, dancing and a story. Most of it was in Zulu so I'm not sure what all was said or sung but we enjoyed mingling with the kids and offering a smile or hug. Lunch was served to all the children and I have never seen children wait so quietly in line for up to an hour to get their food. It was amazing!

Children's Conference in Soweto

Each of our kids had a fun experience as Alexis had several girls playing with her hair at different times. I had warned her that this might happen and she did very well with it. Lucas made us laugh as he got a group of kids around him and began giving directions for a soccer game he was putting together. He picked captains and helped decide who was on what teams and they all listened to him! I asked how he did it and he said he'd point at a kid and make a soft clicking sound when he was done and that kid knew what to do. Who taught him that? It is amazing what kids pick up! We were so glad to be part of this event. Please click on the picture above to see a bunch more from the children's conference!