Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Settling into life as four!

Having had loads of family visiting around the time Naomi arrived in the world, this last month with just the four of us, has given us a chance to work out what 'normal' is again!! For those of you who knew ... Abigail's sleep went haywire in March having gone to bed every night and sleeping 12 hours since she was 3 months old ... one extra bonus this month has been that she's all back to normal again!! (and Naomi now only wakes up once, if at all, in the night too!!). The girls are still very cute together as you can see below, with Abigail always wanting to give Nomi a cuddle, a kiss, a bath ... even sometimes helping change her nappy ... out of choice, she must be mad!!
The weather has been scorching here ... reaching record highs! The heat index has often reached triple figures over the last couple of weeks and our little AC units have been fighting the battle on our behalf (not always successfully!). In the hangar Mark and the guys have been working hard in spite of the heat, one of them said the weather at the moment reminds him of life when he used to work in the Congo with MAF ... that's how hot and humid it is!! ;o) It's good practice for us for the next step ... wherever that may be!! As you can see below, Mark and Naomi have found a way to endure the heat ...
Jenny's method of adapting to the heat ... is to get a whole load of hair cut off!! It was about time for a change anyway!!
While Abigail is just being as goofy as ever and making the most of every opportunity to have fun whatever the weather!
When it was still a bit cooler Abigail and Mark did some baking together, amongst other things ... but at the moment we're avoiding using the oven at all costs ...
... so instead, when they're not outside bouncing on the trampoline or playing in the paddling pool, Jenny and Abigail can be found doing something crafty inside ... like making a pink and shiny life-sized Abigail!!
Naomi is good at enjoying herself too ... she chatters away non-stop to anyone and everyone who'll listen and is often giggling away at herself, us or her cuddly giraffe (who's been named 'Bubble') and then getting the hiccups! She loves playing on her mat!!
We've been having fun out and about this month as a family too ... splashing around at the open air pool ... although failing to take photos of that ... just Naomi wearing her Daddy's sun glasses and snoozing in the shade, oblivious to all the noise and fun going on around her!! (She's sleeping on a blanket that we have photographic evidence of Mark chilling on when he was her age!!)
We celebrated Independence Day, 4th July (yes we know ... we lost ... but the Americans won ... so we get to celebrate with them while we're here!!) with the lovely Keaton family. Lots of fun, games and food in the back yard ... and for those of you who were at All Nations with us, we taught them how to pay Kubb! We also celebrate with them as they have just found a new church to lead in Indiana ... selfishly though we're going to miss them loads.
We had another fun evening at a Family Luau Pool Party at Abi's best buddy's house. The girl's really enjoyed wearing the leis and their toilet paper grass skirts!! Mark made Abigail's ... obviously more crafty than he thinks!! ;o)
Even though there's been all the boring every day stuff to adjust to with the newest member of the family around ... you can see we're enjoying ourselves too and although life can probably never be classed as 'normal' for anybody ... we think we're getting into our new groove! ;o)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

More Babies!

There have been other babies in our house over the last month in addition to Naomi! In June we noticed a robin was making frequent visits to one of the hanging baskets on our front porch with twigs and bits of grass ...
... and when we snuck a look inside, we found a perfectly formed nest just waiting to be filled!
A couple of days later a little blue egg appeared much to Abigail's delight ... and then another ... and then another!!
When we checked about a week after the last egg appeared, there were three little pink wrinkly blobs in there ...
... who slowly got covered in fuzz ...
... and then feathers ...
... as their mummy came and fed them up, preparing them for life out of the comfort of our hanging basket!
Last week we got a final look at our not so little robins before they flew the nest!
We didn't get to see them learning how to fly ... but managed to catch the last one as he left the nest for the last time and headed out into the big wide world!!

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Celebration & Dedication!

Last weekend Naomi had two special events to attend! Quite the socialite already!! ;o)
On the Friday evening the MMS Apprentice wives threw Jenny and Naomi a Baby Shower for all the MMS ladies to celebrate the newest member of our family's arrival! As we didn't know whether 'Bubble' was going to be a boy or a girl they decided to wait until it had 'popped' to make it more of a fitting celebration!
As you can see Naomi got lots of cuddles ... in fact Jenny had most of the evening off 'Mummy-duty' which she enjoyed ... although having had a whole selection of shots/jabs that afternoon Naomi wasn't the happiest of party girls all the time!!
There was a gorgeous spread of pink food as well as an amazing fruit bowl!! The apprentice wives really outdid themselves on the food, decorations and fun games ... everything was pink and black and had a literary theme as they know us Beckwith's love books and reading!
The little girl below enjoyed her celebrations and both Jenny & Naomi went home feeling very loved that evening ... with lots of pressies, thank you ladies!
On Sunday morning (June 26th) we had a dedication service at our church here in Coshocton where Naomi and 3 other babies were dedicated. Abigail was dedicated in Yeovil, the town in which she was born and so we felt it was right that we had Naomi dedicated here. We realise that the nature of our work with MAF UK means that milestones like these in our lives and in the lives of our children can no longer be celebrated with all our friends and family as we would like but we were really honoured that we were able to have Pastor Dan dedicate Naomi's life to God during his final service at the Tabernacle. We were joined by some of our MMS family to celebrate the day ... and Naomi's two 'fairy' godmothers, Kristin Gettle and Laurie McClary (see below), really good friends of ours (whose husbands will forever be her honorary godfathers too!).