our little thanksgiving day play

i think we started a new thanksgiving tradition this year. the kids enjoyed our little last-minute thanksgiving play. (and i really mean last minute. we whipped out the kids' hats while the kids were watching a movie, and i quickly scribbled down the narration while jen made ethan's beard.) actually, we all had a fun time with it. and the men were such good sports with their indian headbands. :) (our dear friends sam, jen, lola, and the other amelia joined us this thanksgiving while jeff, kristie, and karina traveled out of town to visit uncle tom and aunt pam.) i must admit that i sorta kinda tricked sam into being squanto, but he was a great squanto. and for the record, ethan is a pilgrim. not abe lincoln. there is a minor distinction (and two centuries) between a pilgrim hat and abe lincoln's hat, and well... i told you this was last-minute!


i divided up the play into three videos so that the files would be the appropriate size for flickr. please keep in mind that i do not consider this little play to be a comprehensive review of the story of the pilgrims!! it is a very simplified version, only hitting the main points. i wanted to emphasize the reality that the pilgrims were thankful to God for His provisions. also, i doubled as the narrator and videographer. :) so pardon my bumpy video skills... i had to look away to read my script at times. :) ok, enough about all that.... just watch the play, and enjoy our little pilgrims!

part 1



part 2



part 3


deleted scene: after the feast with the pilgrims, the indians pulled out their playing cards and taught the pilgrims how to play blackjack. while they played, the indians proposed that the pilgrims use the mayflower as a casino boat. haha!



hope you enjoyed it! i'll be back later this weekend with more fun pictures from our thanksgiving day.

amelia is 4 months old!

another month has flown by! this sweet baby has turned into quite the chatterbox. (hmmm, don't know where in the world she gets that!) amelia is definitely experimenting with her voice and is loving it. her vocal experiments get quite loud and to the untrained ear (ha!), they are mistaken for fussing. but oh no, she is as happy as a lark. and as loud as a baby with a bullhorn. her favorite time for testing out her lungs is on her way to sleep. she goes down happily and within a few seconds, she is belting out a few stanzas of tarzan's vine swingin' tune. this is all fine and good until i want her to fall asleep in the middle of Bible study... but i'll take baby-yelling over crying any day of the week! this is pretty much what she looks like during her vocal experimentationalisms...


amelia is still sleeping at least 12 hours a night and is taking great naps, so i cannot complain. she has begun the teething process... we see lots of drool and bubbles, and her bottom gums are as hard as rocks. it has yet to disturb her sleep too much, but i'm expecting those bad naps to come before too long. amelia loves to play under her little toy gym, and she can usually be found in the back corner of this area because she has scooted backwards as far as she can go... the child never gets tummy time and thus has yet to roll over, but she digs those heels into the ground and can really move!


well, amelia may not have been in many st. augustine pictures, but i am about to make up for that! we are trying out a friend's nikon d60 (thank you, mrs. lori!), and amelia and i had a little photo shoot this evening.




and these were obviously taken before we borrowed the d60... i love all the faces she's making these days!





so there... i think we're all caught up on amelia pictures now. :) she's getting big, isn't she??

i'll end this with two videos that really portray amelia's personality right now. she loves to be sung to and talked to... in the first video, i am singing our kids' bedtime song, and she "joins in" several times. i don't really care to hear myself sing on this video, but i knew it was the only way to get her to "talk" to me. this night, i was putting her to bed in her quiet, dark room, and she was just a talkin' to me while i sang. so i ran to get the camera to video her, and for the video to show up, i had to turn on her light. well, after singing to her again and talking to her with all the lights on, amelia was not going to sleep. so she just talked and talked to herself for a good long while. and eventually, she fell asleep. but it was worth it to capture this:



and in this last video, you will see how easily amelia gets the hiccups... but oh her laugh is so wonderful. sorry for the crazy videography. i was using mrs. lori's flip video recorder (she is full of fun electronics, isn't she!?), and i was still getting used to it.


we continue to count our blessings... our cup runneth over. God is so good!