Mullins Family Blog

Enoch Singing

2012-02-27T11:22:00.000+11:00

Enoch loves anything with letters and words, and he loves music - so he's extra happy when he can combine those two things. When I'm on the computer, he'll come over and pester me with, "ABC, ABC!" So I usually go over to Youtube and type in 'abc songs' and play him a couple. Recently he found one that he really liked and asked me to play it again and again. After three or four times of watching this song, he surprised Emily and me by singing the entire thing back to us - with his own made up choreography to go with it! Later, Emily got him to do it on camera, but he's a little camera shy so he sings it at a whisper. He get's a little more confident and a little louder as the song goes on.

He's going to have a full repertoire of songs to entertain us with at his second birthday in a few weeks!

Growing Boy

2012-02-06T10:38:00.000+11:00

Here's a few pictures of our growing boy from the last couple of weeks:

Reading with Daddy.

He still loves to put on my shoes and shuffle across the floor.

Enjoying a juice box at Joytime, our Thursday kids class.

He's potty training now. He likes to look at the pictures in this potty training manual while he sits. When he does something he likes to be very thorough in his research!

Holidays

2012-01-10T13:47:00.000+11:00

We had a good Christmas and new year. We spent lots of time with friends, and Enoch got thoroughly spoiled (several friends and family members sent packages from the States). Between Christmas and New Year's we participated in a church camp for families. Here's a few pics from the holidays:

My mother made a fruit cake shaped like Texas and mailed it to us! Texans...

Animals and an ABC puzzle from Grandmama and Granddaddy

Dr. Seuss books from Grandpa and Grannie Annie

We got a ton of stuff from our friends at the Legacy church, here are just a few items:

We spent Christmas Eve with the Whaley Family (the Texas stocking on the wall also came from Mom)

We had a big dinner at the community center on Christmas day for anybody who didn't have somewhere to gather for Christmas - I think around 20-25 people came:

Camp was fun. I facilitated a few discussion groups and Emily helped Nicole with the preschool class. Enoch did lots of crafts.

Only in Australia do you get to take your shirt off for craft time.

Hanging out with some of his little buddies.

At camp, I discovered this amazing looking bug. I found out through some internet investigation that this is a Botany Bay Weevil - the first Australian insect to be studied by European explorers.

Enoch had a blast at camp and was happily exhausted afterward. The night we got back from camp he slept for thirteen and a half hours straight!

December

2011-12-12T15:19:00.000+11:00

Here's a few pictures from December:

Trying on Daddy's shoes

A little too big

Enoch decided to help Mama with laundry by filling the laundry basket with balls and climbing in.

His favorite past time is looking at books.

He's getting rather talkative these days. About half the time he speaks to us in real words, and the other half in his own made up language of baby gibberish. Here he explains to me a complicated point of theology from his children's Bible. It went something like, "Goobie beenoo go so cuda baby Jesus." Is it too early to declare him a brilliant Biblical scholar?

He's usually tries to get us to read to him first thing in the morning. In this picture he's pestered me out of bed to read him a book about a horse with a terrible sneezing problem that stops a bank robbery (gotta love children's books). I've always had a tendency to pick up random facts from books and Enoch appears to be a chip off the old block. Yesterday, he walked up to me and said, "Bank robbers steal money." Now how many 21 month olds can bust out that kind of trivia?! I'm so proud.

We decorated for Christmas last week. David, our friend from China, wanted to come over and help us decorate. He's never celebrated Christmas before.

Finished product

The only place in the living room I could find to hang the stockings were a couple of hooks in the middle of the wall. Emily kept complaining about it, saying that we should find some other hooks. So I hung her stocking on the only other hook I could find:

She was not pleased...

New Pictures

2011-11-21T11:14:00.000+11:00

Well we finally got our camera working a couple of days ago. Apologies for the delay to those back home eager for some pictures. We haven't taken many new pictures and videos yet, but here's a couple:

Here's Emily arranging a bouquet of wild flowers she picked on our walk.

And here's a little video of Enoch displaying his acting skills:

October update

2011-10-28T12:09:00.000+11:00

We finally got our internet hooked back up! We have been quite busy lately. Here's a picture of our life the past few weeks:

Thankfully we're all unpacked and settled now. Of course, Enoch helped us out with the move:

Testing the strength of the box

I would like to show you more pictures of the move and, of course, our new house. But unfortunately, our new camera kicked the bucket just after we moved in. It appears we bought a lemon. Thankfully, it is under warranty. As soon as we get a replacement, we'll get a few pictures of the house up and other recent goings-on. Until then, here's a video from my Mom and Dad's visit of me, Emily, and Enoch doing the hippopotamus song:

Still No Internet

2011-10-23T21:58:00.000+11:00

We were supposed to have internet up and running last week, but our phone company couldn't get it to work. They think our modem might have gone haywire and are sending us another one. Hopefully it will be here in the coming week.

Moving

2011-10-11T22:45:00.001+11:00

Our internet won't be switched over to our new address for another ten days or so. Until then I don't have a good way to upload pictures, so the blog will be on a bit of a hiatus.

The moving process has been far more tiring than we expected. The actual move took less than half a day, but to move from one rental home to another in Australia requires that you go through almost as much bureaucracy as an international move. We have been wading through it for days, and it is still not over. I have had to put practically everything else on hold to deal with it. I'd say more about the situation, but that would require the use of strong offensive language. Plus, thinking about it too much could possibly cause my head to explode. Looking forward to life getting back to normal.

2011-09-22T17:18:00.004+10:00

It's been eventful here the past couple of weeks.

Australia recently celebrated Father's Day. Emily surprised me with breakfast in bed, and a homemade card from Enoch.

What a way to wake up

A couple of days later, my mom and dad came for a two week visit. They have just returned to the states - I think they're probably getting off their plane about now. It was a fun visit, and Enoch sure enjoyed having his grandparents around.

Enoch and Grandmama

Three generations of Mullins men

They came bearing gifts from Texas.

Baby QB

I also got a Dallas Cowboys shirt, but I couldn't find a picture of it on the camera. It just has a big white star in the middle of a blue shirt. Australians don't know what that means, they just think I really like Captain America.

We made a weekend visit to Murramurang national park. I think this is probably my favorite picture of me and Enoch. When I look at it, I feel a sense of anticipation for all of the father-son adventures that wait over the horizon.

Enoch wanted to wear my hat.

Later, he found a walking stick and led us all on an expedition.

Enoch had a great time playing with his grandparents. Here he is pulling laundry out of the laundry basket and putting it on Granddaddy's head. He thought that was hilarious.

House church on Sunday night

I also have a couple of videos from their visit, but I can't get them to load for some reason. Hopefully, I'll have them up and running soon.

The past week

2011-09-02T17:07:00.000+10:00

Here's a few pictures from the past week.

On Saturday morning, I went fishing with my friend Greg. The sea was a bit rough, so we kept getting soaked by the waves crashing against the rocks. It wasn't too pleasant being wet on a cool, late winter morning, but I caught two nice sized Australian salmon, so it was worth it. This picture is the second one I caught. Boy did he fight hard - my arm was worn out by the time I got him up on the rocks.

Late winter / early spring is a great time in Wollongong for harvesting from your winter garden. Here's a picture of the garden I tend at the Port Kembla Community Centre:

Enoch's latest obsession is climbing into things. I'm know just about every toddler goes through that phase, but it is extra cute with your own.

The classic kid-in-the-laundry-basket picture

In a bolder move, he removed all the stuff from our kitchen junk drawer and somehow climbed up in there. (This one happened when we weren't looking.)

He was very proud of himself.

Lemons, Toilet Crowns, and Crayons

2011-08-26T15:44:00.000+10:00

Last year the lemon tree in our backyard grew a lemon that looked like a small Nerf football. A couple of days ago I was pulling a vine down that was growing over the tree and I accidentally yanked loose this huge lemon that was growing by the vine. It's too bad I ripped it loose because they aren't ripe for another month or so and I would have loved to see how big this thing might have gotten. As you can see, when it was pulled loose it was about twice the size of a grapefruit (it weighs about a pound). I had no idea lemons could grow so large. But it's not even close to the world record holder, which was almost 12 pounds (I looked it up just in case I grow another big boy).

We've started putting Enoch on a little potty before he goes in the bathtub so that he can practice a little for future potty training. The other day we went to Hungry Jacks (Burger King in the U.S.) and when we saw the little paperboard crowns they were giving away to the kids, Emily remembered a photo of her brother when he was little in which he was sitting on a toilet with one of those crowns on. So when we got home we recreated the photo. So this might bring back some memories for Emily's folks:

In other exciting news (I know, I know, what could be more exciting than large lemons and paper crowns?), Enoch learned how to color this week. Before he would only hit the paper with the color like he was trying to poke a hole through it, but a few days ago he actually started coloring. Here's his first masterpiece (his Mom helped with the name, but everything else is original art work). He took a couple of bites out of it to put on the finishing touch:

The next Jackson Pollock?

Enoch Reading

2011-08-18T16:38:00.000+10:00

I bought a new camera today. It was the cheapest one in the electronics shop, but it takes much better pictures and videos than our old one. I filmed Enoch this afternoon "reading" a book that Grannie Annie gave to him. The words are just made up, but still pretty good for someone who's only been around for 17 months:

Final Picture

2011-08-08T13:28:00.000+10:00

Enoch's always doing something new. The other night, just before we put him down for bed, he crawled over the top of me and pressed his forehead into mine and began laughing. He laughed so much that he got me to laughing, and Emily grabbed the camera and took a picture.

I'm so glad she did, because little did we know that this would be the last picture taken by our digital camera that we've had all these years (the only one we've ever had actually). It kicked the bucket the next morning. I guess it decided it just couldn't take any better picture than this one and gave up the ghost. Oh well, I've been thinking about getting a new one anyway. R.I.P. HP Photosmart camera, you served us well.

How to Grow a Forest in a Year

2011-08-01T17:39:00.000+10:00

There is a place in Wollongong called Greenhouse park. It's a former industrial garbage dump that has been covered over with soil and is gradually being turned into a native Australian forest. Almost all of the work at Greenhouse park is done by volunteers. A little over a year ago, our church sponsored our first community tree planting. If I remember correctly, we planted about two hundred native trees, vines, and grasses. My coworker, Jason, and I went down to check on the planting a couple of weeks ago. Wollongong is about as close to a perfect climate for growing plants as any I've ever been in - not too hot, not too cold, and plenty of rain- even still, we were amazed at the progress. The plantings were never watered a single time after the day we planted them - I know my friends in Texas will be impressed by that (there it takes a few hundred gallons of watering just to keep a sapling alive through the summer). Below is a little video and slideshow Jason put together to show the progress from planting day to now:

Bush Regeneration from Jason Whaley on Vimeo.

July So Far

2011-07-23T16:30:00.000+10:00

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. We've taken hardly any family pictures this month, and I was waiting to get a few to post. I still don't have much.

One of Enoch's new hobbies is cleaning up. He loves to clean up. He'll dump out the toys in his toy box, just for the pleasure of picking them all up and putting them back in the box. When he gets done putting them in, he'll dump them back out all over again. He also likes to to take the dustpan and whisk broom and try to sweep stuff into the dust pan (though he rarely manages to actually get anything into the dustpan). Sometimes he'll try to sweep with the big broom and he usually manages one good sweep before the weight of the handle causes him to fall forward with the broom.

Enoch "sweeping"

A couple of days ago, we received a care package (actually 2 of them) from some of our friends at Legacy, our sponsoring church. We got some very nice cards and some much needed Tex-Mex ingredients, and several other goodies. Enoch made out like a bandit, he got several sets of clothes, books, and toys. Enoch loves books, and he was very excited to have some new ones as he has worn out most of his others. He has been studying the new books intently and has already memorized several of the words that go with the pictures.

Enoch with his new books and a stuffed animal we have named Mr. Frog

Enoch's hair was growing over his ears and down his neck, so yesterday we decided it was time to give him a trim. I put him in his high chair and played a musical cartoon on my computer to distract him. Here he is after his haircut:

A well groomed little man

Batemans Bay

2011-07-03T15:30:00.000+10:00

Here are a few pictures from our stay in the cabin at Batemans Bay.

Playing Music with Daddy

2011-06-13T12:10:00.000+10:00

Enoch has several little toys that play music. Here lately, when I start playing my ukulele, he will go find the nearest one so that he can play along. This video is the first time he did it. Now he actually brings the musical toy over next to me so that he can play it beside me. My little band mate! When he gets a little bigger, we're going to get him a little toy uke so that he can really play along.

Splashing in the Tub

2011-05-27T16:19:00.000+10:00

Dirt, Injuries, and Creepy Crawlies

2011-05-22T10:28:00.000+10:00

I finally got my winter garden put in last week. Here's a little miracle of nature for you. Believe it or not, this is an entire year's worth of kitchen scraps from 2010:

Put potato peels and carrot tops into the barrel, and soil comes out of the barrel. A miracle!

Speaking of miracles, now that I have a fourteen month old son, I've come to regard the fact that any of us make it to adulthood as a miracle. Enoch always seems to be into something and/or hurting himself. A few days ago, Emily was hanging out the laundry in the backyard, and Enoch was on the back porch where she could watch him. I was in the house, when I heard Emily yell my name in a rather distressed manner. I rushed out onto the porch to see what the problem was. She said, "What does Enoch have in his mouth?!" Apparently he had put something in his mouth while she had her back turned hanging a piece of laundry. I looked over at Enoch and, sure enough, he had stuffed his mouth full of something and had what appeared to be several long strings of yarn hanging out all the way down past his chin. I walked over to him, and as soon as I got within about three feet of him I realized that the "strings" were the legs of a gigantic spider. I let out a rather unmanly scream of shock and grabbed him and opened his mouth and extracted a very large Huntsman spider from his mouth. A Huntsman is a large fuzzy brown spider, sort of like a tarantula but with longer skinnier legs. Somehow he had managed to stuff the whole thing into his mouth. We have two things to be thankful for, Huntsmen are not poisonous, and this one was dead. These sort of spiders aren't the least bit aggressive, but they do have rather large fangs, and probably don't take to kindly to being picked up. He was a missing a couple of legs, but Enoch threw those up about five minutes later - apparently spider parts don't agree with him.

Here's a picture from Wikipedia:

Now doesn't he look just delicious? Apparently to a 14 month old he does.

Then on Friday and Saturday Enoch decided to see how many times he could injure himself. Our friends Alan Phillips and Jay Jarboe from MRN dropped in to see us on Friday. They were on their way to New Zealand, but had a brief stop in Australia. After they arrived, we were conversing in our front yard and we were discussing Enoch's "excellent" walking ability, and I said, "He is doing great, but he still has a big fall occasionally." It was no more than maybe two minutes later that Enoch, as though to demonstrate what I was talking about, tripped on the concrete foot path and did the most incredible dive forward into the elbow joint of a sturdy metal pipe. He literally, made the pipe wring like a bell he hit it so hard. Screaming ensued. We took him inside and put ice on his forehead which had a large bloody knot on it. They next morning, he did the same thing on the back porch. The back porch boards have grooves in them to make them "slip proof" which left grate marks across his face. A couple of hours later (no kidding), he fell again, for a record of three major falls in less than two days time. This time he busted open the bridge of his nose on the kitchen tile. So by Saturday afternoon he looked like he had just been in a boxing match. Here's some before and after pictures of our little warrior:

Friday morning

Saturday afternoon

"I could'a been the champ."

Who knew it was so dangerous to be a toddler?

Leaves and Onions

2011-05-10T20:43:00.000+10:00

We're coming to the end of autumn here in Australia, and gearing up for winter. Emily recently put flannel sheets on the bed, and soon she'll be getting out the hot water bottles. In Australia the native trees don't turn in autumn. In Wollongong you occasionally see someone with a tree in their yard that is imported from the northern hemisphere, but mostly it stays green here all year round. But there is a little town just over the mountains called Bowral that has oaks, maples, sycamores, and all sorts of other northern imports planted all through the town and along the sides of every street. So it looks just like a small town you'd find in North America. Also, since it's at a higher elevation it's always a bit cooler. So even the temperature is right. Every autumn when we feel a little home sick for some fall colors we take a day to head over the mountain to Bowral. We went went up a couple of weeks ago when the leaves were really at their peak. It's a very pretty little town, but it didn't occur to me to take any pictures of it. But I did get a few pictures of Enoch (of course) playing with the fallen leaves in the park.

Enoch has gotten to where he can repeat most of the words he hears on a regular basis. So we're trying to be more intentional about teaching him words. This week we were teaching him food words. Here's a little video:

Pictures Old and New

2011-05-01T12:29:00.000+10:00

Is it too late to post our Christmas picture? We still had a few things stacked in the closet from our visit to the states, and this was one of them. When we were in Texas visiting our sponsoring church, we went to a church singing at a local nursing home. Our friend Wayne Steele got us to sit down in front of the Christmas tree there and get our picture taken. I thought I would scan it share it with everyone - just a tad bit late!

Our first Christmas picture as a family of three.

I volunteer with a local men's group. We have a little shop and we do different projects around the community. One of the guys from the group saw someone had set out an old rocking chair next to the rubbish bins to be thrown away. He stopped and picked it up (something he's known for). When he brought it back to the shop, it looked to be very sturdy but was covered in some old brown paint that wasn't too attractive. He and I scraped off the paint and sanded it down, and there was this beautiful hardwood chair underneath. I'm not very good at judging wood grains, but it is a very heavy and solid chair. I think it might be some kind of Oak or maybe Walnut...that's just a guess. My friend knows a fair bit about furniture and he said this style of rocking chair was popular in Australia in the 30's and 40s. Anyway, he asked me if I wanted it, and I told him I knew a girl who loved this kind of stuff, so he gave it to me to take home for her.

On our back porch

Trying it out for the first time

I thought we would have it as a porch chair, but Emily liked it so much she's moved it into the house.

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T23:44:00.000+10:00

When Enoch woke up this morning he had a surprise from the Easter Bunny:

Later he had a little Easter egg hunt on the back porch:

Random Pictures

2011-04-12T16:01:00.000+10:00

I just realized I forgot to update the blog last week! Sorry. Here's a couple of random pics of you know who. (One of these days, Emily and I are going to have to start taking pictures of each other again!)

Enoch spends most of his play time looking at his books.

Our friend Greg calls Enoch "Mr. Smiley." Here he's confronting him about his habit of getting into all the drawers. The permanent markers have since been moved to a higher location.

Eating and Walking

2011-03-30T12:46:00.000+11:00

Enoch mostly feeds himself these days:

And he has made great progress from his first step two weeks ago:

By the way, I think I finally have the comments section fixed. So if you want to leave a comment, it should work for you now.

Enoch Turns One

2011-03-22T17:10:00.000+11:00

Enoch turned one last week. Sorry it's taken a week to get some photos up!

Enoch got his first taste of sweets on his birthday (the birthday cake his mom made for him):

He also decided to take his first steps on his birthday - at his birthday party! Unfortunately, we didn't catch it on the camera, but here are a couple of videos from the day before showing him warming up for it:

He is still mostly crawling, but he works up a step or two just about every day. His record is three unassisted steps. He's also had some incredible face plants - two that resulted in bloody lips. The road to mobility is fraught with challenges.

Enoch's Week

2011-03-10T13:08:00.001+11:00

You may have noticed that our blog has changed a bit over the past year, as it has featured picture after picture of a certain little cutie. That's what happens when you have kids I guess, they sort of take over you life - in a good way...mostly. Well, it's hard to believe, but our little man is turning one next week! So in honor of that, we present to you a week in the life of Enoch:

Sunday:

Bible Class

Monday:

Swimming Lessons!

Tuesday:

Play day with the Whaley kids

Wednesday:

Play day with friends at the neighborhood park

Thursday:

Play area at the mall (after Mom's done at the supermarket)

Friday:

Swinging at the park

Saturday:

Stay home so Mom can rest

Sugars

2011-03-03T16:27:00.000+11:00

From Winter to Summer

2011-02-21T10:01:00.000+11:00

I'm trying to get our family blog caught up to the present. With that in mind here's a few pictures from our final days in the States:

Hanging out with Grandpa.

Since we weren't going to have family around for Enoch's first birthday, Grannie Annie was kind enough to make a ten month birthday cake for him.

Enoch's great grandparents in Tennessee.

Even though Enoch was born in Australia, he's a Texan by descent.

Enoch taking a picture with Grandmama in an outfit that was mine when I was his age.

This is what it looked like just before we left the states.

But now we've traded in our coats and scarves for shorts and tank tops. Enoch with his buddy Ella in Oz.

We're Back

2011-02-05T12:29:00.000+11:00

Well, we're finally back in the Gong. I plan to get the blogs up and running in the next few days. Unfortunately, our digital camera is in our lost luggage, so we won't be having many picture updates until that is located. Until then, we'll try to get caught up on some old pics. Here's a few:

Enoch received a Christmas stocking and his first dollar bill from his great grandmother in Tennessee. The reaction was hilarious - he got very excited as if he new what money was. Maybe he'll grow up to be an investment banker...

He also got to play with his cousins in Texas. He especially enjoyed getting his cousin Zowie's attention.

Enoch is now crawling and pulling up and getting into everything. He was very proud of himself for pulling this package of napkins and a bag of drinking straws off a shelf in the kitchen. He probably should have got in trouble, but we thought it was funny, so we took a picture instead. I hope this doesn't make us bad parents.

More updates to come...

More Pictures from Our Travels

2010-12-14T05:08:00.000+11:00

Sorry it's been a while since the last post - we've been a bit busy on our travels. Here's some more pictures of our adventures (mostly containing pics of Enoch).

Enoch with Granddaddy and Grandmama Mullins

With great grandparents Beard and great uncle Bob

Reading time with Grannie Annie

Musical entertainment from Grandpa, a.k.a. "G-pa"

Hanging out with friends Jack and Nina

Lunch with the Shin family

Getting some good loving from Great-Grandma Smith

Playing with Great-Grandpa Smith

Visiting with cousin Brady

More loving - from Great Aunt Libby

Playing with Great Uncle Gary

Playing with Uncle Nathan

More loving - from cousin Vanessa

Hanging out with cousin Lucas

Playing pilgrims and indians for Thanksgiving with cousins Iris, Nathaniel, and Lucas

Recent Pictures

2010-11-10T08:39:00.000+11:00

Sorry for the delay in posting. We've been traveling for the past week. Here's a few highlights:

We had Halloween just before we left. In this picture Ella is a Texas Longhorns cheerleader, and Enoch is a farmer. I couldn't find a picture of Noah, I think he was taking a nap at the time.

Of course, we've taken plenty of pictures of Enoch with family. The great thing about Enoch is he's one of the few babies I've seen that seems to understand what's going on with the camera - 9 times out of 10 he looks right into it and smiles.

Uncle Michael

Cousin Korbyn

Granddaddy

Grandpa

There's plenty more pictures to come!

Chip Off the Old Block

2010-10-25T18:40:00.000+11:00

Emily and I were looking at a photo album with some of our baby pictures to see if we could see any similarities to Enoch - not that we had much doubt! He definitely is ours...no DNA test required.

Me - a little younger than Enoch is now.

Emily - a little older than Enoch is now.

We can't really tell who he looks more like - it doesn't help that Emily and I look like we could be siblings! What do you think? 50/50?

Random Video of Enoch Playing

2010-10-12T16:03:00.000+11:00

Enoch Laughing

2010-10-02T19:51:00.000+10:00

Enoch with Corduroy Bear

2010-09-26T14:01:00.000+10:00

We gave him this little bear before we went for a walk together. He was so happy.

Enoch Saying Mama

2010-09-23T17:27:00.000+10:00

Enoch can now say Dada and Mama. For now we're the center of his universe...I'm sure it won't last long.

Happy Half-Birthday

2010-09-15T23:57:00.000+10:00

Enoch is six months old today. I can't believe it. It's only half a year, but he has already changed so much it is just unbelievable. In six months he has gone from this tiny little unaware newborn to an active/interactive little boy. He knows who his mom and dad are (he can now say Dada - his first word...if that counts as a word). He can stick out his tongue (I taught him that...). And just this past week his first tooth broke through. He has favorite toys, and a favorite book. His favorite book has pictures of cute cuddly animals, with little patches of life-like fur that he can pet.

And boy has he grown. Look at this bag of clothes - these are all clothes that he has already outgrown:

A little story about this bag. As he's outgrown things, we have put them into the bag with the expectation that when it got full we would donate the clothes to a second-hand clothing store. But when the bag got full this past week, Emily (suspiciously) wouldn't let me take the bag. I insisted that there was no reason to keep the clothes since we would NOT be needing them anymore. A short battle of wills ensued. The bag is now being stored in our closet...

Anyway, he's a fast growing boy. And he's not the only one. We had a family weigh-in yesterday and we found out that both Enoch and...ahem...myself had each gained ten pounds since he was born - yikes!

Mama says that one of us is going to have to go on a diet.

To celebrate Enoch's half-birthday, we invited a few of our friends over, and Emily served half of a cake.

Now how am I going to keep myself from eating the leftover half?!

Little Buddies

2010-09-13T17:11:00.000+10:00

This Sunday Enoch and Noah wore their matching overalls:

When Emily saw this picture she said, "little Jason and little Corey." I guess there's no denying who their dads are...not that we would want to.

"You can't resist our cuteness...so don't even try."

Even Ella wore her overalls for the occasion. You can also see Jason's dangling keys in this picture (which is how we got their attention for all of these photos).

First Father's Day and the Super Seat

2010-09-11T14:40:00.001+10:00

This past Sunday was Father's Day in Australia. To mark the occasion, Enoch got me a card and made my favorite cookies (Cowboy cookies). He sure is a thoughtful son (I think he may have had some help from his mother).

Enoch and his Dad on Father's Day

This week we got Enoch a Super Seat. It's the first seat that he's had in which in he can sit up all by himself. And to make things even better it comes with a ring of toys! He has really enjoyed it.

Without the toys...

Toys!

A very mischievous grin...a sign of things to come?

Enoch 51/2 months

2010-09-04T14:32:00.000+10:00

Well, Enoch is growing like a weed and Emily and I think he gets cuter every day (I'm sure we're not the least bit biased).

Legacy Visitors

2010-08-30T11:18:00.000+10:00

This past week we had visitors from our sponsoring church in Texas. The Snelsons and Lamberths were here for a week and we were able to have a good visit and show them around Wollongong. It was an encouraging time. Here are a few pics:

The view from Mount Keira

Nancy with the Whaley Kids

Jim and Nancy made some new friends

George enjoying some Aussie BBQ

Sharri and Enoch

They brought us plenty of American goodies - Hersheys, Reeses, and a ton of Velveeta and Rotel!

Enoch got lots of loving from Nancy and Sharri - and enjoyed every minute of it!

And they brought toys!

It was a fun visit. Now Enoch has to wait till we go home and see his grandparents before he gets this much attention again.