.....that we will be welcoming a second daughter into our family!  Ellie was right all along, it must be a big sister thing ;)

Noah is a little overwhelmed by all the pink in his future, but observing how well he's adjusted to one daughter, two should be no problem, right? :) We're grateful that all looks healthy. She is 9 oz and kicking a lot! 

We couldn't be more grateful. 

Here's a bonus picture of Ellie, just because :) She thoroughly enjoyed her first trip to the "Splash Park" at Hessell Park.  Thanks for getting wet with me daddy! :)

"We have always believed ... that a great and indispensable motivation in world missions is HOPE. By hope I mean the confidence that we are engaged in

Dear praying friends,

The Waldo Canyon wildfire west of Colorado Springs is growing in size and scope and has reached the west side of the city.  The Navigators corporate headquarters, Glen Eyrie Conference Center, and Eagle Lake Camp are located in these areas, and have been evacuated for a couple days.  The HQ and Glen Eyrie have been safe thusfar, Eagle Lake has sustained some unknown damage.  12,000 people in western Colorado Springs neighborhoods have been evacuated.  Some homes have started burning in the last couple hours, and it has gone from a nuisance to destructive tragedy in a matter of hours.

Please pray for the city of Colorado Springs and all the firefighters and emergency workers.  Please pray for those who have lost their homes, many Nav staff live in the evacuated areas.  And please please pray for the protection of the Navigator properties listed above.

The Navigators are posting updates a couple times a day or more atwww.navigators.org .  You can follow along with news coverage at http://www.kktv.com/video/live.

Thank you for praying. 


This was taken off of the Glen Eyrie Facebook page.

"As we adjust to the challenges of this very difficult time, we may reach for the comfort of Scripture. Our Leadership Team reminds us of this passage: 'Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom. One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts.' ~Psalm 145:3 & 4"

-Noah

The Colorado Waldo Wildfire is threatening the Nav Headquarters.

It's hard to believe I'm almost half-way through this second pregnancy. I'm not sure if it's having another child, spending a month at Spring Hill or being in the midst of a busy summer, but this pregnancy sure has flown!

I've been feeling very good overall (especially now that I'm in the second trimester- yippee!) 

The main point of this post is to share that we find out THIS WEEK if we are having a boy or a girl. Our appointment is on Thursday! I've been thinking girl, Noah has been thinking boy. I'm wrong almost all of the time, so I guess it probably is a boy, but I'm still sticking to girl, and so is Ellie :) We have two little babies for her doll house (one boy and one girl) so we put them out today and had her pick one. She's picked girl every time, and she did so again today! I got a video, but I'll need Noah's help to post it :) 

I thought I'd post a few pictures of the wedding this weekend. We took a mini family vacation/trip to St. Louis/Alton. Wednesday-Friday we stayed in downtown St. Louis and went out to eat, to the hotel pool, the zoo, and had a picnic at the arch. We had a LOT of fun. I'll have to post more later. All I can say, is vacation with kids are just so much different :) 

Friday-Sunday we were in Alton for Meg & Carl's wedding. Meg is a former student and I was VERY honored to stand up in her wedding :)  It was a BEAUTIFUL wedding. Meg had crafted so many decorations and it just looked awesome! She even made bracelets and hair pieces for each of the bridesmaids. It was an adorable wedding that was TOTALLY Meg's style :) 

Just had to share a picture of the banner she made to hang up... 64 yards long and totally transformed the room :) 

Here I am at almost 19 weeks :) 

And here is beautiful Meg! I loved her something old (necklace from her grandma when she was 7) something new (dress) something borrowed (veil) and something blue (blue shoes!) Too cute :) 

Can you tell someone is VERY tired? :) Ellie did a great job, but it was a busy weekend! Oh and notice how I have to hold this girl- above the baby bump :) She's getting too big to be carried all the time! :) 

Had to show off the hairclip! And the hair (Meg's friend Kristin did it for me!) Thanks to curly hair, it took like 10 minutes :) 

BIG WEEK- we will keep you posted :) 

We love you baby #2. We are SO excited to meet you, and can't believe we're almost halfway there!!

Keep growing healthy and strong! I'm enjoying your little kicks :) 

:)

Well, we did it! We are HOME!

We are eager to sit down and really fill you in on Spring Hill, for now a short family update will have to suffice!

The program went incredibly well overall. Students came SO eager to learn, and it was a joy to watch students soak up so many things over the three weeks!

Personally, it was more challenging than anticipated. Noah has never directed an STP before, we've never gone to a summer training program with a child, not to mention being pregnant (and tired!) and I ended up getting pretty sick... so we had to rely on the Lord completely for our strength, energy and grace. We're grateful for what He taught us personally in the midst of directing the program and watching the Lord transform the students' lives. We'll post more on that soon, I promise!

A week ago we were on our way home, and I think I can finally say tonight that we feel settled! :) We've done our best to have a restful week unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, getting settled and going through a months worth of mail, emails, errands, and just LIFE! 

Ellie did SO well at camp! We were so impressed with how flexible she was (at times eating with 300 people in a cafeteria!) and sleeping all by herself in a cabin. She came to camp very shy and left waving hi and bye to everyone.

She's become a very creative mover- no desire to walk or crawl, but she will lean over and reach to get just about anything. If that doesn't work, she'll likely resort to rolling VERY quickly across the room.

She can say hi, bye, mama, dada, nana (banana) nigh- night, more, and I'm sure some more words I'm not thinking of. She signs 'please' and 'all done' very consistently and 'thank you' when she feels like it :)
She loves playing in her pool and has found her favorite toys- the two drumsticks from her drum set and the picnic blanket from her picnic basket. She always wants those three things in one hand while she is playing with her other toys :) Too funny!

Two of her cutest new tricks are (1) We've started asking her, "Who is in the mirror" and she says "Eyyie" :) It's so cute! and (2) When we ask her to give kisses to the baby she'll lean her face into my stomach (That's her version of kisses for now :)) 

Speaking of the baby, it's hard to believe I'm almost 17 weeks already! WOW, time is flying!! I felt him/her for the first time this week and we heard him/her kick as he/she kicked while the dr. was getting the heartbeat on Thursday at our appt.  Noah and I looked at each other and laughed... what if we have a more active child next?! Ellie almost never kicked enough to disturb me or keep me from sleeping. She's still very laid-back, content, easy to please and loves her sleep :) Time will tell! I'm feeling good and my appetite is back. We'll find out at the end of the month if it's a boy or a girl :) 

Thanks for praying for us while we were at Spring Hill. We felt very loved and cared for, despite the challenges, we had a truly wonderful time. 

But of course, there is no place like home! :)
It finally feels like summer!