2013 Christmas Card & Letter

I think I have finally mailed out our final Christmas cards this year... better late than never.   If you didn't get one this year and would like to receive one next time, please update me with your address & I'll add you to my next mailing list (...or you can just blame the postman...).   ;)

Here's our Christmas card:

And here's the letter we included with it:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Medals!

     We hope you have been having a joyful Christmas season. During the last several weeks we have enjoyed reading through John Piper's Good News of Great Joy, a series of advent readings. It has been encouraging to read of the good news of Christmas: that the Son of God became man, lived a perfect life, died an atoning death, and rose again after three days. On the eve of Christmas we used Enoch's toy Nativity Set to re-enact the birth of Jesus from chapter 2 of Luke's gospel; one thing that stuck out to us was how Mary “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” After that we sang O Holy Night, which reminded us that it is the “King of Kings” who was laid in a lowly manger. Truly the Christmas season is a good time to be reminded of the gospel.

     We have also been reminded of how gracious God was to us in 2013. The fall semester down in Starkville was a pleasant and busy one, and we are now enjoying the Christmas break. Hugh is working on finishing up a few grant proposals as well as prepping for a new class for this coming spring: Stochastic Optimization (you can wikipedia that one if necessary). ;) He and Enoch (now 2 years old) have both been enjoying the warm weather down South this fall/winter by playing outside as often as they can. Their favorite outdoor activities are swinging, stump-jumping, riding in Enoch's plastic push car, and playing hide-and-seek. When inside, they enjoy wrestling, playing the guitar, learning to count, and reading. Little Man is also talking nonstop these days and loves learning new phrases as well as building towers and playing with toy construction equipment.

     The girls have also been doing well lately. Karis is 7 months old now and growing well. She is so sweet and snuggly yet also very determined and adventurous when playing. Right now she enjoys putting everything into her mouth as well as grabbing faces and giving kisses. She and Leanna go to therapy twice per week these days (physical, occupational, and speech), which is aiding us in helping her develop important skills. Leanna is thankful for the daily joys (and challenges) of being a stay-at-home mom and is relishing this stage with both kiddos – a sweet, snuggly infant and an ever-learning, active toddler. She has also already begun planning her spring garden and is looking forward to beginning another round of reading through the Bible in a year, chronologically this time.

     A few of our favorite memories from the past semester include: playing outside, watching Karis grow and develop, picking pecans in our backyard, growing closer to our church family, seeing Enoch engage with the world around him, spending time with our family (in person and on the phone/Skype), raking leaves together, hearing Karis laugh, having a friend move in with us, eating around our dinner table, swinging on the front porch, listening to Enoch learn to sing, cooking together, becoming members of our new church, Redeemer, and meeting with our church small group on Thursday nights.

As we look forward to the coming semester, here are a few things we are anticipating: a spring garden, a trip to Arkansas/Oklahoma/North Dakota/Minnesota, more learning and fun with the kids, raising chickens (possibly?), continued therapy for Karis, a short get-away to a marriage conference (based on Ted Tripp's book What did you expect?, which we would highly recommend!!), and many more memories. We will also continue to be involved with our church, worshiping together, studying the Bible together, praying together, and serving together.

      May the joy of Immanuel – God with us – dwell within you,

          Hugh, Leanna, Enoch, and Karis

Also, Google+ made this video for us using a random selection of photos and videos that I had uploaded from my phone.  I think it's a great snapshot of some of the year's happenings.  Hope you enjoy!

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FFF: Who needs socks in the winter?

Not this girl, apparently...



She just learned how to pull them off and does it every chance she gets now. Not exactly ideal for the winter, but all the better for tickling! Good thing we live in the South. ;)

posted from Bloggeroid

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Merry Christmas!!

Merry {belated} Christmas everyone!  We had a sweet day yesterday celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It was neat getting to see Enoch understand more of why we celebrate this holiday.  Though he does know about snowmen and Santa (mainly by visual recognition since you can't avoid seeing them in stores this time of the year), I loved the fact that our Christmas wasn't focused on any make-believe characters or consumerism.  Instead, Jesus was at the heart of our celebration, which I pray never ceases.

This year to celebrate Christmas we re-enacted the story of Jesus' birth with a toy nativity set, had friends over for lunch, and went to see Christmas lights after dark (though there weren't many around our town to be seen for some reason).  We also talked on the phone to a few friends and family - all of whom we wish could've been here with us. 

Here are Hugh and Enoch singing Happy Birthday God


And a few photos of our Christmas lunch:

 

Talking after lunch

 

plentiful babies!

 

Everyone (except for Enoch who had already begun napping)

 

Sweet Karis

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Learning how to jump

Enoch is officially learning how to jump these days! He really likes the idea of jumping, but he hasn't quite figured out the whole "both feet off the ground" trick yet, though he is quite good at squatting down before each attempt.

As you can see below, he and Daddy love practicing together... which is definitely a good thing because I think he will need quite a bit more practice before he has gotten the hang of it. ;)  (the background noise in this one is Karis working really hard to grab my phone)


This is the stump in the ground that Enoch and Daddy have dubbed the "high place."  Hugh's pretty sure that going up on the stump (what Enoch calls "going up high") will be instrumental in Little Man learning how to jump.  As you can see though, right now he isn't doing much jumping...  hehe

posted from Bloggeroid

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FFF: What we've been doing lately

Here's a quick Friday post showing what has been keeping me from blogging very much lately... all pretty good excuses if you ask me!  ;)

Finding Daddy on campus and taking him home

(I used to say I'd never use those little backpack leach things on my kids, but now that I have a baby and a rambunctious toddler, I have busted it out... and I have even been thankful for it because it allows Little Man to get out some his energy without me worrying about him darting out into traffic!!)

enjoying the pretty campus

reading - we do a TON of this these days (Dr. Seuss is our fave)

therapy, twice per week 

(more on this later, I hope)

playing while Mama cooks

Karis loves watching Enoch, and he loves listening to music & building towers

learning how to dance along with songs

brushing teeth 

(we do still help him with this, but he loves being a big boy and standing on his stool by the sink like Mama.. he even tries spitting and tapping his toothbrush against the sink to remove the water)

building towers with Daddy and Sweet Girl

being too cute for words

And that's a pretty good summary of my busy-ness these days.    :)    Other good and hard things are also going on in our lives, but (surprise!) I don't have much time to type all the details out right now.  

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FFF: Enoch can sing!

Enoch just started singing this week!!  {Hugh remembers him doing this a little bit a few weeks back, but this is the first time where he is consistently singing.)

I cannot put into words how much I love to hear my sweet little man singing along with us!!  My heart is overflowing, especially because the only songs he knows right now are such rich hymns: Amazing Grace; Holy, Holy, Holy; Rock of Ages; and O Great God (not an old hymn but still rich in meaning).  It is so precious and sweet to me that the first songs out of his mouth were praise to our great God, who is so worthy of praise.  And it is exciting that whenever he starts singing randomly (which has also now happened), the whole family can enjoy joining in with him, and then great truths are on our minds and tongues.   :)

I hope you enjoy this rendition of Amazing Grace as much as I did.  (The first half is black b/c I wasn't sure if Enoch would continue to sing if he knew I was recording it.  During the last half you can see him though.)


Another thing this most recent development has done is to reinforce the fact that children truly are sponges - soaking up every word out of our mouths, especially those words which we often repeat.  Lord, help me to say good, intentional words that can build my children up and point them to Jesus!   

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

(Colossians 3:16-17)

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

(Ephesians 4:29)

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Playing in the Rain on the Porch

Yesterday was a rainy, warm(ish) Fall Monday, which we took advantage of by spending the morning outside.  I began some Christmas decorating around our front door while the kids played on the front porch (I'm so thankful to have our front porch on days like this when it's warm yet wet and I need a contained outdoor play space for Enoch).  Karis mainly played in her yellow rocker, but every few minutes Enoch would come over and check on her/want to share some of his rain with her.  ;) 

the beginnings of a lighted door

watching the trash truck, which honked at us, again

trying to taste the rain

I think he actually did get a few drops into his mouth because he kept yelling "eat rain again" and "more rain".   :)

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