Ransom, 16 months

Ransom at sixteen months: he LOVES crackers, and can say "cra-ka" when he wants one; he has learned "more" and "please" in sign language; his hair is looong but I'm nervous to try cutting it but I probably will soon; his bedtime routine includes diaper change; pajamas, brushing teeth, books, prayer & sometimes singing; mangoes don't agree with him; he is getting ever so much more chatty & responds to our questions with his own words. He's a lot of fun, this baby...er, toddler.

an achievement

The day came. Finally, yesterday, AJ's band received their long awaited albums. We are SO excited, satisfied, grateful! It's wonderful to hold in our hands the product of long hours of writing, composing, practicing, and recording.

This morning & afternoon Ransom and I have been listening to it nonstop, and he'll constantly point to the CD player and declare, "Dada, Dada!"
He knows his daddy's voice!
Now we're looking forward to the CD release show on Friday night.
Congratulations, to Joshua, Seth, Jordan, Andrew C.,
but especially (because I'm allowed to be partial) to AJ! Great work guys!

Moriah's visit...don't you wish you had a classy sister like her?

My little sister Moriah visited last week, for her interim break from university. We had her to ourselves for seven days! It was delightful!

(Side note: this girl is going to be going on her first missions trip to Nicaragua & Costa Rica next month & I wanted to present the opportunity for you, dear reader, to help her raise the money to go. It's tough to be a sincere follower of Jesus when you're attending a secular university, so I anticipate God working in big ways in the lives involved as Moriah is obedient and seeks God & what He's doing in other nations. If you're interested in contributing any amount email me at rajbeaird@gmail.com & I can connect you to the girl. BTW, she didn't ask me to do it, I felt a pressing to put it out there. Thank you in advance!)


Ransom got to spend some quality time with his auntie.


She spread some of her beauty around. Case in point: we made snowflakes out of book pages. They're still there.


She made her blonde brownies & tried out a new cranberry orange candied ginger scone recipe, twice! Wish my kitchen could be blessed with her baking more often!



We thrifted. We watched some old musicals. We had a couple knitting parties. We listened to lots of records. We went through a few pomegranates.

We went to the coast with Tia!


I'm so thankful to have been blessed with Moriah's presence in our family for a week. It feels home-like to be around her.

Romance

Recently I've been re-reading my journals and I've noticed a few of things:

1) I can be very long winded
2) It is splendid to see in retrospect how God answered prayers I journaled (for instance...)
3) God created a good romance for AJ and me

It's been fun to revisit the specific ways that God answered prayer. How he redeemed days & places I had associated with other boys by giving me precious memories with Andrew in those same places, on those same days. How when I was journaling prayers specifically for my future husband, AJ was really getting refined, and even though we weren't aware, our hearts were being prepared for the relationship God was getting us ready for. It's cute to see how I meticulously recorded dialogue & texts that were exchanged.

This all makes me love and appreciate the man I've been blessed with.

Have a prayer, a romance, a journal that's been collecting dust? Let this be my encouragement to you to brush the dust away & to revisit those hopes & desires (I'm getting all sappy...) and to give the glory to Jesus for how he answered (or graciously didn't answer) those prayers.

Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas & some Christmas "do's"

Merry Christmas from our family!
(Our photographer friends took these photos. They highly exceeded our expectations & we couldn't be more pleased! We highly recommend them.)

With Christmas almost here, I've been thinking about how to celebrate it meaningfully with our little family of three, and here's some "Christmas do's" I scribbled down today:

-Christmas light viewing drive & good eats or drinks (Loved that this year. We ate at our favorite Mexican grocery store deli & with warm drinks we drove up to the ritzy neighborhood with the amazing city view to look at lights. We took Ransom out of the car to look at the most impressive house at the top of the hill. We also visited the spot where AJ proposed to me & got out & hugged & kissed for memory's sake. There are houses being built there now, in what was a previously almost empty lot overlooking the city. I joked that someday we may have to live in one of them to have access to the precious spot.)
-Advent celebrating with a calendar (I didn't get my act together in time, so I'll have to try to be better prepared next year.)
-Play Christmas songs on the piano (My mom sent me a Christmas songbook that I've loved using this year!)
-Make pulla, a.k.a. Finnish coffee bread, a tradition in my family (Haven't made any yet, but there's still time. Actually, I need to hunt down the recipe.)
-Read Christmas books with Ransom (We're getting a little collection of them.)
-Play good Christmas music (This year it's been Charlie Brown, Sara Groves, Chicago, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Sufjan Stevens, and I discovered a new mini album by Hue & Hum that I might get for next year)
-Be intentional about giving $$ to the Salvation Army bell ringers who are parked outside store entrances, especially because I want to cultivate generosity in our family & model it for our kids. (I need to get better at this one.)
-Get Christmas shopping done early (Yay for avoiding the mall the week before Christmas!)
-Send Christmas photos to loved ones
-Go on an date with AJ for my birthday (Dec. 26...have yet to follow through with this one)

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

"God chose to have his Son enter the world in a stable and be laid in filthy slop so we could know our sinful hearts are not too lowly of a place for him to occupy." --Jen Smidt, from an article called "The Dirty Manger"

little boy turns one

Details of the day:
We hung the birthday banner & month by month photos of Ransom's first year.
He wore a birthday crown given to us by his aunt Jessica, which I believe Jacoby wore for his first birthday.
He liked his applesauce cake but it took awhile before he really got into it.
We gave him a circus tent for his birthday present.
After our party guests went home we took Ransom to the pet store to look at animals.
He started walking on his own the day before his birthday!
Before the party AJ gave Ransom a birthday blessing, praying that Ransom will concern himself most with what God thinks, not what people think. We want this boy to find his identity in Jesus!

We are so blessed and thankful to have this boy in our lives.

too cute to keep to myself

Ransom's birthday post coming soon!