What a joy to be surrounded by so many great friends who are as excited to welcome baby girl #2 as we are! I've been pampered and we've been showered with diapers. :)
A couple of weeks ago my wonderful visiting teachers put together a "Pamper Mom" baby shower where friends brought great gifts of Bath&Body works lotions, body sprays, bubble bath, room sprays, candles, and chocolate. It was a fun night visiting with my great sisters of the Brushy Creek Ward and so nice to take home all of the delightful gifts.
Today was a wonderful time with friends at our home as a "Diaper Shower" was thrown in honor of our new bundle soon to arrive. Special thanks to Dani (& Jeff) and Netsanet for organizing and putting together a wonderful event. We really enjoyed everything about the day. It was great food, great company, and great fun. Thanks for all of the little "extra's" too. And thanks to all of those who joined us and brought gifts. We're definitely set on diapers for a little while. :)
I'm still working on thank-you notes for both showers so they'll be in the mail soon!
Washing hands at the sink.
Jabbering her language and once in awhile a little English as well.
Abusing her beloved dog, Tootsie and showing her climbing moves.
I'm sure that this won't be the only time we catch our sweet daughter getting into mischief! She's discovered how to open the doors now so in her new found freedom she's finding all sorts of things to play with. Lucky for us, she hasn't tried playing in the toilet bowl yet. :)
We are so lucky to have such great friends here in central Texas. We've been blessed with great acquaintances from church, work, and even neighbors. Savannah has quite a few little people her age to play with on a regular basis.
At least once a week, on Thursday mornings, Savannah is able to have playtime with girls her age from church as we participate in a babysitting/playgroup exchange. This has been a major benefit to me lately as I go to the OB every two weeks and it's much easier not hauling Savannah along. There are three of us that do this exchange so it's very manageable to host and keeps the kids entertained as they watch and interact with each other. Here is a picture of Savannah with her friends from church. The first time we hosted was interesting because Savannah was having to share not only my attention but her toys as well with her friends. But each of the girls have gone through this and every time it gets easier... So about the time that we get this all figured out, our new baby will come and throw us off schedule :-) . This past Thursday was my turn to host the playgroup while their moms had some time to themselves. Only one of our little friends joined us for the 1.5 hr, so we missed our other friend but we really had a good time. I am so grateful to our friends for spearheading this genius plan and for being so supportive and loving to us all. It's been a great blessing and a lot of fun for Savannah to be able to continue to interact with kids her age since leaving school.
One of the fun outings that we had while cousin Adlight was visiting was to travel to San Antonio on a Saturday and meet up with some of the Owuor's for a sightseeing adventure. We enjoyed visiting the Riverwalk, the Alamo, and then SeaWorld for the highlight of our adventures. An unfortunate aspect of the day was that the temperature was in the upper 90's and quite humid, so keeping hydrated and cool was a challenge. Still Savannah's favorite part of the day was probably riding in the stroller with her cousin Kioni at SeaWorld. Her least favorite moments where when Shamu and the other killer whales would come out of the water and onto the platform with their trainers. This terrified her nearly as much as being held by Santa Claus. Watching the orcas was otherwise a very cool experience. It was wonderful to behold these massive animals and to see them do their tricks.
My favorite part of the day was visiting the penguin exhibit where it was cool and air-conditioned. :) I think everyone else especially enjoyed riding the roller coasters (especially Michael as it was his first time ever) and seeing the fun pictures capturing their terror and glee during the rides. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting the SeaWorld, and look forward to the opportunity of doing so again soon.
We are so blessed. We had the opportunity to host Michael's 2nd cousin Adlight for just over a week. She flew in from London on Sunday the 26th and returned home to the UK this afternoon. Our time together flew by far too fast. We had such a great time showing her around Austin, San Antonio, and a little of Houston as well. One of the bonuses for her coming to stay with us is my pregnancy because Adlight is studying to be a nurse midwife. (In fact, she is due to graduate next week and we wish that we could be there to cheer her on!) So in addition to seeing the family and the sights, she had the opportunity to visit my OB's office as well as a midwifery birthing center and really get an idea about the medical field in the US. Perhaps she'll come this direction to work in the future... We'd sure enjoy seeing her more often!
We were so fortunate to get to spend time with family in London during our vacation and they were kind enough to take turns hosting us all overnight as well. We really appreciated having the one-on-one time with each family and especially are thankful for the delicious food and comfortable accommodations. Thank you everyone for your generosity and love. We hope to see you all again soon.
Savannah gave lots of kisses to her cousins and really enjoyed playing with the fun new toys.
This gorgeous crew is the Zablon Omondi family. Michael and Zablon are first cousins. Zabo is married to beautiful Miriam and they have three handsome boys.
Here are just a few of the precious moments with Alice and Mark. Mark is Michaels' older brother. Savannah really took to all of the family but she definately gave the most kisses to Alice and Mark during our many visits.
One of the highlights of our visit was to go to the Horniman Museum where we all got to play with miscellaneous musical instruments and robotic insects.
This gorgeous crew is the Peter Omondi family. Michael and Peter are first cousins. Peter is married to beautiful Alice and they have one handsome boy and three gorgeous girls.
Savannah loved that all our her cousins homes had stairs to climb. Thanks again to her sweet cousins for keeping her busy so that she wasn't tumbling down any stairs.
This good-looking group is the Japheth Ochieng family. Michael and Japheth are first cousins. Japheth is married to beautiful Phoebe and they have four children, two beautiful girls (Sylvia & Winnie) and two handsome boys (Richard & James).
Thanks again to all of our beautiful family for hosting us and treating us so well. We love and miss you all. Please come visit us anytime.
What a joy to be surrounded by so many great friends who are as excited to welcome baby girl #2 as we are! I've been pampered and we've been showered with diapers. :)
A couple of weeks ago my wonderful visiting teachers put together a "Pamper Mom" baby shower where friends brought great gifts of Bath&Body works lotions, body sprays, bubble bath, room sprays, candles, and chocolate. It was a fun night visiting with my great sisters of the Brushy Creek Ward and so nice to take home all of the delightful gifts.
Today was a wonderful time with friends at our home as a "Diaper Shower" was thrown in honor of our new bundle soon to arrive. Special thanks to Dani (& Jeff) and Netsanet for organizing and putting together a wonderful event. We really enjoyed everything about the day. It was great food, great company, and great fun. Thanks for all of the little "extra's" too. And thanks to all of those who joined us and brought gifts. We're definitely set on diapers for a little while. :)
I'm still working on thank-you notes for both showers so they'll be in the mail soon!
