Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas is more than trees and twinkling lights, more than toys and gifts and baubles of a hundred varieties. It is love. It is the love of the Son of God for all mankind. It reaches out beyond our power to comprehend. It is magnificent and beautiful.

It is peace. It is the peace which comforts, which sustains, which blesses all who accept it.

It is faith. It is faith in God and His Eternal Son. It is faith in His wondrous ways and message. It is faith in Him as our Redeemer and our Lord.

We testify of His living reality. We testify of the divinity of His nature. In our times of grateful meditation, we acknowledge His priceless gift to us and pledge our love and faith. This is what Christmas is really about.

Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Season for Gratitude,” Ensign, Dec 1997, 2

We are thankful for this time of year that gives us a chance to reflect and think about the birth our Savior Jesus Christ who died so we can live again. We are grateful to be a family and we are grateful to know that our family can be together forever - that death is not the end for us! We feel so blessed that the Lord is looking out for us and is aware of our struggles and triumphs. Life may not be perfect for us but we do know we're not going through it alone.

Here are some highlights from 2012:

Our most important news is that we welcomed our sweet baby Tommy to the family in April. He has been such a wonderful addition to our family. Natalie and the kids spent four months in Utah just before and after Tommy's birth. Adam was able to come for a few weeks and be be present for the birth. While in America we made time to visit Yellowstone National Park. Natalie and the kids also spent several days in San Francisco visiting family.

Charlie started kindergarten and is learning so much! He is reading and writing and becoming very social. Charlie also learned how to swim and ride a bike without training wheels. Charlie loves superheros, playing video games, and coloring.

Millie is now talking in complete and lengthy sentences which we can understand 90% of the time. She is now potty-trained and only wears a diaper at night. She is learning her ABCs and loves the colors pink and purple. Millie also loves singing and dancing, superheros, and princesses.

Tommy went from being a snuggly newborn to a busy baby. He is always squirming around and trying to follow his big siblings even though he refuses to roll over or crawl. He is trying very hard to walk but isn't quite there yet. He is happy and mellow and we're so glad he's in our family.

We also found out that Adam's next assignment will take us to Tel Aviv. We will be in DC for about seven months for language training and then we'll head to Israel for two years. We're excited that are first two tours are to such different places so we can have lots of new experiences.

I've been busy taking care of kids and trying to find time to sew, knit, and read.

Due to a glitch with the mail system we haven't yet received our Christmas cards so they're definitely not in the mail. Hopefully next year.

I forgot a couple big ones

In my last post about all the major milestones we've been hitting at our house I forgot a couple big one:s Charlie learned to swim and caught his first fish!

Look at him go! 

The champion swimmer!

Tommy and Millie love the water too. :)

Isn't this pretty? This picture was taken off the dock in the backyard of an acquaintance's house.

Just the girls.

Charlie and his fish!

We've been busy around here

Millie is officially a big girl and out of diapers (except while sleeping). This picture just captures her personality to a "t" right now. 

Tommy is a champion sitter and has been since about 5 months. However he still doesn't roll over and hates being on his tummy.

The "bald boys" in glasses.

Millie's prize for learning to use the potty - a pink scooter!

Play dates with friends.

Millie learned how to ride her trike!

Charlie learned how to ride his bike without training wheels! Adam had a big talk with him about how he'd probably fall down a lot and he might get hurt but he'd have to keep trying until he figured it out. Then Adam took the wheels off and helped Charlie get on the bike and off he went. He didn't even fall once. I guess it was time. :)

So proud.

I spent a couple of weeks sewing up these super hero costumes and then a couple days before Halloween Charlie decided he wanted to be the Hulk instead. Not this year bud.

At the Embassy Halloween party with our great friends, the Ibrahims.

Tommy turned six months!

The week before his six month birthday he got his first two teeth. You can barely see them poking through in this picture.

Mills

Charlie

Tommy got to try solids. I was planning to wait a couple more months to let this guy have any solids but he just wants to be like the big kids so bad that I gave in. he doesn't really eat much but we put some food on his plate and let him play. We're trying the baby-led-weaning approach this time so we're mostly steering clear of "baby food." So far Tommy has tried apples and watermelon and rice cereal. He's mostly a fan of licking it and squishing it and making a mess.

Brownsberg Falls

The muddy, bumpy road to the park.

Some birds. Not sure what kind.

An agouti is hiding behind the tree. Adam actually ate one of these on a previous trip to the interior.

Cool trees.

A poisonous snake just off the trail.

Our first hike as a family of five. Tommy did great!

Our hiking group - minus Milad who was taking the picture.

Millie hiked with Milad most of the day.

Beautiful rainforest and hot husband.

The waterfall.

Millie didn't enjoy the waterfall but she did enjoy playing in the water downstream. 

We didn't know we'd be swimming so we didn't come prepared with swim clothes but we didn't let that stop us from playing in a waterfall in the jungle. I mean how many chances do you have to do that?!

Natalie fully clothed and Charlie stark naked.

Beautiful Lake Brokopondo.

Some post hike snacks.

I think we wore them out.

We had a fantastic day and I'm glad we went, but I also had one of my most terrifying moments as a mother. While we were hiking down a pretty steep part Charlie tripped and started rolling downhill. He tumbled head over hills 4 or 5 times before he hit a tree. It all happened so fast and there was no way we could have stopped him if not for the tree. Charlie was understandably upset and crying but he calmed down pretty quickly and we continued on our hike. Later while we were in the waterfall he fell again and hit his head on a rock. He got a pretty good bruise from that one but was otherwise okay. Things could have been so much worse and I'm sure you can imagine all the thoughts running through my head as I saw my little boy rolling down a mountain. We were a two hour drive from Paramaribo and it's not like the medical care is great even if we'd made it back. We are feeling very, very blessed that our Heavenly Father was looking out for us on our hike and all Charlie remembers now is the fun he had. Blessed for sure. 

Baby Tommy

I guess I should share this sweet baby's name now that he is over two weeks old. We named him Thomas Madsen Ferguson and he is such a mellow little guy. Charlie and Millie love to hold and kiss Tommy and he's a good sport about it most of the time. It's safe to say he's won our hearts already.

Our talented friend, Carol, volunteered to take this pictures for us as practice for her new grand baby who will be arriving soon. Can you believe she'd never even taken newborn pictures before?!

Happy Halloween!

Since Surinamers don't really celebrate Halloween the Embassy hosted a little party/BBQ. Some nearby neighbors also volunteered to pass out candy to little trick-or-treaters so we could pretend that it was fall despite the fact that it was 90* outside. 

We went as the Justice League complete with Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, and Superman. Unfortunately we did not get a group picture. Boo. 

Batman and Robin 

Check out those muscles!

Wonder Woman