Alathea Live

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view these videos of Alathea:

We're really enjoying the new skills Alathea's exhibiting lately (at 11 months).  The first video shows a sweet thing she does to whomever happens to be on her level.  

The second video may be a fluke because most of the time she couldn't choose the right animal, but Daddy's continuing to work with her on it... :-)

Festive Timeline

We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with Lucy, a Taiwanese student Wes met through one of the Christian Unions with which he works.  Here are some of the things we did and ate: 

 December 23

Helping Daddy Roll Out the Dough

Decorating Her First Christmas Cookies

Christmas Eve

Our Little Tree

Lucy Made Chinese Food

Following Betsy's Family's Tradition, We Opened Stockings

 

Christmas

Opening Presents

Sleeping Beauty on One Side

Belle on the Other

 

 

We Enjoyed a Traditional Christmas Dinner at Friends' House, Complete with Crackers to Pop Afterward (the Gold and Red Cylindrical Objects)

Bread Sauce, Ham, Chestnut Stuffing, Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Roasted Potatoes, Stuffing, Brussels Sprouts, Sausage, Bacon (and We Brought the Green Bean Casserole)

Christmas Pudding (Fruitcake) for Dessert (and Sweet Potato Pie from Us)

Pulling a Cracker

Putting on Crowns from Inside Our Crackers

 

 

Boxing Day (December 26)

Tortilla Soup

Budding Artist

I've begun to be impressed by some of Sophia's drawings (for all the wrong reasons, I'm sure the child development experts would say).  One reason is that I can actually recognize some of the subjects!  For a long time now I've been presented with millions of pages of multi-colored scribbles to appreciate--and I did try to appreciate them as I hesitantly asked, "And what is that a picture of?"

 

My photograph of this picture is wanting, but I liked this landscape with trees, a sky the color of sunrise, sunset, or, knowing Sophia, that could be a rainbow, plus green grass atop brown dirt.

And this one Wes and I were both really proud of.  This is a Christmas tree with ornaments and presents underneath.

Jesse Tree

I've found an Advent Calendar I'm really enjoying using with Sophia this year called, The Real Christmas Tree. With it comes short daily devotionals to use as you count down the days to Christmas.  One of the many activities the author suggests is making a "Jesse Tree," which is the real Christmas tree.  (See a picture of ours below.)  With it we're tracing Jesus' family tree, including people like Adam, Ruth, and Josiah.  We're also learning promises God shared with His people centuries before Jesus' birth about the coming of His special king.  

There are two other calendars in this series.  For more info: thegoodbook.com (US) OR The Good Book Company (UK)

 

Almost Twins

Here they are in your matching outfits, Mom!  Sophia thinks matching with her sister is pretty neat.

 

 

Winter Wonderland

From our back window Wednesday (by Friday we had nearly 1 ft. of snow)

Nearly 2 ft. long icicle outside our back window

Another view of "great-great-grandpa" icicle, as Sophia calls it (as opposed to the medium-sized "mommy" icicles or smaller "baby" ones)

Arctic fringe framing our view

This picture doesn't do it justice, but the sunset and snow were a beautiful pair.

Not Wes' Weather

Wes left for this church in Dundee, Scotland Friday morning (to help with UCCF's Biblical Evangelism Conference there) and was supposed to return home Sunday night. Unfortunately, in the interim the UK had the earliest start to winter weather in 17 years, and Wes spent 7 hours in a car inching along a road only to have to turn back, spend the night in Dundee, and try again the next morning. He finally got home Monday night.

 

We woke up today (Tuesday) to a lot of snow in London, as well. It was so deep on some sidewalks that I had to carry the stroller (with Alathea in it) or push it on the road in order to pick Sophia up from preschool.

Wes was on a bus that stopped and couldn't go any further, so he had to walk home through the snow.  Later he tried to take a train and found they'd been canceled.  All in all, not the most successful stint of weather for him.

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view the video above.

Alathea's 1st Time at McDonald's

 

Daddy was away last weekend, so I thought breakfast at McDonald's would be a fun outing prior to a necessary outing to the grocery store.  This photo is not the best quality because I took it on my phone, but I wanted to record Alathea's first trip to McDonald's (She's having an Egg McMuffin.), and Sophia wanted to be in the photo, too (She had a sugar doughnut, one of my pancakes, and a little of Alathea's McMuffin!).

Just Like a Baby

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view this video of Alathea:

'Tis the Season for Hot Chocolate!

Alathea'a Standing Timeline

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view these videos of Alathea standing:

November 12

 

November 21

 

 November 30

 

Family, Tourism, Autumn Videos

Facebookers, see http://wbsenglish.blogspot.com to view these videos: 

Changing of the Guard

 

Cousins and Leaves

The Sequel

I'm so behind on blog posts, it's hard to know where to start to get caught up...

Here are some more photos of us and our extended family in London earlier in November (most of these were taken by Wes' brother and sister-in-law):

Family, Tourism, Autumn

Here are highlights from an enjoyable weekend with some of our family, who were passing through London.

Extended Family in Green Park

Brothers (in Green Park with Buckingham Palace behind)

Alathea's View of London

Sophia Crunching in the Leaves

Enjoying Making Footprints 

St. James' Palace

Cousins at Trafalgar Square

A Cousinly Kiss

 

Big Ben from Trafalgar Square