Facebook is to blame!

Sorry friends, we have joined the world of Facebook - or at least Jamie has which means that our blog has gone by the way side. Well, Facebook is only partially to blame. So, we will try to bring you up to speed on our lives.


Let's see, Jamie applied for a Resident Manager position and was accepted, but then turned it down. We decided that moving less than a year after we moved here (into an even smaller space) was not something we were interested in after all. So, plan B - Jamie gets elected onto Resident Council and gets a summer job as a nanny in Longmont (about 20 min from Boulder) for a six year old boy about 15 hours a week, and Aviella comes with her. Worked out well, but probably won't do that again. Now Jamie is babysitter/nanny for a neighbor and that is going swimmingly! The first two weeks were a bit rough, before Aviella was walking. She didn't really like Mommy holding another baby (Hunter is currently 9 months). Now the two enjoy playing together and always seem excited to see each other (at least the squeals and grabbing faces seems to mean excitement). Jamie is still leading an English conversation group and has also become involved in two Bible studies - one for international and American women and the other is a couple's study with some international families as well.

Ryan finished his first year of classes and then took a May-mester course (3 1/2 hour class everyday for three weeks of May plus homework, hence the name May-mester). During the summer he worked on a research project and neither of us really had time for a vacation. :( Ryan did, however, attend a conference at Berkeley and was able to spend a short period of time with his brother Anthony and family. We were all sad that Aviella and Jamie were not able to join them, but we are excited that Anthony, Sandi and the girls will be coming to Boulder for Thanksgiving! :) Ryan has since started his fall semester and been recommended for a fellowship, which funding is to begin mid-October - woo hoo!! Consequently, Ryan's schedule has gotten busier than he had anticipated. He had to add a math class for the fellowship, had already agreed to a contract job, takes his preliminary exam at the beginning of November and has a weekly and bi-weekly meeting with his advisors for thesis credits and fellowship stuff. Until the end of November he will continue to be a bit stressed, once he takes the prelims he has much catch-up work to do in the math course.

We received somewhat of a surprise visit from Ryan's sister Nicki and her husband Page, because of some last minute changes in plans due to Nicki's pregnancy. We enjoyed dinner and breakfast with them before they flew out of Denver. Unfortunately Ryan was in CA at his conference when they returned, but Jamie and Aviella were able to enjoy a picnic lunch with them before they headed back to CA via Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We were all joyously shocked to learn that Nicki is pregnant with twins!! Sadly, Page will be in Iraq when the babies are born. Maybe he will be able to be present at the birth via satellite.

Aviella turned one in September and was walking at her first birthday. She took her first steps after we returned from our only summer vacation (the week before Ryan's classes began again). For awhile she was crawling more than walking, but now she is always walking and she is getting pretty good - although we think she kind of looks like a drunken sailor. Aviella's first birthday party was a hit! Grandpa Jim and Lulu came out for the occasion and we had lots of neighbors and friends around to help us celebrate this milestone. Aviella has a few words: mommy, daddy, baby/bobby, and doggie (sometimes sounds very similar to her word for daddy). She loves animals, especially dogs. When she sees them she squeals and shakes with sheer delight.


Oh, one more minor thing. We are glad that she has already learned the word for baby (although everything seems to be a "baby") since she will have a sibling in the very near future. That's right, we are expecting our second child - sometime at the end of April. Well, that should get us caught up to date. Now we need to update the Shutterfly account with recent pictures.

Speedy Recovery in WI

Recently Aviella and Jamie flew to WI to help Jamie's mom (Oma to Aviella) after her knee surgery. Oma had partial knee replacements in both knees!! Jamie helped with the cooking and horses - cleaning and preparing the stalls for evening. Aviella helped speed up Oma's recovery. When we arrived Oma was walking with a walker around the house, but by the time we left Oma was using a cane and walking down to the barn - she was even cleaning stalls (because Jamie got sick)!

Before Aviella and Jamie left Ryan for almost two weeks they made and hung up posters around the house letting Daddy know how much he was loved and would be missed while they were gone. They even made cards to send back periodically during the two weeks. Ryan was very appreciative of the posters and cards - he missed both Jamie and his little girl.

Aviella got to know her Oma and Opa quite well while in WI. She really enjoyed pulling on her Opa's mustache and reaching for his glasses. They even did tummy time together. Tucker and Tanner are Oma and Opa's dogs that Aviella was fascinated by; they made her laugh and she enjoyed touching their soft fur.

Jamie arranged a few play dates with friends and their children while in WI. Aviella got to meet lots of people and had fun playing with the other children. She loves to "talk" to other babies and children, it is so much fun to see and hear. Cousin Ryleigh and Auntie Marcy came for a weekend visit; Ryleigh is a little over a year and a half old. Once when Aviella woke up from her nap Ryleigh heard her crying through the monitor and picked it up to say hello to Aviella and let her know that "we're comin'." It was so cute, we all got a good laugh out of it. Grandma Hall also came over to spend some time with Aviella. Unfortunately Jamie got violently ill the night before her stamping party, so we did not see all the friends that we had hoped to see. Jamie was able to recover enough to celebrate Grandpa Jim's 60th birthday at Auntie Andrea and Uncle Shane's house before returning to Colorado.

While in WI Jamie also took care of some tasks related to the sale of our house, we close on the 27th of March. We give thanks and praise to God for this and thank all of you who have been praying.

You can see more pictures from our trip and the friends we visited (as well as the last six months of Aviella's life) at: www.aviellanadira.shutterfly.com.

Aviella got her first meal of baby rice cereal after we returned to Colorado. Daddy wanted to be a part of that experience and mommy didn't want to deal with making baby food while out of town. Aviella is now six months old, eating baby food and sitting on her own.

Wow, Time Flies!

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated our blog - I guess life kind of spun out of control for awhile there. Ryan's first semester was incredibly busy with three classes plus the TA position (and becoming a new father), so we thought he would try to slow down this semester and only take two classes along with the TA position, but apparently that wasn't enough for his schedule because an interesting research project came up that may lead to his dissertation topic. To simplify, it is a geothermal research project on an indian reservation in South Dakota (a place Jamie has actually heard of because YouthWorks! has a site there). Anyway, we will try to catch you up on what has happened in our lives since the beginning of October.

Let's see, Aviella had her first bath - she hated it! Due to the dry climate we waited nearly a month to give her a bath. She still hates baths, but some are worse than others. Aviella experienced her first Halloween and had a really cute "Pink Panther" costume thanks to Ryan's Dad and Mary Lou.

In November we did some traveling with Aviella. She had her first plane ride and first long car trip. Ryan's sister Nicki got married in Orange County, CA the weekend before Thanksgiving. Aviella did wonderfully on the plane and we enjoyed seeing family. Nicki was a beautiful bride!! For Thanksgiving we visited Jamie's friend Amanda and her husband Christian's family in the SW part of Colorado - should be a six hour drive, but turned into an eight hour drive due to traffic and snow, as well as crazy mountain passes. Before the trip, Amanda told Jamie that it was possible to safely nurse while in the car with your seatbelt on and we discovered that this was true. It saved us some time and frustration. Aviella wasn't very interested in taking the bottles that Jamie had prepared for her (and worked hard to produce). Thankfully the trip home was exactly six hours, including stops and Aviella slept most of the way.

December was fairly busy. Jamie organized and facilitated a Tea/Brunch for International Women through the ministry that she is involved (Horizons). Despite a very snowy day we were happy with the turn out. Ryan was busy finishing up projects for his classes - he wasn't home much. December also brought us an extremely long car trip back to WI for the holidays. Somewhat of a nightmare, at least for Ryan and Jamie; Aviella seemed to do just fine, but she was extremely tired of her car seat by the end of the drive. What others told us takes about 16 hours took us 21. We were tempted to spend the night somewhere, but by then the weather was deteriorating and was expected to be worse the next day. Arriving at Jamie's parents' house around 4am after 8 hours of driving through fog at night started the trip off poorly, not sure if we caught up on our lack of sleep until we returned to CO. We enjoyed our time in WI seeing family and friends, but cut our trip a bit short for Aviella's sake as she was getting sick and lost her voice. If you have never heard a baby cry that has lost its voice, it is really sad!

Hmmm, January was actually somewhat low key. We reorganized the living room and storage unit (actually this happens nearly every time we have to take something out or put something in it). We spent most of the month getting Aviella on a nap/sleep schedule. The first few days were horrible (at least for Jamie), but now it is wonderful!! She was a great night time sleeper fairly early, sleeping 7-9 hour stretches. Now she sleeps 11-12 hours at night and just this week she has started a more consistent nap schedule and sleeping close to two hours. Jamie is ecstatic about this!!

We anticipate a fairly busy February and March. Jamie already had another Women's Tea and is also involved in starting a "Parent Support Group" in Family Housing. Ryan turns 31 one this month (Valentine's Day) and Jamie and Aviella will be traveling to WI (Feb. 27 - Mar. 11) to help Jamie's mom after her knee surgery. Ryan will be home alone to work on his research and fend for himself for nearly two weeks (he might not make it through!).