Joel's brother, Tim, sent these photos a couple of weeks ago. We haven't met Ada yet, and when we see them over Christmas she'll already be 4 months old! A lot of people who would look at this blog know their family as well, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my adorable neices and nephew (and brother and sister-in-law)...

Tim and Carissa with the three kiddos

Another cute baby. Good work, Mom and Dad!
Isn't she adorable?!

I'm going to kiss those chubby cheeks in 3 weeks!
Mommy's feeding her well!


The big brother, Isaac, with
the littlest of his two little sisters.
Ike will turn 4 on Jan 1st.


Naomi and Ada. Naomi is one week younger than Marie.


2/3 of the MN Meehan kiddos

Marie and Lucy: Best Little Buds

Playing in Marie's room on her
big girl bed.


Washing each other's hair.


Bubble heads.





Taken at 29 weeks.

Don't mind the poorly-hidden lollipop.

I have a few pregnant friends who I thought would be encouraged by this blog entry that our good friend Dan Leman wrote almost two years ago! It was written to four women who were pregnant at the time:

Jen (his wife)
Erin (our mutual friend in Illinois)
Carissa (my sister-in-law)
and myself.

Our pregnancies all ended with the healthy and joyous births of Talitha, Andrew, Naomi and Marie. Carissa has since been pregnant and given birth to another healthy baby, Ada Mae Meehan, and Erin and I are both expecting again. Jen? Hehe.

Here's a little excerpt:
"To my pregnant friends, let me end by saying that I wrote this for you. Meditate on the fact that God didn’t randomly decide to stick you with pain and toil in childbearing as a payback for Eve eating the fruit in the garden. You suffer in order to learn how to hope. So I encourage you to rejoice in your suffering as you look toward the prize! Meditate on Romans 8:18-25."

To read it in its entirety, click on the following link. Thanks, Dan!
http://llamatrauma.blogspot.com/2006/01/to-jen-erin-maggie-and-carissa.html

One more of the marathoner finishing strong...

Joel's Half Marathon
and

The Marathon Birthday Weekend

Last weekend Joel ran in a 1/2 marathon.
This weekend we had birthday parties on Friday night,
Saturday night and Sunday morning.

That's him on the right in the black
long-sleeved shirt.

Great job! Finishing at around 1hr 44 min,
averaging a 7:59 minute mile!

Birthday Party #1 (Friday)
Marta Striplin turned 2!
Their family attends our small group.

The little girls: Katie, Annalisa, Marta,
Allison and Marie

Annalisa teaching Marie how to
use the fun party blower.

She never did quite get the hang of it.



Birthday Party #2 (Saturday)
Judith Canner turns 25!

Judith is was overnight-babysitting this week
and part of the weekend. We invited her over
under the guise of a dinner/playdate at our
house and - SURPRISE -
it was really her birthday party!

Yummy homemade cake, courtesy of Colleen.

Katie and Korinna walking around with
their legs tied together.



Judith's "kids" tackling her friend, David.



Learning to eat a lollipop.



Birthday Party #3 (Sunday)
Andrew Dunning turns 5!
Lots and lots of kids eating cake at Jumpin' Beans!
The Dunnings' friends are multiplying at
an alarming rate!


On the way home Marie unwrapped her

chocolate-filled gold coin

(it was from Andrew's treasure box birthday cake),

and managed to do this to herself.

And one final picture, just because...

Marie likes to make things out of play-dough.
We always make a model of her big girl
bed, complete with pillow and blanket,
cars and trucks, and shapes with cookie cutters. On this particular occasion, she made a blue boogie!

Lots of pictures! The first couple are from our recent visit with Grandpa Ralph (whom Marie affectionately refers to as just "Ralph"), and Aunt Heidi. Joel and Ralph were having fun doing some push-ups and sit-ups, and she wanted to experience first-hand how they both got to be so buff!

Working off some of that lingering baby fat.

Getting ready for a trip to the "gun show".

At home, dressing up to celebrate Halloween with some other little ghouls...I mean, girls. Wow, I never thought I'd be such a cheeseball of a parent.

Very excited that she was finally going to

get to wear the pumpkin costume!

The Sargeants invited us over for dinner

and a little costume party for the girls!

Checking out Lucy's bunny ensemble.
Marie was basically just sizing up her candy competition.

Us.

Lucy, Ella and Marie posing for a picture and wondering what in the world was going on.

Dave/Ella, Scott/Lucy, Joel/Marie

Okay, now that we've gotten the obligatory 1st trick-or-treating pictures out of the way, WE'RE OFF!

First stop, Tinkerbell's house!

Getting the hang of it. By the end of the night Marie was knocking on the door and holding her basket up. She got a bit aggressive, but we were proud of her for saying "thank you" each time she was given a treat.

Getting a little worn out. We only planned on going to a few houses, but the daddies got greedy for candy and started dragging the girls from house to house :-) Well, not really. The girls really enjoyed it and ran around the neighborhood until well past their bedtimes.

A little play time before calling it a night.

Reeeeally happy after her Kit-Kat and lollipop :-)