Christmas in Atlanta

We had a wonderful time in Atlanta for Christmas. We flew out on Monday Dec 22nd and flew home January 3rd. It was a wonderful 10 day trip and we got to see a lot of Bryan's family.

Here are some highlights (some of these pics are courtesy of Bryan's Dad!):

Our first stop in Atlanta was to Noel and Cherie's house. We had to stop by and meet my new NEPHEW!!! Introducing Caleb. This is what he looked like the first time we saw him...fast asleep. :0) He is just SO precious.

Then we headed for the Thompson house. Of course, Kathy had it imaculately decorated. Every year she has a different theme for the house and especially the tree. It was all just so beautiful.

Here is the gorgeous tree. I LOVE Christmas at the Thompson house. :)

Some of the decorations.

Kathy's Christmas village.

Here is Shawn making cookies with his Nana. He loved all the attention from Nana and Papa.

Great Papa (Bryan's grandpa) looking at our Christmas card.

The new family. Baby Caleb is less than a week old here. They look so happy (and hardly sleep deprived). :)

This is the bench that we had made for Caleb. Shaw was just a little obsessed with it. We had to take it apart to mail it to ATL, and when I was getting it ready I found all of Shawn's treasures in the trap door. On Christmas day, Shawn decided he was going to try to fit in the trap door. Too cute. :)

Shawn on Christmas morning.

Here is one with his hat on. He looked so cute in his little Santa outfit.

Great Papa opening presents. We bought him some new shirts.

Noel and Cherie's favorite Christmas present. This was Noel's doing, not ours. Just FYI.

Shawn opening a present from Papa and Nana. It is a Touch and teach book. AWESOME!!

I got to hold Caleb for a little while as he slept. I got a great book--one of Anne Geddes books. Have I mentioned I love her?!

Shawn opening a gift from Great Papa. It was some books. His favorite is "The Little Train Who Could". He loves the pictures and saying "Toot, toot".

Bryan got another Gator shirt. He LOVES his Gators. :)

Noel showing off some of the clothes that we gave them. We bought them hats, shoes and clothes. Really cute stuff, in my opinion! :)

After all the present-opening, we had a delicious lunch. Isn't this table lovely?

After lunch we went to the play area right across from Gordon and Kathy's new house. Doesn't Nana look like he is eating up her Shawn time?

Papa and Nana bought this cute little Pooh car before we arrived. They thought it would keep Shawn entertained....and boy were they right! I am so glad he had this to play with. :)

Going down the slide at the play area. Shawn loved getting to play there, and we were glad it was so close to the house.

More to come from our time in ATL....

Little Gym and Coffee Shop

On October 10th we took Shawn to the Little Gym. This is our usual Friday morning activity. He has been in this class since February and absolutely loves it. We can definitely tell the days that he doesn't get to attend, he just seems a little lost. Here are some pictures from that day.

Doing beginning activities with Mommy. I think this is the "stop for a hug and a kiss" part of the song. My favorite part! :)

Looking out the window. There is nothing out there, so I'm not sure what he was looking at.

Then Gerrit joined him at the window. Shawn must have telling him what was out there?

Now Gerrit is telling Shawn what they can get into next. These two are definitely partners in crime! :)

Doing one of the weekly activities. They usually involve some kind of climbing--which Shawn absolutely LOVES!

Again looking out the window. This time he is looking at the Starbucks drive-in across the parking lot.

A Mommy and Shawn moment.

Hanging and swinging from a beam. He is such a dare-devil! He absolutely loves to do this.

He also likes walking on the beam. This one is low, so he can do it by himself.

Here he is on the beam. His instructor Jamie was encouraging him along.

Daddy helping Shawn on the higher beam. This one is a few feet off the ground, so he needs assistance.

Daddy helping Shawn to walk on the beam. Oops! I cut out the beam....it looks like Shawn is walking in mid-air. :)

Shawn bending over to pick up a ball. I think this was Upside down and backwards week in our class.

After our class we met our good friends Stephanie and Bella at a coffee shop in Longmont. It is really cool because it was opened in February by a mother of 4 (her youngest was only 3 weeks old when the coffee shop opened!). She has an area up front for patrons with little kids--there are activity tables for kids, puzzles, books, etc. It was a lot of fun to get to sit an enjoy a cup of coffee with Stephanie and let the two kids play. However, I had to watch Shawn very carefully because he walked over to a small girl sitting in a chair and ate the top off of her muffin!!! I was HORRIFIED!!! You'd think we never feed this kid....although he is underweight, he probably needed the muffin worse than she did! HA!

Shawn exploring the place.

Bella sporting her best "cheese" face. Just adorable!

Stephanie, lets do this again real soon!! :)

Long Awaited Update

I know I have been MIA for way to long! Thanks to everyone for all the friendly pushing to get on here and make an update.

We have been SO busy lately with church, and work, and, of course, with our little Shawn. Here are some of the things we have been doing since our last post.

New Job with World Bible School

I started a position with the Internet department of World Bible School. I am trying to get through my training so that I can be up and running. I will be working from home 30-35 hours per week. My job title is Teacher Coordinator and I am responsible for helping teachers to teach students around the world. I will be answering e-mails from teachers and students, assigning new students to teachers, and working to get new teachers enrolled and acclimated to the system and process. I am really excited for this opportunity and for the work I can do with this amazing ministry. For more information about this great resource and organization, visit http://worldbibleschool.net/.

Quarterlife

This is the ministry at Lakewood that Bryan and I have started and are working with. We are ministering to the young adults and young marrieds. We have been working with this group for almost a year now and have a pretty good core group of people. We teach a class on Sunday mornings and do all sorts of fun activities together—Monday Night Football parties, Girls' Night Out each month, movies, bowling, etc. This group has been such a blessing to us and we love working with them.

Thompson Photography

Our photography business has been thriving. We 'hired' 5 Senior representatives this summer and within a matter of 2 weeks our phone was ringing off the hook for Senior portraits. Seniors are so fun to work with because they all have their own unique style and know exactly what they want to look like. We have ventured all over the greater Denver area to do photo shoots—downtown Golden, downtown Arvada, Clear Creek, and even an alleyway in downtown Denver. We have also been doing a lot of family portraits and love getting to know families better. However, the most exciting news for us these past couple of months is our partnership with the locally owned Victorian House Event Center. They host more than 30 weddings and event each year (and have just added 2 new locations to their event center). We will be working with the Victorian House as their primary photographers and will be photographing a majority of their weddings. We are very excited for this opportunity and for the ability to work with the amazing owners and staff of the Victorian House. Stay tuned for some great pictures from this beautiful venue.

Also, our website is up and live!!! It is beautiful and we are so excited that we now have a web presence. We are proud to show off some of our most recent clients. Stop by our website and check out some of our work. For more information on our photography business click here.

Baby Caleb

We are VERY excited about the approaching arrival of our nephew Caleb Troy. My beautiful sister-in-law Cherie is expecting on December 23^rd, but there is a chance that he will arrive before his due date. We are very excited to meet this new little bundle and to see what great parents Noel and Cherie will be. Caleb is one lucky little boy. J We will be travelling to Atlanta for 10 days over Christmas and New Years to spend time with Cherie and Caleb. We are also excited to get to photograph the new baby. Trust me; there will be a lot of pictures shared of this little one.

Cherie at 24 weeks preggo -- late August. This is in Caleb's nursery...I can't wait to see all of Cherie's hard work.

Side view, what a cute little belly. :)

Noel and Cherie at Halloween, or should I say Mr. Incredible and Mrs. Bun-in-the-oven. They are going to be such fun parents! :)

Here is beautiful Cherie at around 33 weeks. Gorgeous!

Shawn

Thank you to everyone who has been so concerned about Shawn and his growth. We actually have an appointment tomorrow to do a weight check. We went in about 2 weeks ago for his 2^nd dose of flu vaccine and we put him on the scale. He had his clothes on and weighed 20lbs 6 oz, but the nurse told us that he probably is not quite 20 lbs without clothes on. He is eating a lot more now, and we are glad for the progress that he is making. He is such a sweet boy and loves to be around people. He has been walking since Sept. 16^th and is very, VERY busy. He loves to explore new places and is very into pushing any buttons he can lay his fingers on. We love to go places like the Children's Museum and to the Little Gym. He is growing up so fast and is saying a lot of words now. He also thinks he is an amazing jumper (even though he doesn't actually leave the ground! HA!). I will be posting all of the pictures I have been saving up since the last time I was on here. Stay tuned for those images (especially you, Lindy. Hopefully this fuels your Shawn cravings! J ). Oh yeah, and he's currently cutting 5 (yes FIVE) teeth right now!!! YIKES!

Playing in the fall leaves with Grandpa.

Loving on Mommy in the backyard.

I think that about catches you up. Sorry again for the long batch of silence. Hopefully I will be back on track to posting regularly. God bless you this week! J