The Past Six Years

Six years ago, I stood in front of my family and friends to marry my best friend. As we continue to grow together and see God's plan for our lives unfold, we are humbled. God has been so faithful to us over the years and we continue to be blessed. This year we decided to celebrate by taking a trip to Chicago. We had a great time. We used our hotel points and were able to stay downtown for free (even better). This was our first overnight trip without Tegegn and he did great. He stayed with my parents and was attached to his Grandpa all weekend.

Chris and I have a tradition of going to baseball games. I had never been to Wrigley Field so we decided this would be the perfect time to go. The Cubs ended up winning and I was thrilled because we were able to sing the "Go Cubs Go" song. You got to love the Cubs spirit. Nothing compares to it.

We had great seats and we even arrived early enough to watch batting practice.

After the game, we decided to just walk around Chicago and take pictures. I really enjoyed doing this with our new camera. I thought it would be fun to take some creative pictures. Some of the pictures turned out great and others did not, but that is the great thing about digital cameras! While we were walking around the town, we stumbled on the best popcorn place ever.

Tegegn is growing...he insists that he can feed himself even though he misses his mouth half of the time.   We have a therapist working with him once a week and we hope that he will catch up to his age group real soon.  Every week he seems to awe us as he does something new.  This week he is really into shaking his head "no".  He still loves to dance and he would be outside all day and night long if we would allow him.  

The Friday afternoon of my TLO week we (Chris, Tegegn and I) went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with Cari and Elliot.  We had a wonderful time and so did the kids.  They did great and I was surprised how many activities they had for kids Tegegn's age.  He really enjoyed playing in the water, the sand and on the foam maze.  We ended up spending the evening with Katie, Syd, Greg and Cari.  We grilled out and talked about camping sometime this summer.  What a great time!  Katie and Syd are getting married at the end of June.  We are super excited for them and are looking forward to all of the wedding festivities. 

This picture is of Tegegn at the Children's Museum playing in the water area of Playscapes.

Elli was fascinated with the mirror in the maze.  What a precious little girl.

One of the few words Tegegn says is "car".  However, no one would really know what he is saying because it is a hard, raspy "ca"sound.  Well, as you can tell, he is in an Indy car and loving it!  

I thought the colors of the blown glass were beautiful.  I actually remember this being in the Museum when I was a kid.

Tegegn is not always smiles.  I thought this picture captured his personality.  He is a little stinker at times.  Last week I was putting him to bed and he confirmed why I LOVE being a mom.  Tegegn likes to cuddle.  As I was laying there with him, he fell asleep and I wiggled myself out of his arms.  Before I transfer him to the crib, I always like to make sure he is in his deep sleep.  As I was waiting for that last big sigh, he sits up, stands up, leans over and kisses me on the cheek.  He then precedes to sit back down, lay down and go to sleep.  I couldn't stop laughing.  It was such a special moment.  

Tegegn decided he was going to help us wash the car.  He was such a big help between eating the car suds and splashing in the water.  It is so hard for me to remember our life without him.  He is so fun to be around and provides us great entertainment.

Our nephew graduated from high school on Friday.  We worked around the house on Saturday and on Sunday, our anniversary, we watched our pastor's four children.  We had a great time and we are looking forward to watching them again on Sunday.  They are in the process of moving to Indy and needed some time to get some things done.  We have enjoyed their friendship over the past year.

LOVING my TIME off WORK

What a joy it has been to bee off of work with my little boy.  As most of you know, the auto industry is not doing so hot right now and so I am required by my company to take 8 TLO weeks throughout the year.  This week is one of my weeks off and I value the time that I get to spend with him.  He is growing so fast and has learned so much in the past 5 months.  He is now 17 months old and he is WALKING!!!  He loves this new found freedom.  It has been fun watching him.  He still falls quite often because he is a bit off balance, but overall he is doing great!

My First Mother's Day

What a special day!  We celebrated by going to church as a family, eating a lunch prepared by Chris, playing outside and hiking.  Life can't get much better....

I am truly blessed that God has given me the opportunity to be a mom.  There is really nothing like it.  It is challenging and rewarding all at the same time.  I honestly love it.  I am shaping the life of my son each and every day.  Boy, that is a big responsibility, but I wouldn't change it for the world.  

Tegegn loves his car; however, he likes to push it more than he likes to ride in it.  Silly boy.

Still Alive - I PROMISE!

WOW - It has been hectic around here the past three weeks and I can tell you that our lives are finally back to normal!!! I have finished my last class or my master's degree! I feel like I have so much additional time on my hands - I LOVE IT! We have been spending time together as a family and it has been priceless. 

Since I had to pick and choose what I had time to do, the blog was one that I had to put off because I can't just write on my blog. I have to check out everyone's blog and I knew that I couldn't do that so I had to stay away.  :)

My little cousin went to prom so we made a quick trip out to Ohio to visit our family in the middle of April.   We had a great time!  We really enjoy hanging out with the kids.  Tegegn loved riding the go-cart and four-wheeler.  

The following weekend my brother's family came to Indiana to spend the weekend with us.  It was a full house, but we love all of the fun with our nephews.  Tegegn was baptized on Sunday so it was pretty special to have both sides of our family here to celebrate him.

It is really hard to get 4 boys to sit still and take a picture.  We actually did get one with all of them looking at the camera, but I personally like this one the best.  You can see our little boy pushing his 2 1/2 year old cousin off of his seat.  His face is great!

Here we are sporting our Ethiopian attire on the Sunday Tegegn was baptized.

Tegegn couldn't get enough so he went back for more; therefore, he did not want to come back to Mommy or Daddy.  He wanted to be with Pastor Steve.  He let the entire church know this...

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming marriage of Syd and Katie.  We had a nice time hanging out with them and some of our friends.  We are looking forward to their wedding!  It is right around the corner.

Here are a couple of pictures of our son.  He makes us smile.  

Tegegn LOVES finding the toilet paper in our downstairs bathroom.  I remember counting and he had 12 rolls out on the floor this time.

Not much has changed...Tegegn still slobbers and goes through atleast 5 bibs a day!

More to come....