Our Thanksgiving

We arrived home from our trip to St. Andrews late Wednesday night. I was doubtful that I would be able to get groceries and cook a Thanksgiving meal for Thursday night, so we invited friends from church to join us for a Friday evening Thanksgiving meal. The fellowship was wonderful and I had alot of fun preparing the meal. Here are some pictures of our guests. Caleb enjoyed the meal next to Mommy in the sling. It was fun to teach those totally unfamiliar with Thanksgiving traditions what it is all about.

Dan's New Hat

Dan was given a new winter hat. It came just in time. It's COLD here!!! These pictures make me smile.

St. Andrews

Last week, we all went on a trip to St. Andrews. We needed to go to Edinburgh to get Caleb's passport, so we decided to make the trip easier by staying in St. Andrews. We had a great time while we were there and loved seeing old friends and visiting old favorite spots. I didn't take many pictures at all, but here are a few.

Our friends, Emily and her son Jonah, hosted Thanksgiving and Wampanog feast while we were in St. Andrews. The kiddos enjoyed a song, craft, and a wonderful Thanksgiving spread. Emily outdid herself with the table settings. Here is a look at one of the tables and the kids enjoying themselves (there were 13 kids total).

Here is a shot of Dan loving his treats....thank you Emily!

I thought Caleb was too cute in this outfit :)

Babies need passports too...

It still amazes me that one must take a passport photo of a newborn. Guidelines: baby must face the camera, open his/her eyes, not cast a shadow of any kind....in other words, impossible!! Here are our attempts to get Caleb to cooperate. He actually did pretty well. We just got his passport in the mail today. A wee photo of 3 week old Caleb is too cute! Thank goodness they'll be able to identify him when he's three :)

Family of Four

Our first family photo.

Take two...Say cheese!!

Another birthday shot. Note: Dan had just been outside with Daddy to get firewood....explanation of silly hat.

My Boys!!! Aren't they precious?

Sweet Boy

Caleb is such a sweet baby. He has been so relaxed so far. We are loving getting to give him tons of cuddles and kisses. Dan especially loves holding his hands, giving kisses, and LOTS of super hugs (with lots of force so those are monitored). Here is a glimpse at the past couple of weeks.

Dan's Official B-day

So we are a little indulgent with our children. With all of the excitement around Caleb, here is Dan's second,official birthday.

Birth Story and Name

Well, here is my attempt to summarize the birth of our new favorite wee one.

I went to the midwife Tuesday morning (3 days overdue). We scheduled a date to be induced on day 12 and I left praying that my dad would still be here for the birth of Caleb. That evening, we went to dinner at our dear friends from church, Joan and Angus. Joan prepared a wonderful Scottish dinner for my parents and half-way through dinner I turned to Joe to let him know that I was having contractions. Now, I had been having alot of contractions, so this was not a true alert to us. However, they continued and by the time dinner was over I found myself wondering if I could make it through the lemon pie. I decided that I could make it long enough for my parents to enjoy their beautiful pieces of pie, but then we needed to GO! We packed up and headed home to drop Dan off. By then, the contractions were fairly strong so I was not looking forward to the 30 minute drive to the hospital. Joe was a true support through our drive as the contractions were 2.5 minutes apart and very uncomfortable on bumpy roads!

We made it to the hospital and everyone was so kind. I was surprised by how relaxed everyone was. They truly gave us our space and did not at all bombard me with questions (good thing, I couldn’t talk!). The rest of the story is actually pretty quick. We arrived at the hospital at 7pm and by 8:30pm I was really doubting myself. I told the midwife that I thought I was close, but I could tell that she didn’t really believe me. Sure enough, about 10 or 15 minutes later it was time to push and we had our beautiful little boy in our hands at 9:01pm. I was so thankful for the time they immediately gave us as a family. We had about an hour to ourselves before Caleb was even weighed. This was such a precious time. Caleb was very calm and we loved examining his expressions, his dark hair (a surprise!), and all his little fingers and toes.

The rest of our hospital stay was great. I was able to have my own room that night (after birth, women usually share a room with multiple other new moms). Joe went home for the night due to hospital rules, but returned in the morning with Dan. I was so excited to see Dan’s reaction and it was great! He was truly excited to meet “baby Caleb” and did such a great job of being gentle with him. I love my boys!
We went home the next day at about 3pm and I was so thankful to have such a smooth, uneventful delivery and hospital stay.

A quick explanation of our little boy’s name: We have always loved the name Caleb. As we find ourselves in the Highlands, we couldn’t resist the name of the man who asked God for the hill country (Joshua 14). Caleb’s middle name is Barthel. This is my mom’s maiden name. We love all of the Barthel’s so much and want this name to be passed on and remembered!

Here are some pictures of our time in the hospital and one peak at what Caleb “looked” like before he was born :)

Early B-Days