Growing up

Dawson lost his third tooth this weekend. He pulled it out himself. I can't believe he can pull them out on his own. He's brave. Now he can sing, "All I want for Christmas is my one front tooth!"

He is starting to recognize sight words. He can write and read many "-at" words. I'm so impressed with all he is learning in school. I look at him all the time and can't believe how big he is. The other night his teachers had a movie night for the kids at school. It started at 7 pm, his normal bedtime. We decided he could go if he rested in the afternoon. I just laughed that evening as Brett and I were so tired and ready for bed but we had to stay up and wait for our son to get home. Our five year old. When I picked him up that night he wasn't ready to leave because he wasn't tired. I told him he had to go because I was tired and ready to sleep!

Poor Kenan isn't quite as grown up. He is my sweetie but clumsy and has little body control. If he starts to lose his balance, he will fall. If you pick him up, he expects that you will do all the work and he can just hang- even when you put him down. The poor boy is always hurting himself. Two weeks ago he dropped a cement block on his foot. The other night putting on his pajamas he lost his balance and fell and hit his head on the corner of the wall. He went to bed with a big goose egg. As he said, "I can't lay my head this way or that way" because it hurt. When he said it I kind of laughed since I recalled him saying the same thing just a few weeks prior when he went to bed with a different bump on his head. And this nice mark came from falling off the side of the jump castle and landing on the corner of a contico container. Poor boy. Looks like his daddy rolled over him with the bike.

And this boy. Don't even know what to say. He is talking a ton, shares his opinion with everyone and with determination. He does well to make sure his voice is heard among his brothers. He loves animals, even if he isn't the gentlest with them. :)

Sali

We are enjoying little Sali. She has been with us for a week and it is amazing how much she has grown. A week ago, she couldn't even walk. Now she is walking all around. The boys love her and haven't gotten bored of her yet.

Kenan gave her a hug and then said to us, "Take our picture!" So here are some of the pictures from their photo shoot.

Now the random

Now that I've already posted a ton today, here are some random pics. I was trying to get a picture with the boys. couldn't get it to work, but we had fun.

Here's my sweet boy. He just wanted to smile for the camera and since he looks so great, I wanted to just add it, just because.

The boys wet sidewalk chalk and decorated the door. I actually love it. I know I shouldn't advocate coloring on walls and doors and such, but I just love this.

So I guess I shouldn't be surprised, when to Dawson, the whole world is his canvas. :) Today the three of them were also painting a batman cave and Superman house. As you can tell, they had fun. :)

Brett went biking with the kids the other day. He brought home a baby chicken. The boys love it. Silas makes us nervous the way he holds him, but at least he is doing it out of love. The boys are anything but gentle, especially Silas. But they are sweet.

He just loves chickens. Here he is admiring one a village gave to us one day.

And literally as I write this, Brett has come home with this. what?

now I have to learn how to feed a little 2-3 week old puppy.

This is the boys sleeping at Field Forum. There weren't enough pillows so they had to share. It was cute.

As we passed this little bridge, Dawson asked, "Is this the Cooper bridge?" Um, no, just a bit different in size.

that's the whole thing. Not quite the bridge in Charleston, but cute that he remembered it.

Field Forum 2010

This past week we had our annual Field Forum in Sikasso. All the Christian and Missionary Alliance missionaries in Mali come together for a week of meetings as well as worship and fellowship. This year I can say that it was actually good! The childcare was AMAZING!! We got to sit in EVERY SINGLE meeting. (Previous years I maybe sat in one or two). It was so great. It was long and tiring, for sure, as the kids didn't sleep well but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

Here is our team that is currently on the field.

Our team with the CCC team that came to lead us.

The little kids sang for us the last night. It's a big, big house...

where we can play football! (love that Dawson kicks with his left foot. He is a lefty.)

Then there are times like this.... our new pediatrician Jason.

And Jake following after Jason... (this was for a Survivor game one night)

Our fearless leader, Al, and Jason, once again looking crazy.

We had a spanning the decades banquet the last night. Mary, Jason, Jake, Jessica and Kristen.

It takes courage to wear shorts that short! We will miss Dusty and Julia as they head back to the States this December. check out their blog sababuclothing.com

the 70s

the 80s. Had we done this two years ago, I would have been the only one standing there for the 80s. Thankful for the great group of "young" people that are here now! :)

Again, all pictures are thanks to Angela Wenger.

Dedication of the new buildings

Last weekend we dedicated that last three buildings of the hospital. One million dollars was given by Christ Community Church in Omaha. Some of their church were out in Mali for our field forum so the Saturday before we had a dedication. It kind of spiraled into a really big thing. It was fun though. Kids were lining the street to the hospital.

Invited guests waiting for the ceremony to start.

The minister of Health of Mali came. Quite a big deal. He is the lighter guy on the left with sunglasses.

More up close view of him.

All the toubabs (white people) who work at the hospital. From left to right: Jake Tillet, nurse education, anesthesia; Jessica Schaeffer, Nursing Director and anesthesia; Dan Nesselroade, OB-GYN, medical director; Ed Bonvillian, Lab/Pharmacy director; Jason Foster, new pediatrician currently in language study; Brett and then me.

Here they are cutting the ribbon to the new buildings (one is in use, two are not yet finished).

On the far left is Daniel Thera, the Directeur General/CEO of CPAM (the NGO that our hospital is a part of). Next is the deputy to the American ambassador. Next Director of Health, then Mark Ashton, the pastor of Christ Community Church.

Must say thanks to Angela Wenger, as I didn't bring my camera that day and these are all from her.

Redecorating, part one

While we were home in the States we packed stuff up for a container to be shipped over. (we get a certain allotment in the container). I packed paint and various other items to make the house a little more homey. So here is the start of the redecoration.

This is our laundry room. It was a porch and we closed it in a year (maybe two) ago.

The walls have looked like this for way too long. (I won't mention that the outside of the house looks the same way and hasn't been painted).

The painted room. It was supposed to be a very pale green. It turned out bright. Don't know why but thankful it's in a room that I don't care too much about.

Our kitchen. The original kitchen photo would actually have black cabinets. We changed that two years ago. This time we just added paint.

This also came out a little brighter than I was anticipating. But it's growing on me everyday.

I made the curtains this summer- with extensive help from my mom.

The living room and dining room. Note the nice dirt line across the wall thanks to the boys.

And the hand print that Dawson put there years ago. It's in every birthday picture because that seems to be where we eat the cake. Kind of sad it is gone now...well, not really.

My problem with this room was that it was just too open. No matter how much I put in there I couldn't "fill"it. So I went with darker colors to close it in some.

The camera doesn't do justice with all the colors. But regardless, it looks better than before!

The living room with the "accent" walls that I had to teach Brett about. We also got laz-y-boys on the container. It was a splurge (though we got them on a buy one get one free sale) but we enjoy them. I also got fabric to reupholster the couches.

Here's an up close look of it.

In general I wouldn't call myself a red person. I don't think my house would look like this in the States. I prefer blues/greens/yellows but this is pretty. It has to be darker and tan or red to cover all the dirt. So it works and I'm very happy with the room. Jeremie, our house guy, did all the painting and made the couch covers! So thankful for someone who can do everything! :) He's great! And I'm thankful for a newly decorated house. Hope I don't have to decorate again for another 20 years! :)