Another update on the young Talbott family:
The three of us flew to my brother’s in Chicago to celebrate Christmas with my family. We were able to stay in IBLP’s guest housing so that Nathan and his family could have a little personal time in the evenings and mornings. My parents and other siblings flew in from Oregon, and Christy’s family drove up from Nebraska. It was quite the group — 16 bodies altogether. We stayed for two weeks — It was wonderful! The birth of Aubrie Stone was the highlight of the holidays for everyone.
We took a trip to Oregon in February for Bethany Chambers, now Bethany Wahl’s, wedding. It was nice to see the Chambers again, and to talk with old friends and acquaintances at the wedding and at church on Sunday. My brother Nathan and his family were there for the week as well. My parents rented a cabin in Sisters Oregon for a few nights where we all went and had a great time. The cabin is close to the Hoodoo ski slopes, so we had to go skiing. Between Mom, Christy and I watching the 3 babes, everyone over the age of 2 skied. It was Christy and SamÃs first ski trip.
Nathaniel finished working for CharacterLink the end of January. A few job possibilities started coming in shortly after, even one of moving to Nigeria for 6 months ;-) (most of them werenÃt very probable). After a short time of looking, Nathaniel found a job opportunity in Johnston Iowa. (It’s a suburb of Des Moines.) From sending his resume out, to being on site, it took less than 3 weeks. Nathaniel flew out for the first week of work while I stayed home and packed. We drove out here in our Honda civic the following weekend; it was packed to the limit. We even had to leave a few things behind. The company Nathaniel is working for is providing us a furnished apartment. It’s a cozy two bedroom, upper level apartment. A friend of ours, Michael Hale, is house sitting our NC apartment, which is working out very well.
Reuben is 9 months old. He can now crawl around, and enjoys his new mobility. I thought he would never learn! It was painful watching the process. He was so close for so long. Week after week we thought he would be crawling in a “few days,” a month later — we have arrived! He does enjoy walking and prefers to hold your fingers and walk around the house over crawling, but he can’t always get Mom or Dad to cooperate, so he resorts to crawling. He loves to stand while holding the coffee table and has starting walking around it.
One cute thing Reuben does is turn his head from side to side in a “no” movement. It will probably lose its cuteness when he learns what it means. Right now he likes it because it gets him dizzy, and he gets looks and laughs from people.
He’s eating three meals of solids a day, and loves food with spice in it (over the normal bland baby food). I think Grandpa Talbott will get to share his love of Texas Pete hot sauce with him in a few years.
I have a lot of spare time here in Iowa. The only project I brought with me was my photo albums. Since my mother-in-law is a Creative Memories consultant I have been encouraged to get my photos out of their present magnetic albums. Sherry has set me up very well, so I have a lot of the cool cutting and assembly tools. I enjoy doing it, but up till now hadn’t found much time to work on them. I know I won’t have any more time on my hands when the next baby comes. (No, I’m not pregnant ;-) just anticipating another little one when the Lord chooses to bless us that way.)
There are walking paths all around where we live, so Reuben and I try and take advantage of them daily. We usually get a 30 to 45 minute walk in on sunny days. Today we did a whole hour and my legs are telling me about it. I’ve asked for some roller blades for my birthday so I can roll around town with Nathaniel on weekends.
Nathaniel is able to take the paths to work everyday. It’s only a 12-minute walk and he has taken it every day since moving here. We were hoping it would help with his waistline, but I don’t think it’s working. I’m sure it helps clear the head and lift the spirits — sunshine and fresh air are great that way!
We have been attending the Altoona Regular Baptist Church. ItÃs 20 minutes from where we live. They have good music standards, preach the Word, and are family friendly. We do miss our church in NC and look forward to returning, but for here and now this church is nice. (There’s no church like home church!) We have been keeping Reuben in the service with us. During the half hour preaching time we feed him cheerios and give him quiet toys to keep him occupied. He’s been doing very well.
The week before Easter Nathaniel worked 10-hour days so he could have Friday off. Then on Friday morning we drove the five hours to Chicago and stayed with my brother and his family for the weekend. We had a very nice visit. Reuben traveled pretty well, the only problem we have with him on car trips is that he doesn’t sleep well, which can make for a cranky kid.
Nathaniel and I were able to leave Reuben with Christy and go see a movie. Something we can’t do here in Iowa with no one to baby-sit for us. It was nice to get away together. We went and saw Hidalgo, which I enjoyed. We also were able to go to our favorite hamburger place, Red Robin, and have a meal there with Nathan and Christy.
For Easter we went to church, had a traditional ham lunch with lots of other good food, and enjoyed a good time of talking around the table. The Stearn family came for lunch as well as Lexi and Stacie Hess.
I think that catches us up! Take Care!
~ Katie