Catching Up

Hmmm...  I think the best way to begin is to mention that Yes, I did take an elk from Colorado this year as part of a successful hunt.  Here's the proof...

This cow was part of a very VERY large herd that passed my position and the experience of taking my first large game was pretty surreal and difficult to explain, so if you want to hear more just give me a call.

Similarly surreal and difficult to express was the selling of our Florida boat, The Irwin.  It took much longer that it should have and I accepted far less than I should have.  However, when the deal went through it was tremendously fast paced and brought with it a tremendous relief.  The initial call came on our family's way up to Atlanta.  Three hours later, the transaction was complete (with the help  from a friend in Panama City) with only a check to clear.  My relief was immediate (though somewhat reluctant as I still did not have the cleared funds yet) and my excitement about never having to drive to Florida again to solely tend to a boat that we can't use on a regular basis was unquestionable.

Next major event of note was Christmas.  The children (of course) love everything about Christmas and this year we added a few things to help them grow spiritually while also enjoying the season a little bit more.  As part of a nightly devotion, we lit the advent candles daily and shared in many stories, activities and lessons from God's Word.  It all culminated on Christ's birthday with a wonderful celebration at our home on base.  Here are the kids expressing their love for each other on the 25th.

Still, after plenty of prayer and soul searching, our family has decided to take a different tack with this year's Christmas celebration.  In short, Christmas will be a way to "gift" our Lord, Jesus, rather than ourselves.  He said that whatever we do for the "least of these," we do for Him.  So, instead of exchanging gifts and setting up stockings for Santa to fill, our family will channel our resources this coming Christmas to helping the least of these.  I don't know if we will do this every year, but we are committed to it for 2013 and the kids are slowly gaining an understanding that December 25th will look very different next winter.

Just as Christ's birthday will be celebrated serving Him via the "least of these," we have also committed to honoring our families' birthday is a much greater way this year.  The resources and time that would have been spent in the crowded malls or scouring Amazon during November and December looking for the "perfect gift" will instead be spend on a birthday-by-birthday basis to honor each family member appropriately on their special day.

Speaking of birthdays...months of anticipation and a very stressful week past the due date culminated at 5:55 A.M. on December 31, 2012 with the birth of Noelle Moriah Sulhoff.  Here is a photo of Noelle in the arms of my hero and lifetime best friend.  I am marveled with every birth how she does what she does!  God is truly so good.  She was 8 lbs, 7 ozs, and she has fitted into the home life with aplomb!  Already at seven weeks she is sleeping through the night and bringing constant joy to all of us.

Well, that's all I can muster up to update ya'll on for now.  I hope it has been informative!

Hannah's 4th Birthday Party!

Yes, we celebrated a couple of days early.  She will actually turn four tomorrow, January 17 at 5:30pm.  Yesterday, she was able to share her birthday not only with all of us, which is notable, but also our friends the Chambers who were in San Antonio for the MLK weekend. It is most notable that all five of us were together for the celebration, and will be for her birthday tomorrow, because David was not able to be present for her 1st, 2nd or 3rd birthday! He was very determined to give her a great birthday party! And it was great! Andrew was in charge of games and Elizabeth in charge of crafts. Andrew made an obstacle course and hid rocks for a rock hunt; Elizabeth cut out objects for girls to color and glue onto paper.

We asked her what kind of cake she wanted. After much deliberation, she decided on a dolphin cake. She called it A Dolphin Tale cake. (Side note: A Dolphin Tale is a great movie about choosing to respond positively to life when life deals you very difficult circumstances. We recommend it.) The pictures of her dolphin tale cake follow. And, yes, David and I were up kinda late on this one, but it was worth it!

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth is now a very grown up six years old, as of April 4. She really had a wonderful birthday with some very special moments over the weekend before her Monday birthday. However, the big event was her "Tangled" birthday party last Friday. (If you haven't seen this movie, you definitely need to! There's some magic and a really bad lady, but Elizabeth thinks it is "Christian made" because of the powerful ending! I won't ruin it for you. Watch it and see!) So, we had a doughnut "tower" cake. That was the highlight of the party, I'd say. There were seven girls including Elizabeth ranging in age from four to ten years old. The party began with painting (just like Rapunzel) and making their own "Wanted" posters (another part of the movie). Then I braided everyone's hair and put silk flowers in the braids, just like Rapunzel. (You better believe I was braiding fast!) Then we played "Hide the Chameleon". Andrew somehow happens to own, not one but two toy chameleons, and Pascal, Rapunzel's pet chameleon, played a main role in the film. We finished up with the doughnut cake and raspberry lemonade and gift-opening. She was pretty worn out after all that excitement! She also received a Bible for her birthday. She made "official" the work God had been doing in her heart to me on February 15, praying to ask Jesus to be the Lord of her life since He had loved her so much He'd died for her sins. It doesn't get much better than that! She also loves art, so in addition to a neat art set she received from her grandparents, her dad and me and brother and sister gave her paints (washable!), paper and an easel. She's painted nearly every day since!

Happy Belated Birthday to Andrew!

Andrew turned eight years old on March 7. He had a skating birthday party with three friends and their siblings (and parents!) in attendance. They got a little bit of video game money, plenty of lemonade, soda, hot dogs and cake and ice cream, and a ton of skating! The party was scheduled from 12-4! We were exhausted, so we quit at 3:30, after the last guest left, of course. As you can imagine, skating in low light conditions did not provide a very good environment for skating pictures. Even with my expertise (ha, ha!), it proved to be too great of a challenge for me! So, only cake and present pictures. He saw the cakes at the commissary and decided to go with a dinosaur cake with an exploding volcano. I know. That's really cool to an eight year old! I was a little sad that he didn't want me to make him a cake or cookie, but I was really relieved that the cake could be marked off the list just like that! The gift he has enjoyed the most has proved to be his Action Bible, from his dad and me. It's most of the Bible portrayed in graphic novel/comic book style. Some of the pictures and the general style of the drawings is a little offensive to me, especially in something as sacred as the Bible, but I've learned to look past that, and spent time reading it with Andrew. He's really learning a lot and we know that the truth is going forth and being planted deep within him. We believe it will grow a strong, tall tree one day and bear much fruit!

Belated Birthday gifts for Elizabeth.

Holding our new niece, Summer Elizabeth, David's brother John and his wife Melissa's baby.

I know you're all just dying to hear how we're doing...

...now that David is HOME!!! Well, we're doing very well, thank you! Thank you for all the prayers and support over the last 16 months! We are so thrilled to have been through the refining fire, and to have been purified through the process. That refinement has been evident in the last 3 weeks in so many countless ways.
We've kept quite busy! I think we felt a little bit wild and invincible. We've had a wonderful little getaway to dear downtown Montgomery while David's mom watched the kids, including one with the flu! We've gone to a concert, we've gone to a wedding and a birthday party; we've gone to Atlanta and had a new neice be born into the family, while reconnecting with both sides of our families. Andrew has lost a tooth and turned 7! That's just scratching the surface, really, of all the errands, trips to get pizza, cookies, and ice cream, and all of the home repairs, not to mention going back to work that we have done of late. Well, that last part is actually stuff that David has mostly done! Unfortunately, I fear the scale is seeing the result of my eating the pizza, cookies and ice cream, too!
Here are a few pictures of the last few joyful weeks!

Hannah's Two!!!

Somehow my little baby girl turns two years old tomorrow! We had her party tonight, though. She had a very special (not to mention delicious) Snowman Cake her mommy made for her. It was fun to make and even more fun to eat! We also pan fried some yummy Ling Cod (David's 2008 catch),which everyone enjoyed. Hannah had a really great birthday party. We missed David terribly, but he and Hannah got to do a lot of talking on the phone. After we sung her "Happy Birthday" she kept singing, "Happy Birthday, Hannah!" Then, "Song." explaining to us that she was singing the birthday song. She's really growing up, whether I like it or not. Right now, I think my vote is "not". I want her to stay my sweet, compliant one-year-old forever! She's starting to show signs of being a little bit too opinionated...I've learned that comes with turning two. She's a joyful girl and a blessing to us and all who know her. David's about out of his mind waiting to spend time with her! Thankfully, he doesn't have to wait much longer! "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" Song.

Love,

Rachel

My 30th Birthday!

Well, it was a wonderful day. I got flowers from David (aren't the peonies gorgeous!), wonderful friends watched my kids so I could go to dinner and a movie with another dear friend, and I had tons of Happy Birthday calls and cards. Here is a picture of me with my little cake the Golarts got for me--yummy! Who could ask for more (except David home, of course!)? Thank you, all, for a wonderful day!

Elizabeth's Birthday!

Well, little Elizabeth isn't so little anymore! She has entered the realm of four-year-olds, whatever that's worth. She was so happy with her birthday. Her great-grandma Joann and her Pamma and Grandpa Jack were able to celebrate the day with us. Her gifts included a Barbie, a bike, a jumprope, fairy wings, a craft book (to keep her little fingers busy!), and some make-up and nail polish from her brother! It was a joy-filled day, that also included a t-ball game and feeding the ducks and turtles and fish at the park. She requested spaghetti for dinner to be followed by a strawberry cake with pink icing, strawberries and pink M&M's.

On a slightly more thoughtful thread, I was very proud of how Andrew and Elizabeth treated eachother on each of their birthdays when the other was opening their gifts. I never had to hover over them or separate them, nobody threw a fit about not having whatever gift the other got, and they were just so genuinely gracious and excited for the other. Those glimpses of kindness are not seen as often as we would like...it's more regularly, "Can you go buy me a new toy? I wanna play with her toy! Mom! Let me have that toy back!" You know the story well if you've ever had young ones this age. It brought a little motherly joy to my heart.

Andrew's Birthday!

Andrew's birthday was a quiet, special day. He turned 6 years old on March 7. It's hard to believe he is so big! He's been growing out of his clothes and shoes, eating two sandwiches for lunch some days, and letting me know he's big enough to do all sorts of activities since he's six now.

The day began with me making waffles and fried eggs (Andrew's favorite) and letting him eat it in mine and David's bed! (A very special birthday treat indeed.) Then, out of the blue, David's voice came through over the computer singing "Happy Birthday"! It was so wonderful!

Then he had his first t-ball practice ever. He did very well. Every hit he got, he would say he got a home run. I didn't bother to correct him until the next practice.

That afternoon, Andrew wanted to stuff candy into balloons, which is what I did for his 4th birthday party. So we stuffed them and then popped them after we ate Papa John's ham and pineapple pizza. I would show the video, but you all may laugh a little too hard of me sitting on and popping balloons. So, I'll just show Andrew with a few of his gifts and his cookie cake with fruit on top, which he always asks for.