Thursday, November 29, 2007

A Good Sister

Wow, I've been slacking. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures this time either. This will just be a quick update on the current happenings in our lives.

Hannah is already living up to the blessing she got back in November of last year. One of the things that I remember is that she was told that she would help comfort and take care of her brother. Yesterday I guess Noah was screaming inconsolably for almost an hour. It finally got to the point where Elizabeth had to just let him roll around on the floor and cry because he kept arching his back and pushing away if she tried to hold him. Apparently, Hannah kept going over to give him rags, pat him on the back, and give him kisses. How sweet is that?! Her vocabulary is expanding as well. I think the latest addition is "juice" -- one of her favorites.

I am currently interviewing for a big promotion at work. My team leader is being deployed to Afghanistan (she's a major in the Army Reserves). I was named Interim Team Leader as she has been transitioning out -- she only has 8 working days left. I am going for the position. I don't have my hopes set too high because a) I'm so young, b) I'm currently two pay grades below the pay grade I would be in if I got the position, and c) I've only been in the department since June. But hey, we'll see how it goes. I know I could do the job and do it well.

Tomorrow we are going with Elizabeth's parents to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Yuletide Celebration. This will be the 3rd year in a row we have been. It's always a great show. Sandy Patty is the host again this year, and I heard on the radio that the African Children's Choir is going to be there. I'm pretty excited about seeing them. They were on American Idol this last year (I think). Maybe during the Idol Gives Back show...

Saturday we are going up to Berne to visit Elizabeth's grandmother. This will be the second time she has gotten to see the babies. You may remember my post this summer about our first visit. While we're there we may check out some of the furniture stores. The last time we spotted a beautiful Amish-crafted solid cherry dining room table that would look great in our dining room. It could expand to seat up to twelve! The craftsmanship was beautiful.

I saw on Bruce and Alyssa's blog that she was going to (or did) "tag" us. I'm too dumb to know what that means I guess. Maybe somebody can fill me in...

It's Office night. Although, we still have Journeyman on the DVR from Monday night. Not sure which we'll watch when Elizabeth gets home from yoga. By the way, if you're not watching Chuck, you are missing out on one of the best shows in a long time.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

O Christmas Tree

We started decorating for Christmas this weekend. We normally wait until after Thanksgiving, but we were afraid we wouldn't have time to do it if we didn't start now.

It's not the baby's first Christmas, of course, but it sure was fun watching them react to the Christmas tree. They were just a couple of months old last time and didn't understand. We let them help put a couple of their ornaments on.

This is going to be fun!

Hannah hanging her ornament
Noah hanging his ornament
Yum, yum

Thursday, November 15, 2007

A household of bipeds

Well, I think it's official. We are finally a household of people that know how to walk. Noah has finally gotten the hang of it and spends a good bit of his mobile time up on two feet. He's still not that great at it, but he's progressing quickly. As I observed him this evening, it seems like walking is almost his first choice. He has also gotten really good at standing up without holding onto anything.

Noah standing up
Just standin' around, acting all casual about it
Okay, okay, so I'm a little excited about this
It's hard to tell, but here's one of him actually walking.

Go speed racer!
The only problem in all of this is that Noah is such a shrimp! He has the hardest time keeping his pants on. Hopefully he'll start putting some meat on those bones soon.

Hey, put that camera down and help me out here!
Hannah and Noah are starting to play (and fight) together a lot more now. Here they are playing doctor. My guess is that Noah will be an otolaryngologist (I'm not sure how that is supposed to be spelled, the spell check didn't help, and I don't feel like getting out the dictionary...sorry.) when he grows up!

Looks like an ear infection to me
They like to race up the stairs too. When Noah wins he delights in slamming the gate shut so that nobody else can get up.

Hannah's winning!
Okay, so we can't have a post without talking about Hannah! She just wouldn't have it.

Hey...don't forget about me!!
As most of you probably know, Hannah and Noah are obsessed with their rags. These are just cloth diapers that we've had around since they were babies. (No...we did not use cloth diapers, we just used them a lot for cleaning up their messes.) Anyway, Hannah does this cute thing where she holds them up to her head while she sucks on her thumb. Very cute. It reminds me of Linus.

Hannah goes Linus
Now, all you parents out there, I'm sure you'll agree with me on this one. I don't know why we spend so much money giving kids all of these toys. They turn anything, and I mean anything, into a toy. Here's Hannah sitting in one of her toy storage baskets and playing with the top off of a can of mousse (or some such hair care product).

Just peachy
And, lest you think I staged this little affair, I have documented proof that I did not.

Note that she has the purple plastic cap as she is stepping into the box
Wow, that was a lot of pictures. I think I'm done with that for tonight.

For those who are trying to keep track of my travel schedule for work, I wouldn't. My trip that was originally scheduled for Nov 30 that got moved to Dec 7 has now been moved to Dec 14. My other trip that was scheduled for Dec 12 has been moved to "hopefully before the end of the year," which translates to "sometime in January." Who knows!!

Oh, and another major step for us. We have decided to part ways with TiVo. We have had TiVo since we switched to DirecTV back in 2004. We were immediately sold on it, have become very spoiled, and have converted several others. Well, the problem now is that our TiVo box is starting to die, DirecTV doesn't issue TiVo brand boxes anymore, and there is no way for us to get high definition programming on a TiVo box without going to cable (which I refuse to do). So, on Monday we will be getting a DirecTV hi-def DVR. The DVRs have come a long way since they first came out. They seem to do pretty much everything a TiVo does now, with just a couple of exceptions. I think we'll survive. I'm excited about all of the HD content, and especially about the ability to record it.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Holidays are Approaching

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away already! We all know how quickly Christmas follows.

Elizabeth and I saw a wonderful movie last year that we have decided we will use each year to remind us about the purpose of Christmas. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the shopping, decorating, and other fixings and forget about Christ.

If you haven't seen The Nativity Story, then you must. It is an inspiring look at the journey of Mary and Joseph. It tells the story in a very personal way. While those who wrote the movie obviously don't know most of the details surrounding these sacred events, they are true to the story as outlined in the scriptures. The details they fill in do not detract from the scriptural account. In my opinion, they enhance the story by coloring it with the many shades of human experience and emotion.

Here is the trailer for the movie.

Also, here is one scene from the movie. In it Mary asks, why me? She dwells on what she perceives to be her insignificance in the world. I think that is something we all grapple with from time to time. I am grateful to know that I am a child of a loving Heavenly Father. I am also grateful for the many examples, including that of Mary and Joseph, of great and marvelous things proceeding out of the most meek and lowly of the earth.

At the start of this wonderful season, may we all remember the reason we celebrate.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled blog posts about the cute Scott twins! :)

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Fall on Campus

I absolutely love the fall. It's my favorite season. One of my favorite things about it is the opportunity I have to return to Purdue for a recruiting trip each year. It feels so good to be back on campus and see the leaves changing. It's also fun (and a little sad) to see how much the campus changes from year to year. The biggest change this year is the basement of the Union. They have added a LOT of new restaurants and dining areas. It's very nice. Here's a picture I found on the net that somebody else took. The building in the picture is the Union, which is where I have been for the last two days.

Campus in the fall

The babies are sick...again. They had a play date earlier this week and apparently those kids were sick. It's just annoying since they just got over it. The hard thing is that I was here in West Lafayette last night, and poor Elizabeth was left by herself to be up all night with the babies. I'll be back home within a few hours, so hopefully I can provide some relief.