Cedric is ready for Christmas!

Asking Nana a question:

First ever Christmas cookies:

Outings and Visits

 Outing to celebrate Reformation day ~ Dia de la Biblia 

at a big park with a group from church

Outing to Farm Animal Park with Ramirez family

 

(I want a dog!)

Visit from Grandpa at Thanksgiving & celebration with coworkers

Outing with young couples' families to a farm in Cundinamarca

(white car is the one we're borrowing)

(BBQ Colombian style!)

 

(the dads)

Visits with friends (not pictured!) to make Christmas cookies

Playdates, Milestones and Cakes!

 Just some fun pictures from the past few months... mostly playdates with friends!

 

Milestones: graduated from nursery and is now in a "big-boy" Sunday School class

 Three and a HALF year celebration with half a cake and 3.5 candles!

I've been asked to help make and decorate a number of cakes this semester... here are a few of my creations:

(1st Birthday)

 (Cake for 80 people!)

(Cupcakes for couples' events... 120 in September and 25 last month)

Fusagasuga

For several years a group of men have been going down to the city of Fusa to hold Bible studies in a prison there. That developed into a ministry within the city too. Last November our church here in Bogota commended Fredy to move to Fusa and serve as a missionary to the people there. Earlier this year they began meeting on Sundays and there is now a small church established. In July we traveled there to attend the inauguration ceremony.

Their small meeting room. They have one other small room that is used for children's ministry.

 

Commending Fredy as an elder of the church.

 

Praying for Fredy and his family.

 Ex-prisoners who are active members of the church now.

 Cedric enjoyed playing with the kids there.

 

Some of the leaders from J.Vargas and Fusa.

 

 As a bonus we got to visit with Grandpa and Liliana who live in Fusa and help out at the new church.

The negative, getting there and back by bus! 4 hours to and 4.5 hours from... this is the line just to buy a bus ticket back to Bogota on Sunday night!

First Family Vacation

Even though we have traveled a ton in Cedric's short life, we've never had an official vacation with just the three of us. After all of Bill's travels and various stressful ministry things, we decided we needed one! So we turned our cellphones off for a week, borrowed a car and took off! The first half of the week we spent in a nearby rural area called Tenjo only an hour away (only 20 miles!). There is a Baptist owned campground with a small family cabin with kitchen, bathroom, and fireplace. It is quiet and peaceful and a great change of scenery for us.

Since it is a campground with lots of weekend retreats, we couldn't spend the whole week there, so we took off down the mountain to a town in "hot country" 3.5 hours away (90 miles... traffic just getting out of the city is at least half the trip).We stayed at a place with pools, so Bill and Cedric spent most of the daylight hours swimming! I jumped in a bit, but just enjoyed being able to read and be lazy with no cooking or cleaning for three whole days!

I took a wander into nature - which I later regretted, as I returned with at least 20 mosquito bites! Bumped into a huge iguana, I scared him and he scared me! This picture is after I recovered from the fright by which time he had scooted off away from me.

Marriage and Money

In the past month we've had two workshops with our young couples' group on stewardship and managing finances. It has been a good exercise for all of us, touching on topics like budgeting, contentment, giving and wisdom. Here are a few pictures from our first session with our coworkers, the Dubberlys, who led that workshop.

May 2014 Baptisms

February & March in Bogota: Making Memories with Cedric

here are a few pictures that capture happy moments 

of our family life thus far this year...

i must remember to take more pictures of the other facets of life too!

new found love for ice cream

 celebrating mama's birthday

we went on a 24 hour trip to a birthday party at the camp in Villa de Leyva (3-4 hour drive north of Bogota)

 

 

 

 

 cedric took this picture of the two of us... not bad!

we've had numerous play dates with little friends... for one of them we went to a recreational club for the day to play, visit the library and have lunch.

 

  

lots of playing at home going on too

 

 the "box house" - endless hours of fun

 driver? swimmer? construction worker?

and we must not forget reading... best pastime ever!