Elijah was totally content playing with Grandpa!

Grandpa was pretty content to be playing with Elijah too!

Grandpa was teaching Elijah how to play Phase Ten (I tried to get the little guy to tell me what kind of cards Grandpa had, but he was too loyal to his Grandpa!).

All that playing wore him out.

On Saturday, Kirk's cousin Alexa came over to Mom and Dad's house to do a photo session of us.  She is just getting her business off the ground and is extremely talented! Check out the link to her blog (Alexa's Photography) on my blogger list. Thanks again, Alexa!

The photographer with her subject. Unfortunately, Elijah was kind of done with cameras at this point!

We had to get a picture of Elijah with this blanket.  This was Kirk's baby blanket when he was born! The Duncans were (and are) big fans of Apple computers, so this theme was only fitting for his baby nursery.   Mom made this blanket too...impressive!

Grandma and Elijah getting in some good cuddling time before we head out!

They are just so happy to be together!

Elijah was sad to say goodbye to Aunt Konni.

Here we are at the airport ready to head home! Thanks again for having us, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Konni.  We had a great time :).

Uncle Bob

Friends, I wanted to ask you all for prayers for my Uncle Bob.  He was diagnosed with leukemia over the weekend.  They are beginning aggressive chemo treatments today and he will be in the hospital for 4 to 6 weeks.  Please also pray for his wife, Karen and two kids Will and Adrianna.  He has a Caring Bridge site that you can check out for more information:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/PastorBob

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Uncle Bob, Aunt Karen, Will and Adrianna, we love you and will be praying for you all!

What a Weekend!

We have a wonderful weekend filled with good friends and some good family time too! Having Elijah has only confirmed to us how blessed we are with good people in our lives.  So thank you to all of you who have shared in our excitement and given so much love to us and Elijah! We are tremendously grateful.  

On Friday night, we were fortunate enough to see our friends Brian and Darla who were passing through on their way to a birthday party.  They are from Minneapolis, so we were glad they were in town and able to meet Elijah! We had a great dinner (although too short!) at Panera and our friends Brad and Kelly were able to join us too.  Thanks for making the time to see us, Brian and Darla! We are looking forward to the next time.

Fortunately, Elijah woke up before dinner was over.  Here is Darla and the little guy.

Elijah was quite fond of Brian as well.

And of course we have to get a picture of the girls with the man!

On Saturday, we had such nice weather that we decided to head to the park.  Roche (Kirk's employer) has a park for employees which is great to walk around and you can even fish! Kirk and I threw the football around while Elijah slept and then we all sat by the lake and fished.  It was so wonderful to be outside after being cooped up in the house for so long!

Kirk, getting his rod ready.  Unfortunately, there were no bites yesterday.

Showing Elijah how it's done.

Who's having more fun here?

He woke up at the end! 

A quick family shot before heading out.  It's too bad Elijah wasn't into it (he was more interested in going home and eating).

The visits kept coming today! Our good friends Mel and Scott were in from Grand Rapids this weekend and got to stop over and be with us for the afternoon after church.  Thanks so much for coming to see us! We had a great time and wish we had more of you guys in our lives!

Unfortunately, I didn't pull out my camera until after Elijah fell asleep.

The Barretts with Elijah.

Elijah loves Daddy!

No one has the ability to get Elijah smiling quite like Daddy.  Here are some pictures we took last night as Kirk was singing to Elijah.  Trust me, it's very entertaining!

"Wow, Daddy, that's quite the voice!"

"I'm really enjoying this."

We love this little guy!!

Elijah's New Friends

Yesterday, Elijah finally had the chance to meet my friends Abby and Jess.  Abby and Jess are sophomores at Taylor that I had the privilege of recruiting my first year in the admissions office! I kept up a relationship with them after they arrived at Taylor and was so excited to introduce them to Elijah! We had a really good time.  

Abby and Elijah.

Jess and Elijah (we took him outside hoping the cold air would wake him for the picture...we were only somewhat successful :)).

3 good looking people! We love you girls!

Farewell, Amy Jo :(

Sadly, on Tuesday we had to say goodbye to our good friend, Amy Jo :(.  She just passed her boards and is a certified Occupational Therapist  now (yay!).  Unfortunately for us, though, she took a job in Colorado Springs and is moving this weekend.  We decided to go to our friends AJ and Adam's new condo downtown for one last time together before she heads out. Amy Jo, we will miss you and know you will do great at your new job!

The girls with the little guy, who is clearly not interested in looking at the camera.

That's more like it!

This is kind of a side note, but Adam and AJ just moved into this condo downtown and it is so sweet! It has exposed brick walls, hard wood floors, and wooden beams on the ceiling.  We were totally impressed! Thanks for letting us come over, guys.  I'm so glad we have friends who live in the city now :).