Archie's First Santa Pic

Merry Christmas!

Happy Fifth Anniversary!

Five snowy winters ago, Hunter and I were married in Christiansburg, VA. Fast forward five wonderful years and we're standing in front of a Christmas tree at the middle school where we teach in Asia. Archie is running around at our feet while we steal a quick moment to capture a fifth anniversary pic of just us (well, and the baby inside, I guess). When I consider the changes in our lives since we first said "I do", it's pretty mind-boggling, but our love for each other remains constant.

Happy Anniversary, Hunt! I love you!

Baby #2: Boy or Girl?

It's time to guess what DeJarnette Baby #2 will be! We're eagerly awaiting this little Peanut's July arrival :)

Boy or Girl?
	Boy
	Girl
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Archie's New Favorite Toy!

Thanks to Memaw and Papa, Archie is already getting into the Christmas spirit with his brand new nativity set. I seldom get so excited about a toy! Honestly, at first glance I wasn't too enthusiastic about a toy with a million little people that I knew Archie would enjoy scattering around the house (which he does) and that made noise (i.e. plays "Away in the Manger"), but first glances can be deceiving. Seldom does Archie so enjoy a toy, and it's a great teaching tool for him, too. Another of his favorite games (and this one is free) is giving things to Hunter and me. What better things for him to give us than Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus? And, to top it all off, he'll walk (yes, WALK) all the way across the room to bring us a piece. I credit this with helping turn Archie into a bi-ped over the last few days. (I'm sure videos will be following on that soon.) Last but not least, it's a great conversation starter when friends come over. I think some of the college students we hang out with enjoy playing with it as much as Archie.

I promise, I'm not getting commission from Fisher Price, but click the link and check it out. The one downside, pieces vary from set to set. (Ours has wise men but no shepherds, and our animals are different, too.)

Christmas Preview Part II

Mama, am I allowed to pull the ornaments off the Christmas tree and play with them? Since I put the tree on a table, he's thankfully left it pretty much alone. You can't blame a little buddy for being curious about shiny gold ornaments, can you?

Here's a repeat of our Christmas family portrait:

Looking out the window at the snow-covered ground. (Actually, although the temps get pretty frigid, we've had very little precip this winter.)

TOO MUCH CHRISTMAS. (And it's still several weeks away!)

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has never been a huge picture taking holiday for me, but here's what I have:



We re-enacted "The First Thanksgiving" at two of our English corners and made the costumes (hats) ourselves. I even made Archie a little Indian hat, but he hasn't been feeling too well the last couple of days so I haven't subjected him to a Thanksgiving photo shoot.

A few fun pics

Another conglomeration of recent favorites:

It's cold outside!

Spaghetti is yummy!

All worn out!
(It doesn't happen often that Archie falls asleep in his play pen, but I guess he'd just had too much fun with too little sleep. He slept almost an hour!

I love spaghetti!

These two videos show Archie's progress towards self-sufficiency and his new skills in mess-making! Both videos are similar, but there are more cute baby noises in the first one and more self-feeding in the second! ENJOY!

Turkey-less by choice!

Last year, try as we might, we were unable to find a turkey for Thanksgiving. What would you do on Thanksgiving if you didn't have a turkey? We picked up fried chicken from KFC, of course! Today, while making my quarterly (or so) trip to a store where I can buy imports, I found a WHOLE FROZEN TURKEY. So, I eagerly scooped it up and brought it home, right? WRONG! I left it in the freezer. Why? Who wants to cook a turkey in a toaster oven when there's KFC down the street. I'll make some sides, invite some friends, get some fried chicken, and we'll have a great holiday. Whether you go turkey or turkey-less this Thanksgiving, we wish you a happy one!

Christmas 2008 Preview

My favorite sights

Why are slippers and piles of unwashed dishes among my favorite sights? They are signals that we've just had guests. Even though sometimes washing up the dishes is a chore, it's also a pleasant reminder of how richly we're blessed by our friends.


(Cultural note: Where we live, you always take off your shoes at the door. The host then provides a pair of slippers so the guests' feet don't get cold on the floor.)

More Pumpkin Pics

Who does Archie love?

HIMSELF! My child REALLY REALLY loves himself. Can you tell?


His love for himself is further manifested in the way he will actually sit still to look at his own photo albums (whereas he sits still for little else). I have no doubt he knows who the baby in the picture is, and that he figures he's quite good looking. The good news: Archie still loves everybody else, too.

While Archie hasn't yet taken those first few independent steps, he's getting pretty close!


Since it looks like Archie is trying desperately to escape our house in this pic, I'll explain his motive. Our neighbors have a 3-year-old. They are mutually crazy about each other, and I think Archie wanted to go visit. If both doors are open, he'll crawl right on over!

It's getting harder and harder to snap a pic of him not sucking his thumb. The good news is the thumb sucking makes him look extra cute and cuddly!

Archie's opinion on Halloween

More pics of my cute little pumpkin coming soon! (Does the Jack-O-Lantern look a little strange? It's actually an over-sized grapefruit. They were out of pumpkins at the farmer's market. Oh well, a lot easier than carving!)

Our little climber and other videos

Here's a recent conglomeration of some favorite home videos and pics.

Archie's learned to climb. He can successfully get on our bedside table. He actually can get from the table onto the bed, but I haven't been able to capture that on video.

Archie loves to play with Daddy. Although the quality of this video isn't great, the content is worth watching!

Do you think he has talent?

One of Archie's new favorite things is sitting in his toy basket. What baby wouldn't love being waist deep in toys? The great thing for me: he can climb in by himself, but he can't get out by himself!
Archie's first time drinking milk from a cup was October 25, 2008! I think more got drooled back onto the floor than anything else so I'm not sure what he thought about the taste.

Is he a baby or toddler?

I can't decide if Archie is a baby or toddler. He's looking more like a toddler everyday (especially in the big boy outfit he's pictured in below), but shouldn't a toddler toddle? Archie cruises around the house, but hasn't quite progressed to independent toddling yet. Anyway, life stays fun with him around! I will say he's a lot more work now that he's so mobile, though.

Archie REALLY loves my guitar. He's not usually allowed to be near it, so he's savoring this moment.


He also loves to play outside. Unfortunately, I don't know how much longer that will last because the temp outside is dropping quickly, and we've already had our first snow!


It was getting dark by the time I took this pic, but he is so funny crawling around on the playground. I think he'll have more fun when he can walk!

Where can I buy a hard hat?

Where can I buy a hard hat? Can I also buy the baby a hard hat? No, I'm not going to start him doing construction projects yet, but I think we need one for walking outside our door. As if ear-splitting noises from hammers banging on our roof beginning around 6:30 a.m. on the weekends weren't enough alert that repairs were occurring, the bucket dangling on a homemade pulley outside the window definitely clues you in! Hunter and I were seriously a little afraid to pass under our door because of how the bucket-pulley was rigged. We didn't want to get hit by falling stuff.

Here's a shot of the men working on the roof.

And here's a shot of our apartment so you can get an idea of how tall it is. While five floors is on the small side for this part of the world, no elevators (while living on the fourth floor) can seem pretty tall when you're carrying a baby in one arm and groceries in the other. The good news: exercise (like stair climbing) is good for your heart!

Sun Island

Archie and I recently went with some friends on an outing too Sun Island. As you can probably tell from the pics, the day of the excursion wasn't too sunny!

Best pic of the day: A little girl wandered over and gave Archie a big kiss. I think he likes her.

Hanging out with mom in front of the squirrel house.

Archie can play ball now. When Hunter and I roll the ball, he gets in on the action. He especially likes it when we sit on the floor and throw the ball to each other laughing like it's the most fun thing we've ever done. He tries to catch it.

Culinary Delights: Feasting Arabic Style

You didn't just miss a major event in the lives of the DeJs. We haven't moved across the world, but we did discover a pretty good Arabic restaurant in our city.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any real Arabic writing on the sign.

We enjoyed our dinner better because we were eating it with friends!

Lamb pieces, hummus, pita bread, chicken pieces, samosa, and french fries. (Are french fries really traditional Arabic food?)

Archie had fun posing in the little Arabic style house that was decorating the restaurant.