Professional Pictures

Kirsten was hanging out in Columbus the week before last and decided to get Luke some professional pictures.

Click here to see them.

Luke's Prays!

Yesterday while Luke was sitting on my lap, he suddenly bowed his head, closed his eyes (mostly), mumbled something, then proclaims "AMEN!" I think he's noticed we don't pray at dinner when Jim's out of town! Ooops...

I love this kid!

Week 5: Team Stag-Nation Weight Loss Challenge

We've decided to change our name to Team Stag-Nation (Pete's idea) since we seem to lack the significant progress we desire. Only thanks to Dad, the team lost a total of 2 pounds over the last two weeks. Increasing our team total loss to 9.5 pounds.

Pete gave the team a pep talk we're going to all start excercising on a more daily basis. Plus, we're going to celebrate our victories better (like resisting that donut at the staff meeting).

So watch out Jenny Craig...Team Stag-Nation is focused once again.

Kudos to Pete: He set a new personal best time in a 5K run last week!

Easter in Riverside

Had fun at the Bells' house at Easter--that's Matt and Judy Bell. Click here for all the pics, or here for the slide-show.


We started the day with our own little Easter egg hunt. Kirsten got Luke an Elmo easter basket. Very cute!


The kids are all dressed up.


Kirsten got to hold little Andrew, now one week old.



Judy, the super-woman she is, organized an Easter egg hunt. Yes, she did just have a baby a week ago! (She got it together before Andrew was born. But still...it's all we can do just to get there!) Jonathan won it hands-down, since Luke didn't really get what we were doing. As you can see, even with my coaching he's a bit distracted.


The proud Grandparents with Andrew.


Andrew and his Daddy--both are thoroughly enjoying this moment!

As the liturgy says...

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

Library Story Time

A couple weeks ago Luke and I went to a story time at the local library. I was surprised at the crowd on a weekday morning. (Click here for all the pictures.)

Taking the Week Off

In case you're wondering why our blog is suddenly abandoned, we're in Columbus Ohio for the week.

Since we didn't have access to a scale on Monday (not to mention crashing and burning, diet-wise, Easter weekend), we're giving ourselves the week off from our "Challenge," too. (Eric: I'm still hoping you forget we're doing this! Hmph!)

More to post soon! Thanks for stopping by!

We Met Andrew

This afternoon we met Andrew Evanston. Click here for the whole collection of pictures.

Here's the little cutie! So small!


Who does he look like? Let the guessing begin!






We spent some time there last weekend, while Judy was still in the hospital. We had fun with Jonathan and kept him company. (His grandparents were doing a fine job, but we had to check!) Here we are walking to the park.

Notebaert Museum Adventure

A couple Fridays ago we joined Beth and Peter for a trip to the Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.


Being the savvy city-dwellers we are, we took the bus. Ugh. We froze waiting for it, then it took forever to get there. Here we are huddled at the bus stop. Super-cool Spider Man umbrella, Peter!


We didn't get very far through the museum since we found a room the kids loved.

We packed some lunch food, and tried to buy the rest there. It turns out there are just three humble little vending machines, but we made do.


We had lots of fun, though naps were postponed on the way back. Peter started his on the bus.


Kirsten takes a great picture of Luke, while I'm taking a picture of her taking the picture. Kind of a "Making Of" thing, like they do with movies.

Click here for all the day's photos.

And here's Beth's blog post.

First pictures of Andrew Bell

Well, here he is! Luke's new cousin Andrew, courtesy Matt.

Click on the picture or this button to see more.



Matt says:

With great joy, we welcomed Andrew Evanston Bell into the world on April 7th at 4:00 p.m. At birth, he weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 19.5 inches. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us. We are once more awed at the miracle of new life and grateful for this amazing gift from God.

Our earlier post here.

Welcome Johnny Rothrock!

Speaking of new arrivals, we joyfully welcome John Walter Rothrock to our extended family. Johnny, born October 17th in Korea, joined the Rothrocks on March 22nd. We can't wait to meet you in person! (Amy, their walking miracle of a mom, is my first cousin.)

Hi Lindsay! Hi Maggie! Hi Christian!



Oh, uh, hi Ling, too! Almost forgot you! (We Dads just get lost in the shuffle, don't we? Even knowing how that goes, I just did it too!)

Weight Loss Challenge: Week 2

Results: The team lost 4 pounds this week, for a grand total of 7.5 pounds!

Nancy "Come Back Kid" Dahlstrom lost 3 pounds. Go mom! You carried the team this week. The rest of us are chipping away slowly.

Kenny, baseball season is near! Perhaps a little prune juice on Sunday night would help your Monday morning weigh in?

Kirsten, you're 3 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight!

Pete, your next 5K is near!

Jim, is there a way to set up our internet to only allow access to political blogs when the stair machine is running?

Jim adds: We don't endorse prune juice for weight-loss! That's "purging:" toying with bulimia. No! No! No!

It's a boy!

Luke is honored to announce the birth of his cousin, Andrew Evanston Bell! Mother and baby are doing well!

He was born to Judy and Matt on Friday, April 7th, 4pm, and weighing in at a healthy 7 pounds 14 ounces, and 19-1/2 inches.

We haven't yet seen him, even in pictures, but we'll update this post when we get some. Stay tuned. We spent the day yesterday keeping his brother Jonathan company, and good times were had by all.

Congratulations, Matt and Judy!!

Update, April 11th: First pictures here!

Paul and Kathy

We had dinner with Paul and Kathy on April fools day. A big shout-out to you two!

Paul--start your blog! You know you want to! Come on!


Goofing around with Luke's glasses. You guys are stars!

Malachi's Birthday

Luke had the honor and privilege of attending Malachi's birthday. Much fun was had by all. Malachi's new karaoki machine was the big hit.


But for Luke, Malachi's hair was more interesting.


This little cutie stole the show, too. (This picture doesn't do justice to her big heart-melting smile.)

(Sorry I'm so late on posting this--it was two weeks ago! And I call myself a blogger. )

Prayed for today

This is a pretty cool thing. Our church's nursery workers pray for kids they watch and put this sticker on their backs. I really like picking him up and finding that.

The top sticker is his name-and-ID-badge. They run a tight ship, security-wise, as a lot of churches do. The badge has a number, and we have to bring back our part of the receipt to get him back. It's troubling that churches need to be this way (that's the sick world we live in), but I'm glad they're proactively doing everything they can to watch over him.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said we have the privilege of affecting our world in two ways: by prayer and by action. I'm glad they're not neglecting either.

Weight Loss Challenge: Week 1

The results are in. Jim was the biggest loser, losing 3.5 pounds! I worked my tail off and lost 1.5 pounds. We were happy with our results and couldn't wait to hear from the others. We waited until 9 pm to get the results. Others were not as eager to share their results.

The team total was 3.5 pounds, so you do the math. There is a weak link amongst the five of us...and her name is Nancy "Spurlock" Dahlstrom. Her two pound gain almost got her voted off the team with her teammates saying things like, "If she keeps ordering milk shakes with dinner we could have a problem."

Jim adds: Nancy, we love you unconditionally! I'm least deserving of first place. I think I did just about everything wrong this week. (I know what it takes, since I lost a lot in the past.) Still scraping, scraping, scrrraaaaping for motivation.

Kirsten adds: Doesn't he remind you of the skinny girl who always complains about her fat behind? Jeeeeez.

Jim adds: Does this shirt make me look fat?

Six more weeks to go! Go team!

Kirsten's Mascara Brush

What do you see on my toothbrush? That's mascara! Every now and then, somebody uses my toothbrush as a mascara brush!

Once when we were dating, I was having a party and Kirsten used my bathroom to freshen up. Later (when it crossed her mind), she left me a message saying, "Oh, by the way, I used your toothbrush as a mascara brush. Hope you don't mind! Rinse it off before you use it!"

I got the message a couple days later! I had a good laugh over it. And again I thought, can I live with this? You guess the answer.

What?!?! Hey!!

Kirsten says, "Pick a bedtime book, Luke!" He picks The Holes in Your Nose. Now, I don't remember where we got this, or how it made it into his rotation. (Really!)

Anyhow, the three of us are going through it, and we get to the page where the little boy has a cold--stuff's coming out and he has a Kleenex™.

Luke says, "Daddy's nose!"

What?!?!? Hey!!

Well, he's right.

(Update: Kirsten reminds me that Ang gave us the book. Sorry, Ang!)