Merry Christmas!

We are getting excited for Christmas, and are again reminded of how incredible it is to have a Savior who came to live with us and experience every temptation of our lives - the same Jesus who now reigns victorious over all of creation! We hope your Christmas is filled with hope and joy as a result of God's gift to you of his son.

We are still staying with Matthew's Aunt Miriam in Roseville. She has been very gracious with us as lots of Naomi's stuff (stroller, Pack N Play, swing, ...) invades her living room. We have a candidating trip scheduled for Jan 10-11 for Faith Bible Church in Willows, CA, less than 2 hours from our families. Thus far we feel positive about the situation. Please praise God with us and pray for discernment for both us and the church, and also for God's workings in all the circumstances of the trip and the potential job. Meanwhile Matthew continues to work at Health Net and I am mostly enjoying raising Naomi. She just woke up happy, which is wonderful!

Below are some pictures from the past month.

Just in the past week or two Naomi doesn't have to be swaddled in order to sleep more than 10 minutes at a stretch. We enjoy watching her be peaceful (her bed is in the living room). She sleeps 9-10 hours a night now! She makes up for it by taking very short naps during the day and is often fussy - but the happy stretches are progressively increasing.

When other methods fail, Naomi ofter calms down and gets curious again when Dad makes her Superbaby.

I love how she folds her hands and curls her legs up under her for a little nap after many of her feedings.

Hooray for naked-time!

On Thanksgiving Day we stopped by Turlock to see G'G'G'ma Jessie before heading up to Stockton for my first Brooks Thanksgiving. My Great-Grandma is 96 years old, and was very excited to meet the next generation of her family.
Great-Grandma Hallsten came to Roseville the day after Thanksgiving, and she and Naomi got properly introduced.

Grandpa Keith loves his new role, and frequently takes Naomi outside for walks when she's protesting, or holds her so that Matthew and I can eat when we're over there.

The whole gang.

Naomi and I went with my parents, Peter and his girlfriend Stephanie, and Krista to get their Christmas Tree. I took Naomi on the same tree swing I went on every year as a child at Snowy Peaks Tree Farm.

Sorry the video below is a little longer than I intended - 92 seconds of Naomi cooing and kicking. Call me an obsessive first-time mom. ;-) There's no amazing finish, so feel free to stop it whenever you've had your fill. Meanwhile we'll be working on figuring out how to use our video editing software so we can give you 20 seconds next time....