It is hard to believe that one year ago, we welcomed Eliza Rose into the world. She has been such a blessing to our family and she is pure love. Eliza is a very sweet natured little girl. She is goofy and loves to make people laugh, and she wants to be part of the action. Eliza's personality is mix of both boys in many ways, but she is her own person and we love the sweet addition she is to our family.
Eliza is cruising all over the place, and it won't be long before she is walking. She loves all foods she has tried and especially loves her milk. She has 8 teeth and working on a couple more. Eliza wears size 4 diapers, 12-18 month clothes, and size 4 shoes. She weights 22.5 lbs (75%) and is 30 inches tall (85%).
Eliza's smile is contagious. She loves laughing and making people laugh. She loves listening to music and we equally love hearing her sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, probably her favorite song these days. This girl also loves to be outside, playing, and going on walks.
Poor girl had a tummy bug on her first birthday, but the following day we celebrated, though she still gagged on the frosting - a pure sign she was still not better!
Smash cupcake
Benjamin playing happy birthday for the birthday girl :)
Oh how we love you Eliza Rose! Happy first birthday. We are so excited to watch you grow and know that God has a great plan for your life.
The boys are in their third and final year at ACS! Caleb is in 2nd grade with Ms. Malhaus and Benjamin is in 1st grade with Ms. Sweiss.
The boys have had great experiences and opportunities at this school the past few years, and we are very thankful for the great teachers and friends they have made.
The week before school started, we took a quick trip to Jaffa and Tel Aviv to enjoy the beaches and explore the area. We stayed in Jaffa, which is a few miles south of Tel Aviv. Our AirBnB was in a great location to easily walk to Jaffa Port and explore the city. On our first night, we walked to the port and along the boardwalk.
We ate dinner at a famous restaurant called 'The Old Man in the Sea,' inspired by Ernest Hemingway. They served fish, of course, and the restaurant is famous for all the other dishes they brought to the table, which I think was 21 in total...as you can see in the picture. We all enjoyed sampling the different foods and the very busy atmosphere. The restaurant was packed and the servers appeared to be going full-speed all night long. It was really impressive to observe and kept the kids occupied watching all the excitement. The falafel and hummus was one of our favorites, which this part of the world is known for.
After diner, we walked watched the sunset and came across these kids jumping in the water!
Enjoying the sunset.
Benjamin especially liked the suspended sailboats. The Jaffa port was a lively and fun place to explore.
The next two days we visited the Tel Aviv beaches. The beaches in Tel Aviv were perfectly set up for families. They had a very organized system to purchase umbrellas and chairs, and each beach had public restrooms and a restaurant. We took a taxi each day to the beach because we didn't want to give up our parking spot on the street right in front of the AirBnB. The beaches were very crowded and full of families.
The boys love the beach and they had fun digging in the sand and swimming.
Eliza is a water lover too and she had fun sitting on the shore and playing with beach toys. This lucky girl even got to take her naps at the beach. We are so thankful for how easy going she is. If she is around 'her people' she is happy!
We went to a different beach the second day and the waves were quite a bit bigger here.
Enjoying lunch at one the beach restaurants.
On our last day, we explored Jaffa. Enjoying a beautiful view of the Tel Aviv coastline.
Admiring the old beauty through the side streets.
They even had a small souq that sold lots of trinkets, carpets, furniture, and of course fresh fruits and vegetables.
After dinner, we ended the evening downtown Jaffa to see the famous Clock Tower, which is one of seven clock towers built in Palestine during the Ottoman period. This tower has two clocks and a plaque commemorating the Israelis killed in the battle for the town in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to Jordan. We were thankful for the time away, the opportunity to see another new place, and the ease of having so many places to see within driving distance of Amman.
The boys attended summer camp at the Embassy for the fourth and final summer. We are so thankful that the Embassy hosted the camp each year. Not only was it a lot of fun for the boys, it was nice for us to have them on compound with us and get to see them throughout the day! Each week of camp was themed, and the last week was a talent week and the kids put on a talent show at the end of the week. It was a really cute show to watch and we are proud of the boys for getting up there to participate with their friends, and share their talents with the community.
Benjamin told jokes with his friend Isaiah. He loves making people laugh and they did a great job with that!
Caleb and his friend Corbin and Bethany did some magic tricks. Caleb is typically more shy, and we were so proud of their performance!
In addition to camp, we had lots of fun playing at the park near our home and at the Embassy and enjoying the sunny, long days for the rest of summer.
This girl melts our hearts and is such a little joy to be around!
It was a fun summer and we are gearing up for school to start soon!
Within a few days, Caleb lost two teeth #'s 7 and 8, and Benjamin lost tooth #2 on the same night! There were lots of broken windows and notes to the tooth fairy this week :)
The boys thought it was fun to lose a tooth on the same night...within minutes of each other!
Of course, Caleb dabs for everyone!
The tooth fairy brought each boy a note and a dollar per tooth, and everyone was happy in the morning :).
Happy 11 months old sweet girl! This girl is causing all around and getting pretty fast. She stands up and it will be just a matter of time before she is on the go. She wants to be wherever her brothers are, she watches them closely, and they equally adore her. Eliza
Eliza got 4 new teeth this past month, for a total of 8, and loves eating all sorts of foods. She is a great nurser and loves eating all kinds of foods. She is wearing size 4 diapers, 12 month clothes, and size 4 shoes. Happy 11 months Eliza Rose, we love you.
Towards the end of July, we said goodbye to some special friends. The Cheney family has been good friends of our since 2013 in Kuwait and we are thankful for all the time we had with them over the years. We cherish their friendship with our family and are so glad God crossed our paths in their foreign world. Benjamin and Caleb loves all their children, but especially Mo, their second to oldest. He was their camp counselor this summer and this is about what it looked like every day :).
Jen, Roger's wife, and I took Arabic classes together in Jordan. She was such a great class mate and it was so nice to have this extra time together. This is our last day of class, with our instructor, Ziad.
We had an office get together before their departure at our place. This is our office, plus a couple of work visitors.
And here we are, families and kids. Roger's family is leaving a major children defect, since he has 6 kids! When we first got to Amman, our first Christmas get together totaled 29 kids between 10 of us!
Not only was Roger an amazing co-worker, he has been a great friend to Nathan. We will miss having him and his family in Jordan and hope our paths cross again one day!
One of the first things we did when we got back to Jordan was celebrate this special boy's 8th birthday! It has been such a joy to watch Caleb grow and mature this past year. Caleb is a great big brother, he loves reading, learning new things, exploring outdoors, being with friends, and knows more about movies than we do. He enjoys Tae Kwon Do, piano lessons, and is excited for camp one last summer in Jordan. Caleb has a strong curiosity about life and the world around him, and we love hearing all the questions brings to us.
We celebrated at home as a family and Caleb requested pink (his favorite color these days) and blue cupcakes. And of course, the famous Middle East fireworks candle. It was a great evening celebrating this special boy. Caleb, we pray that this next year will be just as great for you. Happy birthday big boy, we love you!
