And life rolls on...

I feel as if it might be time for an update. Life has been full lately and we have a little girl who is quickly becoming 'not so little anymore.' I'll start with her...
Callie is now 8.5 months old and though she is the epitome of her Daddy when it comes to looks, she's definitely got her Mommy's personality. She's extremely social and always has to be at the centre of the action. She loves to entertain and if you give her a laugh, she'll continue doing whatever it is she did to get that laugh, in the hopes of getting another.
Callie also has a new found love for other kids. Actually, 'love' might not even be a strong enough word for it. Perhaps 'infatuation' or 'obsession' is more appropriate. She literally SQUEALS at the top of her lungs whenever we show her pictures of other kids, she sees them in the grocery store or she sees her cousins. We were in Superstore the other day and as she sat in the seat of the cart, she bounced in utter delight as we walked down each aisle. As soon as she saw another kid, she would scream at them, with a huge grin on her face. Some of them were startled by the loud sound, but most of them reciprocated the excitement and continued to entertain her from where they were standing. Which leads me to another discovery of Callie--- she absolutely loves shopping. If we spend a whole day at home, she honestly gets bored. She thinks she's such a big girl when she gets to sit in the cart, and lasts for hours as long as we're out and about.

Callie is a bit vain, but I'm sure most kids her age are as well ;) She spends a lot of time in front of the mirror while I get ready in the mornings and gets very excited at the sight of her own reflection. She then proceeds to lean forward and give herself a big, open-mouthed kiss, leaving my mirror a slobbery mess. I don't mind though. Its worth the extra windex ;)

Baby Einstein movies are a sure-fire solution to boredom with Callie. Her eyes stay glued to the screen and she smiles and claps with each new screen change. Not sure who came up with those Baby Einstein DVD's but they're certainly brilliant. She absolutely adores them! Here she is cuddled up in front of the TV...

Callie has been teething since she was about 3 months old, but there is still no sign of any teeth. I was pretty sure that something had finally surfaced this morning, as I saw a very white spot on her lower gums this morning. But she was a stinker about it and wouldn't let me get a good look inside her mouth. Then, when I tried to look again at supper time tonight, I couldn't see anything. So either I imagined it, or the tooth receded back into her gums. Who knows!? I'm not too worried about it. They'll come when they're good and ready... and hopefully by then, I'll be done nursing her ;)
She FINALLY learned how to roll from her back to her tummy a few weeks ago! If we put her on her tummy, she would roll to her back no problem (which started MONTHS ago) but starting her on her back meant that that's exactly the position she intended to stay in (she's got my stubborn streak I guess). She just would not roll onto her tummy. But one evening a few weeks ago, she was playing on the living room floor while Jon and I were watching TV, and suddenly I noticed she was lying on her stomach and craning her neck above the coffee table to look at us. I (literally) started shrieking in excitement and telling her how proud I was! Jon just laughed at me. But now, she's a rolling machine! She wanders quite far now by means of rolling and I can tell that crawling is just around the corner. She's starting to bring one knee up and seems to want to go, but hasn't quite put 2 and 2 together. I'm sure she'll be off and on her way soon enough, and suddenly, life will be that much busier for me. So to be honest... I'd be OK with it if she waited just a little bit longer with the crawling thing ;)

Anyway... I could go on and on about our sweet Callie, so I better change topic and move onto us...

Jon has been really busy with work lately. Things got slow for a while but he's switched gears now, and is back to framing houses again. I think he's enjoying it but is definitely thankful that 'missions' may be in our future and his body can have a break from this type of manual labour. It doesn't feel so bad when you know 'the end is (possibly) in sight' :)

Speaking of missions, for those of you that haven't heard, we got our official acceptance into MBMSI's "Spring Adventure" so we'll be attending that from April 25-30. A lot of people have been confused about what exactly it is, and I have to make it clear that this doesn't mean we're signing on for long-term missions (yet). Its likely that we will, but for now, its just the 'next step.' We're going to go to S.A. to hear more about MBMSI as an organization and what their vision is, and then at the end of the week, they will give a written recommendation for Jon and I, as to whether (a) they want us to start training in the fall, or (b) we need to wait a year, or (c) missions isn't for us at all. So we really won't know anything more until after S.A., but we're excited about what God has in store for us and are really hoping that he speaks clearly to us in that week of discernment. We've had some really fantastic conversations with different people over the last few months (good friends, family, other missionaries) and are excited about this journey we're on. Right now, our focus is to not get too far ahead of ourselves and start 'freaking out' about the possibility of having to say good-bye to our friends and family, but rather, to enjoy this part of the journey and trust that no matter what happens, God knows the game plan and will lead us where we need to go.

Now onto less 'intense' things. We've been doing a lot of stuff with Craigslist lately (both buying and selling things) and our latest purchase has been a very comfortable one :) We found a used leather sofa for $40, and though the middle seat is worn & scratched a bit, its extremely comfy and goes with the rest of the decor, much better than our previous floral one. We're really enjoying it! And we've been thrilled with how many things we've been able to sell on Craigslist too. Everything from clothing to an old coffee table, CD/DVD rack to bifold closet doors. Its been awesome to clean out some 'junk' and get a little $ in exchange!

Spring seems to have arrived and I've really been enjoying the sunny weather and beautiful blossoming trees. As I was mentioning earlier, Callie starts to feel 'cooped up' if we don't go out at least once a day, so its been nice to go for walks when everything feels so 'springy.' :)

And... last but not least, we're getting VERY excited about our upcoming trip! We're going to spend Easter with Craig & Jen and will be spending 5 days of bliss in good ol' Regina, SK! :) The last time Craig & Jen saw Callie, she was only 2 weeks old (see the picture below), so this trip is long overdue. I can hardly wait to see them & we're excited about getting to see their house in Regina, see the church Craig works at, and hopefully meet some of the lovely people that make life so wonderful for them there. Looking forward to it... only 2 weeks to go!