Meeting more family!

Last week Elise got to meet Jean





And she got to meet Auntie Madison, or "Auntie M"






A guitar hero battle broke out between aunties Holly and Madison.



Elise wanted to challenge the winner.



Yet another slideshow!

Christmas Sleepyhead

And of course a little girl born near Christmas is going to acquire a few Christmas outfits. So we had fun cycling her through them.












Here's a little slideshow

1 Wild Week!

On Thursday Elise celebrated her 1 week birthday. Her belly button tag fell off the day before, so that meant it was "game on" for grandma and mommy to pick her out some "real clothes" and not just those cuddly pajama things.






Elise has wasted no time taking up residence here and making herself comfortable. She is even getting mail already!


Singing some Christmas carols with mommy and daddy


So far, it is apparent that Elise's favorite activity is sleeping.



And winter really showed up last night and this morning with a "quick foot" of snow. The Rooster is trying to cope:

She's Here!

Elise Katelyn Lundholm, was born at 3:16 p.m. on Thursday December 11th. The labor and delivery went really well. It took about thirteen hours altogether. Heather is doing really well. We are just adjusting to the joy and responsibility of being parents. As I hear people say and I now understand, words cannot describe the experience of becoming a parent. When I first got to hold my little girl in my arms, all bundled up and precious, I was just overcome with how adorable she was. And it occurred to me that God, our father, views us the same way. He adores us and we are precious to him! Our pastor visited us at the hospital today and he shared the same thing with us.
Heather's Dad Mark, Mom Ellen, Stepdad Dave and sister Holly all arrived shortly after she was born. They begin traveling from missouri the moment they got the message that Heather was in labor. What a day! Our little daughter was eager to spend time with us so much so that she decided she would rather have us hold her all night than sleep. And of course she slept most of the day the next day! Heather and I are very tired but we don't care because we're so happy to be with our daughter.

Day two update..... Elise got to do a lot of good sleeping during her second day born (probably making up for the sleep she missed last night! And as of writing this entry (very late on her second night) she has kept her "pattern" if you would call it that of being up at night and sleeping in the day. Oh well, what can you expect from the kid!? She enjoyed spending more time with family and friends. She also met a few new friends who stopped bye. They were our pastor Walter, Jeffrey, Bethany and Zeke, and Matt and Sarah.) What a fun day. Elise had some tests done at different times of the day. She passed her hearing test with flying colors, and she got a sticker for her effort! She got her poor little heel pricked for a blood sample. She was weighed and observed by the nurses a few time. And she was evaluated by the pediatrician first thing in the morning (who said she was perfectly healthy). Baby and mommy also made some progress today learning how to feed Elise.

Day 4 update...Sunday December 14. We brought little Elise to her home yesterday. We were discharged from the hospital around 2 pm on Saturday, after about 48 hours of post-partum stay. Elise was so precious in her little carseat. She didn't make a sound as we put her in it, or all the way home. She went to sleep in the hospital, and woke up at home! Heather' mom and dad, stepdad and sister were there to help us out of the hospital. They all spent most of the previous two days with us. When we got home we were in for a surprise. Our friends Jeffrey and Bethany came over and cleaned and decorated our apartment!! What a sweet thing. We left it particularly messy that night we went in, so that was a huge blessing. We also received a visit from my friend Steven. He and his wife Dawn bought us a little dinner kit and some sparkling cider and stopped by to say congratulations. We didn't get to see Dawn or the kids who were out in the van, but we look forward to seeing them soon. Little Elise is adjusting well to her new home (to be honest I don't think she cares where she is as long as we are holding and feeding her!). Heather and I were really depleted of sleep on that day we came home (but still very happy to have our baby girl and family with us). We noticed what was happening to our bodies and minds as our sleep deprivation deepened, so yesterday we were more serious about getting sleep. We got several hours last night with the help of some family members. Auntie Holly held her till 2 am while we slept a little. Last night we got a very exciting surprise....my mom called and said her and my stepdad Buddy were getting on a plane to come out. In her words "We just couldn't stand it anymore." They arrived late last night and made it to the apartment this morning to see their first granddaughter! What a joy. Dave and Holly left this morning to go back to Missouri for a few days. They will be back to spend the Christmas holiday really soon. Ellen will stay for a while to help. Mark also left to go back this morning.


Grandma Robin and Grandpa Buddy meet Elise

Day 7 update....
Tomorrow Elise will be 1 week old.....wow that week flew by fast! It was quite a whirlwind. It is like a switch went off in her mind two nights ago and she decided to start sleeping some at night. The last two nights she slept three or four hours in a row (she would've kept on sleeping but we had to wake her to feed her.) She has already learned how to make a bunch of funny faces. She is definitely an indoor baby right now as the temperatures here in Grand Rapids are getting lower and lower....we will be in the twenties in the coming days. We are very glad to have Grandma Ellen, Heather's mom around for the next week or so. Without her help it would be much more difficult. This has given us a new appreciation for single mothers. How do they do it? It would be so hard without support for the mom.

We want to say something to anyone who wants to visit. We want to see you and would be blessed by your visit! We will be thinking about how to handle this, so if you want to visit please call and we can figure out a time. We would be very happy to see you and introduce you to this little princess.

SOMETHING RANDOM
My dad emailed out a picture of the view from his living room after a fresh snow. He lives in St. George Utah with a view of Snow Canyon state park from his living room. The scene from his living room is amazing.

Winter Begins

Winter has come in with a bang here in Grand Rapids, and it has been so fun to watch. Check out some of the cool ice-cicles here at our apartment complex.

Random and Timely Blessing

My Dad is a passionate photographer. And he's very good at it. If you like, check out his photography website. He used to do underwater photography when he lived in Kona. Now he lives in St. George, Utah and loves to do land photography.
Anyhow, my Dad entered a photo in a photo contest, and won a camera. It's a pretty nice one, a DSLR for any camera junkies out there. Well he's already got one of those, so he decided to send it on out to Heather and I. We got it in the mail yesterday and I tried it out on Heather:




Wow! What a cool and random (and timely) blessing. My dad gave it to us because he knows that I like photography, and that we would have fun shootin' pics of the baby on the way. How cool. Thanks Dad!

Thanksgiving Action

Ellen, Dave and Holly came to visit for Thanksgiving. We had our friends Jeffrey and Bethany over today too, and they brought their baby Zeke. Doesn't a baby make a holiday extra fun? I thought so.

Baby Zeke tries out the bouncy thing.

Baby Zeke with mamma Bethany.

And as you can see, this is about to become a "baby blog!" Many of our friends' blogs have gone that direction, now we get to follow suit! I am excited. The baby is due December 18 (we still need to find her a name! It's hard to keep calling her "the baby")


Heather's Dad came to hang out at our "new crib." Actually he and I put the crib together, and he came to check out our new "pad". (That was Heather's joke....I stole it from her) We moved into a two bedroom a few weeks ago to make room for the baby. We really like the new place. It's on the third floor....allright we're not underground anymore! At our last place we were halfway underground. I was overjoyed at the fact that we have a porch and a large sliding glass window that faces the afternoon sun and sunset. (though we have the porch plastic'ed off now for insulation purposes).

I hope you are having a blessed holiday!

Picture Perfect Ending

As I flew over the snow-sprinkled ground between Traverse City and Grand Rapids, I watched the sun make an appearance far off on the horizon as it set between the overcast cloud layer and Lake Michigan. Over the last few days the lake effect snow had lightly sprinkled the area. As the sun set, the lights of the little towns I flew past began to emerge from their surroundings as warm, clear points of light. The lights and snow of the small town reminded me of a painting of a snowy, cozy little village around Christmastime. What a treat, and what a wonderful way to end a long, but blessed two days. The morning before I began to fly up to Traverse City for my last FAA test. This test was for the CFII rating, or the instrument part of my flight instructor license. As I got to a town called Big Rapids, a wall of snow showers met me, so I landed at Big Rapids. My examiner actually drove from Traverse to Big Rapids to try to do the exam. By the time he got there, it was snowing like the blazes! We did the ground part of the exam He asked me questions for a couple of hours and posed scenarios to me to see what I would do in given situations. Then I had to go find a hotel because nobody would be flying out of that snowstorm! The next day, I waited most of the day until the weather reports said it would be okay to head all the way up to Traverse City. I arrived late in the afternoon, and we did the flight portion of my test. I passed the test, we did the necessary paperwork, and I hopped back in the airplane with little daylight to spare, and flew direct to my home airport, Ionia. And the scenery was so beautiful, I wish I had a camera (The picture above is actually of a flight a while back where the sun was rising.) It was a fun flight back because I passed my test and I was on my way back to see my honey, who I haven't seen in two days. It was also a special flight back, and a special day because it was the very end of my flight training, and of all of the aviation training we came here to do. I had a chance to reflect on this last couple years for Heather and I that have been very special. The training, relationships, and memories have been wonderful. The Lord has been gracious to us.

My Lovely Bride--of 4 Years!

Heather and I celebrated our four year anniversary on Thursday. We did one of the things we love to do the most, which is took the day to do practically nothing! We stayed at a Hotel which our friends the Jeffrey and Bethany hooked us up with a great deal on, and we did not much of anything! In typical anniversary fashion, I went by there earlier with a jar of roses, and they graciously planted them in the room before we arrived. We watched some cable TV, watched a couple DVD's, ran to Panera for dinner, and slept like logs on that comfy bed! What fun. We also found out Heather's cousin Shawna was in labor with her second baby last night, and this morning found out the little girl was born! Eladie Marie Marshall is 7 lbs 10 ounces, 20 inches. Eladie and her older sister Josie are about a year and a half apart. They're gonna have some fun together growing up! So, in our family, we're "on deck" for having a baby! Due December 13th, and we're still working on getting a name. That's hard work! Thank you for reading our blog!

Quick Update

Ricky passed his CFI test!!! Yeah!!! He is officially a flight instructor now. He did really well on his test and I'm very proud of him. It is a difficult and long test....lasting about 8 hours with a combination of an oral exam and a flight portion. He is now working on the CFII rating (certified flight instructor for teaching instrument pilots).

We just moved into a new apartment yesterday and are finishing cleaning our old one today. It is actually just around the corner in our same apartment complex.

We have more belly pics to put on the blog, just haven't done it yet with all the studying/moving. Hopefully they'll be up soon!

Western Swing

Heather and I are on a long anticipated trip this week. We've been very excited about it. We get to see both my dad and stepmom in St. George, Utah, and my mom and stepdad who are in Carlsbad, California for the week. During this week we will be in both places! Right now we're in Utah, and in Tuesday we head for California So a lot of travel, seeing a lot of beautiful sights and spending a lot of precious time with our family! With Heather entering her third trimester, this will be our last time traveling until we have a little baby in our possession! We will post some of the pictures that we take on this trip in an album below.

A Quiet Morning

This morning I sat on my dad's porch, taking in some of the images below in real life. It's true that pictures don't do it justice. What a great combination. To get to spend precious time with family, and to get to take in God's stunning beauty. My jaw almost drops. I took this picture from my dad's patio just after the sun came up yesterday morning.

The cool but not cold air and light breeze, and the redrock cliffs were the backdrop as I opened up my bible this morning. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not lack anything."

Rainbow

Check out this rainbow we saw the other night! We were driving with Heather's friend Bridget from Kansas City to St. Joseph. We were in town to see family and for Heather's baby shower.

My Cute Wife

This is the most recent "belly pic" of my bride. Isn't she adorable? It's a delight to watch her belly change.

Joe Cool

I heard a knock at the door the other day. When I opened it up, this is what I saw:

That's awesome! My friend Jeffrey with his son Zeke in super cool shades! Zeke played the shades off so well! He knows he's cool!

Friends

Friends are a blessing from the Lord! Heather and I said goodbye to some good friends today. Corey, Megan, and Kaitlin (from the picture above) moved in two stories up from us a year ago. Today, they moved out and moved on. Corey went to my school last year. Like us, they are planning on going to Mission Aviation Fellowship. But Corey is going to be a mechanic, not a pilot. They have been such a blessing to us. They have showed us a living example of how to love your neighbors. And hanging out with their precious daughter Caitlin has made us very excited to have one of our own.

Heather and I have had many talks about how hard it is that it seems like we are always moving away from our friends, or vise versa. We envy our friends who live in one town, and get to stay there indefinitely. I was talking with Corey about this today as we helped them out with their last few bags, and he had a great reminder for me. That we are doing this to bring the news of our loving God to people who have never heard before. That was a good reminder for me. If every society on earth knew about Jesus, then in a heartbeat we would stay with our family and friends in Missouri or Arizona. Jesus said that he is the bread of life, and anybody that comes to him will never go hungry. He gave us, his followers the task of spreading his word around the globe. And that work is far from done. There are still three thousand plus cultural groups in the world where nobody even knows about Jesus. The Lord is working in hearts right now to stir people to go to these people and share with them the best news ever....that God actually loves us, and wants us to be with him. So he came here in his son Jesus and took the penalty that we all deserve for our sinfulness by dying a painful death, so we can go be with him. When he was getting ready for this, he said "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am...."(John 14:1-3)


An amazing sunset we saw yesterday

Heather and I walking out to the light house on the pier at Ludington. It's a 1/2 mile long pier! It was a beautiful day on the shore of Lake Michigan.