Photos from India trip on Flickr

Click here for some pics from my India trip

India Link - P.S.

I'm having trouble getting the links to activate in what I write here, so if you don't see it in the previous post, click on the link to the right ("Links").

Link to India

For those of you who may not know, Ben was asked to join a group of three other pastors on a "pastor's vision trip" to India for two weeks with our denominational mission board (Brethren in Christ World Missions). He was really excited about going, learning, and seeing what God is doing in that part of the world. The link is to a blog that he and one of his compadres are writing together as they have access to the Internet. Check it out, comment, and please pray for their safety and soft hearts!

LBN

Mum's Pre-birthday surprise

My birthday celebration begins with a mysterious package from Indiana...what's inside?

This is my bath frog "Freddie" that daddy has made into an alligator which eats my pig. Thanks Mum!

The Church

Check out this powerful presentation of the mission of the church throughout the centuries...

Amazing Grace History

This is a pretty powerful perspective on the roots of the hymn Amazing Grace

Spreading the stinky

A snapshot in the life of a Lancaster pastor...



So I got to drive one of these yesterday. 50 trips in a rig like this to spread cow poopy on a 40 acre Lancaster field. We filled the 6000 gallon tank up in a smallish lagoon filled with over a million gallons of manure. Surprisingly it didn't stink as bad as I thought. Enough to make me satisfied with a desk job though.

Hide & Seek with mama

Featuring an exciting chase scene-


Click here for live video of the action......

The culmination of pursuit

Hot Tea?

Recently the mornings have been a little cooler and I have attempted to return to my habit of drinking herbal tea with breakfast. I say "attempted" because I don't think I have had an entire, HOT cup of tea yet. Life is just different as a mom.

It's 1pm, Samuel has finally decided to take a nap, and I'm drinking this morning's tea... microwaved.

lbn

Non-holiday visit, cont.

Here is a video of Samuel laughing at some of my other cousin's kiddos. Hillarious!

Non-holiday visit to IL

Samuel and I visited my mom, dad, brother, grandparents, and all the crew in IL this past week. It was a total of six days, but even on a trip with no agenda (i.e., holiday visits), the time goes by so quickly. I didn't even get to call high school friends or anything like that. What did we do??


Helped mom and dad pack for their upcoming move (off the hog farm, to the adorable new log cabin they bought - yeah!).






Spent time with Grandma and Grandpa McDaniel,












my cousins' kiddos,







my horse.





































Isn't my cowboy brother a cutie?!










lbn

Today...

... Samuel took a long nap and Ben and I painted primer on every paint-able surface of the downstairs bathroom. Yeah! This past week Ben made major headway by completing the paneling, baseboard and chair rail. One year into the project and we're finally beginning to feel like there's some progress. Pictures will come when it is finished (hopefully before another year passes). It was fun to work together. So many days I try to work on projects like this, but my window of opportunity is small because when Samuel is awake he is into everything and wanting to play (which is great fun!), and when he is asleep there are so many different things I'm trying to do that it's hard to get out the paint and supplies and actually get something done before he wakes up again.

When Sam woke up early this evening, we packed up our dinner and went to the borough park to get out of the house and away from the paint fumes. We found a great bench on a little hill under a tree facing the sunset. It was a picturesque moment. We enjoyed our sandwiches made with potato bread from the Amish store, ham, sweet bologna (in PA you say, "ba-lone-a") and a real vine-ripened tomato from our garden. Samuel made his customary sounds, letting us know that his pureed fajita was delicious (Ben thought it looked so gross he wouldn't taste it, but it really was good!). Good times.

At home, Ben did the dishes, I bathed Sam and put him to bed, and we've been surfing the web. We have two days (one night) set aside for a vacation before the cold weather hits, and we really want to go to Assateague Island, MD to see the wild horses and camp on the beach but just realized that it takes almost 4 hours to get there. Our friends Mike and Kristi are our "Camping Concierge" and they gave us tips on these sites as well as another state park that sounds really nice (closer, but no ocean). We need to make a decision soon...
We also looked at Ben's facebook site. Honestly, it was my first time on facebook! It was really neat to see everyone on his friend list -- people he knew before we met, and other folks that I know but haven't seen in years. I've been making fun of him for having a facebook because it seems like that's the cool thing to do now, but it really is an ingenious way to network.

Now, here I am, left alone on the couch with my carrot sticks and PB while Ben catches the end of a football game. I'm here and he's there because he said it's my turn to blog.

lbn

Guilt-Simplicity-Integration

Parenting has not helped our idealism. Even before Sam, Lindsey had piles of photographs (some from college) awaiting albums and I had a long list of home repair projects in the various stages of completion.

This to say, our blogging frequency has left something to be desired. The solution we propose is to reduce our two mediocre blogs into one average, run-of-the-mill at best blog. This said my "plaid sofa" blog will cease, and Sam, momma and dad will all share the same corner of cyberspace. Hopefully this will result in more pictures of "bird-lips" and a glimpse into the collective life of the Newton home.

B

Here are some shots Sam's first canoe trip to Lancaster County Central Park:

Happy Feet

Sam's smiling applause to Mommy's happy feets while at his great grandpa's house

Babysitting via Skype

Crap...I woke Sam up taking this picture!

We crossed a technological bridge yesterday when we used Skype and the video camera on our Mac to arrange a babysitter for Sam while we went to lunch. Joel kept an eye on Sam at his office in Denver, while Linds and I had lunch here at the hotel in Pittsburgh.

Just because you live with the Amish in Lancaster doesn't mean you are backwards...!

Lindsey in the Firecracker 5 miler

Dad and Sam watched the Mama run!

Hiking PA's finest-the Pinnacle

Linds and I took the day off Friday to do a little hiking. It was Sam's first time to hit the trail too. He's got it made...






A view of the Susquehanna from the edge of a cliff...

June 2

It's been a super busy (but fun) week, and it's late, but I wanted to blog that Samuel cut his first tooth this morning (lower left) and it was so exciting to feel this sharp little protrusion in his "garder snake" mouth (as Ben calls babies with no teeth). The sad thing is that I know he will begin to look very different and much older as these teeth come in...

Ben performed his first wedding this afternoon and did an excellent job! I was so proud of him. He remembered everything he was supposed to say, he made the couple feel special and at ease, and he looked so handsome!

When we got home tonight someone had left two beautiful pots of flowers on our step with a really sweet anonymous note. It was so thoughtful and we don't know who to thank! If you're reading - THANK YOU!

lbn

Story of my life

Guys, this is so typical of my parents! They take tons of pictures of me and then don't put them on the blog. What can I say? That they would rather hang out with me than sit at the computer? Probably, but that's no excuse. (They say they can't do both because I like to swat the screen and the keyboard... I want to touch you when I look at YOUR blogs! How am I ever to learn to type?)

Here's the lowdown.
I'm now just over 6 months old. I had some immunizations today that made me VERY mad! The doctor has been saying that I'm off the charts and above the 99th percentile for my size... well, today she realized that they were comparing me to GIRLS my age, and that's not very fair. SO, compared to boys my age I'm in the 90th percentile, which is a little more realistic.

I can now roll over in all directions and I get really frustrated because I want to crawl! However, I'm enjoying sitting up now (for, like, 30 seconds) and playing with my toys that way. I smile, laugh, babble, and buzz my lips whenever I feel like it.

I just returned from a week long road trip with my Mama. She took me...
-to visit her cousin Tracey in Ohio. I look a lot like her little boy Owen when he was my age!
-to visit my great-grandma Dearbaugh (she liked me alot, even when I cried!)
-to watch uncle Drew graduate from Taylor University (BORING! I made mom take me for walks underneath the bleachers. The party afterwards was much more fun.) I saw Nana, Papa, "Grandma and Grandpa Great" (McDaniel), and they all held me lots and said I was cute. I was sad that Uncle Luke was sick and couldn't come.
-to hang out with Mum, Pops, and Uncle Peter in Huntington. I had fun getting zerberts, laughing at their silly dog Keystone and going on walks.
-to visit my other great-grandma (Shepardson) who's in the mountains of PA right now. She said I'm "so handsome" and fat like Mum was when she was a baby. I like her a lot, too!

I like to sleep in the car, so I don't remember much of the driving, but mom said that I was being obedient to the "promptings of the Holy Spirit" to be so good. I think that's a good thing.

Let's see...
I've also been to Illinois for Uncle Drew and Aunt Danielle's wedding shower, to Boston for a marathon (Uncle Drew was #2400 out of 25,000 runners - wow!), to my grandma Newton's funeral (she liked to call me "Sammy" and said I'm really smart), and probably some other stuff, but I can hardly remember it all.

I've been visited by some special friends including mama's "sister", my Aunt Katie Pena and Daddy's buddy Dr. Mark (I was sick while he was here, but he took good care of me!).

Oh, and I was dedicated to God on Mother's Day. We got to stand up on stage with all my friends from church. It was fun.

Guys, I think that's all I can write for now... Dad's cashed out and mom wants me to go to bed.

Hope this was interesting... I'll somehow communicate to my parents that they need to start writing on here regularly again.

SAM

Marathons and a Wedding

Some of you may know that my brother, Drew, is engaged to be married in June to Danielle Wegener. They are a dynamic couple and we are so excited for them! Danielle has been in the family for a long time, and we're all so excited that she will soon be "official"! Ben and I were able to join them in NY the day they got engaged and it was a wonderful experience. You can read their story here.

A couple weeks ago, Drew ran a marathon in FL and qualified for Boston! He and his friend Jake came in first in their age division and 10th overall... I am so proud. Check out pictures here. We'll hopefully have some pictures the week after Easter when we all head to Massachusetts.

Updates

Sorry we haven't posted pictures from Christmas yet (we have so many!). The last month and a half has flown by. Samuel is growing so much every day. If you stand on a home scale with him he adds up to 16 pounds now! He Is definately chubby, but this week I especially noticed how tall he's getting (and that stretches out his fat a little!). This morning when he was on his belly he tried to roll over for the first time. He only made it to his side, but that's the farthest he's gotten! He enjoyed sitting up with the pillows behind him because he could look around.

Many of you have asked recently about his sleeping habits. He still sleeps in the cradle in our room at night (he often naps upstairs in his crib) but the last two nights I have started responding to him when he wakes up (which is one or two times) by givin him his pacifier and rocking the cradle. He's gone back to sleep without eating! Whoa! This means that we might be on the path to sleeping through the night...which would be really nice.

Sam is going to be with a babysitter for the first time tonight... I completely trust the babysitter (Lori Harnish, the Childrens Director from our church), but it makes me sad/anxious for some reason still. I just hope he takes the bottle and all that.

Tomorrow we are going to go visit Ben's grandparents and his aunt and uncle. His grandma hasn't been in the best health lately. We are going to spend the night up there and then go visit Philadelphia for the first time! We hope to see things like the art museum and Independence Hall. Since it is President's Day I don't know if there will be special events or if everything will be closed down. We'll see.

Saturday Morning

Sam and Mama

A smiling Sam

Pennsylvania Farm Show

No reason really why we took a picture of our kid in an egg cut-out really, but for some strange reason its kinda cute...


Sam at the farm show with our friends Matt and Audrey (dairy farmers, among other things)