Lots of Babies

Lila is held by the wonderful midwife, Frances, who delivered her

This wasn't the best shot from the day, but it all happened so quickly and this was my best attempt :).
I enjoyed a potluck lunch last week with the ladies from our birth class and Francis, the midwife who taught the class.  The babies are in age order. The six in the middle were born the last 3 days of August, so most of us were in the hospital together almost 3 months ago!

Cuteness abounds

Attatched to Gloria

Fathers and daughters.  Lila and her cousin Ada are 3.5 months apart in age.

Dad straps Ada into a Costco cart next to her brother Atticus, which is a first for her!

Jewel is a favorite friend from church!  

I'm working on the Christmas card!

Senior Regional Orchestra

Jared had two students that auditioned and made it into senior regional orchestra.  The two day event took place at a high school in Lynchburg, Virginia.  Lila and I were able to go along.  We took her instruments along as well to entertain her for her longest car ride (2 hours).  She enjoyed listening to and tracking her red egg shaker, and could hold a jingle bell.  During the rehearsals, I took her to the downtown farmers market, and to the local mall to do some Christmas shopping, and we took a walk along the old main street.  Jared took her onto the stage and walked her through, the shiny instruments really grabbed her attention!  It was a great weekend!  

Last night we went to hear Caleb play in a concert with the Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir and the Youth Symphony at EMU.  A woman asked if it was Lila's first concert.  Nope :).  I did explain that her father is a music teacher.

1. Andrew Peterson and Bebo Norman, Covenant Presbyterian

2. Homecoming concert at EMHS

3. Touring Choir at EMHS

4. Festival of Praise at EMHS

5. Senior Regional Orchestra, Lynchburg

6. Good Company, Park View Mennonite Church

7. Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir & Youth Symphony, EMU

Caleb (cellist), Jared, Lillian (violinist), and Lila 

It was her first night away from home.  She did great!  She sleeps in her rock and play at home, too so this makes a night away pretty simple at this point :).

Fall 2013

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Lila's first soccer game!  Several of Jared's students were playing and they won!  

Leaves blown against our fence

Early morning nap 

Lila is dressed up for her first Thanksgiving meal with the Rhodes family.
She fit into Jared's moccasins that he wore as a baby.  

Talking to Uncle Martin

Costume Party

Lila and I have been attending an Ask-a-Nurse class through Rockingham Memorial Hospital that my aunt Reba (my Mom's sister) teaches every Wednesday.  Since this particular Wednesday was the day before Halloween, we had a little party and dressed our babies up!

A garden gnome.  Thanks Abigail for helping me design/make the apron and booties!

She wore the outfit on Halloween too for Dad's birthday breakfast

And I took her to school for Jared to show her off a bit.

Concerts

Jared had a very busy month.  His first concerts directing the choirs happened over homecoming weekend, Oct. 19-20.  He told the students that they can sing as well as she is cute!

strings playing Happy Together

Junior Choir

Senior Choir

Last year's Touring Choir

Festival of Praise mass choir

Lila's Dedication

We have been very blessed this past year to find a church home.  The people at Trissels Mennonite Church have been incredibly warm, generous, and we appreciate their dedication to following Christ and are eager to learn more about discipleship in fellowship with them.  They rejoiced with us when we announced that we were expecting, they showered us with gifts, provided meals and visited after Lila was born, and on October 13th, they agreed to help us raise her to know Christ and gave her a Bible.  We love our church family.  We feel like she joined the church before we did :).  We officially joined Trissels two weeks later, Oct. 27th.

Lila was dedicated along with Lincoln Blosser.  Jesse, Ellen, Tyler and Lincoln have become close friends to us over the past couple of years as we enjoyed fellowship with them in a house church before coming to Trissels.

Lila "speaks" into Pastor Harold's lapel mic before he carries her down the aisle.

For more pictures of the dedication, feel free to visit our church website: http://www.trisselsmc.org/#/multi-media/special-service-photos

Lila's Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother (yes, Dad checked the genealogy!) Margaret Huber was one of the first to be buried in the Trissels Cemetery in 1798.

Guests

 We enjoyed hosting Jason and Lydia Yoder for a few days.  They were in town for the wedding of Jason's sister Evie.  We joined them for a pre-wedding meal, and they got to join us for Lila's dedication at church. Below we are eating leftover wedding cupcakes and homemade ice cream.

Nathan, Allie and Heidi Landes stopped in to visit Saturday afternoon and evening and joined us for the traditional homemade pizza.  It was great to catch up with them and we look forward to hearing about the arrival of their next little one any day!

Meeting the Masts

 Silas exclaimed after holding her, "That was awesome!"  

Lila is the youngest of 15 cousins on the Rhodes side, and of 4 cousins on the Stutzman side.  

Uncle Tom, Aunt Candice and cousins Claire, Eliza and Silas came over for a visit over the weekend of the VA Mennonite Relief Sale.  We did go to the sale too and enjoyed doughnuts, BBQ chicken, strawberry pie, meeting lots of folks, and watching the beautiful quilts being auctioned off.