Happy 1st Birthday Charlie!

Today our little guy turned 1 year old.
It doesn't seem possible that he could be 1 already. The days sure do go by quickly and we have enjoyed our days to the fullest with him.

He is a perfect fit to our family and we love him dearly. Charlie is an easy going little guy that enjoys keeping up with his brother and sister. He hasn't started walking yet, but I am sure he will be soon. He walks around when holding onto things and stands on his own in the middle of the room. I can see him processing the thoughts about walking, he just hasn't managed it yet.
He moves at a quick pace in crawling and covers all the territory he desires. Since being back in the States, he has become a champion going up the stairs.

Our family 1 year ago today

He is loved by all, including the children at The Village.

Charlie is great fun, full of smiles, giggles and keeps us running. We are looking forward to another fun year of watching him grow-up. We love you Charlie! 

Birthday Cake Fun

Charlie has his first celebration on Thanksgiving day

with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles

This was his practice cake for getting messy

Thanks Grandma Susie for the cake!

Today, I made Charlie his 1st Birthday cake 

Charlie dove right for the frosting

you can see that he had both hands in the cake and feeding his face

 We had a fun afternoon watching him eat his cake

THANKFUL FOR THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS!

We are so blessed to be back with our family during this special time of year. Our time back has been filled with so many great events, funny comments from the kids, beautiful memories made with our family and so much more.


This time last year I was very pregnant with our little Charlie boy and we were fixing a Thanksgiving supper with our South African friends. We gathered in our house for a great night of food, laughs and light hearted comments about having the British sitting around our table sharing a Thanksgiving meal with us. We have been blessed that our dear South African friends have embraced some of our American holidays with us. There are many traditions we have given up, created many new traditions with our growing family but have also kept some of those important traditions that we grew up with. Thanksgiving has always been one of those special holidays we have continued to celebrate and have always shared this day of Thankfulness with those that are around us.

But this time, this year, we are here to enjoy our mom's cooking, to sit around the table with our families, to eat a lot together, to enjoy the crazy family days, lots of loud cousins playing together and to embrace our new memories. This year we are Thankful to be celebrating Thanksgiving Day in Iowa.

Lindie making pie with grandma

Indian Hats for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving lunch with my parents and sister's family

Liam playing with a few cousins

The late afternoon was spent at Brian's sister's house and we enjoyed Thanksgiving

Supper with Brian's parents, Amy's family and Stephanie's family

Charlie had an early birthday celebration

Lindie and Jael coloring together

Blessings!

We have been back in the States for 6 weeks now. At times it seems like we've been here a lot longer than 6 weeks because we have already traveled more than 6 thousands miles and have been in 10 States along the way.

Counting our blessings.
1. Safety as we have been traveling many miles and for my parents who graciously have given us their van to use while we are back in the States.

2. For the encouraging church meetings we have already had. It is so heart warming to return to a church and hear that so many people have been praying for us and that people really do read our updates we email out.

3. For our family and friends. We have been blessed by all our friends and family. The wonderful get togethers, conversations and reminiscing over old times.

4. Liam and Lindie have LOVED getting to play with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles-it is such a treat to all of us.

5. We spent almost 2 weeks out East in Ohio and New Jersey area because we had 2 church meetings on consecutive Sundays. Our dear friends in New Jersey graciously blessed us with a week at their home on the Jersey shore. What a wonderful week our family had together. We did nothing but relax for the most part. We were blessed with nice weather allowing us to brave the chilly ocean water and play in the sand.
We also thank the Lord that he guided us to go to New Jersey early in our visit. If we would have been much later the most recent hurricane could have interfered. Now we ask you to keep those along the Jersey shore who are facing great devastation in your prayers. Our dearest friends are praising the Lord as their house was spared from any major damage.

Picking pumpkins at Grandpa's farm

Fun with cousins

Lindie and her cousin Jael

Papa with Charlie-lots of fun for both of them

We stopped in Ohio to visit family on our way to New Jersey. 

Aunt Mary took us on a walk to this water fall. 

Uncle Ed with Lindie and her favorite animal-a donkey

Uncle Ed on the Jersey shore with us at Sea Isle

Thank you Ed and Sue for a wonderful week at the shore.

Donkey Cake for Lindie

I am very behind on keeping things current on our blog for the past few months. We have had a lot of great times and a few things that I must share, even if they are very late.

Lindie turned 3 in August and we had a great time celebrating her day. She started asking me for a donkey cake when Liam had his birthday in May. I thought she would change her mind and I wasn't sure how to make a donkey cake. Well her day came and she still wanted a donkey cake, so I did my best. We don't know how or why she is in love with donkeys but she is and she loved her cake. I also enjoyed making it for her. Making grey cake icing was interesting but it can be done.

We had a small party for her with Nana, Pops and Ma Paddy.
We had a super fun day being with her and giving her extra love.

Pops and Nana gave her 2 gold fish for her birthday

She loves to pretend cook and now she can with lots of play food

Charlie enjoyed her cake also

Happy Birthday Lindie

Its Time to Catch-Up on Life

Life has been in a hectic state recently but I must take a few minutes to bring things up to speed. "Where to start" is the million dollar question. I guess I will start with everyday life.

Life has been good, hectic but moving forward in a positive stance. Our family is doing great and enjoying life. We've had many blessings over these past few months with many new visitors and returning friends from the States, Lindie's birthday, we have made new friends here, Charlie's growing-up quickly, lots of great times with The Village family and now the O'Tool family has rejoined us.

I have learned a lot over these past few months, which have been our busiest months in a long time. God graciously gave us the strength we needed to maintain The Village, work personally with the children and host teams while our co-workers were away. We feel so privileged and blessed that God desires to use us here, even when we don't deserve to be used by him.

I have been learning a lot and have been convicted that I need to recognize and seize the moments the Lord gives to me to help those around me and not to let my daily "To Do list" get in the way. I've been going through a Bible study book with the 3 oldest girls that deals with the Fruits of the Spirit. I have learned so much myself and its been a blessings to learn along side these girls. We enjoy our times together on a Tuesday evening with a cup of tea and studying.

We just finished studying about kindness and goodness. "Kindness is a sincere desire for the happiness of others; goodness is the activity calculated to advance their happiness". What a great reminder, goodness begins at home and in this stage of our life, our home encompasses The Village. To actively love and advance the happiness of those around me daily. {from the book A Young Woman's Walk with God by Elizabeth George}

As a mom of 3 young children plus the 13 living at The Village and employees, it becomes so easy to let my own agenda get into the way of the teachable moments that literally fall into my lap. I'm sure all of my other friends that are moms can relate. Or at least I hope so ;)

These past few months have passed by quickly and it is now our turn to return to The States to enjoy our family and friends. In 4 days we leave South Africa. Wow. We are looking forward to it so much. We hope to see many of you while we are back.

My Half Birthday

I must share that I have the best husband in the entire world. Last week, amongst the craziness of life, he remembered that is was my half-birthday and he surprised me with gifts, flowers, and candles. He had this planned far enough in advance to have something brought over for me from the States with the team that was here. A iMac Magic Mouse. What a guy!

Thankfully we had made brownies for dessert that night and he used it as my cake. To stay in the theme of "half" he put half the amount of candles on one-half of the cake. He's not only wonderful but clever!

To clarify why he surprised me with a half celebration, it is because my birthday is in December along with our anniversary and Christmas. He always feels like I get gypped because of that and we've joked about having half-birthdays and anniversaries but never have done it before.

Thanks Babe-love you so much!

Our Family Christmas!

Our family it still trying to figure out what our 'Christmas traditions' are going to be. Since moving to South Africa each Christmas has been unique. When we moved to South Africa it was just the two of us and forming our own traditions didn't seem to be important to us & the day was filled with many others to celebrate with. Now with our own three children we feel the need to set some family traditions. This year we celebrated our Christmas on Christmas Eve evening & it was wonderful. I believe this will be our tradition to carry on.

We had a Skype Christmas with my parents & they were able to watch the kids open their presents from them. Skype is such a wonderful gift to us, it bridges the gap of not being able to be together in such a wonderful way.

{Skyping with Papa and Nana in Iowa}

After our Skype Christmas, we enjoyed a Christmas supper & opening of presents with Brian's parents that are here with us. We read the Christmas story with the kids and talked about the importance of Christmas. And of course, we enjoyed watching Liam and Lindie open their presents. Charlie is a bit small to enjoy Christmas yet :)

{Daddy reading the Christmas story. Liam & Lindie enjoying the pictures

and answering questions.}

{Grandma and Grandpa gave Lindie a doll baby crib

& it happens to be a perfect fit for Charlie}

Christmas Eve was a busy day. Prior to our family Christmas celebration we celebrated with The Village Kids, but that is going to be another post.

Baby Charlie

On Saturday morning, we welcomed our newest addition to our family. Charlie Levi was born at 9:24AM. His arrival was a bit of a surprise since he was almost 3 weeks early but he was ready to join the family on his schedule.

Charlie has already captured his big brother's love. Liam loves trying to give him toys to play with. Liam is already asking when will Charlie be big so they can play together. Lindie is also fascinated with her little brother and is even willing to share her blanket with him (this is a big deal). We are enjoying being a family of five and Charlie is a perfect addition. We love you so much little guy!

Daddy made Charlie his own website, check it out. http://web.me.com/bniehoff/Charlie_Levi_Niehoff

{Last prego picture before Charlie was born}

{Charlie's first picture right after being delivered}

{Charlie and Daddy}

{All sleepy after his first bath & looking very cute.

We love his fuzzy hair. Thanks Nanna Cain for my cute outfit}

{Daddy and his two boys}

{Mommy & her 3 little bundles of joy}