Welcome Lucy!

We welcomed a new little niece into our lives this week. Lucy Elizabeth was born on November 28 at 12:02 AM. She is healthy and beautiful. We inspected her ourselves as her first visitors in the hospital! The best part about Lucy is that when she cries, it is more like a squeak.



Her sisters, Anna and Elanor were very curious. Anna was super excited to see Lucy, but Elanor was not quite sure what to do with this new little person. Mike and Emily are also doing well. We visited them just ten hours after Lucy was born, and Emily was cracking jokes and the life of the party as usual!

Thanksgiving

Zane's family visited us this year for Thanksgiving. I had to work Thanksgiving weekend, and the Harts were gracious enough to make their way out west so that we would not have to celebrate Thanksgiving alone. Mahala made the main staples of the meal: the turkey, dressing, gravy, green beans, corn pudding. I made the mashed potatoes and desserts. Zane, as you can see, carved the turkey...and I must say that he is the best turkey-carver I have ever see.



Rodrigo, Keira's boyfriend came too! We had so much fun with them here.



On Friday, we went to Faust Park for a walk. Keira treated us to a ride on the carousel. Mahala showed us her sweet dance moves while riding on the horses.

Visitors!

We had friends in town this past weekend from Friday through Sunday (11/16-18). Russell and Eliza Joy visited us from Kansas City.



Zane and Russell were roommates in college and they were also groomsmen in each others' weddings. It was a really great time for Zane and Russell to hang out and for Eliza Joy and me to get to know each other better. They are so much fun. We played games and laughed all weekend. Russell and Eliza Joy taught us a new card game that has a weird German name that I can't remember, but it is really fun. They also brought Apples to Apples. We had heard about the game, but had never played it. Zane's family is coming this weekend for Thanksgiving, and we loved Apples to Apples so much that we are going to get it to play with his family.




We also went to Historic St. Charles, a small town about twenty minutes west of our house. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and we had a great time taking pictures and playing in the park by the river. We were very sad to see our guests go, but this spring, we plan on visiting them in KC!

Library Hours

Zane and I have two big papers due this week, and we have been in the library all day today working on them. We are definitely not faking the furrowed eye brows (ok, for the picture we did fake it, but when we are actually working on our papers, our faces do look like that).



The papers are for our Proverbs class and our Pastoral and General Epistles class. Working on them has been quite a process. Both of our brains are pretty tired right now. We have gone from moments of great focus to almost falling asleep to rolling over in laughter to relieve stress and then the cycle begins again. Mike, my brother, has been studying with us today too. Between the three of us throughout the day, we polished off the last of our Halloween candy. Plus, the local Chick-fil-A gives free chicken sandwiches out on Mondays to people with their church bulletins - just to add a little grease to our sugar high. Isn't being a student great?

Uncle Zane and Aunt Beth

This past weekend, Zane and I kept our nieces, Anna and Elanor. Mike and Emily, their parents, took a much needed vacation and so Aunt Beth and Uncle Zane were called into duty. We picked them up at 6 AM on Sunday. Little Elanor had a fever so I stayed home with the girls while Zane went to church to help with Sunday school. Zane and I do not have any kid stuff in our house so we had to borrow lots of books, videos, puzzles and games. We set a record for watching Cinderella 3 times within a 24 hour period! That has never been done in the Hart home before. Anna and I also made rice krispie treats while Elanor took a nap. After Zane got home from church, we all went to Faust Park where there is an amazing playground. As soon as Elanor saw the slides, she immediately started running toward them with her arms wide open. Anna had a lot of equipment to show off her amazing flips. And Zane and I learned how tiring it is to watch kids play and make sure they do not kill themselves or some other little kid. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted.

Monday morning was definitely more exciting than usual as we woke up to Elanor screaming and Anna standing naked in the hallway. Thankfully, we were able to double team them, get them clothed and fed. We then took them to the friends who were keeping them next so that we could study for our two exams this week!

venturing into the world of blogging

Zane and I decided that we need a better way to keep in touch with our friends and family. So, we are giving blogging a try! We probably will not be revealing any of our deepest, darkest secrets on this blog. But for those who care, you can keep up on some of the things that are going on in our lives - like I got my first pair of glasses this week and Zane is taking a weekend class with Scotty Smith that he is really enjoying. I hope this form of communication helps us stay connected with those we love!