we LOVE dumping out toys!

my little rockstar

"hey little pookie wont ya dance with me"?

(these books are so catchy!)

benjamin and reuben

you can hardly tell which one is which! :)

our new friend Adam

I LOVE this time of year. This morning I woke up to snow, and because I don't really drive that far (and most days, not at all) than I don't have to hate this whether like most of the population. Well there isn't that much "new" in the Lewicki household. But here's a little summary of Early winter:

Benjamin is making me "one of 'those' moms." I officially think he is the cutest and most well behaved 7 month old. He probably isn't either, but he's done a very good job tricking me. I'm o.k. with that. He is so observant, and when there isn't something new or interesting to look at, he is very vocal. He has started playing on his tummy more (mostly because Joel is trying to get him to crawl,) but really loves just sitting with a bucket of toys. (He could sit for hours infront of the t.v., but I try to limit that) He started bitting pretty bad while nursing, so I pump and we suppliment with formula. He is very unpredictable about when he likes baby food, and carrots seem to be his food of choice. I sneak in banana's sometimes, and judging by his grunting and facial expressions today, we had a little too much banana yesterday. :) One slightly "un-fun" fact is that Benjamin randomly decided to go from 4 naps to 2 naps this last week. He also moved his own bedtime from 8ish to 7:30. My favorite thing about Benjamin right now is his love for books. He doesn't cry a lot, only if he is hungry, if he can't find mom, for about 1-5 minutes when i lay him down, and when I close the book we are reading. It makes him so sad to be done reading, and he just looks at the pile of books and whimpers (sometimes wails). I almost have 5 of the Dr. Sues books, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and How do Dinasaurs play with their Friends all memorized. :)

God continues to be faithful in ministry and is continuing to ask us to trust him this month. We are 67% funded for the year, meaning that this month we start going negative in our account. We feel very confident in God's calling to ISU and know that he will provide all that we need, and continue to pray that he would work through us to reach the students around us. The story of Gideon came to mind yesterday and how he kept lessening their numbers so that God would be praised in the victory. We want to be very dilligent in asking for prayer, sharing the ministry needs, and actively accomplishing the challenge He has laid before us. But I also am praying for people that we won't even contact, and others that we might not even know to become financial partners, so that neither Joel and I feel any pride in getting to 100%, and that He is soley praised in the process. I want to have a Gideon-ish story that gives Glory to Him. I would love your prayers also!

The next few weeks will be pretty insane as we meet with friends, share the ministry needs, have several Christmas parties, travel to see family, and ultimately celebrate His birth. We are praying that in the hub-ub of it all, we keep focused on Christ, who is the reason we celebrate Christmas, the author of love and family, and the One who has called us to ministry and will provide the funds. We are thinking of you all too, as you try to keep warm and stay safe in travel! Happy December!