Kathryn is 2! ...and more in October
Our dear little Kathryn Bee turned 2 on Saturday! We were still quarantined from our bad flu, so it's a good thing we had already celebrated one week early when Uncle Amos and Aunt Amy were here!
Kathryn's babysitter friend, Yaninna, gave her some very cute shoes.

We enjoyed our children even though our small apartment has seemed to shrink this week! We were exposed to the hated Swine Flu, and although we weren't tested, we are pretty sure that's what we had. It sure was miserable!
Dear Kathryn learned to take her baby's tempurature too, after watching mommy and daddy all week!
Daniel learned something new too--today I snapped this picture of the very first time he got himself up from a crawling position to sitting! And he practiced his new act all day until it was perfected!
Kathryn sits next to our newly-sitting Baby Boy Beeman!
A very active little boy, he plays with everything he finds!

Kathryn's Second Birthday

On Oct. 18 we celebrated our dear little Kathryn's birthday at McDonalds with her Uncle and Aunt from Wisconsin, and some of our little friends.
William and his family came for the party, which Kathryn was delighted with!

Alina helped Jedidiah get the cake ready--the cake must have been Kathryn's favorite part, as she keeps talking about it to this day!


Kathryn had some help blowing out the candles!

And eating her cake!


Three babies were present--all about the same age: Cousin Ella, Daniel, and Elsa.
Elsa!
Ella!
And Daniel!

Then our little girl opened her birthday gifts. She was very delighted, of course!





There was fun for everyone with whistles, hats, and prizes!
Happy, happy second year, Kathryn! May your little heart continue to be so tender toward Jesus as you learn and grow. We love you!


Our Long-Awaited Visit with Amy and Amos (and Ella!)
Baby Ella (one day older than Daniel) has grown so much since we saw her last!

We spent a day looking at the sights in Philly. Here is the famed Liberty Bell!



(below) This farmer boy from Wisconsin was impressed with... the garbage compactors (among other things)!

Our tour of Independence Hall was probably the most fun for us history buffs!

The little ones enjoyed being out and about!



And here are the two cousins, playing on our floor!



We also saw the Bird-In-Hand Farmer's market. It was fun to meet up with the Beilers while there! So many things to see!







Fall Days at Home
Here is Kathryn giving Jargol a chastisement!

And hugging her much!

Daddy and Kathryn have so much fun together during their special time every night while mommy exersizes.





Two little ones!

Kathryn helps mommy in the kitchen.




















Some more pictures from Grandpa's visit:

Fall Days
Here is Kathryn and here daddy spending time together!
Our little Daniel is getting so nice and big! He and Kathryn share the same size diapers!
His favorite thing is to play with his toes when he doesn't have socks on!

Kathryn loves to look at books. Here they are in matching suits, resting in her "big girl's bed."

Daniel is pushing up on all fours already! He is ready to go FAST!
He also tries to sit up from on all fours.
And he does his "airplane dance," as daddy calls it! where he sits on his belly and waves his arms and legs like airplane wings!
Grandpa came for a visit! What a fun time with Kathryn, Daniel, and mommy and daddy too! Here is the victory picture for Grandpa: Kathryn finally warmed up to him enough to let him put her on his back for a ride!

And do flips with Grandpa!


Here Kathryn and Grandpa are "charging" the Glow Worms under the lamp by the desks!
Then they go into the bathroom (where it's dark) to watch them shine!

Everyone had a fine time!

Here is Kathryn with her baby Jargol Tseseck. She asked mommy to take this picture of her! Then she always says "I want to see! I want to see!" and looks at it on the camera.
One of kathryn's favorite toys is this little shopping cart. For some reason she thinks it's a stroller for Jargol--and for Daniel! He really fills it up!
Kathryn and Daniel love to play together. Kathryn says "Can I hold him?" and I put him on her lap. Inevitably it becomes a great game!



The two munchkins are almost the same size!
Here are Kathryn and daddy at a car show downtown.
At "uncle Bob"s church next to the show there was a festival for kids. They had a snake show, where Kathryn met a SKINK!
Mommy thought of her little siblings and how we used to play Crypto! Here is how a real skink looks!
Kathryn tries cotton candy for the first time!
See you all later!

September is here, and here we are in Pennsylvania!

We've had many hints asking for some pics of our lovely children and of what we've been doing the past few weeks. Here are many, starting with today and going backward. Enjoy!

Our two little "codlings" as I call them, are doing quite well, growing and learning so much every day! They are also becoming good buddies, which is a joy to our hearts.

The castle--where we take our meals a few nights a week. We didn't get a room in the castle for our time here, but that's OK! Our apartment is cozy, but nice anyway.
And here is our apartment!

Kathryn welcomes you at our back door.

And plays puzzles with our friend inside! Puzzles are a really big hit lately with her.

And here are some cute pics from the retreat we took earlier this week. The two codlings had taken a bath and were both as cuddly as ever!

Daddy thinks so too! They love to laugh with him.

Charis (above)and Kevin (below) with the most extraordinary things from our a-z scavenger hunt outside. The girl's team found a sQuished frog (we were allowed to have "q" in the medial position), and the guy's team had an "Underleaf cacoon" for their "u" object.

Here is Kathryn, crying "I'm stuck!" between the beds. She is very enthralled with that word. One day recently she brought me her crackers, stuck at the bottom of a package, saying "mamma, the cookies are stuck!"

(above) Jedidiah takes to the ropes! (below) Daniel and Kathryn had lovely times with our friends there.

(above) I told Kathryn to hold Daniel for me so I could get her a drink! Here she's doing her best and they are both enjoying it!
They enjoy each other very much, always laughing together and playing. Kathryn still tries to share her treats with Daniel, though mommy tries to explain that he's too little to have them!
Hurray for holidays! Although we'd enjoyed our first week here for our training, we were all exhausted and are glad for a long weekend (Labor Day) to rest and get stuff done. Jedidiah got to rest most of the day and I rested too-with the two little ones that I enjoy SO much when we're not always on the go!
(above) Kathryn with our loot from "Pershing," a room in the basement of the castle where we trade clothes and books and things. Kathryn was delighted with the little water bottle and purse that she decided were her own.
Kathryn with one of our special friends from here, and all of us at a picnic with new friends.

(below) Kathryn with our van as it was for our long trip!

Last weekend we visited some of Jedidiah's friends from his Mongolia days. Here they are in Byron's store.

And with his family (below)

With Ruth and Ann, whom we got to know last year. Byron's younger brother, David, found a way to win Kathryn's attention: he read books to her.

Mr. and Mrs. Yoder loved playing with our little smiler, Daniel.

These pictures are for Grandpa--the Fawn Princess is eating elderberries, his favorite!

(below) Daniel at the campfire with Aunt Ruth.

Jedidiah and Byron took a hike together while we were there.

(above) A favorite recent picture of my very handsome love! I think this is "Bobcat Springs," the destination of their hike.

The following are pictures from Pennsylvania's highest point, which they visited on their hike.

Daniel loved crawling on their floor, playing with his little toys. These pictures caught some of his best cuteness!

Our Stop in West Virginia

Another of Jedidiah's Mongolia buddies and his family live in West Virginia. We saw him and his family on our way to Pennsylvania for a day and a half.

(above) We had to take one pic with the very same pose as the classic "Mongolia" picture of Donald and Jedidiah when they were dressed in Mongolian garb. Here they are dressed in West Virginian garb, very appropriately.

(below) A hike through the beautiful mountains near their home was fun.

Here we are with the whole family!

(below) We also enjoyed a look at their very amazing garden. The tomato plants were neat but their fruit was really amazing! They were huge!

(Above) A classic Staddon family goodbye!

(Below) Before starting out for West Virginia, we saw the dear Waltman/Weston family in Tennessee.

Sweet Benjamin loved our Daniel, and Daniel loved him too (most of the time! Too bad he was in a very bad mood when we finally got the camera out to take their picture!)

We had a lovely time visiting. Mrs. Waltman (above) and Kayleen (below) loved holding Daniel, as did everyone.

(above) Kathryn had lots of fun with Bryce, who taught her to paint and talked to her during the visit.

(above) Jedidiah was assisted by none other than Benjamin when he had to change our oil in the rain!

Kathryn thought of "Pop-Pop" when we took her out to swing on their swing outside.

Rachel thought of her childhood when she took a turn milking the family's goat! Thanks to Joleen for holding down the legs!

Kathryn rode their horse when she was too afraid to pet the goats.

...But she was happy to feed the chickens!

So much fun!

We came to the Waltmans from the Creation Museum. What a fun stop that was!

Here we visited Mr. Camel, while daddy spent some time at the book shop.
(below) We also said hi to the Zorse (a breed of a horse and a zebra--kind of pretty!)

Kathryn had fun feeding the fish in the beautiful ponds and botanical gardens outside.

We all had fun looking at the displays inside! The place really drew you to the Lord, as it gave compelling evidence in creation of an Intelligent Designer!

There were also some interesting scenes from Scripture depicted with life-like models. The videos and plaques displayed were very informative and interesting, as they showed how the Creationist theory is really very believable. We agree!

(above) Jedidiah pauses to view a model of Noah's Ark.

(below) the six days of creation each had their own room. This one was for the sixth day--all kinds of living things. The videos were really amazing.

Just before visiting the Creation Museum, we drove up to Indianapolis to see a dear Mongolian friend, Sodnom. Her daughter and son in law (and their beautiful children) and Carissa were also there. What a fun reunion!

The reunion was made even sweeter when we all decided to drive over to Ohio and see Jim and Esther Entner!

Before going up to Indy, we spent a very fun and more restful week with our dear friends, the Smiths, in Tennessee. Here is one of the only pictures we took there, of us on the date they gave us one night while they watched our little kids!

I'll point you to their own blog for many really nice pictures of our visit there (including some outstanding portraits they took of Kathryn and Daniel): http://11smiths.blogspot.com/2009/08/kathryn-and-daniel.html

Where in the World Have We Been?
Here we are in St. Louis! Sorry you haven't seen much of us since the end of May: we've had a busy busy June and July!
More memories are to come from earlier this month and last, but enjoy these more recent photos now!

Kathryn and Liam, a new friend, outside the St. Louis Arch

Kathryn with our dear friend Qudsia

Kathryn enjoys a watermelon with a new friend, Stephen.

Daniel and Hilla.

Kathryn, Daniel, and mommy at the Berkemeyers.

Our whole clan at the Kienbusch's.

The Kienbuschs took us to the Arch. (below) Daddy took Kathryn to the top!

Saying goodbye to Amy and Amos and family (and Caleb)

Kathryn and Sam love each other very much! Such cute cousins!

Playing with little cats (above), and Sam with Daniel (below).

(above) All the grandchildren together!

Ella and Daniel together. They are one day apart and both are SO cute!

(above) Noah smiling (he begged for us to take this pic)

A Visit from Marmee

We are SO happy to have Marmee here to visit!

Marmee meets Daniel for the first time!

We celebrated with some huge strawberries.

Daniel sometimes smiles in his sleep. Kathryn is so happy with him.

Daniel sleeps with his hands folded sometimes.

We are visiting Amos and Amy's family about three hours from us. Marmee was "adopted" by Annie and Noah as their Grandmerry. It is a very sweet visit.

Kathryn is REALLY enjoying herself playing with her cousins.

Kathryn and Sam are really enjoying getting to know each other!They played with the new kittens.

(above) Ella and Daniel meet. They are only one day apart!

Kathryn and Sam sat by each other at the restaurant tonight. We had such a fine time at the Pizza Ranch!

Our matching vans made quite a line-up, and at the end, was Caleb and his motorcycle!

Goodnight, all!

Goings on at the Beemans
Not very much is going on at the Beemans-it seems rather than life has slowed down as we learn to live with two busy babies! They are both very sweet and good, which redeems them many times for being rather like all children are (bossy and time-consuming!).
Daniel is doing well--eating, sleeping, and filling his diaper. Oh, and watching his big sister, Kathryn! She loves him SO much!

Kathryn and Daddy had fun raking the lawn so we could plant a few spring flowers. She is always up to doing something outside! Already she has her mommy taking walks--almost every day! We just put her in the stroller and Daniel in the sling!

Kathryn and her sweet daddy enjoy doing everything together!

And here she is, ready for church the next morning, inspecting our job with the flowers!

Daniel is Finally Here!
Our dear baby finally came on April 27th, at 1.02pm. He was born at home with our experienced midwife (the same one Rachel's mom used for most of her births). We were so thankful for a healthy, safe delivery and for such a beautiful baby!
Here are some pics of Daniel just minutes after he was born. We only have these few because his Aunts were the photographers, and we haven't had time yet to get the many good pics they have. Look for another post with more pics.

Here the midwives were getting him ready to be held by everyone.

(below) a proud daddy with his namesake, Jedidiah Daniel Beeman II. We will call him Daniel so as not to confuse things!

(below) Kathryn looked very surprised at first sight of Daniel, then she fell in love with him. He was fascinated with her too, even as new as he was. He turned his head to look at her!

The following pics are from the days following Daniel's birth. Kathryn begs to hold him at every opportunity!

Big sister does her job well (getting hats, socks, and lots of other clothes for Daniel when he needs them). She also tastes his pacifiers for him, and insists on sharing her food and sippy cup.

(below) We had lots of help from Rachel's family! And, they all but one came to see Daniel on his birthday.

(below) Daniel and his proud mommy!

(below) Aunt Naomi who came to help during his birth as well as days following.

(below) Kathryn is very interested in telling Grandmerry about baby Daniel with Skype!

(below) Mommy's old little-girl rocking chair refinished by aunt Naomi during Daniel's birth! What a fun place to hold Daniel!

(below) Daniel gets lots of kisses from big sister Kathryn!

(below) Kathryn's asking us to be quiet so Daniel can sleep!

Grandpa came to see Daniel (and his sister) on the day after he was born.

We are all so blessed and thankful for Daniel!