Slave Labor and Fun with Papa

Ruth wiping the table for Mama in her apron from Grammy

"No, really, I am having fun! "

Making cookies with Papa...

Ruth and Papa made spelt sugar cookies on Sunday night. She had a lot of fun using her very own cut outs (a heart and a star) on the dough. By the way, spelt flour sugar cookies don't taste any different from white flour sugar cookies...

More of my girls...

Isn't Shalom just the cutest little redhead ever?!?!?

She is a Junior Mechanic at heart!

Josh went to a Snap-On presentation last night, and everyone got a hat. Since Josh doesn't wear hats, he gave it to Ruth...she HAD to wear it when we went to pick Jsoh up today...it was a big hit in the mechanic shop!

God's Creation - BEAUTIFUL

Maybe I am biased...

but I will let you judge for yourselves.

Didn't God do a good job?

Okay, now that that is done, it is time for the news. We Larson's are doing great! Ruth and Shalom are developing and growing. Ruth is starting to gain SO much character! You can openly see in her face when she is trying to pull you chain. She gets a mischievious look in her eye, and you know she is trying to get your goat! I am so thankful for the health God has given our girls!

Josh and I have adjusted well getting back to all things Pennsylvania. I have found myself missing the "warm" cold temps in Alaska while trying to walk around in the wet cold of Pennstlvania! Josh is back working out in the garage. He is still maintenancing the work vehicles, but now he gets to do it in the warmth of a heated garage!

I am learning what submission really means. Josh is a great patient husband, willing to let me learn what I need to when I need to. I am REALLY enjoying getting to be home with Ruth and Shalom. I see major benefits from being around them all the time! Ruth LOVES to help me with the dishes, and cleaning. She has started to try to "help" when we teach Shalom that screaming is not the way to get stuff done!

Does this scare you?

We head home tonight...

Ruth and her cousin Sam playing in the snow Christmas Day.
Ruth, unsure of her step. Not quite comfortable with her new boots yet.

Ruth made her first snow angel. Actually, she laid there, and her Grandpa moved her arms and legs.

Thus ends our trip to the Last Frontier.

We head back to Pennsylvania tonight...while everyone at home sleeps. It was a good trip. It was really nice to see Grandpa and Grandma Larson. Also, meeting Timmy, and seeing Sam and Uncle Aaron and Aunt Rachel again was a treat for all of us.

Love

Josh, Rebekah,

Ruth and Shalom

Christmas with the Eskimos

Ok, so we didn't really spend Christmas with the Eskimos. We actually have been privileged to spend Christmas in Alaska with Josh's whole family! I was able to meet Rachel's husband Todd, and Megaera and Timmy. We were able to re-introduce Ruth to Aunt Rachel, Uncle Aaron and her cousin Sam. Sam tried to teach Shalom how to walk, and believes he taught Ruth to walk backwards!

Ruth and Shalom are doing well up here in the Great White North. Ruth was able to play out in the snow yesterday with her Grandpa (his first day off since Sunday) and her Papa. It took her a bit to like the cold, though. Shalom decided to try out a growth spurt while in Alaska, and due to her tremendous chomping abilities, has everyone convinced that she has teeth coming in! Ruth is also picking up new phrases like "Thank You."

My sweet little baby girl, Shalom, has taken up a new exercise. It seems while we were all asleep, Shalom crept out into the living room, and was practing her new "Marine Crawl." Yes, you heard me, Shalom is scooting across the floor on her belly, elbows and knees. Not only that, Josh is actually ENCOURAGING her to crawl by putting things in front of her to scoot towards!!! With a husband like that who needs enemies!?!?!? (NOTE: For all you worried Mom's out there, Shalom did not actually get out of our room - I was adding that for effect!)

That's about it from The Larson's. Hope your Christmas was a fun one filled with memories of joy with family!

Josh, Rebekah, Ruth and Shalom

Doesn't it bug you?

Doesn't it bug you when people don't update their blogs? I know it bugs me! And I am SO guilty!

So much is happening! Ruth is becoming a talker! The other day, she and I were "talking" and she looked at me and said, "See, Birds." (Bird said like it does when Bambi said it on the Bambi movie.) I looked behind me out the window, and a flock of geese was flying away!

As of this writing, we are beginning a three week vacation in Alaska! Ruth and Shalom did REALLY well flying West! It was hard on Shalom always being held, she REALLY likes her tummy time! She also only falls asleep when laying down, she doesn't like to be held while going to sleep. Ruth would climb under her Papa's seat back to my seat to sit with me. It was kind of cute to see her little face peering at me from the floor!

Anyway, I am hoping to be able to send pictures of Ruth playing in the snow sooner or later!

Larson Update - for those of you without snail mail

Greetings from Pennsylvania! That’s right, I said Pennsylvania – but I will get to that in a minute.

What a super busy year this last year has been! First, we had Ruth on June 15th of 2006, and then sailed to Israel two and a half months later. That was a strange time for the Larson family. At first it was tough, because Josh worked the 12 to 4 watch – which meant he would come home at 4am and go right to bed, and Ruth would wake up two hours later and we would have to leave the room. I would start working (doing the laundry and watching Ruth) at 8am and finish just in time for Josh to go back to work at noon. Basically, we never really saw each other. Upon reaching Israel, we were welcomed with tours of the Holy Land! It was a lot of fun to watch Josh see all that I had seen a few years before when I went to Israel without him. We got to see Jerusalem several times, the Sea of Galilee, the Dead Sea, and we traveled around Ashdod (where we were docked) quite a few times. On the way home, we stopped to float around the island of Malta for Thanksgiving. The seas were super-calm, yet the writer of this letter (me, Rebekah) was feeling quite seasick – or so I thought. When we stopped by Tenerife, in the Canary Islands we found out on December 10^th that Ruth was going to be a big sister! We arrived back in the States on January 2^nd.

We did some traveling after the Israel trip. Ruth got to take her first airplane ride, outside of Mama, to meet her Grandpa and Grandma Larson (and their dog, Kelly). She also met her Uncle Aaron, Aunt Rachel and her cousin Sam. I got to take my first-ever ride on a snow machine (a super-slow one, just for me!) with Josh. Ruth had her first experience in a bathtub, AND a hot tub…we were amazed at how buoyant her diaper became! From Alaska, we then flew to Ohio to meet Big Papa, Grammy, Great-Grama Taylor, Great-Grama Carr and Great-Grampa Carr. We also took a side trip to Pennsylvania and met Uncle Chris, Aunt Allison and her cousin Matthew – and don’t forget, Captain!

After those three weeks of travel and meeting new people, we went back to the “humdrum” of everyday life. Mama started working cleaning the office at Friend Ships everyday for two hours. Papa (Josh) started the fun job of making things with his welder and rebuilding some machinery. He then transferred to the Mechanic Shop.

In June, Ruth turned one. She didn’t even notice! Then, about a month later, Mama went to the hospital and at 1:35 in the morning, on the 17^th of July, after 3 hours of intense work, she delivered Shalom Elkanah. We came home on the afternoon of the 18^th.

While all of this had been taking place, there was something happening behind the scenes. Mama made a friend on a forum that she frequents called Welltellme.com. This friend told her about the ministry that she and her husband worked for called Christian Missionary Technical Services. When Mama told Papa about CMTS, neither really thought anything of it, until a couple days later when God told Papa we would be moving to Pennsylvania, and we would be leaving on the 11^th of August! By the way, all of this took place in six (6) weeks. God was amazing. When Josh and I were talking about moving to PA, someone decided that they would lump all of their support for us into one payment…just when we were wondering how we would rent a vehicle. By the way, no one really knew we were even considering a move. Guess what, you can’t rent a vehicle without a credit card. Guess who happened to have a credit card sitting around, and decided to add us to their account? Mom and Dad Larson! Therefore we were able to rent a vehicle, and Josh packed almost ALL of our stuff into a Trailblazer!!!! Do you know how pathetic it sounds when two missionaries who own nothing keep telling each other they need to downsize?!?!?

So that is the story. Josh, Rebekah, Ruth and Shalom have begun life in Pennsylvania as of August 15^th. At first we lived in a 3^rd floor apartment, but within a month moved to a mobile home (that’s right, we are in a REAL house for the first time as a family!).

Just a quick preview of what CMTS does (I will write more on this later). First, they work on cars for missionaries to use when they come home on furlough. They also have a trade school in Mexico that does roughly the same thing, and they would like to start another school in Belize and one in Liberia too. They go on missions trips twice a year to Mexico to work on the property down there (around Thanksgiving and the week before Easter). CMTS also gives their services to missionaries who wish to send containers overseas, they serve as a place to collect stuff from and bring stuff to, and the staff will pack the container for free. This is what I know so far, since I get to be a STAY-AT-HOME MAMA (yes, that would be God’s answer to a dream of mine!) I don’t get to know the ministry as well as Josh. So I will get him to explain more in the next letter!

Love

Josh, Rebekah, Ruth and Shalom