Eric John Photography

Well, those of you who are in Salem know how much our family loves Eric Anundi - the owner/photographer at Eric John Photography. We first found Eric through our friend Maggie when Marshall had just turned one year old. He has photographed our family several times since then, and we now feel like he and Katy who works with him are family friends!

Those of you who haven't been to our house recently have most likely not seen the pictures he has taken of our family and our kids. But, there are several pictures of us/the kids on his website now. There is a link to his website on our blog page. Or, you can just go to http://www.ericjohn.com. Go to the tab marked "Galleries" and then go to the "Families and Children" gallery. On the very first page of pictures, 3 of the last 4 pictures are of a baby. Those pictures are all of Eliza (even the one where she is screaming laying on Eric's arm!). If you keep scrolling through the pages of pictures in that gallery, you will find some pictures of Marshall. You can't miss his red hair. Eric (the photographer, not our dad!) has also put up my very favorite black and white picture of Marshall, Eric and I when I was 9 months pregnant (that picture is several pages into the gallery, but if you are interested it is there!)

He is a phenomenal photographer and a wonderful person. Oh, and Marshall would want all of you to know that Eric has the best lollipops at his studio too!

Marshall

Well, I didn't just take pictures of Eliza. Lots of pictures of Marshall too. Although, being a 2 year old boy, Marshall was not overly excited about the flowers. However, he has a very Compton-like trait of liking to take things apart and to "fix" things. So, you will see in some of the pictures that he is "fixing" his tricycle. Marshall also loves his tractors - a Christmas present from mom's friend Amy. While we waited for the rain to pass by us, Marshall kept busy with his farm and the tractors - playing with them AND keeping Eliza away from them. These days, she likes all of Marshall's toys and none of her own. Luckily, Marshall is a pretty great big brother and follows up all of his screams of "NO Eliza!!" or "Mom, she has my car (or truck, tractor, guy, Legos, snack, ball, puzzle piece, etc.)" by giving her one of her own toys. He is one very sweet little guy who is always making us laugh!

Eliza

Here are a few (okay, a lot) of pictures of Eliza that I took this afternoon. We were playing inside, waiting for a rainshower to finish up. And, then we headed outside to play. Eric planted tulips for me last year and they came back this year just like they should have. So, I had to get some pictures of Eliza in the tulips. I know - it is a lot of pictures! But isn't she cute? :)

A few more pictures . . .

Playing Together . . .

Marshall and Eliza playing together today . . . too sweet! Oh, and as you can see we still aren't feeding Eliza!

Together For the Gospel

A quick update on Eric . . . Eric had a great winter attending a few Blazer games with his good friend Paul. They attended their last two games this past month and were sad to see the season end! Eric even has Marshall liking the Blazers almost as much as he likes the Ducks now.

Eric also spent five days in Louisville, Kentucky with his friend Justin Merth (take a look at the Merth Family blog from the link on our page or go to www.themerths.com-their three little girls are TOO beautiful!! We met their family when Jocelyn & Meredith were in a class together at Willamette Law, and we all attended Bible Study Fellowship together in Portland.) Eric and Justin attended the Together For the Gospel conference with over 5,000 other men. Check it out at www.t4g.org. They had a fantastic time at the conference and were blessed by messages from some of our favorite pastors from various churches around the country. If you are interested, there are links to the sermons on the website and you can hear the same messages that Eric and Justin enjoyed at the conference. In particular, Eric reccommends the message given by R.C. Sproul entitled "The Curse Motif of the Atonement." The trip was fairly uneventful except for the trip home. Eric and Justin arrived at the Louisville airport, checked their bags, felt the earthquake that hit Chicago on Friday, and headed toward security. Then they found out that their flight was delayed by FIVE hours. So, American paid for their 90 mile taxi ride to Cincinnati, Ohio and put them on a nonstop flight home to Portland. And, all before 6:00am. Phew! What a trip!

Baby Lambs

Last month, Jocelyn, Marshall and Eliza made a trip to Corvallis to see Doug, Kathy and Jeff Collins and visit the Oregon State sheep barn to see baby lambs. We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. Kathy had set out her boys' Brio train set and Marshall had a great time playing with it! It was an incredible train set with trains, a helicopter, boat, school bus . . . there were so many amazing pieces. Even Eliza liked the boat! Marshall wasn't as sure about the sheep. There were hundreds of sheep at the barn - lots of mamas with their new babies. At first, Marshall enjoyed checking them out. But, before too long he had had enough of the smell and was ready to go! He truly did enjoy the experience and his visit with his uncle, aunt and cousin. And, we appreciated the Collins' hospitality welcoming us to their home and taking us on a fun adventure! We can't wait to go back next year!

Easter 2008 . . . a little late

Hi all!! I hope that everyone hasn't given up on our blog. We are sorry that it has been a month since our last post! Since our last post our family has had a full schedule. I'm going to try to catch up our blog with the highlights of the month. And, most importantly, we celebrated Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday. Marshall had a wonderful Sunday School lesson learning that Jesus is Alive! He also enjoyed the Sunday School Easter egg hunt without Mom & Dad there to monitor his chocolate intake!! We spent the afternoon with Eric's parents, brother Brad, and Brad's girlfriend Stephanie. Stephanie's sister, Kelly, also joined us with her husband, Matt, and one-year-old daughter, Riley. It was a great day with a meaningful opportunity to remember God's free gift of salvation through Jesus and to enjoy time with our family.