A Quick Look Back

Since almost a year has gone by since I've posted anything I'm doing a recap of the last eleven months. So here we go!

Back in May Moira was just over a year and a half and beginning to choose her own outfits.

Our volunteer community celebrated the upcoming wedding of a couple who met teaching at the school. Who knew Jerusalem was such a romantic spot?

Nick and I threw an Italian-themed engagement party for the happy couple.

 Who doesn't love Italian food, right?

Amidst hosting and running around making sure things went off well, we even got a chance to enjoy some of it ourselves.

Nick has made a name for himself as the emcee of our parties. He's a natural.

June brought the end of our third year at Jerusalem School and we said "good-bye" to 35 seniors.

June also brought visitors! Our dear friends from New York, Michael and Elizabeth Rigby, came to stay with us.

It was majorly hot. We kept Moira cool with a wet bandana on her head most of the time, which also made her look like a cute little Jewish girl.

After showing them lots of ancient sites, monuments, and churches, we thought they were due for some off-the-beaten-path tourism and sent Michael and Nick on an A-TV ride of the Jerusalem forest. Lest you think Nick peed his pants out of fear, you should know that shortly before this picture was taken he accidentally poured scalding hot Turkish coffee down his chest while telling a story.

I think we consumed two liters each of water when we visited Masada. It's in the middle of the desert.

Every trip to Israel should include a swim in the Dead Sea. Nick tried to convince them to use this as their Christmas card photo, but for some reason they declined.

We said "good-bye" to Jerusalem for the summer and "hello" to Charleston, South Carolina for a week's vacation with my family.

We had some leftover hurricane weather a couple of the days, which made for big waves and endless toddler-splashing fun.

Here we have (from left to right) my brother's girlfriend Hayley, (Little) Moira, my dad Jerry, me, my brother Paul, sister Ellie and mom, (Big) Moira.

Moira learned some new dance moves from my sister Anne-Marie.

And we got in as much beach time as possible with lots of walks.

Oh yes, it was Euro Cup time back then. Some very exciting soccer games going on. This is the exact moment that Moira pressed a button on the remote control at our beach house, just before overtime ended and a shoot-out began. Nick is frantically trying to figure out how to get the TV working again.

Back in Marietta (Little) Moira got her fill of gardening, watering, and green grass for the summer, since we don't have any of that in Jerusalem. The landscape is brown and dry from April to November.

From there we headed to Lakeland, Florida for the wedding of our friends from Jerusalem. Sadly, no pictures. Nick was performing the wedding, and I was chasing Moira around while pregnant and wearing high heels. 

Our last stop of the summer was Colorado for Nick's family's get-together. There we met one-month-old Jensen, our new nephew, and Moira's first cousin. She eventually warmed up to the idea of having another baby around.

Denver was lovely. There was more gardening with Grandma.

Exploring in the backyard and force-feeding berries to the cat.

And plenty of high-impact sports once all Nick's siblings got back in town. Lots of volleyball...

...full-contact baseball...

...and soccer games.

Some of us opted out, though. 

One morning we took the little ones up to Tiny Town in the foothills. If this picture were in a newspaper I like to think the headline would be "Huge toddler demolishes town looking for candy."

Before we knew it, it was August, and we were back to business (and play) as usual in Jerusalem.

Guess we hadn't gotten our beach fix yet, because we squeezed a trip to the Mediterranean coast one day while the weather was still nice.

In September Moira turned two years old surrounded by our neighbors and their kids Zoe, Jessi, Grace, and Sam. She didn't really know what a birthday was at first, but by the end of the day she realized there was something special going on and that it involved her.

Since the birthday thing was still pretty new to her, everyone helped blow out the candles.

Learning how to eat cake with the best of them.

On October 5th we met our long-expected new little one, Latham Rigby Conner, born at 9:20 AM in Bethlehem. He weighed in at 3.1 kg (6 lb 12 oz). Latham is Nick's middle name, and Rigby is in honor of our great friends.

We brought him home the next day to an excited big sister.

She's been examining him ever since.

Latham was pretty serious and worried-looking back then. This is the face he'll be sporting in his passport for the next five years. 

Even with a new little brother on the scene, life was pretty normal for Moira. "Oh, this old thing? I always wear something cute when I'm putting dishes away."

At the end of the month Nick's parents Don and JoAnn came to stay for two weeks.

It was wonderful having their company and help while Latham was still a newborn.

We got out some days to show them around Israel.

Took a few walks.

And also spent a lot of time just hanging out at home, holding the baby, reading to Moira, and making mint lemonade since there is no shortage of mint or lemons in this country. We loved having them here.

I was sleepwalking for most of November and Nick was busy teaching 9th graders about Jesus' baptism and early ministry.

Latham started smiling that month, too. Loved it!

Christmastime came, and we stayed in Jerusalem for the first time. Many friends were also in town during the holidays, so we had plenty of Christmas gatherings to attend. Moira performed as a sheep in her first Christmas pageant. Of course, I was the only mom not savvy enough to realize that Christmas pageants are prime times to get photos of your children in adorable costumes. Next year, though!

Latham hit two months and decided he no longer wanted to be dressed in pajamas all day.

Let's see, where is my New Year's Eve picture? Oh yeah, that would be a boring one. We were all asleep by ten. But we were up early enough to see the festivities on the East Coast, so that kind of counts.

A sweet friend gave Moira nail polish as a Christmas gift, so we painted her nails for the first time in January on one of the many cold, winter, just-want-to-stay-inside afternoons. Now she's hooked.

Latham hit four months in February.

Just for fun, here's a flashback to January 2011 when Moira was about the same age.

Last month Latham extended his wake time to get in on the pre-bedtime story action. He doesn't add much to our discussion yet. But it would be difficult to get a word in anyway with his sister constantly asking "What's that?" and pointing at every item on the page.

And with that, we're up to date! If you made it this far (that was 50 pictures!), you must really love us. So what's one more? Here's the very latest, a video I took this morning of Moira cackling every time she manages to touch Latham's tongue. It's quite the villainous laugh. Watch out, Latham!