CrossWalk Baby Shower

Our church, CrossWalk Family of God, had a baby shower for us at the Caldwell's house. Lisa Caldwell and several other hostesses ( Hannah Siegel, Kerri Dutile, and Kim Williams ) put together this grand event.

We are very thankful for all of their hard work and for all the people that attended the shower. Andrea and I are extremely grateful for CrossWalk and the ties that we have made in our Church family.

For more pictures visit my CrossWalk Baby Shower Yahoo! Photo Album

Andrea's Family Visits

Andrea's parents and oldest sister, Alissa ( along with her two boys ), drove to Little Rock this past weekend for our Baby Shower.

While they were in town we got a lot accomplished. We had a Krispe Kreme outing ( see above picture ), we made and installed new curtains in Abby's room ( this was a family project ), Freda trimmed the trees and bushes, and the boys and I played in the backyard sprinker.

It is always a joy to have the Hall family over at our house. They are sweet, very helpful, and fun to be around. I am thankful to have such great In-Laws.

For more pictures visit my Andrea's Family Visits Yahoo! Photo Album

Kidsource Baby Shower

Andrea's work, Kidsource, Inc., gave her a baby shower during their monthly business meeting.

I want to thank everybody who made the shower possible. We were overloaded with gifts. Some things were made and some things were bought. All of the gifts were very wonderful and thoughtful.

For more pictures visit my Kidsource Baby Shower Yahoo! Photo Album

Nieces' Birthdays

My sister and her two daughters flew into Little Rock last Tuesday, July 26th, and will be in Arkansas until August 2nd.

Andrea and I went to my parent's house in Searcy, AR to celebrate my nieces' ( MacKenzie and Kylie ) birthdays. MacKenzie turned 4 years old and Kylie turned 2 years old. They are soo adorable and well behaved.

We had a great time celebrating with our family. It has been a while since I've seen Cyndi and my nieces. The girls have grown soo much! Cyndi and Casey are expecting another baby ( a boy this time ) in November. We are very excited for them.

For more pictures visit my Nieces' Birthdays Yahoo! Photo Album

Tel-Beth Shemesh

My Dad is currently serving as field director on an archeology excavation in Tel-Beth Shemesh

In my Dad's words... "One aspect of our project is the uncovering of the Middle Bronze Age gate ( ca. time of Abraham ) which had been excavated in 1912. It is fascinating to see it uncovered again. We are otherwise continuing our study of the transition from the Canaanite occupation to that of the Israelites."

My Dad has been going to Israel on excavations most every summer since he started teaching Bible and Archeology at Harding University. He is the closet person to Indian Jones that I know. His work office is full of an assortment of artifacts, books, posters, and reproductions.

In addition to teaching at Harding University, he often presents archaeological seminars at Churches across the United States. Seeing how archaeological discoveries reveal locations and/or events from the Bible encourages many believers and strengthens their faith. I am very proud of my Dad. He is a very hard worker and his life has touched many lives... especially mine.

4th of July Cookout

This 4th of July the CrossWalk YAMs ( Young Adult Marrieds ) met at the Siegel's house in Sherword, AR for a Cookout. We threw raw meat on the grill and cooked up a great feast. After some fellowship several of us played a couple rousing games of Catch Phrase ( on-line demo ).

You would think that we would have stayed around to watch the local fireworks, but I think we are all getting old or something. Everyone dispersed right before the fireworks began. Andrea and I got to catch several different official and non-official firework shows on our 30 minute drive home from Sherwood to Mabelvale.

For more pictures visit my 4th of July Yahoo! Photo Album

Baby Registry

Several of you have wanted to be notified when we have items available in a baby registry.

We just finished registering at Target and Babies R Us.

If you want to get something from the above registeries, then you can either order online ( by clicking one or both of the above links ) or you can go to a Target or Toys R Us ( Babies R Us ) store and get a print out of the registry items.

Lisa Caldwell, a member from CrossWalk Church of Christ, is hosting our Baby Shower on July 31st at 1:30 PM.

Phasing Out Change Notes

Instead of having Change Notes updating individuals of new content on my blog, I would rather send out the updates personally.

I currently have 12 ( originally 16 ) people signed up to get notified when my blog changes. If you are one of those 12 people, please follow the next several steps.

Enter your e-mail address and click the "Send" button. Change Notes will send you your password to sign into their website.

E-mail address:  

Once you get an e-mail from Change Notes...

1. Click the link in the message to log into Change Notes


2. Check my blog address ( "http://elijahmanor.blogspot.com" ) from the "Watch List"


3. Click the "Remove checked pages" button


4. E-mail me if you'd like me to notify you when my blog is updated... elijah.manor@sbcglobal.net

If you have never been notified of updates to my blog and you would like to be notified, then the instructions are much simpler... just e-mail me @ elijah.manor@sbcglobal.net

The Institutes

Last week Andrea and I attended a conference at The Institutes For The Achievement Of Human Potential located in Wyndmoor, PA.

The conference basically explained that kids have a great potential and helped to explain ways to assist them to reach their potential. A main focus was to provide the maximum amount of opportunities for stimuli, to learn, and to develop. During the conference we learned ways to become more intentional as we raise Abby, instead of being accidental.

Andrea and I are very excited about using some of the techniques we learned at "The Institutes". Not only will it be a great learning experience, but it will be very fun as well!

HFS: Pages 3 and 4

These are the third and fourth pages of the colossal Hall Family Scrapbook ( HFS ) project.

These scrapbook pages show pictures and journaling of Moni Hall's and Byron Farrar's parents, Dewitt Granville "Bob" Farrar and Inez Corinne Pierce Farrar, and their children.

Click a scrapbook page ( Page 3 or Page 4 ) on the image above to read the journaling on that page.

Abby's Room Renovation

On Memorial Day my Father came to help me renovate Abby's new baby room. We painted the room a pastel pink and installed wainscoting and trim. We rented a nail gun from Home Depot which made process much more pleasant.

For more pictures visit my Abby's Room Yahoo! Photo Album

CrossWalk YAM's Cookout

We had our first CrossWalk YAM's ( Young Adult Married's ) cookout tonight after helping the Hughes move into their new house this morning.

Despite the fact that it is Memorial Day weekend and we had several couples out of town... we still had a good turnout. The Chapin, Hayes, Siegel, Manor, and Harris families ( and children ) all came together for a fun time of fellowship and food!

For more pictures visit my YAM's Cookout Yahoo! Photo Album

Paul and Megan's Wedding

Our Cousin, Megan McDonald, was married to Paul this weekend at the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, TN. This happens to be the same Church where Andrea and I got married 5 years ago on May 29th, 2000.

It was a good weekend of family, food, and fun.

There was a lot of hard work put into making this wedding go smoothly. Let me tell you... all the hard work paid off. The event was beautiful and memorable.

For more pictures visit my Megan's Wedding Yahoo! Photo Album

Hall Family Scrapbook: Page 2

This is the second page of the colossal Hall Family scrapbook project.

This scrapbook page depicts pictures of Moni Hall's and Byron Farrar's Maternal Grandparents and Uncles.

Click on the above picture to read the journaling on the scrapbook page.

This page went much faster than the first and Andrea has made considerable progress with pages three and four. Her special scrapbook corner is all in order and she intends to do as much as she can before Abby comes.

Mother's Day Weekend

Andrea and I each went to visit our parents for Mother's Day weekend.

I went to Searcy, AR to visit my Mother. My Dad and I were able to lacquer Abby's baby bed that Andrea's Grandfather built us. After a long day on our feet, my Mom and I watched a movie together. On Sunday we all went to Melbourne, AR where my Dad preaches. The above picture was taken in front of my Mother's roses in their back yard.

Andrea went to Henderson, TN to visit her Mother.

They had a great girls' weekend together.

While she was there they went shopping, had a pedicure, and attended a tea party fundraiser for Freed Hardeman University.

Andrea also received a surprise pot of azalea flowers that Abby sent to honor her.

The picture to the right is from the tea party Andrea and her Mother attended.

Maui Vacation

Andrea and I just got back from our vacation to Maui celebrating our 5th year anniversary.

The picture to the left is only a small fraction of the beauty that we saw while we were there. If you are interested to see some additional photos, visit my Maui Vacation Yahoo! Photo Album.

While we were in Maui we went to a Lu'au, whale watching tour, snorkeling, swimming, took a winding trek around the Maui coast, etc...

In addition, we did a lot of relaxing... ahh that was nice.

Our Baby's Gender

Andrea and I are going to be the proud parents of a little baby girl! We just got back from our ultrasound appointment. The technician was very nice and explained exactly what we were seeing on the computer screen. We brought a VHS tape and got much of the ultrasound recorded. The picture above was taken using the ultrasound machine during our visit.

The technician said that our baby appears to be healthy. It was quite amazing seeing all the different body parts and to see our baby move around.

Thank you for all your prayers and concerns. This is obviously a very exciting time for us.

Are you unsure exactly what you are looking at in the ultrasound image? If so and you are curious, click the picture and find out.

Bandit's Adoption

Today was a sad day at the Manor house. In stark contrast to the excitement of bringing Bandit to our home, today we solemnly gave Bandit up for adoption.

Bandit has been a good puppy, but with our upcoming baby we have been having numerous doubts about caring for our first baby and caring for a dog. We are convinced that finding another home for Bandit is the best thing for our family, our baby, and for Bandit.

The day we put word out that we had a puppy to give 3 people were immediately interested. Apparently, Shih Tzus are in high demand. We went and visited each family before making our decision.

We decided upon a very friendly older woman, Yvonne Peterson ( seen in the above picture ), whose dog recently passed away from old age. She lives alone and in her words, she is "...looking for a companion, not a pet". Bandit will get lots of love, attention, and exercise ( she takes daily morning walks ).

We feel really good about Yvonne as Bandit's new caretaker. We will miss Bandit, however, she said we are welcome to come and visit and even mentioned that we could dog-sit him when she is out of town.

For more pictures visit my Bandit's Adoption Yahoo! Photo Album

Hall Family Scrapbook: Page 1

My wife, Andrea, has been working on a collosal Hall Family scrapbook project. She has been hard at work gathering hundreds of pictures and writing down historical tidbits since last summer. Now the hard work begins: planning, organizing, printing, cutting, etc...

The above image is a scanned picture of Andrea's first scrapbook page. The page was so large that I had to scan the page 4 times and piece them together. If you look closely, you might see an artificial seam where I merged the parts.

Andrea is a very talented card and scrapbook maker. I think the above image is proof enough of her great talents. I am very proud of her hard work and her dedication on this project. I look forward to seeing the rest of the scrapbook.

Yahoo! 360 Account

Well, Yahoo! just came out with their answer to blogging... its called Yahoo! 360. It is a combination of blogging, pictures, reviews, biographical information, a network of friends, etc...

The system is current still in beta and it is invitation only ( much like Google's Gmail when it was announced ). If you are family or a friend and you are interested in an invitation, then please leave a comment on this blog entry with your e-mail address.

I have been playing around with My Yahoo! 360 Account for the past two days. Feel free to browse around... maybe you'd like an invitation?

For the meantime, I intend to keep using this blog. If I migrate to Yahoo! 360, then I'll let you all know.