The newest member of our family!

Graham Warner Eliot is here!

Colin and Katie's precious boy was born Wednesday, March 25th at 8:53pm. He weighed 7lbs 14oz and is very healthy. Katie is also doing well. She and Graham will be coming home from the hospital today. Below are pictures of our newest addition!

SA Vacation!

Well, just last week I got home from a two week vacation to South Africa with my two of my friends. We had a blast! It was great fro me to see some of my friends and family there. I missed them dearly! We went cage diving with the great white sharks and caving in Cape Town and took a road trip accross the western half of the country! It was great and we stayed safe! I'm glad to be home, but wish I could be back home in Africa again. Bitter sweet to say the least. Here's just a few of the photos (I'll be adding more as I get them from my friend's cameras so check back).

Photo taken just outside of Boomslang Cave

Inside Boomslang Cave (we brought candles with is)

The Hill Family in Cape Town

Cape Argulas. The most southern point of africa where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet.

Hi Everyone!!!

Oh my gosh! Life is getting away from me it seems. I finally had sometime to sit down and breath. Let's see where to start it is a busy year already. I am making a career move. I left Walgreen's and have some offers on the table but I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do. Steve is playing a ton of tennis and really enjoys getting out on the court with friends and also with Tara and Dax. We spent 6 kid-free-days in Maui in October and I would recommend it to anyone. It was awesome. We can't wait to take the kids.

Tara is a senior. WOW! She will graduate in May and is heading to UNM. She is editor of the yearbook for the second year and is playing number one on the tennis team for the fourth year in a row. Also she was on Homecoming Court this year, it was totally cool.

She's a great girl and we are really blessed to have such a terrific teenager.
 

And as for our little guy, Dax is growing so fast.

He loves everything boy, football, cars, tools, you name it. And he still remembers the owl from the Rice game we went to in El Paso. Every night at bedtime when we do the alphabet he says "O is for Owl like at the football game."  We miss you all and I love that we can catch up this way but I really think we need to think about taking sometime and getting together. It would be fun!!!! We have plenty of room and everyone is always welcome!

St. Louis Eliots Post-Holiday Holiday Blog

Greetings from St. Louis!

Thanks to you who posted early and got our blog initiated. Not surprisingly, it appears that the younger cousins (at least the twenty-something crowd) is quite proficient and comfortable with blogging and didn't hesitate to post. We have enjoyed reading the posts and catching up on what exciting things you are doing and look forward to the others.

LIFE IS GOOD! Here we are in St. Louis, MO ... the home of so many Eliots in the past 200 years. W.G. was recently featured in a magazine here as one of the "most influential persons in St. Louis history". I regret that I haven't investigated much into the St. Louis Eliots nor have I pursued looking up anyone in the area. We have, however, been to Wash U and seen the plaque which honors the founding father of the intially named Eliot Seminary. He wouldn't have a University named in his honor and demanded naming it after our first president. I have also been to the "Eliot Room" at a historic brewery in town - Schlafly's (still investigating who the brewpub named the room after). I plan to put more effort into it in the future; if any of you historians get the urge to come up here, you are certainly invited.

In June of '07 Katie and I moved from Edmond to St. Louis in pursuit of a spot in a graduate endodontic training program. I completed a one-year residency at a local hospital and then was accepted into the program at Saint Louis University (SLU). I'm still a dentist--which I consider to be a dream job, but I now specialize in endodontics--which is a dream-dream job for me; it has been fun realizing my occupational "sweet spot".

Katie left a great position at OU only to land an even better position at SLU as full-time faculty and co-director of the dietetic internship. She enjoys the classroom where she teaches Food Science, Clinical Systems Mgt., and Health Care Ethics; she has been to El Salvador in a coordinated effort with a hospital there; and she somehow has turned into St. Louis' nutrition media darling. On top of everything, she continues to work on her PhD (2012?).

Our experience here has been amazing. We have been blessed with meaningful friendships, a great church and fulfilling careers. We truly have much for which to be thankful.

We would invite you all to come stay with us, but our guest bedroom was recently converted to a nursery. In March we will be welcoming our first, Graham Warner Eliot.

We wish you all a great 2009!

Colin and Katie

Hi Everyone!

Yay! I'm so glad we're doing this! So much has happened this past year! I spent the last half of 2007 and the beginning of this year finishing my latest album. It always takes a lot longer than I anticipate, but it was worth it. I had my CD release party in June, and this time I put together a full band to play with me. John played bass, we found a drummer on short notice and instead of having a lead guitar player, my friend Steff played mandolin. It was so much fun!

After that show, I kind of dropped off the face of the musical earth because I had to plan a wedding in 3 months. Luckily, I have my mom and sister that took over most of the planning, and everything came out beautifully! The wedding was just how we wanted it to be; small, mellow and without rain. It was so great to see everybody, too!

After the wedding, we went to Sedona, AZ for our honeymoon. It was nice to just spend a week outside not worrying about anything else. We went to Slide Rock State Park, the Grand Canyon, and went mountain biking.

We're renting a house from the Thornburgs right now that we are going to buy any day now. It's nice to start making our house a home. There's a converted garage that John is working on turning into a recording studio, and big backyard for our dogs, Jaco and Phoebe.

Since Barry got home, we're finally putting together the band we always dreamed of having. John's playing lead guitar, Barry is on bass, and we found a really cool guy to play drums. Things are coming together and it's really fun! We just need a band name now...suggestions??

Right now, John is working as a manager for technical support center for AT&T, but is currently looking for a job that better suits his personality. He's tired of babysitting people and is ready to do more hands-on computer stuff. If anyone ever needs help with their computer, he is the guy to call! He can even fix it over the phone, I'm sure.

I'm still working for my mom full time, but I'm looking into getting my teaching certificate to be an elementary school teacher.

We're going to stay here in Albuquerque for Christmas. We'll probably go to John's sister's house in the morning and my parent's house for dinner.

I look forward to reading everyone's posts! Merry Christmas!

Magen

Myriah & Jaiden!

Hey everyone! How exciting! I love that we're doing a blog! Let's see, the last year has flown by and is somewhat of a blur, but I'll try to remember some things to tell you :)

Jaiden and I moved into our very own little condo last September. It's perfect for us with 2 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (1 downstairs and 1 for each BR upstairs), and a little yard all tucked away in a quiet and safe little complex. 

I have been going to school full time for graphic design. I haven't been working until recently- A local restaurant signed a contract with me to redesign their menus for them. I've completed their catering menu and am now working on their restaurant menus. I only have one semester left at CNM then I'm graduating! Yay! I've taken up lots of different random hobbies in the last year, one of which is modeling. No, i haven't gotten any paid jobs yet, I just do it for fun. It's a creative outlet for me because it involves creative concepts, make-up( ive been building up my makeup artistry portfolio as well), and photoshop! I love photoshop.

Jaiden is 3 1/2 and she started school this summer. I enrolled her in a montessory school, which is awesome! She has learned so much and made lots of friends. She's just a girlie little princess who loves to play dress up and loves her ponies and barbies. She's also quite the little artist and started being able to draw people this year :)

K I think I've rambled on enough. lol.

Wow! New Blog!

Well let's see. A summation of my year would be interesting to say the least. As everyone knows, I finished off the last 8 months of my mission and got home mid-august. That was the best experience ever! The relationship I have with my Savior has grown so much! What a blessing is is to have Him there for us. We trully are blessed!

During the two years of my mission I served in 6 areas and had 17 companions. I had companions from Utah, California, Idaho, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada, Johanesberg SA, Sowetho SA, Lesotho and Uganda. I will be forever greatful for the lessons they taught me! I made a slide show of some of the things I did and people I grew to love. You can watch it using the links at the below (it was too long for youtube, so I had to divide it into 3 videos so check out all three links to see the whole thing).

Once I got home I tried to hit the ground running. within the first week, I signed up for school at CNM, began work with Lisa and started practicing my bass again. It's been another big learning experience to adjust back to "normal" life. For example, it's much easier to make scripture reading a regular part of your daily life when it's your job to help others do the same. I would say that the adjustment has been made in it's largest measure now.

Now, future goals are to finish up my assoiciates degree and find a music school somewhere. The fire is still burning!

Love you all!
Barry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO-oSJgo65k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7ucQQQ2aoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZh9QRaQQTg