Faith was really excited about pumpkin painting this year, and picked this Ariel design for her pumpkin. She painted the whole thing white all by herself but I really had to insist on helping carve it:)
Zach has become quite the little comedian at dinnertime. He thinks throwing food to the dog, spiking his hair with banana, and yelling over us is hilarious. But, of course, it's when they're not trying that it's the funniest. Case in point...
And one of his sister at the exact same age, same meal (I know, she looks like she overdosed on black beans, and it's one of Ryan's favorite pictures of her).
So Ryan wanted to fit in another Disney trip before #3 comes along and I told him it was wise he did because I will not do Disney again until we have all walkers. Zach is not quite there yet and he would get irate after too much time being held or in the stroller. As clean as Disney is, I didn't think it a great idea to let him crawl all over the park. We decided to celebrate Zach's birthday while we were there and you can see he thoroughly enjoyed the cake he got to "decorate".
Ryan's folks braved the trip with us and got a taste of what a full week with the grandkids feels like:) They were very gracious in taking the kid(s) so we could spend time one-on-one with one or the other or just go out alone.
I had to include this photo since it reminded me of one taken at a hotel in Arkansas when we visited Hot Springs (see the November posting)and Zach wasn't able to defend himself. Though he is still at a disadvantage size and mobility-wise, he no longer takes it lying down!
Whenever we go to Disneyland, we take our picture in front of this wall mural. Ryan and I have one of just the 2 of us, one with Faith and now one with both kiddos (well I guess all 3 really). Looking at it reminds me of the Lord's amazing grace in my life. And with the Lord as my savior, I can claim this quote with confidence!
The Children's Museum in the Twin Cities was 3 stories and HUGE. We didn't make it to everything. Yes, my neice is wearing a cast. Just another day for my poor sister with the Fearless One. And yes, Faith does have blue paint all over her face. The Museum had a paint-your-own face station. Who thought that was a good idea?
We were also able to do a cruise in one of my mom and dad's toys. We took the convertible which explains the pictures before...
and after. With a new vehicle purchase looming in the near future, I seriously considered a convertible. If only they made 'em with one more seat for #3! The slight discomfort is worth the guaranteed nap!
On the way, we stopped at a great toy store called Lark Toys. They have a hand carved wooden carousel. The man who makes (or made, I believe he passed away) many of the wooden toys for the toy store did a lot of work for Disney. We were adequately impressed. Oh and the picture above is just to document Ryan's brand of humor. I know, strange.
And here we are checking out one of Faith's favorite spots. My brother-in-law has some research plots of corn and soy beans. They let the kids run through the soy beans since they're low enough to still view where the kids are. My little city girl earned some callouses on her feet running barefoot outside in the dirt and gravel, I'm so proud of her! We also were able to go raspberry picking and make jam to bring home!
And I thought this was a great one to end on...The following weekend we took a short vacation to Rockport. Faith spent her time looking for seashells and Zachary tried to ingest as much sand as he could when we weren't looking. Boys are a totally different species. At that age, Faith decided she was done after a couple of handfuls. Zach, on the other hand, seemed to find it a challenge to down as much of it as possible when he discovered it was forbidden.
We stayed at a place called The Lighthouse Inn. It had a lookout area on the water where these were taken.
Some stills...
In that same week, we had an incident where I lost my keys at the grocery store. I was visibly upset, having already purchased all our goods and having a hungry baby in tow. Faith looked at me and said, "Mom, we need to pray about this." The Lord has such interesting ways of reminding us who we need to lean on. I told her that I needed her to pray for me and we sat on the bench at the end of the checkout and she did just that. Not 5 minutes later I was prompted to have the cashier go get my basket (which had been put in the refrigerator) to check underneath the bags. Sure enough, there they were (as Ryan was on his way from work to help:)!
We recently returned from a wedding in Cancun and had a few pictures to document our exhausting fun! For those who haven't seen Zach sporting his new headgear, no need to fear, it's just to smooth out a flat spot. In fact, the doctor said he may only need it for a couple of months, which would be such a relief since the boy sweats profusely in it.
Faith kept referring to this as her baby bird. She really thought it was a baby since she was able to hold it in the cradling position. You gotta love Mexico and their free-from-legal worries society. I think we have an old post from Cabo where Faith is 2 1/2 and riding in a van with nothing but a seat belt on.
Once we returned home, I had to tie up loose ends for Faith's 4th birthday party. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day, wonderful friends to help celebrate, and one very happy little girl. It was a wonderful day.
Another collaborated birthday cake effort by her dad and I. Though I fully intended to complete this one on my own, once her gown collasped, I nearly did too and my prince was there to save the day. His superior engineering skills helped put Ariel back together again and I was able to decorate her. She, like our bathroom towels, was only for decoration. Our guests ate strawberry cupcakes since she wouldn't have sliced very nicely:)
Two of my friends at the party have babies very close to Zach's age. Aren't they all precious? Happy Birthday Faith, we love you!
Well, Easter came and went quickly this year as we were preparing to meet my family in Branson for the holiday. Before we went, Faith did a little hunt at grandmommy and grandpoppy's house. Poor Zachary sat on the sidelines and wished his little body would stop prohibiting him from all the fun his sister was having. 
And this photo I had to add of our boys since Zach's expression makes him look fresh from the cover of GQ. He's wearing Josiah's old sweater, and apparently green works on anyone because these two are about as opposite looking as they can get!
And we were able to get everyone (well, everyone above 3) to look at the camera for this photo op. I absolutely adore my nieces and nephews, they are so precious. I was telling my sister I want to develop the technology we have been teased with for years on shows like the Jetsons and Star Trek where we can be beamed from one location to another by diffusing into millions of molecules. I just don't want to be on the first 1000 or so ventures.
And here is my stubborn hubby who HAD to go in the water since he was at the beach. The fact that it was in the 50's didn't play much into his decision. I think he would do fine in Minnesota.
We have discovered another blessing in our new neighborhood-bluebonnets galore! We see people pulled over on the side of the road with all sorts of props-rocking chairs, stuffed animals, etc. to get their kid's yearly bluebonnet pictures. We walked 5 minutes to the perfect patch.
I try and I try, but I cannot seem to post more than once a month, it's so frustrating since this is the only record I will have of my children growing up (I can't get into the baby book thing). Anyways, my folks came to visit mid February and despite the cool weather, we had a great time. These are actually pictures from my parent's camera as we have yet to download ours. My dad had saved this one from a couple of years ago, and I had to include it since this was her first "big girl" bedspread. We've already moved on to bedspread #2 since we moved her to a trundle bed and moved the queen sized into the guest/office room.
We took our customary trip to the beach. Ryan was able to come as well this time and we so enjoyed having him with us! Zach has been showing much interest in what is on those glass circles 3 times a day and is constantly trying to get whatever it is into his mouth. We have to really watch him because he is quick! In fact on the way to the beach, I gave in and let him have a small lick of ice cream at the DQ. I would have NEVER done that with Faith.
And look what a happy boy it made him:)One other fun thing we did while we were there was to rent these beach buggys. Faith picked out our pink buggy and then wanted to ride with Nana and Papa (whose buggy went faster than ours:) How's that for loyalty?
We did an at-home photo shoot recently so we could add some pictures above our bed. These 2 turned out decent, so I thought I'd share them...
Last week we attended the pro-life march in Austin with some friends. The people waiting for us at the end on the capitol steps reminded me of the verse: "If the world hates you, remember it hated me first." They held signs with sayings like "Abortion is healthcare" and were handing out condoms. It was a sight I will never forget.
We don't take bath pictures these days as we've determined Faith is past that stage, however, we had to throw this one on there as a lesson learned: Do NOT, under any circumstance (or temptation) turn on the bath jets when you've used bubble bath!
And last, but not least, Zach's first attempt at bugging his sister(so he had a little help). We had to save him from Faith's merciless swipe. You do not wake this girl from a dead sleep!
We celebrated Grace's first birthday while we were there. I got to spend more time with her this time around and so enjoyed her. This girl is no pansy and can hold her own. Having an older brother it's more out of necessity than anything.
Faith had asked to go ice skating while we were in MN. I think she was thinking a more idyllic setting like a lake but we had to rent skates, so to the local hockey rink we went. She more chair skated where we pushed her in a chair since the skates that were given to us were more like blocks of ice than footwear. Ryan and I even got to skate around holding hands, awwww...
And last but not least, 3 generations of Polo shirted, khaki dress panted fellas.
Happy New Year!
