Big One Little One

Rob caught these two and called me over to the window.
I was inside and they were moving so the pictures aren't great, but I had to share this.

I promise I didn't dress them alike,
Keith actually dressed Zach to go outside and play with him!

Sometimes, if you can just forget you're trying so hard to be cool,
you can have a lot of fun, or share a special moment.

Zach in the Box!

Have you ever seen a Zach in the Box? Here, this is your chance!This is the newest, most fun game at our house. This is his toy basket in the living room, it has a lid too, but lately the toys are on the floor and it's a "Zach in the box". Pop!

Room by Room

The house is slowly coming along. I took some pictures to show the progress! The living room, crown molding and everything! The dining room, with the plate shelf Rob and I put up, this looks so much better than the exposed two by fours you might remember from Zach's birthday pictures.
So, FOUR rooms are now completed! Yeah!

For the Birds!

Home schooling is going well, Ethan is over the "honeymoon" phase of it and realizes that it is school. We are studying birds and we painted a bird feeder, this is the highlight of most days now-watching the birds. The first day, when we hung it up Ethan stood by the window, for the longest I've ever seen him stand in one place, waiting for a bird to come! He insisted that they would find it while he waited, I persuaded him away from his perch to finish his school work and the next morning, there was a surprise for Ethan, a big Cardinal sitting at his feeder. Ever since, our feeder has been quite the "hot spot" for the neighborhood birds, and we are loving the view!

MOPS Serving

Our fantastic craft coordinator at MOPS has done it again, a really great project, but I could not leave at that, I came home and kept going. I am pleased with the final outcome now, so here's the big reveal! What was once an unfinished wooden tray is now a stained, wallpapered, and hand-painted, well, tray! There are a few things that always catch my attention, they are leopard print, cherries, Eiffel towers, and monogrammed stuff (even cheap crap looks expensive when you monogram it!)! So, I was drawn to the wallpaper that looked like it had little cherries on it, and it "became".
Ethan wanted to know what it was for, so I told him what we learned about serving others, and he asked if the tray was for us to use, when I told him yes, he said,
"Good, cause I'm gonna be sick tomorrow, my throat is gonna be sore (pause) and my scab is gonna fall off, (pause) and I will have a fever (pause) and a stuffy nose!"
"Sounds bad!", I said.
"Yeah, so you can bring me breakfast in bed then!", he said with a grin!
When I was getting out my paints, I saw this little plaque that I got at the Dollar Store and I had primed it but never painted anything on it. So it "became" too! I saw the idea in a magazine and thought, I am not about to pay 20 whatever dollars for that, I can make it! So, I did! I even put some cherries on it, which is the theme I have going in my laundry room, it is actually leopard and cherries, I know that sounds a little strange, but I LOVE it, and it really works. It goes really good with the clock I painted cherries on.Ethan needed to paint too, so he gave his log cabin (out of craft sticks) a paint job too, we just happily painted the afternoon away while Zach snoozed. We really had fun, Ethan got to use the paints that he drools over every time I get them out, I got to let the creative juices flow, all was right in our world!

Teaching God's Love

I have been trying my best to be very sensitive to God's voice in my life, and I believe I heard Him loud and clear the other day, and at the risk of weird looks and possible embarrassment, I did exactly what He said.
I am teaching Ethan about God's love and showing kindness to others by using a gift to show the worth of a person. Tuesday morning it was a whopping 17 degrees out by 8 am and we were running AHEAD of time, that doesn't happen very often. None the less, we were, after dropping Grace at school we drove by a bus stop where there were several people, freezing, waiting on the bus, that's when I heard Him, I stopped at the gas station on the corner and bought four cappuccinos, and then told Ethan, we were going to find four people waiting for the bus or walking down the street and give each of them one of these hot drinks. Ethan thought this was crazy and asked why, of course, and then I got to explain how God's us and how we can show God's love to others by being kind and giving them a gift and today our gift was something to warm them up. Then of course, how would we give it to them, what would we say and so on.
The first person we saw walking down the street was a guy in his early twenties and I park in the parking lot next to him and ask him if I could give him something, I left the truck door open so that Ethan could hear what I said, I told him that my son and I wanted to help warm him up a little and tell him that God loves him. Of course I got the standard, "Are you nuts?" look, but he accepted and Ethan was thrilled!
Off to find our next recipient, a woman in her mid thirties, waiting for a bus, she was surprised, and accepted with a smile, Ethan was so happy and by now was bouncing up and down in the backseat anxious to find someone else in the cold!
Around the corner, we did! A young guy maybe 18, we stopped and told him what we were doing and wanted him to know that God loves him. Such a big smile came across his face, and he watched us drive off, waving to Ethan as we went, we turned the corner again and he was still smiling, Ethan was so happy and told me that "God's love really made that guy happy, did you see his smile, Mommy?" Seriously, tears in my eyes, "yes, I saw, isn't that great how we can show God's love", I felt great success in this lesson I was trying to teach my son.
Off to find the fourth person, we say an gentleman in very worn clothes, in an old jacket walking, he was actually the first person we saw on that street walking, I stopped the car and got out to talk to him, but he was not receptive, and picked up his pace and kept walking. When I got in the car Ethan has questions, I was expecting them. I tried to explain the best I could why someone would not want a gift that was free, which also tied in nicely to talking about Jesus' free gift for us!
The last person we found was a woman who did not seem to speak very good English, she was probably more than 50 and was Asian, at best guess. She greeted me with a smile, and I explained the best I could, but I'm not sure that she understood more than, "God loves you", which was all we wanted really wanted her to know. Our mission was completed, Ethan was very pleased and I felt that I had taught him this lesson to the best of my ability.

Thank you, God for such a wonderful idea and for your perfect plan for our Tuesday morning, what a blessing to share with my son!

What's that white stuff?

Well, let me tell you, this is Kansas, and in Kansas we get to have ice storms in October, and 10-12 inches of snow in February! This is actually the first time that we took Zach outside just to enjoy the snow.
One of funny little things about Zach that we've discovered is that he LOVES the cold weather, snow especially. He likes the cold wind in his face, and to plant himself face first in the snow to eat it up! WEIRD!
So, while Ethan begs me to pray for warm weather (because God listens to me!), and Rob complains that he's cold, Zach is loving every minute! Well, at least someone is enjoying this crazy cold weather!