Happy Birthday Shane!

What do you get when you mix potty training with VBS songs?

One day I told Aaron to go potty and this is what I walked in on...

[Actual words]

"Pharaoh, Pharaoh, oooh Baby, let my people go....Huh! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah..."

That has been one of his favorite songs to learn. Of course his favorite part is when he gets to yell, "Huh!" with the hand motions.

He really is too cute for words sometimes.

Look at me, Dad!

My wonderful provider went hunting and came back with some serious deer meat! And I had the lovely, sanitary job of grinding all the hamburger meat. I must say, I don't think I would have done this had I not had a hunter for a dad growing up. Once I got over the smell, the look, and the texture of it all, it was pretty invigorating.





And yes. Before you think I'm too manly, those were gloves. I had to maintain some of my girliness while I participated in this disgusting process!

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..."

Oh how I love that these familiar lyrics came true at our little house here in Kingwood and many other places. What fun it was for the boys to see their first real, where in the world did this come from because we live in Texas but it's pretty stinkin' cool, white snow! It all started with a phone call from Uncle Gabe-It was snowing where he was and he wanted to see if his nephews would get to experience their first snow. It started shortly after his phone call and didn't stop! So, of course, I had to have Matt take my picture with Shane while Aaron napped...

Just before dark, Aaron woke up and then the three of us enjoyed it together..

We had a class to go to at one of the churches we are looking at here in Kingwood, so we bundled ourselves up and braved the weather out on the roads. There are so many trees here in Kingwood, so it was so beautiful to see all the snow-covered trees as we drove down the roads. Matt was laughing at me because I was so excited that I got to sing along with all the Christmas songs playing on the radio that talked about snow! And we were in it! When we were finished it was still snowing so we decided to go home and have a little snow ball fun. Poor Shane was miserable becauase we had kept him up way past his bed time, so we had to put him to bed. But the rest of us got to play! This first image is a video clip.

(Matt had to move the car so that we could shine the lights on the yard to be able to see the snow in the pictures. Well, Aaron thought he was leaving, so that is why he is crying in this pictures. What a Daddy's boy.) Aaron's poor little hands were so red and cold that we had to finally take him inside...and have hot chocolate of course.

Once both of the kids went to bed, it was time for Mommy and Daddy to have their own fun in the snow. Our neighbors were outside watching our little creation and we got them to take our picture:

How fun that this was a first for both of us...making a real snowman bigger than 6 inches tall!

You know our Piper isn't left out of anything exciting!

Yes. It was a Texan snowman. Take a wild guess whose idea it was to put the cowboy hat on him.

Hope you all enjoyed your winter wonderland as much as we did!

"Here comes the Hotstepper!"

Our precious Shane has taken his first steps! In the past couple of weeks he mastered how to take a few steps all on his own. Here is a little video that we took. You can hear his sweet older brother cheering for him...

Testing, testing...

I gave in. Here it is. Our blog. We're new at this, so don't expect too much. This is mainly dedicated to those close friends and family of ours who we don't get to see as often as we'd like. You can come here to see what precious thing Aaron has said (or tried to say), what crazy thing Matt is doing, or just a random thought for the day. Maybe I'll be as good at this as I am phone calling...

I must at least kick off the first post with Aaron's funniest saying of the day...

We have one of those little golden books, Bible Hereos, and we were reading all the different stories when we came to Noah. In all the Bible books we have, it always says in so many words, "And God told Noah, 'Noah, I want you to build an ark. I am going to send a flood...etc. '" So, Aaron is very used to hearing this. When we came to that part of the story, Aaron looked at me and said, "God told Aaron to go feed the goats at the zoo." I said, "Oh really. Are you sure about that?" And Aaron said, "Yes, Mommy. God says, 'Aaron, I want you to go feed the goats.'"

Most of you already know why this is so hillarious, but just to give others a little background here, we went to the zoo this past summer. It was his first time and Aaron loved it. We saw all the animals, but at the very end there was a petting zoo where kids were able to feed the goats if they wanted to. Well, of course Aaron really wanted to do it, but when Matt took him inside the little area, he was scared to death. He ended up holding on for dear life to Matt and cried at the closest interaction with a goat. He got over it eventually, touched them quickly, and they were outta there. Ever since then, it has been the absolute most vivid memory in his precious little mind and he tells everyone about it. We joke around that Aaron brings it up when there is "awkward silence" in the room. Just out of the blue. No one is talking...especially about their zoo experiences. And here comes Aaron, "I fed the goats at the zoo."

So funny.

That's it. I hope this worked.